League of Extraordinary Books

New Items:

Plutonia by Vladimir Obruchev (1915)
Well that was disappointing. A book very much in the vain of Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, the The Land That Time Forgot etc.
However unlike Journey to the Center of the Earth this is a true Hollow Earth novel with all of the geological absurdity that that implies, which is one of the few interesting aspects of the work.

The other good points are that its russian which (on very rare occasions) makes it feel a little different. Also there's some decent repartee amongst our protagonists at times.
Finally there are a few moments of interest towards the end of the novel.

The other 80% or so is unfortunately pretty boring. The writing is basic, and it gets pretty repetitive. See interesting creature, shoot interesting creature, have creature for dinner, rinse, repeat.
Even our hero's actually get bored after a while, and if people are bored with dinosaurs then there's clearly something very wrong .

Not well written enough compared to earlier works and not action packed enough to compare with the pulps. [2/5]



A Traveler from Altruria by William Dean Howells (1893)
Utopian fiction, without the utopian part of it :P. So this entire thing is done as a series of conversations, its like one big lecture so not great.
Its a fairly easy read though and since its about the gap between rich and poor its still relevant today. In fact i would say too relevant, or at least too familiar.
There are things of interest here. The writing is easy and witty at times. There's some some very blinkered sexism which you can laugh or wince at. Plus a brief mention of a mega-corporation controlling all aspects of a country, perhaps one of the first appearances of such an idea.
However i'm getting more discerning with every book i read and in a world of infinite books i felt like deducting a star. [2/5]

New Items:

Gladiator by Philip Wylie (1930)
This was pretty stunning. I knew that Superman took some elements from Doc Savage but it stole even more liberally from this, however i also saw elements of Spider-Man and many other superhero stories, there's even a little Teen Wolf too.

So its a superhero story, or rather THE superhero story, i can't stress how bizarre this is to read as being from 1930 its essentially inventing the superhero genre but its also a deconstruction of the superhero.
It is at times light and even farcical but it has sex, violence, blood, death, despair and prostitutes. It simultaneously has as much in common with the 50 years of bright and shiny Super-Man as it does with Watchmen and all of the 'dark and gritty' superhero's of today.
It is the Alpha & Omega of superhero's. Somehow encompassing the entire genre and here it is written in 1930, amazing.

I'm generally not a fan of 30's writing its a little plain for my taste, so this is like if the 'Mona Lisa' was done in crayon, i ended up listened to most of it on a Libravox recording.

A really fascinating read for any fans (or enemy's) of the Superhero genre. [4/5]




Orphan Island by Rose Macaulay (1924)
"Will it seem, in its 1923 stage of knowledge, as.. backward.. as it did to those who broke into it after its first seventy years of segregated history?"

That was ok. The plot, a group of orphans and a couple of adults are stranded on a desert island in the mid-1800's.
In the 1920's a rescue party of sorts finally arrives and finds this society based on victorian values. Its a bit like one of those Star-Trek episodes where they end up on Roman planet or Gangster planet or something.

It really makes fun of the class distinctions and history of britian but its a fairly narrow book. It just has that one idea to carry the entire work.

And as to the quote above, YES is the answer. While it tries to take apart class disparity it is still pretty racist and with no appealing female characters despite its female author.

I found the writing a bit odd, its descriptive parts are quite florid compared to the rest of the text. So its normal, normal, florid flourish, normal normal normal florid etc. Its not good odd or bad odd, i just found it odd.

The story moves pretty quick and has some humour to it, mostly dark humour from my point of view.

I was a little surprised their was so little mention of WWI. I kind of expected that to be a major demarcation point between the victorian society and the people of 1920 but it barely got an acknowledgment. [3/5]

New Items:

Land under England by Joseph O'Neill (1935)
Well that was really something. I was expecting 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' but instead got a dystopian story in the vain of the 'Time Machine' (but much better).

A really nice original dystopia and deep psychological examination of how it came to be. This is when the book is at its best. The more our protagonist begins to understand this lost civilization the more interesting it becomes. For a brief period its a truly great novel before dropping slightly back to just really, really good .

Unfortunately the author isn't great at descriptive writing, combined with the bizarreness of the location this meant i had a hard time picturing the story at times. Luckily this is mostly only an issue at the start and end of the book as the dystopian elements don't really require the same sort of visuals. In fact much of the story relies on the lack of any visuals in this underground world.

As i said one of the times i would have liked a more descriptive style is at the end and this is also when the novel takes a hard left turn. The ideas it raises are much different from the dystopian elements used before and it almost feels like you've wandered into a different story, although not a bad story, its just a bit jarring. I also felt the ending used a bit too much writing as the author tried for a really dramatic climax.

In any case is you like things like The Time Machine, A Crystal Age, Herland, Erewhon or similar fare, this is an excellent read, it also has a certain Kafka-esque quality at times.

A deeply interesting dystopia in the trappings of a Hollow-Earth adventure novel. [4/5]



Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)
Dark, potentially apocalyptic comedy in the vane of Dr. Strangelove or the Mouse that Roared.

From very early on i was expecting to give this 4 out of 5 at least. The Only other Vonnegut i've read is Slaughterhouse-Five and this was much lighter and easier to read. I gobbled up the tiny chapters and was really enjoying myself.
Not quite sure what went wrong. Perhaps my expectations were too high, or the heavy foreshadowing just robbed the denouement of some of its impact.
Another case of anticipation being more enjoyable than gratification. Still its pretty fun and its not a terrible ending just not as good as i was hoping for. [3/5]


The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (1820)
Short funny tale. Not a lot to it but good characterization and descriptions. [3/5]

New Items:

2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke (1968)
A reluctant 4 stars, maybe 3.5. The structure is the first problem with it being split into several scenes and the reader knowing so much more than the actors.
This is of course the same structure as the film however that version was so mysterious it never really felt like you knew anything :P .
This on the other hand has NO mystery, None. Everything that was a question in the movie is here explained in detail.
Honestly at the start, it felt like the aliens were going to be a couple of low level construction workers and a guy back in a cubicle somewhere tapping some keys. I'm not saying thats what happens just that was the impression left on my mind after the rather flat opening.
While there's some interesting world building along the way nothing until after the HAL incident seemed better than ok. Only from past that point, (which is handled much more impressively in the film) do things start to pop.

Anyway due to the flourish towards the end i'll give it the 4 stars. By the way the last sections reminded me very strongly of the movie 'Interstellar'.

Edit: Also strong vibes of that Star-Trek Next Gen episode with the casino . Its also funny how advanced some of the science is in this compared to stunted social views. The space-pods are named after women because they're considered to be quite unpredictable, wheres the roll-my-eyes emoji.
Also by the year 2001, women will have advanced to point where they can be secretaries or flight attendants.. oooohhh! this is so sci-fi . [4/5]



The Devil in Love by Jacques Cazotte (1772)
That was somewhat disappointing. Any story where a Devil (or Death) turn up in human form, tends to be pretty awesome. Thats an aesthetic or plot-point or whatever that i quite enjoy.

This however was fairly bland given the setup. I'm absolutely sure its losing something in the translation but it can't be losing THAT much.

One issue plot wise is that the protagonist is constantly trying not to sleep with this woman, because it would be dishonorable or something. Ok, thats a little strange given this is written by a french guy and given the time period when things were a little more liberal.
I was thinking our hero is spanish so maybe this is a commentary on the spanish being more uptight than the french, but then he clearly sleeps with a lot of other women!
So the rule seems to be its only wrong to sleep with someone if there's a chance you might marry them later? Bit confusing.

