Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

It's reminding me - just the teeniest bit - of His Name Was Death, by Fredric Brown, so that's cool. It's the structure - the master key is kind of like the money in the Brown novel. Plus I get that setting I like a lot: a building full of various characters whose lives only connect because they are tenants (or concierges) at one location. I'm also impressed that an entire building like this can be moved...

It’s gonna be weird.

I would have enjoyed it anyway - but I think my re-read of Christmas on a Rational Planet helped soften me up for more of this type of SF, ie. put the pieces together as best you can, and just hang on.

Apparently, I read a Culture novel pastiche, when I read the Doctor Who novel called The Also People by Ben Aaronovitch (plus, a kind of follow-up that's part of a Who spin-off series - Down, by Lawrence Miles). And I have read The Wasp Factory by Banks, plus The Bridge. But not any of his SF. I thought I might get Dancers at the End of Time vibes, but no - this will not be like that, I think...

I'm gonna skip the first two Culture novels, and go to this one first - we'll see how that goes. Other books I may end the year with (or not: The Night of Fear (Christmas mystery novel); Eternity Weeps ( Dr Who re-read); The Ancestor; Insatiability; Obelists at Sea; and either Needful Things, or Natchez Burning (I am considering doing a huge book to end the year).

More Woolrich excellence - I haven’t loved every book by him, but everything this year has been tops, especially the stories in Nightmare. This novel seems to be at that level.

He’s impressed me mightily, recently - I hope he’s at it again!

Very enjoyable, well written, no complaints. My fave Western film is McCabe & Mrs Miller, and this ain't quite like that - more like The Searchers or something - but that's okay. I do feel like I might get back to reading more Westerns. I've read Monte Walsh and loved it, but I never did read Shane...

Okay, I've dived into the Thames, and Chapter One was a good start. Dinah and Cardinal should be a great team, although Dinah needs to get to a happier place. Clearly, if she does, it will be after some trial by fire...

Ha! Under the care of David G. Rowlands, Reggie Fortune would have made a fine assistant to Lockwood & Co..

From the intro of Roz and Chris, up to The Dying Days, we have perhaps the strangest, easiest to ignore period in the Doctor’s history (I take these books as ‘Casually Canon, Kind Of’). Anyway, the Doctor appeared a bit less on the covers of his own books, I think because the BBC was ready to sweep away the old, and make sure people focused on a new look. Plus, Virgin Books would work a Doctor-less spinoff, soon…

Alright! This time around, with any of these books, I know how to pronounce ‘Cwej’. Plus, I get to revisit Roz - a favourite of mine, even in Oblivion, where Roz wasn’t really Roz but the return of Sgloomi Po, another fave, made it all worthwhile. What else? The 7th Doctor is MY Doctor, though he pulls a bit of Miss Silver, often, in novels from this period, and isn’t around much.

I don’t know why I enjoy “Reaction Videos” so much…but, until I figure out the fascination and how to quell it, I just do. Thames has a pleasant enough way about her when she talks about films as they happen, so I thought I would check out her book. Right, so - Thames, you can consider watching one Western I love: McCabe & Mrs Miller is tops for me; or Johnny Guitar, or North to Alaska! Don’t ever have to, though.

Well, this will be my Doctor Who Christmas-themed re-read. There’s not much to choose from, unless I consider all the wintry ones. Anyway, Millennial Rites might be fun around New Year, since it’s a New Year story…and I love that Who book! But I’ll worry about that later. This, and then my first Western in a while…

Pretty good. I’m somehow programmed to think that everything I’ve got left to read by Brown - in terms of the novels - will be sub-par, or even suck. That has to do with the rep of his later work, Seabrook the biographer’s remarks, and just generally what stayed out of print while other books came back. But, the deep cuts are turning out to be decent; the old “his bad books better than others’ good ones” situation.

Things got a little Horror-ish, there, for a couple of tales. Fine by me - those two stories were fun!

Shall finish it tonight.