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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 12, 2017 20:00:46 GMT -5
I'll admit that I was not a fan of Trimpe's work when I was a kid. I think that Sal Buscema was on Incredible Hulk at the time. MMPH!!! Whippersnappers... Trimpe was my Hulk artist, and nobody can ever come near the pedestal that youthful imprinting put him on! Nobody will ever be a truer Hulk artist. Not Buscema, not McFarlane, not Kirby himself... Herb Trimpe smash!!!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2017 20:04:34 GMT -5
I might get that Herb Trimpe book myself, but as always, it would be nice to have a look at it first. Same with Our Gods Wear Spandex: the idea is interesting, but not too sure about how the author will handle it, from the comments here. Still, I'm into that kind of stuff myself enough that I could probably enjoy it even if it isn't all that well-written or thought through. Our Gods Wear Spandex is probably worth checking out for curiosity's sake, but I'd probably recommend seeing of you can get it via a local library or through inter-library loan rather than shelling out money for it unless you find it on the cheap used. It's not likely something that I would ever revisit despite my interest in the ideas explored. A lot of it is just plain shoddy scholarship. -M
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 12, 2017 20:35:16 GMT -5
Picked up a nice 60s copies of Maltese Falcon that I was able to read this week... so often classics don't age well, or seem to pale a bit in comparison to those that follow in the genre, but man, was that even not the case here! Even knowing the story, it was a real joy to read... absolutely fantastic characterization!
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,069
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Post by Confessor on Jul 12, 2017 20:57:43 GMT -5
I figured as much, to be honest, but just wanted to ask. Let me know if you spot anything though. Took another look and the only mention of that book is in the Index of his work at the back of the book. Thanks for looking.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jul 12, 2017 21:01:17 GMT -5
Picked up a nice 60s copies of Maltese Falcon that I was able to read this week... so often classics don't age well, or seem to pale a bit in comparison to those that follow in the genre, but man, was that even not the case here! Even knowing the story, it was a real joy to read... absolutely fantastic characterization! Read it a few years back; great piece of writing. I'm in the midst of The First Saint Omnibus, from Leslie Charteris, with most of the stories from the 30s. Apart from some racial slurs in one story, it's been pretty fun. it's a bit different than I expected, based on watching the Roger Moore series, growing up. The character is less physical and more of a con artist than in the tv show. It's also very witty. I have the George Saunders film collection; but have yet to watch it. I suspect they hew closer to the stories, given his usual style.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 12, 2017 21:21:27 GMT -5
Picked up a nice 60s copies of Maltese Falcon that I was able to read this week... so often classics don't age well, or seem to pale a bit in comparison to those that follow in the genre, but man, was that even not the case here! Even knowing the story, it was a real joy to read... absolutely fantastic characterization! That's a great book and it absolutely does hold up very well. I don't know if you've read Hammett's The Glass Key, but if you haven't, you should. I don't like it as much as The Maltese Falcon. But I think it's a more interesting book. And in its way is every bit as important and influential as The Maltese Falcon.
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Post by berkley on Jul 12, 2017 21:47:37 GMT -5
Picked up a nice 60s copies of Maltese Falcon that I was able to read this week... so often classics don't age well, or seem to pale a bit in comparison to those that follow in the genre, but man, was that even not the case here! Even knowing the story, it was a real joy to read... absolutely fantastic characterization! That's a great book and it absolutely does hold up very well. I don't know if you've read Hammett's The Glass Key, but if you haven't, you should. I don't like it as much as The Maltese Falcon. But I think it's a more interesting book. And in its way is every bit as important and influential as The Maltese Falcon. I think all four of the acknowledged classic Hammetts are indispensable to anyone interested in the genre: Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man. I'm re-reading Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister myself, at the moment, speaking of hard-boiled crime, or whatever you want to call it.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 12, 2017 22:30:43 GMT -5
That's a great book and it absolutely does hold up very well. I don't know if you've read Hammett's The Glass Key, but if you haven't, you should. I don't like it as much as The Maltese Falcon. But I think it's a more interesting book. And in its way is every bit as important and influential as The Maltese Falcon. I think all four of the acknowledged classic Hammetts are indispensable to anyone interested in the genre: Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man. I'm re-reading Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister myself, at the moment, speaking of hard-boiled crime, or whatever you want to call it. The Thin Man was an interesting case. Its tone is completely unlike pretty much anything else that Hammett wrote. The protagonist is kind of anathema to everything that Hammett professed to stand for. It's incredibly well-crafted and endearing, but is light-weight compared to his other novels. Oddly, it probably allowed Hammett to stop writing and basically retire. He worked on stories for the film sequels for very good money and sold the rights to Nick & Nora for what would be close to a million dollars today. From my reading, it seems that while Hammett disliked almost all of his written work, he particularly disliked The Thin Man and really only felt The Glass Key had any merit. I certainly don't agree with him. But I do think that The Thin Man is the odd man out when it comes to Hammett's major works. I like The Little Sister quite a bit. But then I really think the only one of Chandler's Marlowe novels that I found to be weak was The Lady in the Lake. As an FYI Michael Lark did a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Sister in 1997 that is just a thing of beauty. And the cover, as I recall, was by Steranko.
