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Old 04-06-2008, 01:18 PM   #300
HarryT
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Quote:
Originally Posted by brecklundin View Post
Perhaps that is why I am not a big fan of longer than a trilogy at most. Did you ever read the Gor series when you were younger? If not they were all shorter reads, maybe 300ish pages at the most...and there ended up, I forget how many, but it got near 20 or so books. I gave up around 11 or 12 I think. I should have stopped after something like book 8 I think. but my roomy and I were both hooked and kept hoping it would get better...just kept getting worse. And reason was simply because the characters and events became just too improbable or really took huge liberties with reality.
The original Gor "trilogy" was quite reasonable, but after that it basically degenerated into "soft porn" with lots of whips and bondage thrown in for good measure.

Quote:
I cannot recall the name of the book but once I had a collection of "locked room" mysteries by Asimov (I could be wrong but am pretty certain they were either all his or some his and others from the SF mag with his name.) But those were some of the best puzzle stories I read. Why? because there had the foundations in fact and enough reality to keep my interest. I'll never forget on story involved a landmark that was described as "the cross of Lorraine" and when you finally read what it was you want to smack your forehead and wonder why you don't die of suffocation because you should be too stoopid to breath. Don't Google it or you will see a spoiler right off. But the book(s) were called "The Black Widowers" or some variation of that title. All fun, light but interesting reads...and I actually read them all.
Asimov's "Black Widower" stories are just great! I still have them all in paperback - there are a total of 5 paperback collections of them. The particular story you mention, however (and I won't give away the "secret") is a good example of how sometimes stories don't "translate" well to other countries, because the particular "cultural referrent" involved is a solely American one which meant nothing to me, first reading them as a British teenager.

Asimov wrote another wonderful detective story - a novel this time - called "Murder at the ABA", set at the convention of the American Bookseller's Association. Do try and read it if you can; it's a great story, and Asimov includes himself as a character in it, in which he gives an absolutely wonderful parody of himself as the archetypical "aging hack writer" who tries to sleep with all the pretty girls, and will sign an autograph on anything that stands still long enough. A great read .
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