Off topic: Donald E. Westlake sci-fi delayed, John le Carré / George Smiley on Existential Ennui

Apologies for the radio silence on the Violent World of Parker blog, but I’ve been a bit distracted with some rather involved blogging over on my other, er, blog, Existential Ennui. Fear not: my series on the science fiction magazine stories of Donald E. Westlake will resume shortly, and after that’s finished I’ll have plenty more Westlake/Stark stuff to come, with lots of Westlake Scores and reviews and the like. But if you’ve a penchant for spy fiction as well as crime fiction, I thought I’d take the opportunity to point you in the direction of the series of posts I’m currently running on Existential Ennui, which are largely on the brilliant “Karla Trilogy” of novels by John le Carré, starring master spy George Smiley. There’s a new movie version of the first of those, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, due this week, so I’ve been revisiting each of the novels in turn. My latest review, of the third book, Smiley’s People, and its BBC TV adaptation, can be found here, while the posts on Tinker, Tailor… and the middle part of the trilogy, The Honourable Schoolboy, can be found here and here.

Obviously there’s no real link between Westlake and le Carré (although Westlake did write the occasional spy novel), but I’m quite pleased with the Smiley’s People post in particular, so do us a favour and go have a read. And I’ll be back before too long with some more Westlake SF.