The SFFaudio Podcast #839 – READALONG: The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown by Lawrence Block

The SFFaudio Podcast #839 – Jesse, Scott Danielson, and Maissa Bessada talk about The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown by Lawrence Block

Talked about on today’s show:
2022, the last book in a series?, where do you go from here?, very meta, The Burglar Who Counted Spoons, the Mondrian, the Spinoza, read them all, high hopes for super preparation, Burglars Can’t Be Choosers, What Mad Universe?, recommend that one to everybody, no Carolyn Kaiser, becomes a regular, he didn’t know what the formula was, imagine my surprise, selling books, thw worst Lawrence Block book, goes down so smooth, worst book is still great, everything in between, how violent is it?, ptsd from reading, A Walk Among The Tombstones, that series, traumatic, ooh this is dark, Westlake has his normal books, the violent ones, Tucker Coe, Donald Westlake, so many series like that, he used to be in television, now he’s an amateur detective, under a whole other name, so many Westlake, Lawrence Block’s still alive, 2 years old, reading this style, ebay, feels out of place, 1977, Bernie Rhoddenbarr doesn’t age, this happened 12 times, Bern, he would have aged up, a spry burglar in the prime of life, drink all day, a cozy, a weird alternate universe, New York didn’t change that much, a reckoning, you can’t be a burglar in modern sociert, video of you, teetering on the edge of oh I hate this, set in the modern, the ideal version of my reality, google’s still there, but Amazon and ebay aren’t, a fantasy a lot of people want to have, he’s american, more like school shootings or lynchings, he chose the apple pie universe, listened to it, totally recommend it, clunkier, Lawrence Block is a smoother writer, the smoothest writer Jesse has ever read, comforting and cozy, he never puts a foot wrong, the meta aspect of it, swirling whirlpool, he convinced me, Chapter 12, asterix asterix asterix, the superdeluxe handlettered version of this book, he’s never that meta, genuine SF, genuine meta SF, a writer for a pulp magazine, transitions to another universe, a capcitor rocketed to the moon, zapped out of existence, wakes up in another world, a dark cold war, their past diverged 30 years prior, fit in without an identity, investigating a parallel world, what we see here, solipsitic with two characters that had it happen to them, one of many parallel worlds, the perfect world of a guy he didn’t like, all the science fiction he’s writing about is now real, the show coming out tonight, the audiobook and the podcast, very very meta, other bad news, Richard Ferrone died in 2022, it can’t go anywhere from here

novels:
Burglars Can’t Be Choosers (1977)
The Burglar in the Closet (1978)
The Burglar Who Liked to Quote Kipling (1979)
The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza (1980)
The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian (1983)
The Burglar Who Traded Ted Williams (1994)
The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart (1995)
The Burglar In The Library (1997)
The Burglar In The Rye (1999)
The Burglar On The Prowl (2004)
The Burglar Who Counted the Spoons (2013)
The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brown (2022)

three short stories:
Like A Thief In The Night
The Burglar Dropped In On Elvis
The Burglar Who Smelled Smoke

