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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 3, 2022 13:40:47 GMT -5
The Two of ThemJoanna Russ, 1978  This is a novel that Russ spun out of a short story by Suzette Haden Elgin, “For the Sake of Grace” (with the latter’s permission; that story, by the way, is included in the anthology I recently reviewed here). The basic story is that two agents for some kind of spacefaring and time-travelling agency or service, Irene and Ernst, visit a planet, possibly an Earth colony, where everybody lives in labyrinthine underground tunnels and chambers and there is a very rigid patriarchal social structure and belief system that either is or is very similar to dogmatic Islam. While visiting a low level official’s house, they meet his young daughter, Zubeydeh, and Irene decides to rescue her by taking her off planet. Many consequences ensue… This is a book that I wanted to like more than I actually liked it, which is something I’ve encountered with several works by Russ that I’d read previously. I can’t say it’s bad or that it’s poorly written – it isn’t. But overall it just left me rather unsatisfied.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 9, 2022 13:01:32 GMT -5
Extra(ordinary) PeopleJoanna Russ, 1984  This is a collection of a novella and four short(ish) stories. The novella, “Souls” and two of the stories, “The Mystery of the Young Gentlemen” and “What Did You Do During the Revolution, Grandma?” appeared in magazines in the early 1980s, while the remaining two, “Bodies” and “Everyday Depressions,” appeared in this book for the first time. For this book, Russ wrote some brief framing pieces that sort of loosely tie them together. “Souls” won the Hugo Award in 1983 and is by far the best story in this book. It’s set in medieval Europe (somewhere in northern Germany) and features a very clever and unusual abbess who attempts to defend her community from a raid by Vikings. It reads like very good historical fiction, but the SF elements are there from the start, subtly at first and then really apparent as it reaches its conclusion. I found the quality of the remaining stories uneven, although I liked “The Mystery of the Young Gentlemen,” about a young girl from Spain traveling on a 19th century clipper to New York with her guardian, officially her uncle, but actually not that and possibly not even a man, and also “Everyday Depressions,” which is told in the form of a series of letters by a writer who’s trying to plot out a Gothic romance novel in which the two protagonists are women.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 10, 2022 12:31:30 GMT -5
Mind Partner and 8 other Novelets from Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold As I work though my pile of old sci fi to read (I think I'm past 1/2 way through now, even considering all the odd bits I've picked up since I bought the big stack), I found I've typically liked the anthologies edited by HL Gold. This one doesn't have a theme, but does have some pretty big names. Nothing jumped out as particularly amazing here, but all of them were decent reads that were worth reading. I think Blacksword was my favorite.. it reminded me of a space version of Catch-22 in tone. I'd definitely read more about that character. A few were good but a bit 'standard' but that might just be because I read too much sci fi  ... like Snuffles, and The Sly Bungerhop, for instance, were both good, but variations on a very much used theme. The one that made me smile the most was 'The Hardest Bargain'.. which I think I might have actually read somewhere before, and is a bit of a new take on the Pied Piper that sneaks up on you.. very clever.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2022 11:06:59 GMT -5
Finished this:  It’s wrong to stereotype anyone. Or is it? It’s certainly wrong to stereotype based on gender, race, sexuality, etc. But can one stereotype a profession? Should we? There’s a stereotype in the UK that second-hand booksellers are grumpy, anti-social, unhelpful, etc. And I regret to say that that has been my experience a LOT. I got thrown out of a bookshop once. I went in, minding my own business as I browsed. Some guy at the counter was asking the bookseller a lot of questions. The bookseller slammed his till shut and said to the man, “I’m closing the shop down!” He then said the same to the rest of us. Great, thrown out of a bookshop for not doing anything wrong. I went to a (nice) bookshop once, and the guy had old shoe boxes with the name of an author written on. I noticed Andy McNab written on one box. So I asked to look at them. I then asked if the shop had any books by Chris Ryan. The seller looked for a box, found some and helped me. Great service. But years later, in another bookstore, I noticed some boxes, with nothing written on them, in a corner. I opened one and saw some Beano comics. The second box contained some Dandy comics. There were at least 10 other boxes, and I was curious about what was inside, so I asked the guy if he knew what was in them. This disinterested owner, who barely looked up from his mobile phone, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know.” Great customer service…not. I’ve politely asked questions in bookshops - and been given the cold shoulder. Believe me, the above is the tip of the iceberg. (Let me add that chain stores like Waterstones are GREAT, nothing is too much trouble for their staff, they are very helpful, e.g. one guy went looking in the basement for a book that was shown as in stock but not on the shelves; Borders also had great customer service) So, what about the book? The bookseller lives up to every stereotype. He really does. Check out Amazon’s reviews, don’t take my word for it. His book, a load of diary entries, features moaning and bitching about customers, including those who might have had difficulty remembering the name of a book. He bitches and moans about people whose houses he has had to visit (who he buys a job lot of books from). He appears to have no passion for books and is dismissive of staff, customers, etc. A stereotype being true? Perhaps? I promise you that the problem is NOT me. I get on very well with staff in Waterstones and WHSmith. I