Just finished re-reading John Douglas's book called Journey Into Darkness. Not ideal bed-time reading it has to be said, due to the subject / content matter and the pretty powerful & gut-wrenching insight you gain in to the sadistic minds & workings of some of the most evil people. I've previously read another of his books, Mindhunter, which gave more of an insight in to himself as a person, as well as the scientific nature of his very disturbing work.
A very good read it has to be said and I'd definitely recommend it if you're interested in this type of thing, but it most certainly won't be for everyone that's for sure. If you get chance I'd strongly recommend looking up this chap, as he's an incredibly fascinating profiler who has worked on some of the most famous criminal cases known.
You'll know this as the Roman Polanski film with Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams.
It's a gripping yarn about a charismatic former British PM who engaged with the war on terror and is now a pariah with many in England, his wife seems to have been with him from the start of his political career and is held to be more intelligent, but passed over her seat in favour of him. It's not meant to remind you of Tony and Cherie Blair, it is Tony and Cherie Blair. But it feels a bit of a cheat in literary terms because Harris doesn't even bother to describe Adam Lang (as he is renamed) perhaps hoping you'll just project Blair's features onto him. That said, Pierce does seem well cast for the role, if a bit too old.
The idea is that a hack ghost writer is invited to help finish Lang's memoirs, the previous ghost writer died in not yet mysterious circumstances. Now this book is 300 pages long and I finished it in 3-4 days so it's a gripping read, especially descriptions of a chilly, remote Martha's Vineyard in winter, where Lang is holed up away from the world, with its memories of Chappaquiddick or however you spell it. A bit of it puts you in mind of OHMSS, where Bond is holed up in Piz Gloria and meant to be researching the Count, ostensibly to help him concentrate but also to cut him off from the outside world and make him dependent.
Actually, stunt casting or not, Daniel Craig would have been a good pick for the role of the hack writer, especially if he was in his Enduring Love mode. The book is a great airport read, in spite of a few plot holes or things that don't quite seem to add up.
To rebalance the filth of Lady Rose, I have started on Robert Louis Stephenson's Treasure Island, which isn't the same unless you have a pirate fetish. It's a kid's book from Dickens' time, and about 50 pages in we're still on terra firma. Slow build-up, but some suspense.
Mind you, I bet 50 Shades of Grey has an "Oooh.... argh!" in it somewhere! )
Mind you, I bet 50 Shades of Grey has an "Oooh.... argh!" in it somewhere! )
Lol ) .... It sure does Naps ....
I'm going down a different route now and going to try Philippa Gregory ... Historical drama with witchcraft and incest ... Then I'm off to see a therapist ....
Best selling romance tale 50 Shades of Grey is being touted as the cause of a spate of pregnancies, according to an expert in culture. Packed with erotic scenes and ideas, the story of Anastasia Steele and the eponymous Grey has got broody wives and girlfriends so hot under the collar they are seeking out more sex with their partners resulting in an increasing number of pregnancies.
I wonder will we hear some happy news of more Jr Bond fans on the way. )
"I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
The book I`m reading tonight isn`t finished yet. Not by me as a reader, the publisher or the author....
A friend of mine had his first novel published last year to good reviews and reasonable sales. It was set in the viking age and can be described as "Heart of Darkness with vikings" Back then I had read a draft of the first chapter and discussed it, the cover design and the title a lot with the author before it was published. I also intoduced my friend to the works of the great American writer Cormac McCarthy, something that clearly influenced my friend's writing. I liked the process. Now he is writing his second novel, set in Norse Greenland. I have allready read the first ten chapters or so, and have made many notes for my next e-mail back to the author. I also have thoughts about the title. I have to say , if you ever get a chance to participate in the process of making a book - jump at it! It is so much fun and very interesting.
Mind you, I bet 50 Shades of Grey has an "Oooh.... argh!" in it somewhere! )
Lol ) .... It sure does Naps ....
Rum, s0domy, and the lash.... )
(Voice of Mandy from Life of Brian): But not so much of the rum, next time...
Anyway, have finished Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
It's okay as a yarn. I am trying to acquaint myself with the sort of literature they say you should have read as a kid, and this is the UK's equivalent of Huckleberry Finn I guess, it has a Dickens era feel, it could be Pip from Great Expectations, but its Jim Hawkins dealing not with Magwitch, but the charismatic and treacherous Long John Silver.
The first 50 pages is land lubber stuff, but in retrospect it's the best part of it for me, it's quite slow and ominous, plus the tavern's in Cornwall is visited by dissolute, haunted figure, then later by Blind Man Pew, but these two odd fishes don't go the distance of the tale.
The 'star' is Long John Silver, but he aint like the Robert Newton oo-ah character of the film Treasure Island, actually the pirate voice seems to hail from the Cornish accent... Silver is a big, blond man 'with a face like a ham' - a younger Ray Winstone might be good casting (wasn't he in that role on Sky recently?) or better still, Stanley Holloway from way back. He's portrayed as a ruthless customer almost straight off, so well in fact that you can't really be charmed by him or taken in by him at all. The other pirates are a bit thick and non descript.
