A few years ago, I got a strong recommendation from John Whitbourn to read Arsen Darnay's planet story The Siege of Faltara. I really ought to have got the message by now. John was the one who originally urged me to read The Dying Earth, and he's also nudged me to try some other books which have never disappointed.
Nonetheless, The Siege of Faltara sat on my bookshelf for four years until John mentioned it again. This time I took the hint, and I'm very glad I did. As an example of SF worldbuilding it's in the same league as Vance and MAR Barker, and luckily Mr Darnay's storytelling skill is much nearer to the former.
Netflix or Amazon or whoever really ought to be looking at works like this to adapt for TV -- or game developers should get in on the act. At the very least it'd be nice to see a GURPS sourcebook for the world of Fillippi - though of course there's no chance of that happening for an unknown work. This novel shows what a truly imaginative author can do when they're free to create an original world. Even more importantly, Mr Darnay shows how to reveal just as much lore as is needed for the story. If you can find a copy at a reasonable price, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
Rest assured, these posts aren't in vain, Dave. I have a stack of books piling up for retirement, should I get there (maybe starting with Pavane). Although my brain for the most post only has capacity for short stories these days. But That's A Detail by A J Alan high on the list to revisit from those you've previously recommended.
ReplyDeleteI have enough A J Alan stories to do another book of those, Andy.
DeleteAlso worth a look are the Jorkens stories by Lord Dunsany. The print editions are hard to come by, but some of them are on Kindle:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jorkens-Large-Whiskey-Lord-Dunsany-ebook/dp/B07MK3J6Z8/
That's great news, Dave. You'll have one happy customer when you get around to releasing those.
DeleteI'll take a look at Jorkens, I keep forgetting every time you mention them. I'm one of the few pedants remaining that doesn't have a Kindle though, so I might have to dip my hand in my pocket!
I'm ambivalent about them, Andy. On the one hand it would save an awful lot of space if I had most of my books in digital format. But reading on a Kindle is a lot clumsier than a proper book -- it's not so easy to flip back to check on an earlier scene, for one thing. But a Kindle is very useful for reading all the free books on Project Gutenberg, which includes a lot of classics, so if you enjoy authors like Dunsany, Howard, Lovecraft, Wells, Blackwood, etc, it'll soon pay for itself. And of course you can get all the Binscombe Tales on Kindle too!
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