Reading in December 2007

Hobbit

Hobbit

Cat Wrangler and Reader
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Jul 16, 2001
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This is where you tell us what you're reading in SF this month. Good or bad, please let us know what you thought.

Again, a little reminder: the rules on links in posts changed a couple of months ago at SFFWorld. Please READ HERE before you use inappropriate links. Thank you.

Over to the Book Clubs....

The SF Book Club discussion is on Foundation by Isaac Asimov. A classic of the genre.

This month's Fantasy Book Club discussion is on Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire.

Join in if you can!

As the last monthly reading post of 2007, may I, on behalf of SFFWorld, thank all participants for their involvement over the past year. These threads have shown it's been a pretty good year for the genre, and looks as if 2008 could be even stronger!

Compliments of the season to all: have a good one.

Ho - ho Hobbit
 
2061: Odyssey Three

My thoughts on it (spoilers):

First off, for me, 2061 felt more like an aside to the Odyssey series than the third book. The trip to Halley's comet and the rescue mission/exploration to Europa were well written and made for some good sci-fi moments, especially the descriptions of the EVA's on the comet. Although I was a little disappointed that nothing new was learned about David Bowman, and that only a tiny bit of new information was given on the monoliths, I enjoyed it quite a bit. One thing I really wanted to see after 2010 was a some more information on Europa, and in regards to that, 2061 didn't disappoint at all.

I think what intrigued me the most was Clarke's speculation on space being a means to a more unified world. He talked about space being able to take the "moral place" of war, countries expending their excess energies on space endeavors instead of fighting one another and how a threat from space might be one of the only ways to get he human race to unify. I've been thinking about that myself lately and was surprised to see my thoughts mirrored almost exactly in the book.

That and the idea of gas giants having a massive diamond as a core was some pretty neat stuff.

All in all, 2061 was worth it for me, a lot of people seem to think the book wasn't worth the read; but I enjoy Clarke's writing style and am happy to add this book to my collection.

My thoughts on 2061 Non-spoiler edition:

If you enjoyed 2001 and 2010 chances are you will enjoy 2061. A lot less happens in 2061, and it's not quite as fast paced as the previous books, but I felt that it added a lot of information about key places/events, specifically Europa that made it a worthwhile read. There is also some interesting thoughts on world politics thrown in there, specifically how space could be a medium for human unification. It read and felt like Clarke, so I loved it.

Will be reading Clarke's The Sentinel at some point this month, a short story that ties into the Odyssey series.

and Foundation of course.

too bad it's such a busy time, being the end of a semester and a holiday season.
 
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As a Clarke fan, I enjoyed 2061 when I read it (20 years ago - OMG!). It was meant to be about events on Europa, but in the end led to it being more about the return of Halley's comet. For me, it was a good read, though not Clarke's best. Lot's of Clarke's usual themes, and quite uplifting. But if you like Clarke, a good read. :)

too bad it's such a busy time, being the end of a semester and a holiday season.
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At least Foundation is short. :) Don't forget though, you can always add to a BOTM discussion later if you don't get to it during the actual month.

Hobbit
 
Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

  • Originally published as Here Gather the Stars in two parts in Galaxy Magazine in June and August of 1963.
  • Won the 1964 Hugo Award for Best Novel.

Enoch Wallace, an American Civil War veteran, is chosen by an alien called Ulysses to administer a way station for interplanetary travel. Wallace is the only human being who knows of the existence of these aliens, until almost a hundred years later, when the US government becomes aware of and suspicious about his failure to age or die. At the same time, a powerful artifact sacred to the aliens for whom Wallace works is stolen, and Wallace becomes convinced that the Earth is about to be consumed by a nuclear war.
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Slow moving plot so far, but apparently, it's all supposed to pay off in the end.

I finished Vacuum Diagrams yesterday. As soon as I finish Way Station, I'm going to try to make it through Flux so I can get to Ring. I'm not interested in Flux for some reason. Probably because I know that something better is in the future of the Xeelee Saga. :)
 
I've finished the 3 collections put out by John Varley, but have been unable to "post reply" until now. What gives?
 
