2226 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

The Clocks by Agatha Christie. Very good so far, but it would be nice to see Poirot featured a bit more.

[K1Bond007]

Reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire right now. I'm working my way through the series, and this is easily the best one so far. Good books.

Thee best in the series, IMHO.

[The Dove]

War of The Worlds - H.G. Wells.. Almost finished it..Its been a great novel!!
I'm glad I decided to read it instead of seeing the disappointing Tom Cruise movie (which I may still do one of these days).

[K1Bond007]

War of The Worlds - H.G. Wells.. Almost finished it..Its been a great novel!!
I'm glad I decided to read it instead of seeing the disappointing Tom Cruise movie (which I may still do one of these days).

I thought it was a good movie. There are a few problems with it (technical), but overall very enjoyable.

[Obiwan]

I am now currently reading SilverFin and I am on Chapter 10

[Roebuck]

The Prestige, Christopher Priest's novel chronicling a feud between two turn of the century stage illusionists.
Wanted to read it before the film comes out. Starts off well enough, but Christopher Nolan is going to have his work cut out adapting this into an entertaining movie. The diary format used for much of the book becomes tiresome and a third of the way through the story veers unconvincingly into science fiction, then attempts to finish up as an M. R. James style ghost story. Priest's ending leaves too many plot threads hanging for it to be satisfying.

[Qwerty]

Death In The Clouds. I've just started this Poirot mystery, it's solid so far.

[Number 6]

Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

A good movie, too when I was a kid...

"I've been waiting for you, Ben..."

[ACE]

1) Commuter book: The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall - wonderful so far - my first ever Quiller book!
2) Bedtime book: Colossus - The Rise And Fall of the American Empire by Niall Ferguson - very interesting, very insightful, very sad and very good
3) A slow burn tome for dipping: BlackAdder - The Whole Damn Dynasty - by Richard Curtis, Ben Elton and Rowan Atkinson. The scripts are hilarious, too! Wonderful show.

Sabre-tooth - hmmm, not as good as I hoped for. Dated, too contrived for me.

Colonel Sun and River of Death by Titan are excellent. Truly terrific adaptations.
BloodFever should be good.

Taking a break from work reading. Do I really need to read the next 3 "British" Blair Witch Projects? Guys, it was a NRP - Non-Recurring-Phenomenon!

We really need far better scriptwriters in Britain. We need to be taught it is not a bad thing to write a real movie! Scripts should be a reading experience in themselves.

Happy New Year!

[Lazenby880]

1) Commuter book: The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall - wonderful so far - my first ever Quiller book!

Spynovelfan will be so pleased. I too look forward to indulging in the Quiller books at some time in the near future, although I do have some other novels waiting to be read andexams coming up so time will be a factor.

At the moment I am re-reading what is perhaps my favourite novel BACKGROUND TO DANGER by my undoubted favourite author Eric Ambler. Full to the brim of intrigue and suspense, I would thoroughly recommend it (and any other books by Ambler such as CAUSE FOR ALARM, THE MASK OF [COFFIN FOR] DIMITRIOS and EPITAPH FOR A SPY) to thriller fans, especially those of the espionage variety.

[spynovelfan]

1) Commuter book: The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall - wonderful so far - my first ever Quiller book!

Spynovelfan will be so pleased.

LOL. Indeed I am. You should give 'em a go, Lazzers. I think you'd enjoy them - they're very similar to Ambler in some ways*.

I'm reading GOLDFINGER and dipping in and out of the second volume of THE MITROKHIN ARCHIVE.


*Shameless, and not really true.

[ACE]

1) Commuter book: The Quiller Memorandum by Adam Hall - wonderful so far - my first ever Quiller book!

Spynovelfan will be so pleased.

You're so right, Lazenby880! It's actually quite good. Lean and spare. If I hadn't been so distracted on all sorts of things I would have finished by now. And, of course, I have not been commuting over the holiday period. I will finish today.

Ambler was so pleased with his agent he recommended him to Fleming and Fleming took him on! Must read some Ambler - on your recommendation.

Nappy Yew Hear

[spynovelfan]

Sabre-tooth - hmmm, not as good as I hoped for. Dated, too contrived for me.

Well, I can't make you love it... if you don't.

In defence, though: what did you make of Fleming when you first tried to read him? One could also say that they are very dated, and often contrived. I think you kind of have to be in a very particular mood and frame of mind for something like this to click. I didn't like Fleming the first time I tried to read him, but loved Donald Hamilton from the get-go. I wasn't massively impressed by THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM on first reading - I thought it was a taut well-executed Cold War spy story, but so what? I'd read a few of those before. The second and third Quillers I read absolutely blew me away, though: they managed to cut right into my brain in the way few things ever have. And I'm only just discovering how wonderful a writer Fleming was now - in some cases on the third reading (or attempted reading!).

