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Post by The Editor (Alex B) on Jun 10, 2023 2:13:21 GMT
Current books:
"Five Came Back" by Mark Harris - (non-fiction) - look at 5 Hollywood directors, and their careers before, during, and after World War 2 (there is a Netflix doco version of this book which I watched several years ago) "First Man" by James R. Hansen - (non-fiction) - life of Neil Armstrong (used as the basis of the recent-is film of the same name) "Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson - (non-fiction) - recently finished his book "Mother Tongue", so have moved onto a new title "The Robots of Death" - by Fiona Moore - (non-fiction) - no. 43 in the Black Archive series of book-length essays on individual Doctor Who stories
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jun 10, 2023 8:24:31 GMT
"Notes from a Big Country" by Bill Bryson I quite enjoyed that, very amusing in places.
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Post by CharlesX on Jul 11, 2023 17:51:39 GMT
Finished reading Gateway, and three short stories by the same author, and reading Moorcock's Coming Of The Terraphiles. I think I enjoyed Frederik Pohl more as a school student, he's very into concepts, feelings and twists and not always as much into consistencies and bullet-point story-telling (I plan on reading Asimov's Foundation books at some point, who might more satisfy that appetite). I recommend Moorcock's Doctor Who book not so much based on the fifty pages I've read so far, which are just as amazing and well-written as you'd expect, but also because as the book briefly mentions, the concept of the Doctor being linked to a group that loves Earth would resonate with any pedant who reckons there are too many Doctor Who stories set on Earth!
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Jul 11, 2023 19:26:49 GMT
I recommend Moorcock's Doctor Who book not so much based on the fifty pages I've read so far, which are just as amazing and well-written as you'd expect, but also because as the book briefly mentions, the concept of the Doctor being linked to a group that loves Earth would resonate with any pedant who reckons there are too many Doctor Who stories set on Earth! Although the Third Doctor always seemed to be trying his hardest to get away from the place!
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 2, 2023 17:46:29 GMT
When I've finished reading Coming Of The Terraphiles and Dune I plan on reading Neverending Story, partly because I've heard it doesn't only include more from the film covering the first half of the book (let's not think about the excuses for sequels) but is different in terms of entire character. Can anyone else recommend books that are substantially different from their big-budget film adaptations?
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Post by schlendrian on Aug 2, 2023 19:12:10 GMT
When I've finished reading Coming Of The Terraphiles and Dune I plan on reading Neverending Story, partly because I've heard it doesn't only include more from the film covering the first half of the book (let's not think about the excuses for sequels) but is different in terms of entire character. Can anyone else recommend books that are substantially different from their big-budget film adaptations? Aside from Neverending Story, Michael Ende has some great, thought-inducing books (though aimed at children). Starship Troopers really has not much in common with the book it is based on, although both book and movie have their merits.
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Post by a moderator on Aug 2, 2023 19:33:07 GMT
Almost anything by Philip K. Dick that's had a movie 'based' on it should qualify.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Aug 2, 2023 22:36:12 GMT
Almost anything by Philip K. Dick that's had a movie 'based' on it should qualify. A Scanner Darkly being a big exception
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Aug 14, 2023 10:50:21 GMT
Some recent reads:
'Judas' by Peter Stanford - I thought this would be an argument as to the meaning and significance of Judas' actions, but instead it was a historical overview of how attitudes to Judas have changed over the centuries. Interesting enough but fairly shallow and not really what I was hoping for.
'The Murder at the Vicarage' by Agatha Christie - The first Miss Marple book. I was somewhat surprised that Marple is a secondary character who shows up every now and again to drop subtle hints to the main character before solving the case for him completely at the end. As a mystery, it doesn't really work - there aren't enough suspects and the red herrings are dismissed very soon after being introduced. There's also no real climax or confrontation at the end. However, it is really charming.
'New Moon' by Stephenie Meyer - The second Twilight book. The world-building really comes into its own here and Meyer's writing flows better and is wittier than in the previous book. Of course, it's as introspective and melodramatic as ever, but I found myself enjoying it nonetheless.
'The Dead Zone' by Stephen King - The first King book in my slow marathon which I've been a bit disappointed by. It takes a long time to get going and the plot is very unfocused and at one stage goes off on a particularly nasty tangent. Still, it has a very likeable protagonist and the kitchen sink drama round coping with a long-term coma is well realised.
