Novels FReepers Love (discussion)

April 4, 2004 | me

[Long Cut]

Over at THIS THREAD, discussing Tom Clancy's movies, one FReeper lamented the lack of threads discussing books we all might like, like Clancy's, or those of Clive Cussler, Matt Reilly, Patrick Robinson...The list is almost endless, as writers with a conservative tilt have long produced works that appeal to a wide audience of Americans, not just conservatives.

So, ever willing to help out, herewith such a thread. I'm not totally motivated by altruism here, as I am working on my first book right now, and opinions matter to me. Also, I love discussing my favorite works. I started reading at the tender age of four, and kept most of the books I read starting with Treasure Island. I married an English Lit major, and even today I attempt to consume as many books as possible.

What say you , FReepers? Let's chew on some books, shall we?

[archy]

I was a very serious Holmesian for awhile, member of the Goose Club of the Alpha Inn and a correspondent with the editor of the Baker Street Journal.

One of the novels I outlined and churned out a couple of sample chapters for was a Holmes paen; postulating a German Sherlock Holmes, with a bit of Mycroft and Moriarity in him, but who let slip that he was a great fan of Sir Arthur, as well as a couple of other authors, German and English, of the Victorian period.

[AnAmericanMother]

The definitive Louisiana writer is Lafcadio Hearn. If you want to smell the jasmine, read his New Orleans Tales or the Tale of Last Island.

Funny thing about Mr. Hearn - born in the Greek Islands, moved to Cincinnati and then to New Orleans, finally moved to Japan, married a lady of Samurai family, took the name Yakumo Koizume, and settled down to interpret the West to Japan and Japan to the West.

He has written some Japanese ghost stories that will curl your hair. "Ho-Ichi the Earless" is probably the best, I have told that one - and the one about the samurai who turned priest and met with some vampire demons in a lonely forest - to fourth-grade boys to great acclaim. (When their eyes get big and round, you know you've got 'em!)

[archy]

That wasn't real???? Does that mean the part where PeeWee Herman becomes the Master of the Universe wasn't real either?

Well sure, I mean he had to include SOME details from real life to give a sense of realism to the book. But let's wait and see if he's right about how the presidential election turns out first....

[Trinity_Tx]

"You can almost SMELL the Jasmine and feel the languid air in that one."

I know exactly what you mean. She is gifted at setting moods, isn't she? I'll get Ramses and The Feast Of All Saints this week.

(See what you started? I get the reading bug, and my children will be lucky to be fed and clothed for weeks. lol)

[Snake65]

Without Remorse is my favorite Clancy too. It would make a heck of a movie.

Other faves:
Point of Impact
Watership Down
The Stand
A Canticile for Liebowitz
Forever War
Sophie's Choice
Hound of the Baskervilles (or any Sherlock Holmes story)
Gone With The Wind
The Three Musketeers
All Quiet on the Western Front
Animal Farm/1984
Dune
Lord of the Rings
The Sand Pebbles
Keith Laumer's Retief stories
"Doc" Smith's Lensmen series
Horatio Hornblower novels
Sharpe's Rifles
Starship Troopers, Tunnel in the Sky, The Puppet Masters

I know the list is weighted pretty heavily with scifi/fantasy, but that's my main area of recreational reading interest.

[RightWingMama]

We are going to be in so much trouble!! LOL

[Trinity_Tx]

Well, looking at your list and nodding my head throughout, lol... I just want to make sure you don't miss Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. (I described it a bit in post 127.)

It is a big book, but it's like candy to people like us. : ) FWIW, it has a 4 out of 5 star rating based on 669 reviews at Amazon.

I've always planned to make a list, but it really is a difficult task. For one thing, I tend to loan out my favorites, and never see them again... afraid I'll leave one of those off my list.

But I think I'll go get a start on it now... : )

[archy]

Oh, and Jerry Pornelle, (I think I spelled that right..) always a good read.

Almost. It's Dr. Jerry Pournelle, who himself, like me, is a particular fan of post WWII period sci-fi writer H. Beam Piper, who also turned out a few novellas for the pulp detective anthologies of his day.

Among my favourites from Dr. Pournelle: his series There Will Be War, interspersing short stories with technical and service academy reports, offering possibilities of the theoretical and possible, but even including a poetic form or two for spice.

