Bookbinding (2007/7)
I've decided that writing book reviews is pointless, maybe egoistic. What I'm doing is less pointless and less egoistic, so I'll do this instead. Here is a list of some of the stuff I've read in the last few weeks. Short notes follow.
1. John Dunning's The Sign of the Book and The Bookwoman's Last Fling: Dunning writes about the world of bookselling and crime. Very good if you like that sort of thing, dubious value (apart from excellent writing) otherwise.
2. Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below: Yes, novels about global warming and disaster; in the first, low-lying island state drowns; in the second, Washington DC freezes. Ecothrillers, I guess. Not bad.
3. Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora: Excellent; echoes of Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber, but certainly all his own. He is not like Terry Pratchett (who is a satirical humorist) – rather, Lynch is more about stylish burlesque.
4. Mark Gatiss's The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber: Very amusing if you like what reads like a cross between Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Conan Doyle (for want of a better description). You should be 18 and above or have a great sense of humour to read this and not be totally bawdified.
5. Jon Courtenay Grimwood's 9Tail Fox and Stamping Butterflies: Something like Iain M Banks's SF, but with a lot of cyberpunkish and odd mythopoeia. Ruthlessly effective; if they were made into movies, they'd be better than the Matrix trilogy.
6. Paul Magrs's Never The Bride: I liked this one as much as I did the rest, or even more. The heroine is a really sweet person, and though you might be wondering what on earth I was doing reading this book, I class it thematically with Michael Chabon's The Final Solution (unnamed protagonist is actually classic hero) and Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive! (protagonist is stolen from somebody else's classic novel and given interesting back-story).
Yep, that's it. See, short and simple. If you want to know what comics I read, you need to be comicsmart. Heh. The rest is all about chemistry, quantum physics, and cooking. And all from the nearest high-quality bookshop (Borders or B&N included).
1. John Dunning's The Sign of the Book and The Bookwoman's Last Fling: Dunning writes about the world of bookselling and crime. Very good if you like that sort of thing, dubious value (apart from excellent writing) otherwise.
2. Kim Stanley Robinson's Forty Signs of Rain and Fifty Degrees Below: Yes, novels about global warming and disaster; in the first, low-lying island state drowns; in the second, Washington DC freezes. Ecothrillers, I guess. Not bad.
3. Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora: Excellent; echoes of Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber, but certainly all his own. He is not like Terry Pratchett (who is a satirical humorist) – rather, Lynch is more about stylish burlesque.
4. Mark Gatiss's The Vesuvius Club and The Devil in Amber: Very amusing if you like what reads like a cross between Oscar Wilde and Edgar Allan Conan Doyle (for want of a better description). You should be 18 and above or have a great sense of humour to read this and not be totally bawdified.
5. Jon Courtenay Grimwood's 9Tail Fox and Stamping Butterflies: Something like Iain M Banks's SF, but with a lot of cyberpunkish and odd mythopoeia. Ruthlessly effective; if they were made into movies, they'd be better than the Matrix trilogy.
6. Paul Magrs's Never The Bride: I liked this one as much as I did the rest, or even more. The heroine is a really sweet person, and though you might be wondering what on earth I was doing reading this book, I class it thematically with Michael Chabon's The Final Solution (unnamed protagonist is actually classic hero) and Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive! (protagonist is stolen from somebody else's classic novel and given interesting back-story).
Yep, that's it. See, short and simple. If you want to know what comics I read, you need to be comicsmart. Heh. The rest is all about chemistry, quantum physics, and cooking. And all from the nearest high-quality bookshop (Borders or B&N included).
Labels: Books, Gatiss, Grimwood, John Dunning, Kim Stanley Robinson, Magrs, Scott Lynch
etched with acid at 10:45:00 pm
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