Bran the Blessed

7 hours ago, JasonT said:

Sorry my last post was so spooky. Ahem.

Happy Halloween to everyone still here. 

Thanks ! And yes I am here still, sorry for being so quiet.

On 5/22/2023 at 10:21 AM, JasonT said:

I thought all of the Moff's casting for the lead was inspired. Not so sure about RTD's hand back on the steering wheel, but I'll reserve judgement on the 15th Doctor until I see him in action.

As for David Tennant, I know RTD was sort of hamstrung by Ncuti Gatwa's availability, but considering it's the old showrunner, Doctor and companion, it does feel like a roll back to an era that should be history, rather than a move forward.

On the other hand, a roll back is also new territory for a show that could have done it any time in the last half century but didn't. 

I have joked that the best way to deal with the fallout of the Whitaker years is to pull a Dallas and just have it all been a bad dream the Doctor had after eating some pears.

3 hours ago, dogpoet said:

The thing is, Tennant was very popular, but he'd maybe outstayed his welcome a little by the time they got rid of him and introduced Matt Smith. A full season rather than a few specials as fanservice might be considered excessive.

I did like him more than Smith so not sure I agree. Not that I dislike Smith but I feel his Doctor was a little too infantile without the quirkiness of Tom Baker to truly pull it off.

8 hours ago, dogpoet said:

No, nobody gives a shit at this point.

Maybe if they'd brought back Ecclescakes instead of Tennant...

Sad but after making the Doctor a super special chosen child someone else exploited to acquire Regeneration while they played no active part and with Chibnall destroying Gallifrey again, I couldn't blame anyone.

Also I have never seen the new bloke who is supposed to come after Tennant, so I only really asked about him, cause I actually do know what to expect from him, anyway.

Mind you it'd be better if they had Tennant at least do a full season, if only to try and win back fans with a familiar fan favourite.

I see no one really has any opinions on Tennant's limited return and the series returning to less stupid hands as far as showrunners go ?

I just covered a book that was written by Hermann Goedsche, a Prussian secret police agent and plagiarist, whose virulent anti jewish screed, heavily plagiarising from Maurice Jolly at that, at the end of the novel "Biarritz" was  reprinted after his death as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Yes, that one.

So you could say I was very nervous about how to even cover this unrelated work by Goedsche without seeming to agree with him.

Definitely the worst person I have covered as an author so far. Strobl or Spunda never forged letters to use as evidence to unjustly imprison democratic politicians, like Goedsche actually did.

On 1/21/2023 at 2:13 PM, dogpoet said:

I've just read what may well be the stupidest science fiction novel ever: I'm not sure that it's worse than Habitation One but there's no question that it's even dafter, which is no mean feat.

An alternate history with Patton pushing on from Berlin to Moscow in the final stages of WW2 and the soviet union getting partitioned along with Germany isn't completely ridiculous, but Bradley Denton fails to show his working out that this would leave to an alliance between the United Kingdom and the ChiComs (who didn't turn communist until after the war was over anyway and needed an alliance between Mao and Stalin to arrange that), or the invention of punk music in 1945.

Given that the plot involves the American space programme being destroyed by riots when a famous "wrack" singer died on the first manned moon mission and her daughter being manipulated by various sinister factions to cause or prevent a nuclear war with the "lemon limeys" and/or reboot the space programme, any description makes the book sound a lot more fun than it is. Denton makes a surprisingly sharp guess in having the wrackers pretty much be crusties in a book that was published in 1986, but he's probably just achieved that by treating them as punked up Deadheads, which makes it seem less prescient. It still looks pretty odd in a book that's pretty much a mid '80s hair metal "power of rock" video stretched out to novel length and with an even stupider plot.

And of course, the book is full of stupid made up swear words instead of having the anti-authoritarian rebel rockers cuss each other out with proper punk style potty mouths. I found this hilarious, if I'm honest.

If you've ever wondered what sort of book the late Mick Farren would have written if he'd been dropped on his head when he was a baby, this is probably it right here...

Awww, I'm sorry it isn't better, because it sounds and looks fun in a really pants-on-head sort of way.

I also admit I don't know what "crusties" means here, nor who a Deadhead is. ;XD

3 hours ago, JasonT said:

2020 and 21 were fairly ordinary for me (Australian understatement there), 2022 not so bad — started the year in the north of England on a fantastic holiday, my job was considerably less taxing this year, my lass moved in in July, and I revisited England in September-October.

