CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

As an antidote, I'm also reading the entire PG Wodehouse canon. For some reason, I hear Fry and Laurie's voices...

Oddly enough I hear Ian Carmichael and Dennis Price. .

A depressing read.

Actually, most of Carré is a depressing read!

I like the Karla trilogy best, I think.

The futility of "TLGW" is what got to me: s attempting to revive the glories of WWII to zero effect.

The Honourable Skoolboy is a downer too. And it could have done with a good editing to make it shorter. Seemed endless.

Not to mention "A perfect spy" or "The little drummer girl".

So yes, the entire oeuvre is a great big downer.

Mostly due to Le Carre's analysis of the End of Empire & all that.

I'm not sure I'll bother with the Bond books, but the Len Deighton epics are next on the list, though I think there's one of the Samson ones missing as I read it as a library book IIRC.

Addendum: I read/heard somewhere that TLGW is the tale of Control doing away with the outmoded MI section that is so stunningly incompetent therein, all, in essence, by A Cunning Plan.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: Next: "Agent Running in the Field" J. Le Carre.

Done: that was a bit odd but there you go.

Next: "Our Game" by J. Le Carre.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: first half is rather dry, the second half more inneresting: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Wild Blue" by Stephen E. Ambrose, he who I recall seeing as a talking head on "The World at War (1974): Reckoning: 1945 & after" or some such when he was a much younger man. Shame about the plagiarism.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Mostly about George McGovern's experiences as a B-24 bomber pilot flying from Italy to Germany.

Next: "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen E. Ambrose. This one's about the Lewis & Clarke expedition "from sea to shining sea" some 20 years before Douglas did it in the opposite direction whilst collecting samples of vegetation.

So far it's full of stuff about The Evil British, as one might expect.

100 pages in before the journey begins.

And by page 331 we've reached the Pacific having canoed down the Columbia River.

If the Native Americans had any sense they'd have killed them all. But there you go.

Journey ends at page 440, then there's 100 pages of What Happened Next.

Spoiler: it doesn't End Well for Lewis.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Our Game" by J. Le Carre.

Done: funny old place the Caucasus . Written in 1994 before the advent of Putin.

Next: "A delicate truth" by J. Le Carre.

I must be getting old: I'm finding this one quite confusing. Have to leaf back through it remind myself WTF is going on, who's doing the needful going, and who the feck anyone is. And then, suddenly, it's 3 years later. .

It's odd how these books somehow grind to a halt for weeks for some reason. 20/11/24.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Having ground to a halt on the above:

"The 1000 year Plan" by Isaac Asimov / "No world of their own" by Poul Anderson in an ACE Double of 1955.

Turns out "The 1000 year plan" is, in fact, "Foundation", or rather 80% of Foundation, the last section being missing.

My copy of "Foundation" was "borrowed" by someone 30 years ago and I'm too mean to pay £10 for a replacement (the original was probably 3/6d or even 5/- ).

[sadkingbilly]

martin chuzzlewit, followed by the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy by m john harrison. really weird scifi. sort of mieville-ish with a touch of bacigalupi perhaps.
anyway, most entertaining.
stuck again, now, having read (or reread) all the decent* scifi i can find**.
oh, well back to rereading Dickens.


*new concepts, not sausage machine reruns of the old masters, or the derivative crap that's labelled 'fantasy' and 'horror'.(game of thrones etc)

**I'd be eternally grateful for any suggestions as to authors I've not found yet, but i've been a scifi reader for a very long time

[milanbenes]

I just read Slow Horses

very good

gonna try some John Le Carre now

Milan.

[NigelJK]

Been a while since I last posted.
I've made my way though all (bar1) Neal Asher book. Some hard Sci-Fi in there and some stonkingly good stories.
Up to date with Stephen Baxter, I got Creation node for my birthday, so it's next on the list.

I read my way through the Expanse series and watched the Prime series. As usual books are far better imagery than the 'realisation', but both good in their own way.

I'm trying to find out if the Foundation series on Apple TV is any good. Anyone here seen it?

I read the Bob Mortimer 'Clementine Complex' and 'Hotel Avocado', which as a piece of light entertainment is far better than Osmans 'Murder Club' (also read)

[sadkingbilly]

Cheers, I'll check out qntm and DK.
read all the rest*
don't get the fuss over cixin liu. I found it turgidly bogged down in social angst.

*up to Oct '24

[Snooky]

I just read Slow Horses

very good

gonna try some John Le Carre now

Milan.

Hopefully you've also been watching the series on Apple TV? I'm currently working my way through season 4