a movie version of the second book, Whoopi Goldberg, Bobcat Goldthwait, gender flipped the characters, Hollywood doesn’t do the books exactly right, such a literary guy, Peter Peter is reading a book, the manx, Raffles, stealing from this dynamic, E.W. Honung, Arthur Conan Doyle’s brother in law, that’s cool, a burglar version of Sherlock Holmes, shacked up together, the Moriarty of crime, supercozy, similar to one of the short stories, an American boxer comes to town, burly bodyguards, the biggest diamond you’ve ever seen, the master burglar, amateur cricketer, can’t resist, an amateur amateur, help I’m trapped, there’s a scene referenced in here, Ray Kirschman, gather everybody together, that scene is elided, a ripoff of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe, professional consulting detective, ratiocination, an agent who wrote, his own version of it, a sex quest, Greenwich Village of the 1960s, fishtank instead of orchids, to be his Archie Goodwin, told from the pov of an Archie Goodwin standin, echoing out, if you were a fiction character, being on the typewriter with him, don’t let this all be a dream, the cop-out ending, Lewis Carrol, Little Orphan Annie, 99% literary allusion, when did the plot even start?, The Screaming Mimi, any other Fredric Brown, Arena, Knock, Ballantine, the Star Trek episode, his reputation, a two sentence story, how Knock goes, the last man on earth sat alone in a room, there was a knock at the door, The Case Of The Dancing Sandwiches, Joe Haldeman’s The Hemingway Hoax, alternate universe, came back with Beatles songs, Jefty Is Five, Harlan Ellison, radio shows that stopped existing, books that were never published, really good, read by Harlan Ellison, The Screaming Mimi, read by Stefan Rudnicki, series characters, fantastic stuff, who is this Westlake guy?, Jason Sanford, the Reacher book, that first Reacher book was pretty good, compartmentalized, Fredric Brown’s Hall Of Mirrors, a lock that needs to be opened up to reveal what it is, experimental and thoughtful, doing it seemingly for himself, that meta aspect, an invitation rather than a story, it was a monkey, it was a woman, it was an alien, what made him the last man on earth, couldn’t be much different than this and still be good, can’t really complain, the Burglar series, Sins Of The Father, the Matthew Scudder series, ex-cop, he does his research, his life is a writer, he’s observant, has traveled, a lot of research, found out today, Transnistria, google it and it is real, alcoholic, in AA, a much darker version, fairly cozy, [A Walk Among The Tombstones] Eight Million Ways To Die, they loved the book, would make a great movie, then doesn’t, Reacher is better as a show than a movie, Tom Cruise Reacher movie was fine, more character based, the format, 2nd season in Toronto, a 3rd season, talking with Terence about it, Conan but with a pension, Conan’s not a patriot, other books to read, sitting in a cafe somewhere maybe, the main complaint, the body type, what is Bernie’s size?, taller than Caroline, 99% of this book is dialogue, I opened the cupboard and pulled out some cookies, chili, added some cheddar, whenever that’s happening, throwing down a red herring, that character is thinking, the dialogue is just great, why Carolyn was needed, gets a girlfriend right away, a person to dialogue with, she was the murderer, she goes to prison, lesbian poodle washer, to bounce your dialogue off of, Doctor Watson making notes about what Sherlock Holmes is doing, his writing skill is a combination of limited life experience, deep interest in research, and reading a ton of old stuff he really likes and wants to tell you about, his whole life Lawrence Block’s been a writer, he considered burglary, what’s going on that part of the book, when did the plot start?, in the first book, instead of having money they had credits, instead of a metro card, a subway card, happens in the dark, subconscious time, in the dark, an amazing sequence in What Mad Universe, grab a bunkbed, there’s a blackout right now, aliens are destroying parts of earth, a WWII allegory, a fog of blackness, push through, after getting off of the public transit, somethings walking the streets with canes, a monster coming, meets up with a burglar, drive by dead reckoning, 60 feet that way, then take a right, a super creativity there, a meta-science fiction book set in a science fiction universe, this book is not science fiction at all, influenced, Voltaire underneath all of it, Candide, ties back, back to Spinoza, a rich stew, a chili with cheddar put on top, what you will remember is the coziness, Peter Peter and the four bodyguards, barely remember them, what about the money, stealing from your friend on a ship, doom him again, a cruise ship, assisted living, if he was 30 in 1937, how old is he in 2022, died in a book 20 years earlier, I read all of Lawrence Block’s burglar books just to get all the callbacks, very fun and light, no gore, there’s a dead man in here, Bernie, he’s wearing your tie, Agatha Christie style, a snowstorm, cops can’t come, has to solve the murder, how he writes these books, why don’t we go upstate, takes his typewriter, a comedic element, even death isn’t dark, the apple pie universe, a scoop of ice cream, nobody gets fat, ice cream headache, raising your hand and swirling it, the names, the Cubby Hole, the Bum Rap, just great, this can’t work anymore, New York is unlivable, there’s no customers, what happened to Jesse, went out of business, everything works out in the end, it’s not an uber, your taxi is always there waiting for you, a kind of assisted living, food is good, the Bowlmore being taken down, a commentary on how New York has changed, the bowling alley coming back, because it’s a place where you wear other people’s shoes, multiverse, a strike, a gutterball, a nice metaphor, a thing to bring back, the same setup every time, the thinking, to reframe, the plot’s here!, in the context of What Mad Universe?, swapped for the main character in the other universe, there’s two of them, change places, an interloper, the other Bernie stole something and disappeared, the place broken, the domestic native Bernie breaking into his own shop, there’s a red herring, alternate universe Carolyn, hey there’s a lesbian in my bed and its me, slipped into each other’s minds?, the pocket universe created, dissolved out of existence, he didn’t really write Science Fiction ever, [Make A Prison], Richard Lovelace, he’s not a science fiction writer, other Fredric Brown, doesn’t feel like a science fiction, alternate universes, how does he get there, very Alice In Wonderland, we made it up, oh it happened and we made it up, something Eric [Rabkin], Alice’s Adventures Under The Ground, Alice is bored, the end of the reality, she sees a rabbit, everything after that is fantasy, do that book sometime, should be available, done with metaverses for a while, the Hollywood stamp of a approval, Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022), Deadpool 3 (2024), nothing matters, women are always giving phone numbers, The Burglar Who Counted Spoons, fine, nothing matters, enjoying this book despondently, kill me now, all just here playing our part, even more meta than What Mad Universe, based on a milieu, the cover of the magazine is described, reading this in Startling Stories, #BrassBra bikini, a green space girl costume, this is our uniform, everything about that, Mad Magazine, Colliers, recursion, going deep inside, a story about a writer for a magazine about a story about a writer of a magazine, referencing fans, Surprising Stories, not about science fiction, science fiction is old hat, rocketships in the future, needs to make money, plagiarize Isaac Asimov stories, it was better the second time, that’s the imagination that sparked Bernie into making this universe, the imagination that sparked Lawrence Block, a cat, Nora, a black cat, a Nick?, a dog!, a German Shepherd, therapy dog, dogs with jobs, a lab, even more approachable, naturally good at it, this one will go to school, not Nick, we need a reason to read The Thin Man, Bernie?, Carolyn?, Douglas, dogs named after tree, Douglas Furbanks, his half brother, previous litter, different colour patterns, some stuff on his head, colouration, exhausted this book pretty quick, so entertaining, tell me tomorrow, Bern, star star star, Chapter 37: I explained., we skipped a whole scene, flow so well, not homework, Raffles asking to be fed, dog burglar, keep working on it, two on the schedule, another Simak, Lilith by George MacDonald, 1895, 1969, among the the darkest, the most profound, the cosmic sleep that heals tortured souls, a Christian universalist, salvation is hard won, Mr. Vane owns a library, much like a Raven, the wraith, 351 pages, sounds a little dark for Maissa, children’s books?, Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, The Wood Beyond The World, might be fun, The King Of Elfland’s Daughter, too close to your xmas, Project Pope by Clifford D. Simak, A Choice Of Gods, Mistress Of Mellyn