The Maltese Falcon
Classic noir. Private detective Sam Spade is hired to search for a valuable, gem-encrusted antique in the shape of a falcon. Sam Spade is hired by the fragrant Miss Wonderley to track down her sister, who has eloped with a louse called Floyd Thursby. But Miss Wonderley is in fact the beautiful and treacherous Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and when Spade's partner Miles Archer is shot while on Thursby's trail, Spade finds himself both hunter and hunted: can he track down the jewel-encrusted bird, a treasure worth killing for, before the Fat Man finds him?
Stats for nerds
7recommend
14mentions
14people
2009–2026years
50% recommend50% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- It sucks that the copyright period in the US is so ridiculously long, but it still makes me happy to see stuff finally entering the public domain again.
I don't care much about Betty Boop and I don't really care about Pluto and Mickey all that much, but I'm very excited for The Maltese Falcon's novel being available, since I think that that one could actually be adapted into something pretty modern.
Also, All Quiet on the Western Front is very arguably one of the very best movies ever made, and certainly one of the very best of the 30's if nothing else, so I am very much looking forward to fan restorations.
- I read "Maltese Falcon" in the eighties. I remember vividly that story about Flitcraft, even if I had forgotten where it came from. It's really powerful.
- Counterweight; Djuna. Good sci Fi.
The Thin Man, The Maltese Falcon; Hammett. Good books behind excellent movies.
- Hmmm. It'd be a neat litmus test for you to read The Big Sleep or The Maltese Falcon. Those are books from a very different time/aesthetic compared to Neuromancer but, in their own way, also defined their genre by being so tryhard they became sublime. It'd be interesting to see if you have a similar reaction to either of them--have you read those?
- Maltese Falcon by Hammett
- Although I'd change some books (actually, quite a lot,) I'm positively surprised by some choices, with books you usually don't see in "best of" lists but which rank high in my personal preferences.
For science fiction I'd change Dune... Even though it's a great book and I like it (I even read Herbert Jr.'s sequels... spoiler: don't) I'd pick something "shinier." Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, or 2001: An Space Odissey... or go with the weird and pick Rendezvous with Rama. Or just Foundation. Sci-Fi-wise you can't go wrong with Foundation.
Ninja-edit: How could I forget The Starmaker by Olaf Stapledon? Written in the late 40s, I didn't give much for it as Sci-fi goes. I read it in one sitting. Ended with a headache, dizzy and hungry. It was well worth it.
For Murakami, I'd pick instead a relatively unknown book by him: Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of The World. An inception-esque plot-inside-plot book, set in an almost Neuromancer-like setting. I love it.
For Dystopian... Even though I have not read The Giver, just classification-wise I'd have to pick Shades of Grey (Jasper Fforde's book, not to be confused with another, numbered, similarly named book.) It was a thrilling read (I think it's the best novel I've read in the past 3 or 4 years, but well, I don't read that much fiction lately), sadly part of a trilogy waiting to be finished. Beware: once you are done with the book you'd want to go to Britain and tie Fforde to his desk until he is done with the next book.
The books that surprised me though are incredibly well-spotted. I like that Guns, Germs and Steel is there. It's been on my reading list for... 3 years already (I have it, but it's a heavy book so I'm always eager to pick an ebook or thinner material for a commute,) because the theme is so compelling. The Right Stuff is not the usual book you see in a best-of list, but for me, it should be in all these lists. Heck, writing from it is used as example of good writing in On Writing Well (which is surprisingly a very good read).
The Long Goodbye, by Chandler. Chandler is great, period. Having one of his books in this lists validates other books I'd never consider... Even though you can't have a Chandler and don't have a Hammett. You can't go wrong with a book by Hammett, I'd probably pick The Maltese Falcon. A classic.
Of course, there are some books that I'd personally treat to a Bradbury process... Catcher in the Rye and On the Road are two books I was looking forward to reading (not being English-based meant I didn't get to read them on high school) and found dull. I guess read in a different context would have made it different, but I couldn't see all the praise. Personal opinion, though.
