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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2014 21:45:13 GMT -5
Today's book: Never the Twain by Kirk Mitchell Ish had read and posted about this a while back (I think it was Ish, anyway), and Paperback Book Swap hooked me up. Twas I and I'm glad you enjoyed it I ordered, & have since received, the book from an ABEbooks seller based on your post, too. Haven't had a chance to read it yet -- library books come first, of course, & I have several of those to finish.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 25, 2014 22:53:47 GMT -5
Damon Knight-I've read plenty of his shorter fiction in various best of Year anthologies and one or two of his collection books but I can't say I've read any of his novels. A very dependable SF author from the golden age (1939-1965) a solid B+ in my rankings
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 26, 2014 15:44:43 GMT -5
I definitely would happily read more of his stuff... I think there's another one of two of his in my hoarde Todays book: Checkpoint LambdaMurray Leinster c 1966 Berkeley Funny how this one, which is from a publisher that still exists, had TONS of typos... humble beginnings, I guess. Lieutenant Scott is going on his first assigned, to man Checkpoint Lambda, where the fabled and mysterious Galcondo ship is due home from it's mysterious trip to once again bring fabulous treasure to the known galaxy.... only this time a gang of thugs is trying to steal it! Scott needs all his abilities and training in the Galactic Patrol to say this distant and lonely outpost from disaster. OK, so this EASILY could have been a western if you swap the ship with a stage coach, the station with a boom town, and the comets with a tornado. In fact, I suspect it IS a western (which the author wrote quite a few of) slightly re-purposed. It's also a short story lengthened out, and it shows... at least a 1/4 of the book is spent stating, re-stating, and re-restating, how hard it'll be to save the day (which happens, of course). Also, the author has a weird impression that comets are made up of lots of tiny bits of stuff, and that they collect more bits as they go... almost like they are roving moons or something. I guess you could sorta interpret the coma like that, but it seems really odd. I'd give the author another shot, but this was not a stellar read.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Oct 27, 2014 11:44:19 GMT -5
The Man In The Maze Robert Silverberg 1969 3rd Printing Cover Illustration: Sketch Pad StudioRichard Muller was chosen to be the sole human contact with a newly discovered alien race inhabiting Beta Hydri IV. After 1 year living amongst them, Muller has returned to earth with his report. But unbeknownst to him he has been changed. He now uncontrollably emits mental emissions that nauseates and pains those who get close to him. The revulsion from human society causes Muller to flee Earth and become a castaway on the uninhabited planet called Lemnos. Lemnos was home to an ancient civilization, long deceased, who built a complex ,multi level maze of death surrounding their city. Fatal traps, vicious wild animals, hallucinogenic zones and more encircle the abandoned city . Many intelligent races have failed to find a way through the maze to gain access to the center safe zone. Except Muller who has lived there for 9 years during his self-imposed exile from Earth. Now Earth needs him back for one more mission Robert Silverberg began in the 50s as a prolific, decent SF author. By the later part of the 60s, Silverberg evolved his work to be more literate and pay more attention to characterization as was the trend amongst the New Wave artists. This novel was amongst the first to begin Silverberg's 2nd phase of his SF career, a career that culminated into being hailed as one of the Grandmasters of SF. It’s a good novel and moves along briskly. It slowly reveals its mysteries as you read along: What is the nature of Muller's sickening effect on people? What is the mission that Earth desperately needs Muller to perform? What was the nature of the civilization who built the death maze of Lemnos? 200 pages of enjoyable SF
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 27, 2014 12:19:02 GMT -5
I found Ian Fleming's you only live twice for a dollar at a Rotary Club fundraiser last weekend. Opening scene: James Bond is playing a game. Black jack? Canasta? Poker? Nope. He's playing rock-paper-scissors.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 27, 2014 23:34:17 GMT -5
That's a great cover... I definitely need to get that one!
Bond playing Paper-Rock-scissors? That's awesome!