Anyway, this story just never did enough with the supernatural elements, it never created that air of wrongness that you usually have in these kinds of stories and frankly the ending was very anti-climactic.

I guess it sounds like i'm completely trashing it but its still ok but far below my expectations. [3/5]



4 issues of Roy Carson comic (1950)
Just the worst kind of stereotypical detective/gangster schlock. And very repetitive even in the small selection i was able to find. [1/5]

New Items:

Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (1972)
Mature fantasy with great original world building. Really liked the start and end.
The opening is like some super-over-the top Conan novel but the last third felt more darkly humorous, as if the characters had wandered into Time Bandits or Labyrinth or something.

The main problem in my opinion is that at the start you really get to know the main hero but once the central plot gets going there seems to be a change in style and the reader gets pushed away. I never really felt connected to the protagonist after the first third.
Its also quite a random and fragmented story, as if it was a much longer book that was heavily pared down.

An interesting and unique feel, but it didn't make me care enough to want to read the rest of the saga. [3/5]



Andorra by Max Frisch (1961)
Really good play about a small fictional country presumably on the german border where tensions are growing as they expect an invasion. Mostly about racism but its more than that, it has a very Greek-tragedy feel to it, a conspiracy of circumstance and human failings. At times it also reminded me of Shirley Jacksons 'The Lottery' or 'Lord of the Flies'.
Only a couple of problems with it, one is a side event which happens to one of the female characters, its horrific and is really not addressed in any meaningful way. Its just sort of brushed aside, i found that a bit weak.

The other problem is probably a translation issue but i felt like some of the speeches were... a bit confusing, a little too esoteric or something. However i was really close to giving it five stars. [4/5]



Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor by Mervyn Peake (1939)
Childrens picture book. I like the drawings but that was a little too random for me. Also even as a child i think i would be annoyed that most of the characters disappear from the story half-way through.
Sidenote, its really, really gay. I'm not saying that as a positive or negative just thought it was interesting . [2/5]

New Items:

King of the City by Michael Moorcock (2000)
A surfeit of pleasures.

A modern Dickens, which it doesn't try to hide, it even makes a direct reference to Bleak House . Wonderful descriptive writing, 5 or 6 big vivid set pieces that you'll never forget. The characters are hyper-real, like real people but just a bit more interesting than any real person has a right to be .
The narrator has his own unique voice, with his own slang etc. this can be a little disconcerting at the start but you soon get used to it.

In similar fashion to Mother London we start off in present day (circa 1997) then jump back in time and get a biography of events until we catch up with ourselves again in the last chapter. Unlike Mother London, there is only one point-of-view character and the time jumps are kept to a minimum, so in that regard its far easier to follow.

Nevertheless, i still got a little confused at times as to the year or mixed up among some of the side characters. It doesn't help that some of the cast have nicknames or are sometimes referred to by their first or last names.
Its a very England and London specific book so there were a lot of references i didn't get. Some of the political and social elements went over my head too. But none of that mattered in the end.

Like most Dickens novels there is a plot but nobody pays much attention to it. You could say its a commentary on the rise of consumer culture and the 1% but its really about the development of the various characters. And as for those characters, this time around (see below) our incestuous triumvirate are three cousins, our POV character who is an ex-Rock n'Roll star turned photojournalist, a hyper-intelligent Angelina Jolie-esque aid organizer and a man i can best describe as a combination of Gordon Gekko and Charles Foster-Kane.

It wasn't always perfect, there where peaks and troughs but overall a very easy 5 stars to give. An incredibly dense feeling book, 110% of story.

Sidebar: Ok this is so weird, Moorcock has now written the same story at least 3 times! First there was Elric of Melniboné , then Jerry Cornelius and now this. That's not to say the stories are similar, they're all incredibly different but its the difference between '10 things i hate about you' and the 'Taming of the Shrew', or perhaps a little further apart, like 'Sons of Anarchy' and 'Hamlet'.
With 'Jerry Cornelius' i dismissed the similarities as Moorcock just being short of an idea but by now it feels more deliberate. As if the author is working on some sort of Meta level, creating his own myth-cycle or something.
Anyway none of that actually matters, this is an entirely self-suffient book so i've reviewed it entirely on its own merits. [5/5]



Golliwogg in the African Jungle by Florence K.Upton (1909)
I thought this was going to have many more issues, i was expecting cannibals but apparently they appear in 'The Golliwoggs Bicycle Club' instead, which i havn't read yet.

Anyway, the africans in this arn't portrayed too badly, they look a bit like the ethiopians from South Park. The racial issues are mostly avoided in favour of big game hunting! But don't worry, things take a more peaceful turn before any animals are harmed.
Although in the background pictures i did spot one of the dutch dolls steal and fry up some ostrich eggs, which was quite funny, especially since its not referred to at all in the text.

Overall pretty decent, it seems to have more text than the earlier books. Nice drawings as usual. Obviously the african setting does nothing to downplay the problems inherent in the hero's appearance. Also he doesn't do anything really brave or intelligent in this like he does in some of the other works. Its mostly the dutch dolls to the rescue. [3/5]



10 issues of Viz comics (1979)
Yeah i can see the appeal, if i was a teenager this would be the greatest thing ever . [4/5]

New Items:

The Theory of the Four Movements by Charles Fourier (1808)
Well that was mostly terrible but not entirely so. I'll try to break this down.
We have about 5% cult-leader style self-promotion and praise, the author compares himself to Columbus and Hercules at various points.
About 10% wacky interpretive fiction, something along the lines of Phrenology or Astrology but he applies it to everything in his 7000 year old universe. From peacocks to the northern lights to the fact Earth doesn't have cool rings like Saturn (he seems particularly bitter about that :P ), in the authors view these are all symbols placed by a god to tell us we're doing things wrong.
Another 5% is fairly well aimed critique of civilization and capitalism, the critique is far longer than 5% of the book but only about 5% is not tedious.
So i think we're up to 25%, now, add 65% mind numbing tedium and we're left with a 10% golden nugget of wisdom.

The authors utopian ideas are not terrible, his attempt being to create a system in which peoples greed, jealousy, ambition, sexual passions etc. are beneficial rather than destructive. Using a short of rival club system combined with the usual commune idea.
However the real highlight is the authors views on slavery and especially the role of women in society. Frankly in some ways his views are more advanced than those of today. Although he doesn't go into too much detail, meaning his views on female equality may not entirely be the same as a modern view of female equality.

Nevertheless some really interesting stuff, like i say a lot of the time after reading an old book, nothing much seems to have changed , the authors critique of capitalism and gender equality still being annoyingly relevant.
Overall though still boring as hell . [2/5]



Out of the Silent Planet by C.S Lewis (1938)
So this is Lewis's knockoff and attack on H.G. Wells novel 'The First Men in the Moon'. Its also basically Narnia in space but with even less happening. A sort of dry utopian story with religious allegory. Not as bad or religious as some books like 'A Journey in Other Worlds'.

Most of the fun comes from comparing it to First Men in the Moon so i;m not sure how much those who havn't read that book will get. For example, 'First Men' has two protagonists, the scientist and the business man, this book portrays them both as monsters and adds a third character the religious philologist as our hero, wow subtle :P . It also does the rather pointless postscript which 'First Men' also used (although the latter doesn't call it a postscript but it certainly feels like one) .

I'm not sure what the main idea was that this book was trying to convey perhaps it was that the human race deserves to die out, or that people should stay where god put them, or that the universe is doomed anyway so why bother trying to stay alive, or that this life is a dud but there's an afterlife so we might aswell all kill ourselves, all of which seem pretty stupid ideas. On the other hand if the whole thing is an indictment of colonialism then it works quite well .

