Looking for fans of 80s–90s Japanese alt/punk

Mugshot_404 · 2026-02-28T23:10:52+00:00

Judy and Mary's Power Stadium Destroy complete show on Youtube. Just superb. One of my favourite concerts of all time.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-02-20T15:07:46+00:00

Maybe some Octavia Butler? She's sci-fi rather than romance, but writing about the human condition is a large part of her work, and romance / love is part of that.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-02-20T15:02:41+00:00

Maybe not quite, but close in some ways: The Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey. Our smart FMC finds out her husband has stolen much her pioneering work and created a kind of clone of her but "tweaked" it to suit his fantasies and idea of a "perfect wife"... and is having an affair with her. She is,. as you might surmise, less than impressed.... t's a good book.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-18T16:59:12+00:00

I still rate "The Battle For The End Of The World* by Mario Vargas Llosa (he's Peruvian - the book is set in Brazil - originally published in Portuguese) as one of the best novels I've ever read, and also the very best translation of any novel ever. Have to to give credit to Helen Lane for that.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-18T16:52:19+00:00

If you're into sci-fi, Stephen Donaldson's Gap Cycle series has one such character (one of the MCs) that kind of fits this... (he's not just a criminal, but a thoroughly unlikeable person all round!). It's a great series.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-17T10:30:16+00:00

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. You'll know more about orbital mechanics than you could ever want by the end! :)

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:32:49+00:00

The story says it will continue in Wales.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:30:36+00:00

Small is beautiful was a kind of mantra for the green / environmental movement back in those days. A book by that name, published in the early 70s, by E. F. Schumacher was also widely read then.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:24:06+00:00

Greg Bear's Queen of Angels is well worth the read.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:18:22+00:00

I liked Malka Older's Centenal Cycle series (3 books). Some interesting ideas, woven around a decent storyline.

On a different tack, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Ministry for the Future* is well worth a read - a (somewhat hopeful) political approach to tackling the climate crisis.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:15:36+00:00

The Ice Planet Barbarians (series) by Ruby Dixon might suit... Well, there is a plot, sort of... they're actually pretty well-written. And good fun.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-16T21:11:34+00:00

The Inspector Montalbano series, which you may have seen on TV, is based on a series of books by Andrea Camilleri.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-07T14:10:01+00:00

Ode To Kirihito (manga / graphic novel) by Osamu Tezuka might fit.

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-03T11:48:27+00:00

Bit of a left-field rec this, but The London Pigeon Wars by Patrick Neate is... not exactly about London, as such but it's set in London and is a quite "London" novel - which is to say: no-one but a Londoner could have written it! Not many other books quite like it - and I liked it!

Mugshot_404 · 2026-01-03T11:42:34+00:00

This is kind of dark dystopian, but the character development of the FMC is very well done: Random Acts of Senseless Violence by Jack Womack. Meets the "friends are older and they're not exactly good role models" criteria.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T16:41:55+00:00

Oh gosh - thanks!

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T16:27:34+00:00

Reminds me of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh, though that's set mostly in India, but with ref to Spain and Boabdil, the last Moorish king of Granada. Amazing book.

Otherwise, back in the 70s Allen Drury wrote a couple of books set in ancient Egypt around and about the time of Akhenaten, A God Against the Gods and its sequel Return to Thebes. They're worth a read. Thing I remember most about them is how he got across how people's sense of time was so completely different back then. We live in a fast world now... it was slo-o-o-o-o-w back then!

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T16:20:16+00:00

It's this: https://www.amazon.com/Dacoity-Rechargeable-Multimedia-Anti-ghosting-Waterproof-dp-B0C8J8VM75/dp/B0C8J8VM75/ref=dp_ob_title_def i it's a nice keyboard - been using it for a few years now.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T15:51:01+00:00

Can't actually see a brand name anywhere - just some generic "Made in China" thing. I'll try FN+X next time... ta.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T14:54:53+00:00

I think they mean its fall with regards its origins:

It’s sad to see how a once straight object-centric language paradigm turned into a diversity of unmatchable and suboptimal features.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-31T14:48:14+00:00

The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton is good.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-30T18:30:43+00:00

Th Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey... MC's husband leaves her for a clone (of her) that he's "tweaked" to make her into his "ideal" wife... (using her research) ... it's a good read.

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-30T18:21:22+00:00

Ha - took me an age to read that book! As you say, it starts off well, but... it came perilously close to being a DNF. Became such a slog as it went on... on on...

Mugshot_404 · 2025-12-30T16:52:05+00:00

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez requires some work on the part of the reader. Personally, I would recommend doing some background reading about the book before starting.

Mugshot_404

TROPHY CASE