Books read in May / June / July / August
Sep. 5th, 2012 10:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gervase_fen13) Bleeding Heart Square, by Andrew Taylor
14) The Reader is Warned, by Carter Dickson
15) Doctor Who : Shada, by Gareth Roberts
16) Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane
17) Redshirts, by John Scalzi
18) The Past Through Tomorrow, by Robert Heinlein
19) Expanded Universe, by Robert Heinlein
Reactivating the reading log... Andrew Taylor's 1930s set crime novel is crying out for the BBC to adapt it in three or four episodes - perhaps they could also improve the ending that comes out of the blue somewhat. I liked it a lot (it could almost be a prequel to Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy). The intrigues in a shabby genteel lodging house, the psychogeography of the locale, the Blackshirts on the march... it's all very involving, and then it ends perfunctorily.
John Dickson Carr's puzzler is light entertainment, and only the dodgy racial profiling key to solving the case would prevent David Renwick reworking it wholesale for Jonathan Creek.
Twenty or thirty years ago a novelisation of Shada would have been unmissable for me. But, as Gareth Roberts points out, Douglas Adams was perfectly happy for his lost Doctor Who story to remain lost; the noveliser has done his best but I agree with the original scriptwriter in this instance.
Dennis Lehane's return to his series regulars Kenzie and Gennaro after a decade - with a sequel to Gone Baby Gone - is a misfire, a reunion episode of a favourite TV show where everyone's a little bit too old to recapture their previous magic. Disappointing.
Redshirts narrative voice has a faux simplicity which I think is meant to make the reader feel even more sympathy for the metafictional plight of the characters, but just seemed glib to me. The 'three codas' at the end change this voice but don't change my experience of the book - Galaxy Quest did this story perfectly well as a comedy in a different medium over ten years ago, so why rework it now?
Finally, lots of wonderfully readable pulp SF from the 40s and 50s ; "The Menace from Earth", "Solution Unsatisfactory" and "The Roads Must Roll" were my favourites.
14) The Reader is Warned, by Carter Dickson
15) Doctor Who : Shada, by Gareth Roberts
16) Moonlight Mile, by Dennis Lehane
17) Redshirts, by John Scalzi
18) The Past Through Tomorrow, by Robert Heinlein
19) Expanded Universe, by Robert Heinlein
Reactivating the reading log... Andrew Taylor's 1930s set crime novel is crying out for the BBC to adapt it in three or four episodes - perhaps they could also improve the ending that comes out of the blue somewhat. I liked it a lot (it could almost be a prequel to Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy). The intrigues in a shabby genteel lodging house, the psychogeography of the locale, the Blackshirts on the march... it's all very involving, and then it ends perfunctorily.
John Dickson Carr's puzzler is light entertainment, and only the dodgy racial profiling key to solving the case would prevent David Renwick reworking it wholesale for Jonathan Creek.
Twenty or thirty years ago a novelisation of Shada would have been unmissable for me. But, as Gareth Roberts points out, Douglas Adams was perfectly happy for his lost Doctor Who story to remain lost; the noveliser has done his best but I agree with the original scriptwriter in this instance.
Dennis Lehane's return to his series regulars Kenzie and Gennaro after a decade - with a sequel to Gone Baby Gone - is a misfire, a reunion episode of a favourite TV show where everyone's a little bit too old to recapture their previous magic. Disappointing.
Redshirts narrative voice has a faux simplicity which I think is meant to make the reader feel even more sympathy for the metafictional plight of the characters, but just seemed glib to me. The 'three codas' at the end change this voice but don't change my experience of the book - Galaxy Quest did this story perfectly well as a comedy in a different medium over ten years ago, so why rework it now?
Finally, lots of wonderfully readable pulp SF from the 40s and 50s ; "The Menace from Earth", "Solution Unsatisfactory" and "The Roads Must Roll" were my favourites.