by Victoria Holt, highly regarded, The Tower Treasure by Frank W. Dixon, Hardy Boys, The Mystery Of The 99 Steps, cozy and hilarious, pretty sure Nancy Drew is a lesbian, skinny dipping, blue convertible, doesn’t have a job, always nice, suspicious but too polite to say, a new suspect, pretty sure this one’s a robot, she’s not eating, a lot to read into it, locking people in rooms, that’s gonna solve the problem, her main device is a flashlight, soft and cozy mysteries, big in Scott’s childhood, The Three Investigators, The Green Ghost, Hitchcock licensing, Tom Swift, Robert E. Howard, spoiled the ending of Odd John, Olaf Stapledon, 2025, crazy, thinking about 2020 in 2001, thinking about 2000, Blade Runner soon, the future is not like I thought, dig back in old books and magazines, Ray Bradbury story, some guy named Oxford, Don Congdon and Associates, copyright strikes, The Exiles, Usher II, read by Leonard Nimoy, a couple of Robert A. Heinleins, The Green Hills Of Earth, the old days, he was on that, 2000X, Yuri Rasovsky, Dirk Maggs, Judge Dredd, Batman, audio drama, normal audio drama, a signature style, Independence Day, Dredd (2012), hyperbolic, 2000 A.D., of all the stories to do, make sense for a British comic in the 70s, a super-evil dystopia, six months in isocube, caffeine is illegal, everything is evil, the guy you care about is the bad guy, a parody of the United States, Mega City One, space judges, death judges, a complete alternate universe of Marvel, super-team this, league of evil mutants everywhere, not allowed to have wives or girlfriends or sex, a whole other universe to explore, a parody of the United States, adaptations, British actors putting on American accents, entertainment from another universe, anime, William who lives in Japan, Dragon Ball Z, waved a wand, computer games for education, they don’t learn anything in school, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, a mission to meet this ancient philosopher, world rich, you learn the things that you’re interested in, time is up!, see you, hear you, an hour early, editing later, Strange Darling (2023), it’s musical, some violence in it, the actor, based on two movies, so out of the loop, movie trailers, movies can be good, few and far between of late, artsy and innovative, 97 minutes, not a rape scene exactly, a choking scene, everything will be okay, prefacing, the opening credits, the movie is deceptive, Kyle Gallner, the lady, very good actors, not super super handsome, good at picking scripts, credited with a name, the demon, the girl, a little conversation, are you a serial killer?, this based on a serial killer, all lies, shot entire entirely on 35mm, that part is probably true, very important, art movies, not boring art movies, a structure, a movie in six parts, chapter 3, chapter 5, you’re gonna love, watch it during the day, cat hair is coming off, The Wild Robot (2024), Pedro Pascal, delightful noting traumatizing, cenobite, not into slasher movies, tricky slippery fun, deceptive, Ed Begley, Jr., plays an old hippie, very beautiful, hyper realistic, red and green, colour palated, Giovanni Ribisi, Dinner In America (2020), an hour 46, set in the 80s for no reason, a punk rock musician, sex letters, a pet store, fishtank cleaner-outer, straight laced parents, it’s like she’s retarded, no diagnosis, this is a romance, you’re rooting for them both, 91%, The Substance (2024), somebody’s back is stitched up, too scary, Bettlejuice Bettlejuice (2024), daily streaming charts, this chart has no value, Conclave (2024), sequester, new pope, Twelve Angry Men (1957), 12 pious men, Isabella Rosellini, good 4 lines, a lot of lurking, moves, stares, Stanley Tucci, its scary, a guy choking somebody, it’s worth it, movies that are manipulative, Pulp Fiction (1994), a buncha country roads in a forest, shot in Oregon maybe, the Red Letter Media guys, accidentally made a Kyle Gallner special, a follow up, at it for a while, he’s not ugly, Jennifer’s Body (2009), Smile 2, Scream 6?, Red Eye (2005), Red State (2011), weird revenge movie, picking good movies, who are not beautiful, pick good stuff, fun to see an actor you like in a movie, Eric Roberts will be in any movie, needs the cue cards, quite good, afforded his budget, not a professional actor, he’s just the attraction to make the movie a little more saleable, you know what you’re talking about, Star Trek: Lower Decks, how much they love it, the actor who plays the male lead, Jack Quaid?, six Jason movies, a crossover with Star Trek Strange New Worlds, cartoon worlds, hated discovery and Star Trek Picard, east to swallow, these are meant to be on in the background, if you’re very young right now, tiktok and instagram, you have to be taught, kids used to get bored, never bored anymore, research and processing, you need to be bored enough to get into somethings, ants, flowers, sucked into watching puppy videos, a puppy licking a Starbucks cup, the cough, winter related, if you lived in Hawaii, warm places in the winter, dysentery in Egypt, fluish sick?, winter weather, closed up, sealed up, what can we do about it, complain, have you noticed, have you looked at your coins lately, don’t look at your coins, some weird king on your coins, threw me into a universe, who’s this guy wearing a crown, a little peek, both old ladies, queen cookie tin, old lady with short hair, different people, a little faceblind, go into her classroom, a portrait of the queen on the wall, less disturbing than seeing this guy, what the hell is going on, about 5% of the coins, loonies or toonies, a disturbin experience, Charles III, still living with your grandmother, Charles III toonie, a quarter, not liking it, devaluing the money, on ebay, $25 for a $2 coin, ebay’s listings are free now, business model, before Amazon, 1999, ebay used to own PayPal, billpoint, spend the money, Skype, ebay used to be huge, recessed into the background, everybody knows about Amazon, a Star Trek Murder Mystery Box, ABEBooks.com, bought by Amazon, started on Vancouver Island, a competitor, this is why we can’t have nice things, the politics of this book make Jesse sad, an apartment that’s paid for, crazy real-estate investment, unaffordable and impossible, like an elegy, have a living and a place to live, go out for drinks, patches of that past, oh and independent store where they sell stuff and a person works there, runaway to escape, we can’t go back, doesn’t do that much tweaking, taxis arrive on time, customers for his store, his perfect little world, old books, visiting a time, when sandwiches cost 5 cents, coffee was 5 cents, a magazine 15 cents, $18 for a magazine, full of ads and super-thin, you have a phone, what the real problem is, real estate is really the issue, massive decline for a long time, middle to late 50s, drop off a cliff, 1953 is the height, in decline since then, 130 men’s magazines, more like adventure fiction, WWII stories, Chatelaine, competing with each other, steeply fallen by the 1960s, a major distributor selling the real estate for distribution, selling that depot is what killed the distribution, a scramble, super-interesting, blame it on television, movie theaters, what killed the movie going experience, COVID, bad movies, movie fans are all getting old now, the young people don’t know what movies are, small town movie theaters, movie festivals, untrained audience, expensive to rent the movies, a lack of availability of housing, not just for people, nothing they did wrong, investment properties, people don’t even know that they own it, Blackrock, you don’t even know you’re participating, private equity, why is the war in Ukraine happening, Blackrock is the answer, the breadbasket for Europe, sell our grain product, buy up all the land, taking all these debts, if this is a conscious plan, spray glyphosate all over it, the terminator gene style wheat, we’re doing all these things without knowing we’re doing them, everybody’s life is in your phone, imagine cinemas, big leather reclining chairs, $5 movies, $5 concessions, slash to this extent, all the matinees, you need to have something to watch that you want to see, Red One, the Rock, Heretic, supposed to be not bad, hires then marries, thriller, a child’s movie, Venom The Last Dance, We Live In Time (2024), Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh, out of the knowing things business, Gladiator 2, Wicked, Moana 2, keep your hand in there, The Importance Of Being Earnest, such good words, as in it sucked, not in as they slayed, sad story, Mufasa: The Lion King, Sonic The Hedgehog, Wolf Man (2025), Captain America, Love Hurts, on the Island last, new owner coming, a good movie playing, late summer, old movies, a good date movie, I’m not sure we should be watching this, a movie that’s original, does good work, this is what a movie can be like, 90s comedies, dynamics of the neighbourhood, a girl who’s pregnant driving around town, actor became a dude, Juno (2007), Elliot/Ellen Page, those sorts of people, when was Superbad (2007)?, enjoy your movies, by DM.

