Bilder från Bokmässan 2019...

Fler bilder från Bokmässan finner du på mitt Instagramkonto, HÄR.

Book review: THE SPACE MERCHANTS by Frederik Pohl & Cyril M. Kornbluh

THE SPACE MERCHANTS (1952) by Frederik Pohl & Cyril M. Kornbluth. 

Although this novel was written in the 1950s, it depicts an all-too-believable future:

Multinational corporations run everything including the government; food is laced with addictive drugs; the environment is being depleted by rampant greed; society is stratified into the haves and have-nots... and powerful, feuding advertising agencies hold it all together by manipulating the public.

In this world, Greta Thunberg wouldn't be allowed to speak; the environmentalists (called "Consies"=Conservationists) are persecuted and smeared as dangerous subversives.

Sounds dreary - but in fact this satirical novel is quite funny. And while the protagonist eventually joins the "Resistance," he is at heart a selfish jerk. (Think Don Draper of the future.)

THE SPACE MERCHANTS may have inspired later near-future stories, but it remains an enjoyable SF classic.

SAMPLE:
The novel originally ran as the serial "Gravy Planet" in the magazine GALAXY Science Fiction. Check out these scanned magazine pages containing the first chapter...
__
#frederikpohl #thespacemerchants #sciencefiction #scifi #satire #bookstagram #bookreview #bookreviews #books #bookblogger #futurism #advertising #commercials

Book review: THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH by Philip K. Dick

THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH (1964) by Philip K. Dick.

In a near future, when the Earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable due to global warming (remember, this was written in 1964), people migrate to Mars - or rather, they are forced to move.

Life in the Martian colonies is so dreary that the settlers use hallucinogenic drugs to cope. Using a specific drug, the settlers escape into a shared fantasy world that resembles a Barbie dollhouse.

Then the sinister-looking tycoon Palmer Eldritch reappears, after having been lost in space for years.
He brings a brand-new alien drug that he promises will deliver a form of  actual immortality.

But the promise turns into a mind-bending nightmare... and perhaps Eldritch is not human at all.

Some parts of this novel are dated (Mars isn't realistically depicted), but nevertheless it's an excellent book of the kind that only Philip K. Dick could write.

It cannot be defined as "science fiction", but rather "metaphysical horror". .

A must-read that is strangely topical in this day and age (read it and you'll see what I mean). It captures the "feel" of the world we live in now, even if it gets the details wrong...
____

#philipkdick #thethreestigmataofpalmereldritch #sciencefiction #bookstagram #review #bookreviews #bookcover #bookcovers #bookstagrammer #bookreview #bookbloggers #bookcover #novel #literature #lsd #hallucinogenic #schizophrenia #trump

Signering av REX OMEGA på Bokmässan i Göteborg...

Anmäl dig till mitt event på Bokmässan:

A. R. Yngve signerar REX OMEGA på Bokmässan 2019

Läs mer om REX OMEGA på förlagets webbsajt, HÄR.

Book review: THE COSMIC PUPPETS by Philip K. Dick

THE COSMIC PUPPETS (1957) by Philip K. Dick.

One of Dick's lesser-known early novels, so short it's nearly a novella, but well worth a read - and chock full of the weirdness that became his hallmark.

The protagonist visits his childhood small town Millgate, somewhere in rural California. Instead he finds an alternate-reality version of it - where he no longer should be alive.

Millgate has split in two - the town he remembers, and the different, decaying version that seems to have replaced it. (Or has it?)

Eventually it becomes evident that Millgate is the battleground of two vast, competing forces - one good, the other one evil...

Parts of this novel are reminiscent of Stephen King (if King had known how to write with fewer words). An American small town haunted by a great supernatural evil, kids with magical powers... but it's unmistakably a Philip K. Dick story.

Note of caution: The novel gets quite dark in one disturbing scene that somehow passed censorship in the 1950s.


I wish more novels were as brief as this one! Perhaps the ending is a bit weak, and the story is a tad too simplistic - but the novel as a whole works, and would make a pretty good Urban Fantasy movie.