There is some good stuff here i especially like a view on how something you experience is built into you for the rest of your life, although that also seemed like a allegory Lewis could use to avoid having sex with his wife again .

Short and not badly written, although it certainly feels like it ripped off the writing style of Wells not just the plot, very 1890's rather than 1930's. [2/5]



Sexton Blake, the Case of Atwell Aircraft Company by Anthony Skene (1922)
Short detective/espionage story, featuring the villian Zenith the Albino. Reminded me somewhat of The Thirty-Nine Steps but better. [3/5]

New Items:

Three John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood (1908)
I am a bit prejudiced against John Silence before i read this. Firstly i have read some story with him in it about a werewolf, wasn't a fan, also i already like some of his supernatural detective rivals so it was always going to be hard for him to break into an already crowded field. And he doesn't quite manage it.

I also noticed that for some reason each of the three tales uses a different perspective. The first story, has Silence himself as the point of view character, the second, has really no reason to be in this collection as its just random guy telling tale to people which include Dr.Silence and the last goes with the more common Watson-esque assistant as the P.O.V. character.

This is neither as delightfully weird as 'Carnacki, the Ghost Finder' or as pithy and likable as 'The Secrets of Dr. Taverner'.
While there were times in each of the stories it approached a 4-star the writing just kept going and they always felt more drawn out than necessary. In addition while the writing is quite descriptive it isn't as vivid as Lovecraft or similar authors.

'The air, soft and cool caressed his cheek like the touch of a great furry paw.'
These are very cat orientated stories , ironically the only one not be cat-centric was the one with an Egyptian connection, bit of a missed opportunity that .

One final note, Silence is described as this really great kind guy always out to help people blah, blah, but then i noticed this line
'By some means which I never could fathom, John Silence always contrived to keep the compartment to himself..'
Oh wow thats a great use of your mystical abilities, hogging the train carriage!, ass :lol . [3/5]



Jacques the Fatalist by Denis Diderot (1796)
'And your Jacques is only an insipid agglomeration of facts, some real, some imagined, written without grace and distributed about with no order.'

Philosophical comedy. Its almost stream-of-consciousness writing the author often breaking the fourth wall.
Most of it are these philosophical musings interrupted by various stories. The tales themselves are often broken up and interwoven, so at times even the characters telling them get confused as to where the stories left off.

Whenever i started to get bored there would be some funny moment or interesting idea thrown out. However i still might be rounding up to get to 3 stars. There were some genuinely funny parts, some of the conversations seemed like a Marx Bros sketch at times. [3/5]

New Items:

The History of the Sevarambians by Denis Vairasse (1675)
I was still undecided whether to give this 2 or 3 stars, but then near the end i hit the language section. With 20-30 pages of grammar lessons and thought nope 2 it is .

So this so is one of those descriptions of a utopia, there isn't much in the way of story, its just a frame for the details of the geography, politics, education, language, religion, history etc of this fictional place.

Its divided into 5 sections, the first is a description of the authors life and a shipwreck which strands 300 men and 72 women on some unknown island.
If your worried that the women arn't going to fair well in that kind of situation... you would be right.
So as to be classist aswell as sexist, the officers each take one and the rest are divided amongst the men about 5 women to each man... ugh.
But don't worry in section 2 they find a utopian society, who are shocked and appalled at the treatment of the women.
Because they're polygamists and feel multiple men to one women is very wrong, it should be mulitple women to one man. Again its also classist as the number of wives you can have is determined by your rank, there an employment bonus like a company car... ugh.
Until all the men can find wives they are given sex slaves instead which are apparently kept around for the use of travellers.
Don't worry though the men have to undergo a medical check for syphilis first, no i'm not kidding they actually did that, yay?

I could make this review really long but it would just be a recitation of everything in here. It is kind of fascinating because there are so many contradictions but overall its still pretty boring.

So i'll simply give a short list of the good and bad points of the supposed utopia on show here.
Good:
Equal education for men and women, semi-equality of employment, 8 hour workday, no poor, no capital punishment, equal male female army, semi-democratic elections, religious liberty, no hereditary jobs.
Bad:
Neighbouring tribes have to give tributes of children to be used as slaves, no private property, censorship, most female soldiers under 18, eugenics with anyone seen as physically or mentally damaged sent to one particular province, children taken and educated (indoctrinated) by the state from age 7, no females in positions of authority, blood sports, corporal punishment, spies sent to foreign lands but only if they have at least 3 children to be used as leverage for their return, all people must get married by 18 or 21 for women and men respectively, if a women can't find a man she must marry one of the high officials who has an open slot in his wife tally, the supreme leader gets first dibs on any pretty women. [2/5]



The Carpetbaggers by Harold Robbins (1961)
If i was to do a one word review it would be 'Inconsistent'. Inconsistent characters, tone, pacing, graphicness, length.. somehow.
This is basically a soap-opera drama, something along the lines of 'Dynasty' or 'Dallas'. It follows the interweaving lives of three main people, a cowboy, a woman based at least partially on jane russel and a howard hughes knockoff. Except then just as your expecting it to finish up it adds two more new characters... what? Who are these people, why is this still going? Its like it was meant to be two books but the author couldn't quite find enough material for the second so instead you have here a novel and a half.
Between the now 5 main characters are about 18 different personalities. There's never any attempt made to use the book medium to advantage. In books its easy to see what people are thinking and get inside their heads but that never happens here, your as removed from them are you would be watching it on tv.

Other oddities are that the book can be quite graphic when it comes to sex and violence, sometimes.. then other times it turns and runs from the sex or violence, again inconsistent.
There are a lot of side characters in this too some of which pay off and others that just disappear from the story suddenly and without a trace.

The various storylines interweave and the plot jumps back and forth in time and from location to location often without any lead in. Everytime you hit a paragraph end you wonder whether the next one will be in the same time or place (and usually isn't). In other novels this would be extremely confusing but somehow here its merely annoying.

Oh and heres a reverse spoiler, the howard hughes character does not end up storing his piss in jars, i kept waiting for that to happen but no, maybe in the sequel .

Having said all that, you can't deny its dramatic, if you like your soaps this has a lot of story to munch on and the writing is fine even if the structure is a mess. [3/5]

New Items:

Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs (1912)
That was pretty good. A nice descriptive style at least to start with, it might have continued throughout but i just remember being surprised at the start.
The first half has some really nice action. The Jane character is handled fairly well, quite psycological at times and some nice sexual tension.
Yet for all that i still didn't rate it as high as The Cave Girl not sure why, maybe its just a surprise thing, and Burroughs is now a bit too familiar. Although this story is also certainly not without its flaws.
There's some pretty pointless comic relief thrown in the later sections, which feels particularly annoying when one of those characters turns out to be kind of a villain, unintentionally. Its Jar-Jar all over again. Also some of the social aspects later in the book seem more 1812 england as opposed to 1912 american.
There is some choppy editing too, and a bunch of side stories that you have to wade through to explain why various people have suddenly turned up. There must be better ways to introduce people than they show up and then spend 20 pages explaining their presence in pointless flashback.
But i think the main issue might be Supermansyndrome, by about half-way Tarzan has been made so powerful and unstoppable its just really hard to keep any tension in the story.

Possibly one of the more intelligently written of Burrough's tales but not the most fun. Also its best to think of the apes in this as being descendants of ones from those new Planet of the Apes remakes having been transported back in time, because they are pretty much exactly as intelligent as those guys . [3/5]



The City of Frozen Fire by Vaughan Wilkins (1951)
A 'Treasure Island' ripoff, but instead of an island we land in a lost medieval settlement in south america. A fairly fun adventure story with pirates before the girl from 'Brave' shows up, but she's Welsh not Scottish.
Moments of humour, moments of surprising darkness but overall just a fun adventure story. Its set in 1826 but unfortunately from a social view feels like it was written then, rather than 1950.

