I haven't bought many books in a while, but this last week I added a few new titles to my expansive library. The Science Fiction Book Club had a 50% off sale, so I ordered the remaining two Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom hardcover omnibuses (now I don't have to worry about wearing out my treasured paperbacks with the Michael Whelan cover paintings), and the two titles shown above: C.L. Moore's Northwest of Earth and Max Brooks' World War Z.Northwest of Earth sounds intriguing; apparently it's pulp space opera with a Lovecraftian flavor. I haven't read a lot of Ms. Moore's fiction before, but what few stories I have read seemed superior to most of what was being written at the time. As for World War Z, it's gotten generally positive reviews, and I'm looking forward to reading a good zombie novel.
I also ordered a copy of the last Mike Hammer novel by Mickey Spillane (and Max Allan Collins), The Goliath Bone. Normally, I would have bought that last year as soon as it came out, but I had to wait until I could afford it. I was fortunate enough to have known Mickey, and Collins is a friend, so I'm eager to get my hands on it.
Before I can start on any of those new books, though, I've got to finish reading the spy paperback I'm reading.... and Brian Daley's Han Solo's Revenge, one of the very first Star Wars tie-in novels from the late 70s. I happened upon my copies of both Revenge and its sequel, Han Solo And the Lost Legacy while moving my office, and thought I'd revisit them. So far, it's a perfectly satisfactory space opera adventure novel, refreshingly free of all the history and obsessive continuity that currently afflicts the franchise.
What are you folks reading?
Cool looking stuff. I remember that STAR WARS novel, but I don't recall if I actually had it. I (sorta) cared about the movies in the 1980s..now I doubt I could watch any of them again for a very long time, if ever.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, I'm reading some old DOC SAVAGE novels, E.C. Segar's POPEYE (my two favorite characters), quite a bit of bio-chemistry on stem-cell research for a science fiction virus project I'm working on, and a sizable stack of paleontological papers and journals, 'cuz, well, that's me.
Oh--! I've been enjoying DC's weekly COMICS newspaper very much, too! It's the DC Universe without all the bullsh&%. I'm having a grand time with them, especially Neil Gaiman's take on METAMORPHO.
Highly recommended.
Surprisingly I just finished "Northwest of Earth" - good stuff! Also, I am reading "Ship of the Line" during my morning commute and "Don Quixote" when I go to bed.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed Northwest of EArth. Moore was a helluva writer. I do want to read World War Z too.
ReplyDeleteThe Goliath Bone is excellent - don't think I've ever read any Star Wars books but then I'm one of the few non-fans of the film series.
ReplyDeleteI've got that Han Solo book :) I haven't read it yet. I picked it up in a library sale.
ReplyDeleteCurrently finished reading all the Walking Dead comics by Kirkman I had, up to around issue 60. Wow, those were fun, exciting fast reads. Glad it's still continuing.
Kind of sort of started reading some Marvel Alias series, so good so far.
ERBurroughs: At Earth's Core as I watched the movie on hulu.com recently.
Joe Lansdale, The Bottoms.
Feast of Fear, interviews with Stephen King & sort of started his Rose Madder too.
Louis L'Amour's Sackett's Land.
Martin: I tried to track down an email for you but anyway, I'll post here, I guess you saw the Nova special on stem cells recently on PBS? Here's a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0305/03.html
Thanks! An interesting TV special, but then NOVA usually is.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually lucky in that the University of Minnesota has the cutting edge in certain aspects stem cell technology right now, and I've been able to befriend a few of the doctors and several other researchers. Amazing stuff.
Should you ever need it again, here's my email address:
martinpowell221b@yahoo.com