Pournelle's co-authorship with Larry Niven of several other offerings is another swell source of both fun reading and a hairs-on-the-back-of-the-neck feeling that these guys could be right, most particularly Lucifer's Hammer and The Mote in God's Eye. Pournelle makes a swell starting place for continuing your SF education once you've run out of Heinlein.

And for a quick and dirty [not in the porno sense] Pournelle starting place, Janissaries isn't too bad a place to begin to get a feel for the way the good Doctor crafts a tale.

[AnAmericanMother]

Longinus is a saint in the Catholic church. He was converted at the foot of the cross when the blood and water from his spear piercing Christ's side miraculously healed his poor eyesight. He was converted, became a hermit, and was martyred at Cappadocia in the 1st century.

. . . . SPOILER if you haven't seen the movie . . . .

...

...

...

In The Passion, Longinus is troubled by Christ's heroic suffering and forgiveness of his persecutors. He turns away from the other soldiers' game of dice at the foot of the cross. After the earthquake and darkness, he stops the other soldiers from breaking Christ's legs to hasten his death by telling them he is already dead. Ordered to "make sure", he pierces his side with the spear and is covered with blood and water. He kneels, transfixed. It's a stunning moment in a film full of stunning moments. I think he's also one of the soldiers who later helps Joseph of Arimathea and Mary take Christ's body down from the cross.

The movie is excellent and well worth seeing. It helps to have a good working knowledge of Catholic iconography because the film is multi-layered with tradition as well as what we know from the Gospels. It is fairly gory, but if the gore didn't bother my mother (who is notoriously tender-hearted) it shouldn't be too bad for anyone. As mom said, it's the tender scenes that get you. And Satan gave me the lead pipe creeps - very effective.

[Bear_in_RoseBear]

Re-reading this right now:

In preparation for getting his newest book later in the week:

Big ol' SF, the fun is in reading the author's conception of future technology. At least, that's what I enjoy!

[stands2reason]

Byzantium is the best historical fiction I have ever read, hands down.

An absolute joy of a read. You make me think of another book featuring a monk that I have read --- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller. It's SciFi --a post-apocalyptic (the nuclear kind) novel involving the Catholic Church. I recommend it highly for everyone, especially Catholics.

[archy]

I haven't seen Passion. How is Longinus treated there? In Casca, he is at the beginning presented as a simple soldier, a legionary content and happy with his job. One day, after a night of drinking, he is detailed with a squad to execute two thieves and a "mad Jew". The Piercing is presented as Casca's trying to get the whole thing over with, as he is hungover and disgusted with the whole day. He was trying a "mercy kill" which backfired horribly. As Christ says to him at that moment:

"Soldier, you are content with what you are. So you will remain, until we meet again..."

He is cursed forever after that. He begins wandering the Earth, figthing in wars, always searching for the Jew he wounded.

If you enjoy the Mel Gibson The Passion of the Christ film, you are in for a bit of research, as well as a reading treat or two:

A vision of Saint Longinus:

''I saw the Lord dead on the cross. I saw all the people standing around in just the same positions as on Good Friday. It was at the instant in which the legs of the crucified were to be broken. Longinus rode a horse or a mule, but not like our horses; it had a thick neck. He dismounted outside the circle of soldiers and went in on foot, his lance in his hand. He stepped up on the mound at the foot of the cross, and drove the lance into the right side of Our Lord. When he saw the stream of blood and water, he was most powerfully affected.

He hastily descended the mountain, rode quickly to the city and went to tell Pilate that he looked upon Jesus as the Son of God, and that he resigned his appointment in the army. He laid down his lance at Pilate's feet and left him. I think it was Nicodemus he met next, and made the same declaration; after which he joined the disciples. Pilate esteemed this lance dishonored, since it had been used as an instrument of punishment, and I think he gave it to Nicodemus.''

This is from ''The Life of Anne Catherine Emmerich'''; an excerpt dated July, 1820. It was being related to her confessor, a Father Limberg, and later written down by Clemens Brentano.

