Please keep doing these…I don’t have mental energy to comment intelligently these days but I really enjoy these and look forward to them. I also get many great reading recommendations. Thank you.
When you spoke of Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone, which I'd not heard of, and inserting a piece of metal into the forebrain, it put me in mind of The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa. I read this back in the 1960s. Rampa said he was a Tibetan monk and he tells of a procedure where a hole is bored in the forehead and a sliver of a certain wood is inserted into the brain. This gives the person psychic abilities aligned with Tibetan Buddhism. He speaks of astro traveling and other psychic power. After a few more books he was exposed to be a plumber from Devon in the UK. Something of a letdown for all those people who took him seriously.
What an awesome selection - isn't it wild to still be finding out and reading so many sci-fi novels even after being in the hobby for a long time? Great stuff.
Inverted World is one of the three or four best novels I've ever read. I come back to it on a regular basis and am never disappointed. The way in which the structure of the book perfectly mirrors the content is astonishing
Inverted world is one of the best books I’ve read in ages . Christopher priest is the man ! Along with silverberg he rarely seems to put a foot wrong .
Hard to be a god is a great book! Out of all Strugatsky books I struggled with this one the most, so my advice - just keep reading! You will be rewarded
I enjoyed Inverted World, haven't yet read the other two. @8:03 Some authors don't need an operation to have 'the power of exposition'. thanks for the video
Thankfully I can scratch Colin Wilson off my TBR list, BP. I am relieved that your perspective on Inverted World by the recently (and sadly) departed Christopher Priest was in line with my own impression. One of your SF YT channel genre brethren turned me onto it in one of his episodes. That Outlaw in the UK. Regardless, it's always a good day when you post, at least, it is in my world. Cheers.
I rarely give up on a book once I've started reading it. The Philosopher's Stone is one of the few exceptions, and judging by your review, I didn't even get to the worst part before bailing.
Phew, thank God you loved Inverted World. It's one of my all-time favorites. The sequence when our hero leaves the tracks and discovers the "true" nature of the world is mind-bending beyond belief. I'd highly recommend The Affirmation too-it's a Mobius strip of a novel and a great intro to Priest's Dream Archipelago; and The Prestige which is so much richer and more metaphysical than Nolan's adaptation.
I appreciated the way "The Philosopher's Stone" attempted to use the scientific method to explore the occult. It reminded me of a literary version of the TV show "In Search Of." Although I typically don't enjoy science fiction that incorporates mystical and supernatural elements, this book's clear philosophical logic had some basic appeal for me. Enjoyable but ultimately absurd in the way it centralized "force of will and intellect" as some sort of catalyst for releasing supernatural power.
If you like Hard to Be a God's movie adaptation (the one by Aleksey German), I also wholeheartedly recommend his other movie "Khrustalyov, my car!". the aforementioned is both one of my favorite books and movies :D!
I've always been interested in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky books, especially 'Roadside Picnic' but thought I'd initially go for something different of theirs before it. I have to say that the 'Hard to be a God' is a wonderful read
I enjoy these reviews, and I was pleased to find out you are also a Star Trek seeing guy, liker, enjoyer, familiar type, and not in fact just a normal person.
I’ve read all but a couple of C. Priest’s books. My favorites are, in no particular order, A Dream of Wessex, The Glamour, The Affirmation (this one blew me away), The Prestige, and The Adjacent (another headf*ck).
I was glad to see a review on Colin Wilson's Philosopher's Stone, as that has been a favorite of mine for most of my life, especially the first half of the book. I read it every few years. I find it fascinating that Wilson anticipates some of the work being done this century on deep brain stimulation. You might be expecting a negative review on this video because we disagree on the book, but actually I found your review to be quite insightful. Your summary of his philosophy/psychology from the first half was well done, showing that you were paying attention. I agree with you about the Shakespeare section and the Lovecraft section. The only reason I read through those sections is to see the gradual unfoldment of his ideas on quasi-psychic powers. In fact, I would not recommend this book to others simply on the basis of literature or science fiction. It is primarily for fans of Colin Wilson, along with such works as Mind Parasites and the Spiderworld series, or for people who are interested in the subject of consciousness.
I got the same feeling from The Mind Parasites when I finished it. Great first half, but I was disappointed with the "power-of-the-mind" twist in the second half of the book. It was still an effective piece of "what if" fiction, & a good book overall, IMO. & despite it's negative review here, I'm still planning on reading The Philosopher's Stone, & The Space Vampires, by Wilson, at some point....
