Whats everyone reading?

[Comrade Aleksandr]

I enjoyed Hyperion a lot, but for some reason could never get into Fall of Hyperion, so went no further.  Have to give it another try  someday.

You really must!
The revelations at the end are astounding!
The philosophical conclusions it reaches about how an all-loving God could call Abraham to sacrifice his son is breathtaking!
There making Hyperion/Fall of Hyperion into a film you know. How the Hell you can condense the two into a single movie is beyond me. Though I'm a-praying the Judi Dench will play CEO Gladstone. And as long as it somehow involves John Hurt I'll be happy
Any over cast suggestions? 

[Richmond Clements]

Any over cast suggestions?

Hurt would make a good Duré... or possibly Sol Weintraub.

Martin Silenus- Oliver Platt

Kassad- him off Lost that plays Said.




edited: got a character name wrong... the shame!

[satchmo]

Just got the Tales Designed To Thrizzle hardcover by Michael Kupperman,it's beautiful and hysterically funny. Also got All Select Comics 1 (one of them 70th anniversary Marvel books) that he has a Marvex The Super Robot story in. Its mental, but the reprints of the original Marvex stories are even mentaler!

[Ignatzmonster]

Found by sheer luck an advanced copy of the last of James Ellroy's Underworld Trilogy: Blood's a Rover. If you have never heard of it try the first American Tabloid.

Also picked up Asterios Polyp: David Mazzucelli's first comic in nearly a decade. It IS good but I am sorry to say does not live up to the hype. I am also sorry to report it is not better than Born Again so under Miller's shadow he must remain.

In better news Cooke's Parker adaptation is hot shit. All crime comic fans go snap it up.

[Comrade Aleksandr]

Any over cast suggestions?

Hurt would make a good Duré... or possibly Sol Weintraub.

Martin Silenus- Oliver Platt

Kassad- him off Lost that plays Said.




edited: got a character name wrong... the shame!

I'm just hoping that it won't be another 'Dune'.
Woeful film, couldn't finnish watching it if you paid me.
Actually, you probably could...

[Kerrin]

Malcolm the ancient teddy boy, our postie at work, delivered a bumper harvest of new books today. It's always nice when stuff you've ordered days and weeks apart turn up in one delivery. So I shall mostly be reading, Orbital vol2, The Losers vol1, The Goon vol8, Wireless, a new short story collection from Charles Stross and last but by no means least Photoshop Elements 6 for Dummies. Excellent.

Still can't quite believe they're making a film of Hyperion.

[I, Cosh]

I enjoyed Hyperion a lot, but for some reason could never get into Fall of Hyperion, so went no further.  Have to give it another try  someday.

Hyperion's fabulous and Fall of Hyperion closes out the story well enough. I've read the Endymion ones and, while there are good sections, they drag quite a lot.

Simmons does like to make his hefty tomes. I read The Terror (a sort of horror about what might have happened on Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage) last year and it was also jolly good but could've easily lost 200 pages.

[SmallBlueThing]

'Tide of Souls'- Abaddon books new 'Tome of the Dead'. Or new to me, anyway. Like the format-change, like the contents even more. I've been a bit lukewarm to these so far, as each one has tried to twist the zombie idea into something else, when what I've REALLY wanted to read is a stonking great zombie apocalypse story. This one, on the other hand, is doing the job. I'm about halfway through and it's all gone a bit Bravo Two Zero on me, but it's still massively entertaining.

Steev

[House of Usher]

At the start of the summer I read two Shakespeare plays. Julius Caesar was alright, I suppose. There's a good clown (a cobbler) in the first scene, and there are a couple more good scenes in it: Brutus in his orchard the night before the assassination, and Mark Anthony's speech after Brutus's speech in the marketplace after the assassination. The signs and portents are so numerous and over the top it's comical. But the Civil War at the end is just awful, and it's hard to imagine it done well on stage. "Oh no! Titinius is captured! I must kill myself! *Urgh*." [enter Titinius], "Oh no! I was winning, and so was Brutus, but mistaken reports of my having been overwhelmed got back to the camp. Now we've lost." Repeat until everyone's dead.

Two Gentlemen of Verona was even worse. A very lightweight comedy with no very good characters. I recommend giving it a miss.

[Sefton Disney]

Usher - have you ever read any of George Bernard Shaw's stuff about Shakespeare and Bardolatory? You'd dig him the most!

At the moment, I'm about halfway through To Dream of the Dead, the latest Merrily Watkins mystery by Phil Rickman. I think a lot of 2000AD readers would really enjoy them. Merrily Watkins is an Anglican priest in a small village outside Hereford, and also the diocesan "deliverance minister" (that's "exorcist" to you and me). As a result, she gets consulted by the police in any crimes with an apparent ritual or religious slant. There's never an actual supernatural element to the solution, but there's lots of stuff about religion, mysticism, folklore and art. They're really fun, well-written mysteries which, in passing have a lot to say about contemporary Britain, religion and atheism, Christianity in a multifaith society, city and country and heritage and progress. They're really atmospheric popular fiction, and I'm really surprised they haven't been adapted for TV, as I think they have a really broad audience appeal.

By the way, I'm an atheist!

[Richmond Clements]

At the moment, I'm about halfway through To Dream of the Dead, the latest Merrily Watkins mystery by Phil Rickman.

Good call!
I'm a fan of the Merrily Watkins books too. Great cast of characters, brilliant plots with stonking twists.
But as you point out, the best this about them is the atmosphere- they ooze it from every page.

[Sefton Disney]

Nice to know I'm not the only Merrily admirer out here!

By the way, when I said I was an atheist, I wasn't being defensive; it's just that as soon as I say the books are about a priest, I worry people will think they're some sort of evangelical deal and be put off reading them. Which means I was being defensive, perhaps!

And, atheist or not, I must say that I fancy Merrily Watkins to bits...

[Richmond Clements]

By the way, when I said I was an atheist, I wasn't being defensive; it's just that as soon as I say the books are about a priest, I worry people will think they're some sort of evangelical deal and be put off reading them. Which means I was being defensive, perhaps!

Yeah, I know what you mean- I get funny looks from people who know my views on religion when I describe these books to them!
I don't think UFOs are real either, but it doesn't stop me enjoying the X Files.. (well, shit stories towards the end did, but you get my point...).

And, atheist or not, I must say that I fancy Merrily Watkins to bits...

Yeah... I know what you mean.

[Sefton Disney]

Well, I'm not a militant Dawkins-style atheist; religion just doesn't work for me. I actually find Dawkins as offensive as the opposing fundamentalists he rails against. As long as people tolerate other opinions and harm no-one, I think they have the right to find whatever meaning they can in the Universe. Whatever gets you through the night, yeah?

But it is a bit weird how, as soon as you say you like a novel about a priest, people assume you must be a Christian. I mean, I like The Silence of the Lambs, but I haven't eaten anyone yet!

[Richmond Clements]

Yet..?