The Burglar Who Met Fredric Brow by Lawrence Block

Posted by Jesse Willis

The SFFaudio Podcast #777 – READALONG: Zero Cool by Michael Crichton

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #777 – Jesse, Terence Blake, and Cora Buhlert talk about Zero Cool by Michael Crichton

Talked about on today’s show:
1969, very impressed until the end, there’s a DVD, he re-wrote the book slightly, opening and closing chapter, the etext, old man Grandpa Ross, nephew, grandson, Todd, a very non-60s name, was it true you once visited Spain?, Grandpa nobody will believe this story, DVD?, it was a true story!, of course it was, you could get videotape in the 60s, these two sections are not in the original book, historical document, became famous, Janet Evanovich, a SpongeBob t-shirt, considered dated, it doesn’t work, complained Stephen King under the Bachman name, if I fix it up, replaces contemporary references, puts the Smurfs, flashbacks to the 50s, all the tech is of the period 1970 or earlier, Stephen King’s shitlib politics of today, 10 references to the Republicans are bad, in the middle of this book, words left out to make it shorter, some words were put in to make it explanatory, no other pattern, stylistic, the additions at the beginning and the end damage the center, he’ll soon know about my falcon, it’s not first person, you can’t have that frame make a lot of sense, kind of a James Bond story, two James Bond villains, Herve Villichez to playh the count, henchpeople, character actor, no voicebox, machine gun when he answers the door, a strange omission, changes hair colour, editing mistake, Karin is blonde, Angela has dark haired, blonde on the original cover, Eric John Stark, on the Hard Case Crime cover Angela’s the beach lady, raven haired, the nurse, Karin, European Karen, what was Angela’s actual profession, henchwoman, she’s not working for the count anymore, a few moments where the rug is pulled out, a radiologist standing on a rug, rugs all the way down, she pulls out a gun, where’s the jewel, if I give it to you what would we do, we’d go to Capri, I don’t trust her, pretty good, not great, on the latest cover (from Blackstone), didn’t notice his girlfriend had been replaced, stubble, she’s a transwoman, she hasn’t shaved for a while, very progressive, movie logic, not that different today, in colour, people have cellphones on the beach, Costa Brava, young attractive women, families, he didn’t have eyes for them, show off their bodies and get seen, another holiday he went on, he sexed it up, what percentage of the book do we not know why anything is happening?, 60%?, our Hari Seldon figure, Sherlock Holmes’ smarter brother, Mycroft Holmes, some of that was fake, round numbers, you’re both watching the show, the count, James Bond villains interests, perfumes, falconry?, and you’re a dwarf, cognitive estrangement, he’s not as smart as you thought he was, very pastiche, the whole doctor thing, radiologist, gynecologist would have been funnier, an autopsy, like a Hitchcock plot, more Donald Westlake, disappointed, not the right relationships to his experiences, facts he likes to throw down, shortest lifetimes of all doctors, exposure to radiation, that changes it, back at the hospital, extext?, republished with a new intro and new extro, breaking it down, really missing some core goodness, The Last Run (1971), a big jewel that Montezuma had, lost and found, in the Bermuda Triangle, that’s what you say grandpa, that’s another story, solve it, what does the grandpa story do?, successful radiologist, daughter or son had a son, didn’t marry Angela, what did this adventure prove?, nothing, the center story is an anecdote, makes the book less, looking for an idea, radiologists see things in black and white, the conversation wit the blonde, accepts him as a lover, the game has no rules, how detective stories or thrillers or whatever ultimately we mean have no foundation, it doesn’t work on the back end, a kid’s eye version of reality, thinking grandpa is cool, don’t tell any of my friends, grandpa tells sex stories, contradictory personality, pick up hot girls, he’s 11?, he might say that ironically, he aged backwards, a screwup, fine with it, doesn’t react in the right way, he had children, an interesting video, Caleb Maupin, American communist christian, why the liberals turned against Michael Crichton, State Of Fear, a rich kid, he went to Harvard, we knew these things, high graded kids, really smart, not that great academically, clever, interested, not the ultra rich, traveling to Europe, not glamorous, becoming democratized, part of the jet-set, travel to Egypt and Spain, Amsterdam, Nice, Cannes, he’s not there on a Eurail pass, life experience, reading paperbacks and being a doctor, rich assholes, those are his people, drinking beer on the beach, not doing his medical stuff, good at doing the cramming, Hunter Biden is a lawyer, you don’t have to be a good lawyer, pass the bar, test intensive, ways of cheating, medical school, wanting the title, not how he defines himself, a lot of people will do that, I’m a filmmaker, I’m a writer, a confection, supposed to be sweet, made up of a bunch of things, no major nutritional substance, a Philip K. Dick book written by Michael Crichton, a massive list of these?, set in the Spanish hotel, pretty good, a computer path analysis, not very big, Odds On, an island hotel, Scratch One, Easy God, Egypt, Grave Descend, Drug Of Choice, Binary, set a very high bar, ranking these, the most substantial, the best fun book, well written too, somewhere in the middle, too long, Harold Robbins, doctor stuff, doesn’t stay and dwell, drug aspect, perfume acting, hawks use their sniffers?, maybe Jesse is wrong, he personally has discovered, what does it add to the book, murderhawks, having a gun, the count, traveling is Spain, Grenada, that’s going in the book, ok, that’s cool, one or two European locations, it’s all fake, a commentary on vacations, really well structured, no major commentary on reality, there’s something to it, Grave Descend, ranking, the order in which we read, on a high high, three good ones in a row, starts off really well, stuck with the smuggling and the snakes, Jesse why don’t you write a novel, inauthentic hurts, Jesse can you write this for me, originally it wasn’t his name on the book, just money, that guy is a different guy than the John Lange that wrote it in the 60s, embarrassing, the central plot of this book, not something you’re supposed to think about, a beach reader, an airport novel, a little deeper, wanting to do something and not having anything to do, something to do, tomb raid, the puzzle of that, if it were told from another POV, from the femme fatale’s POV, why is this stupid radiologist in this book at all, erectile dysfunction, a republican presidential candidate, mirrors of each other, two forces coming together, a science fiction novel painted as something else, a show like Magnum, P.I., anything cool, it’s mentioned in there, he has zero cool, cool title, surprised you’re taller, not the exact age, I’m a doctor, I’m a writer, but you’re six foot four, basketball players are tall, prestigious college, librarians have classes, football players are big, in reality it’s a bell curve or something like that, North Americans are smaller than north Europeans, Dutch, notable, clothes, made for completely different, 6 foot 9, join my football team, that’s a basketball player, goal keepers, guards, take up more space, something that probably happened, dropped his sunglasses, because he’s rich, he’s a doctor, he’s tall, above the norm, what women want, 7 foot 9 is preferred, we’ve got a dwarf, uncomfortable, he’s not a count, a descendant of Montezuma, a similar story, Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell, your peninsular war porn, Sharpe’s Gold, treasure in Spain, the TV adaptation was written by Nigel Kneale, surprised, the cross cultural exchange, the conquest of Mexico, writing it for a film parody or satire, finding this corpse, why is he being obtuse about it?, Washington Irving wrote about the Alhambra, what was he doing in pain?, Edgar Allan Poe went to Scotland, trips to Europe, far fetched and weird, worshipping in the right way, the moors, going underground, witchcraft in England, the protestant reformation, semi-plausible, a lot of implausible stuff, the professor could have had his own book, Hari Seldon, a proto-Hari Elsdon, his book is The Dynamics Of An Asteroid, a supergenius and a dwarf perfume collection, what happens to Tex?, the humour aspect, wacky development, I will put you in my dungeon, am I supposed to buy this as defiance, a parody of those things, Peter Ross, he’s nobody, we’re supposed to be him, he’s chasing the girl, keeps getting pulled off track, German, Sindey Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, two other Peter Lorre roles, being the bad guy, the sympathetic villain, at least 25 characters, random henchpeople, the guy with the voicebox, one and dones, some random guy with women’s clothes on, why is this a good idea, wacky, the pulling the rug out at every opportunity, Karin with a wig, when we get the first time someone gets sprayed with cologne, overhearing his captors, very interesting about the splatter on the ceiling, the height of the ceiling, another character, the cop has him in jail for murder, his girlfriend, boy is he mad at her for five minutes, the author is telling us we know that the character is not privy to, trying to work with Michael Crichton, a mystery to be solved or something else, the prison scene, the embassy walk on character, this may have happened to him, still garroting people, a joke about Franco, an East German guy, a false passport, until 1975, during the Franco era, the last Spain book, The Clash, during the Spanish Civil War, police on the streets, go on holiday in a pretty nasty dictatorship, the background, Portugal was also a dictatorship, a revolution, members of the E.U., school atlas, a developing country, it’s not in the first world, just slurs, the Third World doesn’t mean developing country, at one point he starts describing an assassination attempt on Charles de Gaulle, The Day Of The Jackal, unknown motivation, a hardboiled noir story about a deeply philosophical idea, he gets sex, non-Spanish people for holiday and sex, eat some food, drinking the beer, going to the pool in the hotel, socialized, reading books, the bastardization, updating and framing, some of them are really good, we did the best ones first, had we started with The Venom Business, in print with Blackstone, saying it’s like a Philip K. Dick novel is a high compliment, more boobs, fairly rapidly forget Zero Cool, retain an impression, we had a good talk out of it, those three are a lot more memorable, reminded of a lot of scenes, rich guys obsessed with something, easy girls, sand, which one was Zero Cool, easy come easy go, the original covers, the top row vs. the bottom row, by the 1970s, is this the order of publication, the target audience, why anybody would read those, people are hard to understand, James Michener, if