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Post by Prince Hal on Jul 18, 2014 9:25:43 GMT -5
I have a question for anyone who cares to respond: what are the essential western novels? I liked western movies and tv shows as a kid, and even though I've lost my taste for the genre to a large extent, I still like what I think are the better movies - e.g. Sergio Leone. I also have read somewhere recently that western dime-novels were an important influence on the American hard-boiled stories that began to appear in pulp magazines in the 1920s. So all of that makes me want to read a few one of these days. Where should I start - Zane Grey? I saw a Louis Lamour paperback, Hondo, in a used bookstore today, but I noticed it was published in the 50s, so probably not one of the seminal books of the genre. Berk, I can't comment on Zane Grey or Louis L'Amour pasta saying that the few movies I've seen based on them have been enjoyable, if not memorable. However, I would suggest that you read and then watch Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove. Do NOT, repeat, do NOT bother with the prequels and sequels. They do not exist. They are the Indiana Jones 4 of the Lonesome Dove universe. Lonesome Dove is lyrical, elegiac, thoughtful, populated with dozens of unforgettable characters and liberally sprinkled with scores of memorable lines, a novel that manages to be both mythical and naturalistic at the same time. McMurtry drew on the lives of several real characters, like Bose Ikard, an African-American cowboy, and Charles Goodnight, of Goodnight-Loving cattle trail fame, to weave a classic novel about a cattle drive undertaken for the sake of adventure in the twilight of the Old West. Augustus McRae and Woodrow Call, the protagonists, and Blue Duck, the main antagonist, will become as indelibly etched in your imagination as Huck Finn, Captain Ahab, and Magua, whose literary genes seem to have settled into each respectively. Though I'm not a McMurtry junkie by any means, I know he is celebrated for his ability to create believable, human female characters, and Clara Allen and Lorena Wood are perfect examples. One of the greatest reading adventures of my life. Then settle in for as fine a movie adaptation as there has been of a novel, the 6-hour mini-series that respected its source like no other such version I've ever seen. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2014 9:30:44 GMT -5
 The Best Of John Sladek-1981 1st Printing
Artist UnknownOne of many books from my lost collection that I really miss. Sladek I've always found very, very enjoyable; I've read, offhand, probably a half-dozen of his novels, including his non-sf collaboration (as Thom Demijohn) with Tom Disch, Black Alice, as well as what I assume is a pretty good sampling of his short fiction. Oddly enough, the first thing of his I ever read, probably several years before I discovered his sf, was the nonfiction New Apocrypha. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 18, 2014 17:53:19 GMT -5
I've never read Sladek but I do have a copy of The Reproductive System around here somewhere - is that one of his better novels? I like the idea of the parodies. I have a question for anyone who cares to respond: what are the essential western novels? I liked western movies and tv shows as a kid, and even though I've lost my taste for the genre to a large extent, I still like what I think are the better movies - e.g. Sergio Leone. I also have read somewhere recently that western dime-novels were an important influence on the American hard-boiled stories that began to appear in pulp magazines in the 1920s. So all of that makes me want to read a few one of these days. Where should I start - Zane Grey? I saw a Louis Lamour paperback, Hondo, in a used bookstore today, but I noticed it was published in the 50s, so probably not one of the seminal books of the genre. Elmore Leonard. Before he moved to crime novels Leonard was one of the best writers of westerns alive. If you can find it The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard gets my highest possible recommendations. It's all of his western short stories in one volume. It includes 3:10 to Yuma, and a number of other stories on which western movies were based. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 19, 2014 20:30:00 GMT -5
A lot of the classic Western genre tropes first came together in Owen Wister's novel The Virginian. That novel and several by Zane Grey were the foundational works of the Western genre.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 21, 2014 11:25:43 GMT -5
The Time Tunnel-Murray Leinster (1966)
1st Printing Cover Art Unknown
The fall 1966 TV season brought to the screen a favorite SF series of mine, ABC's Time Tunnel on Friday evenings.Two scientists Tony and Doug, are accidentally trapped by the Time Tunnels penchant of hurling them each week into a different time and place for an adventure.The scientists at present day Time Tunnel headquarters can observe and hear, and sometimes speak, to them but keep failing to return them home.Of course,their weekly journeys are usually during an historically significant moment. The pilot episode had them arrive on the Titanic hours before striking the iceberg.And try they may,they always seem unable to change history. Ratings for the season were somewhat decent but the hour-long show was not cheap.ABC said the 2nd season would have to have a 33% reduced budget.Irwin Allen,the producer refused,and the Time Tunnel was gone with no resolution to Tony and Doug's plight.The show Custer,took it's place and bombed significantly
Murray Leinster was one of the few SF writers to sucessfully continue from the early 1930s into the 1960s.A Hugo award winner he had written a 1964 novel named The Time Tunnel.Thats a different and unrelated book.This is based on the TV series. It goes into a little more detail behind the project and alot more detail in the conundrums and paradoxes of the project.Its an original story dealing with destination not seen on the TV show
The novel has Tony and Doug land in 3 different eras:
The Johnston Flood-1889 Johnston,PA
The 2nd Battle of Adobe Walls-1874 Texas
Alien Incursion-Sometime in the future
Leinster thoroughly researched the historical events.My quick wiki lookups match the details Leinster wrote up.I found it a fun read,nostalgic for re-visiting some favorite TV characters.Leinster knows his SF,however in this book,he repeats things many times as if the reader is only paging through 1 chapter a week.Maybe its a habit from his old pulp days when he was paid by the word. There was a 2nd novelization Leinster wrote as well
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Post by berkley on Jul 21, 2014 16:56:35 GMT -5
I can just barely remember watching the Time Tunnel tv show, but no details.
