tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post9142561761973715293..comments2024-03-26T15:22:25.095-06:00Comments on The Earliad: Books I Read in 2017Earl J. Woodshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-50648846614969297142018-01-01T15:34:02.653-07:002018-01-01T15:34:02.653-07:00I have indeed read Ann Leckie's Radch novels, ...I have indeed read Ann Leckie's Radch novels, and came away with the same lesson you did about assumptions. She has a new one out, though I don't think it's part of the Radch series. <br /><br />I can only echo Jeff's comments about Hammett; I'll be reading The Glass Key and The Thin Man this year to round out my coverage of his works. Earl J. Woodshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07963936256606285358noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-35624419454082927412018-01-01T11:15:57.317-07:002018-01-01T11:15:57.317-07:00@ Never:
Dashiell Hammett was himself a Pinkerton...@ Never:<br /><br />Dashiell Hammett was himself a Pinkerton Operative, more or less a hired gun, prior to WWI. His time as a gumshoe informs his early work, which is definitely worth the read. He invents and defines the hard-boiled detective in these stories, and the writing is terse, exciting, and to the point. <br /><br />The Maltese Falcon, his only Sam Spade story, is the culmination and maturation of that style. It rises far above convention and goes well beyond being a mere genre piece, it's the finest American literature writ very large in letters of cold blood and hot lead. The movie is outstanding; the book transcends that by a wide margin. Sam Spade is a humanistic, flawed hero who is the essence of his era boiled down into the most cunning and resourceful animal a war veteran could ever be - and even with guns, fists, wit, and a couple of loyal friends, he's not quite the match for the fatalistic Wonderley, the diabolical Cairo, the furious Wilmer, and the inimitable Gutman, such a quartet of maladventurers that has never been seen before and has never been equalled afterwards. There are no more Sam Spade stories simply because once you've had the best, there's nowhere else you need to go. <br /><br />Hammett did follow up The Maltese Falcon with the Thin Man which goes off in a different direction than the rest of his novels. Very readable, breezy, bright, and as completely cynical as an ingot of lead is filled with lead. There's also the Glass Key, which although a standard detective story, ends up being a strong meditation on the concepts of loyalty and friendship cast against the forces of life and death. <br /><br />Hammett did a lot of genre-building, but his standout works rise far above genre itself. Those books haven't been equalled except perhaps by Raymond Chandler, and then I'd say no-one after that save Philip K Dick. Jeff Shylukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11915415377502782962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-53593835391839815812018-01-01T09:15:09.275-07:002018-01-01T09:15:09.275-07:00What kills me is that given the similar-ish-ness o...What kills me is that given the similar-ish-ness of of our tastes I have only read 10 of the books on your list...Scalzi because you introduced me to him, <i>Penric</i> et al because <i>Curse of Chalion</i> is the greatest Fantasy book ever, and the <i>Diviners </i>because...well.. because its the <i>Diviners</i>.<br /><br />I might just have to try the Sam Spade. It's one of those genres that everyone should go out of their way to know.<br /><br />I also commend to you Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch series. It was a delight and she chose "she" as the gender-neutral pronoun and it keeps whacking you upside the head with how many assumptions we make based on gender. Or at least I think so...<br /><br />BNever for Everhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09831217490877039494noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5077773.post-56605570580264676502017-12-31T19:19:54.491-07:002017-12-31T19:19:54.491-07:00I can't recall if I have reccommended this, bu...I can't recall if I have reccommended this, but you might want to read Spade & Archer, the prequel to The Maltese Falcon. The Maltese Falcon can't be beat, it is indeed a tour-de-force and a must-read book. Spade & Archer fills in the back story to Sam Spade and how he came to partner with the loutish Miles Archer, a deeper insight as to his relationships with both Effie and Sid Wise, and how he's got such a tenuous arrangement with Polhaus and Dundy of the SFPD. Spade & Archer was written by a real private detective, and so the author's research into the times and places that Sam Spade would inhabit renders them near-perfect. The book itself makes a nearly seamless transition between the before-story and the classic novel. There are a few very clever clues in Spade & Archer that Sam Spade misses that would have perhaps given him a stronger position in The Maltese Falcon. <br /><br />However, without really spoiling the story, both Miles Archer and Sam Spade get through some very harrowing predicaments unscathed, because, well, they have to. It does seem pointless to put these detectives into serious jeopardy since we know exactly what happens to them. Even so, it's a well-crafted book with writing that fits into Dashiell Hammett's steel-jawed narrative. Jeff Shylukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11915415377502782962noreply@blogger.com