Book Hauls!

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Jayaprakash Satyamurthy

Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

Whoa! As per my previous comments you've got there pound for pound one of the great novels of the 20th Century IMHO.

[GOLLUM]

OK, this evening picked up....

Gargoyles - Thomas Bernhard *From the author of my previously reviewed Wittgenstein's Nephew, one of his earliest novels. Blurb: One morning a doctor and his son set out on daily rounds through the grim mountainous Austrian countryside. They observe the colorful characters they encounter -- from an innkeeper whose wife has been murdered to a crippled musical prodigy kept in a cage -- coping with physical misery, madness, and the brutality of the austere landscape. The parade of human grotesques culminates in a hundred-page monologue by an eccentric, paranoid prince, a relentlessly flowing cascade of words that is classic Bernhard.
Diabloid (story collection) - Mikhail Bulgakov *I technically didn't have this in my possession 'til now.... The only translation of Bulgakov's entire first collection of short stories, works which range from the surreal to science-fiction to parody.
Fellow Passengers (Collected Stories) - Elizabeth Jolley *Collected short fiction of one of Australia's finest and most respected writers. Angela Carter amongst others was a real admirer of Jolley's work.
Varney The Vampyre - James Maclolm Rymer *Wordsworth edn. of the classic penny dreadful. This is one of the thickest books I've ever purchased. Wowee! Almost 1,200 pages and in small print, this represents the entire Varney series consisting originally of 109 parts. I'm been waiting to see this in the shops for a while now as has Wagner the Werewolf. I'm sure J.D. may have something to add about this..otherwise I'll be constantly knocking on his door about it asking for further insights and opinions...

[Daisy-Boo]

Popped in at the book store after work and picked these up.

The Mammoth Book of Alternate Histories - edited by Ian Watson and Ian Whates
Perdido Street Station - China Mieville
(The New) Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain - Betty Edwards (a book about enhancing creativity and artistic confidence.)

[Daisy-Boo]

Start to Draw - Robert Capitolo & Ken Schwab
The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy - David Pringle (Ed.) foreword by Terry Pratchett
Unforgotten - Clare Francis
The Moment She Was Gone - Evan Hunter
The Hanging Valley - Peter Robinson

[AE35Unit]

Originally Posted by Daisy-Boo

The Moment She Was Gone - Evan Hunter

Also known as Ed McBain, the crime writer!

[dask]

THE SPIDER: ROBOT TITANS OF GOTHAM by Norvell Page. Trade paperback omnibus containing three short novels: "Satan's Murder Machines" (The Spider magazine, December 1939); "Death Reign Of The Vampire King" (The Spider magazine, November 1935); "The Octopus" (The Spider magazine, February-March 1939). Great pulp cover by Jim Steranko who, as one of the finest illustrators around, doesn't take a back seat to anybody. Still, it wouldn't have been out of place to reprint the original magzine covers at the beginning of each story. They did it to a story included in an upcoming omnibus at the back of the book. Even in black and white it's stunning. Not every extra need be part of an ad campaign. Not complaining, just fantasizing, and grateful I found this new $15 book on sale at Barnes and Noble for $4.98.

[Daisy-Boo]

Originally Posted by AE35Unit

Also known as Ed McBain, the crime writer!

Yep.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by dask

THE SPIDER: ROBOT TITANS OF GOTHAM by Norvell Page. [...] Not every extra need be part of an ad campaign.

There a great extra for "The Spider" that you can download - a CD-ROM image of the promotional CD-ROM that was issued to bookstores.

It not only has the full text of the book in various ebook formats, it also has a wealth of information, including a "Complete Pulp Story Guide" which includes all 118 cover images and brief information about the plots.

NB This is not a pirate or otherwise illegitimate site. Baen are happy for people to copy and pass around these CD-ROMs, so long as no money changes hands, and they know about this site and are happy with it.

Ah - but I can't give a link. I'm too new. So you'll have to find The Fifth Imperium website and the P04 - The Spider CD web page for yourself, before you can enjoy all the extras.

And if you feel like rewarding Baen for their enlightened attitude, you could always buy the ebook from their webscription website (which I can't give a link to!) or you could get the other Spider ebook "The Spider: City of Doom" which also contains three short novels:
THE CITY DESTROYER from January 1935
THE FACELESS ONE from November 1939
THE COUNCIL OF EVIL from October 1940
from the same place.

[GOLLUM]

Picked up today...
*Sorry for the sightly long-winded notes but these are amongst some of the mostly highly acclaimed works and authors in World Literature who in many cases are only now being revived or unearthed for contemporary audiences.