While women fair moderately well, the book insists pointlessly on showing that the medieval europeans enslaved the local south americans and never suggests this as anything but a positive. The poor are shown to be little above the slaves and while it very occasionally makes a jab against the romanticizing of medieval life, its nowhere near as acerbic as the likes of a Connecticut Yankee. The overall attitude very much pro-white and pro-rich.

On a sidenote i think the Long-John Silver-esque character is gay, just a thought but it added a little extra.
I probably should deduct a star due to its racism but it has likable characters and is i think still worth a 3, just. [3/5]


Song Items:
Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones (1968) [4/5]

When They Sound the Last All Clear by Vera Lynn (1941) [4/5]


Immortal Love by Eddie Enrico & his Hawaiian Hotshots (2012)
Written and sung by Alan Moore. [4/5]

Home With You by Eddie Enrico & his Hawaiian Hotshots (2012)
Written and sung by Alan Moore. [4/5]

New Items:

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838)
A literary if not literal train wreck.
So i thought i might have problems with this story due to its length, darkness or ubiquity, while not having ever watched a version i still knew the basic plot through cultural osmosis. However i was quite wrong and none of these aspects were problematic, but there were problems.

So this tale is done from a narrator point-of-view, who keeps the story at a distance aswell as undercutting the darker elements with sarcasm and wit. Which is good, because the descriptions of the poorhouse in this could be compared to Auschwitz without any hyperbole.

This is all going splendidly, compelling, funny, moving, easy reading style, nice short chapters. I burned through 30 out of 53 chapters with ease and then... splat!
We get to an event which seems quite similar to something that happened earlier, so already a bit repetitive, but thats not the worst of it. We get this intermission of about 6-7 chapters mostly consisting of walking around in gardens looking at flowers. We also get an entire new cast of characters with their own subplots... we're THIRTY chapters in and it starts introducing all these new people.
But finally it looks like we're getting back to Oliver, i think he gets a couple of lines and thats it... he disappears for almost the next 25 chapters.
You have this almost completed different detective story thing going on instead, its insane. Oh and as for the mystery, wow , twice it does the 'i will now confront the criminal and state to the audience all the facts and who's guilty' cliche and both times it is just awful. Not least of which because half of the facts are completely new to the audience and have never been introduced in the book before this. Thats also putting aside the ridiculous coincidences and Deux Ex Machina's that would make Edgar Rice Burroughs blush :P .

Think of two nice looking trains, both have some really nice stuff in their carriages but that does not mean that its going to be a pretty picture when they meet in a head on collision . [2/5]



Oroonoko by Aphra Behn (1688)
So its kind of like 'Amistad' mixed with 'Braveheart' . Short tale of an african prince who finds himself on a slave plantation. Reminded me of a shakespearean tragedy at times too. Has the feel of non-fiction in parts, those odd inconsistencies which tend to denote real events.
Its narrative structure is unusual in that about half is from the title characters point of view and the rest from the authors.
While i thought it was fine until about half-way i was still expecting to give it 2 stars but it finishes strongly. [3/5]



Hobson's Choice by Harold Brighouse (1915)
A comedy play about 3 daughters who do all the work and their overbearing father who does all the drinking.
This is a pretty solid social comedy, the jokes reminded me of the humour of 'Till Death Do Us Part' or 'All in the Family' if your american. The ending might seem a bit harsh to some of the characters but this is a tough time to live in and 'being nice' is a relative term anyway.
So an easy 3-stars when watched/read in a void... however!
Its also clearly a reimagining of King Lear, and on that basis i gave it an extra star. Personally i always thought Lear himself a bit of an ass and was rooting for the evil daughters most of the time :P . The writer of this play seems of a similar opinion.
I also love the differences shown here between the qualities of a good daughter in shakespears time and a good daughter in 1915. There's a lot you can examine in what the playwright chooses to leave and change between the two works.
I should note nobody else seems to be reading it as King Lear 2.0, so maybe its just me . [4/5]

New Items:

Melmoth the Wanderer by Charles Maturin (1820)
"..starting from the doze in which he had frequently indulged during this long narrative.
'But hear the result' said the pertinacious narrator."

Well i can certainly see why people might have issues with this book but there's lot of good with the bad. The main plot actually takes up about the first 10%, the 45-60% area and the last 10%. The rest are various other tales which are very tenuously connected.

It opens in ireland and is both very Gothic and very funny, in fact Maturin's sense of humour makes sporadic and odd appearances throughout the book.

After the opening and a short tale to add some more atmosphere we jump into 'The Spaniards' story and this is the low point and longest point of the whole thing. Those two appellations are probably not coincidental .
Its a man-vs-institution story and whether its a monastery/convent, mad house, prison, boarding school, police state etc these tales don't have lot of variety to them at least in the broad strokes.
However Maturin is very good at psychology and emotional reactions. Unfortunately this tale is severely undermined by 2 factors. One is that its told by the Spaniard himself, rather eliminating the sense of danger since we know he at least survived, and two its placement.
We know its part of a larger whole and so it takes great focus to stop the 'are we there yet' voice in your head which is waiting for this to intersect the overarching storyline.

The middle section of the book is part of the main plot as i mentioned earlier and this is also one of the most floridly written segments its really good. Then we have two more tales almost back to back.
The 'Gusmans' is a social collapse tale somewhat like Zola's 'the Dram Shop' and 'Elinors' tale or whatever that one was called, is a Gothic romance.
Both of these latter stories are at least a lot shorter than the 'Spaniards' but you might still need to be able to stay in the moment to enjoy them.
Before we finally get back to the main plot for the finish.

Maturins best elements as a writer are his realistic psychology as mentioned before and also his speeches, there are some great speeches by various characters in this. So powerful in fact that Maturin felt the need to add a special disclaimer to say that the opinions expressed by his evil characters where not those of the author .

As you can tell it can get very nested, in fact it goes total 'Inception' at times, at one point we have the irish guy listening to the spaniard tell of a story, in which a man is listening to a story about a woman listening to story... how many levels is that :lol . Just hold tight to your totem and lets hope you don't end up in Limbo .

I heard once that this was virtually unreadable, glad to say i can disagree. A lot of good parts if not perhaps a great whole. [3/5]



The Swing in the Summerhouse by Jane Langton (1967)
Really very unexpectedly good. I wanted to read the first in the series, especially since its blurb makes it sound like Jumanji , but this was the only one i could find.

Its very much in the vain of E.Nesbit's stories but with some of the surreal darkness of Mary Poppins. However it still stands out as its own thing. Its quite tied to its time and place but that just gives a unique flavour in my opinion.

There are trade off's with the writers style. Its a short and punchy book but that can also mean the characters arn't quite as well developed as some might like, although they still have more personality than many similar characters. Its also very subtle in its lessons but its subtlety might come across as vagueness to others.

The only real issue is a structural one, an element of urgency is introduced but the author isn't ready to deal with it yet so the characters just sort of ignore it.. making them look either foolish or sociopathic depending on your stance :P . Anyway that isn't enough to ruin the story.

Been quite a while since i liked a children's book this much, really nice tone and feel of story. [4/5]

New Items:

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K.Rowling (1997)
Not in the mood for a long review so short version. I wanted to hate it but its actually pretty solid. Takes a lot of inspiration from Tolkien, Dahl and Dickens but is its own thing. Can feel a little episodic at times and author isn't able to come up with enough reasons why the kids don't talk to an adult instead of doing things themselves. But overall its a fairly good and easy read. End of review, now on to the interesting part .

