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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 27, 2024 12:47:39 GMT -5
 Essex Dogs by Dan Jones
Historian Dan Jones' first historical novel follows the adventures of a mercenary company, The Essex Dogs, from Edward III's landing in Normandy through the Battle of Crecy. The focus here is on this small band and their attempts to survive and to attain their personal goals for the fight, getting paid when their time is up and looting the French cities and people to supplement that expected payment. As you could expect from Jones, who has written extensively about the Middle Ages, the history is spot on. And he forgoes the glamorization of war to show a truer picture of what warfare was like at the time, particularly for those who were not of a privileged class. Overall a very solid historical novel. If there are any problems, it does drag a bit in places and the characters aren't as fully developed as one might like. But it's still well worth a read. I just checked and our local library has a copy of this, so I put in a request. Wasn't aware of this book or author before you posted. Thanks. -M I’ve read a couple of his straight history books and have one or two in the hopper. He also does a lot of presentation work in British documentaries. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 27, 2024 20:39:18 GMT -5
That sounds really interesting! Definitely going on the list!
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 27, 2024 20:47:29 GMT -5
Reread The Servants of Bit-Yakin (which I still think of as The Jewels of Gwalhur) last night as part of my CimmerianSeptember journey. I don't think I will get to all of the Howard Conan stories by the end of September (I have 4 left, but not much reading time today or tomorrow, so likely that my read through spills into October.
-M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 27, 2024 21:29:57 GMT -5
Future Imperfect
by James E. Gunn
I hadn't read any old school sci fi short stories for it bit, so it was time. James Gunn is one of those people who you don't really know who they are until you look them up, and then you find out they are everywhere. To my knowledge, I'd never read anything of his before.
All these stories were written in the mid 50s, and you can tell.. Most of them are pretty dated, and a bit cringy as far as gender roles go.
There were 2 stories I liked.. 'Every Day is Christmas' was a fun one about consumerism gone amok... I liked the REASON it happened alot (turning advertising into science instead of art... sounds familiar, right?), but the very short period of time it took place it (3 years) was silly.
The other, by far the best of the bunch, was 'survival policy'.. a story about an insurance agent and a woman who asked to take out a policy on the survival of her race. I would totally read more stories about Malachi Jones.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 27, 2024 21:42:34 GMT -5
Future Imperfect by James E. Gunn I think that Gunn was ultimately better know for his writing about SF and his “The Road to Science Fiction” anthology series than his actual fiction. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 27, 2024 21:54:20 GMT -5
yeah I think so too... when I went to do the review on good read it said he had 267 books... and quite a few were reviews/history of sci fi stuff... I had seen the Road to Science Fiction' before but didn't know the author's name.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Sept 30, 2024 0:25:47 GMT -5
Continuing Cimmerian September with a reread of Beyond the Back River and of REH's letter to P. Schuyler regarding his and Dr. Clark's map and chronology of Conan's career. That's 18 of 21 of Howard's Conan stories read this month.
-M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Sept 30, 2024 7:03:45 GMT -5
Murder dives the Bahamas
Bonnie J. Cardone
We had bought this for my daughter to read when she was going on a trip to the Bahamas to read on the plane... it's been sticking out on my to read shelf because if its unusual size so I decided to give it a shot.
The author was far to focused on what the main character had to eat for my liking.. it seems half the book was describing meals. The mystery itself was OK, a bit of a locked room (in this case, a boat), but there were really only ever a couple suspects, and the resolution was a bit disappointing.
Quite a few of the characters had big, abrupt turns in personality when the situation warranted, like a big blinking sign that said 'here is the bad guy'. The main character had a bit of a love triangle going on as well, but it never really went anywhere. It turned out her current boyfriend was upset about an unrelated issue and I guess was just taking it out on her.
Not the worst book ever (it turned the pages for sure) but nothing to write home about either.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 30, 2024 10:42:06 GMT -5
 Fletch's Moxie by Gregory McDonald
I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that maybe McDonald shot his wad on the first two Fletch novels and the first Flynn novel and then just decided to coast. Because nothing since those three has been better than okay. And that's were this one landed...it was okay. Nothing exciting. Nothing terribly funny or interesting. Just an average, generally unoffending crime novel. But those three books were quite good and that makes the later ones pale by comparison. In this one Fletch has been called to Florida where on again-off again girlfriend Moxie Mooney is filming a movie. Almost at his arrival a quasi locked door murder occurs on set and Fletch spirits Moxie (along with her famous actor/drunkard father) away to Key West as she is a prime suspect. But the house they occupy soon has most of the rest of the suspects there and thus begin the shenanigans. The resolution comes somewhat out of left field (though a couple of things do foreshadow it). The introduction of a heroin smuggling subplot doesn't really help all that much and seems kind of tacked on to seem relevant to the time. The ending is unfulfilling. This isn't bad, like "The Buck Passes Flynn." It's readable. And I don't feel bad about the short time spent with it. But it's also just kind of there. I'll give Fletch and Flynn one more chance. But I'm thinking that McDonald caught lightning for a few books and then just decided to phone it in. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 1, 2024 15:14:08 GMT -5
 The Moon in the Gutter by David Goodis
I'm still cogitating on this so maybe eventually I'll decide I like it more. But probably not. Kerrigan is a stevedore who works the docks and lives in the slums of Vernon Street. His sister killed herself a year following a rape and Kerrigan can't get over it. It all seems like a set-up for a classic noir. And Goodis is capable of giving us that. But he doesn't. Kerrigan even gets mixed up with an uptown girl whose brother (and her for that matter) make a habit of slumming in a dive bar on Vernon Street. The bar is populated by the disaffected, but rather than making anything much of them, they're largely caricatures. This really all atmosphere and no pay-off. If it has any real redeeming value it is definitely atmospheric. And it's a quick read. I busted it out in three evenings. I don't feel bad about reading it. But it really struggles to even reach the level of okay. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 2, 2024 12:07:25 GMT -5
Quest of the Dark Lady Quinn Reade (Ben Hass)  This is one of those books were the cover is the best part.... I don't think it's actually Frazetta, but definitely someone doing a decent impression. The story is a straight up adolescent power fantasy, set in a post nuclear holocaust society where there are lots of mutated monsters for the hero to fight. The 'good guys' have to go on a quest to find the Dark Lady, who is the greatest magic user in the world, as long as she's married to the king, but they want her married to THEIR king, instead of the evil one she's currently with. Modern readers will definitely cringe a bit.. it's not as bad as, say the Gor books, but it's in the neighborhood as far as the 'women are only for one thing' goes, but at least the one that is one of the main character can handle a sword in a fight and isn't a damsel in distress. I haven't read on of these for a bit so it was a perfectly good quick read between other, better things. This is the author's only sci-fi/fantasy work under this pen name (used only this once). He seems to have been a fairly prolific (but not very popular) writer of period fiction, westerns and other stuff under a variety of names.