you try to talk to people about them, The Mists Of Avalon, the reason Terence read this book, Hard Case Crime cool covers, reading books for weird reasons, The Name Of The Rose, this book is full of references, so big, conspiracy in the Vatican books, The Da Vinci Code, unstoppable steamroller, run for high ground with your old Heinlein paperbacks, a pretty good fantasy book, why would anyone read Fifty Shades Of Grey, taps into class?, some era of people, even if you aren’t reading it, that chatter, a Scandinavia book, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Swedish politics, Men Who Hate Women, an airport paperback for very short flights, thin paperbacks, five-six hours, people read old books in old books, television at home, I Love Lucy or Star Trek, go out to a movie or read a book, as a form of casual entertainment, audiobooks are replacing that, the paperback genre, a drugstore spinner rack, the new format size, mass market size, fit in a jacket pocket, back pocket of your jeans, super-portable, reading can become a fashion accessory, on a bus holding a paperbook today, justify the price, is larger better for the printer?, more glue, more ink, a bigger format so it feels more substantial, cellphones started getting bigger, folding phones, if you’re going to pay $2000 for a phone, people are kinda simple that way, controlled by the price, it can radically effect the book, perhaps the reason to add those opening and closing chapters, older books, bigger fonts, small and physically thin, break your wrists trying to read a book, too many characters, too much running around, a lot of scenes in Scratch One like the scenes in Zero Cool, early on in the book, the French feeling of deja vu, a sample on Audible, the girl on the beach, the restaurant, the relationship with the girl, I love you, that femme fatale role, never bought into it at all, half a villain, happened at the end, epiphany at the end, can’t we punch this up a bit, I don’t really buy me, sarcastic, more along for the ride for a lot of it, not contributing much, not the long arm that got him out of prison, she was in the same room, did you kill that guy?, she did get him out, they’re the same guy, switching sides, not his best book, watch The Last Run (1971), read Binary, Drug Of Choice, Easy Go, maybe Grave Descend, whip up something for dinner, Cora’s dad, really annoying, needs to go to the gas station, you tell him how things are, move on to other Crichtons if necessary, The Andromeda Strain is a solid book, Eaters Of The Dead, Antonio Banderas as an Arab, The Thirteenth Warrior, AD 922, 1976, Norsemen, Rus, a retelling of Beowulf, a real guy, the Marco Polo of the Arabs, lies on the copyright page, fake notes about references to actual incidences, a meta-text, The Great Train Robbery, Sean Connery and Donald Sutherland, super-funny, he put all his good stuff in one book, cold and clinical, as a piece of writing, really cool science fiction, coming out of a different writing system, make sure it’s a good one sometime, The Terminal Man, 2nd novel under his own name, serialized in Playboy, epilepsy, a brain pacemaker, let’s do it, a plutonium power pack, takes place over four days, pre-cyberpunk, Elon Musk’s computer brain interface, read by Luke Daniels, right after Lowdown Road, November 12, gluttons for Crichton punishment, series about a girl, goes into adulthood, early 20th century, in the middle of WWII, why is she flirting with young men?, childrens books in the 1930s, heart racing trip across 70s America, CB radios are hot, 70s truckers movies, learning all the lingo, phrases that get turned into normal English, fender bender, CB radio jive, sex stuff, information, list of CB slang, Smokey And The Bandit, bear in the air, full grown bear, local yokel, a subculture of people who don’t have a fixed community that they live in, truckers live all over Canada and the United States, their community is their people they communicate, like BBS, Convoy (1978), a ballad, civil disobedience, authoritarian war measure act, you live in the capital, trying to get a meeting with the prime minister, protests are supposed to be inconvenient, gluing themselves to the road, idiots, a good cause, the method isn’t so great, the names of cities, Beantown, The Big Apple, why is it called that?, Cowtown (is Calgary), Disneytown, Hotlanta, California is Idiot Island, not all cited, Motorcity, Emerald City, Dallas, Texas, Rhymes With Fun, (Vagina) Regina Saskatchewan, super-ephemeral, preserved in film, a way of being connected, there’s an app for that, a way of being in touch with that community, same money different stamps, too slow, convinced, culture, a fun book, nobody knows really, Hayy Ibn Yadhan by Ibn Tufail, a book from 1185-ish, most translated text from Arabic, boy raised by a deer, the gazelle boy, supposedly a true story, the wolfchildren, has to keep up with his mom, a permanent baby, animal-raised children, wolf-children, never snake children, they don’t have the milk, dodo-child, extincted family, the self-taught philosopher, going after Avicenna, in the bosom of an antelope, Frankenstein, 2023 politics, Genghis Khan was really cool, it’s been a while, a conversation with Deleuze, nomads, Genghis Khan, trying to cancel Nietzsche, Jordan Peterson, so many people are triggered by him, read a Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, semi-ignorant, he’s not a politician, gives speeches, clean up your room, get married, you have to clean up your room if you want to get married, a simple idea, a lot of people need, good advice, very good on the Bible, Maps of Meaning, a rationalist, good analysis, thinking mythical, symbolically, more coherent than Slavoj Žižek, systematic ones, Sex And The Failed Absolute, that new movement of leftists, for Freud and Lacan, Less Than Nothing, more conceptual meat, youtube is not great for good feedback, participating in their engagement systems, corrupted by spam and failed updates, emails, moderation, because blogging was destroyed, rss is defeated, we defeated them, now were stuck, the other things, we’ll see, you should write a novel, 13 year old blog, why would I write a novel?, a terrible idea, buying a printing press, what if I typset it wrong, that’d be a lot better, Cirsova guy, magazines and books published, no feedback, lying, Jesse doesn’t want headaches, 200 people listen in the first week and a1000 over the next ten years, evolving all the time, people can’t believe their own thoughts, they want an official stamp of approval, the phyiscial copy of the book, Appendix N by Jeffro Johnson, Jesse loves blogposts, a real shame they’ve been de-platformed, what is Cory Doctorow doing, BoingBoing.net was a thing, probably still going, on Twitter, pluralist something, too much, his interests are not the same as mine, a really good science fiction idea guy, Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom, Robert J. Sawyer, interactions, his ethics are spot on, made a wrong turn, where’s my RSS, there’s no way to get them, there’s no ecosystem, let’s get that blogger who we really like reading, finding people who blog and bring them on, deplatform non-twitter blogging, and why did they do that, all consuming, this is where all those blogs went, jokes all day, threads, dream at the beginning of blogging, guest posting, dialoguing, narrow and eat everything, resilient against what google, trying to kill the internet, we can talk about our blogposts on our podcasts or youtubes, you in the past, no longer me now, vivid dreams, physical things, listening to a Doctor Who episode, politics, writing that down immediately, really interesting this guy is brilliant, different medium, short stories are also weird and hard, putting on a play, people want dialogue, arbitrary rules, Terence reads Jesse’s dreams, a cliche from the past, plans for the future, tell me when you want to be a doctor in the future and ride a horse, “last night I dreamt”, boring people have boring dreams, stress dreams, obscure kinds of dreams, a warehouse full of product, I need this capital, assorted chocolates, Sigourney Weaver, dark alien chocolate, mam, something about xenomorphing, esprit d’escalier moment, Bob Hope had come to visit and someone had ordered 36 cases of red wine, the sociology of dreams, social class, different jobs, not the last word on dreams, last night I dreamed, just a fantasy, just a joke not a dream, Baldur’s Gate, people are doing it for themselves, she had a white dove in her hand, a long black sedan, the inventor of non-philosophy, François Laruelle, this is close to a non-philosophy dream, a door to the beach, translucent toaster, little feet and hands, it’s organelles glowing yellowy, Mr. Punch, a living alarm clock, back to back, a supplement to this analysis of The Road Warrior, pithy, concise, observing everyday life, cash reserves, a reverse Edith Keeler style, vintage 1960s money, the purpose for my time-travelling, it was garbage day, broken bicycle pumps, dozens of photo albums, shiny new dimes, I audibly swore, a man stepped out of an alcove nearby, bud, the artifacts, we are collecting across the whole stratum, there was a lot more work ahead, that guy stepping out is me, these are like experiences you become amnesiac to, they can’t leave physical scars, you’re ignorant of them, phases, seven years of writing dreams down all the time, 2000 dreams, the old reflexes, read it again and put a title on it, it’s good, it gains in meaning, not wanting to write it down, this is really good, I need to remember this, the only way to preserve, loses the detail, the extemporaneous immediacy, it didn’t come in text, not copying and pasting, the sleepy voice is not present in the experience, the transposition is good for the dream, writing it down the first time is the definitive form, typos, get it all down, always start with the same word, dreamt, he’s talented, an art contest in Israel, takes job, 120 characters, transport all this stuff to another blue sky, it won’t be public if it’s not there, deleting tweets, major typo, spelling rules in French, straight away, part of the archive, reconstruct your life in 212 years from now, let’s bring Terence back online, somebody like Bobby Derie, sure he was racist about spaghetti, but he also says good things about ravioli, full of soybean oil, spaghetti’s feminine, you choose the stars, macaroni, they all taste the same, with our brains, which one should I choose, the cheapest one, call up Mr. Job, a good show and good talk, curse Jesse a little, see if you like it, mutilated versions, ThePirateBay, the 1971 film with 4 seeders, qbittorent, reddit is a really horrible place, so censored, super-censored, people talking about the letter mu, qbittorents the new mutorrent, what a great website, more bitcoin to give them, mined bitcoin, windshield repair, heat the apartment from mining, it might be a classic, as philosophically deep, philosophically famous, she’s got a Hugo as well, a lot of location based, southern France’s roads, a boy movie, there’s a girl in it, a pretty substantial role, plays some games.