@@kufujitsu I agree with you on Mind Parasites. The mental powers increase exponentially until they have almost god-like powers at the end. I think you will find that Philosopher's Stone improves on this if only because the mind powers are more believable, and increase in power at a more reasonable pace. I also like the characters in Philosopher's Stone a lot more. It comes closer to being a "normal" coming-of-age novel than most of Wilson's work.
Though it'd been settled that Shakespeare's oeuvre was written by a committee? "Shakespeare knew little Greek and no Latin" ~ Ben Jonson (his contemporary)
Does he actually do it with them or was that in his imagination? If so it might make me reevaluate the whole book because that resulting drama with his wife really annoyed me when I read it.
@thescrewfly Cool username. The Screwfly Solution is one of my favourite Triptree stories. I own all of her short story collections - or at least most of them...
@@kufujitsu I have several of her collections too. That particular story was indeed my user name before Gurgle decided to shorten it and make it more offensive- looking against my express wishes!
Loved Inverted World and The Philosophers Stone. Try The Space Vampires or The Mind Parasites some time. And Wilson's icky sex mystery novels are pretty effective, I think.
The Inverted World and Tau Zero are my two best SciFi reads this year and , joy of joys, iv just realised that I have Hard to be a God waiting on my shelf. Sorted. Thanks for your honest reviews.
Just got the Hard to Be a God SF masterworks. Stone has been on the TBR for a minute now staring at me from my shelf. . . it may remain as not to disturb anything at rest
I always find your book descriptions to be very eloquent - but you struggled on that first one - I would have added 'get out and enjoy some fresh air and come back and try again' yet there you are in out at a lovely outdoor spot :-) Best wishes!
The movie adaptation of Hard to Be a God is focused on experience and feeling, closer to soft story telling, perhaps. If you didn't know at least the novel synopsis, you probably wouldn't even know what is going on with it haha.
I enjoyed Inverted World as well, though I’m not sure it’s his “most popular” book (wouldn’t that be The Prestige?). Agree that Hard to be a God is an entertaining if minor work by the Strugats.
Def will check out Inverted World. I agree with everything you said about the Philosopher's Stone but I still enjoyed it. Just a peaceful ex acid-head here, not many critical faculties...
Colin Wilson always comes across to me as a classic 98-pound scrawny guy telling me about how he’s an ubermensch, in between bouts of wheezing and coughing, as he heats about his burritos at 7-11.
Colin Wilson started out (in THE OUTSIDER) warning about the kind of individual Colin Wilson became. Agree with you about THE INVERTED WORLD. Great novel. Will put The Strugatskys (sp.?) on my reading list.
Ah so that's how to do a review of Inverted World! I did a truly terrible one early in my yoo-toob days. Terrible in terms of badly done. I enjoyed the book. I now want to read it again....👍📚🚀
OFFICERS. Starfleet OFFICERS. Also, as I watched young woman wandering in the background, I wanted to yell, "Turn around, Matt, for God's sake! Great opportunity for a 'meet cute' here!"
Just curious, when you travel and get new books, do you just ship them home after reading and continue traveling? Or just carry a ton of books around? lol Whatever it is, keep doing it my dude i'm jealous!
wait i thought they were about to boot you out of thigh land? so i highly rec watching the annunaki connection, a half hour doc made by midjourney AI in the style of the 1970s ancient aliens docs. ballz trippin.
@@donaldb1he barely touched it and failed, for once, to understand the book and themes. It is extremely great sci fi. You do need to read all three. It opens during the Chinese Great Leap Forward so starts for ages as a historical novel. I loved it. Then it literally does first contact and multiple human apocalypses. You can argue the end offers hope of a kind but it is a top five all time sci fi trilogy.
@@HuplesCatActually I thought the historical setting of the early part was the best bit. After that I found it very boring. Big ideas, sure, but very poorly written, imo. I am aware, though, that a lot of people feel differently.
The Philosopher's Stone is better than The Mind Parasites as far as Wilson's books go, I'll give it that much (you will probably hate the latter if you didn't like this one). I had quite a Wilson phase about 25 years ago which I now look back at with mixed feelings.
So…what if Childhood’s End went a different way as told by Russians? Hell yeah, I’m in! Tell me who doesn’t enjoy bickering gay couples? That’s probably why he didn’t live to 300 🙄 And that Christopher Priest book is S tier, made me get several of his other works, all of them great so far.