For pirate tales, I much prefer Disney's Peter Pan, though that's a comedy. They have something in common, they don't encounter other pirates and it's based around an island mostly, they don't get out to sea or in chases or anything.
As the story went on, I went off it, as young Jim, the narrator, turns into a James Bond/ Captain Jack Sparrow type with his bravado and derring do, it's just not plausible. At one point he commanders a schooner with one hungover, mutinous pirate and sales it by himself, with no previous evidence of any experience of shipping. It doesn't help that we can't be sure how old he is, he could be anything from 9 to 15 years, and you have to adjust your mindset as it goes on. It just becomes more and more ludicrous and somewhat convoluted, plus sometimes I couldn't really follow it at all, the author doesn't conjur up a vivid image of the terrain when there's a bit of action, so you can't quite get the hang of the situation. What happens to the parrot, Pieces of Eight, at the end? He drops out of sight. Other characters who appear, you have to flick back to remind yourself of who they are.
An inessential classic for me, maybe one where the film is better.
"[But] below the surface the river is flowing, dark and strong."
"What river?"
"The river of sex"
In this dialogue they are talking about the city of Wienna, but they might as well be talking about the novel itself. William Boyle is of course hard at work now writing his James Bond novel. Waiting for Sunrise is a spy novel too. To be honest you could read the first half of the book before you realise it is a spy novel. Up till then the Ian Fleming story it resembles most is Quantum of Solace. It starts in Wienna in 1913, the year before the Great War. Lysander Rief is an English actor who is in Wienna to undergo psycoanalysis to cure his unability to ejaculate. Rief is engaged to Blanche, an actress back in London, but starts an affair with Hettie Bull. Ms Bull is an artist who is living as an ex-pat in the city. She is also a patient with the same doctor Lysander is seeing, and she is treated with cocain. Many in the field used the drug as medicine at the time, including Sigmund Freud. Completely out of the blue Lysander is arrested for raping Hettie Bull and getting her pregnant. The way he gets out of that bad situation gets the attention of inteligence personel at the Briish embasy and that changes the cource of his life dramatically.
I noticed the same thing in Restless, the first William Boyle novel I read, too - he takes his sweet time before he lets the plot kicks into gear and a real sense of threath and danger is introduced to the story. I hope he manages to do that far earlier in his James Bond novel. Don`t get me wrong, I never found Waiting for Sunrise dull. I liked the book and thought is was exciting. Boyle writes plot well, but also characters (esp female). He must do a lot of research and his descriptions are very good. This way he keeps the reader hooked, also in the time before the war and spy work enters the story. The action scenes are few and far apart, sudden and quickly over. They are also fairly brutal. Unlike Deaver and even Fleming, William Doyle isn`t "just" a suspence writer. He writes in other generes too, mosty what you might call human drama. (That is my impression at least, I have only read two of his spy novels.) This may very well be a strength when writing Bond, there is no danger of him getting lost in gadgets, pointless action scenes and convoluted plot twists (yes, I`m thinking of Jeffery Deaver). But Doyle mustn`t forget he is writing a Bond novel. He must introduce mortal danger earlier in the plot and probably write a couple of longer, more elaborate action scenes. If he can do that, we may give us the best Bond novel since Colonel Sun.
This crime novel is part of the Berlin Noir series with Bernie Gunther doing the detecting. Gunther is very much a man of the Sam Spade/Marlowe tradition, but his mean streets were in Berlin during the rise of nazism. This novel starts in 1950 and Bernie Gunther has moved to Buenes Aires in Argentine, but the roots of the story is in Germany in the 1930`s. Like many of his countrymen Brene Gunter has fled Europe and their dark deeds comited there during the war. Berinie Gunther's war is told in the novel "Field Gray". I look forward to reading that book and find out how Gunther and the writer negotiates the moral dire straits of nazi occupied Europe . Juan and Evita Peron are in power in Argentine in1950 and and are hard at work helping nazi war criminals by issuing them empty passports and protecting them in other ways. Gunther discovers an old case that comes back to haunt him: back in Berlin in 1932 he investigated murders of girls in their early teens who got their private parts mutilated after their deaths. Gunther came close to solving the murders back then, but he was taken off the case and the police force when the nazis came to power because of his pro-Weimar republic and anti nazi views. Now corpses turn up in Buenes Aires that look far too familiar to Gunther. He belives the killer must have spent the war as a guard in the consentration camps or some other place where his urge to kill and mutilate was not only accepted, but even welcomed. Quite a bit like Red Grant, in fact. Now the war is over and the killer has fled to South America, but his horrible urges has semingly followed him there.