'Feet of Clay' by Terry Pratchett - a re-read for me. Sadly, I don't find Discworld as laugh-out-loud funny as I did as a teenager but it's still a lot of fun. The Nobby subplot is particularly entertaining and there's a decent mystery to work out.
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Post by schlendrian on Aug 14, 2023 10:56:47 GMT
I recently finished "The Last Continent" in my Pratchett re-read, and can happily say, that his humour still works very much for me It probably helps that I'm reading them the first time in English, so there's some word plays that are entirely new to me...
Do you know Mrs Marple chiefly through the Rutherford films? Because they are very different from the books in exactly the way you describe - book Marple doesn't really go around solving the crimes, just gives the hints needed.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Aug 14, 2023 12:29:07 GMT
I recently finished "The Last Continent" in my Pratchett re-read, and can happily say, that his humour still works very much for me Oh it still works for me too, I just find these days it takes a lot to make me laugh. Not sure what that says about me psychologically! I didn't really know the character well at all - never actually read Agatha Christie before and never seen any Marple adaptations. I like watching the ITV Poirot adaptations so I thought rather than reading Poirot, I'd read Marple for something a bit different. I expected it to be like Poirot with Marple being very much to the foreground.
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Post by pip on Aug 14, 2023 16:55:17 GMT
If you haven't read any Agatha Christie, I recommend "And Then There Were None", which does not feature any of her trademark characters, but which IMO is by far her best novel. Avoid reading too much about it beforehand, just give it a go, you'll most likely find it a very engaging read.
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roidhun
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Post by roidhun on Aug 17, 2023 2:00:00 GMT
Christie is... variable. Her last few books are pretty bad - elderly characters spend far too much time ruminating on how much the world has changed in their lifetimes while doing almost nothing to move the plot forward. The last Hercule Poirot book published - Curtain - isn't bad, but it had been written thirty years earlier and then sat on by her publisher all that time. As had the last Miss Marple story published - Sleeping Murder - which is pretty mediocre.
Still, nobody gets everything right all the time, do they?
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Post by CharlesX on Aug 17, 2023 11:42:51 GMT
Thank you Pip. Your recommendation reminds me of Enid Blighton who I used to enjoy a lot growing up, particularly her fantastic stories (The Far-away Tree for example). I thought she was really creative, her characters and scenery sticks with you like Baum or Nesbit, even if she isn't quite as intellectual as those.There's also a positivity and sense of adventure as well as wonder which can be missing from others.
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Post by hallucination on Aug 25, 2023 16:15:22 GMT
The Rivers of London series
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Post by paperexplorer on Sept 1, 2023 8:05:47 GMT
I just finished Camouflage by Joe Haldeman.
Aside from the excellent The Forever War, I've not really loved what I've read from Joe, but I liked this one quite a lot. He just wrapped it up a little too quickly at the end is all.
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Post by misomiso on Sept 5, 2023 16:40:48 GMT
I really like 'The Magic Order' series by Mark Millar. It's 4 volumes and a completed story so it's a great limited read. Highly recommended.
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Post by CharlesX on Sept 14, 2023 18:56:32 GMT
Hundred pages through Dune and I'm liking it but it's heavy-going, it's a must-read in my opinion with its detailed, rich world. So, as a break and on kieran's advice I've downloaded a Matt Youngmark Choose-o-matic (one about time travel).
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 6, 2023 9:51:15 GMT
Question about Dune: I'm wondering when it's best to read the several Appendices at the back? I check the TERMINOLOGY OF THE IMPERIUM whenever there's a neologism but haven't read the other Appendices. I'm currently very nearly at the end of Book 1 (that's page 193), my thinking is the Appendices might be important to understand the backgrounds of new people, places and things or might act as real spoilers. My blind-stye guess is to read the other Appendices after I finish Book 1. Edit: After looking up elsewhere online, my best thinking is it would be heavily spoiler, so I'll read those other Appendices only after I've read the rest of Dune (the whole book, not Book one that is confusingly also called Dune).
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Oct 9, 2023 10:53:35 GMT
Some recent reads:
'Optimism over Despair' by Noam Chomsky - Considering the only real conclusion that could be drawn from this work is we're highly likely to end up in climate catastrophe or a nuclear war, I think calling it 'Despair' probably would have sufficed. Given it's a series of interviews with Chomsky, it's a bit lightweight and repetitive but still interesting.
