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Nov 2017
10:07pm, 17 Nov 2017
14,179 posts
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Columba
TSFFE is slightly less believable. MOH is totally believable, in fact I shouldn't be surprised if it had all happened.
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Nov 2017
10:27am, 20 Nov 2017
8,137 posts
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Little Nemo
A slightly disappointing read for me. The characters were so under developed I thought it was more like people from a role-playing game where the game is being played by people who aren't very good at it. I finally twigged that this is supposed to be about the conquest of and migration of various people to Great Britain but I didn't find it very interesting and I don't think I'll remember it for very long. He is a good writer and he's easy to read but I think this book needed more humour
I much preferred Maintenance of Headway but maybe that was because I often use buses in London and I found it quite funny.
I gave this book a 6.
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Nov 2017
7:19pm, 26 Nov 2017
97,295 posts
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GregP
~popping in, trying not to read back in too much detail~
About 20% in. It is a very *slight* entertainment. It makes that Charing Cross book seem full of import. It's set fair for a 6 at this point.
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Nov 2017
7:43pm, 26 Nov 2017
32,034 posts
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McGoohan
I've finished my Moorcock book! I'm going to start this one in a minute! Inform the press!
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Nov 2017
11:56pm, 26 Nov 2017
32,042 posts
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McGoohan
On p44. This is not a difficult read.
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Nov 2017
7:01am, 27 Nov 2017
97,298 posts
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GregP
And my 'slight' comment, McG?
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Nov 2017
8:27am, 27 Nov 2017
32,043 posts
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McGoohan
Well, I think we've landed on planet Allegorical. It's half-entertaining and half-annoying currently.
I can only read it allegorically as a sort of parable for a) how societies form b) how societies disagree c) how societies fall apart and d) Europe.
If not allegorically, I have to take it at face value and ask: what are they all eating? In typical Magnus Mills style, it's either biscuits or milk pudding, so clearly not practical. No-one's tending the land or rearing animals etc.
So where Maintenance of Headway seemed very Samuel Beckett, this one reminds me of the Caucasian Chalk Circle by Brecht which has a debate about who gets to tend a bit of land: the goat-herders or the fruit-farmers. Here's a summary of that bit (ripped off from the Internet):
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Two groups of peasants sit in the ruins of a Caucasian village along with a delegate from the State Reconstruction Commission. It is shortly after WW II. The peasant group on the right originally owned the valley and herded goats there, and now that war is over they want to return to their valley. The peasant group on the left is a group of fruit farmers from another valley but hopes to take over this valley in order to plant fruit trees. The Delegate agrees to listen to both groups' arguments as to why they should take over the valley.
The peasants on the right unpack some cheese and argue that the taste is different since they had to leave their original valley. They also claim the land as a matter of law, arguing that since they have always been in this valley they have a right to reclaim it.
The group on the left speaks next. They have Kato, an agriculturist, explain that they have drawn up irrigation plans that would allow them to produce ten times as much fruit as before the war. He shows the other group the plans and explains that it would even convert 700 acres of infertile land into fertile land. Everyone looks at the plans and exclaims how good they are. The delegate asks the peasants on the right if they will give up the valley, and they agree.
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In Brecht's case it's an allegory for Communism vs Capitalism, but it is only the Prologue of the play. Looks like Mills has made a whole novel out of it. I'm half-way through now...
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Nov 2017
8:43am, 27 Nov 2017
97,299 posts
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GregP
The grass grows.
Nobody cuts it.
My annoyance grows.
The book continues.
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Nov 2017
8:54am, 27 Nov 2017
32,044 posts
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McGoohan
Waiting For Gregot
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Nov 2017
9:30am, 27 Nov 2017
4,084 posts
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Serendippily
I can see you two tutting your way through aesops fables 
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