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A Good Read: Book Suggestions & Recommendations

Finished Dearly Devoted Dexter which turned all conspiracy with 3,000 year old cults. Highly reccommended.
 
Medusas by Michael Dibdin, an Inspector Zen book. A conspiracy involving a corpse found in a cave in the Dolomite. But its that of an army officer who was supposed have died in an airplane accident 30 yrs before.

Vgood.
 
Take a few minutes to go over to the BBC Radio 4 site and a little while longer to listen to Quartermaine's Terms - Michael Palin as the eponymous wotsit...

Harrowingly quotidian.
 
The Ramayan epic by Ashok k Banker.

a rewriting of the Indian epic for the Fantasy audience.

Does what it says on the Tin.

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I got out `The Children of Hurin` by Tolkien from the library tody; not read it yet. (still in Hind.) Isnt that guy supposed to be dead??
 
Some works of crime fiction, like James Reasoner's Texas Wind, reach an almost legendary status while out of print - although it seems to me that quite often their reputation is enhanced by the fact that they are viewed through the rose-tinted spectacles of obscurity. To be honest, I think much of Derek Raymond's work is an example - although I'm sure many afficionados of crime fiction would probably shoot me in the lungs for saying so.

However one novel which I think thoroughly deserves its reputation and recent translation into English is Hans Fallada's Alone in Berlin. Set in Germany during WW2 by someone who was there - ostensibly a thriller based largely on the activities of the various occupants of a Berlin tenement , but lots more besides. Thoroughly recommended.
 
Yellow Blue Tibial by Adam Roberts . In 1946 Stalin brings SF writers together to invent an alien enemythat will unite the people of the USSR (after they've beaten the yanks, Stalin reckons ut'll take 5 years).

After a couple of months the project is cancelled and the writers are sworn to silence - or else.

40 years later and it looks as if some of the scenaros they thought up are coming true...

Involvers the KGB, Aliens, Chernobyl.

Excellent
 
ramonmercado said:
Yellow Blue Tibial by Adam Roberts . In 1946 Stalin brings SF writers together to invent an alien enemythat will unite the people of the USSR (after they've beaten the yanks, Stalin reckons ut'll take 5 years).

After a couple of months the project is cancelled and the writers are sworn to silence - or else.

40 years later and it looks as if some of the scenaros they thought up are coming true...

Involvers the KGB, Aliens, Chernobyl.

Excellent
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I do enjoy the work of Adam Roberts, so I might seek this one out. I've often read the complaint that he's not very good at endings, and I guess "On", "Gradisil" or "Polystom" would bear this view out to a certain extent, but there's always something to enjoy in his ideas, and I don't mind if a book leaves me wanting more. Mind you, "On" was left hanging by such a thread that I really was frustrated - Adam, if you read this, I want a sequel!


I recently read all 4 of Stephen Baxter's "Weaver of Time" stories, which were absolutely cracking. The first 3 are pretty much historical fiction, whilst the 4th is alternate-history WWII, and they all have a slightly SF twist, although this really only makes any difference to the history in the last book.

The "what-if" scenario posed in book 4 is every bit as convincingly done as PKD's Man in the High Castle, which is some kind of praise, I guess.
 
On definitely demands a sequel and Gradisil deserves at least a related novel if not a direct sequel.

Salt which I think was his first book was excellent.
 
Bought Robert Rankin's "The book of ultimate truths" for 1 euro at the second hand book market. It's very good and very Fortean.
 
Sergei Lukyanenko's Daywatch quadrilogy (Daywatch, Nightwatch, Twighlight Watch and The Last Watch) are superb stories of the Moscow paranormal underworld where Good magicians, shapeshifters and sorcerers hold the balance against Not so Good witches, vampires, warlocks & the like.

The films of Daywatch & Nightwatch are like trailers for the books, which are darkly rich and swathed in Russian pop culture.

