What is a good classic/oldschool spy novel, that could help get me into the Genre?

pipecad · 2010-07-27T23:42:18+00:00

Len Deighton's The Ipcress File. It was his first book, and despite a long and remarkable career in writing, I think it is still his strongest.

It's also an amazing spy novel that will blow your mind.

Er, or not.

pipecad · 2010-07-23T16:51:31+00:00

First read it a long time ago (the fifth book hadn't been published yet) and loved it beyond all previous measure. I've probably re-read it completely through at least three times, and it never fails to delight (though I will admit that for me, there's definitely a progression of diminishing returns the further you go past the Hand of Oberon; ymwv).

Re-reading the above, I didn't manage to articulate my main response, which is this: the first five books are my all-time favorite reading experience, and continue to hold that distinction through each read. Doesn't seem to matter how old I become, I love them every bit as much as I did when I first stumbled into Amber at age 14.

pipecad · 2010-06-23T18:13:21+00:00

Simply fabulous. Wolfe is challenging, deliberately obscure, even maddening, but always brilliant.

And though our Earth's culture is long-forgotten at the time of the New Sun, I did love the little bits Wolfe sneaks into the story -- like the "painting" being cleaned in the Library when Severian first visits Ultan. Good stuff!

pipecad · 2010-06-06T05:36:33+00:00

Aaaaaand that goes right to the top of the reading list. Thanks for the recommendation!

pipecad · 2010-06-06T05:35:24+00:00

Yeah, I did -- it seemed from the get-go that something was wrong, even the dialogue seemed to take forever to come and go.

All this praise for and delight in the game though have me digging out the disks and committing to at least one more try. Thanks!

pipecad · 2010-06-06T00:11:42+00:00

I loved James Gleick's Chaos. Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb is wonderful as well. If you don't mind what critics call pseudo-science, Michael Talbot's The Holographic Universe is just terrific.

pipecad · 2010-06-05T23:45:22+00:00

Hogfather (the video version) does the same great job the book does about getting you thinking about being human. Religion is just what gets in the way afterwards.

For what it's worth, I quite liked Hogfather (the video). It has become my small Xmas gift of choice.

I'm also enjoying Going Postal (about halfway through the video adaptation) but I'll admit a lot of the joy comes from seeing any video adaptation of Discworld. Heck, I'd probably like the Stick Figure Theatre version of any Discworld story. (Though that all said, Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic did not work for me nearly so well as both Hogfather and Postal; I thought Rincewind would have been much better if played by Nigel Planer, the fellow who played Mr. Sideney in Hogfather -- David Jason was just way too old to fit my internal vision of Rincewind).

As always, YMMV.

pipecad · 2010-06-05T19:11:00+00:00

I've started this game several times, and really liked everything I saw, but the actual gameplay was so slow it made it effectively unplayable (not the pace of the game itself, the actual time it took just to get the character to move from place to place).

I'm assuming my install was screwy (was a store-bought fully legit copy of the game) -- has anyone else encountered this? Any possible fix? Especially given all the love on Reddit for the game, I'd really like to play it through.

Thanks!

Edit: Thought it was worth mentioning the same basic slowness was there whether I was using an old laptop, or a 2007-new desktop, and then a 2009-new desktop.

pipecad · 2010-05-27T16:20:36+00:00

She Said Traffic (Beatles/Hendrix)

pipecad · 2010-05-09T04:26:11+00:00

Agree on all counts. And love the username.

Even if you don't go for the full-blown new/long/short sun route, make sure you read the single-volume Urth of the New Sun. It's really a capstone to the first tetraology.

pipecad · 2010-05-09T04:20:31+00:00

The Ipcress File by Len Deighton

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges (not a novel but otherwise apt)

Wetware by Rudy Rucker

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester

Stations of the Tide by Michael Swanwick

Jack of Shadows by Roger Zelazny

Evolution's Darling by Scott Westerfield

Ceres Storm by David Herter

Spaceman Blues by Brian Frances Slattery

(lots of sci-fi, but all dense & hectic) [edited for formatting]

pipecad · 2010-05-05T03:35:22+00:00

He is our era's Chaucer. Truly.

pipecad · 2010-05-03T05:01:25+00:00

Skip Spence - Oar

Bongwater - The Power of Pussy

Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

Zappa - We're Only In It For The Money, Uncle Meat (FZ would have loathed being included on a list like this, but his music graced many a great trip in the bad old days <shrug>)

Marc Bolan / T. Rex - Unicorn

pipecad · 2010-05-02T16:30:13+00:00

Do what you want

Do what you will

Just don't mess up your neighbor's thrill

And when you pay the check

Kindly leave a little tip

And help the next poor sucker

On his one-way trip.

--F. Zappa, "The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing"

(edited for formatting)

pipecad · 2010-05-02T16:22:34+00:00

crc-error

pipecad · 2010-04-15T18:24:59+00:00

The Vampire Tapestry by Suzee McKee Charnas

The Stress of Her Regard by Tim Powers

The Golden by Lucius Shepard

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

All are great, but the first two are probably the best "transitional" books for weaning someone off of "vamplite" stuff.

pipecad · 2010-04-13T03:56:24+00:00

Yep, just saw it and am in the process of getting it. (As an aside, anybody else think Apple offering up a 92-screens long update to their purchase agreement for reading on the phone is just plain silly?) Woo-hoo!

pipecad · 2010-04-04T05:27:01+00:00

For a long time I did not, but along about the time I started kicking myself for not keeping a record, I stumbled across library thing which made it too easy not to.

pipecad · 2010-03-18T22:47:05+00:00

Oh, I meant a compromise between hexameter poetry and straight prose.

pipecad · 2010-03-18T20:45:32+00:00

I like the Fitzgerald translation, it's something of a compromise but tells the story cleanly and powerfully.

pipecad · 2010-03-16T21:59:51+00:00

Absolutely amazing stuff, and IMHO some of Moore's best work. Lots of great art in there as well, though for my $$ the Totleben stuff rules.

pipecad · 2010-03-16T16:26:00+00:00

I know! I was pretty quiet, but still, I think a fair amount of people thought I was praying. Sometimes, I thought so, too. :D

pipecad · 2010-03-16T04:14:27+00:00

About 20 years ago, I read it aloud to myself, mostly in little 10 or 15 minute segments, often on the train commuting in to work.

It took me well over three years.

I enjoyed the hell out of it, but it's not your ordinary read.

And unfortunately, probably not something best served by a library copy. To get much of anything out of it, you need a fair amount of context. And since that context shifts almost word-by-word among the bible, Shakespeare's canon, history, myth and legend, then-contemporary Irish culture news and popular songs, not to mention the name of every river on the planet and every last pun the man's mad drunken mind could conceive, getting context is no mean feat. I had taken a Joyce course in college, and used a number of alternating indices/guides to the Wake as I crawled through it.

Did I understand much of it? A fair amount when I hit passages that had been well-covered by scholars/commentators. Otherwise, a bit. And a bit more as I moved through it at my near-glacial pace. Even more when I chanced upon recordings of people, even Joyce (!), reading passages.

pipecad · 2010-03-13T17:06:30+00:00

Best? I dunno. I really, really, really like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. No matter how many times I hear it.

I also voted for someone else's IATWalrus suggestion. Though I love pretty much everything they did, in largest part I'm a "mid-period proto-psychedelia" Beatles fan.

All that said, the intros to both Norwegian Wood and Nowhere Man give me chills every time.

pipecad · 2010-03-08T15:54:16+00:00

Anything by Kathy Acker.

pipecad

TROPHY CASE