I'm a fan of Colin Wilson--for his work as a philosopher, biographer (I recommend his bios of Jung and especially Wilhelm Reich) and, for lack of a better term, a non-fiction explorer of the unknown (his various histories of psychos or the supernatural)--but I feel his novels only exist to put his philosophical ideas into a more "digestible," semi-pulpy form--I love the *ideas* in the Mind Parasites (a sort of Lovecraftian collective unconscious entity) but the prose and plotting? Awful. Read the Philosopher's Stone once and that was enough. Also, his writing 's kind of dated... [Wilson does have a chip on his shoulder about "establishment" writers and types, and tries to mimic pulp stylings, but not too well, IMHO--pulps are pageturners, and Wilson's novels aren't that...]
Hard to be a God - Terribly boring to the point of being nearly nonsensical. Haven't read The Philosopher's Stone by Colin Wilson, but read Ritual in the Dark last year and it was a phenomenal 5-star read. And haven't read The Inverted World by Christopher Priest yet, but The Prestige and Expect Me Tomorrow were both 4-stars or above with The Evidence being less than good. I won't spoil anything. Read what you'd like by these authors and make up your own mind.
Ah fuck he's been shipwrecked
hopefully he has his ten books.
At least he has a crab to keep him company.
@@kniknayme9865 - and having watched all his videos, we can guess which ones he took!
The only thing missing was Wilson. Not Colin, the ball...
Actually I'm pretty sure he's become a pirate
The Star Trek aneurysm was hilarious
I think trekkers of the stars is the correct term
Classic Brain Glitch. Happens to me all the time.
Kept getting less specific and further from the word searching… lol
Please keep doing these…I don’t have mental energy to comment intelligently these days but I really enjoy these and look forward to them. I also get many great reading recommendations. Thank you.
When you spoke of Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone, which I'd not heard of, and inserting a piece of metal into the forebrain, it put me in mind of The Third Eye by Lobsang Rampa. I read this back in the 1960s. Rampa said he was a Tibetan monk and he tells of a procedure where a hole is bored in the forehead and a sliver of a certain wood is inserted into the brain. This gives the person psychic abilities aligned with Tibetan Buddhism. He speaks of astro traveling and other psychic power. After a few more books he was exposed to be a plumber from Devon in the UK. Something of a letdown for all those people who took him seriously.
Funny that you draw this comparison. I actually read Third Eye recently and said the same thing in my review.
*Grumpy Star Trek Noises* LOL
What an awesome selection - isn't it wild to still be finding out and reading so many sci-fi novels even after being in the hobby for a long time? Great stuff.
Inverted World is one of the three or four best novels I've ever read. I come back to it on a regular basis and am never disappointed. The way in which the structure of the book perfectly mirrors the content is astonishing
Inverted world is one of the best books I’ve read in ages . Christopher priest is the man ! Along with silverberg he rarely seems to put a foot wrong .
Hard to be a god is a great book! Out of all Strugatsky books I struggled with this one the most, so my advice - just keep reading! You will be rewarded
Hell yeah, so happy with the praise for Inverted World. I love that book
I enjoyed Inverted World, haven't yet read the other two.
@8:03 Some authors don't need an operation to have 'the power of exposition'.
thanks for the video
You are such a good streamer! Presenting your ideas, you are gripping and to the point. Thank you.
Thankfully I can scratch Colin Wilson off my TBR list, BP. I am relieved that your perspective on Inverted World by the recently (and sadly) departed Christopher Priest was in line with my own impression. One of your SF YT channel genre brethren turned me onto it in one of his episodes. That Outlaw in the UK. Regardless, it's always a good day when you post, at least, it is in my world. Cheers.
I rarely give up on a book once I've started reading it. The Philosopher's Stone is one of the few exceptions, and judging by your review, I didn't even get to the worst part before bailing.
The word you're looking for is the Starfleet 'crew' :P
Phew, thank God you loved Inverted World. It's one of my all-time favorites. The sequence when our hero leaves the tracks and discovers the "true" nature of the world is mind-bending beyond belief. I'd highly recommend The Affirmation too-it's a Mobius strip of a novel and a great intro to Priest's Dream Archipelago; and The Prestige which is so much richer and more metaphysical than Nolan's adaptation.