The ocassion was upon touching a relic of the sacred lance; and it caused her great pain in her own side. She is, of course the well-known visionary and stigmatized Augustinian nun. The book of her life and visions was granted an imprimatur by Peter Joseph, bishop of Limbourg, in Germany, around the 1870's. The fact her words here were spoken to her confessor should be significant of her truthfulness in the matter. Her amenuensis Clemens Brentano also deserves mention. He was a poet and close friend of all the leading writers of Germany at the time, and as famous for his work as Goethe and Schiller. Yet, he abandoned public life to become the biographer and servant of the visionary. Composer Gustav Mahler set many of his poems to music, in the collection ''Knaben Wunderhorn''.

As if in a vision....

Chapter XlII, Centurion Abenadar and Cassius Longinus.

[stands2reason]

The Feast Of All Saints, about quadroons (half-breed black/whites) in 1800's Louisiana. You can almost SMELL the Jasmine and feel the languid air in that one.

Loved that book. I got bored with the Vampire series, but I still love her writing.

[stands2reason]

Have you read A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter Miller)?

[Jeff Head]

Sarcasm noted. We are putting ourselves in a very dangerous position IMHO. It's one of the issues explored in depth in the Dragon's Fury Series.

[cavtrooper21]

I'd forgotten H.Beam Piper...
Little Fuzzy...
That was a long time ago. Damn it, now I'm going to have to excavate the book shelves and find it.
...and start looking for his other books.


AAAArrrrgggggg!
(thanks arch)

[archy]

What's that one about? I've heard about it before.

Short review, in Haiku:

Symbolism on
The edge of insanity.
The real Da Vinci Code.

Longer precis::

Don't even try to follow all the details in this one, just go with the flow. Eco cleverly combines the Knights Templar, Jewish Mysticism, South American native tribes, language, witchcraft, physics, Francis Bacon, the various calendars, European history, middle Eastern history, and more, in a caper that starts out as a game to entertain three friends in the publishing business in Italy and ends up being the mother of all conspiracies.

This book is much more entertaining, in my opionion, than the Name of the Rose as it involves a much more clever interplay of various disciplines and is more than a mere murder mystery. As in the Name of the Rose, Eco introduces each chapter with writings in a variety of languages -- Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, etc. Unless you are particularly interested in ancient languages and obscure historical writings, it is safe to ignore these but for a general sense of flavor. It is also nearly impossible to actually follow all the details of the plot, which deals with a group of publishers who conceive of the idea to publish "writers" with far-out theories for a fee, only to find that some of the theories add-up to a great mystical conspiracy. Once I gave up trying to follow all the intricate details of the plot, I found the experience quite enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading this book again to find all the things I missed the first time. Eco's depth and breadth of knowledge in so many areas is impressive. This man is definitely a genius.

[archy]

What's that one about? I've heard about it before.

Short review, in Haiku:

Symbolism on
The edge of insanity.
The real Da Vinci Code.

Longer precis::

Don't even try to follow all the details in this one, just go with the flow. Eco cleverly combines the Knights Templar, Jewish Mysticism, South American native tribes, language, witchcraft, physics, Francis Bacon, the various calendars, European history, middle Eastern history, and more, in a caper that starts out as a game to entertain three friends in the publishing business in Italy and ends up being the mother of all conspiracies.

This book is much more entertaining, in my opionion, than the Name of the Rose as it involves a much more clever interplay of various disciplines and is more than a mere murder mystery. As in the Name of the Rose, Eco introduces each chapter with writings in a variety of languages -- Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, etc. Unless you are particularly interested in ancient languages and obscure historical writings, it is safe to ignore these but for a general sense of flavor. It is also nearly impossible to actually follow all the details of the plot, which deals with a group of publishers who conceive of the idea to publish "writers" with far-out theories for a fee, only to find that some of the theories add-up to a great mystical conspiracy. Once I gave up trying to follow all the intricate details of the plot, I found the experience quite enjoyable. I'm looking forward to reading this book again to find all the things I missed the first time. Eco's depth and breadth of knowledge in so many areas is impressive. This man is definitely a genius.

[GATOR NAVY]

Thanks for the reminder. I remember in my high school American Lit class we had a choice of reading any two of the Progressive classics "Looking Backward", "The Jungle", and "The Octopus". "Looking Backward" was the one I chose not read, for reasons unremembered now.

[Euro-American Scum]

Sarcasm noted. We are putting ourselves in a very dangerous position IMHO. It's one of the issues explored in depth in the Dragon's Fury Series.

How well I know. Your series is riveting, but it's depressing too. Especially when I can see it playing out in the headlines.

Good night, Jeff.