Recommended for its entertainment value.

#bookstagram #bookreview #bookreviews #bookcover #bookblogger #bokrecension #bookbloggers #literature #book #books #fantasy #sciencefiction #urbanfantasy #philipkdick #thecosmicpuppets #stephenking #horror #reviews #novel #novels #scifi

"PHYSICAL TERROR" Screenplay

Read my short film screenplay PHYSICAL TERROR - a descent into madness and cosmic horror.

Available for download here:
filmfreeway.com/ARYngve
Based on my short story "Physical Terror."


#screenplay #screenplays #screenwriting #writer #writers #writing #scifi #horror #shortfilm #shortfilms #moviemaking #movies #moviemakers #indiefilmmaking #indiefilm #scriptwriting #script #scriptwriter @filmfreeway

Someone bought my book... and the game!

Yes, my acclaimed horror book PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE is also a computer game - curiously enough for the Commodore 64 / C64 Mini (or with emulator software, in case you want to run the game on a PC)

The game is available on psytronik.itch.io

The book is available on Amazon.

New book release on Amazon: THINGS FROM BELOW and Other Stories

New book release on Amazon:
THINGS FROM BELOW and Other Stories

Contains the gruesome horror novella "Things From Below," plus three other tales of the macabre:
- "Sniper, Viper..."
- "Man Bites Alien"
- "Served"

Read a sample from "Things From Below" HERE.

 #aryngve #books #shortfiction #literature #horror #weirdfiction #skräck #lovecraftian #macabre #bookrelease #book

Book review: LIVE AND LET DIE by Ian Fleming

LIVE AND LET DIE (1954) by Ian Fleming

Note: This lurid 1950s cover depicts a key scene in the novel quite accurately.

I don't particularly like James Bond books or movies - too formulaic for my taste - but I read this one out of professional curiosity, to learn why the books are so popular.

I made the following observations:

1) LIVE AND LET DIE opens not with colorful adventure or dramatic tension, but with a sequence of rather tedious formal procedure as James Bond arrives in the U.S. I think this is a deliberate writing trick: the more dull Bond's job seems at first, the greater the jolt when the action starts.

2) The head villain, Mr. Big, isn't all that interesting. He's a gangster with a taste for ponderous, self-important speeches and sadism. Fleming exaggerates the freakishness of Mr. Big's physical features in such an obvious way that it's ludicrous. (Apparently that was Fleming's standard manner of defining the villain as a freak, a physical monstrosity.)

3) It's a Cold War story, and the threat of Soviet Russia and nuclear war is the backdrop of all events, although not a single Russian appears in the book. Mr. Big works for the Russians, it is repeatedly stated, but never really shown. Why?

4) It's fashionable to call out racism and sexism these days, but in the case of a spy thriller from the 1950s - what's the point?
 
I roll my eyes when the author sees the need to point out whether "races" are "mixed," and words like "Negroid" are used. Although... Fleming's cringe-worthy attitudes about "race" are typical of his generation and not 100% consistent (consistency is the hallmark of the true fanatic).

5) Fleming really excels when it comes to violence. His action scenes are very precise, with an eye for the telling detail, and come off as realistic. Bond in the novel isn't invulnerable like in the movies, and his injuries leave lasting consequences.

6) James Bond is in many ways a "consumer-as-hero." A lot of space is given to what he eats and drinks and smokes, which brands he uses. You could argue he's an early example of the kind of person who builds an identity through the products he consumes.

(The James Bond movies are, as you know, overloaded with product placement -- but so were the original novels...)

Is LIVE AND LET DIE worth reading today? Well... no. There are better thrillers, and some parts of it seem terribly dated.

#ianfleming #jamesbond #liveandletdie #007 #bookstagram #bookcover #bookreviews #bookreview #review #reviews #novel #literature #thrillers #spythrillers #books

Book review: STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND by Robert A. Heinlein

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND (1961) by Robert A. Heinlein.