I was shocked when i realised what this is. The premise is actually an allegory reimagining white, old money privilege as magic. Its kind of amazing in a horrifying sort of way. Essentially the word muggle is this worlds version of the word pleb and the author uses it with gusto to abuse the non-privileged class even when there are characters from that class around like Hermione. I don't know if Rowling comes from money but it certainly seems like she wants to.
You'll notice there are never any references to what wizards do for a living or what use a Hogwarts education is, because the people who go to these sorts of schools don't actually need to work for a living.
The only reason given for why magic is covered up is that the commoners will all want handouts from the privileged class if they learn how privileged they are.

“Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there’s still witches an’ wizards up an’ down the country.”
“Why?”
“Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems.

It doesn't help that this book is whiter than the private schools its imitating, and in this case that feels like a feature not a bug. Lets not even get into the goblin bankers, i'm surprised she didn't cut out the pretense entirely and call one of them Fagan.

Anyway i am now more interested in reading 'Atlas Shrugged' as i seriously want to compare the two . [4/5]



Dr. Ox's Experiment by Jules Verne (1872)
Short humorous supervillain tale. Not much more to it than the concept but at least its light and funny. Similar to films like 'Impulse (1984)' or the 'Crazies' but not as extreme.

You know Verne has a lot of supervillains, in his books, apart from 'Dr. Ox' and 'Nemo' we also have 'Robur the Conqueror', and others in 'The Castle of the Carpathians', 'The Begum's Fortune', 'The Underground City' and 'Around the World in Eighty Days'... ok i can't prove that Phileas Fogg is a supervillian but he does have the personality of one (White Rose from Mr.Robot springs to mind) and nobody did find out where his money comes from :P . [3/5]

New Items:

Wistons by Ellen Melicent Cobden (1902)
Wow! that was quite the flourish at the end. This is a really interesting one with very surprising female characters for the time.. or this time frankly.
It feels something like 'Pride and Prejudice' mixed with 'Wuthering Heights'... sortof, not really.
About the first half or even two-thirds feels like a highlight reel. It skips along giving these little episodes of life on this manor farm. The later sections get more and more detailed as our two heroines grow up.
Both of them are very intelligent and bookish. Anyone who reads a lot will know how hard it is to find others of equal introspection . Its all about trying to find a reason to live, your place in the world, other intelligent life.
One of the sisters being very empathetic the other self sufficient almost to the point of sociopathy... but i mean that in a good way :lol.
Just a small example of the oddity of the book is that the women sit on the floor a lot. It might seem a trivial detail but its so odd for women of this period not to care about their dresses and just plop themselves down wherever they want .
On the downside it does phonetic accent writing on occasion which few writers can pull off. Also some of the writing might be a bit vague, usually during conversations, on occasion i found myself not quite getting what was being said.
By no means the first writer i've had this issue with. Sometimes your just not quite on the same wavelength so even though all the words make sense the meaning can be obscure.

Still not sure how i feel about the main male protagonist, i might hate him but i'm not quite sure i'm meant to :P. I never expected it to go where it does in the end and the whole thing was a very pleasant surprise. [4/5]



Vineland by Thomas Pynchon (1990)
Right... where to start. My first Pynchon. I was actually tempted to give it four stars but part of that was because it fills you with a healthy amount of paranoia against those in power. There is so much outlandish crap spread around these days that i think we begin to overlook all the real conspiracies and corruption out of some sort of mental backlash.
Anyway... the plot such as it is... you remember that episode of the Simpsons where Homers mother turns up who's been on the run since the sixties? Its a bit like that with occasional channel interference from Kill Bill and Godzilla.
About 90% of it is flashback, although they're not so much flashs as bleeds. The transitions from time to time and place to place are quite something as you can never seem to see them until after they've happened.
It can make finding a natural stopping place (their are no chapters) a little hard. You'll be a couple of pages into a new section following new people before you've even figured out that the change happened.

It seems at times stream of consciousness writing with the occasional pool of magical realism. Still not quite sure what a Thanathoid is... i'm thinking ghost zombie nihilist :lol.
Other idiosyncrasies of the author are the various songs thrown in and dream sequences the latter being completely pointless and the former not meaning much to me but perhaps more interesting for those of a musical inclination. About 20% of the book feels like it could have been cut without in anyway effecting the story, and i'm probably being generous with what i consider to be relevant.

There are also two major mysteries in the book, one of why the badguy is doing what he's doing and one about why another character did what she did in the past. Neither of which are really resolved but given the nature of the story i suspected there would be no easy answers so i wasn't too annoyed by that. Also given the type of story i expected it to end with a whimper rather than a bang and was correct on that too, although fadeout instead of whimper might be more accurate.

I like stream of conciousness, 60's-80's america etc. there was a lot i liked here but perhaps too chaotic to love. [3/5]



The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek by Evelyn Lampman (1955)
A decent enough kids story about attempts to save an inherited dirt farm with the help of a neighbourly talking dinosaur. Not the most cheerful thing in the world and the last part is a bit sudden and flat. Then again i was never the biggest fan of the Hulk tv series or Littlest Hobo. [3/5]

New Items:

The Trials of Persiles and Sigismunda by Miguel de Cervantes (1617)
So this is a love story supposedly, with innumerable sup-plots. Every time a new character shows up we get yet another tangent. Whats odd is that not only do the actual characters get bored with some of the sub-stories but the author apologises to the reader at least ten times about how repetitive it can get.. and then continues on in the same way as before .
Most of the plots involve someone being forced into a marriage they don't want. The people who can't take no for an answer being both men and women but mostly men of course. This leads to one of the ironic highlights because the main love tale when you finally learn all the facts isn't exactly Romeo and Juliette thats all i'll say .

The main plot starts in the middle and is filled out bit by bit in flashback which is a good technique i felt.
Other items in the plus column are that the sub-plots or episodes in the main plot are all very short. So if you don't like something don't worry it won't be there for long. The story is also quite random or at least unpredictable in its turns, which i generally consider a good thing.

The best thing about the book however is its world building, which bares about as much relation to real history or geography as that of Robert E.Howards stories do .
A low 3 stars, its a mess, but enjoyable enough. [3/5]



Now We Are Six by A.A.Milne (1927)
As 1920's poetry collections for children go, this is fairly decent... i kind of thought it was a winnie-the-pooh book but.. whatever.
Technically Pooh is in this but its barely a cameo. I'm not a fan of poetry either, or i guess because this is for kids we may have to call it nursery rhyme? Anyway its.... fine. [3/5]



Polpelly Christmas by Frank Richards (1936), The Magnet issues #1452-1455.
Its good, i was tempted to give it 4 stars at some points. Adventure, humour, secret passages, mystery, danger, racism, the gangs all here :P . For some reason the main badguys keep getting called dagoes, even though they're italian, don't you just hate it when people use the wrong racial epitaph .
Bunter does his best Scooby impression blundering in and spoiling enemy plans by accident, but they also manage to get him out of the story for a while which is good as too much Bunter can get pretty annoying.
Some decent characterization of the other characters too. In fact one of them goes dark, like Nolan's batman dark... but luckily avoids Snyder's batman dark.. nobody needs that .
Its a bit episodic which would make sense, issue to issue but here it happens chapter to chapter even though the chapters are published together. Not much point in a cliffhanger when the continuation is literally right next to it.

