Nostalgia for the Impossible

Lit blog discovery:  Existential Ennui.  Nicholas Jones and I share a lot of the same tastes in genre fiction.  Indeed, his wallpaper seems to be mostly Donald E. Westlake!  The next time I'm in England I'm going to try to look him up and compare notes (my assessment of the canon is here).

Two posts stand out.  Jones found Anthony Price and interviewed him, a real coup.  I like Price quite a bit and have considered re-reading them all in order.  The Price books are most thrilling in their detailing of British military history.  Besides the familar Other Paths to Glory I recommend The '44 Vintage and The Old Vengeful.  Avoid Our Man in Camelot, a misguided attempt to set the action in America.

And "Doctor Who and the Target Novelisations"  is a mirror image of my own experience.

After a while I started noticing the names of the authors of these short novels, and then determining which of those authors I preferred (Terrance Dicks was by far my favourite). What I was doing, without really knowing it, was developing critical faculties....

... triggering a lifelong interest in serialised writing – fiction, nonfiction, novels, TV, comics, columns, diaries – and writers of serials.

Jones suggests that he wouldn't be a blogger without the Target books.  Perhaps DTM also owes a debt to Terrance Dicks...

("SF Televideo Celebrations" reveals some of my history with Who.)

12/08/2011

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