Phillip Kerr knows the time period well and gives the story a lot of colour. The plot is excellent and the hard boiled noir style fits the story very well. The violence is brutal, the men are tough, the women are beautiful and nearly everyone is morally "field grey". Like his American counterparts Bernie Gunther is also a master of sarcasm. Usually his comments and obsevations are a hoot to read, but somtimes I feel like I'm reading the script of a stand-up comedian. Somtimes the humor relives the reader from the very dark subject matter, but somtimes there is too much of it and it clashes with the dark story. In my opinion Kerr would do well to cut down the humour in the future, it just becomes too much at times. I also feel there is some lack of desriptions in his writings. His hero lives in a time and in places very few readers know first hand, so better descriptions would create more atomsphere.
I belive Phillip Kerr could be a very good Bond writer. The dark stories, beautiful women, scary villans, torture and bloody violence reads like something out of Fleming. Otto 'Scarface' Scorzeny, a man I have described as a Bond villan from real life, makes an appearance in The Quiet Flame. Another villan has an actual lair in the mountains. Bond shouldn't be a commedian, but some of the cutting remarks and sarcasm Kerr writes would fit Bond like a glove if used sparingly.
I can recomend the "Berlin Noir" crime series highly, in spite of my critical remarks. After reading a few chapters of March Violets, the first book in the Berlin Noir series, you may start wondering why no-one has written hardboiled crime for the Europe's darkest hour when the worst criminals actually ran Germany.
I read this because I've never dipped into Joyce before, and at 200 pages (albeit in small print) it's more accessible than Ulysses, and it's 15 short stories too.
It's okay, once you understand every story has an undercurrent of fatalism. Many start of with that underlying flavour of the suburbs, but instead of it being subverted by a breakout opportunity or situation, the main character finds his or her position even more entrenched by the end; that's the twist.
I liked the second story best, about two kids playing truant. Unusually it's written in the first person and ends on a moment of uplift.
Other than that, Joyce presents his characters in a slightly snobbish, misanthropic way, but not with the streak of sadism that allows you to rejoice in their plight or downfall. Instead you feel pity or self-disgust. There's a touch of Agatha Christie in his dissection of a character. 10 stories make up the first 100 pages, so the last five are a bit longer, and the last one, The Dead (made into a highly acclaimed film, his last one, by John Huston) is regarded as a novella. It helps to know the subtext of a lot of the stories, as a great many don't seem to have a punchline or twist or resolution.
Fifty Shades of Gray aka Anastasia Screamed in Vain
Not because everyone else is reading it (Lady Rose's excuse), but because I'm into filth. -{
Now, stop biting on your lower lip, Miss Rose, you know what it does to me...
For some reason, when it came to visualising the female protognist and narrator, I kept thinking of a young Judy Garland. "Lions, and butt plugs and cords, Oh My!"
Holy Crap! thought Lady Rose. Can the great Napoleon Plural be flirting with me? Guiltily, she looked up and tried to meet his eye and he gazed down at her, a smirk played up on his lips....
Yeah, well, it's easy to lampoon the style of this book, a sign of its success. But more interesting to explore why it works so well. Partly it's the soft furnishings and lush surroundings of the Gray empire. This allows me to confirm a theory of mine that the cleaner your pad, the filthier the girl will be.
It's also a traditional romp that fulfils its narrow brief. The narrator confides in you, allows her into her world and journey of discovery, with plenty of scope in the road ahead bearing in mind she's a virgin at 21 or so. Yes, certain phrases are repetitive, but it draws you in. No sex until page 100 or so, so it's really a lot of foreplay. And I must confess, the sheer femaleness of the perspective was a bit like working in an office full of women, I fought the urge to scream and run off at one point, it's so claustrophobic from the bloke's point of view.
But it ticks the boxes whereby the narrator has a good female friend to confide in (a bit like Working Girl), is challenged by Gray's arrogance and effortless superiority and then rejoices (or her 'inner goddess' does) when she realises she has some power over him too, a bit like Dorothy being told by the Good Witch that she has what it takes to go up the Yellow Brick Road (which does sound like a filthy euphemism actually). And he sees her vom early on, so it's like, he's seen her at her worst and still finds her horny.
And despite a vague impression of Anastasia, you do get the picture that she's a bit of a hot thing without going into specifics, that's nicely done. Even if the sex is a bit ludicrous, it's not like the woman reader doesn't know that, you may as well moan that the home decoration catalogue doesn't look right, as there'd be nasty old newspapers piled up beside the coffee table, and the woman's naked feet on the sofa might show a bit of hard skin and fungally toenail. That's not the point.
u
Gray's pleasure room, which he reveals to the heroine somewhat tentatively - well, if you go to the ajb memorabilia forum, I bet there's a similar scene with many a fan on that one. "Yep, well I'm kind of into James Bond and here's a room devoted to it. If you read the contract, it says you have to agree to watch a Bond DVD two nights a week and dress up as one of the Bond girls. Hey, come back!"
I didn't read all of it, it did actually seem a bit weird and claustrophobic, but it is in the tradition of Fanny Hill and all that, which fits with the narrator's supposed fascination with English lit.