The General Of The Dead Army - Ismail Kadare *From Albanian's greatest novelist and author of the wonderful Palace of Dreams comes a work that is in fact considered by several critics and readers alike as his greatest masterpiece. The story describes an Italian general, accompanied by his chaplain, charged with the mission of scouring Albania in search of the bones of their fallen countrymen, killed twenty years earlier during WWII. It is a consistently heartfelt lament to all those who have died and been affected by war, but also a beautiful work displaying the skills that make Kadare one of the great modern European writers.
Selected Stories - Robert Walser *NYRB edn. collecting 42 stories including tales, journal extracts, essays etc. from the great but little known Swiss writer, seen as the natural link between Kleist and Kafka and greatly admired by writers including Kafka, Hesse and W.G. Sebald. Described as a genius of singular talents in the vein of Joseph Roth, Bruno Schulz and Gyula Krudy.
Sunflower - Gyula Krudy *NYRB edn. Krudy is known as the great Hungarian writer who haunted the byways of Budapest during which time he spun a prolific output of shorter fiction and novels that animated the mythical in reality. Described are figures including damned poets, doomed architects and rude country squires who reside in worlds that blend comic, erotic, macabre and dream-like elements to masterful effect. Sunflower follows a period in the life of 22 year-old Eveline who is haunted by memories of her ex-fiance as well as being visited upon by the enigmatic Miss Mazkerdai who is a force of nature in her own right. This Gothic fairy tale is a reverie on love and death, countryside and city employing Krudy’s considerable skills as a great prose stylist and who has been described by at least one critic as the “Hungarian Proust”. Adventures of Sinbad is probably still seen as his greatest work and one I'm currently sourcing.
Nightmare Alley - William Lindsay Gresham *NYRB edn. A reprinting of the American underground classic. Nightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a freak-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him and since he is clever, ambitious and hard-nosed he's soon enough going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute "bimbo" (later his wife), before graduating to a full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now....
Fantastic Tales - 19th Century Fantastic Literature Ed. Italo Cavlino. *Replacement copy of what still appears at first glance a quite superb ensemble of some of the the great authors and representative shorts of 19th Century fantastic literature incl. Potocki, Poe, Balzac, Nerval, Bierce, Dickens, Leskov, Gautier, Eichendorf, Gogol, Hawthorne, Vernon Lee, Hoffman, Henry James, Le Fanu and many more.

[elvet]

I started Mark Chadbourn's Age of Misrule and fell in love - I almost can't put it down. It's similar in feel to Fionavar Tapestry - one of my fave books.
Age of Misrule is about how the world cycles between technology and magic. The time of technology is almost over and the magic is starting up. There are 5 modern day characters caught up in strange happenings in England. I love the references to old mythology - The Hunt, Arthur, Winter Queen, etc. I'm so impressed with his writing, that I've ordered another of his trilogies - The Dark Age (Devil in Green, Queen of Sinister, Hounds of Avalon) - and Jack of Ravens.
I also ordered Nyphron Rising by Michael Sullivan and Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews.

[dask]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

There a great extra for "The Spider" that you can download - a CD-ROM image of the promotional CD-ROM that was issued to bookstores.

It not only has the full text of the book in various ebook formats, it also has a wealth of information, including a "Complete Pulp Story Guide" which includes all 118 cover images and brief information about the plots.

NB This is not a pirate or otherwise illegitimate site. Baen are happy for people to copy and pass around these CD-ROMs, so long as no money changes hands, and they know about this site and are happy with it.

Ah - but I can't give a link. I'm too new. So you'll have to find The Fifth Imperium website and the P04 - The Spider CD web page for yourself, before you can enjoy all the extras.

And if you feel like rewarding Baen for their enlightened attitude, you could always buy the ebook from their webscription website (which I can't give a link to!) or you could get the other Spider ebook "The Spider: City of Doom" which also contains three short novels:
THE CITY DESTROYER from January 1935
THE FACELESS ONE from November 1939
THE COUNCIL OF EVIL from October 1940
from the same place.

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out when I have time. As for CITY OF DOOM: already have it in true-book form.

[Ross Foster]

Hello, new to the site, four days so far. Anyway; I've recently read the night angel trilogy by Brent Weeks and it was/is awesome. If, like me, the void left by Gemmil is in need to filling [never completely] I would give this trilogy a go. Some briiliant chracters and scenes that really keep you up til silly hours in the morning. Also, the nightside books by Simon Green are really good too. My apologies if these little gems have alreday been discussed but this is a very long thread and i only have a couple of hours.

[Diggler]

Had to go over the other side of the country for a couple of weeks. While I was there I hit up the op-shops and a couple of second-hand book stores.

Human Stock by Vaughan Whitlock
Zones by Damien Broderick and Rory Barnes
Dreaming Down-Under: Book 1 edited by Jack Dann
The Overman Culture by Edmund Cooper
Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban
Swansong by Robert R McCammon
The Crow Road by Iain Banks
Clay's Ark by Octavia Butler
The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg
The Days of Perky Pat by Philip K Dick (PKD equals must buy, no matter what)
Up the Line Robert Silverberg
Natures End by Strieber and Kunetka
The Farthest Shore by Ursula Le Guinn

Overall not a huge load of books. I am very happy to have found Clay's Ark, Swansong and Riddley Walker as I have been looking for these for a long time.

[thatollie]

Digs, that's a sweet haul.

[Diggler]

Thanks mate. I was quite elated with what I found