Definately worth immersing yourself in. :twisted:
 
Fans of crime fiction need no introduction to Reginald Hill and his detective pairing of Dalziel and Pascoe. Excellent stories, with plenty of humour, and enough uncommon words to encourage you to keep a dictionary handy! 8)

The one I'm reading now, "The Death of Dalziel", 2007, has all that, but with added Fortean interest. Not only is there a Neo-Templar group assassinating those it regards as Islamic terrorists, but Dalziel, hospitalised and in a coma, has an Out Of Body Experience! :shock:
 
Just ordered Unbelievable: Investigations into Ghosts, Poltergeists, Telepathy, and Other Unseen Phenomena from the Duke Parapsychology Laboratory (2009) by Stacy Horn.

When I went down to Duke University and started going through the 700-plus boxes that comprise the lab archives (...) there were thousands and thousands of meticulously conducted, recorded and evaluated experiments (millions in the end). They were not kidding around. I focused on the lab scientists’ correspondence because that was where the real battle for parapsychology—and there was a tremendous battle—was played out. Who knew scientists could be this venomous?

Every time the lab published their results there was an outcry and a flurry of letters from other scientists around the country who were not happy with their findings. For every letter from an offended scientist however, there were thousands more from people all over the world who had experienced something strange that demanded an explanation. A certain percentage of them can, in fact, be explained away by fraud, delusion or wishful thinking, but not all.
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The case that inspired The Exorcist has a chapter.

http://www.stacyhorn.com/unbelievable/

http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061116858
 
"The Iron Dream" by Norman Spinrad. If you can find a copy at a decent price of course...I lost my first edition about 20 years ago, and having seen some of the prices that are being asked...well, I feel like beating myself over the head with Feric Jaggars truncheon. :cry:

"War of the World" by Niall Ferguson is very good. It's an overview of man's inhumanity to his fellow man over the 20th Century. Well worth a read, even if quite depressing.
 
Not a suggestion, but I have been reading about Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" novels and they sound fantastic!

Has anyone here read them?

Also, does anyone know where I can get a decent copy of the first book in the series, the only ones I can find online either suffer from "some highlighting or underlining of text", are really tatty, or phenomally expensive!
 
CarlosTheDJ said:
Not a suggestion, but I have been reading about Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" novels and they sound fantastic!

Has anyone here read them?
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I read the first one, and enjoyed it although it does depend on how much tolerance you have for Newman's insistence on packing in as many references to other works as he possibly can. Unequivocably love his film criticism, though (he's writing a new edition of Nightmare Movies! Yay!).
 
Bought "The Ghost of 29 Megacycles" through www.antiqbook.com. It is a curious book and quite original. Scientists are trying to build an electronic apparatus to communicate with the dead. But I get the feeling that it is a kind of John Dee - Edward Kelley style ripoff and that - for example - it is just too suspicious that the researcher announces a breakthrough and then his camper goes up in flames destroying all evidence. But a nice one for my collection of curiosities.

And after realizing that John G. Fuller also wrote "The interrupted journey"- of anal probe fame - I could kick myself that I gave that book away. It would have made a nice pair.
 
As many of you know, I like crime fiction. I'm currently reading "The Hunt for Sonya Dufrette", an English Country House crime story written by a Bulgarian author (!) R.T. Raichev.

I like the book and its style very much, but I mention it here because one of its characters has written a book on a conspiracy theory worthy of David Icke. This book was read by another character, after he read a review of it in the Fortean Times! (Apparently the book was not reviewed anywhere else, as it was so weird!)

Whether this is just window dressing, or an essential part of the plot, I won't know till I finish the book, but the book does contain other themes that Forteans will enjoy.
 
D-Day by Antony Beevor. Beevor ties together fragmented stories from combatants, military records and the French civilians affected by the landings into an extremely readable book. He shows how close the Allies came to disaster for any number of reasons, and reveals the rivalry and sheer hatred between the various allied commanders. Unfortunately Bernard Montgomery doesn't come out it as well as I anticipated he would.

Great read even if your not into military history.
 
gncxx said:
CarlosTheDJ said:
Not a suggestion, but I have been reading about Kim Newman's "Anno Dracula" novels and they sound fantastic!

Has anyone here read them?
Click to expand...

I read the first one, and enjoyed it although it does depend on how much tolerance you have for Newman's insistence on packing in as many references to other works as he possibly can. Unequivocably love his film criticism, though (he's writing a new edition of Nightmare Movies! Yay!).
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I'm half way through it now and I think it's great, I'm not really into that whole vampire thang that's seems to be huge at the moment, but this is really well done, very believable (or maybe I'm just easily convinced!).
 