The latest Harry Hole thriller and Nesbo does not disappoint. Excellent read, and has you gripped from the first few pages.
Harry returns home from a 3 year break in Bangkok as someone he knows is involved with a murder case. However he is working totally alone this time, as he is no longer in the Police force. The case involves drugs (heroin) and the people that sell it and buy it. Sometimes it makes for uncomfortable reading - but it's written so well, with even some Bondian lines from Hole - and the reader can't help but like him. The ending is full of twists - and the last few pages had me gripped.
5 out of 5 stars.
Seriously guys, if you haven't tried Nesbo and the Hole thrillers, you should. Fantastic writing, great plots and a protagonist who has flaws (unlike Child's Reacher, who does sometimes seem too perfect ) that make you really like him. B-)
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Oh my.... Mr Grey, you had me hooked at the first 2 pages :x
(Now boys, you want a peek into a woman's psyche... and see how we tick - and what we want - then you'd do worse than seeing what all the fuss is about with 50 Shades of Grey)
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
The latest Harry Hole thriller and Nesbo does not disappoint. Excellent read, and has you gripped from the first few pages.
Harry returns home from a 3 year break in Bangkok as someone he knows is involved with a murder case. However he is working totally alone this time, as he is no longer in the Police force. The case involves drugs (heroin) and the people that sell it and buy it. Sometimes it makes for uncomfortable reading - but it's written so well, with even some Bondian lines from Hole - and the reader can't help but like him. The ending is full of twists - and the last few pages had me gripped.
5 out of 5 stars.
Seriously guys, if you haven't tried Nesbo and the Hole thrillers, you should. Fantastic writing, great plots and a protagonist who has flaws (unlike Child's Reacher, who does sometimes seem too perfect ) that make you really like him. B-)
I know it is very unlikely to happen, but do you agree Jo Nesbø would be a very good Bond writer?
Grey's raised the bar; I have to tell gals my helicopter is broken and in for repair. Is it alright to take the night bus?
My dear Nap, I don't think it's the helicopter the gals are interested in.... much more important are the working order of your accessories you have in your play room :v (or whether or not you have a play room ) )
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
The latest Harry Hole thriller and Nesbo does not disappoint. Excellent read, and has you gripped from the first few pages.
Harry returns home from a 3 year break in Bangkok as someone he knows is involved with a murder case. However he is working totally alone this time, as he is no longer in the Police force. The case involves drugs (heroin) and the people that sell it and buy it. Sometimes it makes for uncomfortable reading - but it's written so well, with even some Bondian lines from Hole - and the reader can't help but like him. The ending is full of twists - and the last few pages had me gripped.
5 out of 5 stars.
Seriously guys, if you haven't tried Nesbo and the Hole thrillers, you should. Fantastic writing, great plots and a protagonist who has flaws (unlike Child's Reacher, who does sometimes seem too perfect ) that make you really like him. B-)
I know it is very unlikely to happen, but do you agree Jo Nesbø would be a very good Bond writer?
Yes, yes and yes.... now that would be interesting... he has the ability to produce a good, compelling plot, as well as the humour to give Bond some great dialogue. -{
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Grey's raised the bar; I have to tell gals my helicopter is broken and in for repair. Is it alright to take the night bus?
My dear Nap, I don't think it's the helicopter the gals are interested in.... much more important are the working order of your accessories you have in your play room :v (or whether or not you have a play room ) )
Not wishing to harp on about this book (poor ol' Lady Rose has long scarpered) it says something about 50 Shades that (and I've only sort of skim read it) that despite all the graphic sex, she never actually says whether Christian Grey is circumcised or not, I mean sort of detail you'd think for a sex novel, but I suppose it allows the female reader to impose her own preference on the situation. That does sum it up, the way it skirts delicately over stuff, likewise she refers to her own genitalia as 'her sex' which takes it into Fanny Hill territory. That said, I read a para of the new comer on the scene, In Too Deep, and the language is more graphic, but it seems cheaper and more pornographic, no class.
Oh, the second book of 50 Shades is really raunchy and goes up a gear, they get to do it without condoms. )
Grey's raised the bar; I have to tell gals my helicopter is broken and in for repair. Is it alright to take the night bus?
My dear Nap, I don't think it's the helicopter the gals are interested in.... much more important are the working order of your accessories you have in your play room :v (or whether or not you have a play room ) )
Not wishing to harp on about this book (poor ol' Lady Rose has long scarpered) it says something about 50 Shades that (and I've only sort of skim read it)
Skim read it? Why do I find that very hard to believe....(and yes, pun intended) )
I'm re-reading Fleming at the moment. Finished Live and Let Die yesterday, now reading Dr. No. It's been several years since I finished reading all the Fleming books for the first time. Since then, I've read quite a few of the continuation novels and enjoyed them, but going back to re-visit Fleming has just made it clear how much better the original books really are.
