Song 8 - 'Back in Black', AC/DC

I've got out of the habit of posting about my favourite 100 songs (as have you chainmailmaiden, and it was your idea). Anyway, I thought I'd do a couple tonight to try to get back in the swing of things.

I'm something of a late convert to AC/DC, but I've gotta say, they do well...rock. When I I bought my 911, I actually managed to get the car for rather less than I'd budgeted. This gave me the opportunity to fit it with some serious in car hi-fi kit. (The bloke who specced and installed it at Plymouth Car Sound , who was predictably a proper hi-fi buff, reckoned my in car system was better than his home hi-fi.) Anyway, when one has come into possession of a very fast car with a very loud hi-fi, this is the first song you choose to try it out. Or at least, it was the first song I tried.

(Another connection between AC/DC and fast cars is that lead singer Brian Johnson is currently top of Top Gear's 'Star in a Reasonably Priced Car' leaderboard.)

Song 9 - 'California Dreamin', River City People

I'm going to submit this song as an example of a cover version that is better than the original. (The original in this case being by The Mamas and the Papas.) This was a minor hit (Top of the Pops appearance!) in 1990 when the band were bright young things. The river city in the band's name was Liverpool. I actually saw them perform this song live at Maine Road (Manchester City's old ground) when they were supporting Fleetwood Mac. No, actually that's not quite right - they were on first, then Hall & Oates, then Fleetwood Mac. They were way better than Hall & Oates. The first album, which this song is taken from, is fab. There was a second album, which I bought but very few other people did, and the band split up. The lead singer then formed a duo with one of the less famous Bangles and according to wikipedia relased a later solo album. I should try and get those someday.

Some very short book reviews

I'll tell you something else I haven't done on LiveJournal for ages - book reviews. It's been a couple of years in fact. I had to go into the library with a notebook to remind myself which books I'd read. This will probably take several posts to do, but here's the first few, all by the late, great Jack Vance...

Star King, Jack Vance
The Killing Machine, Jack Vance

The first two books in Vance's Demon Princes series. Revenge SF in which our hero tracks down each of five bad guys responsible for enslaving his village. Good stuff, but the problem is that Vance has done better. You keep hoping that the next chapter is going to feature some marvellously elaborate descriptions of bizarre societies, but it never happens.

( Read more... )

Some more very short book reviews

More epic fantasy...

Against All Things Ending, Stephen Donaldson

This is the ninth Thomas Covenant book. This series seems to be the Marmite of fantasy literature, although not quite as prominent as it was in the 80s (when, let's face it, there was less competition). As you might guess from the fact that I'm still reading after nine increasingly lengthy volumes, I'm definitely on the love side. They aren't easy books to read. Donaldsons's writing style is sometimes awkward. The plot is now enormously complex (the 'What has gone before' section at the start of each of these later books is the length of a novella, and even then misses out enough that you sometimes end up scurrying to wikipedia to work out what exactly it was that a particular enigmatic character did in volume 5). But if you can get past that and buy into the fantasy and the characters (in particular Thomas Covenant himself, but also Linden Avery), then there are few works of fantasy literature where the story seems so...important. The final (this time I think he means it) book is due out this October. I probably want to find out how this series ends as much as any fantasy series not written by George R.R. Martin.



Deadhouse Gates, Steven Erikson

This is another big thick novel, and again part of a genuinely epic fantasy series. The plot is (I suspect) actually more complex than Thomas Covenant. There are certainly lots more characters. I know that this is a hugely popular and critically-acclaimed series, frequently appearing at or near the top of 'Best Fantasy Books of All Time' lists. However, I wasn't really able to get into this. I had the same problem with the first book 'Gardens of the Moon'. Lots of characters, many of whom don't seem to be that interesting. I feel I should persevere, because it is so highly thought of, and at least one person has said to me that it gets better. Also, it's somehow hard to see the book as part of a wider series - there seems to be less continuity from book to book than in many series.