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this, a "Sci-Fi" book written in 1920.
I'll quote a review:
A stunning achievement in speculative fiction, A Voyage to Arcturus has inspired, enchanted, and unsettled readers for decades. It is simultaneously an epic quest across one of the most unusual and brilliantly depicted alien worlds ever conceived, a profoundly moving journey of discovery into the metaphysical heart of the universe, and a shockingly intimate excursion into what makes us human and unique.
After a strange interstellar journey, Maskull, a man from Earth, awakens alone in a desert on the planet Tormance, seared by the suns of the binary star Arcturus. As he journeys northward, guided by a drumbeat, he encounters a world and its inhabitants like no other, where gender is a victory won at dear cost; where landscape and emotion are drawn into an accursed dance; where heroes are killed, reborn, and renamed; and where the cosmological lures of Shaping, who may be God, torment Maskull in his astonishing pilgrimage. At the end of his arduous and increasingly mystical quest waits a dark secret and an unforgettable revelation.
A Voyage to Arcturus was the first novel by writer David Lindsay (1878–1945), and it remains one of the most revered classics of science fiction.
It read rather like one of those AI hallucinations that you can watch on Facebook Videos, the main character Maskull forever morphing, a sort of “Pilgrims Progress” written by a madman, reminding me in tone of Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake, no more sci-fi, more a metaphysical investigation into what makes us human, with no clear answers at the end. A long, nightmarish read.
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"Russian Gothic Tales from the Twentieth Century"
Finally, having lusted after this for a year I finally broke down and bought it online. It didn't disappoint. The reasons, well, it contained a translation of Chayanov's "Venediktov", which was the tale that inspired Bulgakov's "The Master and Margarita". The fact that Chayanov used "Bulgakov" as the narrating character no doubt set the hook. The parallels are obvious, and Chayanov's source material is every bit as inspired as Bulgakov's masterpiece. Then there are few tales as well by Bryusov, who's "The Fiery Angel" I found as well terrific. And there are many other tales of horror, of homunculi, madmen, insanity, demon-haunted mirrors, of men on the cusp of dying, where the veil between this world and the next is shorn and rendered in the half-light of madness; it was, in short, a fine and worthwhile anthology of Russian authors not conveniently in translation. Perfect reading for a cold and rainy fall day.
Now back to Bloch...
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Read, enjoyed. Dover thrift edition. He has a talent for prose.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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So this, my first check-out from the library, a proper Oprah Book Club Pick, a staff recommendation.
Enjoyable, a woman author (my daughter was giving me grief, not my fault that men write more to my taste than women...) - enjoyable, quirky, amusing, but a little lighter than I'm used to. I don't mind light, quirky, etc - but I'd prefer it in slimmer volumes.
While I can understand it's popularity, I'm a little perplexed at the reviews. I mean - not bad - but a long way from being great.
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"A sometimes terrifying, sometimes hilarious collection of writing on the perils of the road"
So begins an anthology of travellers tales that more or less go badly. Some, I've read before, Peter Matthiessen, Wilfred Thesiger, Eric Newby, others were new to me.
An overrepresented sampling of Canadian and western authors, and - given the date of publication, 1990 - well, the world was a very much different place. That, at least, I like.
The stories, for the by and large, the excerpt from the larger tale doesn't for the most part compel me to read the entirety. Perhaps, in such instances as the tales by Graham Greene or Dirk Bogarde or Umberto Eco, make me want to read the entire volume, capture the entire sense of the journey or novel, but - as an anthology it fell rather flat in my eyes.
As an introduction to authors I haven't yet read - and many I won't, it was fine, but it's soon to back to the bookstore with this and search out something a little more substantial.