Books wot I like
The Gormenghast Trilogy
Well, obviously really considering where I take my nick-name from. These
books were written by Mervyn Peake in the mid 20th century. The first two
"Titus Groan" and "Gormenghast" are usually considered to be the best with
"Titus Alone" written during the author's final illness being less
complete. All three are a real joy to read if you can get used to
the somewhat lugubrious prose style. Well worth a look if you've got a
few weeks to spare.
VALIS
Well, in fact anything by P.K.Dick is good. Very odd. Very very odd.
And then some. Dick wrote, amongst other things, "Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep" filmed as "Blade Runner" (as recent paper-back copies are
wont to mention in rather bigger letters than the original title) and
"We can remember it for you Wholesale" which was the inspiration for
the stranger parts of "Total Recall".
Grimus
A superb little book and (I believe) the first novel that Salman Rushdie
wrote. He's a brilliant author and clearly needs no recommendation from me.
Aegypt
Part one of a projected four part series by the (IMHO) very under-appreciated
John Crowley. This book is "more than most others a book about books". It's
also brilliantly conceived look at superstitions and "secret histories".
Foucault's Pendulmn
OK so it's more than a little pretentious and it does tend to annoy the
uni-lingual amongst us (like myself)
by slipping into eight or nine other languages for
important revelations. I read it in a few days while suffering flu and it
was one of the most paranoia inducing experiences of my life. Strongly
recommended for fans of "conspiracy theories".
Feersum Endjinn
Iain M. Banks - the same person as the Iain Banks who wrote the
infamous "The Wasp Factory" but with an M. in the middle to indicate
that this is another of his sci-fi books. Only out in hardback at the
moment I'm afraid. Still, an absolutely fabulous book. One of the few
things I've ever read which made use of Virtual Reality in a way which
really impressed me. It makes Neuromancer look positively technophobic. The
only problem I have is that 1 ov thi karakters rites in a stile wich u 1/2
2 reely konsintrate 2 unnerstan. If you see what I mean.
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