The Glass Teat, or 'Television'

Miscellaneous Blather
#161

Ok, this isn’t the brainy kind of stuff that everyone seems to love here, but I’ve recently read Anno Dracula from Kim Newman and kind of adored it. I’m a sucker for fiction that includes historical figures and whatnot, and this one does it one better by having the world filled with characters from both fiction and reality in one universe. Most of them are extras, but you get to see a few up close.

The sequels were not as good, probably because the time-frame the stories were set in don’t excite me as much as Victorian London. The WWI book was good, I thought, but the Italian 50’s-60’s book was full of references I didn’t get. I still read it, however.

Anyway, the reason I’m mentioning it is because I’m looking for something similar either in book form, TV, or games. Stuff like Study in Emerald is perfect, but I already have read/played that. Anyone know of any good TV shows that might fit? I liked Penny Dreadful (even though the acting was, mostly, dreadful) if only because of the gothic horror setting. I tried Ripper Street, but it doesn’t seem to be giving me what I want. Any shows that might fit the bill? I see there are a couple set in the 1880s-1890s, but was hoping to hear some good words about them before I dove in.

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#162

Tim Powers is gold for this sort of thing; secret histories full of real people mixed with fiction. Declare is my favourite of his works and is also one my favourite books of all time. The Stress of Her Regard and Hide Me Among The Graves are also excellent, as is On Stranger Tides (no, but yes).

Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is superb. No, not the film.

Mary Gentle’s Ash: A Secret History, 1610: A Sundial in a Grave, and The Black Opera.

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#163

Declare is one of my all-time favorites. It’s a real achievement.

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#164

Declare is superb. I think I said as much at PT-that-was. It’s brilliantly told, weaving the mundane, the fantastic and the historical together in a chilling way, under the comforting guise of a spy novel. Any more detailed gushing would include spoilers, and that would be unfair. Magnificent.

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#165

Declare is kind of brainy, though, although if you’re like me it won’t keep you from enjoying it, even if you don’t get the allusions to the Arabian Nights and have no idea who Kim Philby is cough. It’s a ripping good spy novel, but it’s also quite dense with stuff it doesn’t bother to explain. A bit like a Gene Wolfe novel that way.

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#166

Declare has been purchased and the reading will commence as soon as I can stay awake. That would probably be tomorrow…

Thanks everyone!

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#167

Finally you can be constant to the old covenant. One of us…

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#168

Return, and we return: keep faith, and so will we.

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#169

Wow, just to take this thread further off topic than it already was, I somehow managed to go all this time without knowing of the mysterious circumstances of Edgar Allen Poe’s death, which I am sure Powers could turn into an excellent book.

#170

Sorry about that, everyone. Meant to dredge up tv shows, but am happy I have a new author to explore.

#171

Don’t apologize to me, I’m always happy to have an opportunity to gush about Declare. Just be aware that I’ve read a few Powers books since and none of them have come close to giving me the same rush as that one. You might be saving the best for first, in this case.

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#172

And with episode 7 Altered Carbon jumps the shark and I eject.

Travellers seems a promising series. Bit of a harder edge, good premise.

#173

I’m only through 4 episodes, but Altered Carbon has done nothing at all for me. I feel like I’ve already seen everything it is offering, but better.

#174

I have watch the first three eps of Black Mirror season 1, and it is living up to the hype so far. Looking forward to catching up to everyone else.

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#175

Channel Zero series 3. They’re knocking these out at a decent pace. The CZs do some fairly surreal stuff that no-one else is really bothering with, unless you count Lynch. They’re based on creepy pastas and it does show, various parts are a little thin, and sometimes connections aren’t as solid as you’d like, but they manage some unnerving scenes regardless. Disturbing viewing.

#176
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#177

So it’s been almost three weeks, have you finished Declare yet or what.

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#178

I’ve been reading the hell out of it on our trip to nyc. Before that, not so much.

Like it so far, although it’s taking me a bit to warm up to the flashback-flashforward method of storytelling. He’s referencing people and actions that I haven’t seen as if I should know what’s going on, and then delving into it in a flashback later or in the next chapter.

Now that I have his style kind of figured out, I’m into it. Andrew was just told to make a break for Kuwait to get Philby and defect to the Russians, so I’m still not too far. I’m slow at everything.

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#179

Nice, things are just about to start getting crazy go nuts.

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#180

I finally got to do something I haven’t managed for years, which was to binge watch a Netflix show in a day. Having young kids really puts the brakes on that, so I had to get the flu to be left alone long enough to watch something.

I got to watch altered carbon, which I have a somewhat more charitable view of than OhBollox. I’ve not read the books so I had nothing to be disappointed about, and I got to enjoy the cyberpunk sci fi ideas as they were presented. That being said it felt like the show blew its budget at the start where it was at its strongest imo. As OhBollox mentioned the show slowed and finally came grinding to a halt in episode 7, before launching into a disappointing 3 part heist and reveal style finale that could have been set in any genre really. I enjoyed the series for what it was, which is a sci fi action detective show with gratuitous T&A, but I can see why people would be disappointed if the books were hard sci fi.

I also got to watch series 1 of the expanse. I thought the whole arc of the first series was stronger than altered carbons, although the ending was also a little limp. I also had a slight problem in my personal use case which was the first episode started off in the belt with a hefty dose of the belters Afrikaans style language. I made a quick decision that this was too alien and would confuse and turn the mrs off, so I watched the rest without her. It’s a shame because I think she might have enjoyed the detective story.

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