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Post by berkley on Jul 12, 2017 23:29:17 GMT -5
I think all four of the acknowledged classic Hammetts are indispensable to anyone interested in the genre: Red Harvest, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man. I'm re-reading Raymond Chandler's The Little Sister myself, at the moment, speaking of hard-boiled crime, or whatever you want to call it. The Thin Man was an interesting case. Its tone is completely unlike pretty much anything else that Hammett wrote. The protagonist is kind of anathema to everything that Hammett professed to stand for. It's incredibly well-crafted and endearing, but is light-weight compared to his other novels. Oddly, it probably allowed Hammett to stop writing and basically retire. He worked on stories for the film sequels for very good money and sold the rights to Nick & Nora for what would be close to a million dollars today. From my reading, it seems that while Hammett disliked almost all of his written work, he particularly disliked The Thin Man and really only felt The Glass Key had any merit. I certainly don't agree with him. But I do think that The Thin Man is the odd man out when it comes to Hammett's major works. I like The Little Sister quite a bit. But then I really think the only one of Chandler's Marlowe novels that I found to be weak was The Lady in the Lake. As an FYI Michael Lark did a graphic novel adaptation of The Little Sister in 1997 that is just a thing of beauty. And the cover, as I recall, was by Steranko. The Thin Man certainly is different freom the other novels, but not quite as different as the movies would lead one to expect, IMO. Or to put it another way, I think the tone of the movies and especially Nick as a character, is really different from the novel. I liked it, myself, and would never think of leaving it out of the "Big 4". I'll have to look at that Little Sister adaptation. I can see Lark's style working for this kind of thing, but you never know how you'll feel about it until you actually see it with your own eyes. I agree that Lady in the Lake is a bit of an anomaly amongst the Marlowe novels but while it isn't a personal favourite I do think it's one of the most interesting to analyse. I think the reason it doesn't feel like a great Marlowe novel is that he isn't really the focus in this one, though that might not be obvious at first glance because it seems to follow a similar pattern to the others - Marlowe gets a case and starts investigating, etc.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 13, 2017 10:55:16 GMT -5
Pale Mars by Garnett Elliot. The follow up to Red Venus, which I read a few months back, finds our hero Cosmonaut Nadezhda Gura recovered from her adventure on Venus and on Mars to aid an American tourist settlement that has met with mysterious circumstances. Of course things go amiss and Nadezhda finds herself battling for her life against unknown alien forces. I love the concept of these two books. The extension of the Cold War into space. The Space Opera conceits that Mars and Venus are semi-habitable and have (or had) life. And overall they're entertaining. I'm not sure if it helps or hurts that they're novella length. But they just aren't quite what I'd hoped they'd be, especially given how much I loved Elliot's Dragon by the Bay (admittedly an entirely different genre of story). Worth a read if you have Amazon Prime or KindleUnlimited and can read them for free. But not absolute must reads. Dragon by the Bay is a highly recommended read though.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 13, 2017 17:38:00 GMT -5
Picked up a nice 60s copies of Maltese Falcon that I was able to read this week... so often classics don't age well, or seem to pale a bit in comparison to those that follow in the genre, but man, was that even not the case here! Even knowing the story, it was a real joy to read... absolutely fantastic characterization! That's a great book and it absolutely does hold up very well. I don't know if you've read Hammett's The Glass Key, but if you haven't, you should. I don't like it as much as The Maltese Falcon. But I think it's a more interesting book. And in its way is every bit as important and influential as The Maltese Falcon. I haven't read any of the others, but I certainly am going to at some point... I was very impressed.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 15, 2017 11:43:33 GMT -5
Third Galaxy Reader edited by HL Gold c. 1960 This short story collection is a veritable who's who of early sci-fi.. Asimov, Davidson, Simak, Pohl, Del Rey and several others. Somewhat unlike the future volume I have, this one really focused on shorter stories...it's 233 pages contain 15 different ones, as the cover says. It contains a couple real classics that I've read else where.. Limiting Factor by Theodore Cogswell, and Game of Cat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith, which is a believe in the Sci Fi Hall of Fame collection. Of those I hadn't seen before, most were near future/first contact type stories, but with a wide variety of themes... from dentists saving us from alien invasion to playing chess with the aliens... definitely an excellent collection. My favorite, though was Volpla by Wyman Guin... its the first I've read from him, and it was very interesting. The main character is expirementing with evolution, and manages to create a race of flying, intelligent mammals, in the hopes of getting them into the wild without anyone knowing and passing them off as aliens. The bits that don't go as planned are very logical and thought provoking... great stuff! One of these days I really should hunt down some actual Galaxy magazines... I suspect it would be well worth the effort!