Glad i read the original magazines as one of them included the delightful (this is sarcasm) section, the 'Greyfriars N*GG*R Review' (it gets worse) which is a set of instructions on how kids can perform their own Black and White Minstrel show for christmas, fun for the whole family (not) :lol . [3/5]


Film Item:

Hue and Cry (1947)
Pretty good kids vs criminals adventure. Let down by a couple of bad edits and lack of a reward scene at the end. [3/5]

New Items:

Just Willam by Richmal Crompton (1922)
First off in the version i read there seemed to be a chapter out of order, i would read the chapter titled 'Jumble' after 'The Show' for maximum making sense .

There's nothing new under the sun. In terms of old english characters while Billy Bunter is distinctly Eric Cartman, William Brown is very much Bart Simpson, (maybe a a tiny bit less evil though).

Its episodic fare nothing in the way of overarching story but the humour really doesn't age, its good stuff. Not much else to say really, a little bit more personality for his brother and sister might have been nice but otherwise just solid ageless annoying child tales. [4/5]



The First Settlement of the Cessares by James Burgh (1764)
Straight forward utopian plan, not a lot in the way of story. Despite the name this is about a dutch colony hidden in south america.
Presented through a series of letters which describe the laws, history etc. of the colony. Its a purely puritan/omish system, cromwell would be proud, the main town is even called Salem.
Its main utopian idea is that everyone gets an equal sized piece of land (with some variation depending on soil quality). There doesn't seem to be any trade, each family live off their own land.
While its ideology is extreme it is at least not too hypocritical. The author uses a lot of references to backup his ideas and also takes potshots, at wars, slavery, the genocide of the south americans by the spainish, the distribution of alcohol to the native americans etc.

Slighty more interesting than More's 'Utopia', Bacon's 'The New Atlantis' or 'The Commonwealth of Oceana' at least. [2/5]



Victory for the Trigans (1965)
Compiled from 19 issues of The Ranger comic. History tale of romanish aliens but with jetpacks and rayguns. Its fine but some logic issues, and a bit too allegorical for my taste. [3/5]

New Items:

The Adventures of James Massey by Simon Tyssot De Patot (1710)
A fairly dry travel story with the usual assortment of shipwrecks, savages, slavery etc. The middle third is set in a lost kingdom which i guess you could call utopian but its little different from the real world.
Perhaps a little more orderly but only in the way ancient china could be considered orderly. They still have bloodsports, multiple wives and a king. But no deathpenalty, just hard labour for life... is that supposed to be better? , they also don't pray or believe in an afterlife although they do worship.

The adventure elements are interrupted by frequent scientific and religious discussions, on why we have calendars, gravity, how we know the sun is big and that the earth revolves not the stars etc. Some of the physics stuff is quite hard to follow in 18th century language... although i might have a hard time with it even in modern speech .

The main elements of the book however definitely seems to be the religious arguments. The author not wanting to be burned alive, has the protagonist usually take up a very pro religious stance defending even the stuff which contradicts all the other stuff.
However he then has other characters use logic and reason to attack dogmas and religious minutiae.

The whole thing is an odd assortment of bits and pieces but it held my attention well enough. [3/5]



The Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton (1943)
At least i didn't want to chew my arms off from boredom like the "Wishing Chair" stories.
I maintain that Blyton is by every measure a terrible writer. She has a decent amount of imagination but its mostly of the 'Alice in Wonderland' variety, ie only interesting because its so random.
I suspect a lot of the joy people find in her books is due to her psycological attacks on the reader. The characters and narrator are constantly telling you how 'exciting', 'delightful' or 'fun' the adventures are. I guess if you tell people something often enough they will start to believe it .
Anyway i didn't hate this it was fun enough for what it was. Its the childrens book equivalent of a slocky B-Movie and i have been watching a lot of MST3K lately, so who am i to judge . [3/5]



The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story by Rudyard Kipling (1894)
I was reading the illustrated Jungle Book available on gutenberg but gave up when i got to the end of the Mowgli stories.
Its fine, pretty much what you might expect. Its knockoff Tarzan is actually much better despite Burroughs inferior writing abilities. [3/5]

New Items:

When the World Shook by H.Rider Haggard (1919)
'..think not that you Westerners have done with wars.. and what the sword spares class shall snatch from class in the struggle for supremacy and ease.'

Quite a lot of good moments in this sci-fi adventure story. Also probably one of Haggards smoothest reads. I imagine he had a few more passes on the draft than he usually does.

Most of the good elements are character driven. The plot moves slowly and is not helped by all the foreshadowing. Its pretty obvious where things are going even if you havn't read any other Haggard stories. If you have read some of his other books however then a lot of this will feel very familiar.

Given its publishing in 1919 you might expect some influence from the war but despite the storyline lending itself well to that Haggard seems to almost resent having to acknowledge the conflict. The story is also quite religious, in fact the most religious adventure story i've read since 'Ardistan and Djinnistan'.

Its almost a perfect representation of its time period. A bit more advanced than the victorian novels but oddly old fashioned for a modern work. Although i've said its slow, the downtime for want of a better term, is not without its charm mostly due to the personalities of its characters. Theres a fair bit of humour here. [3/5]



Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle (1902)
Yeah its pretty good, there were times when it was 4 stars but dropped a bit in the latter stages.
I thought i'd like this better than the short Holmes stories as a lot of those tend to lack much characterization. It started off strong but when your 2/3's of the way through you realise not much has really happened. I mean until near the end the only proof of a crime is the fact that this is a detective story :P .
It doesn't help that the characters keep telling you that they're facing some sort of supercriminal. This isn't Moriarty or 'Fantômas' or something. Also its hard not to guess a few of the details due to the cultural absorption of the tale.

Listened to an excellent reading by 'David Clarke' on LibriVox. [3/5]

New Items:

Back from the Dead by Chris Petit (1999)
Detective thriller about a rockstar receiving stalker letters. Really good, its a bit weird that the investigation stuff actually tends to come as a relief, because the personal lives of the characters are somehow more disturbing .
The author can do a lot with a little, very short chapters. A lot of deadends or things which technically arn't connected to the main mystery but it all adds to the atmosphere and sense of realism, life is never neat .
I could never quite settle with this one, everything was just a little off. Changes of character perspective, changes in tone, it kept me constantly offbalance, which while not a pleasant feeling is probably what you would want from something like this .

Some knowledge of the Manson murders, the Rosemary's Baby film, and the death of John Lennon might all be useful. [4/5]



The Yawning Heights by Alexander Zinoviev (1976)
"Their aim is to distort judgements and divert public attention to trivia. And this does not merely affect cultural life. It affects every important aspect of life. Have you seen today's Newpaper?"

A massive tome of anti-communist satire with an annoying, perhaps even horrifying, amount of relevance today. I thought it might be smaller on the inside as it had a decent sized font and margins but its actually bigger on the inside.
Made up of small chunks of genuine sociology, little scenes of life and a ton of satire. Most pieces are only a page or two with maybe some extensions to 4 or 5 pages towards the end.

If i arbitrarily divide it in 4, the first quarter is the funniest and lightest. A perfect blend of high and low-brow humour mostly revolving around the building of a latrine.
The second quarter is the hardest, a lot of heavy sociology although most is given a dumbed down explanation or examples aswell.
The third part feels the most personal. It made me wonder who the people behind the satire really were and made me miss the fact that i know so little about soviet russia.
The last quarter is the darkest. Dealing with the most brutal aspects of communism aswell as projecting into a future where the great Ism has taken over the world, hence my putting it on my dystopia shelf.
Having divided it in 4 let me go back and say that those are only the broad outlines and theres a constant intermixing of comic sketches and deep thoughts.