Steamy stuff.... a good way to spend a few dull wet August afternoons.... and I have to say, the characters have a way of getting inside your head and I'm left thinking, is there such a man as Christain Grey....? Wish there was.... )
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Steamy stuff.... a good way to spend a few dull wet August afternoons.... and I have to say, the characters have a way of getting inside your head and I'm left thinking, is there such a man as Christain Grey....? Wish there was.... )
Oh, hello .... Did some one mention 50 Shades ???
I haven't read a book since to be honest ... Trying to get into a Tess Gerritsen but it's not happening. Also tried a Philippa Gregory - Boring !!
Not sure I like the idea of a film of 50 though . Every woman has her own idea what Christian looks like .... I know one thing though, IT'S NOT TOM CRUISE ) ) )
And Naps, I haven't scarpered ... You know I'm always lurking, never far away :v
FelixLeiter ♀Staffordshire or a pubPosts: 1,286MI6 Agent
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. First le Carre book. Picked it up after seeing the Alec Guiness 'Tinker, Tailor...' series on DVD.
It is undoubtedly one of the best books I've ever read. It was only from reading it that I realised that it had been a long time since I'd read a book where I would rather be deprived of sleep than stop reading. It left me reflecting a lot on the time that it was written as I'd never seen the Cold War from such a dark perspective before. I've moved onto Tinker Tailor but am struggling to get into it as much, although it is picking up a bit now I've properly got started with it.
'The Spy...' will definitely need a re-read as it was just to great for me not to experience it again some time soon.
I guess there were a couple of gripes. I didn't like the ending but am open minded that it was perhaps right, and may be explained in the other books. I also hated the character of Liz. I felt like I should love her but I saw no reason to at all in the writing. I was left wondering whether I was actually meant to hate her, something that I'm still wondering about over a week later.
As you know, I have really enjoyed Jo Nesbo and his Harry Hole thrillers.
Here is a really great article from The Independant, which talks to Jo about his success, his views on Anders Breivik, as well as introducing his first Harry Hole thriller (never published in English) which is out in mid October. I can't wait... The Bat
She's worth whatever chaos she brings to the table and you know it. ~ Mark Anthony
Comments
A very good read it has to be said and I'd definitely recommend it if you're interested in this type of thing, but it most certainly won't be for everyone that's for sure. If you get chance I'd strongly recommend looking up this chap, as he's an incredibly fascinating profiler who has worked on some of the most famous criminal cases known.
You'll know this as the Roman Polanski film with Pierce Brosnan, Ewan McGregor and Olivia Williams.
It's a gripping yarn about a charismatic former British PM who engaged with the war on terror and is now a pariah with many in England, his wife seems to have been with him from the start of his political career and is held to be more intelligent, but passed over her seat in favour of him. It's not meant to remind you of Tony and Cherie Blair, it is Tony and Cherie Blair. But it feels a bit of a cheat in literary terms because Harris doesn't even bother to describe Adam Lang (as he is renamed) perhaps hoping you'll just project Blair's features onto him. That said, Pierce does seem well cast for the role, if a bit too old.
The idea is that a hack ghost writer is invited to help finish Lang's memoirs, the previous ghost writer died in not yet mysterious circumstances. Now this book is 300 pages long and I finished it in 3-4 days so it's a gripping read, especially descriptions of a chilly, remote Martha's Vineyard in winter, where Lang is holed up away from the world, with its memories of Chappaquiddick or however you spell it. A bit of it puts you in mind of OHMSS, where Bond is holed up in Piz Gloria and meant to be researching the Count, ostensibly to help him concentrate but also to cut him off from the outside world and make him dependent.
Actually, stunt casting or not, Daniel Craig would have been a good pick for the role of the hack writer, especially if he was in his Enduring Love mode. The book is a great airport read, in spite of a few plot holes or things that don't quite seem to add up.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Terribly written and repetitive but highly addictive.
Read all three in record breaking time ;% ;% ;%
Bond and Christian Grey ... I obviously have a thing for damaged, differcult men
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Probably why I enjoyed the books so much
Just going back to the Red Room of Pain ...... :v :v
Mind you, I bet 50 Shades of Grey has an "Oooh.... argh!" in it somewhere!
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Lol
I'm going down a different route now and going to try Philippa Gregory ... Historical drama with witchcraft and incest ... Then I'm off to see a therapist ....
I wonder will we hear some happy news of more Jr Bond fans on the way.
A friend of mine had his first novel published last year to good reviews and reasonable sales. It was set in the viking age and can be described as "Heart of Darkness with vikings" Back then I had read a draft of the first chapter and discussed it, the cover design and the title a lot with the author before it was published. I also intoduced my friend to the works of the great American writer Cormac McCarthy, something that clearly influenced my friend's writing. I liked the process. Now he is writing his second novel, set in Norse Greenland. I have allready read the first ten chapters or so, and have made many notes for my next e-mail back to the author. I also have thoughts about the title. I have to say , if you ever get a chance to participate in the process of making a book - jump at it! It is so much fun and very interesting.