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Post by berkley on Oct 27, 2014 23:46:59 GMT -5
I found Ian Fleming's you only live twice for a dollar at a Rotary Club fundraiser last weekend. Opening scene: James Bond is playing a game. Black jack? Canasta? Poker? Nope. He's playing rock-paper-scissors. Which edition? I like the Pan paperback with this cover: Pan put out a series of all the Bond books, all with this style cover (Pan also has a lot of other Bond covers, not as good, so be careful when searching online) . I've managed to find them all over the years, with the sole exception of From Russia with Love.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 28, 2014 5:24:10 GMT -5
This one, published around the time Goldfinger made it to the movies:
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Post by berkley on Oct 28, 2014 21:21:52 GMT -5
I don't usually like book covers that feature a photo from the movie version but that's a good one. Nice, simple design and a well-chosen, soon-to-be (already on its way even then, I suppose) iconic image.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 2, 2014 12:32:29 GMT -5
Eight Keys To Eden (1960) Mark Clifton Ballantine Books 1st Printing Cover Artist Unidentified
Earth has been in the process of colonizing planets for quite a while by now. Cygni IV is an idyllic place, nicknamed Eden , for in many ways it’s a paradise.The weather is temperate without extreme conditions. Fresh water, fruits and nuts are plentiful. Animal life is non-threatening. The pioneers of Earth are disappointed with the lack of challenges and concerned with becoming complacent. As a rule, each month they send a broadcast back to Earth to advise upon their progress. Two years after landing, the broadcasts from the pioneers suddenly cease Understandably Earth is immediately concerned and sends an investigative team to Eden. From orbit, the investigators spy no evidence of the pioneer's village. Finally they see some naked humans running through the forest. They land and disembark. In a blink of an eye, their spaceship disappears along with all their equipment. Their clothes vanish as well. They are soon to discover that no tools of any sort will work any longer on the planet-They can not start a fire by rubbing sticks or flint. They cannot construct shelters using branches and leaves. No fishing poles will hold together. And many of the humans have a feeling they are constantly being watched Their minds begin to be affected as well. It is becoming more and more difficult to keep their concentration on any one subject for long. Many are accepting this return to nature way of living without questions- behaving like a contented herd of cattle. And then there are a few humans who think they are back in the original Garden Of Eden under the watchful eye of God. But Earth will not let their citizens disappear and prepare a large force to get to the bottom of the mystery Mark Clifton (1906-1963) wrote many high quality short stories during the 1950s that I encountered while reading Best Of The Year Anthologies (2 in particular being Starbright and What Have I Done?). He had also won a Hugo award for his 1954 novel They'd Rather Be Right AKA The Forever Machine. Alas he is one of many high quality SF authors who have been relegated into obscurity as the years roll along. This novel supplied an interesting story and much food for thought about the nature of alien intelligence and other forms of life. Recommended if you can find it along with others of this authors output
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 2, 2014 13:07:54 GMT -5
I've just finished Vonda McIntyre's award-winning Dreamsnake, and am quite annoyed at myself for having waited 25 years to do so. I remember having seen it reviewed in Heavy Metal where someone had commented its winning the Hugo award by saying "it's a delightful fantasy and it's fine if you like delightful fantasies" or words to that effect. The jacket blurb I had seen from time to time described a story where the central character had some bond to a snake that she used to cure people, and that the loss of the critter had devastated her. Not really wanting to read about someone moping for pages and pages about the loss of anything, I never read the novel until I bought it for one buck last year... and even then, it stayed on the "to read" shelf for way too long.
All this to say that my reservations were undeserved, and that whoever wrote that back-cover blurb did the novel a huge disservice. It's like describing Dune by saying "a young boy's hand is hurt by an old woman and problems ensue".
I will grant that Dreamsnake is light on plot; it is however quite all right as far as character development goes, and it is very impressive in its world building. In fact, I am stumped that in this era of never-ending series and overexploitation of the smallest idea, this book didn't have at least one sequel. Not that it needed one, because the story concludes satisfactorily; but the world created therein is so rich that it would have warranted a much longer exploration! It is all to the writer's credit that she stopped when the story was told, leaving us to dream about all the hints she planted in 300 short pages.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 2, 2014 23:58:23 GMT -5
I've never heard of Mark Clifton... sounds interesting though. I don't think I've read any Vonda McIntyre other than maybe a Star Wars novel... I LIKE big over-exploited series most of the time, though For instance: 1635: The Dreeson Incident by Eric Flint and Virginia DeMarce I really loved the 1st couple books of the series (1632 and 1633) but since it's become a franchise with different writers, things have gone down hill a bit. It's simply too ambitious as far as big ideas and plot goes, and still tries to have good characters and character moments. While it succeeds to an extent, it suffers some from the 'closed room' problem... Grantville seems to have an infinite amount of people and resources that keep popping up when they weren't mentioned before. I suspect that gets worse, since there are several '1636' novels now. That, and the fact that it's just a little bit boring... 600 ish pages for basically 1 event is a bit much. Then there's the beating over ones head with what the author thinks are 'West Virginia morals'.. it's a bit tedious overall. I'm at the point in this series where I think I just want the cliff notes... though perhaps if I find the net one for $1 (as I did this one) I'd pick it up.
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Post by Calamas on Nov 3, 2014 22:07:35 GMT -5
Lots of reading time today... back to Dick Francis with Whip Hand one of the books with his (AFAIK) only recurring character, Sid Malley. It seemed a little TOO much was piled on the good guys in this one, but a fun read with a surprising (to me) twist at the end that made total sense. Whip Hand--along with the book that immediately follows, Reflex--is among my favorites by Dick Francis. In fairness, though, most do not seem to share my high regard for Reflex. Unfortunately, Twice Shy came next, easily his worst novel, and several lean years followed. Also, yes, a Francis protagonist is going to endure pains, sometimes extremely. Mileage varies. Dick Francis did Sid Halley four times, and since Francis’ death I have heard that his son, who co-wrote some of the final efforts, has brought Halley back. Francis featured only one other character twice, Kit Fielding. I don’t remember them as particularly successful novels.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Nov 5, 2014 21:57:24 GMT -5
Enchanted Pilgrimage Clifford D. Simak 1975 (Berkeley) I picked this one up in Long Beach last week... it's my first novel of outside Way StationThe cover depicts an actual scene from the book, more or less, though it's not the way I pictured it. The back of the book calls this 'a Journey back to the Present', but, really, there's no such journey. This is a pretty vanilla 'dungeon crawl' story, that could easily be someone's RPG game. The characters gather, the roles are their, there's a maiden in distress the hero saves, etc. The 'hook', if there is one, ties (a bit) into the 'real world' but it really doesn't get explored much, and really the story is better if you don't think about it much. For all that, it is a good dungeon crawl book, with fun characters a good mix of hardship and magical Deux Machina, and downtime for character moments. It's a decent read if you're in the mood for light fantasy fare, just don't expect anything past that.
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 5, 2014 22:03:53 GMT -5
Interesting. I wouldn't think Simak wrote a fantasy novel. And since I'm generally averse to that genre I probably wouldn't buy a book with "Enchanted" in the title
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