Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano
1952 / Audiobook / 296 pages / USA***
Vonnegut's early short stories didn't stand out to me, and since I've never come across any impromptu praise for his isolated debut novel, it's stayed on the virtual shelf for a decade or so.
It's not completely featureless, but it's more Philip K. Dick than the fully-formed Vonnegut of The Sirens of Titan. Its requiem for honest labour in the face of automation remains current; the sexual politics and retro technology less so.
Dan Simmons, Song of Kali
1985 / Audiobook / 311 pages / USA
Dan Simmons' longer novels have alternately fascinated or bored me, but this is your bogstandard horror debut, controversially warping real Hindu deities into Lovecraftian nightmares.
What makes it stand out is the exotic setting of Calcutta, described in such detail and with such seething resentment for the culture and customs that I can only assume he had a bad experience. Daydreaming a nuclear solution out loud on the opening page of his literary career probably wasn't the wisest decision in hindsight. Should have vented in a blog.
2017 / Audiobook / 320 pages / UK
****
Enough literature, it's been too long since I've read a stand-up comedian's attempt to convert their live material into prose. This doesn't seem to be the case here, which is more a thematically-skewed autobiography. You haven't heard all of them on WILTY.
