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Post by Calamas on Feb 26, 2016 10:25:01 GMT -5
. . . Myself, I just finished a crime novel I think a few people here would enjoy, though it's a very odd one: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by "Cameron McCabe" - quotes because this was a pseudonym. The real author was a young German immigrant to the UK in the 30s - he was a socialist and had to get away from the Nazis. It's one of those things you don't want to say too much about because it's better the reader discover it him or herself, but it gets a high recommendation from me. I’ve heard of this book before. I’m a slow reader so I may spend more time reading about the genre I love than actually knocking off books, and this is one that stuck in my mind in some vague way. It is almost certain the unique title. I seem to remember this being a fairly rare book. What copy did you find and about what did it cost, if you don’t mind discussing. Thanks.
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Post by berkley on Feb 26, 2016 12:33:52 GMT -5
. . . Myself, I just finished a crime novel I think a few people here would enjoy, though it's a very odd one: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by "Cameron McCabe" - quotes because this was a pseudonym. The real author was a young German immigrant to the UK in the 30s - he was a socialist and had to get away from the Nazis. It's one of those things you don't want to say too much about because it's better the reader discover it him or herself, but it gets a high recommendation from me. I’ve heard of this book before. I’m a slow reader so I may spend more time reading about the genre I love than actually knocking off books, and this is one that stuck in my mind in some vague way. It is almost certain the unique title. I seem to remember this being a fairly rare book. What copy did you find and about what did it cost, if you don’t mind discussing. Thanks. I got a Penguin edition with a stupid-looking photograph on the cover. If I were you I'd look for the classic green Penguin if you can find it: I must have bought mine from abebooks and wouldn't have paid more than $10 for it including shipping.
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Post by Calamas on Feb 27, 2016 12:50:09 GMT -5
Thanks, berk. I don’t know why I remembered it as a fairly rare book. And you are right. Later in the day I went by BookFinder and discovered much the same thing for myself. I’ll add Cutting-Room Floor to the next batch I order. BTW, for those not familiar with BookFinder, I consider it helpful resource: BookFinders
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Feb 27, 2016 12:56:31 GMT -5
Thuglit 21 ed. by Todd Robinson The most recent volume of the neo-noir e-magazine is one of the best I've read so far. Nice cross-section of stories and all are very readable. I have to commend Todd Robinson for keeping this project afloat and always providing a quality read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 2, 2016 12:16:18 GMT -5
I apologize if I've asked you before, Slam, but does that Thug Lit every get printed?
Today's book:
Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz
Horowitz can be a great writer (Foyle's War), but I didn't love his Holmes stuff... turns out I don't love his James Bond either. Despite being written from notes by Ian Fleming (for a TV episode that never happened and didn't get adapted into a movie), it just wasn't that great. The Bond girl of the story, Jeopardy Lane, was WAY more competent than Bond himself, who read more like Stan Smith than 007. The plot was sort of a sequel to Goldfinger, with SMERSH as the bad guys.. the plot was firmly cold war era, which was done well. It didn't quite feel right, though. It should have, as having Bond enter a Grand Prix to stop an assassination seems perfect, but having him train for it for weeks didn't. The bad guy, Jason Sin, used a deck of cards to determine how to kill people, was right in line, but having a tragic backstory didn't. Then there's the fact that the women totally outfoxed him at every turn, both Pussy Galore (who he is living with at the start of the story) to his race car trainer (who turns Pussy to the other team rather than hook up with Bond) to Jeopardy, Bond was a semi-competent cad for most of the story, rather than his cool movie persona. I know that is probably more in line with the actual novels, but it was too much here.
I think it would have been a better story without Bond, honestly.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 2, 2016 20:35:35 GMT -5
I apologize if I've asked you before, Slam, but does that Thug Lit every get printed? It looks like you can get them through Amazon as a Print-on-Demand. I have no idea what they look like as I've only ever read them as e-pubs.
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2016 20:58:05 GMT -5
I apologize if I've asked you before, Slam, but does that Thug Lit every get printed? Today's book: Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz Horowitz can be a great writer (Foyle's War), but I didn't love his Holmes stuff... turns out I don't love his James Bond either. Despite being written from notes by Ian Fleming (for a TV episode that never happened and didn't get adapted into a movie), it just wasn't that great. The Bond girl of the story, Jeopardy Lane, was WAY more competent than Bond himself, who read more like Stan Smith than 007. The plot was sort of a sequel to Goldfinger, with SMERSH as the bad guys.. the plot was firmly cold war era, which was done well. It didn't quite feel right, though. It should have, as having Bond enter a Grand Prix to stop an assassination seems perfect, but having him train for it for weeks didn't. The bad guy, Jason Sin, used a deck of cards to determine how to kill people, was right in line, but having a tragic backstory didn't. Then there's the fact that the women totally outfoxed him at every turn, both Pussy Galore (who he is living with at the start of the story) to his race car trainer (who turns Pussy to the other team rather than hook up with Bond) to Jeopardy, Bond was a semi-competent cad for most of the story, rather than his cool movie persona. I know that is probably more in line with the actual novels, but it was too much here. I think it would have been a better story without Bond, honestly. Have you read the Fleming books at all? Give them a try, if you haven't. Though he isn't the superman of the movies, he is more than competent at his profession.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 2, 2016 22:25:01 GMT -5
I have read a couple... I was aware of the difference between the near Superhero movie version and the original. I can see he was trying to write the book version, but he tried too hard and went too far, IMO.