Paranormal Edinburgh by Gordon Rutter

Paranormal Edinburgh by Gordon Rutter

Just finished Paranormal Edinburgh by our own Gordon Rutter and thoroughly enjoyed it, well done mate. Split into various chapters Gordon presents stories of big cats, witches, fairies, ghosts and UFO's all centred around "Auld Reekie", a city that also claims to be the most haunted city in Britain. The book is packed with pictures, taken by Gordon himself, offering views and images of Scotland's capital you wouldn't normally see on the "tartan/whisky' holiday. There are also one or two illustrations from Gordon's own private collection which are a pleasure to view, thanks for sharing them.
Additionally Gordon tags us along on some investigations into The Covenanter's prison, St. Mary's Close and The Vaults. I'm visiting said Prison in a few weeks and thanks to Gordon I won't be buying into everything the guide tells me. There's a few stories in here I haven't heard before with a particular liking for the The Famous Lafayette story and the family plagued by playing cards, the latter being a Fortean story/theme I've never encountered before. Presented in a matter of fact of style kudos should be given for Gordon not offering his own explanations for the events and tales he tells, I applaud authors who fill Fortean books with research rather than their own take on such subjects. If I have any complaint it would be that I'd like the book to be longer, Gordon obviously has more tales to tell!

mooks out
 
If any literary genre confirms Sturgeon's Law it's True Crime (although 90% crap might be a little on the conservative side).

However, I'd like to thoroughly second the review of Preston and Spezi's, The Monster of Florence contained in FT 252.

I can't really add anything to the review. It's a gripping read which, if a work of fiction, would probably be condemned for being too far-fetched - you honestly couldn't make it up. As the reviewer states, the second half of the book, which covers the increasingly bizarre theories resorted to by certain members of the investigating authorities, will be of interest to many FT readers. Possibly the most disturbing aspect of an epic and sorry tale which contains many disturbing aspects, is the fact that those accused of murdering Meredith Kercher are at the mercy of an investigator who appears to be unhinged, and has a history of using the ravings of an internet conspiracy website as 'evidence'.

Having, probably unfairly, condemned the whole genre, I'm going to make up for it a little by recommending three other titles which might loosely fit into the True Crime pigeonhole.

North Soho 999: A True Story of Gun-crime in 1940s London, by Paul Willetts. Solid stuff, nothing particularly Fortean apart from the coincidence that Albert Pierrepoint walked past the aftermath of the shooting on his way to the Fitzroy Tavern.

Jack of Jumps, by David Seabrook. This got some unfavourable reviews. It's certainly somewhat gratuitous, the slightly Ellroyesque style sometimes grates and the attempts at hardboiled humour do occasionally fall flat, but I think it's still a thoroughly interesting read if simply for the rather grim and sickly light it throws on 60's London.

Shot in the Heart, by Mikal Gilmore. I've recommended this many times before and I don't want to bore anyone. Briefly - ostensibly the story of Gary Gilmore, as told by his brother. A kind of biography then. But add to that a series of haunted houses and a family's conviction that it is being pursued across the US by a malevolent 'something'. A strange and disturbing story that contains some of the most genuinely chilling passages I've read.
 
I'm munching my way through Montague Summers on The Vampire. At least, my cheap Senate p/b reprint, 1995, plainly calls it "The Vampire" but this is a photo-reprint of The Vampire, His Kith & Kin, 1928. It's the first half of his two-part study. The second part is "The Vampire in Europe," available online but that's not properly unzipping itself for me. Not tonight anyway . . .

Many readers find Summers heavy going. He seems to have been one of those campers who queen around in religious guise: he took minor Anglican orders but seems not to have been the Catholic priest he claimed to be. He certainly makes a great display of curious learning. I'd call him a library hoe: he turns over a lot of material and we can pick out the plums. I take with a pinch of salt the implication that he has read or digested one tenth of his sources.