'Madonna: Her Story' by Caroline Sullivan - Another misleading title as it's not really a full biography (her entire childhood is summed up in 2 pages), but more an overview of her music and (to a much lesser extent) film career, only touching on her personal life where it impacts these. But to be honest, that's exactly what I wanted anyway and it delivers in that regard. It's full of huge full colour pictures so would make a lovely coffee table book - if only I owned such a thing.
'Did Jesus Exist? the Historical Argument for the Existence of Jesus of Nazareth' by Bart Ehramn - Bart's a clever guy and his sections on St Paul's letters and on dying and rising gods are great, but other aspects such as why he doesn't accept the mythicist position that all other sources simply copied Mark and each other are very lacking in argumentation. He also goes off on a tangent at the end about why he thinks Jesus was an apocalyptic preacher which seemed neither here nor there to me. As someone who broadly agrees with his conclusion and yet finds this book lacking, I can't imagine it will convince many mythicists.
'Firestarter' by Stephen King - After being a bit disappointed with The Dead Zone, I was pleased to find King was back on form here with this taut thriller with sympathetic protagonists and absolutely detestable villains. Reminded me a bit of Carrie in that it's telegraphed early on that the proverbial is really going to hit the fan at the end, but it's more conventionally told and better for it IMO. Great stuff.
'Spellfire' by Ed Greenwood - Awful. After a promising first 75 or so pages, it degenerates into non-stop mindless action scenes where villains get introduced so they can be killed by the heroes a couple of pages later. The cast of characters is huge and there is barely a personality to be found in any of them. The second half is less action-heavy and mostly consists of bland heroes having the same conversations over and over about the even blander protagonists. There is also a sub-plot about the Zhentarim having an internal power struggle that ends up having no impact on the main plot - I guess Greenwood just really wanted to write about it and couldn't figure out how to connect it.
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Post by CharlesX on Oct 10, 2023 19:21:39 GMT
Some recent reads: 'Spellfire' by Ed Greenwood - Awful. After a promising first 75 or so pages, it degenerates into non-stop mindless action scenes where villains get introduced so they can be killed by the heroes a couple of pages later. The cast of characters is huge and there is barely a personality to be found in any of them. The second half is less action-heavy and mostly consists of bland heroes having the same conversations over and over about the even blander protagonists. There is also a sub-plot about the Zhentarim having an internal power struggle that ends up having no impact on the main plot - I guess Greenwood just really wanted to write about it and couldn't figure out how to connect it. Shame you were so disappointed. I've read some of Ed Greenwood's Elminster and he came across as a master of description and traditional fantasy, perhaps, not unlike Ian Livingstone, he's better at telling traditional-esque stories than ambitious ones.
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kieran
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Post by kieran on Oct 10, 2023 19:35:35 GMT
Shame you were so disappointed. I've read some of Ed Greenwood's Elminster and he came across as a master of description and traditional fantasy, perhaps, not unlike Ian Livingstone, he's better at telling traditional-esque stories than ambitious ones. Yeah, I won't judge him too harshly as I understand this was his first novel. I wouldn't say his descriptive writing is bad at all, but his plot and characters (at least here) really didn't impress me.
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Post by thealmightymudworm on Nov 26, 2023 19:49:07 GMT
Most recently finished fiction was Ian Rankin's Hide and Seek, my first read of a Rebus book. In the introduction Rankin says that this is a follow-up to Knots and Crosses, which featured references to Stevenson's Jekyll & Hyde that readers failed to notice. He declares that in this one he's going to beat readers over the head with it. (That's not a quote, but it's amusingly close.) I enjoyed the read, though with slightly mixed feelings. Rankin is supposed to be class above most writers in the genre so I was maybe judging him by high standards. (Also he fronted a TV programme about the nature of evil many years back that I enjoyed in which he interviewed psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers, lawyers who'd defended mass murderers etc.) The description of the Edinburgh locations is quite evocative and the characters quite memorable. However there are some places I feel the plot creaks. The book starts with the dying victim bellowing "Hide!" at his girlfriend and Rebus realises after a while that he was actually saying "Hyde" to indicate who has poisoned him and is a threat to her. Late on Rebus is trying to figure out what this could mean. However, by this stage he's already met the victim's acquaintance Charlie and his blind uncle Vanderhyde who share an interest in the occult. It would seem to me logical for Rebus to spend more time scrutinising their family tree (for other 'hydes) and acquaintances than he does. When 'Hyde' turns out to be the name of an underground club named precisely after the darker side of human nature from Stevenson's novel it feels a little on the nose/out of nowhere. It also feels a little disappointing that the occult arrangement of the body turns out to have nothing to do with the murder, given that that was the only reason Rebus became interested in the death in the first place.