John Lange books

SIGNET - Zero Cool by Michael Crichton

Hard Case Crime - Zero Cool by Michael Crichton

Hard Case Crime - Zero Cool FEAT. Grave Descend

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The SFFaudio Podcast #759 – AUDIOBOOK/READALONG: Star Born by Andre Norton

The SFFaudio Podcast

The SFFaudio Podcast #759 – Star Born by Andre Norton, read by Mike F. Smith (for LibriVox.org). This is a complete and unabridged reading of the book (6 hours, 34 minutes) followed by a discussion of it. Participants in the discussion include Jesse, Paul Weimer, Trish, and Alex (PulpCovers.com).

Talked about on today’s show:
1957, Ace Double, H. Beam Piper’s and John J. McGuire Planet For Texans, which one would you like better, memories of H. Beam, great elements, a better book vs. more fun, action, courtroom scenes, sitting around the campire expressing philisophical opinions, too much plot, too many characters, 2 humans, a supporting cast of other space men, 2 different mermen, on the cover, the new mermen, a lot of men, not a lot of wo-men, merladies, female characters, we mention mating, brightly clothed the others women, escorted to the arena, a line of mermen, the mom dragon creature with its babies in the arena, two arena scenes, vast audience, gladiatorial combat in ancient Rome, half full stadium, aliens are the natives, genetically uplifted, slaves, Doctor Moreau them, consciousness raising, experimental animals, more docile, a fairly fun book, developing the world, this is not the first book in a series, The Stars Are Ours, a sequel, Trish liked this book a lot, horrible disappointment with Star Hunter, hate all her stuff, the ethical questions, Raf Kirby, mental journey that he goes on, politicking, distrust of his own crew, they’re all weird, come from the culture, the Pax is overthrown, they’re the Federation now, descendants of the Pax, his bloodknife brother, way more star of the story, they’re on a manquest, different culture, assisting him with a lifequest, tightly knit, partners, telepathically communicate, talk to the animals, squirrels, understanding the concept trade, this is a culture that is integrated into its ecosystem, hunting and gathering, Rafe, covered in gear, bombs in his chest, guns, rocketpack, flitters and bases and tech, do you have a friend?, no, I don’t, she doesn’t cook this enough, a critique of machine culture, H.P. Lovecraft, regimentation, titles and orders, settle on this planet?, go back to his spaceship, we’re us you’re you, come back and see us in a few thousand years, an adventure, he got to go home, nine missions previously, not really volunteers, space navy seals, fled a bad culture, still the case, a Herman Melville style native vs. capitalism culture, Rafe and Dal, one syllable with an A in the middle, the ecology, the geology, the geography, a little better, randomly tossed together, loose ends, small explanations, it having a prequel, she invented that other culture and world first, four grandfathers ago, at least 100 years, cryosleep, Earth has moved on, hyperspace tech, they’re warpin, a slow trip, at least 200 years later, all the richer, ancient dead society that’s not so dead, past glory, Rome is explicitly called out, 6th or 7th century Roman empire, Justinian comes in from the east, Rafe’s world, they come from cities, Homeport is a village in a ruin, she sketches everything, the closest to concrete details, the merman’s fur it gray with rainbow tips, they’re otter people, they’re furry, iridescence, it’s cool, the world’s cool, go deeper, a contemporary review, Galaxy, January 1958,by Floyd C. Gale, workmanlike, sequels demand comparison, a solid interesting story, Earth’s dictatorship, a degree of telepathic ability, Dalgard Nordis, the normal matriculating exploration, strange activities, capital t capital o, Jesse’s problem with the book, all the parallels, a high culture, crushed by its own craziness, abandoned its technology, hunter gatherer with a taboo against high technology, a plot moving characters around the stage, that’s kind of all there is, there’s more to talk about, how terrible that captain is, draftee, just got training, slaps Raf down, wrong keywords, I guess cuz they’re aliens, that’s the evil culture, representing the horrible culture that he’s coming from, the philosophy may be in the right place, delegitimating other peoples because they’re not your own, burned up and flamed out, they’re not men, a fire and tools rule, carrying spears, a big hypocrite, a terrible captain, self ordered exploration, no reprimand, going off with that warrior, immediately embroiled in local politics, let’s get involved in this land war, the Prime Directive from Star Trek, ignore the contradiction, the enemy we have to guard against, the one bright idea, the recording device, let’s run it through the ditto, backup tapes, here’s a human looking captive, did Andre just forget about it, this book the result of that recording, all that stuff, he should’ve gone native, this is a juvenile, two juvenile, loincloth vs. spacesuit, adult role, he needed to go through a Heinlein novel first, strong opinions, some ethical system he’s imposing, get away from that society, there’s no girl to seduce him, no merlady, recasting Dal as a girl, gender flip somebody, the aquaman, cross species romance, carrying through unresolved sexual tensions, rishathra thing from Ringworld, mules or something, Apple TV, a Discworld, unrecognizable Ursula K. Le Guin, unnatural in some way, they’re from the land, their whole species, later Romans are always cast as decadent, a lack of nuance, mustache twirling, I can solve this, a young juvenile from the others, her solution is add another character, what does Raf contribute?, bombs, the outside perspective, down with Dal, if I could skip each Raf chapter, adding a couple inches to the map, this book needed a map, helps to display interesting similarities, hate sleeping inside this alien city, being shutup in buildings, reflexive xenophobic instinctual, an adopted prejudice, bad vibes, why was he so immediately alarm bells, plot that needs to happen, an argument, the heebee jeebees, a lot of showing, no Heinleinian lectures, ancient race, very cool, internal reveal, a conflict between Dal and Rad, fighting over a mergirl, a mermaid if you will, Four-Day Planet by H. Beam Piper, nice little infodumps, better than Lone Star Planet, people arguing for positions, a newspaperman cannot offend everybody in the community, presenting characters who the reader can identify with, snarky or excited or religious or something, just has a furry coat, she needs some chip on her shoulder, forced character development, allow the reader to project themselves, the characters are palish, even Nancy Drew, she has no strong stuff, she’s always making sandwiches for people, behind it all she’s the girl detective, mysteries, do whatever you want with her, blank slate, she has a skirt and flashlight, juvenile literature, she’s not a cipher, nobody he’s sweet on, secret passion for his merboyfriend, always the loner, any kind of a personality, writing quickly?, cranking these books out as fast as they could, keep the secret of the this colony, protect them from the Federation, here be dragons on the planet, quite literally, that’s a mistake, taking a lot on himself, when they’re all telepathic, his telepathic wife, council of elders, one person keeping a telepathic secret, Raf’s reasons, Dalgard feels more like arrogance, next time they see a rocket, a mistake not to share this information with his people, the evil Pax, isn’t Ssuri in on some of this, Merguy number 2, there for the rocket, protect the people here, she’s doing a lot of symmetrical stuff, how old do we think he is, 14, 15, 16, 18ish, a callow 18, 16-18, maturity at a younger age, Star Trek: Enterprise, Cogenitor, a nice solar sailing cruise, enslaved another race and uses them for reproduction, terrible