tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post8967806943024215867..comments2022-09-25T08:05:08.039-07:00Comments on The Numinous Book of Review: Shades of Darkness: by Richard CowperJ McEvoyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-86947036182386151152015-03-08T11:17:56.523-07:002015-03-08T11:17:56.523-07:00I'm glad you found a good deal to enjoy in it....I'm glad you found a good deal to enjoy in it. I can see why you didn't like Brobdingnag much - it was rather predictable, but then, I'm very forgiving of apocalypse stories.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-87614718937076313212015-03-08T10:22:06.198-07:002015-03-08T10:22:06.198-07:00I greatly enjoyed The Tithonian Factor, except for...I greatly enjoyed <i>The Tithonian Factor</i>, except for "A Message to the King of Brobdingnag", which I found badly flawed by tedious exposition, predictability and that flippancy of tone you mention. The other stories are all very good indeed, especially the title story and "What Did the Deazies Do?", which reads a bit like a Rex Warner make-over of CS Lewis' "Dark Tower". And when Cowper avoids the flippancy he can make something quite affecting even out of fairly conventional material like "Brothers" and "The Scent of Silverdill".Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-58191151186395222772015-02-18T12:42:09.023-08:002015-02-18T12:42:09.023-08:00Actually, come to think of it, perhaps I'm bei...Actually, come to think of it, perhaps I'm being unfair to Coney - I read almost all his books, and I recall that I enjoyed most of them. The same cannot be said for Roberts or Cowper.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-6524975062510639292015-02-18T12:23:18.973-08:002015-02-18T12:23:18.973-08:00haha, I didn't even know there was a laptop ve...haha, I didn't even know there was a laptop version. I was always surprised that Pavane was regarded as Roberts best novel. I did not like it at all. He is another author whose shorter fiction appeals to me rather more than his novels. Coney is a strange one - none of his books are very memorable, but fragments of them do return. I have a fondness for Friends Come in Boxes and Mirror Image. Beyond those not very much of his has stayed with me. He did win a British SF Award for Brontomek, which was a sort of sequel to Mirror Image, if I remember correctly - both books are concerned with corporate-human exploitation of a particularly vulnerable alien race.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-73658654507245825752015-02-18T12:05:05.687-08:002015-02-18T12:05:05.687-08:00I don't have a tablet either; I've got the...I don't have a tablet either; I've got the laptop version which I generally use when I want something cheap and now or when There Is No Alternative. I looked Cowper up on Amazon and there they all were, in yellow-fronted Gollancz Gateway series. I don't think I've ever heard of Michael G Coney, and I seem to have found Roberts' <i>Pavane</i> forgettable except that it displeased me with a finger-wagging bit at the end, about how we'd never have had Passchendaele if only the Church had been allowed to go on burning people.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-72838468429422811632015-02-18T11:56:53.788-08:002015-02-18T11:56:53.788-08:00Yeah, I used to see his name a lot on the sf shelv...Yeah, I used to see his name a lot on the sf shelves in second-hand bookshops. I was never particularly inspired by the blurbs and it was only the fact that I collect the old Gollancz yellowbacks that I ended up reading him. In my mind I have him sort of lodged between Keith Roberts and Michael G. Coney. I think the collections are best, yes, and Shades of Darkness is good if not anything very new. I keep forgetting that many of these authors are having a second life through kindle - probably because I don't have a tablet.J McEvoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04041757652557198819noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6045486872620706747.post-68493934884736788252015-02-18T11:39:14.466-08:002015-02-18T11:39:14.466-08:00I remember seeing his name all the time in second-...I remember seeing his name all the time in second-hand bookshops, but somehow I never got around to reading him. Most of his work seems to be available on Gollancz for Kindle, no doubt with more and better misprints than most cheap paperback originals could hope for. I will definitely give the story collections a look, and probably <i>Shades of Darkness</i> too.Philiphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18076353733931722397noreply@blogger.com