Finally, when the Hyde club turns out to be well known to establishment figures and kept secret by conspiracy, Rebus takes a resigned attitude to it a little too easily after the guy running it 'commits suicide' (i.e. is bumped off).
As I said, I did enjoy it despite my moans. I'm more likely to read more Rankin than PD James.
Current non-fiction reading: Anthony Seldon's book on Boris Johnson at Number 10. Turns out he was all over the shop. Who knew?
I didn't really know the character well at all - never actually read Agatha Christie before and never seen any Marple adaptations. I like watching the ITV Poirot adaptations so I thought rather than reading Poirot, I'd read Marple for something a bit different. I expected it to be like Poirot with Marple being very much to the foreground. I think generally Christie fans feel that the ITV Poirot adaptations are of a good standard even if they prefer other versions. If you watch the ITV Marple adaptations those are more of a mixed bag. The early ones with Geraldine McEwan are a bit quirkier, emphasising the comedy and maybe a bit further from the books. From what I've seen, the later ones with Julia McKenzie tend to be a bit more serious and not just because of the way the actress performs it (although the last one, Endless Night, is pretty bad partly because it crowbars Miss Marple into a story which just has no space for her).
When I was growing up, the Miss Marple adaptations available were the Joan Hickson ones. She was apparently the actress favoured by Christie herself. I seem to remember they were good (and Hickson received BAFTA nominations) though I haven't watched any in 30 years. It's partly a matter of taste. Hickson's Marple never, ever makes jokes, unlike McEwan's mischievous, twinkly-eyed version.
Incidentally in general I'd steer of the recent BBC/Sarah Phelps adaptations of any Christie. Why someone would be motivated to sling bucketloads of money at productions in which the adapating scriptwriter shows such offhand disrespect for the source material is beyond me. [Not that I've read a lot of Christie: a handful of Poirots, one Marple and And Then There Were None under its original, no longer ever used, title.]
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 26, 2023 20:27:58 GMT
Current non-fiction reading: Anthony Seldon's book on Boris Johnson at Number 10. Turns out he was all over the shop. Who knew?
Mum downloaded The Boris Churchill Factor on her Kindle at one point, I definitely wouldn't but Boris isn't without his fans, anyway flicking through it it seemed as bad as I thought it would be. Yes, it's heavily self-publicizing, and there's nothing wrong with that in itself - Disraeli was a heavy self-publicist and has been one of UK's great leaders - but done in a very grating, colloquial style (more Daily Mail than The Times), the research is pedestrian and very secondary, the purpose of the book is to praise someone who already has much more praise than perhaps he deserves, and every few paragraphs he seems to constantly snipe at lefties, saying things like "Mao and Lenin and Hitler were also great men, but in different, inferior ways to Winston Churchill". Your point, Boris? Winston Churchill did well enough as a wartime leader, scribe and speaker but much of his record outside that was terrible, often in important roles such as The Dardanelles or when he was Chancellor. I don't doubt in Boris's mind he is one of the 'Great People' of history for delivering Brexit and rolling out the vaccines (no idea how much of the latter is down to him personally).
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Post by scouserob on Nov 26, 2023 23:30:17 GMT
Just finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was magnificent. (Though The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is still my favourite Le Carré thus far in my chronological read.)
Next up: Sharpe’s Command
Looking forward to it. Cornwell’s previous novel, Sharpe’s Assassin, was probably my favourite Sharpe since the three prequels set in India. And to be honest I’ve enjoyed pretty much every one of his Sharpe, Arthur, Thomas of Hookton and authored novels.
