G.I., You Die!

Went to The Book Palace Pulp Fair today (www.bookpalace.com ) and found this gem. Ah, Digit books were ace.
Managed to blow £50 - mostly on stock - but got some rather cool books which I'll post over the next few days.

Gone And Forgotten

A post inspired by Psychbloke - I reckon that the performances in Sapphire & Steel were so stilted and dull that Ewan McGregor would have fitted right in.

Not Near Mint

Went to see Revenge Of The Sith this morning, and, as is my tradition, bought small film-related toy afterwards...then I TOOK IT OUT OF THE PACKAGING.

Dead Nympho

Well, here's a title I wish I'd thought of. Found in Brighton a couple of days ago.
It says on the back: 'Cover posed by professional models'. I'm sure we're all better off for that information.

A cool poster for a cool film. I almost bought it on Ebay, then thought better of it & just lifted the image instead.

My little contribution to VE Day.

Silver Sable

Now, I'm sure I had some reason for posting this...er..no, it's gone.

The Big Questions

So, I've taken Kek-w 's challenge to answer 7 very tough bookworm questions, and here I go:

1/ You're stuck inside Fahrenheit 451 - which book do you want to be? (Which I take to mean 'what book would I burn)

Well, I would agree completely with burning anything by Ben Elton. In fact just burning him might be simpler. But if there's one book I would burn and piss on the ashes, it's Hi Fidelity by Nick Hornby (I would also burn The Long Firm by Jake Arnott - but I wouldn't piss on the ashes).
Someone lent me Hi Fidelity years ago (they meant well - I hold no grudge) - saying something like 'it's just the sort of thing you'd like'. Well, it's not. It's a weak, asexual ego wank. Everybody's got a good heart, everything turns out nice. It's utter, utter shit.

2/ Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character?

Oh, yes. Ooooh, yes.
Much like Kek, most of my early wanking years involved Jean Grey (Yes - she died and never came back), and I was also very partial to The Wasp, The Invisible Girl and Lady Sif.
I was also very into Stefanie Powers as The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. - And more recently Stacy Sheridan in T J Hooker.
But in books - well, I have to go for Fah Lo Suee - Fu Manchu's daughter, she's so fucking evil she upsets Fu Manchu himself. That's hard.
She's closely followed by Jean Morris, mostly referred to as 'The Girl With Hair The Colour Of Steel' in Doc Savage #7 - The Monsters.
I could go on and on, but I won't.
This has reminded me - I must dig out my Silver Sable comics...

3/ What was the last book you bought?

Well, two books turned up in the post today (Godbless Ebay).
The War Of The Cybernauts by Alex Raymond - and The Avenger #29 - The Nightwitch Devil by Kenneth Robeson. The latter having an uber-cool George Gross cover.

4/ What is the last Book You Read?

The Sword Of The Dawn by Michael Moorcock - The Third Volume In The History Of The Runestaff. Superb.

5/ What are you currently reading?

Generation Kill by Evan Wright.
As donated by JC last week - I've only just started it, but it's the true story of First Recon in Iraq, where they earned the nickname 'First Suicide Battalion'. Nice.

6/ Five books you would take to a desert island?
On another day four of these would probably be different, but I would have to have Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
It's just the most relentless, violent novel I've ever read.
It follows a posse of deranged cowboys as they hunt the Apache and Comanche for bounty down in Mexico. It's really fucking harsh. It's also one of the most beautifully written books I've ever come across.

The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham.
Although, as in most of his stuff, the characters are a bit wet and featureless, the darkness of this book lifts it way above its contemporaries. You never see the aliens, you never know anything about them other than their desire to eat mankind.

The High Window - Raymond Chandler. In my opinion the best of the Marlowe books. Tremendous dialogue and probably the least convoluted of his plots. Me and Chandler go back a long way.

Dispatches - Michael Herr. I know, very obvious, but very stunning.

City Of The Beast - Michael Moorcock. Mostly this is here because it was the first book I read that hadn't been imposed on me at school. I readit in one go and it absolutely blew my mind, and I still love Moorcock now. Most of his stuff hasn't dated at all.

Stephen Hunter's The Day Before Midnight and Skull-Face by Robert E Howard almost made it.

7/ Who are you going to pass this stick to (3 People) and why?
I nominate JC, Niowulf and Lacivious Polyphony - why not?

And finally... I've added an extra question, because covers are ace.
8/ My Favourite Cover..James Bama, a genius if ever there was one.

As a vote for the Lib Dems will let The Conservatives in the Back Passage, and anyway they're a bunch of nancy boys, I'm voting for Thor.

Seems a great shame that the last surviving Dalek turned out to be a complete ponse.
And The Doctor certainly didn't need a big rocket launcher when he could have just annoyed it to death.

More Moorcock

As promised the US copy of Moorcock's The Jewel In The Skull. I'm pretty sure the cover artist is Gary Morrow, who did about a hundred Perry Rhodan covers for US publishers Ace.
I read this the other day and had forgotton how fucking excellent it is. I then read The Mad God's Amulet and now I'm reading The Sword Of The Dawn. I need to find a copy of The Runestaff by the end of the week.
I just love all the animal orders of The Dark Empire - as a kid I wanted to be in the Order Of The Mantis, cause they was the hardest. Truthfully I might've scraped in to The Order Of The Rabbit.