trouble, when they pick him up, he blew up some of the artifacts, keep the deal, lost from the expedition, his dead armor with a hole in it, charred helmet, some blood, hating because it is powerful, surely they’re going to revisit this, not a well loved show, the most notable thing about Enterprise, the movies that Tucker chooses to watch, Picard’s holodeck, a holodeck serial, what movies are on the harddrives of the NX-01, there weren’t that many episodes that were good Star Trek episodes, Ensign Ro, made Deep Space Nine a show, Kira instead, what if you’re wrong, Federation?, the Maquis, an undercutting of the main thing, integrated instantly, Captain Chakotay, so much to explore there, political distrust, a crew vote for captain, your pirate thing, upset with a Federation decision, we should raise the age of consent or retirement, whoever it is, cede territory to avoid a war, integrated into the Cardassian culture?, how rich that paid off, why Voyager is not as good as Deep Space Nine, Quark doesn’t play the game, embraced the tensions, arcy stuff, the Cardassian tailor, J’kar is the other show, Babylon 5, this needed some of that, too stiff, danced around it, vestigial sense of duty, I’ve changed my mind, doing this as a Tom Cruise movie, go against the IMF, use the blast bombs for the second time, the cache of artifacts, invaded the city with a strike team, there was no music swelling or dramatic pause, Andre Norton’s famous books, Voodoo Planet, Beast Master, The Beastmaster (1982), a barbarian, John W. Campbell’s evil influence, telepath vs. cyborg, her big legacy, a sad legacy, the very 1st D&D novelization, Witch World, the great filter, over time people and things fall by the wayside, Robert W. Chambers, a new King In Yellow movie on Amazon Prime, there goes Trish’s semi-noisy keyboard, terrible metaphor, lacks some pepper, lacks some heat, not making it spicy, benefit with adaptation, Rings Of Power, not executed, gender flip some furry people, change the ending, The Demon Breed by James H. Schmitz, a mostly water based world, female scientist and her intelligent otter companions, tool uses, foil the invasion by extensive knowledge of the environment, a great book, The Witches Of Karres, no psychic powers, Uplift series by David Brin, otter people, a natural for uplift, they hold hands, if you are choosing species to uplift, humans disappeared, uplifted elephants, weird furry trolls, they otter be more ottery, no audible audibooks for Schmitz, Legacy by James H. Schmitz, ancient living machines, A Tale Of Two Clocks, skilled in every martial art, a chilling notion, the plasmoids, an excellent narrator: Winston Tharp, mostly does poetry, Lion Loose by James H. Schmitz, the Lion House, a lesbian pulp fiction novel, October 1961, guy with a cigarette and a long pony tail, judging a story by the art, anything he records, problematic stuff, the sexister the better, let’s talk about Gor, a long running series, the covers are really good, simplified map of known Gor, do they exist as audiobooks, John Norman, book 37!, 35 hours, we’re safe, Gorean saga, really overselling it, terrible horrendous art, random stock art put a sword on it, some person riding a giant eagle, a tarn, one guy, a professor of decorum, professor of philosophy, in defense of ethical naturalism, nudity?, the logic of the open question argument, publishing the wrong things, working out your psychology, Heinlein’s is pretty scary, deep issues, he’s 91, longer in science fiction, more than 20 Tarzan books, other books where Tarzan shows up, cross overs, the Barney Of Beatrice series, Joe R. Lansdale, The Mad King, the Tarzan literary universe, they’re trying to beat Norman, 26 by Burroughs, they get longer and longer, that’s not the crazy part, 28 hour book, Ralph Lister has a helluva workout, happy Ralph Lister?, what the first Gor book is about, counter-earth, a princess, war aircraft bird, semi-feudal city states, the slavery becomes the main theme, weird slave fantasies, wow!, I’m a sex slave now, that’s crazy, a market for it, tiresome after a while, 1966, Burroughs pastiche, sexier, a Gor book from 1966-1988, almost every year, amazing, a helluvan output, a model dressed as a kajira, cosplaying gor, classifications, a plethora of types by virginity types, by employment, save Jesse from himself, new weird things, it exists its fine, so hard so fast, a gothic romance book, you have to have a castle and a lady running away and a high light in the window, yelling at Jesse about Gor, the reputation, endorsing by damning, weirder and worse, an impressive series, The Shadow, Walter B. Gibson, it makes him look like his other brother, the nose is part of the mask, hero pulp characters, backstory, very descriptive, from the pov of others, a force of nature, he’s never the narrator, is this his real identity, Lamont Cranston is a real guy, a rich playboy, impersonates him, you were here last week, Liam Neeson, Darkman (1990), Sam Raimi, a great premise, an origin story movie, scientist or something, do amazing stuff, a review of Darkman by Red Letter Media?, Frances McDormand, the romantic lead, two sequels, Armand Assante, he has no face, dramatic I’ve got cancer heroes, Rob Roy (1995), now just action roles, ice road trucker, The Gray (2011), assassin on the Mexican border, Stallone’s career, stick around long enough, a lady falling from a high tower, all the Spider-Man movies, people got their fetishes, Alfred Hitchcock, Quentin Tarantino’s feet, blonde lady and handsome guy with dark hair, The Spider, Will Murray, the guy who invented Squirrel Girl, straight 1930s pulp style, a cloak and a hat, carries a gun, indistinguishable, what a trick, essentially identical, Spider Fury And Steel, Doc Savage meets King Kong, The Spider: Fury in Steel, Billy Zane, The Phantom, great grandpa was Tarzan, 400 years of history, this immortal, the ghost who walks, weird 90s pulp revival, The Rocketeer (1991), female air pirate, weird lesbian subtext, perfectly understandable, action sequences, Treat Williams, Xander Drax, he’s a treat, Deep Rising (1998), action heist movie turns into towering inferno with a Cthulhu monster, Famke Jansen, Anthony Heald, Wes Studio, that didn’t take long, John Carpenter, that vibe, 45 million dollar budget, before we have to go, ocean going heist movie, Out Of The Dark by David Weber, dog-like aliens from space, submit, space-dogs, Footfall by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, guerrilla warfare, the Battle of Agincourt, Harry Turtledove, Dracula shows up, Vlad the Impaler himself, the title reveal, double meaning, glass the planet, two books in the series, Into The Light, co-author, 381 pages, 16 hours, alien invasion until the very end, because he’s Dracula, Honor Harrington, a lot of those, the Moon is secretly a death star, 1966, a different series, a solid week, The Tall T (1956), based on an Elmore Leonard novel, Randolph Scott, Henry Silva, ave Gun, Will Travel, somebody Boone plays the badguy, neighbourly, she’s the daughter of a rich farmer, ransom, you can feel the Elmore Leonard on the screen, Glitz, painted cover art, lady fleeing from a high estate, doing a Hans Gruber, a Gothic Romance, that counts, a Markie Post/Jimmy Smits movie, sounds good, even tho they’ve rebooted that show, Daniel Krouse original, perfect hair, not running exactly, fleeing, moving rapidly away, this is a gothic romance and we need to do a show on it, invested in some very weird things, William Shatner, a musician, and Stephen King, Chadwick Boseman has a bluechek in case he comes back to life.

ACE DOUBLE D-299 Star Born by Andre Norton

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Reading, Short And Deep #175 – Mrs Manstey’s View by Edith Wharton

Podcast

Reading, Short And DeepReading, Short And Deep #175

Eric S. Rabkin and Jesse Willis discuss Mrs Manstey’s View by Edith Wharton

Here’s a link to a PDF of the story.

