Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Pulpmeister]

I have just read "Destry Rides Again", by Max Brand.

It was completely not what I expected. I had seen the James Stewart/Marlene Dietrich movie years ago, probably on late night TV, also the Audie Murphy remake. There was little left of the novel except the name.

I don't normally read westerns, at least not since my teens, but this one is a legend, like "Shane", so I gave it a shot.

Destry is a rather a rough young man, practically a juvenile delinquent, fast with his fists and gun; unpopular, he is framed for a robbery and twelve "good men and true" find him guilty. Six years later, out of jail, he comes back to town to track down the real robber, and to deal with the 12 men who found him guilty.

Destry uses guile, cunning, and some help, to sort it out, while avoiding very determined efforts on the part of the baddies to beat him to the punch.

A plot much like The Count of Monte Christo, and numerous other novels. And Destry finds out several things about himself that he didn't know, and finishes up a lot less cock-sure than he started out. The final action appears to take place around 1900-1905, from some internal evidence.

Max Brand was the author of many westerns, and also the Doctor Kildare series of novels.

He died in 1944, 72 years ago. So, unless my count-on-my fingers arithmetic is shaky, his works are now in the public domain in the USA, and other life+70 countries. There are a few of his books on Project Gutenberg, and rather more on Gutenberg Australia, because of the vagaries of Australian copyright law which saw Max Brand's books enter the Australian public domain in 1995.

[DrNefario]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

He died in 1944, 72 years ago. So, unless my count-on-my fingers arithmetic is shaky, his works are now in the public domain in the USA, and other life+70 countries. There are a few of his books on Project Gutenberg, and rather more on Gutenberg Australia, because of the vagaries of Australian copyright law which saw Max Brand's books enter the Australian public domain in 1995.

The USA is not (yet) a life+70 country, and I think only the works written before 1923 are definitely going to be out of copyright there. That might be why Gutenberg doesn't have very much.

It's a little frustrating that there aren't better non-US sources for out-of-copyright material. There's some good stuff becoming available in life+70 countries like mine which is difficult to find. I've been looking for ER Eddison, myself, and HG Wells will be out of copyright on the 1st Jan 2017.

[Pulpmeister]

The only E R Eddison in Gutenberg Australia is The Worm Ouroborus, on the strength of the old Life Plus 50 era of Australian copyright. He died in '45, so I guess as of 1 January 2016, he was out of copyright in Life +70.

[DrNefario]

The Worm Ouroboros was published in 1922, and hence is out of copyright in the US and therefore quite easy to get hold of. (It's in the MR library, too, I seem to recall. I've owned it in paperback for about 20 years and have yet to read it.) It's the ones which were written after 1923 by people who died more than 70 years ago which are the tricky ones.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by orlok

Finished To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis. Very enjoyable, and obviously a big influence on Jodi Taylor and her Chronicles of St Mary's series.

I only realised half-way through that it is #2 in the series, which is a bit annoying. Reading the blurb for #1 it appears to be about a completely different set of characters, so maybe "Dog" is okay to have been read in isolation.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Only the time-travel "technology", itself (and its Oxford home-base), really connects the two books. Otherwise, the stories themselves are fairly unrelated.

TSNOTD is actually the third published story in that universe but as DiapDealer says they aren't really that connected. The first published was a short story "Fire Watch", then Doomsday Book (my favorite of the three). There is a little cross-over but nothing major in these three. There is much more in the last two though (Blackout and All Clear) which are really one story in two volumes as I understand it.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by drjd

Next I'll take up The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, of course a re-read, but worth it.

Just finished The Jungle Book. Nothing to say about it, just an outstanding and well celebrated classic.

Next up, A Death In Vienna, a thriller by Daniel Silva.

[BenG]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

TSNOTD is actually the third published story in that universe but as DiapDealer says they aren't really that connected. The first published was a short story "Fire Watch", then Doomsday Book (my favorite of the three). There is a little cross-over but nothing major in these three. There is much more in the last two though (Blackout and All Clear) which are really one story in two volumes as I understand it.

The Doomsday Book is very good but quite a different book from To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's more heartbreaking than humorous.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by BenG

The Doomsday Book is very good but quite a different book from To Say Nothing of the Dog. It's more heartbreaking than humorous.

That is very true. It is still my favorite of the three though.

[orlok]

Thanks all. I may well return to the Oxford Time Travel universe at some time in the future (or the past?).

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Next up: The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg which has been on my list for a long time.

I enjoyed this more than I expected. I will try to get the next one soon(ish).

Next up: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. I have been meaning to try something of his for a looooong time so this will work well even though I fully expected to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep first.

[BenG]

I started The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck (1934) by Alexander Laing. I've finished Part One and I still am not sure if it's going to turn out to be a full on horror story or a mystery with horror trappings.

[Luffy]

Originally Posted by Luffy

I've finished A Dance with Dragons, and I feel that I've completed a marathon. Next up is Agatha Raisin and the Terrible Tourist.

I quit two books yesterday. Agatha Raisin and Beach Road, by James Patterson. I've started British Manor Murder, by Leslie Meier. This one, I'm almost sure, I'll read till the end.

[Cinisajoy]

In the last week, I have read 9,10,11 and 12 of the Janet Evanovich series.
I had already read 1,2,3, 4.
Missing 5,6,7,8.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

In the last week, I have read 9,10,11 and 12 of the Janet Evanovich series.
I had already read 1,2,3, 4.
Missing 5,6,7,8.

Been a while since I read any of the series, but I always enjoy it. Many people have complained of the lack of character development. I just look at it as being about people who are set in their ways, kind of like characters in a 50s sitcom. You pretty much know what you're getting and sometimes that's just what you want. It's comfort food, with an occasional uncomfortable situation imposing itself.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Been a while since I read any of the series, but I always enjoy it. Many people have complained of the lack of character development. I just look at it as being about people who are set in their ways, kind of like characters in a 50s sitcom. You pretty much know what you're getting and sometimes that's just what you want. It's comfort food, with an occasional uncomfortable situation imposing itself.

I even read parts of it to the husband so he doesn't think I have lost my mind with all the laughter. Though I did kind of need brain bleach with the feathers in the last book. Lulu and Sally Sweet were wearing them.

Oh yes the books are definitely potato chips.