He enjoys inordinately tales of necrophilia but since these are tales of the living preying on the dead, I am not convinced they are so much necessary as entertaining. You may get the feeling this was aimed at a market not exactly scholarly. He may be on stronger ground when he relates vampirism to the fear of reprisals from the dead and the rites some societies have to appease the dead, including shedding their own blood.

Summers is as likely as Fort to produce indigestion in inexperienced readers. As a bit of a library hoe myself, I am glad to have this complete version to hand. Summers does stoop to translate the Latin and some of the Greek can be fathomed, if you have some notion of the alphabet. The French, tellingly, he leaves for the reader to translate. A smattering will suffice, after all there are a limited number of things you can do to a corpse in a French brothel. Posh porn demands a certain submissive position on the part of the reader. The rewards in this case exceded my expenditure (£1:50 in Oxfam) but it may all fox yer average Goth sucker. Definitely one for the library, if you are still so cadaverous as to own one. :vampire:
 
GHOSTS CAUGHT ON FILM 2

Ghosts Caught On Film 2is the third of these such books published by David and Charles but this is the first edited by Jim Eaton. All three of these books are a great addition to a Fortean book shelf simply because they present each picture in full colour printed on quality paper. In fact the presentation of all three books is bar none.

While the first two books featured photographs that I'd seen before, actually some photos I'd come across in those books I'd already encountered a debunk for, the third book presents all new photographs to me with the exception of two. One I'd encountered in FT and the other on these very boards.

Again each photo is given it's own page and is printed well: some look real, some look like simulacra, some look like natural patterns in wood or shadows from lights and some look fake, Eaton includes a chapter with examples of how to spot fakes.

Eaton himself offers no real in depth dissection of the pictures he presents (much the same as the previous two books by Dr. Melvyn Willin) but presents them to the reader to make up their own minds.

If you believe or not it's still nice to have pictures of these things that you can refer to by simply taking it down from your own bookshelf.

mooks out
 
I enjoyed The Most Dangerous Enemy - A history of the Battle of Britain by Stephen Bungay.

Lots of detail. Lots of characterisation. Grand narrative punctuated and coloured with countless little tales. A fascinating read that destroys the myths but supplies a whole swathe of new reasons for admiration and importance, on both sides.
 
I'm reading 'The Game', by Laurie R. King.

It's 1924, and Sherlock Holmes (who must be in his 60s) is married to a 24 year old woman. At the instigation of his brother Mycroft, Sherlock and his partner set off for India to search for secret agent 'Kim' on the NW frontier, where the new Bolshevik regime in Russia may be following in the footsteps of the Tsar...
(And you thought Kim was just a character created by Rudyard Kipling... ;) )

Sounds daft, but is well-written and full of a lot of period detail, so it's quite good fun, and fans of Doyle and Kipling will enjoy spotting the literary refences.

Before that I read "Written in Blood" by Chris Collett; Publisher London : Piatkus, 2006. (NB: there are many books with this title, including non-fiction!)
It started off like a standard Police Procedural, but then got more complicated as its hero DI Mariner pursues a personal angle on a crime he's not officially involved in...

A complex but satisfying plot, one of the best I've read for some time.
 
Am reading "Gravity's Rainbow", the infamous book by Thomas Pynchon. It's a weird book, some parts are very easy going, others are labyrinths of words to drown in. But it has a lot of Fortean themes ... a weird WW2 psychic / psychological reaserch laboratory ... weird conspiracies and espionage ... supernatural events like the angel over Lubeck ... and of course the strange correlation between the one-night-stands of the main character and the impacts of german rockets on London.

Strange that the reviews never mentioned all this ...
 
Started and finished The 39 Steps yesterday: it's a race of a read. Really fast moving, good fun, and really short.
 
uair01 said:
Am reading "Gravity's Rainbow", the infamous book by Thomas Pynchon. It's a weird book, some parts are very easy going, others are labyrinths of words to drown in. But it has a lot of Fortean themes ... a weird WW2 psychic / psychological reaserch laboratory ... weird conspiracies and espionage ... supernatural events like the angel over Lubeck ... and of course the strange correlation between the one-night-stands of the main character and the impacts of german rockets on London.

Strange that the reviews never mentioned all this ...
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It's a good read, well worth staying with. The climax just blew me away!

Mijn hoofd ontploft echt!
 
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