Re-read 1/3/15:This book came as an exercise for me in the subtle power ofW.J. Burley's prose. This was one of the first of his novels that I read aRe-read 1/3/15:This book came as an exercise for me in the subtle power ofW.J. Burley's prose. This was one of the first of his novels that I read and the first that I have re-read. I was more than a little surprised by how much of it I remembered - not dialogue, or even storyper se,but scenes. The early scenes introducing each of the main characters and the climax scene have both lived on in my imagination; snapshots into the lives of (fictional) others. I've commented in my reviews of other Wycliffe books that Burley is masterful of this but this was clear evidence, if I needed it.
As for the book. Whether you choose to see this as one of the author's best, as some think, will largely depend on how you view plot twists: masterful story telling or cheap trick? There's a hint right at the start of the book that all is not as it seems but the reader is left with no more than that hint. For much of the book we're as in the dark as the protagonist. A stroke of luck then leads to a series of very rapid developments to tidy up the threads (even some that are introduced as late). No doubt some investigations must proceed and resolve similarly but surely they're few....more
I was first given a copy ofThe Long Dark Tea-time of the Soulto read many, many years ago. It was great but when I noticed that it was the seconI was first given a copy ofThe Long Dark Tea-time of the Soulto read many, many years ago. It was great but when I noticed that it was the second in a series I was a little surprised I hadn't been given the first one to read. Now, I think I understand why.Douglas Adamsis often compared withTerry Pratchettbut it's a very lazy comparison. Both authors wrote a very British kind of comic speculative fiction at the end of the twentieth century but there, arguably, the similarities cease.
Where Pratchett has evolved into a top novelist, Adams was a brilliant writer of radio screenplays. Often, it must be said, his brand of joyous wordplay and comic meditations did not translate terribly well to the written page. Perhaps this is because he wrote sketches linked by a narrative, rather than writing a narrative encompassing occasional sketches, as Pratchett does.
The first of the books in this omnibus then,Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agencyvery much fits that pattern. Reading the novel,(view spoiler)[with its devices of time-travel, spaceships and alien planets(hide spoiler)],is very much like reading another episode fromHitchhiker'sand the key character of Richard MacDuff, in particular, could simply be Arthur Dent. Basically, this story was amusing but not entirely satisfying. 3/5
The Long Dark Tea-time of the Soul,on the other hand, was even better than I remembered. Here, Adams leaves his Sci-Fi security blanket and writes a well-structured tale of Norse Gods coming to terms with life in modern Britain. Some of the themes, such as how belief effects gods, how they come into being and how they die, are covered in Pratchett'sSmall Gods,too, but here they are treated less earnestly as Adams at last lets the narrative come to the fore. The characters, even the gods, are well drawn and believable and this is probably the author's greatest written work. 5/5...more
I was a little disappointed by this book.Ian Rankin's Rebus novels have been widely praised as literary detective fiction. In the introduction to myI was a little disappointed by this book.Ian Rankin's Rebus novels have been widely praised as literary detective fiction. In the introduction to my edition he acknowledges some surprise at this and I agree with him. This was an uncomplicated, character-driven noir with a protagonist that I couldn't care less about.
Perhaps the author's writing improves with later books but here I felt like I was being kept very much at arms length from the narrative. When the plot's so simple (in one of the early chapters the killer becomes exasperated that Rebus hasn't identified him yet and we, the readers, can do nothing but nod and despondently shout 'yes, why haven't you?' as if our hero is PC Plod rather than a highly trained detective) it's essential that we should care about the characters. Instead, this is like watching someone from a car window - a moment of mild interest as you speed past their lives, quickly to be forgotten....more
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