Rum, s0domy, and the lash....
(Voice of Mandy from Life of Brian): But not so much of the rum, next time...
Anyway, have finished Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
It's okay as a yarn. I am trying to acquaint myself with the sort of literature they say you should have read as a kid, and this is the UK's equivalent of Huckleberry Finn I guess, it has a Dickens era feel, it could be Pip from Great Expectations, but its Jim Hawkins dealing not with Magwitch, but the charismatic and treacherous Long John Silver.
The first 50 pages is land lubber stuff, but in retrospect it's the best part of it for me, it's quite slow and ominous, plus the tavern's in Cornwall is visited by dissolute, haunted figure, then later by Blind Man Pew, but these two odd fishes don't go the distance of the tale.
The 'star' is Long John Silver, but he aint like the Robert Newton oo-ah character of the film Treasure Island, actually the pirate voice seems to hail from the Cornish accent... Silver is a big, blond man 'with a face like a ham' - a younger Ray Winstone might be good casting (wasn't he in that role on Sky recently?) or better still, Stanley Holloway from way back. He's portrayed as a ruthless customer almost straight off, so well in fact that you can't really be charmed by him or taken in by him at all. The other pirates are a bit thick and non descript.
For pirate tales, I much prefer Disney's Peter Pan, though that's a comedy. They have something in common, they don't encounter other pirates and it's based around an island mostly, they don't get out to sea or in chases or anything.
As the story went on, I went off it, as young Jim, the narrator, turns into a James Bond/ Captain Jack Sparrow type with his bravado and derring do, it's just not plausible. At one point he commanders a schooner with one hungover, mutinous pirate and sales it by himself, with no previous evidence of any experience of shipping. It doesn't help that we can't be sure how old he is, he could be anything from 9 to 15 years, and you have to adjust your mindset as it goes on. It just becomes more and more ludicrous and somewhat convoluted, plus sometimes I couldn't really follow it at all, the author doesn't conjur up a vivid image of the terrain when there's a bit of action, so you can't quite get the hang of the situation. What happens to the parrot, Pieces of Eight, at the end? He drops out of sight. Other characters who appear, you have to flick back to remind yourself of who they are.
An inessential classic for me, maybe one where the film is better.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
"[But] below the surface the river is flowing, dark and strong."
"What river?"
"The river of sex"
In this dialogue they are talking about the city of Wienna, but they might as well be talking about the novel itself. William Boyle is of course hard at work now writing his James Bond novel. Waiting for Sunrise is a spy novel too. To be honest you could read the first half of the book before you realise it is a spy novel. Up till then the Ian Fleming story it resembles most is Quantum of Solace. It starts in Wienna in 1913, the year before the Great War. Lysander Rief is an English actor who is in Wienna to undergo psycoanalysis to cure his unability to ejaculate. Rief is engaged to Blanche, an actress back in London, but starts an affair with Hettie Bull. Ms Bull is an artist who is living as an ex-pat in the city. She is also a patient with the same doctor Lysander is seeing, and she is treated with cocain. Many in the field used the drug as medicine at the time, including Sigmund Freud. Completely out of the blue Lysander is arrested for raping Hettie Bull and getting her pregnant. The way he gets out of that bad situation gets the attention of inteligence personel at the Briish embasy and that changes the cource of his life dramatically.
I noticed the same thing in Restless, the first William Boyle novel I read, too - he takes his sweet time before he lets the plot kicks into gear and a real sense of threath and danger is introduced to the story. I hope he manages to do that far earlier in his James Bond novel. Don`t get me wrong, I never found Waiting for Sunrise dull. I liked the book and thought is was exciting. Boyle writes plot well, but also characters (esp female). He must do a lot of research and his descriptions are very good. This way he keeps the reader hooked, also in the time before the war and spy work enters the story. The action scenes are few and far apart, sudden and quickly over. They are also fairly brutal. Unlike Deaver and even Fleming, William Doyle isn`t "just" a suspence writer. He writes in other generes too, mosty what you might call human drama. (That is my impression at least, I have only read two of his spy novels.) This may very well be a strength when writing Bond, there is no danger of him getting lost in gadgets, pointless action scenes and convoluted plot twists (yes, I`m thinking of Jeffery Deaver). But Doyle mustn`t forget he is writing a Bond novel. He must introduce mortal danger earlier in the plot and probably write a couple of longer, more elaborate action scenes. If he can do that, we may give us the best Bond novel since Colonel Sun.
