Monday 2 March 2009

Peace is Upon Us


It's Adrian McKinty's fault that I even entertained the notion of reading David Peace's Red Riding quartet. I got the whole set from Serpent's Tail a while back but so far I've only made it through 1974. As I said in my review, 1974 is a brilliantly written novel, it's dark, violent and fascinating. It's also quite an emotional investment. I've been a little afraid of moving on to 1977, and so have avoided it until now.

Here's the thing, though. The film adaptation (the quartet as a trilogy) is upon us. Part one will play on Channel 4 on Thursday at 9PM. I'll probably try to catch it on 4 on Demand, as I'd like the opportunity to pause and take the odd time out. What a month to go off the booze! I don't want to let the movie do all the thinking for me, so I've begun reading 1977 in the hopes that I can get most of it read before Thursday. I'm a good way through the second chapter, and I think this'll be a quick read.

But I imagine that even if you watch the films first, there'll still be quite some merit in reading the novels as well. A quick refresh in Peace's writing style for this series has me kicking myself that I didn't get around to it before now.

7 comments:

adrian mckinty said...

fingers crossed for a happy ending eh?

Gerard Brennan said...

Adrian - There's always hope. Isn't there?

No, don't tell me.

gb

Stuart Neville said...

I've been looking forward to Red Riding. I'm out of the country this week, but my Sky+ box is ready and waiting. I'd ideally like to read the books first, but my TBR pile is at breaking point. I had a look on iTunes, but they aren't there as audiobooks, alas.

Speaking of audiobooks, I tried to buy Mr McKinty's Dead I May Well Be from Audible.com, but it wouldn't let me 'cause I'm not in the US. Audible.co.uk doesn't list it.

Arse, says I.

adrian mckinty said...

Stuart

If they're actually throwing up obstacles you should just download it for free as a bit torrent.

Gerard Brennan said...

Stuart - That's a pain in the neck. Especially since I heard the audio version kicks all kinds of ass.

Adrian - Shush, man. You're not supposed to say stuff like that.

Jeez, you're a loose cannon.

Is there no other venue to buy it from?

gb

adrian mckinty said...

Ah stuff them, if they cant get it figured out for non US Credit Card holders then thats their loss. Get it on Pirate Bay for nothing.

Its like Hulu. Hulu works because you have sit through ads, but you cant watch Hulu outside the US unless you get an IP address Proxy server, but thats such a hassle most people would rather just watch all the US TV shows they want (in my case Battlestar Galactica, Mad Men and 30 Rock)for free on Project Free TV which hosts servers from China. No ads, no revenue for NBC and minimum hassle. Thats probably how I'll watch the David Peace too and all because the lawyers cant get it figured out.

BTW they're making a movie of Peace's The Damned United which should be fun.

Also BTW Tony Grisoni who scripted the TRRQ is the guy who's written that interesting sounding Phlip K Dick biopic starring Paul Giamatti.

Gerard Brennan said...

Adrian - alluc.org is pretty good too. They use streaming, so you can access some great TV PDQ.

You could probably watch the Peace stuff on 4 on Demand as well, though. We watch it through a BT Vision box and all the ads are cut from it.

And BTW, I think it's a bloody joke that you can't get the DIWMB audio over here. WTF, like? I think you should get some lawyers on to that, or release the hounds, or something.

gb