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roidhun
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Post by roidhun on Nov 30, 2023 14:26:40 GMT
Bernard Cornwell usually manages to write about history in a way that seems at least credible, but his The Warlord Chronicles trilogy (an attempt at a "realistic" treatment of Arthurian legend) is the most total and absolute garbage you could ever have the misfortune to waste your time and money on. He seems to be obsessed with subverting or outrightly inverting just about everything. Examples: Arthur is no King, but merely a warlord turned military dictator, a self-righteous arrogant idealist, willfully blind to the self-serving hypocrisy of almost everyone else around him. Guinevere is a serially adulterous slut. Lancelot is a posturing, self-publicizing, secret coward, a fraud and liar worse than "Brave" Sir Robin in Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Merlin is an aged, borderline-senile charlatan druid who's deluded himself and everyone else into believing he has real magical and prophetic powers. Nimue is a scheming concubine and pupil of Merlin who regularly manipulates him to her own ends. The Christian Bishop Sansum is publicly a homophobic religious fanatic and privately a not-even-very-closet homosexual paedophile. (Oh, how original, Bernard!) Mordred is the rightful King ( !!!), a spoiled brat whose authority his half-uncle Arthur has usurped for the good of the State, because he's a total incompetent who's almost as unfit to hold political power or authority of any kind as Donald J. Trump, Sr.. The equivalent of the Holy Grail is a supposedly magical cauldron that Merlin believes will allow him to compel the Celtic Gods to manifest on Earth and do his bidding. It doesn't. And so on and on and on.... Crap, crap squared, crap cubed.
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Post by CharlesX on Nov 30, 2023 16:07:52 GMT
roidhun Your experience here reminds me of when I saw King Arthur Legend Of The Sword by Guy 'Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' Ritchie, his film tries to marry the tales with modern special effects speaking and action, but takes away the magic and wonder. As you say authors such as Roger Lancelyn Green made King Arthur's tales into a brilliant world, but this film tries to make it a cockney gangster heist and fails in most aspects (such as characterization, originality and excitement, sense of plot).
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roidhun
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Post by roidhun on Nov 30, 2023 16:27:29 GMT
You inadvertently neglected to mention another way in which this kind of film fails: seeking to persuade the viewer that the director and scriptwriter don't deserve to have their names added to the long list of Hollywood insiders (headed by the late unlamented Walter Elias Disney) who should be publicly flogged for crimes against the cultural heritage of the entire human species!
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Post by bloodbeasthandler on Nov 30, 2023 19:18:48 GMT
Crap, crap squared, crap cubed. Cheers for the heads-up. I found Le Morte d'Arthur for £3 in a charity shop recently, so at some point I will at long last be looking to get reading this. Just finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which was magnificent. Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I read it a couple of years ago and loved it. I have the 'Karla trilogy' books with just Smiley's People left to read. The tv adaptations with Alec Guinness are superb by the way. Incidentally in general I'd steer of the recent BBC/Sarah Phelps adaptations of any Christie. Why someone would be motivated to sling bucketloads of money at productions in which the adapting scriptwriter shows such offhand disrespect for the source material is beyond me. [Not that I've read a lot of Christie: a handful of Poirots, one Marple and And Then There Were None under its original, no longer ever used, title.]
Is it just me or is this sort of thing getting worse and worse with each passing year? Feels like it. Anyhow, my current reading is overwhelmingly war, murder and mayhem: From Hell by Alan Moore, graphic novel about Jack the Ripper. The focus of the plot (the 'this goes right to the top' conspiracy theory) reminds me of a Jack the Ripper two-part tv film with Michael Caine in it from the late 80's. Memoirs of an Infantry Officer by Siegfried Sassoon. World War 1 'novel' - Written as if it's fiction but it's clearly the poet's own life and experiences. His love of the English countryside, eye for detail, intelligence and wit come through. I hadn't quite appreciated how much fighting he had done in the front lines. My Commando Operations by Otto Skorzeny. German (Austrian) WW2 soldier involved in all sorts of special operations like getting Mussolini out of prison and putting together a unit of infiltrators dressed in American uniforms for the Battle of the Bulge. An interesting character for sure, i certainly get the impression he is out to 'set the record straight' with this book of his.
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roidhun
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Post by roidhun on Nov 30, 2023 19:52:00 GMT
I haven't read From Hell and I have zero interest in doing so, but I remember that when it came out, the regular reviewers at Comics International uniformly panned it as self-important twaddle that seemed obsessed with demonizing Queen Victoria as a kind of forerunner of Margaret Thatcher. They got a recognized expert on the Whitechapel Murders to review it as a work of Ripperology too and his assessment was something like: "If there had been even a single original idea, it would have died of loneliness."
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