got on well with Borders staff when that store briefly appeared in the UK. I’m even on a first-name basis with Waterstones staff. In a proper chain store, the passion and enthusiasm from staff is infectious. I commend the person who went looking for a book in the basement, or the time I was a bit lost in there - and a staff member appeared out of nowhere, recognised me and asked if they could help me. But I’m sorry, my experience, with ONE exception, of second-hand booksellers has not been good. And that book only reinforces the stereotype. I’m thinking about the chicken and egg scenario. Does the second-hand book industry attract such people? Or do such people decide to become booksellers? I do know that stereotypes are misleading. The one who found the Chris Ryan books for me was a most helpful chap. There WILL BE good/polite second-hand booksellers out there. It’s just that my experience, the anecdotes in that book, and various reviews of bookshops online, is leading me to believe that this is one stereotype that might be 99% true. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 18, 2022 22:40:02 GMT -5
Jade City
by Fonda Lee
I definitely read this thinking there was going to be more of a fantasy slant to it... while Jade is a bit magical.. it could just as well have been a steroid, or a designer drug of some sort and nothing would have changed... really, this is a crime family drama set in an analog of post WWII Japan. It's not totally clear when (probably why the analog) but there are fancy cars, but no computers, so it feels like the 50s.
The beginning of the book is VERY slow, and it takes a fair bit of time to both sort out the ensemble cast and care about them. It definitely picks up quite a bit half way through, and ends up being a real page turner. The world building (even if it is very much an analog world) is still well done, and the characters are quite well developed and three dimensional.
I can see fans of this sort of book really going crazy for it... I'm not super into the whole honorable criminal thing, so in alot of ways it was tough to care what happened for me, but I could certainly see being really invested. I'm definitely not up for the next one right now, but I could see myself reading it down the road.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2022 23:03:42 GMT -5
Jade City by Fonda Lee I definitely read this thinking there was going to be more of a fantasy slant to it... while Jade is a bit magical.. it could just as well have been a steroid, or a designer drug of some sort and nothing would have changed... really, this is a crime family drama set in an analog of post WWII Japan. It's not totally clear when (probably why the analog) but there are fancy cars, but no computers, so it feels like the 50s. The beginning of the book is VERY slow, and it takes a fair bit of time to both sort out the ensemble cast and care about them. It definitely picks up quite a bit half way through, and ends up being a real page turner. The world building (even if it is very much an analog world) is still well done, and the characters are quite well developed and three dimensional. I can see fans of this sort of book really going crazy for it... I'm not super into the whole honorable criminal thing, so in alot of ways it was tough to care what happened for me, but I could certainly see being really invested. I'm definitely not up for the next one right now, but I could see myself reading it down the road. I need to try this again. That slow start coupled with a burnout on modern fantasy led me to a DNF on this book about a year or two back. This book got a lot of hype from folks really into modern fantasy (like Sanderson, and Abercrombie and Lynch for instance) and I had just binged a bunch of their stuff and just needed a change and the start of this one was such a slog for me that I gave up and moved on to other things. -M |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Jul 19, 2022 6:40:36 GMT -5
Mind Partner and 8 other Novelets from Galaxy edited by H.L. Gold As I work though my pile of old sci fi to read (I think I'm past 1/2 way through now, even considering all the odd bits I've picked up since I bought the big stack), I found I've typically liked the anthologies edited by HL Gold. This one doesn't have a theme, but does have some pretty big names. Nothing jumped out as particularly amazing here, but all of them were decent reads that were worth reading. I think Blacksword was my favorite.. it reminded me of a space version of Catch-22 in tone. I'd definitely read more about that character. A few were good but a bit 'standard' but that might just be because I read too much sci fi ... like Snuffles, and The Sly Bungerhop, for instance, were both good, but variations on a very much used theme. The one that made me smile the most was 'The Hardest Bargain'.. which I think I might have actually read somewhere before, and is a bit of a new take on the Pied Piper that sneaks up on you.. very clever. Before H.L.Gold became an editor for Galaxy, he was a writer and I really enjoyed one of his stories in an anthology. I wanted to get a book that collected his short stories and sent away for Mind Partner. Disappointed that it was a various author collection but I recall enjoying the book all the same |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 21, 2022 20:04:52 GMT -5
King of Fools
by Frederic Dard
translated by Louise LaLaurie
I think I came upon this from someone here... seemed an interesting thing to check out. It is very well translated.. not clunky at all, which is nice. The story is about an adding machine salesman named Jean-Marie that has a chance encounter with a British woman, and stuff happens... I lot of (sometimes crazy) stuff. While Jean-Marie falls in and out of love awfully quickly (perhaps a French writer living up to a stereotype? Or just the way he saw people?), but he seems a very real person, and his thoughts and emotions come right off the page to you. The mystery itself is not totally unexpected, but very clever. And it didn't even require a Holmes or a Lupin to solve.. just good, competent police work as it was in 1950s Scotland. I'll definitely see if I can find any of Dard's other books in English.
