treeduck Posted March 19, 2007 Author Share Posted March 19, 2007 http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/5415/blueworldma0.jpg I've finished all the short stories now so just the novella about the priest and the porno star to go. The stories have been generally good and enjoyable. they've been mostly in the horror/sci fi genre with a rich variety of subject matter: a thief who steals monster makeup that is more than just makeup, a vietnam veteran who's dreams are so real they come to life, a psycho kid who controls hordes of stinging insects, a has-been superhero actor who dons his moth-eaten costume one last time and goes on the trail of a serial killer, a good luck town that has to make special offerings to the devil on halloween, a man who wakes up to find death has come in the night and found his wife and so on. It's not far off being as good as Stephen King's Everything's Eventual, almost as good but not quite. There's that King comparison again. He even mentions King in his introduction. I suppose anyone who writes horror is going to always be compared to King though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted March 25, 2007 Author Share Posted March 25, 2007 Ok now I'm reading Elmore Leonard's Rum Punch, which was adapted to film and dubbed "Jackie Brown" by Quentin Trannytino and drawn out into a three hour piece. The book however is a taut caper of less than 300 pages. Here's a picture of how my 1992 UK hardback copy looks, although mine is more blood red looking than this one... http://img387.imageshack.us/img387/1766/punchrumum9.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted March 28, 2007 Author Share Posted March 28, 2007 The thing I don't get about Jackie Brown, the film, is why Tarantino changed Leonard's Rum Punch character Jackie Burke, into Jackie Brown a white woman into a black woman. I mean it's not like they needed a token black character or anything and it's not like he changed the character to fit his new vision of the story. She's the same in the book only white, so why change it? Especially when it's the only thing you change. All I can think is he wanted Pam Grier for the part and she happened to be black. As for the name maybe they thought Burke wasn't cool enough and Brown was. Of course it sounds right to people familiar with the film and not the book but it doesn't explain why it was changed... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 Rum Punch is an enjoyable thriller, great dialogue, great characters and great fun. Not the best novel by Elmore Leonard but pretty good. My only complaint was Jackie Burke the airline stewardess of 20 years standing was a little too clever to be believable. She outsmarted customs,the cops, the crooks, Max Cherry. There was no doubt at any point that she was going to get away with even the most outlandish elements of her plan from the beginning. So the suspense was minimal. If she was so clever what was she doing as a stew for 20 years? Did she only turn her brain on at the beginning of the story or what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 Next is another Florida suspense king, Les standiford, who's John Deal novels are what he's mostly known for. The one I'm gonna read though is a stand alone thriller set in the mountains of Wyoming... I happen to have the original American hardback that I picked up about 10 years ago from Waterstones... http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1474/blackmountainmh1.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcaressed Posted March 30, 2007 Share Posted March 30, 2007 Hey duckie, on an unrelated topic, I posted this for you yesterday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted March 30, 2007 Author Share Posted March 30, 2007 QUOTE (steelcaressed @ Mar 30 2007, 05:44 PM)Hey duckie, on an unrelated topic, I posted this for you yesterday. They do look some cousins of mine... Meanwhile here's a pic of my neighbours... http://www.bathroomheaven.com/uploads/Giant_Ducks_Main_Image.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelcaressed Posted March 31, 2007 Share Posted March 31, 2007 QUOTE (treeduck @ Mar 30 2007, 07:17 PM) QUOTE (steelcaressed @ Mar 30 2007, 05:44 PM)Hey duckie, on an unrelated topic, I posted this for you yesterday. They do look some cousins of mine... Meanwhile here's a pic of my neighbours... http://www.bathroomheaven.com/uploads/Giant_Ducks_Main_Image.jpg Not quite as handsome as the one w/ the green head mate, but what can you say about neighbors? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 2, 2007 Author Share Posted April 2, 2007 http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/1474/blackmountainmh1.jpg This one has an amazing list of accolades on the back from celebrated authors such as Elmore Leonard and Robert Parker, all saying it's brilliant. One of them James Hall compares it to James Dickey's Deliverance but so far I'm finding it hard work. I can't put my finger on exactly why, it just lacks atmosphere somehow, in fact it's just a bit dull. The best thing I've read by Les is "Spill" a sci-fi/suspense novel which is good, this one is nothing like that though unfortunately... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 4, 2007 Author Share Posted April 4, 2007 After the slightly drab and disappointing Black Mountain, I think it's time for a vampire novel. Say one that combines the ancient Transylvanian myth with a modern day AIDS twist? Yeah? ok. http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1883/childrenoj4.jpg This is a book I got on trade paperback back in the 90s and the cover is the one you see above, very spooky looking. It's funny how Dan chose a very cliche title for a his attampt at a new slant on the vampire novel... No idea how this one goes, so it'll like reading it for the first time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 8, 2007 Author Share Posted April 8, 2007 This modern day vampire tale has yet to catch fire after around 100 pages, so it's definitely a little on the slow side. It's interesting and very readable though and the story is decent, it's just buried beneath a mountain of information about the fall of Ceauşescu's Romania and it's aftermath and the complexities of blood diseases and disorders in infants. This guy certainly takes his vampires seriously. I'm still waiting for the main thrust of the story to take hold, so far Simmons has just been setting it up. Anyway it's back to the Swiss type SCIDs, the ADAs, the T cells, the B cells, the gammaglobulin levels, the histocompatible marrow transplants and the retrovirus gene therapy for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 http://img265.imageshack.us/img265/1883/childrenoj4.jpg Just after 100 pages it finally started getting good - midnight kidnapping attempts by mysterious men with white faces who get up after being shotgunned, bodies hacked to ribbons floating in tanks somehow still living, mysterious corpses drained of blood (wouldn't be a vampire story without those would it?), a distressing amount of people found murdered hanging by their feet...good stuff... Dan does spend too long on mundane subjects like the process of smuggling someone into Romania, the endless lab tech details etc but underneath it all is a pretty good horror story...and I've still got about 160 pages to go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 12, 2007 Author Share Posted April 12, 2007 Most of us have seen Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino's film debut about a robbery gone wrong. But does a literary equivalent exist? Well, sort of yes. And not only that, the book I'm thinking of was written by Mr Blue himself, Edward Bunker. Bunker (who died three years ago, at the age of 71, during an operation to improve the circulation in his legs) should know about such things, as a former career criminal in california. http://kingofsiam.musicblog.fr/images/mn/1130198767.JPG I've read three books by Bunker, No Beast so Fierce, The Animal Factory and the one I'm going to read again now, Dog Eat Dog, all drawing on Bunker's life as a criminal, both in the system and outside it. This one is about three ex-cons looking for one more score, one last caper to finally set them up. James Ellroy calls this "the best armed robbery novel ever written" and who am I to argue? http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/2337/dogeatdogtf0.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 16, 2007 Author Share Posted April 16, 2007 I'm in the middle of this one, I've only been reading it in snatches, with some days no reading altogether, anyway it's pretty good but not quite as good as No beast So Fierce. Started off well with "Mad Dog" McCain proving just how mad he is by killing his girlfriend brutally with a knife over his use of her credit card and then he kills her daughter as well with a pillow to shut her up when she discovers what he's done. He also proves how stupid he is by killing them right after taking 6 valliums so as soon as he finishes the gruesome acts he collapses in a heap with the little girl's corpse by his side and the mess all around him. When his villain pal later finds the bodies in the freezer by accident even he's disgusted... Strong stuff from Eddie... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 20, 2007 Author Share Posted April 20, 2007 This one drifted along into humdrumsville about halfway through. Bunker definitely has a voice with something to say and with many ways to say it, but he seemed to be spoiled for choice here because his story meandered in too many directions, too many times. There was still lots of interesting possibilities but most of them fizzled out limply, such as the kidnapping of the drug lord's child and demise of "Mad Dog" which was turned into a drab, drawn out, execution in the desert night. The ending scenario was good but again this fizzled out and the final scene resolved nothing and seemed to finish in the middle of the story, as if Bunker had set himself a target of 335 pages, that when reached would see him down pens no matter what. I was a bit distracted while reading this one, but nevertheless the book failed to hook me. Some of the dialogue was a bit cheesey, the characters acted a little too stereotypical at times and so on. It wasn't a bad read, but not that good either... