Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

Up next is a very famous story - 'A Martian Odyssey' by Stanley G. Weinbaum - which I read once before but have since forgotten except for a very vague impression. I just finished 'The Forgotten Man of Space' by P. Schuyler Miller, and very much enjoyed it. The stories have been winners.

A couple of notes…I loved his novel Green Ice, and I thought The Virgin Kills, and Death in a Bowl, were pretty nifty too. But Green Ice is the great neglected hardboiled novel. Also, I read one of the tales in this book when I read the anthology called Hard-Boiled Dicks (suddenly want a hot dog…where did that come from?…). Lastly, sadly, I think once I’m done with this, there’s not much Whitfield left to find.

This novel is fascinating - starting to wish it were longer. And on that note, it’s reminding me just a teeny bit of The Magus by John Fowles. I’m also getting vibes like in You’re All Alone by Fritz Leiber, or The Glamour by Christopher Priest. Actually, when I was barely into it I checked if it led to the movie Limitless, but of course that was an Alan Glynn novel. Finally, a bit John Blackburn - but better.

I’m gonna sneak this in, ahead of the next Amber book. I don’t want to feel obligated to go back to Amber, every other book. But close - maybe two books, followed by Amber. That way things don’t feel so regimented, but Amber doesn’t sit under Currently Reading all year. Anyway, I’m way too curious about this Priestley.

Enjoyed ‘The Numberless Shadows’ - great twist and shoot-out - but I would say it is not his best spy story. I didn’t even associate Brown with espionage fiction, until I started digging deep into his short stories. Mad Man’s Holiday, and Whispering Death, had some absolutely terrific spy tales…mainly because they were so weird, even psychedelic.

Okay, so I don’t think this year is going to be quite the Fredric Brown brouhaha that suddenly erupted last year - partly because I only need a few more books in this series. I can already tell that The Case of the Dancing Sandwiches is going to give me trouble - acquiring, never mind price. But that’ll be later. I should read more of this one tonight, and then wrap it up on the ol’ birthday.

This book marks the start of my plan to clean up some of my unfinished Fantasy reading - series stuff I've let sit for too long. It has been fun becoming re-acquainted with Zelazny's particular style, and I also need to get back to Dalglish, McKinley, and Beaulieu. I also have a trilogy by Mark Lawrence that I never got to...and actually, the first five books of A Song of Fire and Ice! Not sure when that will happen.

Well, there was no way I was gonna re-read Books 1-5 after about 25 years, but I’ll always be a bit regretful that I waited this long to get with this series again. I’m gonna do my best to understand the realm, the people and creatures, and the rules, as things go along. I can say I’m really enjoying Book 6 - but my fave Zelazny is probably always going to be the standalone Jack of Shadows, by a wide margin.

Time to tackle this book, after ignoring it for too long. The first story is by James Hogg, and I absolutely loved his novel The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner, so I’m excited to be reading something else by him: ‘The Surpassing Adventures of Allan Gordon’. It’s a long story, and I tend to like those. It does keep me from Amber and Fredric Brown a little longer, but that’s okay. Soon…

Once again, my big cup of tea waiting for me right up my alley.

Back to the Land of the Eternally Snarky (but it amuses me). Anyway - including the Army of Snarkleoids, I love the start of this one. Small sample size yet, but this has a high mean rating for a Ramsey Campbell novel.

Enjoyed 'The Great Sacrifice' by George C. Wallis...but, would they really DO that? Would they??

What seems like a lifetime ago (well, it kinda was), I read Books 1 through 5 and then just left this big thing to sit and sulk. But, after Ramsey Campbell, I will get going with Amber again - probably on a basis of one Amber book, one something not an Amber book, then Amber again, then a break from Amber, then right back to…you get it.

I think his birthday is comin’ up. January 4th, maybe? I forget. I may be laboring under a misapprehension. Anyway, always a pleasure to get into it again with one of my favourite writers.

So, I’ll get this mini-series done before the year ends, plus a Beta Ray Bill 3-parter, and the graphic novel called The Death of Captain Marvel (that will be a re-read). All that plus the very short novel called A Ring of Roses will put me at 300 books for the year or just over. A small personal goal that I wasn’t going to worry about, but as soon as I felt some dinosaurs would be fun, I decided to go for it.

Alright, well - so far, I have no reason to drop any issues of this to 3 stars or lower. It’s fun. The covers are great - I would perhaps have not had this cover look quite so washed out. I thought maybe G. I. Robot was getting written out…but he’s managed to, uh, re-surface. Meanwhile, I guess most of these characters are from all over the DC universe, because if there’s a flaw here it’s lack, of, well, death.

I think I’ll do 4 issues of this per day, which means I’ll wrap it up on Dec. 31st.

This is fun - I like this. Thanks to my War comics phase, as a break from superheroes, I’m familiar with a few of these characters; I’ve read some Enemy Ace stuff…and G. I. Robot is actually from the Creature Commandoes (some kind of film or TV series coming, but I suspect the robot won’t appear). I remember collecting this mini-series as it came out, and not reading it. Now is the time.

I’m re-discovering why I liked this one so much the first time. When London shifts to a Lovecraftian version of London - and Mel becomes Melaphyre the Technomancer, the book gets even better. And this time I know what a Tereleptil is, and why the Doctor quips about suing for property damage.