On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:

On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:

Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
series she reads, but of course, while I was there...

Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
"complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
is neither.

In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
around on TV.

Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?

Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
looking for.

Roberts is an authorial chameleon! I have been disappointed with his
mimicing pastiches mainly because of content. My favourite of his own
style, (if he has one), is the first of three parts of Jack Glass. It
reflects the characters and the background as do the different styles in
parts 2 and 3. Part 1 is dark, part 2 is more refined being about an
upper class, part 3 is brilliant physics fun.

Here is the first page of Jack Glass.
This narrative, which I hereby doctorwatson for your benefit, o reader, concerns the greatest mystery of our time. Of course I’m talking about McAuley’s alleged ‘discovery’ of a method of travelling faster than light, and about the murders and betrayals and violence this discovery
has occasioned. Because, after all – FTL! We all know it is impossible,
we know every one of us that the laws of physics disallow it. But still!
And again, this narrative has to do with the greatest mind I have known
– the celebrated, or infamous, Jack Glass. The one, the only Jack Glass: detective, teacher, protector and murderer, an individual gifted with extraordinary interpretive powers when it comes to murder because he was
so well acquainted with murder. A quantity of blood is spilled in this
story, I’m sorry to say; and a good many people die; and there is some politics too. There is danger and fear. Accordingly I have told his tale
in the form of a murder mystery; or to be more precise (and at all costs
we must be precise) three, connected murder mysteries.

But I intend to play fair with you, reader, right from the start, or I’m
no true Watson. So let me tell everything now, at the beginning, before
the story gets going.
One of these mysteries is a prison story. One is a regular whodunit. One
is a locked-room mystery. I can’t promise that they’re necessarily presented to you in that order; but it should be easy for you work out
which is which, and to sort them out accordingly. Unless you find that
each of them is all three at once, in which case I’m not sure I can help
you.
In each case the murderer is the same individual – of course, Jack Glass himself. How could it be otherwise? Has there ever been a more
celebrated murderer?
That’s fair, I hope?
Your task is to read these accounts, and solve the mysteries and
identify the murderer. Even though I have already told you the solution,
the solution will surprise you. If the revelation in each case is
anything less than a surprise, then I will have failed.
I do not like to fail.

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:

On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:

Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
series she reads, but of course, while I was there...

Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
"complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
is neither.

In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
around on TV.

Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?

Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
looking for.

Roberts is an authorial chameleon!

Yes, exactly! Well said. This is a significant part of my
(minor) puzzle in picking something to read by him.

I have been disappointed with his
mimicing pastiches mainly because of content.

And this touches on two other parts of the puzzle. The content
matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely - my brain
turns reading such things into a parallel comparison exercise,
and I can't/don't simply enjoy reading the story. (Of course,
if I'm unfamiliar with what's being paralleled, that actually
works better for me.)

My favourite of his own
style, (if he has one), is the first of three parts of Jack Glass. It reflects the characters and the background as do the different styles in parts 2 and 3. Part 1 is dark, part 2 is more refined being about an
upper class, part 3 is brilliant physics fun.

Thank you for the excerpt below. I have no doubt he is a skilled
writer, capable of setting mood, tone, etc. I have no doubt I
would greatly enjoy some of his works - and greatly dislike
others. It's hard right now to see which might be which.

Thanks,
Tony

Here is the first page of Jack Glass.
This narrative, which I hereby doctorwatson for your benefit, o reader, concerns the greatest mystery of our time. Of course I’m talking about McAuley’s alleged ‘discovery’ of a method of travelling faster than light, and about the murders and betrayals and violence this discovery
has occasioned. Because, after all – FTL! We all know it is impossible,
we know every one of us that the laws of physics disallow it. But still!
And again, this narrative has to do with the greatest mind I have known
– the celebrated, or infamous, Jack Glass. The one, the only Jack Glass: detective, teacher, protector and murderer, an individual gifted with extraordinary interpretive powers when it comes to murder because he was
so well acquainted with murder. A quantity of blood is spilled in this
story, I’m sorry to say; and a good many people die; and there is some politics too. There is danger and fear. Accordingly I have told his tale
in the form of a murder mystery; or to be more precise (and at all costs
we must be precise) three, connected murder mysteries.

But I intend to play fair with you, reader, right from the start, or I’m
no true Watson. So let me tell everything now, at the beginning, before
the story gets going.
One of these mysteries is a prison story. One is a regular whodunit. One
is a locked-room mystery. I can’t promise that they’re necessarily presented to you in that order; but it should be easy for you work out
which is which, and to sort them out accordingly. Unless you find that
each of them is all three at once, in which case I’m not sure I can help you.
In each case the murderer is the same individual – of course, Jack Glass himself. How could it be otherwise? Has there ever been a more
celebrated murderer?
That’s fair, I hope?
Your task is to read these accounts, and solve the mysteries and
identify the murderer. Even though I have already told you the solution,
the solution will surprise you. If the revelation in each case is
anything less than a surprise, then I will have failed.
I do not like to fail.

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:

On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely

Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.

One star for Swiftly, where the British Empire exploits Lilliputian
slaves for great wealth but the French might invade with their
Brognagnian? giants. The SF element is enhanced with the Lilliputian
slaves exploiting slaves the same degree smaller than themselves and so
on, same with the giants.

Solid 3 stars for the non-patiches, By Light Alone, nutrients by
photosynthesis through hair for poor, through eating by the wealthy some
of whom demonstrate conspicuous consumption through baldness,(Surprise,
there is conflict), and Stone, mainly about quantum physics.

Those four, the Verne and Jack Glass are those that I have read and Jack
Glass is my clear favourite. The titles when he copies literary giants
usually have a pun in them identifying the book or author.



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* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 1/04/24 17:42, Titus G wrote:

Those four, the Verne and Jack Glass are those that I have read

And 3 star Yellow Blue Tibia.

and Jack

Glass is my clear favourite. The titles when he copies literary giants usually have a pun in them identifying the book or author.

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

In article <uuddut$2a3re$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote: >On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:

On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely

Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.

Don't forget Godzilla vs. The Thing, in which the Thing referred to was actually Mothra.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: Former users of Netcom shell (1989-2000) (3:633/280.2@fidonet)

On 1 Apr 2024 12:50:44 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

In article <uuddut$2a3re$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> = wrote:

On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:

On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:

On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely

Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.

Don't forget Godzilla vs. The Thing, in which the Thing referred to was >actually Mothra.

Ah -- an edited version of /Mothra vs. Godzilla/.

Which introduced a trope -- Mothra /herself/ isn't effective, but her
newly hatched youngling(s) defeat Godzilla by encasing it in the silk
they /should/ be using for their cocoons. This turns up in at least
two other movies.

The question this raises, of course, is: how is it that Godzilla
always knows when Mothra is old and weak and only appears then?
--=20
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

--- MBSE BBS v1.0.8.4 (Linux-x86_64)
* Origin: A noiseless patient Spider (3:633/280.2@fidonet)