I finished Blood Meridian, my June On the Range reading project. Still processing that one. They rode on... As for A Voyage to Arcturus, I read this in the 1960s as a teenager and it made a big impression back then. I think the third arm had something to do with it. Oddly, this book was listed by Harold Bloom in the Western Canon, right up there with Cormac McCarthy, H. G. Wells and Shakespeare. I tried to read it again recently and failed, but perhaps it is worth another try.
Well, sorry June on the Range is officially over, although I didn’t finish my Range Reading yet. I’m only about half way through both of my June on the Range books. I did just get back from vacation, and I did a lot of reading, but only finished one book and a graphic novel. I made great progress on the other 5 things I’m reading though… This week I plan to: 1. Finish the book I’m in the last chapter of. 2. Finish the graphic novel I’m reading. 3. Finish the audio book I’m listening to. 4. Finish the poetry collection I’m reading. Then next week I think I’d like to: 1. Get through my next audio book (I’ll have to do that quickly since it’s due in Libby soon.), 2. Finish the McMurtry I’m working on, 3. Read another graphic novel. Too much to read, not enough time. I need another vacation!
My copy of Voyage to Arcturus was part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series and really feels contemporary to the 60's/70's era of its re-release. It might as well have been serialized in Moorcock's New Worlds magazine. That revamp of Thor's identity sounds really annoying. What I remember about DeFalco's writing (and much of Frenz's art) was an attempt to imitate the classic Stan Lee style. His love of the old material may have helped inspire him to initiate the Marvel Masterworks program, which kick-started the comprehensive reprint era we're enjoying now, and for that I'm grateful.
Great report Michael! I am almost finished Haunted Mesa for June On The Range, so I suppose that is a good thing. A Voyage To Acturus sounds super-weird. Love the covers!
If I'm remembering correctly that style book of Fugitive Trail was from the Zane Grey book club. At time I was buying them I think they only cost 2 or 3 dollars. Deer Stalker was a good story although it was a more modern western (for its time).
if it's a gold medal book then I do not need any more recommendation! :) Tolkien might have liked it if he enjoyed Lord Dunsany dream like fantasy stories
Michael, fantastic to have you back my man. Bums me out to see June end now. After a couple lackluster to really bad westerns, ended in a very high note. Read Wild Lonesome by Harry Whittington, written back in the 60s I think. Exciting story, believable, smartly written with maybe the smartest, most practical, tough and fair minded sheriff/trackers ever. Loved it. But the champ of June was Shane by Jack Schaeffer.....what a freaking fantastic book. Actually almost choked me up and that takes some doing. Glad to see u back!
I get his hair is pretty powerful but it is Eric Masterson. Probably my biggest purchase/reading run of the book was during Masterson's run as Thor. I think it was the facial hair. Comics wise I caught up on the Image Comics run of Transformers and Titan Comics Conan. I unfortunately didn't get to the Edge book bought for June on the Range but will try to get to it in July. My work schedule like last year in June had a big shift. I finally finished the Hard Case Crime book 'Money Shot' by Christa Faust and made a dent in the new Stephen King short story collection this week.
Both Tolkien and C.S. lewis were familiar with Voyage to Arcturus, and lewis, despite likely not agreeing with LIndsay's philosophy expressed in teh book 9definitely not christian apologia), said it was the book that made him realise that you could use literature to tell tales of spiritual growth. His space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Paralandra/A Voyage to Venus) is clearly most influenced by Lindsay's book, and we covered Silent Planet and Arcturus in the same podcast episode back in 2021. i will say I think Arcturus is a much better book than lewis's, and I still enjoyed the latter. I do think a lot of Arcturus makes .sense if you view the journey Maskull is making in terms of the philosophies and beliefs of the inhabitants he encouters, and how in one way or another each of them has to be rejected, or sacrificed. His journey toward Muspel is like the search for the true essence of the godhead obscured by the demiurge who has spiritually poisoned much of the cosmos. I had to wrestle with this a lot the first couple of times I read it, because I couldn't believe that Lindsay, who writes about such sensual things in this book, really wants us to reject them all. But I do think it's more complicated and less grim than the ending would suggest, and after reading a couple of his other books, I'm even more certain of this.
The Haunted Woman, also by David Lindsay, is also a great read. Shorter, less bizarro than Arcturus (though still a Fantasy tale), I actually prefer it. But they’re both so different. The Haunted Woman is from 1922.
Lizzie, although Johnstone kinda gets a bad rep, I've been giving him......or his family of writers a shot. So far im one for two and too soon to say on the third. How's your luck so far?
Since you've been rereading Thor from the beginning, maybe you can answer a question for me. We all know that only someone worthy can lift Mjolnir, but what about when it was in cane form? I know I read all the early stuff back when it first came out, but I don't remember.
A Voyage to Arcturus sounds very weird, third arm tentacles make me think of the movie Donnie Darko. Closing in on the end of Thor first series, its all stop an start after that, constant relaunches, an annoying habit of the twenty first century modern era. My reading update, spent most of the week with the Krakoan age of X-Men 2019-2024, including these comicbooks - Captain Marvel : Revenge of the Brood pt 1 & pt 2 - Legion of X vol 1 & vol 2.