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Post by berkley on Jul 21, 2022 22:51:43 GMT -5
King of Fools by Frederic Dard translated by Louise LaLaurie I think I came upon this from someone here... seemed an interesting thing to check out. It is very well translated.. not clunky at all, which is nice. The story is about an adding machine salesman named Jean-Marie that has a chance encounter with a British woman, and stuff happens... I lot of (sometimes crazy) stuff. While Jean-Marie falls in and out of love awfully quickly (perhaps a French writer living up to a stereotype? Or just the way he saw people?), but he seems a very real person, and his thoughts and emotions come right off the page to you. The mystery itself is not totally unexpected, but very clever. And it didn't even require a Holmes or a Lupin to solve.. just good, competent police work as it was in 1950s Scotland. I'll definitely see if I can find any of Dard's other books in English. I've read a few of Dard's detective series, San Antonio, and they're good fun: very over the top in a Mickey Spillane kind of way but with much more humour. The only problem for me reading them in French is that there is a lot of word play and with my sometimes shaky grasp of the language, I'm often not sure if a word or phrase I don't recognise is something I can look up or just an invention of Dard's. But they're quite enjoyable all the same so I'm sure I'll read more of the series eventually and more of Dard in general. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2022 8:15:39 GMT -5
If I was a lawyer, I’d find it more satisfying to search through books than use a touchpad:
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 22, 2022 8:23:01 GMT -5
I think those are two different experience with two different purposes. If I am looking for a specific book (like, say something someone posts here that I think sounds good) I want a computer to find it for me. If I don't have anything in mind, I definitely want books on shelves to browse at. I suspect for that PARTICULAR purpose, a lawyer looking for a specific statute or something probably needs the pad |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 22, 2022 9:38:28 GMT -5
If I was a lawyer, I’d find it more satisfying to search through books than use a touchpad: You would not. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 30, 2022 15:18:05 GMT -5
Peace and WarJoe Haldeman, 2006 ( omnibus collecting The Forever War, Forever Free and Forever Peace)  The first installment in the rather hefty tome is The Forever War (originally published in 1974), which has already been reviewed in this thread twice, first by Slam Bradley and then by Confessor – and since Confessor in particular provided a pretty good synopsis of the basic plot, I’ll dispense with my own summary and just provide a few impressions. First, I agree with them both that it’s definitely a top-notch SF novel that is well worth reading. As they both observed, the book is very much a case of Haldeman writing on the basis of and commenting on his tour of duty in Vietnam (where he served as a combat engineer). It’s also influenced by and something of a (very cynical) response to Robert Heinlein’s much more jingoistic Starship Troopers. Haldeman also incorporates some hard SF concepts, like interstellar travel using collapsars, and the psychological impact that has on those who are subject to such travel – esp. their feeling of time displacement every time they visit Earth or other outposts with large civilian populations. As an aside, I have to observe that John Scalzi, in his Old Man’s War series, was influenced by Forever War, although he turned the concept on its head: instead of soldiers living over a thousand years during their tours of duty while remaining physically no older than about 30, there are elderly people recruited into military service (with their minds transferred into bioengineered clones of themselves). Forever Free (originally published in 1999) is a direct sequel to The Forever War, set about 20 or so years after the latter’s end and featuring its two main characters, William Mandella and Marygay Potter. After retiring from the service, they settled on an Earth colony called MF (short for ‘Middle Finger’), where – among others – many former military veterans also live. They have two children, a son and daughter, who are almost adults, but they are unhappy with life and feeling restless. This is mainly due to the fact that most of humanity now consists of clones of perfectly genetically engineered humans, both male and female, who functionally have a shared consciousness and no genuine individuality – in fact, they don’t even have names, they all just refer to themselves as Man. Many of the non-clones, and esp. former service members, find this sort of benignly authoritarian society really hard to deal with. Prompted by William and Marygay, they decide to get several hundred people to fly off in a long unused interstellar ship and then come back in what will to them be the distant future – come what may. After overcoming some resistance from Man, they do indeed set off, but their ship starts having some mysterious, and quite serious, malfunctions, forcing them to abort and head back. But