Magnus Mills

[Serge]

I've just finished reading 'Explorers Of The New Century' by Magnus Mills, and have realised that he has had about another half a dozen books published since then, but I thought I'd start a thread about his stuff anyway, as the ones I've read have all been fantastic.

Like most people, I read 'The Restraint Of Beasts' first, which is exactly as brilliant and hilarious as all of the quotes on the cover imply. Its central joke[nb]

Spoiler alert

Which only actually appears in the book about three times, though you're convinced it's more afterwards.

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[/nb], which I'm not going to reveal here, gets funnier the more the book goes on. 'All Quiet On The Orient Express' is a book in which absolutely nothing happens whatsoever, but is still great. 'Three To See The King' is more surreal than the previous two, but his odd little details (one character has a

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'captive balloon'

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which is regularly referred to, for no reason at all) and the way the story builds to its insane climax make it worthwhile.

'The Scheme For Full Employment' is amazing - when the actual scheme is revealed, in an almost throwaway fashion, about halfway through the book - it is actually a work of genius. And 'Explorers...' is fantastic, and possibly the darkest in tone of the ones I've read so far. One detail is kept from the reader until late in the book, but when it's revealed, it casts a shadow over what you've already read and

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changes your opinion of the characters you've been following so far into the book.

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I quite like the fact that there is a sort of emotional blankness to his characters - nobody ever really loses their head, or if they do, they're calmed down immediately by someone acting rationally, or at least rationally by the rules of the world of that particular book. I've never read anybody like him - the closest is Jonas Jonasson, whose two novels so far I can recommend too, though they are also quite different in a lot of ways.

[hermitical]

I've only read the first few, and loved them. Got Explorers... but for some reason never got past the first few pages. I should, I love the feel and stories

[MuteBanana]

There was a film to be made of The Restraint of Beasts. I remember Ben Whishaw and John Henshaw being linked to it. I think Pawel Pawlikowski was going to direct it.

[Serge]

Crikey! It was in production and everything and then...

In 2006, Pawel Pawlikowski directed a film adaptation starring Rhys Ifans, Ben Whishaw, Eddie Marsan, and Warren Clarke but it was suspended in mid-production when the director's wife fell seriously ill and died. In 2010, he said "We'd shot 60% of the film when I had to stop. The material looks great, like nothing I've ever done or even seen before. It could have been really great, definitely original."

Given the death of Clarke since then, chalk that up as another great lost movie we'll never see. And Eddie Marsan would have been in it! Argh.

[GeeWhiz]

There are even clips available on Mr Pawlikowski's website. It looks like we really missed out but his reasons for not carrying on make perfect sense. He's a big hero of mine - Last Resort is a damn near perfect film and his doc about the Balkan conflict, Serbian Epics, is fucking immense.