This is one mixed bag of a book. I mean, I grok it but that doesn't mean I think it's groovy, man.

("Grok" is one of the words created in this book that became part of American culture. It's been that influential.)

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND is part satire, part science fiction, and part sermon for "free love."

It was published at the start of the hippie era, and became enormously successful in the "counter-culture" of the 1960s. It even inspired the creation of a religious cult (whose name "The Church of All Worlds" was lifted directly from the novel).

There are parts of it I like: the satire of organized religion; the willingness to provoke, and that the author isn't fettered by stale genre conventions.

And then there are things that make me groan and wish the editor had been stricter - a lot stricter:

1) The character Jubal Harshaw. He's a colossal bore who is allowed to lecture, hector, preach, and harangue far too much and for far too long.

2) For a book that preaches "free love," it seems curiously uninterested in what women might want out of that lifestyle (apart from pleasing men, and getting pregnant).

3) The "sex" part of the book can get really embarrassing. As in "Old man tries to be 'hip' but the old attitudes bubble up to the surface." (For example, look up that passage where rape victims get the blame.)

4) The book gets seriously ugly when the Messianic protagonist starts casually killing people who get in his way - and his friends don't react with horror and revulsion. He's actually a psychopath.

Read it as a curiosity, but not as a great work of literature - it isn't.

#heinlein #robertaheinlein #strangerinastrangeland #grok #bookstagram #bokstagram #bookcovers #bookreview #bookreviews #books #literature #sciencefiction #scifi #satire #1960s #hippies #counterculture #classics #review #reviews #controversial #cults

A new official website for PRECINCT 20: DEAD STRANGE...

...can be found here:
http://precinct20.aryngve.com/

#weirdfiction
#horror
#paranormal
#lovecraftian

Bokmässan närmar sig....

 

På Bokmässan i höst kommer jag att stå i monter A01:52 för att sälja och signera min nya bok REX OMEGA (utgiven på TiraTiger Förlag).

 

Detta är en lättläst, underhållande, lätt satirisk thriller där kungen av Sverige är huvudpersonen - läs mer om den HÄR.

På söndagen kl.10 ska jag medverka på Fantastikscenen på mässan (i Fantastikgränden), för att presentera REX OMEGA.

Vi ses på mässan! :-)

Book reviews: ADJUSTMENT DAY by Chuck Palahniuk

ADJUSTMENT DAY (2018) by Chuck Palahniuk.

Rodney King famously asked: "Can't we all just get along?" In this satirical novel, an American underground insurrection answers the question with a loud "NO." (However, the insurrection does not get the last word....)

I don't want to spoil too much of the plot, so let me focus more on the style, structure and message of Palahniuk's irreverent novel...

1) The narrative is non-linear, i.e. we jump back and forth in time. It can get very confusing. I don't think this stylistic device always works out - especially the ending.

I actually double-checked the final blank "leftover" pages to see whether I had missed something, because the story seems to fall apart in the last 12 pages.

2) The book contains several "meta" jokes that made me laugh. For example, characters in ADJUSTMENT DAY talk derisively about Chuck Palahniuk and his other novels.

There's also a hilarious joke about Stephen King's frequent use of the "Magical Negro" stereotype.

3) The narrative jumps between many different characters. I think several of them were underdeveloped, especially Shasta. Even in a broad satire like this, characters need to be a bit more than just plot devices.

4) ADJUSTMENT DAY features many quotes from a book-within-the-book, a kind of "insurrection bible" that is part of the story. Perhaps these quotes will cause more misunderstandings than any other part of the novel.

The thing is, that "bible" is a mess of self-contradictory, frequently racist bullshit. It is clearly not meant to be taken seriously, but some readers might do so anyway. This "Missing the Point" fallacy is the bane of satire.


Despite the above criticisms, there are parts of ADJUSTMENT DAY that work really well. It successfully pokes fun at the idea that Americans should segregate along lines of race/culture and only live with "their own kind" to be their "authentic selves" (guess how that works out).