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Post by berkley on Jul 17, 2017 23:52:41 GMT -5
Third Galaxy Reader edited by HL Gold c. 1960 This short story collection is a veritable who's who of early sci-fi.. Asimov, Davidson, Simak, Pohl, Del Rey and several others. Somewhat unlike the future volume I have, this one really focused on shorter stories...it's 233 pages contain 15 different ones, as the cover says. It contains a couple real classics that I've read else where.. Limiting Factor by Theodore Cogswell, and Game of Cat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith, which is a believe in the Sci Fi Hall of Fame collection. Of those I hadn't seen before, most were near future/first contact type stories, but with a wide variety of themes... from dentists saving us from alien invasion to playing chess with the aliens... definitely an excellent collection. My favorite, though was Volpla by Wyman Guin... its the first I've read from him, and it was very interesting. The main character is expirementing with evolution, and manages to create a race of flying, intelligent mammals, in the hopes of getting them into the wild without anyone knowing and passing them off as aliens. The bits that don't go as planned are very logical and thought provoking... great stuff! One of these days I really should hunt down some actual Galaxy magazines... I suspect it would be well worth the effort! In case you didn't see Slam_Bradley's post in the SF recommendations thread, archive.org now has all the Galaxy issues available on their site.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 19, 2017 15:00:46 GMT -5
The Devil Met a Lady by Stuart Kaminsky Hollywood's favorite P.I. is back, this time trying to protect Bette Davis from blackmail, kidnapping and espionage. All the Toby Peters novels are enjoyable fluff, but this one is a bit more of a mixed bag than most. Toby seems particularly inept in this one. Kaminsky plays very fast and loose with Davis' husband from the early 40s, Arthur Farnsworth (which may not have mattered as much pre-internet when looking that kind of stuff up was much harder). And there's a major dearth of most of his supporting cast (though plenty of Mrs. Plautz). On the other hand there was a very sweet piece at the end with Toby and his sister-in-law Ruth. Nothing special. But always worth a read.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 19, 2017 18:02:26 GMT -5
That's one of the ones I read! I definitely enjoyed it. Breed to Come Andre Norton c. 1972 My copy a mid-80s one with a massively cheesy cover: So what happens when humans wipe themselves out? The cats take over, of course! I think I've decided I just don't like Andre Norton that much. There's nothing particularly bad about the book.. it's a pretty basic post-apocalypse story, where Cats (The People), Dogs (Barkers), Pigs (Tusked Ones) and Rats (Rattons) mutate enough to have intelligence, and trying to figure out why the Demons (Us) left, and protect themselves in case they come back. Meanwhile, the remnants of man found a place in space, but they messed that up, too, so they had to try to recover their secret records of Earth and go back to see what went wrong. I think the thing is there's just nothing particularly unique or interesting about the story... it's pretty standard 'tribal society tries to adjust to new tech' stuff.. the gimmick they the are cat people just doesn't really do much to add flavor. I suppose if one really, really likes cats it might, but otherwise, it's a pretty bland story.... kinda reminded me of the 'Warriors' YA books a little bit.
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