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 20, 2007 Author Share Posted April 20, 2007 http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1035/monstrumnv7.jpg Monstrum is half serial killer thriller, half spy thriller and it's set in a Russia of the future but set in this decade (it was published in 1997). This author is best known perhaps as a TV writer in the 60s and 70s of such programs as Space 1999, The Avengers, UFO, the Protectors, Randall and Hopkirk Diseased and Mission Impossible. This is the only novel I've read by the guy and I remember it being solid in terms of quality. I've totally forgotten the story though (one reason why I selected this one). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadwing2112 Posted April 21, 2007 Share Posted April 21, 2007 Tree, when are you going to start your Stephen King thread again? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 21, 2007 Author Share Posted April 21, 2007 QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Apr 20 2007, 09:02 PM) Tree, when are you going to start your Stephen King thread again? I'll get back to it eventually DW, I've still got all my favourite King ones to come, so I'm looking forward to it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 24, 2007 Author Share Posted April 24, 2007 http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1035/monstrumnv7.jpg I'm enjoying this one, it's a serial killer story but so much more. The main character, Constantin Vadim, the police investigator on the Monstrum case, is actually bogus as he's never worked murders before and got the job because his old "friend" in the secret police is after catching Vadim's revolutionary ex-wife, who's on the run and thinks he can use Vadim to catch her. Vadim is also horrified to be on a high profile murder case when he's supposed to be enjoying a quiet detail, while he prepares for his real job as a double for the Vice President. It has a great sense of place too, feels like Russia, to me anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 28, 2007 Author Share Posted April 28, 2007 Still reading Monstrum and it's good, each chapter leads the reader to another important part of the story, there's no pointless meandering in this book, and then a sudden conclusion. It's a serial killer thriller in a spy thriller inside a story of a possible future of Russia. There's a a layer of humour laid on top of the narrative, that's an interesting counterpoint to the darkness of the main story. I really like the main character, Vadim, and his women, and the murder room cat, V.I. Lenin, he hates it with a passion but he can't get rid of it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share Posted April 29, 2007 (edited) http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1035/monstrumnv7.jpg This had a great finish too and some real shocks along the way as secrets were revealed, a genuinely thrilling read. Recommended. Edited April 29, 2007 by treeduck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 29, 2007 Author Share Posted April 29, 2007 Next up is Jack O'connell's Box Nine. This is the only thing I've read by the guy and I can't remember a thing about it but here's how my copy looks and here's the blurb... "A stunningly original nightmare novel about the impact of a new synthetic drug - Lingo - on the depressed New England factory town of Quinsigamond, where it was secretly developed. Besides offering a potent high, Lingo also delivers a shot to the brain cells governing lingusitic comprehension and verbal skill. Until murderous rages and babbling insanity take over, this mind-expanding feature makes the drug dangerously seductive to the unusually literate cops, scientists and dope dealers competing to find its distribution source. "Written in the cranked up style of Lingo, Box Nine shows a noir vision of a city that has become a virtual war zone between warring multi-ethnic drug cartels. The narrative shifts from one head case to another but never loses sight of Det. Leonore Thomas, an undercover officer addicted to speed, rough sex, heavy metal and the feel of her .357 Magnum. A dark, disturbing book that speaks with a fine fury about the yearning for forbidden knowledge and the language to articulate the mysteries it unlocks." http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3575/box9cy1.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted April 30, 2007 Author Share Posted April 30, 2007 http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/3575/box9cy1.jpg hey this cover has a kind of WORKIN' THEM ANGELS feel... Decent read so far, very interesting stylistically... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-D-RocK- Posted May 4, 2007 Share Posted May 4, 2007 Hmmm......that looks like something I'd be interested in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted May 4, 2007 Author Share Posted May 4, 2007 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now