I can't really remember that much about SABRE-TOOTH, so perhaps it's just not one of O'Donnell's better ones, or not the one that will light your fire. I think there's also naturally a bit of breaking through for a hardcore Bond-lover - which I suspect from some of your posts you may be - to do. If you really love one author, and/or one character, anything that's not that can seem pale in comparison. It's a kind of leap over to the other side. But I might get you there one of these days.

[ACE]

SNF, I think your analysis is spot on.

Firstly, I'm out of touch with the genre.

Secondly, of course Fleming is dated and contrived but, IMHO, it is saved by the verve and skill of the writing. Those words sit so well on the page.

Thirdly, yes, once one is one camp, one's expectations are very much set.

But, I suspect, if I persevered with O'Donnell and Hall and got into those series I would enjoy them for what they are.

You were wrong on one thing. I'm not "a hardcore Bond-lover."

I haven't even seen all the films.

Or read all the Fleming.

I shouldn't really be posting here.

Or

Should

I?



Vappy Sew Bear

[Gabe Vieira]

I just finnished Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda late last night, and all I can say is, AMAZING. Even if you read the first book and were not quite sure about it, you have to read Operation Barracuda. Our good friend Raymond Benson has written an amazing book. It's just so fun to read, I literally couldn't stop reading. It only took me a few hours to read the entire book over three nights.

For those of you who didn't read the first book, you should read that first, as Operation Barracuda is a direct sequel to the first one. It continues Third Echelon's mission to take down "The Shop", the largest and most dangerous international weapons dealing group in the world.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda is the perfect compliment to the first book, as the atmosphere seems lighter, but still manages to keep the same "dark" backdrop. The first book took place all most entirely in the Middle East and Southwest Asia, and Operation Barracuda splits the action between the United States (mainly Los Angeles), and the Far East.

My only complaint is that Benson's Sam Fisher is not as dark a character in the book as he is in the Splinter Cell games. In a way he is more "human" in the book, which, in this case, I believe takes away from the character. Also, there are some parts that are overly talkative which don't sound very natural. But that can be cleared up if you change some of the wording to yourself as you read along.

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Operation Barracuda is a must read for anybody.

[spynovelfan]

You're very amusing, ACE. Very amusing indeed.

I suspect it has been years since you last saw FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

[ACE]

You're very amusing, ACE. Very amusing indeed.

I suspect it has been years since you last saw FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE.

Touche, SNF. Trumped and finessed by you and it's only Jan 3.

You got me, dammit.

[spynovelfan]

I owe you one anyway.

[ACE]

Yes, I suppose you do.

[Lazenby880]

I think I missed something there.

ACE, if you are interested in Ambler I would start off with either CAUSE FOR ALARM or BACKGROUND TO DANGER were I you, both are excellent introductory novels to his work and really are engrossing page-turners. Sort of similar, ina way, to a written Hitchcock thriller (albeit more sophisticated), if that analogy is at all helpful.

Certainly the sort of books that one could read while commuting; I often read them on the train. And Happy New year to you too (and, of course, everyone else).

Edited by Lazenby880, 03 January 2006 - 04:21 PM.

[spynovelfan]

Certainly the sort of books that one could read while commuting; I often read them on the train.

DIMITRIOS is good train reading. There's that the joke in FRWL when Bond can't concentrate on it because he's so tired - he's trying to read a thriller set on the Orient Express. There are several other Orient Express/Istanbul spy thrillers: Greene's STAMBOUL TRAIN and Dennis Wheatley's THE EUNUCH OF STAMBOUL, which features a British secret agent being helped out by a beautiful Russian girl called Tania.

[spynovelfan]

Actually, don't a few Amblers have scenes on that train?

Hmm. I wonder if there's not a whole genre of Orient Express thrillers.

[james st.john smythe]

ive just read wwe wrestler shawn micheals autobiography, it was canny pap

[Scottlee]

The latest stage of my Potter marathon has me on Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Just this and one more to go and then I'll probably have to wait an age for the 7th (and final) one to come out.

[Mamadou]

I'm in the middle of the 15th century epic, "Le Morte d'Arthur," about King Arthur. Loads of chivalric fun and swashbuckling!

[Bon-san]

I'm juggling John Le Carre, Alan Watts, and Fritjov Capra.

YOLT is on deck, for the CBn Book Club.

[TortillaFactory]

Currently reading Neil Gaiman's Don't Panic - Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which is entertaining, and slogging through Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead, which is...long. Why can't Russians write novels less than 800 pages? Interesting, though.

[Byron]

A friend lent me "The Little Book of Cigars". It contains some fascinating info all all aspects of cigar history, production and enjoyment.

Had a nice Queay De Orsay cigar too whilst reading it.

Hey Tort, i read the 1st 3 books of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy a few months back and quite enjoyed them. I can see that Red Dwarf was heavily influenced by it.

[Number 6]

Currently I'm reading The Stranger House by Reginald Hill

So far, a hundred and fifty pages in and it's moving along slowly.

[james st.john smythe]

im reading the splended razzle magazine