Cheers to the surviving forum members. Here's to ya in 2023.

That last sentence sounds a bit ominous.

7 hours ago, Avaunt said:

I have not really enjoyed it. First year of being an orphan. Which came with a huge disruption in my mental stability, because I had always had my parents emotional support, and importantly, I had the constant value of being useful to people I cared about. And I REALLY feel the lack of having X hours in the week where I do things that have  real utility to someone I care about.

 

I kinda feel like a ghost, wandering around unable to connect to the mundane world.

I'm really sorry for your loss.

To be fair, it was still better than 2020.

On 11/22/2022 at 11:31 AM, dogpoet said:

Perhaps you could get Dan to send you a copy if you're still in touch with him? Paypal him the cost of the book and and another ten dollars for postage if B&N won't ship to the Czech Republic...

He randomly ghosted me and blocked me on everything without explanation back in February.

11 hours ago, JasonT said:

I figured you'd at least get a comp copy.

It'll be blackly funny if the book that arrives is a leftover with the original cover.

Mind you, I would have to pay for copies of my first edition, and use some sort of freight transfer service or a third party to even get any copy of my book, at all.

On 11/2/2022 at 7:09 AM, JasonT said:

Great stuff! Have the stories been published individually elsewhere?

Nope, every other submission I made came back, with a "Thanks but no thanks". I don't think any of the editors I sent these to really even read them.

Welp, for all those in the United States, and generally any continent but Europe it seems, my first book just came out

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/between-the-walls-of-opposing-houses-david-kart/1142520509?ean=9798823131759

After about 6 years I finally got to read Reginald Hodder's "The Vampire". Needless to say that while L. W. Currey's description of it is exaggerated beyond any reasonable measure, they do base their take on some hints from the novel itself.

But, well, hearing that the entire planet is in peril from a guy who gets effortlessly knocked out with sleeping gas and then later thrown over the side of a cliff after about 2 pages of confrontation at best, and who only ever succeeding in draining the life-force from a single person, is quite a stretch.

Also this is one of only two novels where I have seen the most interesting part of the story happen offscreen and perpetrated entirely by a third party, with none of the protagonists present. How you write a vampire novel and have someone slice up the vampire's body offscreen is quite beyond me.

And now I'm bitter again.

I was reading Wilhelm Jensen's "Gradiva, Ein pompejanisches Phantasiestück" with the hope that it would be a fantasy in some capacity (gee I wonder why) and it was not.

4 hours ago, JasonT said:

So everything turns out all right in the end then. 

Well not really. The whole book builds up a confrontation between her and her brother, whose inheritance she stole and whose wife and infant son she tried to poison with typhoid just for the hell of it, but they exchange one sentence before a completely different character rushes at her and they both fall off a balcony and die.

Also, period fiction trying to pontificate on the origins of mental issues is a weird sort of genre I find exists for some reason.

"The Perverts" by William Lee Howard is a weird story which insists children of parents who wait to have kids too long will have mental and moral defects. The main daughter here is described as mannish in appearance and mannerisms, loves to torture animals and even purposefully gives her own mother a stroke to control her fortune, ending up sadistically whipping young girls in a red velvet BDSM "convent" she has built in the middle of the desert.

It's at times weird and atmospheric but there are some really unfortunate implications, and the whole thing's pontificating, holier than thou soap-boxing about soberness is rich coming from a guy who was described by those who knew him as seemingly very much a wild, crazy devil of a man with drink.

Of course the height of arrogance here is Howard literally stops the plot for pages at a time to quote his own articles on the subject. Very much a book primarily meant to advocate for a personal theory.

Another similar book I've read recently is "Miss Mordeck's Father" by....Fani Pusey Gooch. Fani as in a weird way to spell Fannie ie Frances (sic), but yeah, her maiden name was Pusey and she married a man named Gooch. Just...yeah.

It's a split personality novel, but it basically links every single brain malady to epilepsy, and even asserts dual personality is a result/symptom of "larval epilepsy". Other than that, it's a somewhat amusing story, though it seems to have a weirdly doom laden, fatalistic approach to accidental, multiple-personality-disorder (not to use DID as that isn't quite what the book describes) bigamy.

