2014 / Trumps card game / 2+ players / UK
**
I figured she'd end up with a more educational or substantial set for a special interest at some point in the future. This one was for the sake of having an accessory to a film she likes for under £2, and saving me from having to actually watch it.
The actual game isn't very appealing, even if a one-year-old was capable of understanding it. She prefers our Find the Snowman variant with vocalised Family Fortunes sound effects.
Ursula K. LeGuin, Nine Lives (1969) ***
Clingy clones.
Anthony Burgess, The Muse (1964) ****
Bogus journey.
Steve Allen, The Public Hating (1955) **
Simplistic celebrity satire.
Fritz Leiber, Poor Superman (1951) ***
Dense dystopian deception.
Thomas M. Disch, Angouleme (1974) *
Back to escapism, plz.
Damon Knight, Stranger Station (1956) *****
One of the best SF stories I've ever read.
Boris Vian, The Dead Fish (1955) **
Terry Gilliam's Mr Bean.
Kirill Bulychev, I Was the First to Find You (1977) ***
Ancient astronaut autoarchaeology.
Walter M. Miller Jr, The Lineman (1957) *
Fifty boring pages of vintage bigotry. Great pick, man.
Tor Age Bringsvaerd, Codemus (1968) ****
There's prophetic satire and then there's just now.
Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves (1963) ***
A significantly later permutation on the same old thing, on a more sustained scale. Time has not dimmed nor developed the purgatorial saga, though the back references are tellingly excessive and calling a character 'Stiffy' is surely taking the piss by this point.
The Aleph (1949) ***
I remembered this being disappointing after the previous one. It's largely back to the fabricated epitaphs of his first book, whose purpose and value escapes me, but we're back in the philosophical and literal labyrinths before the dazzling finale.
Faves: 'The Immortal,' 'The Writing of the God,' 'The Aleph.'
Sourcery (1988) **
I couldn't resist the price per story of this seemingly arbitrary and incomplete omnibus, but hadn't been looking forward to further Rincewind tales after the first one put me off reading a second Discworld book for a decade or so. After reading some (slightly) later books, this seemed disappointingly light on the trademark wit and not entertaining generally, unless you're actually into the story. It would probably be more palatable as animation.
Eric (1990) **
I didn't read the original illustrated version, which is surely more worthwhile. Along with the brevity, that would've been a more fitting format for these generally. A shame the story itself was just a straightforward literary parody sequence, though the bit about eternity was clever.
A comparatively straightforward later horror that's enhanced through the presumably unintended ambiguity of mental illness or a gullible con job. I misremembered it being a bit pervy too, which is all Alan Moore's fault.
The Haunter of the Dark (1935) *****
A fittingly haunting and comparatively restrained swan solo. Public domain access and cartoon critters have made the writer overrated as hell generally, but he was really good by the premature end.
Where to start and end your Simpsons rewatch is one of the most tedious discussions out there, endlessly repeated with minor variations (since you asked, I called it a day after season nine, but might not make it that far next time). Some people skip over the first year or two, if they don't have particular nostalgia for the era and their thirst for rapid-fire gags outweighs their need for stories to have a beginning, but even those who watch properly never recommend going back to where it really began with the original Simpsons shorts.