I appreciated the way "The Philosopher's Stone" attempted to use the scientific method to explore the occult. It reminded me of a literary version of the TV show "In Search Of." Although I typically don't enjoy science fiction that incorporates mystical and supernatural elements, this book's clear philosophical logic had some basic appeal for me. Enjoyable but ultimately absurd in the way it centralized "force of will and intellect" as some sort of catalyst for releasing supernatural power.
If you like Hard to Be a God's movie adaptation (the one by Aleksey German), I also wholeheartedly recommend his other movie "Khrustalyov, my car!". the aforementioned is both one of my favorite books and movies :D!
I've always been interested in Boris and Arkady Strugatsky books, especially 'Roadside Picnic' but thought I'd initially go for something different of theirs before it. I have to say that the 'Hard to be a God' is a wonderful read
Cool background! Nice to discuss books in such surroundings
I enjoy these reviews, and I was pleased to find out you are also a Star Trek seeing guy, liker, enjoyer, familiar type, and not in fact just a normal person.
I’ve read all but a couple of C. Priest’s books. My favorites are, in no particular order, A Dream of Wessex, The Glamour, The Affirmation (this one blew me away), The Prestige, and The Adjacent (another headf*ck).
+1 for The Affirmation. I've never stopped thinking about it.
@@pwcinlaSame here.
I was glad to see a review on Colin Wilson's Philosopher's Stone, as that has been a favorite of mine for most of my life, especially the first half of the book. I read it every few years. I find it fascinating that Wilson anticipates some of the work being done this century on deep brain stimulation. You might be expecting a negative review on this video because we disagree on the book, but actually I found your review to be quite insightful. Your summary of his philosophy/psychology from the first half was well done, showing that you were paying attention. I agree with you about the Shakespeare section and the Lovecraft section. The only reason I read through those sections is to see the gradual unfoldment of his ideas on quasi-psychic powers. In fact, I would not recommend this book to others simply on the basis of literature or science fiction. It is primarily for fans of Colin Wilson, along with such works as Mind Parasites and the Spiderworld series, or for people who are interested in the subject of consciousness.
I got the same feeling from The Mind Parasites when I finished it. Great first half, but I was disappointed with the "power-of-the-mind" twist in the second half of the book. It was still an effective piece of "what if" fiction, & a good book overall, IMO.
& despite it's negative review here, I'm still planning on reading The Philosopher's Stone, & The Space Vampires, by Wilson, at some point....
@@kufujitsu I agree with you on Mind Parasites. The mental powers increase exponentially until they have almost god-like powers at the end. I think you will find that Philosopher's Stone improves on this if only because the mind powers are more believable, and increase in power at a more reasonable pace. I also like the characters in Philosopher's Stone a lot more. It comes closer to being a "normal" coming-of-age novel than most of Wilson's work.
Just finished Inverted World. I absolutely agree with you, it was fantastic.
Inverted Works on the must read list - especially being new to genre
Best part by far was you stumbling over the Star Trek crew…lol 😅
Though it'd been settled that Shakespeare's oeuvre was written by a committee?
"Shakespeare knew little Greek and no Latin" ~ Ben Jonson (his contemporary)
The chapter in Inverted World where the protagonist helps escort the village women back home is the trippiest thing I've ever read, bar none.
Does he actually do it with them or was that in his imagination? If so it might make me reevaluate the whole book because that resulting drama with his wife really annoyed me when I read it.
Ironically, I think you could make a decent dystopian novel taking those ideas from Wilson about constant stimuli and focus to achieve longer life.
Great to see such love for CP - he was a master. RIP
Priest's "Inverted World" had a similar effect on me as Crowley's "Engine Summer".
Spoiler alert: Colin Wilson only lived to be 82. Maybe he didn't concentrate hard enough?
beat shakespeare. respect.
I'd be happy if I made it to 82. You know, things happen... You might not make it past your sixties, even in the western world...
@@MichaelM-ev9ek
Oh sure, nothing wrong with 82. But for a guy who claimed he would live to 300 at least, well, it's not even 1/3.
I thought you were in front of a green screen for the first few minutes! 😂 … anyhow, thanks for adding a few more to my must be read list.
One of the first sci-fi books I ever read. My dad had an old beat up paperback of it and I read it in middle school and I loved it so much.
Would be nice if you let us know which book you're talking about.......
@@kufujitsu I'm kind of hoping they're posting on the wrong video and it's none of the above.