This crime novel is part of the Berlin Noir series with Bernie Gunther doing the detecting. Gunther is very much a man of the Sam Spade/Marlowe tradition, but his mean streets were in Berlin during the rise of nazism. This novel starts in 1950 and Bernie Gunther has moved to Buenes Aires in Argentine, but the roots of the story is in Germany in the 1930`s. Like many of his countrymen Brene Gunter has fled Europe and their dark deeds comited there during the war. Berinie Gunther's war is told in the novel "Field Gray". I look forward to reading that book and find out how Gunther and the writer negotiates the moral dire straits of nazi occupied Europe . Juan and Evita Peron are in power in Argentine in1950 and and are hard at work helping nazi war criminals by issuing them empty passports and protecting them in other ways. Gunther discovers an old case that comes back to haunt him: back in Berlin in 1932 he investigated murders of girls in their early teens who got their private parts mutilated after their deaths. Gunther came close to solving the murders back then, but he was taken off the case and the police force when the nazis came to power because of his pro-Weimar republic and anti nazi views. Now corpses turn up in Buenes Aires that look far too familiar to Gunther. He belives the killer must have spent the war as a guard in the consentration camps or some other place where his urge to kill and mutilate was not only accepted, but even welcomed. Quite a bit like Red Grant, in fact. Now the war is over and the killer has fled to South America, but his horrible urges has semingly followed him there.
Phillip Kerr knows the time period well and gives the story a lot of colour. The plot is excellent and the hard boiled noir style fits the story very well. The violence is brutal, the men are tough, the women are beautiful and nearly everyone is morally "field grey". Like his American counterparts Bernie Gunther is also a master of sarcasm. Usually his comments and obsevations are a hoot to read, but somtimes I feel like I'm reading the script of a stand-up comedian. Somtimes the humor relives the reader from the very dark subject matter, but somtimes there is too much of it and it clashes with the dark story. In my opinion Kerr would do well to cut down the humour in the future, it just becomes too much at times. I also feel there is some lack of desriptions in his writings. His hero lives in a time and in places very few readers know first hand, so better descriptions would create more atomsphere.
I belive Phillip Kerr could be a very good Bond writer. The dark stories, beautiful women, scary villans, torture and bloody violence reads like something out of Fleming. Otto 'Scarface' Scorzeny, a man I have described as a Bond villan from real life, makes an appearance in The Quiet Flame. Another villan has an actual lair in the mountains. Bond shouldn't be a commedian, but some of the cutting remarks and sarcasm Kerr writes would fit Bond like a glove if used sparingly.
I can recomend the "Berlin Noir" crime series highly, in spite of my critical remarks. After reading a few chapters of March Violets, the first book in the Berlin Noir series, you may start wondering why no-one has written hardboiled crime for the Europe's darkest hour when the worst criminals actually ran Germany.
I read this because I've never dipped into Joyce before, and at 200 pages (albeit in small print) it's more accessible than Ulysses, and it's 15 short stories too.
It's okay, once you understand every story has an undercurrent of fatalism. Many start of with that underlying flavour of the suburbs, but instead of it being subverted by a breakout opportunity or situation, the main character finds his or her position even more entrenched by the end; that's the twist.
I liked the second story best, about two kids playing truant. Unusually it's written in the first person and ends on a moment of uplift.
Other than that, Joyce presents his characters in a slightly snobbish, misanthropic way, but not with the streak of sadism that allows you to rejoice in their plight or downfall. Instead you feel pity or self-disgust. There's a touch of Agatha Christie in his dissection of a character. 10 stories make up the first 100 pages, so the last five are a bit longer, and the last one, The Dead (made into a highly acclaimed film, his last one, by John Huston) is regarded as a novella. It helps to know the subtext of a lot of the stories, as a great many don't seem to have a punchline or twist or resolution.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Not because everyone else is reading it (Lady Rose's excuse), but because I'm into filth. -{
Now, stop biting on your lower lip, Miss Rose, you know what it does to me...
For some reason, when it came to visualising the female protognist and narrator, I kept thinking of a young Judy Garland. "Lions, and butt plugs and cords, Oh My!"
Holy Crap! thought Lady Rose. Can the great Napoleon Plural be flirting with me? Guiltily, she looked up and tried to meet his eye and he gazed down at her, a smirk played up on his lips....
Yeah, well, it's easy to lampoon the style of this book, a sign of its success. But more interesting to explore why it works so well. Partly it's the soft furnishings and lush surroundings of the Gray empire. This allows me to confirm a theory of mine that the cleaner your pad, the filthier the girl will be.
It's also a traditional romp that fulfils its narrow brief. The narrator confides in you, allows her into her world and journey of discovery, with plenty of scope in the road ahead bearing in mind she's a virgin at 21 or so. Yes, certain phrases are repetitive, but it draws you in. No sex until page 100 or so, so it's really a lot of foreplay. And I must confess, the sheer femaleness of the perspective was a bit like working in an office full of women, I fought the urge to scream and run off at one point, it's so claustrophobic from the bloke's point of view.
But it ticks the boxes whereby the narrator has a good female friend to confide in (a bit like Working Girl), is challenged by Gray's arrogance and effortless superiority and then rejoices (or her 'inner goddess' does) when she realises she has some power over him too, a bit like Dorothy being told by the Good Witch that she has what it takes to go up the Yellow Brick Road (which does sound like a filthy euphemism actually). And he sees her vom early on, so it's like, he's seen her at her worst and still finds her horny.
