I am almost halfway through "The Magic Labyrinth" in the "Riverworld" series and still enjoying it although Riverworld is just becoming a setting for everyday issues in that setting, but I do love the juxtaposition of all the characters from history being set up for a battle between boats on the river.
I also found out that my Amazon Author page has a feed from this blog which you can see here although now I am saying this it seems to have disappeared, c'est la vie.
Music is "Que Sera Sera" as used in the series "From" by The Pixies
Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories
I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:
"The Wind Whales of Ishmael" turned out to be a 130-page interlude into a non-Armageddon end of the world scenario and though only 130 pages long because it was a single unbroken piece it seemed much longer, but still an enjoyable unusual sci-fi follow up to Melville's "Moby Dick"
"The Magic Labyrinth" continues the "Riverworld" series and all the characters are there in this five hundred page first finale to the series (which like many such series just kept spawning more books, so there will be more after this no doubt.
Music is "Underground" from Labyrinth by David Bowie
Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories
I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:
I have finished "The Dark Design" the third book in the "Riverworld series but before setting out into "The Magic Labyrinth," I thought I would take a detour with another Farmer novel "The Wind Whales of Ishmael".
It is only 130 pages long but has no chapters, just a single piece of text that runs over those pages. Chapters enable you to take a break, and while 130 pages could be read in one sitting I am a slow reader.
The story is a futuristic science fiction sequel to "Moby Dick"
Music is "Nantucket Sleighride" by Mountain
Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories
I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:
In my last post, I tried a redirect and it seems to do it automatically even when the page is not selected. This is to see if this normal post will stop the auto-redirect on the blog when the last post was at the top. Hope that makes sense.
I am still on "The Dark Design" by Philip Jose Farmer but only have twenty pages to go, This has been the most difficult book in the series because of the length and the expanse of characters and planetary development.
I am still on "The Dark Design" is Book III in the Riverworld Series by Philip Jose Farmer,, it is 450 pages and I have just passed three hundred but as you know I am a very slow reader. There are airships , reiverboats and a lot more to keep you spellbound and occupied.
So musically because Mark Twain is involved going to choose "Tom Sawyer" by Rush.
Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year in the UK and my phone is showing 24 degrees Centigrade which I think is 80 degrees Fahrenheit if my calculations are correct, but this is not Texas.
I am using my Amazon Kindle to play Backgammon when I want to waste some time and after enjoying Wordle my friends Dharrsheena recommended I tried Weaver which I also find entertaining, from a concept by Lewis Carrol and you can play it here.
Mike Singleton - Vocal Stories
I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:
I have finally finished "The Fabulous Riverboat" by Philip Jose Farmer, and thoroughly enjoyed the 250 pages (I am a slow reader) , and this ends with King John streaming Mark Twain / Sam Clemens riverboat, the "Not For Hire" which King John intends to rename.
"The Dark Design" is book III in the Riverworld series and was originally meant to be the conclusion of this part of the story, however at 400K words, Farmer and his publishers decided that was too much for a single volume, so they split it.
It still clocks in at 450 pages so I am going to be on this for a while, but that isn't a problem, as you meet so many historical characters in these books from most of "civilised" history.
Sam is going to build another riverboat and that made me think of the scene in "Fitzcarraldo" where they really pulled a riverboat over a steep hill in the jungle.
It portrays would-be rubber baron Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, an Irishman known in Peru as Fitzcarraldo, who is determined to transport a steamship over a steep hill to access a rich rubber territory in the Amazon Basin. The film is derived from the historic events of Peruvian rubber baron Carlos Fitzcarrald and his real-life feat of transporting a disassembled steamboat over the Isthmus of Fitzcarrald.
The film had a troubled production, and the documentary Burden of Dreams chronicled the film's hardships. Herzog had his crew attempt to manually haul the 320-ton steamship up a steep hill, leading to three injuries. The film's original star Jason Robards became sick halfway through filming, so Herzog hired Kinski, with whom he had previously clashed violently during production of Aguirre, the Wrath of God, Nosferatu the Vampyre and Woyzeck. Their fourth partnership fared no better. When shooting was nearly complete, the chief of the Machiguenga tribe who were used extensively as extras, asked Herzog if they should kill Kinski for him. Herzog declined.
Today's Music Choice - Wild River by The Golden Palominos