ADJUSTMENT DAY is uneven, sometimes confusing, sometimes very funny - and it touches a raw nerve in American culture.
Recommended.

#bookstagram #bookreview #bookreviews #bookcover #review #reviews #novel #literature #chuckpalahniuk #adjustmentday #fightclub #satire #metafiction #america

Arbete pågår: Illustrationer till en kommande bok...

Jag håller just nu på med att göra bilder till en bok av en annan författare. Här är ett litet smakprov...

Detta ska bli uppföljaren till en barnbok som kom ut förra året, och som innehöll bl.a. talande apor. (Kan ni gissa vilken bok det är...?)

Fler arbetsprover från mina andra arbeten finns här:
http://aryngve.com/artist.html

#böcker #illustratör #illustrationer #grafiskdesign #bokomslag #grafiskdesigner #fantasyböcker #tecknare #bokutgivning

Book review: THE THREE MUSKETEERS by Alexandre Dumas

THE THREE MUSKETEERS (1844) by Alexandre Dumas.

I listened through this novel as a free Public Domain audiobook (see librivox.org). It was originally released as a magazine serial in French.

NOTE: The English translation I listened to may have been slightly "bowdlerized" by British publishers, who were uneasy with the French author's relaxed attitude about sex.

You see, while Charles Dickens and other British writers entertained Victorian readers with novels about chaste characters who never even dreamed about doing anything below the belt, Dumas's heroes had mistresses, drank hard, cursed and casually killed people in duels.

The novel's main protagonist, the reckless young swordsman D'Artagnan, can be read as a kind of 17th-Century James Bond. He takes on a secret mission, seduces a woman, is himself seduced by an evil female spy, and foils a plot to disgrace the Queen of France.

What elevates this story above simplistic pulp adventure is Dumas's sense of irony, and a certain cold-blooded cynicism. The heroes are really a bunch of self-serving womanizers and bruisers, who ultimately fail to make any change to the corrupt society they live in.

The famous phrase "One for all and all for one" does occur in the novel - once. The camaraderie of D'Artagnan and his three musketeer friends does feel genuine.

Entertaining, sometimes outdated, definitely "problematic" - but interesting, especially if you're into "gritty" fantasy literature and historical fiction.

#bookstagram #bookreview #alexandredumas #thethreemusketeers #classics #literature #booksuggestion #book #novel #novels

Möt mig på Bokmässan i höst!

 

På Bokmässan i höst kommer jag att stå i monter A01:52 för att sälja och signera min nya bok REX OMEGA (utgiven på TiraTiger Förlag).

 

Detta är en lättläst, underhållande, lätt satirisk thriller där kungen av Sverige är huvudpersonen - läs mer om den HÄR.

På söndagen kl.10 ska jag medverka på Fantastikscenen på mässan (i Fantastikgränden), för att presentera REX OMEGA.

Vi ses på mässan! :-)

#bokmässan #svenskamässan #rexomega #aryngve #tiratigerförlag #fantastik #boktips
@bokmassanGbg

Book review: THE ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SECRET SOCIETIES

THE ELEMENT ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SECRET SOCIETIES (2006) by John Michael Greer.

I'm a skeptic and I don't believe the world is being run by secret societies. (Seriously, does it look like anyone is in charge of things?)

There's a lot of history on offer in this book, and sorting the facts from fiction. One thing I learned was that many secret societies functioned as insurance funds during those times when public social security was weak or absent. Or that secret societies exist in African countries and Native American tribes.

Still, l wonder: What is it that Western secret societies, you know, *actually do* today? (Apart from social networking and frat parties for grownups?) Sad to say, this book answers lots of questions except that one.

What's commendable about this encyclopedia: it takes a firm stance against disinformation, paranoia and bigotry. Various conspiracy theories are listed and debunked. (More recent ones, such as "Q Anon," are missing.) Curiously, though, the book does promote the "Shakespeare didn't write his plays" hypothesis.