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Post by berkley on Oct 2, 2024 13:26:17 GMT -5
Quest of the Dark Lady Quinn Reade (Ben Hass) This is one of those books were the cover is the best part.... I don't think it's actually Frazetta, but definitely someone doing a decent impression. The story is a straight up adolescent power fantasy, set in a post nuclear holocaust society where there are lots of mutated monsters for the hero to fight. The 'good guys' have to go on a quest to find the Dark Lady, who is the greatest magic user in the world, as long as she's married to the king, but they want her married to THEIR king, instead of the evil one she's currently with. Modern readers will definitely cringe a bit.. it's not as bad as, say the Gor books, but it's in the neighborhood as far as the 'women are only for one thing' goes, but at least the one that is one of the main character can handle a sword in a fight and isn't a damsel in distress. I haven't read on of these for a bit so it was a perfectly good quick read between other, better things. This is the author's only sci-fi/fantasy work under this pen name (used only this once). He seems to have been a fairly prolific (but not very popular) writer of period fiction, westerns and other stuff under a variety of names.
Is it Jeff Jones, the artist? Hard to tell at this size but it looks a bit like his style.
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Oct 2, 2024 13:27:52 GMT -5
Cimmerian September has bled into the first days of October as I finish up the 21 original Howard Conan stories. Reread The Black Stranger (or The Treasure of Trancios as it was titled when I first encountered it) and The Man-Eaters of Zamboula. That's 20 out of 21 down, with only Red Nails left.
Treasure of Trancios was the first Howard penned Conan story I ever read. I discovered a copy of the illustrated version of the novel (Maroto art) on a sinner rack in a grocery store in Vermont when we were visiting family on summer vacation the summer after 8th grade. I had read some of the color Conan comics and had the Conan Mego as a kid, and had inherited some of my cousin's Conan paperbacks at the beginning of summer (none of the original Howard stories, but the series by de Camp/Carter/Wagner et. al that had Conan the Swordman, The Road of Kings, Conan and the Spider-God etc.) but hadn't gotten to them yet, but I was out of reading material I had brought with me on vacation, so dove right into Trancios, finishing it before we left to go home. When we got back, I started in on that pile of Conan books I got form my cousin and started buying the Ace/Lancer series (interspersed with getting new Dr. Who books) whenever we went to the shopping center that had a bookstore, Bradlees and Stop & Shop-and a hobby shop where I was getting my D&D stuff). So Trancios was my gateway into Conan prose.
-M
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Post by MRPs_Missives on Oct 2, 2024 13:29:46 GMT -5
Quest of the Dark Lady Quinn Reade (Ben Hass) This is one of those books were the cover is the best part.... I don't think it's actually Frazetta, but definitely someone doing a decent impression. The story is a straight up adolescent power fantasy, set in a post nuclear holocaust society where there are lots of mutated monsters for the hero to fight. The 'good guys' have to go on a quest to find the Dark Lady, who is the greatest magic user in the world, as long as she's married to the king, but they want her married to THEIR king, instead of the evil one she's currently with. Modern readers will definitely cringe a bit.. it's not as bad as, say the Gor books, but it's in the neighborhood as far as the 'women are only for one thing' goes, but at least the one that is one of the main character can handle a sword in a fight and isn't a damsel in distress. I haven't read on of these for a bit so it was a perfectly good quick read between other, better things. This is the author's only sci-fi/fantasy work under this pen name (used only this once). He seems to have been a fairly prolific (but not very popular) writer of period fiction, westerns and other stuff under a variety of names. Is it Jeff Jones, the artist? Hard to tell at this size but it looks a bit like his style.
Yes, it's a Jeff Jones cover. -M |
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Post by berkley on Oct 2, 2024 14:34:26 GMT -5
Is it Jeff Jones, the artist? Hard to tell at this size but it looks a bit like his style.
Yes, it's a Jeff Jones cover. -M I almost think I might have seen it used for a different book, but that could just be my imagination or perhaps Jones painted something similar for another paperback. |
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