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Post by theravenking on Feb 24, 2023 18:23:19 GMT
Well, the book isn't particularly goofy. It's your typical 1950s private eye, or in this case newspaper reporter acting like a private eye, novel. It's all a bit by-the-numbers, but I've read far worse hardboiled novels, and it was a cheap e-book after all. Apologies if that came off too strong—I don’t know the book and wasn’t criticizing it, just the title. (I’ve been thinking a lot about titles recently—mostly because I can never figure out what to title my own stuff.)
No offense taken
Along with that cover it's almost like the book set out to invite criticism.
Wasn't familiar with the author myself, but I recently came across this list of all the classic crime re-issues from 2022, and this was one of the books on it. I realize I won't find the next Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett, but I like to try new hardboiled writers from time to time.
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Post by gspdude on Feb 27, 2023 14:52:24 GMT
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Post by Nalkarj on Feb 27, 2023 18:15:21 GMT
The House on the Strand, 1969, by Daphne du Maurier. This is (as far as I know) du Maurier’s sole time-travel story (though she wrote quite a few “straight” historical novels). I like du Maurier, I like time-travel stories, and I wish The House on the Strand were better. The book starts off so well, too. The opening journey into the past is one of those du-Maurierian prose-poetry passages, like the opening of Rebecca, which hook the reader right away. Du Maurier does a great job with her unusual characterization of the narrator, who isn’t half as sympathetic as he presents himself, and with the metaphor of time travel as drug abuse. (Interesting too: The narrator depicts his wife as the “ugly American” stereotype, yet the wife ends up being one of most sensible, likable characters in the book.) And she is clearly in love with history, showcasing the past with all her lyrical writing gifts. Unfortunately, she sends the narrator on too many journeys into the past. And with each journey, time travel loses some of its force. The problem is that the narrator isn’t learning much—getting much new information—on his time trips. He takes the drug, he sees a scene in the past, he rhapsodizes about it, he returns to his own time in some unexpected location. Repeat, and repeat, and repeat. The book lacks forward momentum, the sense that this is all building to something. And that’s because it isn’t. After about 200 pages of spinning its wheels, the book suddenly turns tense for the last 100. Du Maurier keeps introducing new complications, events, twists, problems for the narrator. But none of it goes anywhere. Every twist is resolved in the next chapter, or unmentioned in the end. I did like the doctor’s suggestion, however—a jolt of the Freudian in what seems to be a novel of the supernatural. In fact, the whole novel is rather Freudian, what with the narrator’s repressed homosexuality (or at least bisexuality). Du Maurier can usually handle the ambiguous ending with aplomb—see, e.g., “Don’t Look Now” or “Not After Midnight.” And I can see what she’s trying for, some kind of new twist on the clichés of the time-travel romance. (A time-travel story almost always ends with the hero either staying in the past, or returning to the present and mourning over his love, or finding his love’s descendant in the present.) But here the ending has no emotional effect. It may, after all, just be another twist that goes nowhere and doesn’t affect the narrator all that much. All in all, this is a book that has some stunning passages but ultimately does not satisfy. I would not be surprised at all to learn that du Maurier wrote solely it because she longed to go back in time—but then had trouble fitting a plot around her longing.
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Prometheus
New Member
@prometheus
Posts: 34
Likes: 16
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Post by Prometheus on Mar 3, 2023 1:08:26 GMT
Currently, I'm reading Second Foundation of The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I also have started and am reading from time to time The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book One) by Robert Jordan and Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay.
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Post by Marv on Mar 3, 2023 2:40:30 GMT
Currently, I'm reading Second Foundation of The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I also have started and am reading from time to time The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book One) by Robert Jordan and Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' But Jordan went on to create a really interesting and diverse world that was all his own in the subsequent 14 novels or however many there are. Ive read about 10 of them.
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Prometheus
New Member
@prometheus
Posts: 34
Likes: 16
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Post by Prometheus on Mar 3, 2023 2:43:52 GMT
Currently, I'm reading Second Foundation of The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I also have started and am reading from time to time The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book One) by Robert Jordan and Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' But Jordan went on to create a really interesting and diverse world that was all his own in the subsequent 14 novels or however many there are. Ive read about 10 of them. Have you read The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind?
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Post by Marv on Mar 3, 2023 2:44:38 GMT
The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' But Jordan went on to create a really interesting and diverse world that was all his own in the subsequent 14 novels or however many there are. Ive read about 10 of them. Have you read The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind? I have not. I have heard of it though.
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Prometheus
New Member
@prometheus
Posts: 34
Likes: 16
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Post by Prometheus on Mar 3, 2023 3:30:19 GMT
Have you read The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind? I have not. I have heard of it though. Should give it a read, they're well-written. Not to mention that each book has a Wizard's rule or morale that can be aptly applied to real life. What about Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen?
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Post by Zos on Mar 3, 2023 9:46:01 GMT
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Post by Marv on Mar 3, 2023 10:41:09 GMT
I have not. I have heard of it though. Should give it a read, they're well-written. Not to mention that each book has a Wizard's rule or morale that can be aptly applied to real life. What about Taylor Anderson's Destroyermen? Nope. I like the title tho.
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Post by gspdude on Mar 3, 2023 14:46:04 GMT
Currently, I'm reading Second Foundation of The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. I also have started and am reading from time to time The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, Book One) by Robert Jordan and Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay. The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' But Jordan went on to create a really interesting and diverse world that was all his own in the subsequent 14 novels or however many there are. Ive read about 10 of them. "The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' "
I thought the same thing when I 1st read it years ago and quit ½ way through the 2nd book.
It must be popular, having so many sequels, so I think I'll give it another try. The 1st 2 books are still on my shelf.
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Post by Marv on Mar 3, 2023 15:10:37 GMT
The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' But Jordan went on to create a really interesting and diverse world that was all his own in the subsequent 14 novels or however many there are. Ive read about 10 of them. "The Eye of the World is the first fantasy book that I said 'Man this really is kind of a Tolkien ripoff.' "
I thought the same thing when I 1st read it years ago and quit ½ way through the 2nd book.
It must be popular, having so many sequels, so I think I'll give it another try. The 1st 2 books are still on my shelf.
It’s pretty popular but it definitely has some pacing issues. Some parts of the 10 books I’ve read are pretty dull…and I’m in the 3 book section where even the fans of the series consider it a slog. I’ve been kind of reading the series for over a decade now and haven’t finished because I will lose interest for long stretches and then come back to it.
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Post by theravenking on Mar 4, 2023 13:58:10 GMT
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Post by Zos on Mar 4, 2023 16:14:32 GMT
He must be knocking on now. Loved the early Scudder and Bernie books.
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Post by ant-mac on Mar 4, 2023 22:38:43 GMT
MURDER IS EASY, by Agatha Christie.
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Post by moviebuffbrad on Mar 5, 2023 3:54:16 GMT
The Restaurant At the End of the Universe, narrated by Martin Freeman.
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Post by theravenking on Mar 5, 2023 9:35:52 GMT
He must be knocking on now. Loved the early Scudder and Bernie books. He turns 85 this year. I'm only familiar with his early work, mostly the Scudder novels, have only read a couple of the Bernie books.
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Post by Feologild Oakes on Mar 6, 2023 21:22:03 GMT
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Post by politicidal on Mar 13, 2023 13:12:11 GMT
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Post by gspdude on Mar 13, 2023 14:08:22 GMT
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