Thanks to everyone for the Western suggestions. Looks like Zane Grey (Riders of the Purple Sage?), and Owen Wister's The Virginian are the ones I'll try first, saving Elmore Leonard and the others until later.
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Post by Jesse on Jul 22, 2014 1:10:14 GMT -5
Pebble In The Skyby Isaac Asimov  Considered part of the Galactic Empire series which I have not read more of. Literally between footsteps Joseph Schwartz, a retired suburban tailor from Chicago finds himself thrown tens of thousands of years into the future. Asimov very effectively uses the fish-out-of-water trope to introduce the reader to a future where Earth is mostly radioactive, the galaxy is ruled by an Empire and Earthmen are looked down upon by the rest of the galaxy. He also introduces us to a rich cast of characters and makes some interesting comments on xenophobia. This also marks one of the occasions where he references Trantor outside of the the Foundation series.
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Post by Rob Allen on Jul 22, 2014 14:47:10 GMT -5
The novel has Tony and Doug land in 3 different eras: The Johnston Flood-1889 Johnston,PA The 2nd Battle of Adobe Walls-1874 Texas In my recently-acquired Kid Eternity story from 1949 (see the "what have you read recently" thread), the Kid summons Billy Dixon, who he describes as "the hero of the Adobe Walls fight of 1874". I got thru 57 years of my life without hearing of this battle, and now it's come up twice in a month. Also, I watched Time Tunnel every week; it was one of my favorite shows that year. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 22, 2014 14:56:59 GMT -5
The novel has Tony and Doug land in 3 different eras: The Johnston Flood-1889 Johnston,PA The 2nd Battle of Adobe Walls-1874 Texas In my recently-acquired Kid Eternity story from 1949 (see the "what have you read recently" thread), the Kid summons Billy Dixon, who he describes as "the hero of the Adobe Walls fight of 1874". I got thru 57 years of my life without hearing of this battle, and now it's come up twice in a month. Also, I watched Time Tunnel every week; it was one of my favorite shows that year. I too have never heard of the battle in 60 years of life on earth.But that portion of the novel as well as my looking up the subject proved interestingly rewarding.Billy Dixon's name was mentioned in the novel too |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2014 15:15:27 GMT -5
Also, I watched Time Tunnel every week; it was one of my favorite shows that year. I remember it fondly as well, though somewhat dimly (it aired when I was in the 2nd grade). |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 22, 2014 22:55:51 GMT -5
Island on the Sea of Time
By. S.M. Stirling
I'd had this one for a while... I was sorta saving it for this last trip I just came back from. For those that don't know, it's a 'modern people get sucked back in time' type alternate history. In this case, Nantucket gets sucked into the bronze age.
It was pretty good.. reminded me alot of Eric Flint's 1632 series. As is the case there, there are few awfully nice coincidences. I do like that the inevitable guy goes rogue, it's alot more logical and believable than in 1632, though the characters are a bit cookie cutter. It is kinda cool to see a black female lesbian as a main character, which was neat, and there's a bit with some Green people that is really a pretty poignant statement.
I know Stirling is pretty political in general, but other than that, it was pretty straight (alot less so that the companion series sounds). I'll definitely read these ones, anyway (sounds like the next one has the Trojans in it).
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 22, 2014 23:03:38 GMT -5
Hey Wildfire-Think you missed the Best Of John Sladek on your overview post
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 23, 2014 5:57:12 GMT -5
Hey Wildfire-Think you missed the Best Of John Sladek on your overview post All set  |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 23, 2014 12:21:01 GMT -5
Wow...been a while. By Bizarre Hands by Joe Lansdale. Another collection of Lansdale's short stories. I'd read maybe a third of them fairly recently, so I skipped them. But a very good read. Lansdale was great in short work and there is a nice diversity of theme and genre. Night of the Hunter by Davis Grubb. Grubb is pretty much only remembered for this novel and then really only because of the film noir that was made from it. I was probably spoiled by the film. It's an okay book, but it never has the feeling of menace that Laughton and Mitchum brought to the film.  Jagganath by Karin Tidbeck I had never heard of the author or the book but it keep coming up as recommended based on some other things I've been reading. The author is a young Swedish lady and the stories are set in Scandinavia and have a very Scandinavian feel to them. The vast majority are fantasy...more of the modern/urban variety (though not really urban) rather than the High variety. It evokes a Scandinavian Neil Gaiman or Howard Waldrop. Highly recommended. |
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Post by Calamas on Jul 23, 2014 17:39:56 GMT -5
By Bizarre Hands by Joe Lansdale. Another collection of Lansdale's short stories. I'd read maybe a third of them fairly recently, so I skipped them. But a very good read. Lansdale was great in short work and there is a nice diversity of theme and genre. I’ve only read his Hap and Leonard novels. If you’re familiar his other work, what recommendations can you make? |
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