Read Clemence Dane's "Legend". 180 pages of a bunch of self important literary snobs sitting around a dinning room talking about the made up books of a fictitious writer and if she's a genious or not and why she married her husband etc. etc. etc., all to have exactly four pages of a ghost showing up, doing nothing, and leaving.

Mark Valentine's high praise for this is extremely off the mark.

On 2/7/2021 at 7:44 PM, Christian said:

I’ve read his short story collection selected by Harlan Ellison called Nightshades and Damnations. It mostly included his horror and science fiction.
I like most of what I have read by Kersh.

Harlan Ellison is one of my favourite writers, and Kersh was his favourite writer.

That one is great, but definitely seek out "On An Odd Note", "Neither Man Nor Dog"  and "The Horrible Dummy And Other Stories" as well. There is some crossover but all have enough unique stories to justify the purchase. If you have to get only one, get "On an Odd Note", trust me.

15 hours ago, Christian said:

Unless it’s Harlan Ellison, I don’t know about comparing people to Kersh...heh

Kiernan isn’t obscure. She is fairly popular with dark fantasy fans, or was a lot more popular in the 1990s anyway. I’m not sure if she’s still considered one of the “hot” dark fantasy writers anymore, because a lot more female genre writers have come on the scene since the ‘90s.

Kiernan’s style could be relatively comfortably compared to Neil Gaiman’s prose fiction. Gaiman is a much better word craftsman than Kiernan though, I find.

The Dreaming was a lot better when it was an anthology title, before Kiernan took over full time. It could still be hit or miss, but there were a number of really strong comic writers on the title.

Well I meant that her novels don't seem that well known.
You have any experience with Kersh ? He's one of my favourite writers.

22 hours ago, Christian said:

I’m sure you’re not the type of book reviewer who makes random associations to describe an author’s style or themes though.

You’re not really missing anything from Kiernan. She’s someone who, if you see her name in an anthology, there’s a 50/50 chance that it’ll be a story worth reading; but it’ll never be the best story. Otherwise, you don’t need to go out of your way to read her novels. She’s just very average.

Most of her run on The Dreaming was eminently missable, but a few of her stories were top-notch and worth hunting down. That’s Kiernan’s entire career as a writer.

Hmm kinda wanting to read her novels now since I do like to focus on these middle of the road obscurities. Though to be fair I like to dig a bit deeper than that, like uncovering the semi forgotten "Italian Poe" Carlo Dadone, who only came out in German in non digitised editions for example.

It's kind of annoying The Dreaming remains uncollected till today, I am reading through the individual issues gathered back in the day but haven't picked them up for some months now. Still worthwhile, though of course not on the level of Gaiman's writting.

Oddly enough I remember reading some of Gaiman's shorter fiction back in the day and seeing that, when not writting comics, he has a tendency to rely on the shocking ending, even if it doesn't make much sense. Like the one about the discount seeking client of a firm of assassin's for hire. Not saying he's bad but that is kind of a quirk in his shorter works I have noticed.

As for comparisons, I do tend to compare people to Gerald Kersh on occasion. XD

On 2/1/2021 at 8:17 AM, Christian said:

Book reviewers often annoy me.

....I am one : P

Also only thing I ever read from Kiernan were some issues of The Dreaming I believe.

As to Perutz, I read several of his novels, but I found The Master of the Day of Judgement to kind of be setting up the entire book for a rather weak resolution. The Swedish Cavalier is good, though the fantastic element there is rather minimal. Still a good novel. From Nine to Nine is interesting, though it starts as rather confusing. Never read St. Peter’s Snow yet mind.

On 12/11/2020 at 12:39 AM, Christian said:

Oh wow. I didn’t realize he was 80 years old.

I can’t say I was a fan of his HB work (his style didn’t fit the book), but most everything else which he did the art I found to be excellent.

His style perfectly suited weird fiction.

Same, be it Hellblazer or the Banner miniseries, I always found his art a bit odd for comic books.
Nevertheless, condolences to his friends and family.

4 hours ago, GottaGetAGrip said:

In all likelihood, if Covid hadn't shaken up the already unstable comic book market, Spurrier might've been able to get one more arc on this book. I believe he has said something along those lines, about Covid changing the level of low sales DC was willing to accept to continue publishing books.

I mean, shouldn't the pandemic artificially screwing things up for everyone mean they should tolerate even lower sales due to this being entirely out of everyone's control ?