The Most Appropriately-Titled Book Ever News Posted by Seb Patrick on 5th July 2005, 18:44 Think about it.
He. Check out how many copies are going for ?0.01. Too bad anyone would have to pay the ?2 odd for the p&p because I don’t think it’s worth that. All the good reviews though…
Yeah, all the reviews seem to be pretty positive. I’ve never read the book myself…what’s the general consensus?
A rather desperate cash-in in the style of the slightly superior “Craig Charles’ Almanac of Total Knowledge”. There are a couple of funny bits but it’s not worth the effort.
I won’t argue with the concensus but to chuck in my twopence. I thoroughly enjoyed “The Log”. It’s by no means great but it’s entertaining enough. In comparitive terms it’s nowhere near as good as the novels but superior IMO to the Survivors Manual Series 7 tie-in penned by Paul Alexander (?)
There was a copy of the SCSM in Oxfam today. I nearly bought it (because my copy disappeared years and years ago) but it was at the extortionate Oxfam price of ?3.99, and it really isn’t good enough to justify that despite raising the odd smile here and there. What amused me, more than anything in the book itself, though, was that it had been put in the childrens’ section. Remember, this is a book that has pictures of naked arses, frank discussion of cannibalism, and a pen-drawn flickbook animation of someone chopping off their own arm and being thrown off the page by the force of the blood spurt. Lovely.
Is The Log endorsed by Grant Naylor productions at all? If it’s not, what’s the legality on something like this? Craig Charles doesn’t own or share the rights to Red Dwarf, yet he uses the name Dave Lister and also the term “Dwarfer” here…what are the limitations on a cash-in like this? For example, I have nothing at all to do with the show (obviously)…could I write, oh, “My Incredible Love Life by Arnold J Rimmer, BSc, SSc” and not get sued?
Hmm. That’s interesting. Although (at the time) Penguin held the publishing rights for Red Dwarf, so maybe they could sanction it?
>but superior IMO to the Survivors Manual Series 7 tie-in penned by Paul Alexander (?) Agreed. That was terrible. His 1996 diary wasn’t too bad but the manual was the overt cash-in imaginable (and set alarm bells ringing regarding series VII). The only saving grace were the, then exclusive, pics from the series.
I quite enjoyed some of the Survival Manual at the time. Some of it was a bit rubbish, but I enjoyed how nasty a lot of it was. I’ve not read it in AGES, though. I’ll get round to doing a review of the Dwarf spin-off book after DJ.
What got me about the SCSM was that it was a book that had little or no connection to Red Dwarf (even down to the fact that most of the “survival” scenarios had no relevance to the Space Corps, and seemed more of a piss-take of Bravo Two Zero than anything else) and so had the crew profiles shoehorned in to try and give it more of a Dwarf leaning. As I recall, it was only really the crew profiles that were that funny, too.
I think I disliked mainly for the reason John likes it. The humour was nasty. Which is fine if that’s your bag baby but it didn’t seem very “dwarf”.
I remember thinking at the time it wasn’t very Dwarfy, but it wasn’t that that bothered me at the time. It was more that it wasn’t funny enough. I shall definitely dig it out when I’m back in Nottingham and write a review.
Which is fine if that’s your bag baby but it didn’t seem very “dwarf”. Well, yeah. Like I say, it felt to me almost as if someone had written a not-particularly-funny spoof of the then prevailing mood of SAS survival stuff, and then slapped a load of Dwarf stuff on it in order to try and sell it. A bit of a Doki Doki Panic/Super Mario 2 situation, if you will. (yeah, Google it)
There’s some sadistic bits (power-ups that kill you, warps that take you back, bloody buggering wind) but it’s genius like only Miyamoto can produce. I don’t want to say this for fear of sounding like the 12year Nintendo freak that still resides in me, but I managed to complete it on the same day my friend bought it. Kicked him off the gamepad and was glued to the TV for most of the day. (Must say it helps that practically all the warps are in the same place as the original). Alas, it’s many a year since I played it. Sadly, I’ve played “Super Mario Bros 2” (sic) many times. It’s really quite cack. Er…Mario’s hat is red. He’s small, like a Dwarf.
How did this get onto Mario?? Super Mario World for the SNES was probably the first game I truly got completely obsessed with. Was pretty disappointed in Mario Sunshine, mainly because – for me – it didn’t feel enough like a Mario game. Nintendo concentrated way too much on making the game flashy, and I hated most of the levels. Not that it’s totally without it’s merits. Sadly it’s gonna be 18 months before the next game.