Reminded me of Dilbert :lol, with its incompetent leadership and frustrating bureaucracy in which talent is stifled and stupidity rewarded. Dilbert, if your boss could also have you killed .
Its a LOT and really depressing , but i'm still giving it 4 stars, which is worth a lot more than 4 stars spread over 250 pages :P .

"What fantasies, what myths define
The dreams that sooth my brow?...
...The scientist who's in control?
...The footballer who scores a goal?
Must we on them rely?
Alas, there is no other choice.
The fairy tale has died,
Their heroes vanished, stilled their voice,
There's nothing left beside." [4/5]


14 issues of Iron Fish (1967)
Good comicstrip adventures usually lasting 2 issues, which is 4 pages. The Iron Fish design is iconic. [4/5]

2 issues of Mr. Apollo (1953)
Super-man knockoff comic. One fairly bland story, the other delightfully absurd. [3/5]

18 issues of the Adventures of Tommy Walls (1953)
Single page comicstrips so this represents two story arcs. An advertising character for Walls icecream. The LoEG claims he's powered by ice-cream, which made him sound like Bananaman or Pop-Eye. However these are typical boys-vs-crooks stories and any goodluck or bright ideas attributed to the ice-cream are specious. [3/5]

1 issue of the Adventures of Mark Tyme (1967)
Comic about inventor and judo black-belt lost in time. Its passable. [3/5]

Film Items:

The Naked Truth (1957)
Comedy about a tabloid reporter who blackmails the rich & famous and the various murder plots that ensue. Pretty good, does tend to rush to the finish though. [3/5]

Gorgo (1961)
Grading on a curve here but its pretty good for what it is. A lot of Kaiju cliches although it might be inventing some of them. The special effects are decent for the genre and you get to see a few london landmarks destroyed. [4/5]

2 episodes of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)
A bit too grown up for most people who like puppets. But for a niche audience i'm sure it must have been amazing. [4/5]

New Items:

Worrals of the W.A.A.F by W.E.Johns (1941)
Its possible my low expectations have resulted in this high mark but i'm not sure. Its a very solid spy-thriller. With a few touches of women vs male authority. I actually would have preferred if Worrals was a little older as being 18 lends an extra YA element to proceedings too, which was unnecessary.

These kind of spy adventures can be very convoluted and messy like the awful 'Thirty-Nine Steps'. But this one is very solid and logical. Even when things go wrong, its never because of bad decisions, or at least not because of stupid decisions.

Its fast paced and short tale with very likable characters. There is one bit near the end where i felt it introduced too many new elements and we had a bit of an information dump but it did lead to some nice dramatic scenes.

Far better than the one biggles book i read as a kid . [4/5]



The Wouldbegoods by E.Nesbit (1901)
One of her non-magical tales, a sequel to the 'Treasue Seekers' which i havn't read. The narration was quite confusing at first, apparently in the previous book its explained that the narrator is supposed to be a mystery.

A group of children are sent to the country and decide to try being extra good as they're always getting into trouble. Leading to the kind of chaos you would expect. By the half-way point my inner adult was getting quite annoyed but the author seemed to sense this too and the kids are less destructive in the second half.

Its well written but almost feels like a script at times, like it would work better as a film than it does on the page, bit hard to explain. I alternated between listening on Librivox and reading it and i think it was more designed to be listened too.
The Librivox recording is also done randomly by a man and woman, possibly due to the narrator mystery but it works well. [3/5]



16 issues of Li'l Abner (1941)
Comicstrip, kind of like the Beverly Hillbillies but without the beverly part . [3/5]

A Voyage to Great Garaband by Henri Michaux (1936)
Short bits of surrealism, probably satirical like Gullivers Travels. Some of it can be interesting but only in the way a Rorshach test is. [2/5]

The Count's Beard by Italo Calvino (1956)
Short folktale with bits of poetry. Sort of humourous with a detective element. [3/5]

New Items:

The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley (1919)
aka The Mark of Zorro.
A pulpy knockoff of the 'Scarlet Pimpernel'. Not particularly well written. Its fine but if you've seen or read any version of the character then you'll find little of interest.
While many people have stolen from the Scarlet Pimpernel over the years, such as batman, there are different levels of theft. Most Batman stories for example are just taking the general concept, whereas 'The Dark-Knight Rises' steals very particular plot points (of course the rest of that movie is a remake of 'Rocky III' anyway).
This story falls into the latter category plagiarising at least one major element from 'The League of the Scarlet Pimpernal' right down to a particular name.
Their is one spot of originality (unless its stolen from something i havn't read, which is quite possible ), which is the love story. This focuses on the development of the relation between the male and female lead, in the Pimpernel they're already married and all we get to explain why Marguerite would marry such a fop is that he seemed different before the wedding :lol .

Another element which i don't think they meant to steal is the problematic morality of the story, which it shares with Pimpernel. In Pimpernel it was that he was rescueing the rich from the poor, in this its the treatment of the natives. In both cases the hero only comes down on the right side as far as is acceptable for his social position.

The only real surprise for me in this was the tone. Its actually very close to that of the Antonio Banderas film, i really assumed it would be more serious.

Fun enough i suppose but i couldn't bring myself to give it 3 stars. Perhaps more acceptable if you don't read a lot.. or watch much film.. or have anything better to be do . [2/5]



A Voyage to the Island of the Articoles by Andre Maurois (1928)
Quick satire about an island run by artists. Or at least where artists are the celebrities and sort of priests. Apparently 1928 was too early for the concept of a female artist which leads to certain disturbing qualities. The gulliver-esque satire is ok and the characters like able enough.
It did confuse me a bit, the artists are obsessed with people getting in touch with their feelings... is that an art thing? It seemed an odd thing to focus on.
Anyway i deducted a star simply because its a bit too slight. [2/5]



Boxen by C.S.Lewis (1910-ish)
I question the merit of reading any authors juvenilia. I'm also not the biggest Lewis fan, so with that context... i hated it.
The background piece is ok except it keeps referring to 'Surprised by Joy', so if you like this part it just makes you want to read that book instead.
The tales themselves all involved animal people, but arn't actually kids stories by any modern definition. The first is a weird little shakespeare play but it was ok. The main bulk of the stories however consist of a politic drama... its soooooo... boring! I spent most of the time trying to figure out if he was going for satire, or which characters i was supposed to like, or whether it was racist... or maybe anti-racist., or which bits of british history or fiction he was ripping off. However the only conclusion i arrived at was that i desperately wanted it to end :P .
The final 2 stories are an improvement, they're about reforming manners in the navy... wow.. it just keeps getting more exciting, (he said sarcastically). Actually though the final tale was quite acceptable and stopped me considering 1 star. [2/5]

House by the Churchyard by J.Sheridan Le Fanu (1863)
'Why, I suppose there isn't so tattling, prying, lying, scandalous a little colony of Christians on earth; eyes, ears, and mouths all open, Sir; heads busy, tongues wagging; lots of old maids, by Jove; ladies' women, and gentlemen's gentlemen, and drawers and footmen; club talk, Sir, and mess-table talk, and talk on band days, talk over cards, talk at home, Sir - talk in the streets - talk - talk; by Jupiter Tonans! 'tis enough to bother one's ears, and make a man envy Robinson Crusoe!'

Firstly the placename Chapelizod is prenounced locally Chapel-lizard. Being from Dublin i had more reasons to like this than most. While viking-era dublin is something you learn about at school, this lets call it... english-dublin, a dublin of tricorn hats, sedan chairs and absentee landlords, i havn't heard much about.
So i got something extra from recognising all the place names and knowing the geography of everything. At one point a murder is mentioned in passing, as havng occurred in clondalkin and i got a little chuckle thinking 'wow that place hasn't changed in 200 years' :lol.

