Two Envelopes And A Phone > Recent Status Updates

I am continuing with a lot of noir and hardboiled picks whenever I go to Crime & Mystery…though I did think I would be in the mood for the opposite right about now. But the noir pick I went to was very disappointing, and I feel like I want to get right back into the sub-genre and give it a chance to un-sour the taste I was left with, thanks to Dead Meet. Chandler seems like a safe bet.

Amazing book. Fascinating. Bleak. I love this.

Enjoying it.

I hope it’s weird and troubling!

I think the next time I go back to this, I’m going to try and do all the remaining handful of stories in one go, so that I can cue up a new SF collection all the sooner. I know it’s rep…but this has been a rough experience for me.

Well, it’s not that long. So, if - as the small sample size of reactions suggests - it’s got problems, I’ll have knocked it off super-quick. This was one of the few Black Lizard books left on shelves of a bookstore that is closing after more than 40 years of being amazing, so I had to get in there and buy some off the grid stuff I had been letting sit. Even this.

I think maybe I should have dealt with this book the other way round...read the Forewards and Afterwords to the stories, and skipped the stories. I'd be done now. Oh well.

It's a terrific read - if I had known more about it, I would have saved it for Pride Month, but that's okay. Anyway - it's weird - I've read this and another novel that have referenced the same Tolstoy quote about families, both over the last few days; I had never encountered that quote before in my life, and then quickly read it in two random reading choices - kind of cool. May have to get more books in this series.

Another Wodehouse re-read. I know there’s a line in this one I love - something like ‘He was called Basher, not because he bashed, but because he looked so like someone who, with only the slightest provocation, would bash.’.

Exactly the kind of Crime novel I wanted right now, and I love everything about it.

Buckingham Palace Blues was an interesting read, so now for another by James Craig. Berlin, 1990…okay, so the time and place bring Atomic Blonde to mind, but I don’t think this will be all that similar.

I also want to get to The Man with Six Senses, by this author. But this one has ended up being first. 1926! Radium Age SF has really become a fascination with me.

I don’t know how to judge this good writing - but it’s entertaining.

I thought I might push through and finish this tonight…but instead, I’ll leave the last lap for tomorrow morning. Time moving backwards scenarios are always head-bending and even a bit draining, as I try to work out if the author’s presentation makes any sense. But this is from 1902, and meant to be funny and bizarre, so I’m not focusing too much on logic - just enjoying the lunacy.

It’s a lot of fun - kind of what I thought I’d get from a French “time in reverse” bit of proto-SF from back in (forward in?!) 1902.

Partway through a story that is included just before the novel proper; it's called 'Yesterday Now", in which Robida starts dabbling with the concept of time reversed. The Sun King is back!

I’m not sure this is a worthwhile enterprise.

I almost got going with this several days ago, then I reneged on it, and now it’s time! I know there will be a lot of typos, sadly.

Wow. I think pages 92 to 112 were some of my favourite pages of anything I ever read. So well done - effect desired, effect achieved with flair. Anyway, The Bride Wore Black, and Night Has a Thousand Eyes, have some serious competition; can this top those? Funny thing is, I think I read Black Alibi too, but it's one of those rare instances where - even with my memory - I can't be sure and treat it as unread.