Gary Corby is the author of the Athenian Mystery series, starring Nicolaos, his girlfriend Diotima, and his irritating twelve year old brother Socrates. The latest book in the series is Death on Delos.The author lives in Sydney, Australia, with his wife, two daughters, two ducks, two budgerigars, and a brush turkey that is almost as irritating as Socrates.
Recently I asked Corby about what he was reading. His reply:
The Road To Gandolfo, by Michael Shepherd, who was in fact Robert Ludlum. This is the most un-Ludlum-like book that he ever wrote. It is inVisit Gary Corby's website.fact a comedy, almost a farce, about a crazy plot to kidnap the Pope!
As you can probably tell, I'm as likely to read books that are years old as recent releases.
Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe. Yes, that one was released just a while ago. Marlowe is rather hard done by I think because that young upstart friend of his Shakespeare tends to get all the attention. I reread Faustus from time to time, because it is awesome.
And now for something slightly more modern.
Signal, by Patrick Lee. Patrick and I have the same literary agent, which is how I first met him. He's a scarily good author of technothrillers. Signal is the second book of hissecond series. He always seems to come up with interesting twists on what you can do by manipulating time.
This is a complete cheat, but I want to put in a word for a television series. Vikings, written by Michael Hirst. As a writer of historicals, I usually look at TV series and movies set in the past with a very jaundiced eye. Frankly, I think there's almost always something wrong with them, and usually something very wrong. But Hirst has got it right. He's conflated two hundred years of Viking history into a single family and friends and enemies, he's altered history in a number of ways to suit his plot, but it feels right.
Five books that changed Gary Corby.
My Book, The Movie: Death on Delos.
The Page 69 Test: Death on Delos.
--Marshal Zeringue
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