Mrs Manstey’s View was first published in Scribner’s, July 1891.

Posted by Scott D. Danielson

The SFFaudio Podcast #247 – READALONG: On The Beach by Nevil Shute

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #247 – READALONG: On The Beach by Nevil Shute; read by Simon Prebble. Jesse fends off illness to lead us in an intriguing discussion about Nevil Shute’s apocalyptic novel. This podcast features Jesse, Jenny, Seth, and Paul.

Talked about on today’s show:
Reversed seasons in Southern Hemisphere; novel originally serialized in London weekly periodical The Sunday Graphic; “on the beach” as naval phrase meaning “retired from service”; the novel almost universally acclaimed by critics and readers alike; what is the ideal time frame for an end-of-the-world scenario?; On The Beach as bleak existential novel; the author’s avoidance of political or religious polemic; 1959 movie starring Gregory Peck, Ava Gardner, and Anthony Perkins; Australia as a secular nation; Earth Abides by George R. Stewart; Endgame by Samuel Becket; the novel as a metaphor for terminal cancer patients; The Star by Arthur C. Clarke; abstract sterile end-of-world mechanics, a “cosy catastrophe“; 2008 BBC radio adaptation; 2000 TV movie starring Bryan Brown, modernized and featuring a much more optimistic tone; Roland Emmerich’s disaster flick 2012; could the novel’s characters done more to ensure the continued survival of humanity?; fallout shelters, “duck and cover!”; Chernobyl; rampant alcoholism; euthanasia; attitudes toward media–were newspapers responsible for the war?; regression of technology in the novel; The Waveries by Fredric Brown; we wish the Cosy Catastrophe genre would supplant Paranormal Romance; reflection of a pre-WWI era arms race; 1959 movie version tackles Cold War paranoia; U.S. government’s criticism of the novel; Five Years by David Bowie; faced with the end of the world, our panel would evidently read Marcel Proust; needless revisions in film adaptations; much action takes place “off the page” in the novel; lookism; The Scarlet Plague by Jack London; Simon Prebble’s excellent audio narration; George Orwell’s 1984Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and logotherapy; Jay Lake and his bout with cancer; Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock, and how we’re haunted by the people who are no longer with us; the novel’s three-dimensional characters; Nevil Shute employs typical British understatement; Lord of the Rings‘s Denethor and the idea of hopelessness; Egyptian tomb goods and attitudes towards death; Jesse plans his funeral rites.

On The Beach - illustration by John Rowland

On The Beach - Ralph Lane adaptation - RADIATION

Scorpion at Bremerton - illustration by Ralph Lane

ON THE BEACH - illustration by Ralph Lane - glass bricks

GENERAL - On The Beach by Nevil Shute

Posted by Seth Wilson

The SFFaudio Podcast #152 – READALONG: The Comedy Is Finished by Donald E. Westlake

Podcast

The SFFaudio PodcastThe SFFaudio Podcast #152 – Jesse talks with Trent Reynolds and Paul Westlake about the AudioGo and Hard Case Crime novel The Comedy Is Finished by Donald E. Westlake.

Talked about on today’s show:
Is The Comedy Is Finished going to be the last Donald E. Westlake novel to be published?, Memory (and our discussion of it), Charles Ardai, Max Allan Collins, Mickey Spillane, getting paid is a priority for professional writers, the 1970s, Honeydew, USO tours, Bob Hope, the audiobook experience, Peter Berkrot’s narration of the audiobook of The Comedy Is Finished, Koo Davis, Bob Hope as Red Skelton vs. Bob Hope as Gene Kelly, Alfred Hitchcock, Ricky Gervais, Koo Davis narrates his own POV in the present everyday tense sense, “Westlake is the master of sentence by sentence writing”, “in the moment”, “the god-damned Vietnam thing”, “the real Americans”, the redemption, healing vs. moving on, Ronald Reagan, “new normal”, “the Carter malaise” and “festering wounds”, Larry, Peter, Mark has daddy issues, Joyce, the Dortmunder gang if they were all psychotic, “doing a Westlake”, why do Koo’s boys not look like him?, the role of a father, the mirror scene, “genetics don’t matter in fiction”, fatherhood as a choice, leave the messages to Western Union, character arcs, Lindsey, A Sound Of Distant Drums, radio drama, “there are round characters and there are flat characters”, “oh this is a Westlake”, “Charo has become a bitter old woman”, “a romantic writer”, succinct description, taking plots from real life, The Score, “he can heist anything”, The Mourner, The Stepfather, “that’s pretty much how these work”, three Dortmunder ideas, Kahawa should be an audiobook, California, Burbank, Santa Barbara, Elizabeth Taylor’s biography, Under An English Heaven should be an audiobook too, Anguilla, an option has been taken out on Kahawa, the new Parker movie, Stephen King’s filmography vs. Donald Westlake’s filmography, The Hot Rock, Cops And Robbers (1973), The Split (based on The Seventh), Payback, Les Alexander, The Outfit, City Of Industry, The Sour Lemon Score, Made In U.S.A., the Criterion Collection, it’s Clint Eastwood with internal monologue, a Dortmunder TV series, The Limey, Terence Stamp, Idi Amin, Uganda, “the coffee train”, Enough, Ordo, A Slight Case Of Murder, A Travesty, it’s very hard to be a Westlake expert, the sound a girl makes when you’re kissing her, “it’s just a weird name”, Bob Hope was a knight!, Conrad Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour, Westlake’s Science Fiction and Fantasy, Westlake’s renunciation of SF, Anarchaos by Curt Clark, “Rolf Malone is a precursor to Parker”, Theodore Bikel (the fiddler in The Fiddler On The Roof), The Risk Profession, Nackles (is great for kids!), The Twilight Zone, Harlan Ellison’s screenplay for Nackles, the Starship Hopeful series (available on DonaldWestlake.com), Lawrence Block’s fantasy story, SF is very allegorical (and that’s not Westlake), Humans, Westlake’s Smoke vs. Wells’ The Invisible Man, “and everybody’s an asshole”, “everybody one way or another is a jerkoff”, “Joyce goes crazy in the most wonderful way”, a survivor of Chernobyl, “is God really an asshole?”, “angels are assholes”, Milton’s Paradise Lost, The Sacred Monster, Get Real, ridicule in print, Money For Nothing, Westlake never lectured, interior thoughts that are so revealing about the shallowness of a character’s nature, Washington, D.C., “moving up the ladder”, “what does Ginger want?”, “it’s fun to play with fire”, “I’ve got to have something”, did Don hate rock and roll?, he liked classical and atonal jazz, “damn hippie”, 99% of politics is pointless, talking to death, Jimmy The Kid (a Parker novel inside of a Dortmunder novel), kidnapping, Help I Am Being Held Prisoner, Patty Hearst, Gangway, Brian Garfield, Spider Robinson’s Dortmunder homage, Lawrence Block, The Sour Lemon Score, Dashiell Hammett, Piers Anthony, Poul Anderson, Robert A. Heinlein, shiny spaceships, don’t read by genre, read by author, the genre label, Jim Thompson, The Grifters, Trent’s beef with Angelica Huston, a period piece, Paul had a problem with John Cusack, J.T. Walsh, Pat Hingle, Annette Bening, “I’ll never look at a bag of oranges the same way”, Donald Westlake: NYC Personified, The Violent World Of Parker website, Nick Jones, Westlake’s bibliography at DonaldWestlake.com.

AudioGo - The Comedy Is Finished by Donald E. Westlake

Posted by Jesse Willis