Tag: book review

Book review: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race

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The Conspiracy Against the Human RaceThe Conspiracy Against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’ve known of Ligotti’s work for a couple of decades now, but pre-Amazon it had been pretty hard going to find some of his stuff where I lived. Eventually, I collected some of his fiction and I enjoy it very much – he’s very much in the Lovecraft side of the weird. You know, the sort of Radcliffe-but-stronger feeling of the innate horror of the universe. Understandably, the guy’s a recluse.

He’s currently receiving a bit of attention thanks to the claims that True Detective‘s most interesting character’s worldview was plagiarised from this text by that series’ writer, Nic Pizzolatto. Personally, I don’t buy the accusation, and fall more on this side of the fence.

This text is non-fiction. It’s a distillation of thought about pessimist philosophy (actual, extinguish-the-world pessimism rather than “It’ll probably rain on me because life’s shitty” pessimism) coupled with some meditations on supernatural literature. Continue reading “Book review: The Conspiracy Against the Human Race” →

Book review: Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music

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Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded MusicPerfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music by Greg Milner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I first came to this book because of Jarvis Cocker’s reading of an excerpt about how, physiologically, you perceive the drums in Led Zeppelin’s ‘When The Levee Breaks’. It was an excerpt – edited, as I’ve discovered, though not greatly – that ropes physics with the excitement that particular Foot-Of-God drum phrase invokes in a way which makes even non-Zep fans a bit excited.

You can hear it here. I’ll wait. Continue reading “Book review: Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music” →

Book review: Don’t Look Now

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Don't Look NowDon’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I must admit my purchase of this book was dictated by the knowledge that its titular short story was the basis for Nic Roeg’s film Don’t Look Now – a favourite and one of the best weird films of the ’70s.

This title has been given to a number of du Maurier collections featuring variant stories, so it’s worth noting that my version contained ‘Don’t Look Now’, ‘Not After Midnight’, A Border-Line Case’, ‘The Way of the Cross’ and ‘The Breakthrough’.

The good news is that the stories that follow the first are all as good – or better, in the case of ‘Not After Midnight’ – than the most famous entry.

The bad news is that if you’ve come looking for the text version of Roeg’s film, you’ll probably be disappointed. Continue reading “Book review: Don’t Look Now” →

Review: Sun Music: Journeys And Reflections From A Composer’s Life

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Sun Music: Journeys And Reflections From A Composer's LifeSun Music: Journeys And Reflections From A Composer’s Life by Peter Sculthorpe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’d owned this book for a while but it took Sculthorpe’s recent death to spur me towards it. It was always my intention to read it, but I suppose now is as fitting a time as any, given the amount of obituaries and memorials which have been printed of late.

The work is interesting, though the product of later-life reflection rather than at-the-time recollection. It definitely helps to be aware of musical form and conventions, and reading stave better than I do would bring more enjoyment from the musical excerpts printed throughout the text. It’s pleasingly broken into sections detailing either parts of Sculthorpe’s life (youth, schooling) or musical development (Bali, Japan, Kakadu) and it’s the latter which prove most interesting. The development of Sculthorpe’s language, especially in early years is interesting, as is his move to synthesise Australian and Asian ideas and music into a music of this land.

He’s described somewhere as doing for Australia what Copland did for parts of the US, something not too far from the mark, I think. But I must admit Continue reading “Review: Sun Music: Journeys And Reflections From A Composer’s Life” →

Book review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

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Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A novelColorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage: A novel by Haruki Murakami
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A caveat, before we begin: Murakami is one of my favourite authors. So chances are I was bound to dig this anyway. But I must confess – when I begin every new work of his, I find myself questioning whether I really like what I’m reading. Whether I understand it. I’ve read his stuff so long I feel that liking it out of the gate is almost a default setting – but I was happy to feel slightly conflicted, at least, with this new one.

I’ve yet to slog my way through IQ84 so I can’t say exactly how Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His years of Pilgrimage compares to its predecessor. But if we divide the author’s work into “weird” and “normal”, then this falls into the latter. If anything, it reminded me of a variation on some of the themes touched on in Norwegian Wood – though “love, loss and youth” is a pretty wide remit.

Some claim Murakami is a one-trick pony, but I don’t really buy it. Continue reading “Book review: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage” →

Book review: A Feast for Crows

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A Feast for CrowsA Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I suppose the people were right when they suggested I’d seen nothin’ yet if I thought GRRM’s penchant for waffling was excessive in the previous book. This was easily the series’ most padded work. Many times I found myself retreading ground, or having stuff explained that’d been explained in either another book in the series or in another chapter of this book.

That’s understandable, I suppose – there’s hundreds of cast and dozens of locations in the world Martin’s created – but it certainly is very obvious when you’re reading the series (as it stands) end to end. As you start to build up your own storehouse of lore and family trees, the constant hand-holding can really weary. Continue reading “Book review: A Feast for Crows” →

Book review: Loomings Over the Suet

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Loomings Over The Suet Loomings Over The Suet by Glen Baxter
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The last Glen Baxter book I read was The Billiard Table Murders, about fifteen years ago. Like that title, Loomings Over the Suet is a mystery of sorts, full of police procedure and deduction – albeit with fish in buckets and weird looking radio transmitters. And alphorns.

The narrative doesn’t really make sense, but anyone au fait with Baxter’s style won’t expect it to. If laid out on a page, there’d probably be an A4-worth of story. You can read the book in fifteen minutes or so. But then, you’re not going to be reading Baxter for narrative coherence. Continue reading “Book review: Loomings Over the Suet” →

Book review: A Clash of Kings

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A Clash of Kings A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So, the second in the lengthy (and let’s admit it, perhaps never-to-be-completed) A Song of Fire and Ice series.

Reading this one took a little longer than the first. There’s nothing in the prose that’s changed too much, but it lacked – until the later battle passages – some of the quickfire snap of the first volume. Perhaps it’s as it spreads itself a little more widely? In the first novel there was simply Westeros and the Dothraki plains, pretty much – other places were mentioned, but the reader could pretty much think “cod-England and that sandy joint” and be pretty well situated. But here there’s more happening in Daenerys’ storyline in actual cities. It’s no longer courtly life versus who-are-these-horse-dudes? hardships. Continue reading “Book review: A Clash of Kings” →

Book review: A Game of Thrones

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A Game of Thrones A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

So, knee deep in the fourth season of the HBO adaptation of the cycle, I decided to read the source: George R.R. Martin’s books. And it’s the good choice: having seen the shows I’m already given a mental Cliff’s Notes to the tale, and I’m not likely to be disappointed by how the shows had dumbed-down the books; rather, I’m left in the position of learning how much the show leaves out. Continue reading “Book review: A Game of Thrones” →

Book review: The Undeground Man

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The Undeground ManThe Undeground Man by Mick Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jackson’s Booker-shortlisted book is a real gem. It’s a strange amalgam of fictionalised history, memoir and gothic horror – gothic body horror, come to that.

It takes its genesis in the life of William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland, but rapidly diverges from the accepted record. Using a combination of diary entries and testimonies or statements, the mole-like additions to his home at Welbeck Abbey are described, as is his increasing infirmity. There’s a lovely turn of phrase in the Duke’s private reminiscences, and the reader if left wondering if it’s the result of a poetic soul, or of dementia. Continue reading “Book review: The Undeground Man” →