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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Jonathan Carroll

15:04 / 04.05.02

(fanboy mode:ON)I don't remember anyone mentioning him but i HAVE to recommnend him to everyone here!Carroll is a top-notch fantasy(sort of) writer, underrated and utterly magical with the way he uses words and the things he does with them! And guess what?! Ths paperback edition of "The Wooden Sea" is coming out soon and "Bones of the moon" is back in print after a long time! Yay! (fanboy mode:OFF)

But seriously if you haven't tried any of Carroll's books you should! Very good stuff!

Our Lady of The Two Towers

16:40 / 04.05.02

I second that, Jonathan Carroll is absolutely brilliant, 'fantasy realism', finding the magic in the mundane as well as the magic in the... well, magic really. 'The Land of Laughs' has recently been reissued and is being turned into a film script by Neil Gaiman, who also rates him highly, the Land sequences in the Sandman 'A Game of You' are heavily influenced by Carroll's 'Bones of the Moon'. And if you've read 'The Invisibles', then you have to read 'Sleeping in Flame'.

Having gushed all that, I've found his last three books a bit disappointing. 'Voice of the Beehive' was a decent enough detective thing, but 'Marriage of Sticks' was Carroll-by-numbers and lacked effort, he also seemed to be taking the piss out of his style, at one point the narrator makes reference to 'a talking dog', then a short while later we find out it's her ex-husband who she calls 'dog' while he calls her 'bitch'. 'The Wooden Sea' is much better and indicates he's trying to develop his style beyond what we've seen before and if that book is any indication his next one will be superb.

Yeah, basically, he rocks.

Keith, like a scientist

17:05 / 10.09.04

Carroll has a new book coming out (yay), and I was curious if Barbelith had a topic about him. I was disappointed to see only 2 posts...so I made a new one.

He's so great. Did anyone read the last one, "White Apples"?

Oh, and for the record, "Voice of our Shadow" is the most terrifying book I've ever read. The utter betrayal of the climax freaked me out to no end...made me queasy for days.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

10:01 / 11.09.04

'White Apples' was indeed a fun book, if not his most stellar effort ever. But the new book is coming out in Europe next Spring, I hope they don't pull the same crap as they did with 'WA' where the British copy is printed about a year after the rest of the world...

16:45 / 12.09.04

Have to chime in and support WOODEN SEA and WHITE APPLES. They're just as wonderful, odd, charming, and insightful as Carroll's other books. They are perhaps more surreal in many senses, but all the Carrollean flourishes (including his tendency to open with addictive first sentences), are present in full force. I'm not quibbling with those of you who love LAND OF LAUGHS or any of the other novels, I just wanted to let newbies know that JC's latest material is aces too. And GLASS SOUP, a sort of companion to WHITE APPLES is on the way next year.

Seriously folks, Carroll’s novels are unique and addictive. Caveat: his endings are often oblique, so caveat emptor! (what’s the latin tanslation for “Reader beware?”

PS: I have OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM (picked it up for a song in a New Orleans used bookstore during a visit to that most excellent city), but have yet to read it (four years on now). Any non-spoiler thoughts?

17:06 / 12.09.04

I second Voice of our Shadow as the scariest thing ever.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

16:39 / 13.09.04

It's pretty good. I like the Venasque sequence of books because each of the characters is so adrift that they automatically assume all his other students have a grip on things, when you read their books you realise that they haven't got a clue either. But 'Dog Museum' is pretty good, another annoying elliptical ending from what I remember, but the main characters from 'Sleeping in Flame' make guest appearences too.

20:50 / 13.09.04

Nice to see this thread resurrected. Outside the Dog Museum is pretty good although I think Sleeping In Flame and Bones of the Moon I think are my favourite ones. Am I the only one who really likes The Marriage of Sticks but got quite pissed off with The Wooden Sea? TWS seemed to me like Carroll by numbers and the plot twist/plot revelation silly. Dunno maybe its just me. STILL haven't read White Apples but am planning to really soon.

Keith, like a scientist

21:04 / 13.09.04

yeah, i actually really liked Marriage of Sticks, but thought the Wooden Sea was a bit lame, as well.

I really liked White Apples, though. It's interesting...his later books have been ending up very science-fiction-esque to me...has anyone else noticed this shift?

I enjoyed his books a bit more when he set up these really normal likable people that either turned out to be shit, or had extremely nasty things happen to them (Voice and Teeth From Angels, in particular).

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:44 / 14.09.04

I found TMoS to be the cliched one to be honest, I thought TWS to be a return to form.

13:51 / 15.09.04

d.furioso: For what it's worth, OUTSIDE THE DOG MUSEUM is my favorite Carroll novel. Filled with adventure, romance, thrills, magick, mystery and humor. And some old friends, as well.

A great read; enjoy!

20:08 / 18.09.04

On the strength of this thread, I ordered Sleeping in Flame and The Land of Laughs. I am halfway through Sleeping in Flame and I am already in love with this author. The... I don't know - the emotional range and depth of the narration is almost painful at moments; I find myself wanting to regress back to the kind of reader who underlines bits of On The Road and writes 'That's So True!' in the margin.

So - I hear there is a series of which Sleeping in Flame is a part. What's the deal? How many more books, which, and in which order?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

19:34 / 23.09.04

'Sleeping in Flame' is part of the 'Answered Prayers' sequence which consists of 'Bones of the Moon', 'Sleeping in Flame', 'A Child Across the Sky', 'Outside the Dog Museum', 'After Silence' (I think) and 'From the Teeth of Angels', as well as one or two short stories in 'The Panic Hand', but you can read them in any order.

00:36 / 08.10.04

Why is so much of Carroll's stuff out of print anyways?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

12:59 / 09.10.04

Because it doesn't sell. However, I don't know if he got a better UK deal post 'Panic Hand' as I find that stuff on the shelf a lot more easily than anything else. But a lot of Carroll fans I speak to seem to have got into him via Neil Gaiman (or into Neil Gaiman via Carroll) which was, what, 1990?

03:11 / 11.10.04

"So - I hear there is a series of which Sleeping in Flame is a part. What's the deal? How many more books, which, and in which order?"

If you can't find all the books in the sequences, don't worry. I read them all out of whack and loved them all the same. There's even bleed between characters between the sequences, if ya get my drift.

04:19 / 01.01.07

I'm about halfway through Bones of the Moon and I have to say, I'm disappointed so far. I'd heard such great things about Carroll, from friends and from authors like Stephen King and Stanislaw Lem, whom I respect, but I don't get it. The narration is expository, the characters are stereotypical and dull, the dialogue hobbles about, the "magic" is... dishwatery. His prose is clunky; someone needs to go through and strike out all the superfluous adverbs. My god, I think he's actually worse than that China Mieville! At least Mieville is bad in an interesting way.

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:48 / 01.01.07

Really? Crickey! Did you read 'The Sandman' comics?

I would really recommend trying to find and read 'Sleeping in Flame' before you give him up as that is, in my 'umble, the best of his early work.

15:03 / 01.01.07

Finished it. A thin broth with a "shock" ending that was entirely evitable. Comparison with the worst things about Sandman is probably apt.

Your proposal is fair, Lady. If I ever come across Sleeping in Flame on a dollar table somewhere, I'll pick it up, but Bones of the Moon was one of the least interesting novels ever.

00:09 / 08.06.07

Which is better: Land of Laughs, or Sleeping in Flame?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

06:29 / 08.06.07

'Sleeping in Flame', definitely. 'Land of Laughs' is okay but suffers from Carroll's occasional problem in his earlier days of not writing good endings.

13:34 / 08.06.07

Thanks, I'll check it out.