I read the majority of the Raymond Chandler book quite a while ago. I don't think I got to them all. But now I have acquired all of them (not that crappy Poodle Springs one, Im not reading that again) and I embark upon the great Chandler re-read of however-long-it-ends-up-taking-me. I won't go all nuts reviewing this since pretty much everyone already has a review and I have been on a bit of a roll lately, reading wise.Freaking brilliant, awesome descriptions, some of the best in fiction. Characters darker than that matter that scientists can't find but are pretty sure makes up 90 percent of the matter in the universe. (see, here is where Chandler is waaaay better than me at this kind of stuff). this was a story I am quite familiar with from earlier reading, copycat books and that kind of unfortunate movie where Bogie makes himself gay by turning up the brim of his hat. But I digress. Though I am thoroughly familiar with the plot, I still could not put the damn thing down. Really, really great book. Also awesome 5*
Pretty good book, flawed in many ways. Reminds me a bit of "The Excecutioner" but much better written.
The story of a man, Max Fischer, having an affair with his conniving secretary. Fischer hires a psycho to kill his wife. The psycho is the secretary's boyfriend. In true noir fashion, everything goes to hell. This was a collaboration involving Ken Bruen and Jason Starr. I have never read any Starr. My feelings about Bruen are overwhelmingly positive. I found this book to be generally worthwhile to read, though I do not think it stands up to any of Bruen's solo material. I will read the two others in this series at some point.
The sixth in Bruen's Inspector Brant series about a group of police officers in South London. Fr whatever reason I read this one first. I think my enjoyment suffered a little bit for not having read the previous volumes. Despite this, I found Calibre to be an excellent read. Not as deep and soul-searching as the The Guards, it was still a well written, nicely plotted and just really fun book. The book is mainly concerned with the attempt to locate a serial killer working in South London. This particular character kills people who he finds to be rude or I'll mannered in public. (remind me never to go to South London). The characterization is done quite well and the interactions between the characters are complex and always interesting.Clearly I should have started with the first in the series, A White Arrest. This book is just short of five stars for me.
This is another very good book, the second in the Felix Castor series and the second that I have really enjoyed. This is what the Dresden books should be (who knows, maybe the later ones are).
Pretty disappointed with this one. The premise of this book is that the US was taken over by the "Pan Asians". The last remaining vestige of the US military consists of a few scientists and an advertising writer. Rather than give up, the ad guy decides to use the time honored military tactic of making up a fake religion and using the newly invented "Ledbetter Effect*" to beat back the yellow menace once and for all.The book is just absurd wish fulfillment. Utterly goofy and filled with racial pejoratives that might have been acceptable When this book was written, 1941, but is very jarring to read today.
I am a Heinlein fanboy but I would skip this one unless you are a completist. Two stars including one just because I love Heinlein.
*The Ledbetter Effect is the well known scientific effect of using radiation to do whatever the fuck you want. See also Alchemy or Handwavium.
I know a lot of people disagree on this book but I found it to be very fast and compulsively readable. Very well done IF...this is a big if...this book is all about setup. The next few books need to come through on the promise of the first book. I am giving this four stars but this rating is dependent on the following book.
No time for a proper review so here's another episode of Ed's Random Thoughts (in no particular order).Prince Honorus Jorg Ancrath is a complete sociopathic asshole. Brutal, thuggish, amoral...and awesome. Seriously, the guy seems all super emo at first and then just like a prick but by the end of the book it totally makes sense. I found myself both feeling closer to and more distant from Jorg as the book went on. This was quite a feat of writing from Mr. Lawrence. This book is well written throughout. I am a new fan of the author's for sure. Avacado may be a super food but without bacon, what is it really? Guacamole fodder, that's what.
SPOILER
This book is set in the future.......fuuuuuuuuuck, that totally blew my fucking mind.
Ahhhhhhhhh........... Oh my God. I'm back. I'm home. All the time, it was... We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!
END SPOILER
Really, really good book. I look forward to the sequel.
This is my second time through this book and I think I agree with my earlier four star rating, though in retrospect it may have dropped a half of a star or so (I'm sure Mr. Ellroy will lose a lot of sleep over this). This is the best of Ellroy's early books that I have read. Though serial killer fiction is well past overdone now, it was pretty cutting edge when Killer on the Road was written. It is a chilling book that captures your attention and fixes it on something, and someone, very ugly.This is a fairly graphic book, though nothing like the brutal violence of The Big Nowhere (in the eyesockets? Is that even possible?)
For those who demand books that don't involve dog murder, there is a fairly graphic example early on in this one. (You were warned Melki)
Brilliant WW2 era spy novel. Furst's characters are full and realistic, his dialog is crisp and believable, the plotting intricate and logical. This book was a great, sprawling, epic story of a Bulgarian, Khristo Stoianev, recruited by the NKVD(Soviet secret police and forerunner of the KGB and FSB) in the lead up to the second world war. Stoianev falls victim to one of Stalin's irrational purges during Stoianev's operations in the Spanish Civil War. He escapes to France, closely pursued by his former NKVD colleagues, and hilarity ensues.I recommend this book to anyone even tangentially interested in spy fiction, the second world war or the inner workings of Soviet espionage organizations.
I was only partially impressed by this book, one of Ellroy's earlier novels. Sometimes the writing is awesome, some parts of this book show flashes of his future brilliance. Mostly the plot is simplistic and illogical. The protagonist, Homicide investigator Lloyd Hopkins, appears to solve cases by pulling the clues directly from his ass. Even with these significant problems, Ellroy's ability as a writer of prose makes this a worthwhile read.
Charlie Hardie is the functional equivalent of a comic book hero, and I mean that in the best possible way. This is the second of the three (so far?) books chronicling Hardie's war against the secret group who actually controls the United States. Hardie takes an amazing amount of punishment, as usual, and dishes out even more. Though these books aren't, in my opinion, up to the usual plotting and prose standards of some earlier Swierczynski books (notably The Wheelman and The Blonde), they are certainly a lot of fun to read.
Jesus this book was pretty freaking good in the end. Once again I was soooooo bored in the beginning of this book as Abbott once again took her sweet time getting the story going. But when the story got going? Ho Lee Shit can she write. I wish on a stack of wish-bibles or whatever that she would get to the goddamned point early on in a book so that I could just groove on the awesomeness that is Megan Abbott. When she gets a head of steam she is about the best thing going in retro noir fiction. I heartily rec this book to anyone who likes good crime fiction, or good fiction generally.
In the great pantheon of crime books I have read in the last two weeks, I solidly place The man who refers to himself as Roy Martin between the one who calls himself Parker (the pinnacle) and the one who calls himself Nolan (the ordinary).This was a very sharp, tightly written, very hardboiled, mean, nasty brutish and short book. I really had a good time reading it and I suspect any fans of Parker will feel the same. Roy Martin is one seriously high toned son of a bitch. A mean bastard and colder than a dry ice enema. Roy is a hell of a protagonist and I'm glad to have read his story...even more glad never to have met him. I will definitely be reading more of his books though I have been led to believe the books get less and less as they go on. Roy Martin is not a guy I would want to underestimate though.