when they return to MF, where about 10 years have passed, they find it entirely deserted. I have to say, this one starts off well enough, and the mystery aspect initially makes it quite compelling, but it all falls apart in the last 2-3 chapters, with several WTF narrative left turns that almost make me think Haldeman had writer’s block and then came up with a solution after watching an episode of TNG featuring Q (hope that doesn’t give too much away). I would frankly recommend skipping this one. Forever Peace (originally published in 1997) is set in a more or less dystopian near future, the early 2040s, in which a war has been raging for decades between the Alliance (basically the US and its main highly-industrialized allies in Europe and Asia) against what we’d now call the global South. The Alliance constantly has the upper hand due to its far better military technology, mainly ‘soldierboys’ – virtually indestructible remote controlled robots. Their operators, called mechanics, are linked to them through electronic devices implanted in their skulls, called ‘jacks’. Those implants also enable the operators to mentally link with each other, basically turning, say, a single platoon into a hive mind. As the story develops, it becomes apparent that this has serious repercussions for them and humanity as a whole – both positive and negative. The main character, Julian Class, is a mechanic, who also works as a physics researcher and lecturer at a university in Texas during his off-duty times. It is here that he and his colleague and lover, a fellow professor named Amelia ‘Blaze’ Harding, become privy to the fact that a gigantic particle accelerator in Jupiter’s orbit may lead to a singularity that could wipe out not only the solar system but possibly the entire universe. And once the news seeps out into a few limited academic and government research circles, it becomes apparent that there is a faction of religious fanatics obsessed with End-Times theology who don’t want to do anything to stop this – and they have members who have infiltrated the highest echelons of the government and military. This one almost reads like an espionage or action thriller, but Haldeman again incorporates quite a few hard SF concepts (the orbiting supercollider, the ‘jacking’ technology and its psychological effects). It can also be read independently of the other books in this ‘series’ as it’s only thematically linked to them – it doesn’t take place in the same ‘universe.’
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Post by wildfire2099 on Jul 30, 2022 19:02:28 GMT -5
The Black Flame
I was happy to grab this on my last alibris order... I definitely haven't read enough of Weinbaum. This is not actually a novel, or course, but two separate novella from the old magazines (based on length, I suspect at least the 2nd was probably a serial).
The first 'Dawn of Flame' pictures a USA being re-united after hundreds of years of barbarism by a group that has rediscovered most modern (for 1938 anyway) tech, including some new tricks, including what are essentially Tasers (nice!)... a 'resonator' that blows up gun powder for miles around, and 'hard radiation' that, in applid just right, makes you immortal. The first story is about a mountain man that discovers this new group, including 'Black Margot', the Princess of the story.
the 2nd story 'The Black Flame' takes place several hundred years, when the world is united, but some people (even though by all accounts it's managed extremely well), resent the rule of the Immortals. Here, the main character is a man of 'current' (1938) times that somehow slept through all this instead of being electrocuted, and gets stuck in the center of a revolution.
Weinbaum has some really interesting views and thoughts about Immortality, and his future vision has the usual fun mix of things that make sense and came true and stuff that is a bit nonsensical. My favorite was his 'atomic bomb' that did no more damage than a bit of plastic explosives.
The 1st story is far better than the 2nd... in the 2nd the plot is such at is quite clear exactly what's going to happen after 5 pages, since nothing else would make any sense, which is never good. THe meldrama between the character was WAY over the top.. worthy of the worst romance novel, and was far too large a chunk of the story. The journey still isn't bad though, not enough to cancel out how fun the 1st one story is.
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jul 31, 2022 5:23:03 GMT -5
Hm, yeah, Weinbaum. Based on the one book of his I've read, The New Adam, I think he was a guy who had some novel but also wonky ways of thinking about SF concepts. For example, in New Adam, he posits the next evolutionary step for humankind, which involves some subtle physical and mental traits, but also stuff that made me think, 'yeah, I don't think so.' And, of course, he also fell into that trap of thinking that its individuals rather than populations that evolve - but then again, lots of SF writers and the wider public in general still misunderstand that concept to this day.
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... like Snuffles, and The Sly Bungerhop, for instance, were both good, but variations on a very much used theme.
