Reading: November 2011
Nov. 30th, 2011 03:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
daddytoddThis was the month for Marion's romance/gothic/"issue" stories. I enjoyed some of these far more than I thought I would.
10/31/2011 Shatner Rules (audiobook) by William Shatner with Chris Regan
11/01/2011 Castle Terror by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/04/2011 Bluebeard’s Daughter by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/06/2011 Drums of Darkness by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/15/2011 Dies the Fire (audiobook) by S.M. Stirling
11/17/2011 Quadrophenia Director’s Cut (cd box set book) by Pete Townshend et al.
11/20/2011 Parable of the Sower (audiobook) by Octavia E. Butler
11/20/2011 Can Ellen be Saved? by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/25/2011 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (audiobook) by Douglas Adams
11/26/2011 Souvenir of Monique by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/28/2011 Hunters of the Red Moon by Marion Zimmer Bradley & Paul Edwin Zimmer
11/30/2011 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (audiobook) by Douglas Adams
"Castle Terror" was pretty damn good. It would've made a great Hitchcock movie. "Bluebeard's Daughter" was not as good; "Drums of Darkness" was fun, and could easily take place in the Colin/Clare universe. "Souvenir of Monique" was OK.
"Can Ellen be Saved?" was absolutely terrible. The dialog was abysmal -- it sounds like the dialog from some awful "ripped-from-the-headlines" Movie of the Week in the early '70's. Hehe. I don't blame Marion. I suspect there was little she could do with the source material.
Once done with the romances, I picked up "Hunters of the Red Moon." I kept having flashes of deja vu while reading the first three or four chapters, but after that, I didn't remember anything. I suspect I read the beginning back in the day, but abandoned it before finishing. I really enjoyed it, and don't understand why I never finished it on my first attempt. I kind of miss short, complete novels like this that can be easily read during a single sitting. Everything has to be 100,000 words or more these days. 45,000-word gems like this don't get published anymore.
On the audio front, I went from the Shatner memoir to a couple of post-apocalyptic books. Stirling's "Dies the Fire" was pretty terrible. It mostly consisted of Fan Service -- the only successful survivors of the Death of Technology are Celtic minstrels and SCA nerds. M-hm.
In sharp contrast, Octavia Butler's grim masterpiece, "Parable of the Sower," is absolute genius. I stared "Parable of the Talents" right after, but decided to take a detour into something lighter, so I started in on the Douglas Adams-narrated audios of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books. Lots of fun, but I do need to get back to Butler's "Parable."
I only have a handful of Bradley left: The Survivors, Warrior Woman, The Heirs of Hammerfell and a half-dozen "collaborations" from the '90's. And, of course, the lesbian romances from the '60's. I will probably read those last.
10/31/2011 Shatner Rules (audiobook) by William Shatner with Chris Regan
11/01/2011 Castle Terror by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/04/2011 Bluebeard’s Daughter by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/06/2011 Drums of Darkness by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/15/2011 Dies the Fire (audiobook) by S.M. Stirling
11/17/2011 Quadrophenia Director’s Cut (cd box set book) by Pete Townshend et al.
11/20/2011 Parable of the Sower (audiobook) by Octavia E. Butler
11/20/2011 Can Ellen be Saved? by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/25/2011 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (audiobook) by Douglas Adams
11/26/2011 Souvenir of Monique by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11/28/2011 Hunters of the Red Moon by Marion Zimmer Bradley & Paul Edwin Zimmer
11/30/2011 The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (audiobook) by Douglas Adams
"Castle Terror" was pretty damn good. It would've made a great Hitchcock movie. "Bluebeard's Daughter" was not as good; "Drums of Darkness" was fun, and could easily take place in the Colin/Clare universe. "Souvenir of Monique" was OK.
"Can Ellen be Saved?" was absolutely terrible. The dialog was abysmal -- it sounds like the dialog from some awful "ripped-from-the-headlines" Movie of the Week in the early '70's. Hehe. I don't blame Marion. I suspect there was little she could do with the source material.
Once done with the romances, I picked up "Hunters of the Red Moon." I kept having flashes of deja vu while reading the first three or four chapters, but after that, I didn't remember anything. I suspect I read the beginning back in the day, but abandoned it before finishing. I really enjoyed it, and don't understand why I never finished it on my first attempt. I kind of miss short, complete novels like this that can be easily read during a single sitting. Everything has to be 100,000 words or more these days. 45,000-word gems like this don't get published anymore.
On the audio front, I went from the Shatner memoir to a couple of post-apocalyptic books. Stirling's "Dies the Fire" was pretty terrible. It mostly consisted of Fan Service -- the only successful survivors of the Death of Technology are Celtic minstrels and SCA nerds. M-hm.
In sharp contrast, Octavia Butler's grim masterpiece, "Parable of the Sower," is absolute genius. I stared "Parable of the Talents" right after, but decided to take a detour into something lighter, so I started in on the Douglas Adams-narrated audios of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" books. Lots of fun, but I do need to get back to Butler's "Parable."
I only have a handful of Bradley left: The Survivors, Warrior Woman, The Heirs of Hammerfell and a half-dozen "collaborations" from the '90's. And, of course, the lesbian romances from the '60's. I will probably read those last.