Anyhow, this book makes a great source of inspiration for fiction writers. If you want to learn more about secret socities, or you want to try your hand at writing conspiracy thrillers, or you're just curious, this is an entertaining introduction.

(Caveat: the author is himself a Freemason. Is he REALLY telling us everything...? ;-))

See also my review of Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM, elsewhere on this blog (or in my Instagram feed).

 #bookreview #bookreviews #johnmichaelgreer #theelementencyclopediaofsecretsocieties #conspiracy #conspiracies #secretsociety #secretsocieties #freemasons #illuminati #bohemiangrove #masons #bavarianilluminati #aleistercrowley #masons #occultism #theosophy #hermeticism #anthroposophy

Book review: A SCANNER DARKLY

A SCANNER DARKLY (1977) by Philip K. Dick

This novel comes with an author's afterword that makes a few things clear:

1) The characters and settings are based on Dick's own experience living in California during the hippie/counter-culture era;

2) He lost a lot of friends to drug abuse.

Thus, A SCANNER DARKLY is more than a typical ("typical" meaning very weird) Dick novel about shifting realities, paranoia and questions about human identity.

It is also a fictionalized account about the dying days of the drug-addled hippie era. Lives are wasted, minds disintegrate, addiction destroys the bonds and community between humans. It's a sad story, despite the dark humor and compassion.

Since the story is so grounded in lived-in reality, the science fiction elements feel almost unnecessary. No "sense of wonder," no moments of "conceptual breakthrough" are available here - only the bleak insight that drug addiction ruins everything.

Recommended, but kind of a bitter pill to swallow. (The movie version is very good.)

#bookreview #bookreviews #bookcovers #books #literature #philipkdick #ascannerdarkly #drugs #drugabuse #counterculture #sciencefiction #scifi

Book reviews: DAMNED and DOOMED by Chuck Palahniuk

(FOOTNOTE: These reviews previously appeared in my Instagram feed.)

1. DAMNED (2011) by Chuck Palahniuk

What the hell is it about "Hell" that has attracted so many poets, writers and artists for thousands of years? (Dante, Hieronymus Bosch, Sartre to name a very few...)
Perhaps it's misanthropy, or guilt, or a mix of both - I don't know...

Anyhow... In the black comedy DAMNED, Palahniuk throws a teenage girl into Hell. She's forced to work in a telemarketing call center to torment the living.
(Well OF COURSE telemarketing is based in Hell. No sane person would argue with that.) Our heroine eventually decides that Hell isn't nice (she's right) and starts a rebellion against Satan.

The novel ends with "To Be Continued..." and there's a sequel, DOOMED, which is reviewed below.

I think this book is obscene, tasteless and thoroughly unsuitable for anyone under the age of 15. It also made me laugh a lot. Perhaps I have bad taste. Also, the plucky heroine and her band of rebels are sympathetic characters - especially the British punk rocker.

2. DOOMED (2013) by Chuck Palahniuk.

At the risk of spoiling the plot: DOOMED is what Neil Gaiman's GOOD OMENS would've read like if it were written by Chuck Palahniuk (the author of FIGHT CLUB).

This is a sequel to the novel DAMNED (which has been reviewed elsewhere in this feed).

The protagonist, who died and went to Hell in the previous book, is now back on Earth as a ghost. She must stop the nefarious plot of Satan... but of course it's not quite that clear-cut and simplistic. Things get weird, confused and icky.

I laughed out loud several times while reading DOOMED. I also squirmed as many times. You have to be aware that Palahniuk almost always tries to make the reader both laugh and feel very uncomfortable.

DOOMED won't make much sense unless you've read DAMNED first. And it's definitely not for everyone. Recommended for Palahniuk fans... and people who haven't forgotten what satire really means in these strange times.






#chuckpalahniuk #damned #doomed #bookstagram #fantasy #horror #satire #bookreview #bookreviews #bookbloggers #bookcover #bookcovers #bookstagrammer #books #book #literature #novels #novel #hell #satan #damnation #afterlife

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