jeregenest

With A Legacy of Spies being released on September 5th it is time for a big ole Smiley/Circus re-read.

Call for the Dead (1961) - by August 7
A Murder of Quality (1962) - by August 10
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) - by August 14
The Looking Glass War (1965) - - by August 18
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974) - by August 22
The Honourable Schoolboy (1977) - by August 26
Smiley's People (1979) - by August 30
The Secret Pilgrim (1990) - by September 4

If time permits I shall read The Russia House (1989), which while it does not have an appearance from Smiley it does feature Ned (from The Secret Pilgrim and it fits into the Circus corpus.

Other than Stress of Her Regard what are your favorite pieces of fiction involving the Romantic era.

Last night peaseblossom and I happened upon a list of fantasy involving Elizabethan characters and themes. Here's the list I came up with, retty sure its not complete

Aegypt by John Crowley: All about the Dee.

The House of Doctor Dee by Peter Ackroyd: Why yes Dee is quite popular. This one is my favorite with Aegypt.

Gloriana or the Unfulfilled Queen by Michael Moorcock: Alternate history Elizabeth, more mood then anything else.

The Alchemist's Door by Lisa Goldstein: More Dee, in Prague. With Rabbi Loew.

The Armor of Light by Melissa Scott and Lisa Barnett: Syndney and Marlow with magic.

Snow White and Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede: Fairy tale (you know the one) with again some Dee action.

The Sandman by Neil Gaiman: Gaiman has some fun stuff to say about Shakespeare and faerie.

Strange Devices of the Sun And Moon by Lisa Goldstein: Faerie’s in Elizabethan court intrigue with some Marlowe and some arthurian stuff.

Maxie’s Demon by Michael Scott Rohan: Dee is involved in this novel in Rohan’s Spiral.

Ill Met by Moonlight by Sarah A. Hoyt: Shakespeare must rescue his wife & daughter from Faerie. She has some others that I’m not sure I’ve read.

The Black Canary by Jane Louise Curry: Time travel YA.

From intrigue-filled fiction spurred by the Cold War to glamorous movies with twisting plots, the business of spying -- espionage, surveillance and sabotage -- has captured imaginations for decades. Occult fiction, especially occult detectives, have probably an even longer pedigree. And for me, as many already know, these are two great tastes that go great together.

Spies have in common with occultists is an uncanny ability to connect the seemingly unconnected, to notice what goes on behind the scenes and to see through misdirection. Both often use collaborators or confederates, and mentors. Each have their rules of engagement. Even some of the elements of tradecraft are the same. Both are cryptic, using encryptions and codes. Each has its own arcane language, symbols veiled from the profane. Remote Viewing is virtually identical with clairvoyance. Both are masters of disguise, the hidden environment, intelligence, espionage, and covert action. Both are Inside Outsiders, working at the fringes of the system. And both work sub rosa.

I’m working on a biography and I find it easier to think of more rpg entries than fiction.
To qualify a book has to involve both espionage and the occult. And frankly I have trouble finding nearly as many as I do occult detectives (like spy novels the sub genre demarcations can of course be difficult).

• Tim Powers gives us Declare and Three Days to Never
  
• Charles Stross, Atrocity Archives and Jennifer Morgue
  
• Kim Newman’s Diogene Club cycle
  
• Alexander Irvine’s The Narrows
  
• There’s all of the Brian Lumley stuff (I’m afraid to read him again, I figure if my teenage self found him awful he can only have gotten worse)

It’s much easier for roleplaying. There’s Delta Green and Conspiracy X, half a dozen books from GURPS, Dark Conspiracy and who knows what else I’m forgetting.

For television I'd place Alias pretty strongly here.

So what am I forgetting, from both lists?

Occult detective stories, that subgenre between detective (and other mystery subgenres) and fantasy (contemporary/urban flavor) is something I enjoy reading quite a bit. Probably no big surprise to most of the folks who read this journal.

I’m trying to get together a list, to figure out what I like and what I need to read. Feel free to add anything I might be missing:
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I've read, and enjoyed, the comic book series Fables for quite a while now. Like most of my comcis I read them in trade and I always find myself eagerly anticipating the next book (someday I'll buckle down and buy these I think, they definitely have reread value). For those who haven't read it yet Fables is a Vertigo comic book series created and written by Bill Willingham.The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore who have been forced out of their native lands by a mysterious enemy known as the Adversary (who ends up being someone very clever). They travel to our world and form a clandestine community in New York City known as Fabletown. The main characters are Prince Charming (who becomes mayor), Snow White, the Big Bad Wolf, and others. I find it an amusing series and enjoy its take on the characters, especially some of the lesser ones like Little Boy Blue.

Recently I've read the first two books of The Sisters Grimm: Fairy Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley and I find the similarities (and differences) interesting. Here we also have a town full of fairy tale entities in New York (upstate this tme not the city), but they are trapped. Prince Charming in the mayor. The Big Bad Wolf works for the main character's grandmother. Snow White teaches elementary school (she's good with little people, see?). This charming ya book is about two sister's whose parents are missing and find out they are the descendents of Wilhlem Grimm, who to save the world from fairy tale entities grown bitter and angry (or maybe to save the fairy tale creatures) had Bab Yaga cast a spell to trap them all in Ferryport New York. Like I said its cute and an easy read. A little too old for the boy perhaps, which is why I had originally got them (he likes detectives, everyone in the family likes fairytales).

I always find it interesting to read stuff where the authors are definitely dipping into the same well but drawing different stuff out.

A lot of folks are a buzz over Helix, with good reason, it looks good and has promise. My favorite story is The Sum of Things by Robert Brown which is a fun piece of aviation based alternate history.

Why did no one tell me Christoper Nolan is directing an adapataion of Christopher Priest's The Prestige? And that Christian Bale is in it.

The next book on my hardcover SF shelf is an omnibus called The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle which contains Lila the Werewolf; The Last Unicorn; “Come, Lady Death”; and, A Fine and Private Place. Do I really need to justify this? Its Peter Beagle!

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Whats your favorite Ira Levin novel, movies count. Why? I'm curious.