@thescrewfly Cool username. The Screwfly Solution is one of my favourite Triptree stories. I own all of her short story collections - or at least most of them...
@@kufujitsu I have several of her collections too. That particular story was indeed my user name before Gurgle decided to shorten it and make it more offensive- looking against my express wishes!
Colin Wilson's philosophy of longevity....that actually sounds really interesting (before it veers into really weird). Great video Bookpilled!
Loved Inverted World and The Philosophers Stone. Try The Space Vampires or The Mind Parasites some time. And Wilson's icky sex mystery novels are pretty effective, I think.
Crew. I believe crew was the word you were struggling with, but as someone who also has this happen it was incredible.
Matt and Bob in the same day. Yall are spoiling me!
I love Hard To Be A God! I have read about 6 of their books and I loved 5 of them! They were really ballsy
The Inverted World and Tau Zero are my two best SciFi reads this year and , joy of joys, iv just realised that I have Hard to be a God waiting on my shelf. Sorted. Thanks for your honest reviews.
sorted? sorta sortered??
Tau Zero! Oh yes, that was a fine one (it's been a long time).
Just got the Hard to Be a God SF masterworks. Stone has been on the TBR for a minute now staring at me from my shelf. . . it may remain as not to disturb anything at rest
I always find your book descriptions to be very eloquent - but you struggled on that first one - I would have added 'get out and enjoy some fresh air and come back and try again' yet there you are in out at a lovely outdoor spot :-) Best wishes!
Your description of Inverted World reminds me of AURORA by K S Robinson. Has everything, pays off everything, changed how I look at science fiction.
Should you have talked about On The Beach?
he read that already. i dont think he has seen the fred astaire movie version though, which is much better than the book.
@@meesalikeuwhoosh
Starfleet officers?
Awesome video once again 👍🏻
Nice. I've got Hard to be a God lined up after I'm done wrapping up Poor Things.
The movie adaptation of Hard to Be a God is focused on experience and feeling, closer to soft story telling, perhaps.
If you didn't know at least the novel synopsis, you probably wouldn't even know what is going on with it haha.
Hard To Be a God is a marvellous film, sounds quite close to the book (not read it) - very funny, intensely claustrophobic, visceral and dirty
INTENSELY CLAUSTROPHOBIC!
'We have a friend.' Thus, thee prime directive is violated.
hard indeed to be a god
Glad Christopher Priest is getting some attention. One of the best in the genre, sadly he passed away earlier this year.
The late Christopher Priest? Shit, this is the first I've heard of his passing.
R.I.P. ✍♥📚
I enjoyed Inverted World as well, though I’m not sure it’s his “most popular” book (wouldn’t that be The Prestige?). Agree that Hard to be a God is an entertaining if minor work by the Strugats.
Def will check out Inverted World. I agree with everything you said about the Philosopher's Stone but I still enjoyed it. Just a peaceful ex acid-head here, not many critical faculties...
Ah phew, I just recently read Philosopher's Stone and thought very much the same as you! Vindicated 😂
Colin Wilson always comes across to me as a classic 98-pound scrawny guy telling me about how he’s an ubermensch, in between bouts of wheezing and coughing, as he heats about his burritos at 7-11.
Nothing to do with the books but golly you are staying in some lovely places: congratulations. Oh, and yes, Inverted World is particularly ace.
Inverted world is a great book.
I can see why he liked it.
It is apolitical or the book has some politics but they fit well and they are a side plot.
Star Trek personal are usually referred to by outsiders as just Starfleet.
Colin Wilson started out (in THE OUTSIDER) warning about the kind of individual Colin Wilson became.
Agree with you about THE INVERTED WORLD. Great novel.
Will put The Strugatskys (sp.?) on my reading list.
Colin Wilson became an Outsider? I'm not sure I understand you.
Ah so that's how to do a review of Inverted World! I did a truly terrible one early in my yoo-toob days. Terrible in terms of badly done. I enjoyed the book. I now want to read it again....👍📚🚀
The beard plays... You look like Hemmingway's little brother. Looks good.
Ahh, when Matt and Stephen release a video in the same day, it's a good day.
Matt?
Thanks Matt beautiful spot where were you?
where were you?
Canada. You? 😂
I did not get anything of it anything from “Hard to be a God” at all.
He was not right about much but Wilson nailed Shakespeare.