It opens in a macabre and funny way and reminded me a lot in its setting and tone, of the Tim Burton 'Sleepy Hollow' movie. I remember thinking this is a nice setup can't wait to see what the actual story is. Then the setup went on and on, and on, until it dawned on me with a shudder, that this wasn't setup this was the main text. Let me return to the 'Sleepy Hollow' movie for demonstration purposes.
Imagine if in that film the headless horseman, Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci's characters are all still in there, but pushed to the very periphery of the script. Their story is still happening but your stuck following the lives of the extras only occasionally getting a glimpse of the main characters in the hazy distance.

In the moment the incidents are readable and go from ok to good but theres no point to any of it. Tolerable while reading but an absolute struggle to convince yourself to pick the book up again once set down.
The writing if ok, see quote, is quite organic feeling, like your listening to it even while reading. There are some accents and an occasional lisp but it was neither a plus or minus for me.

Finally at the 60% stage the plot(s) start. I use the plural because 3 of them come along at once and the next 30% rushes along in what feels like a single breath, before we grind to a halt for the last 10% of clean up, which somewhat tested my patience once again.
Many might forgive the first 60% as theres some really good stuff in the latter portion but even these parts arn't without they're flaws.
The author has a remarkable knack of seeming to pick the wrong viewpoint for most situations. It almost always feels like your following the wrong character or focusing on insignificant things while missing the important ones.
Objectively based on my usual scoring this is 2 stars, what i give to failures which have some small worth, the last 40% is quite compelling, mostly. The previous 60% has a lot of charming albeit pointless incidents.

However i've taken the liberty of deducting a star based on personal hatred, it has been quite sometime since i had that dubious honour . More work than 'Mysteries of Udolpho' or 'Melmoth the Wanderer'. Feels similar to the work of 'Thomas Love Peacock'... except terrible :P . [1/5]


The Shadowy Street by Jean Ray (1927)
A pretty interesting short tale. The first half is a remake of 'The Horla by Guy de Maupassant'. Te second-half is nicely weird but quite confusing. I'd certainly have given it a higher score if it was a little less obtuse. [3/5]

The Rain Maiden by Theodor Storm (1863)
Short fairytale. Pretty well told, some humour, however it is also pretty straightforward. [3/5]

Ode to those Lost at Sea By William Ashbless (1974)
Short poem, it was ok a little bit mundane. But it was designed to make fun of the poetry of the time. [2/5]

New Items:

10). Autumn in Peking by Boris Vian (1947)
The story such as it is, is pretty basic, kind of like a play you know? Group of people in the desert. Bit of Kafka here and there but not too much.
Some humour, plenty of vulgarity. It is surreal but most of that is confined to the first quarter. I don't do well with surreal but in this case a lot of it was inanimate objects described like animate creatures, which is the very essence of most animation, so i just pretended those parts where a cartoon .
The delivery of the dialogue can be quite stilted not sure if thats in the original or just the translation, which must have been a nightmare so well done Mr.Translator anyway.
Not much more to say, very Indie, its nothing amazing but i was never bored. [3/5]



09). The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (2000)
The tepid occurrences of mostly Kavalier, as it would be more accurately titled. Is one of those stories which takes a certain period of history from an odd perspective. Kind of like 'Forrest Gump' or the 'Curious Case of Benjamin Button'.

In this case the 40's and 50's. The main problem with the book is really the characters, or lack of focus on the characters to be specific. When the author really zoom's in and shows what people are feeling then you become interested, its compelling at least if not amazing.
The entire last quarter is like this, however before that character connection only comes in short spurts. The author changes character perspectives or goes for a more remote viewpoint and you just stop caring.

Even at its best though its still very slight. Much of the appeal is made up of the references to 40's obscura. Its like the author did a bunch of research and came up with a list of odds and ends he was determined to get into the book regardless of what that might do to the pacing or narrative consistency.
In addition none of these references, even the comicbook stuff is particularly indepth. The whole thing feels remarkably slight given its length. The tone can be odd too, while occasionally vulgar its also remarkably sanitized, i felt like i was reading a YA novel at times.

Overall it feels like it was written by a high brow author then dumbed down for a millennial audience before being edited by a Board of Education Committee. [2/5]



5 issues of The Fly (1961)
Co-Starring Fly-Girl. Suspiciously similar to Ant-Man and the Wasp comics. [3/5]

3 issues of Jet Black, aka Space Ace, aka Rocketman (1947)
Bit more overwritten than most comics. A lot stolen from the Barsoom pulps. [3/5]

10 issues of Dr.Occult (1936)
Cheap looking supernatural detective comicstrip. Awful but really grows on you . [4/5]

10 issues of Super-Police (1936)
Starring Rex Cosmos. Just a pirate pulp converted to sci-fi. Certain odd humour though. [2/5]

2 issues of Crash Carew (1947)
Four page space comicstrips with the most basic of writing but decent art and an interesting font for some reason . [2/5]

New Items:

06). The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas (1847)
I was reluctant to read this due to the ubiquity of the Musketeers and because for whatever reason i had assumed Dumas to be a high-brow difficult author. Boy was i wrong, this had such an easy almost pulpy tone to it, perhaps a tad hard to parse during some dialogue but overall very smooth and a nice style.
I was in, the first 20% was 5-stars even with some interruptions to worldbuild, but then after a climax it suddenly switches characters. Which it will continue to do throughout the novel as there isn't actually any main character. Its a terrible structure where the momentum drops at each switch and has to start to build up again. Still Dumas manages to make it work, and the awful structure does at least mean you never know what might happen next.
Dumas even gets some use out of Raoul, the most worthless of side characters, in his first major section at least.
So not 5-stars but still a solid 4... until we reach the conclusion, if i can use that term since its about 10 chapters long. One major character goes through a complete personality switch for no reason and the rest is just turgid wrapping up and politic history lessons and absolutely none of it has anything to do with the actual title of the book.

An 80% of good to great with a soft squidgy mess at the end. Like driving a sports car into a swamp. [3/5]


Skimpole's Crusade by Martin Clifford (1908)
Short tale by the same people behind Billy Bunter. Skimpole is basically Sheldon from BigBangTheory, but people put up with his nonsense a lot less. This time he's become a socialist. [3/5]

New Item:

03). The Aeneid by Virgil (19BCE)
"..Is it that the Gods inspire,
..this fever of the breast?
Or make we gods of but a wild desire?"

So i read the 1907, Edward Fairfax Taylor translation except for a few chapters on audio from Librivox which was the Dryden version. I also looked in every so often on the PoetryinTranslation version because they use classical paintings as illustrations which is pretty cool.
The Taylor translation came with a full set of annotations which were very useful.

The poem overall is a bit awkward, some of that might be the translation but most of it is because Virgil likes to use these elaborate little stories for metaphors and by the time he's finished i often had no idea what point he was trying to make :lol.
Large portions of the story are also fairly redundant and there are various asides to stroke the roman ego. There are also a lot of characters but you never really get to know any of them very well. Most of them being introduced only a few lines before they die .

On the upside many of the battle scenes are good, it really shows the fog of war and costs. Dido, Juno and everyone really, gets a chance to show their side of the issues, its a surprisingly evenhanded tale.
I also like that Aeneas is so average, he's not particularly brave or cowardly, smart or stupid, good or bad he's just in charge because people know his mom, like a slightly less effective Sterling Archer .

Anyway not my favourite epic, some boredom, some parts of interest. [3/5]