Dornford Yates

After a gap of over fifty years, I am rereading Dornford Yates' Chandos books and reading his non-series thrillers.

Richard Chandos narrates eight Chandos books and Boy Pleydell narrates ten Berry books.

Jonah in the Berry Books is Mansel in the Chandos Books and other thrillers.

Inspector Falcon features in some short stories and in Ne-er-Do-Well narrated by Chandos and guest-starring Mansel.

The Chandos book, Red In The Morning, is a sequel to the Berry book, Adele and Co, and to the non-series thriller, Gale Warning.

 The Chandos book, Cost Price, is a sequel to the non-series thriller, Safe Custody.

Mansel appears in Shoal Water; Mansel and Chandos in Gale Warning.

There are other connections.

Lancaster Youth For The Environment

I should have reported on the third LYFE demonstration, today in Lancaster, on this blog but instead I described it in the combox on another blog so see here as well as here.

American Gods II

See American Gods.

One modern god travels in a stretch limousine and another speaks from a TV screen. There are mythical helicopters.

I do not know whether the amusing hitch-hiker, Sammi, will return as a character.

"'Oh. Right. Got it. No problem. I am so with you.'" (7, p. 139)

She tells another story about Norse sailors praying to Odin:

"'...my favorite god story, from Comparative Religion 101. You want to hear it?'" (7, p. 145)

I am enjoying the novel more rereading it after watching the TV serialization.

American Gods

Neil Gaiman, American Gods (London, 2001).

Part 1, Shadows
1
Low Key Lyesmith is Loki Liesmith but who is Sam Fetisher?

Shadow is asked whether he has black ancestry and doesn't know but he is black on TV.

COMING TO AMERICA 813 AD (pp. 58-60)
Would Norse sailors pray to the all-father or to Aegir? See the combox here.

COMING TO AMERICA 1721 (pp. 80-88)
This is a good short story. It informs us that pixies were originally called "piskies."

Obviously there is more to the novel than this. I have watched Season 1, Episode 1, of the TV adaptation and have reread the book to p. 94 of 501.

This Blog This Month

One post about a novel.

Three posts about a film nominally based on a novel about Stieg Larsson's characters.

Eleven posts occasioned by a novel based on a TV series.

One post about a TV series.

This summary.

Seventeen posts.

Addendum: eighteenth post, about another novel, which has been adapted as a TV serial, here.

Adam Adamant Lives!

Adam Adamant Lives! should be a prime candidate for revival in films or in an Alan Moore graphic novel.

Part of the origin story was that the title character, who had been in suspended animation from 1902 to 1966, had already been known as a popular hero before his suspension. A young 1960s woman who had been a fan of Adam Adamant the historical figure becomes a close up fan of the real guy here and now. What could be better?

There could be several series set in:

the Victorian and Edwardian periods;

the '60s;

the future, as Adam and the villainous Face go back into suspended animation.

Apparently, Adam's finances were unexplained but that could easily be fixed with an inheritance and/or a government agency investigating his suspended animation.

The Two Versions Of Thrush

In The Man From UNCLE TV series:

a woman who appeared in a single episode claimed to have founded Thrush and was not contradicted;

Thrush was not an acronym.

Thus, within the TV series, these have to be accepted as the facts of Thrush.

However:

David McDaniel's carefully crafted and ingenious account does far more justice to the size and complexity of Thrush;

it is easy to assume that that woman in a single episode was deluded or lying.

Indeed, it is strange that this character and her claim appear only once and therefore are missed by anyone who did not see that particular episode.

On TV, a single Ultimate Computer was constructed and destroyed before it could be used. We may deduce from McDaniel's account that more were built. The UNCLE Chronology which claims that the prototype Ultimate Computer was built in 1898 goes beyond McDaniel's account and fits UNCLE into the expanded Wold Newton universe. However, McDaniel does state that Thrush pioneered information technology. See Thrush History II.