Thanks, that was great, as usual. I take it LeGuin was the 4th writer. . .
Don't the Strugatsky brothers count as two writers?
Where are you? Looks nice!
Lol, I am happy to be 'not normal' enough to know what the Prime Directive is.
Where in Thailand is this now? Not stalking, just curious.
OFFICERS. Starfleet OFFICERS.
Also, as I watched young woman wandering in the background, I wanted to yell, "Turn around, Matt, for God's sake! Great opportunity for a 'meet cute' here!"
You're looking healthy in this video.
Life would be so much easier if you could articulately instruct and educate me on other aspects of life outside of reselling and sci-fi.
Sci fi between two ferns
What an apt description of Le Guin - dull.
Just curious, when you travel and get new books, do you just ship them home after reading and continue traveling? Or just carry a ton of books around? lol
Whatever it is, keep doing it my dude i'm jealous!
so long story short, Colin Wilson had access to the best weed?
China Mieville , id love to hear what you think of him .
thank you i totally enjoy your posts
wait i thought they were about to boot you out of thigh land? so i highly rec watching the annunaki connection, a half hour doc made by midjourney AI in the style of the 1970s ancient aliens docs. ballz trippin.
inverted world is great
I bet Wilson read Ayn Rand.
Have you read The Three Body Problem?
ua-cam.com/video/piNdNZBVtF4/v-deo.html
He has, and he has reviewed it on his channel. Spoiler alert - he didn't like it.
He did a video several months ago. The book cover is in the thumbnail
@@donaldb1he barely touched it and failed, for once, to understand the book and themes. It is extremely great sci fi. You do need to read all three. It opens during the Chinese Great Leap Forward so starts for ages as a historical novel. I loved it. Then it literally does first contact and multiple human apocalypses. You can argue the end offers hope of a kind but it is a top five all time sci fi trilogy.
@@HuplesCatActually I thought the historical setting of the early part was the best bit. After that I found it very boring. Big ideas, sure, but very poorly written, imo. I am aware, though, that a lot of people feel differently.
Just say Starfleet officers, for christsake :D
Are you still in Thailand? Or are you in Maine? Because if you’re in Maine, the ocean should be on the right.
Some cameras reverse the frame especially those awful camera ones
The Philosopher's Stone is better than The Mind Parasites as far as Wilson's books go, I'll give it that much (you will probably hate the latter if you didn't like this one). I had quite a Wilson phase about 25 years ago which I now look back at with mixed feelings.
If The Inverted World was written by one of today's SF authors, it would have went for 800 - 1000 pages, thereby destroying it's immediacy & impact.
👍Christopher Priest: IN - Colin Wilson: OUT 👎
Thank you.
I wish I liked the Inverted World as much as you did...but the subplot with the protagonist's wife really annoyed me
Agreed. The ending/explanation was a let-down for me, as well.
So…what if Childhood’s End went a different way as told by Russians? Hell yeah, I’m in! Tell me who doesn’t enjoy bickering gay couples? That’s probably why he didn’t live to 300 🙄 And that Christopher Priest book is S tier, made me get several of his other works, all of them great so far.
It’s a shame Colin Wilson went off the rails after such an interesting start.
Thigh Land
Without capitalism there probably will be no youtube 🎉🎉
I'm a fan of Colin Wilson--for his work as a philosopher, biographer (I recommend his bios of Jung and especially Wilhelm Reich) and, for lack of a better term, a non-fiction explorer of the unknown (his various histories of psychos or the supernatural)--but I feel his novels only exist to put his philosophical ideas into a more "digestible," semi-pulpy form--I love the *ideas* in the Mind Parasites (a sort of Lovecraftian collective unconscious entity) but the prose and plotting? Awful. Read the Philosopher's Stone once and that was enough. Also, his writing 's kind of dated... [Wilson does have a chip on his shoulder about "establishment" writers and types, and tries to mimic pulp stylings, but not too well, IMHO--pulps are pageturners, and Wilson's novels aren't that...]
Hard to be a God - Terribly boring to the point of being nearly nonsensical. Haven't read The Philosopher's Stone by Colin Wilson, but read Ritual in the Dark last year and it was a phenomenal 5-star read. And haven't read The Inverted World by Christopher Priest yet, but The Prestige and Expect Me Tomorrow were both 4-stars or above with The Evidence being less than good. I won't spoil anything. Read what you'd like by these authors and make up your own mind.