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2016 22:36:57 GMT -5
I have read a couple... I was aware of the difference between the near Superhero movie version and the original. I can see he was trying to write the book version, but he tried too hard and went too far, IMO. Yeah, I can see that. I hadn't been planning to read it anyway. I might try the William Boyd one, or the Sebastian Faulks. It's interesting that they sometimes get these "serious", literary novelists to write Bond, can't think of any other franchise where that's the case.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 3, 2016 12:23:50 GMT -5
I apologize if I've asked you before, Slam, but does that Thug Lit every get printed? Today's book: Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz Horowitz can be a great writer (Foyle's War), but I didn't love his Holmes stuff... I found both Horowitz Holmes books pretty dull and formulaic. I figured out both mysteries less than halfway in and kept reading hoping I'd be shown up. Theyy read like movies, if you know what I mean. Just a series of set-pieces. Maybe if you don't know Holmes, you'd find them entertaining, but who else would read these books except Homes aficionados?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 3, 2016 12:44:04 GMT -5
Actually, the marketing there is definitely NOT fans of Arthur Conan Doyle, but rather 'modern' fans of the 'new' Holmes (as played by Benedict Cumberbach in Sherlock)... perhaps to a lesser extent the modern 'Elementary' version. My 15 year old daughter really enjoyed Horowitz's book, for instance, while I share your opinion.
Foyle's War is a brilliant series, but I don't know exactly how much creative input Horowitz really had in it... I'm starting to wonder if either a) he was more the scripter than the creator or b) he's just a 1-trick pony.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2016 12:46:07 GMT -5
Finished Philip Roth's The Plot Against America a couple of days ago. I guess watching Amazon's Man in the High Castle Season 1 last month left me in a real mood for Nazis-victorious alternative histories (I've got another one, William Overgard's The Divide, on order via AbeBooks even as I type), & this was a solid one, at least through the first 300 pages or so. The final 60 pages or thereabouts are awfully rushed & condensed; it's as if Roth realized toward the end that if he kept things moving at the same pace he'd been following to that point, he'd be writing another 10 years at the very least.
Roth is highly thought of, I know, but I think this is the first thing of his I've read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 3, 2016 12:46:27 GMT -5
I never thought about it before, but now that wildfire2009 mentioned Robert E. Howard, The Mucker does seem more like a book REH might have written rather than ERB. I wonder what Howard thought of it, if he ever read it. The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance - I wonder if Kaminsky was thinking of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence when he came up with that title. The cover bugs me a little - I can see what they were going for and I approve, but the execution isn't quite there, for me. I find this with a lot of the covers from this publisher, forget their name now. Myself, I just finished a crime novel I think a few people here would enjoy, though it's a very odd one: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by "Cameron McCabe" - quotes because this was a pseudonym. The real author was a young German immigrant to the UK in the 30s - he was a socialist and had to get away from the Nazis. It's one of those things you don't want to say too much about because it's better the reader discover it him or herself, but it gets a high recommendation from me. That's actually a really interesting question... did REH and ERB know each other? While Howard was younger and died so young, there were contemporaries... did Burroughs consider him a young annoying upstart? There's gotta be some letters/articles or something about that somewhere!
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 3, 2016 13:03:20 GMT -5
I never thought about it before, but now that wildfire2009 mentioned Robert E. Howard, The Mucker does seem more like a book REH might have written rather than ERB. I wonder what Howard thought of it, if he ever read it. The Man Who Shot Lewis Vance - I wonder if Kaminsky was thinking of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence when he came up with that title. The cover bugs me a little - I can see what they were going for and I approve, but the execution isn't quite there, for me. I find this with a lot of the covers from this publisher, forget their name now. Myself, I just finished a crime novel I think a few people here would enjoy, though it's a very odd one: The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor by "Cameron McCabe" - quotes because this was a pseudonym. The real author was a young German immigrant to the UK in the 30s - he was a socialist and had to get away from the Nazis. It's one of those things you don't want to say too much about because it's better the reader discover it him or herself, but it gets a high recommendation from me. That's actually a really interesting question... did REH and ERB know each other? While Howard was younger and died so young, there were contemporaries... did Burroughs consider him a young annoying upstart? There's gotta be some letters/articles or something about that somewhere! Though I haven't read all of Howard's correspondence by any means (I'm not aware that Burroughs' has ever been published) I'm not aware that the two ever corresponded. By the time that Howard started publishing regularly Burroughs was one of the top writers in the field. And they didn't publish in the same magazines. I have no doubt that REH knew of ERB and his work. I'm not so sure the reverse was true.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 3, 2016 20:44:01 GMT -5
I figured something like that, though it would also make sense that Burroughs, as a (or perhaps THE) pre-eminent author in the field, would keep an eye on young talent. I was picturing more like someone asking Burroughs what he thought of Howard in an interview or something of that nature.
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