And despite a vague impression of Anastasia, you do get the picture that she's a bit of a hot thing without going into specifics, that's nicely done. Even if the sex is a bit ludicrous, it's not like the woman reader doesn't know that, you may as well moan that the home decoration catalogue doesn't look right, as there'd be nasty old newspapers piled up beside the coffee table, and the woman's naked feet on the sofa might show a bit of hard skin and fungally toenail. That's not the point.
u
Gray's pleasure room, which he reveals to the heroine somewhat tentatively - well, if you go to the ajb memorabilia forum, I bet there's a similar scene with many a fan on that one. "Yep, well I'm kind of into James Bond and here's a room devoted to it. If you read the contract, it says you have to agree to watch a Bond DVD two nights a week and dress up as one of the Bond girls. Hey, come back!"
I didn't read all of it, it did actually seem a bit weird and claustrophobic, but it is in the tradition of Fanny Hill and all that, which fits with the narrator's supposed fascination with English lit.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Pretty good for a video game novel.
The latest Harry Hole thriller and Nesbo does not disappoint. Excellent read, and has you gripped from the first few pages.
Harry returns home from a 3 year break in Bangkok as someone he knows is involved with a murder case. However he is working totally alone this time, as he is no longer in the Police force. The case involves drugs (heroin) and the people that sell it and buy it. Sometimes it makes for uncomfortable reading - but it's written so well, with even some Bondian lines from Hole - and the reader can't help but like him. The ending is full of twists - and the last few pages had me gripped.
5 out of 5 stars.
Seriously guys, if you haven't tried Nesbo and the Hole thrillers, you should. Fantastic writing, great plots and a protagonist who has flaws (unlike Child's Reacher, who does sometimes seem too perfect
In every way possible :v
Oh my.... Mr Grey, you had me hooked at the first 2 pages :x
(Now boys, you want a peek into a woman's psyche... and see how we tick - and what we want - then you'd do worse than seeing what all the fuss is about with 50 Shades of Grey)
Is that a lewd pun in the above post Lexi...
Roger Moore 1927-2017
That's for me to know, and for you to keep guessing :v
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I know it is very unlikely to happen, but do you agree Jo Nesbø would be a very good Bond writer?
My dear Nap, I don't think it's the helicopter the gals are interested in.... much more important are the working order of your accessories you have in your play room :v (or whether or not you have a play room
Yes, yes and yes.... now that would be interesting... he has the ability to produce a good, compelling plot, as well as the humour to give Bond some great dialogue. -{
Not wishing to harp on about this book (poor ol' Lady Rose has long scarpered) it says something about 50 Shades that (and I've only sort of skim read it) that despite all the graphic sex, she never actually says whether Christian Grey is circumcised or not, I mean sort of detail you'd think for a sex novel, but I suppose it allows the female reader to impose her own preference on the situation. That does sum it up, the way it skirts delicately over stuff, likewise she refers to her own genitalia as 'her sex' which takes it into Fanny Hill territory. That said, I read a para of the new comer on the scene, In Too Deep, and the language is more graphic, but it seems cheaper and more pornographic, no class.
Oh, the second book of 50 Shades is really raunchy and goes up a gear, they get to do it without condoms.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
Skim read it? Why do I find that very hard to believe....(and yes, pun intended)
I'm half way through the third...and that gets REALLY interesting :v
Steamy stuff.... a good way to spend a few dull wet August afternoons.... and I have to say, the characters have a way of getting inside your head and I'm left thinking, is there such a man as Christain Grey....? Wish there was....
Oh, hello .... Did some one mention 50 Shades ???
I haven't read a book since to be honest ... Trying to get into a Tess Gerritsen but it's not happening. Also tried a Philippa Gregory - Boring !!
Not sure I like the idea of a film of 50 though . Every woman has her own idea what Christian looks like .... I know one thing though, IT'S NOT TOM CRUISE
And Naps, I haven't scarpered ... You know I'm always lurking, never far away :v
It is undoubtedly one of the best books I've ever read. It was only from reading it that I realised that it had been a long time since I'd read a book where I would rather be deprived of sleep than stop reading. It left me reflecting a lot on the time that it was written as I'd never seen the Cold War from such a dark perspective before. I've moved onto Tinker Tailor but am struggling to get into it as much, although it is picking up a bit now I've properly got started with it.
'The Spy...' will definitely need a re-read as it was just to great for me not to experience it again some time soon.
I guess there were a couple of gripes. I didn't like the ending but am open minded that it was perhaps right, and may be explained in the other books. I also hated the character of Liz. I felt like I should love her but I saw no reason to at all in the writing. I was left wondering whether I was actually meant to hate her, something that I'm still wondering about over a week later.
Felix
Here is a really great article from The Independant, which talks to Jo about his success, his views on Anders Breivik, as well as introducing his first Harry Hole thriller (never published in English) which is out in mid October. I can't wait...
The Bat