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I've finished the 3 collections put out by John Varley
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So what are they,TD? I've got one -I haven't read it yet but I want to see if it's one you just read and what you thought...
 
Just started Rainbows End by Vinge. I've only read his two previous Hugo winners (novels) so this one seems to me a departure from what I have read before of his. It is early yet though so who knows.
 
"The Great Goodbye" (2000) - Robert Charles Wilson
Nothing exciting about this one. Too short to really accomplish anything. 2/5

Things I'd previously read by Wilson: the novel Darwinia. Pretty decent novel. Had a sub par third act though.

"Itsy Bitsy Spider" (1995) - James Patrick Kelly
Another story I chose at random that dealt with a replacement for a family member (read "Past Magic" by Ian R. MacLeod)
4/5

"Think Like a Dinosaur" (1997) - James Patrick Kelly
Another story about teleporting to another world and having your former body die. Pretty scary stuff, if you ask me. Highly enjoyable. It is definitely one of my favorites now. There is an Outer Limits episode with the same name based on this that I need to find.

Hugo winner, Nebula nominee

Things I'd previously read by Kelly:

"The Wreck of the Godspeed" - a fantastic novella collected in the anthology Between Worlds. It is also going to be the centerpiece in a new short story collection of his that hits the shelves shortly after the new year.
 
ArthurFrayn: For some reason, I was unable to post replies on this site; I kept getting an error message about the server. His 3 collections are The Persistence of Vision, The Barbie Murders (aka Picnic on Nearside), and Blue Champagne. I'll be posting my thoughts on The Barbie Murders later today.
 
Well, I don't know what the problem is. I try and paste my review here, and I get the following message:

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /forums/newreply.php on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.37 Server at www.sffworld.com Port 80
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What gives, I wonder?
 
Maybe it's a browser problem. Switch to a different browser. Every now and again I can't even get on this forum in a given browser and have to switch to another and there's no prob with that one.
 
Yeah, but I don't have a problem logging on or posting short messages; it's the longer reviews that are creating problems. I'll let you know. Incidentally, all three Varley collections get a (10 out of10) from me. Outstanding, every one!
 
Huh.Wonder what's going on...

Anyway,glad to hear Persistence of Vision is worth the trouble- I'm going to try to get to it early in the coming year...
 
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Wasn't sure where to put this one so here goes...

Just finished reading 'Inside Straight', the new 'Wild Cards' collection from George RR. Martin (and assorted other authors). Superheroes in Reality TV and saving the world at the same time! I'd never read any of these books before but found this one really easy to get into and hard to put down once I'd started. A book that had me guessing all the way through and thinking about it long after I'd finished, great stuff.
I started reading 'The Charon Covenant' (Brenda Munday Gifford) but gave up in the face of a dull read and some really bad typos ('no' and 'know' do not mean the same thing!) so I reckon it's back to 'A Sword from Red Ice'...
 
The Barbie Murders, John Varley, Berkley Sep. 1980 (c, pb) / Picnic on Nearside, Berkley Aug. 1984 (c, pb) (10 out of 10)

Hot damn, I had forgotten what a wonderful writer John Varley is! A veritable explosion of great short pieces from 1974 to 1986, unmatched, to my mind, in the history of the genre… Then, the poor bastard gets sucked into the Hollywood Machine to convert his terrific story "Air Raid" into a monstrously bad movie, Millennium, and "only am escaped alone to tell thee." Thank God he returned to us, to give us his masterpiece, Steel Beach (“I’ve been saying for years that John Varley is the best writer in America. This book proves it.” – Tom Clancy), and a chain of other solid novels in the past ten years or so!

For those who are new to the science fiction of John Varley, most of it takes place within his [*Eight Worlds] universe:

In the near-future, aliens descend on the planet Earth and take it over, "xeno"-forming it into a world more to their liking. The surviving humans in the rest of the Solar System have no luck in reclaiming the Home Planet, so they do the next-best thing: they begin the task of turning the other eight planets into outposts for humanity. Pluto has been turned into an amusement park of sorts ("Good-bye, Robinson Crusoe"); competing ideologies are at war to determine what color the Rings of Saturn should be painted (or not) ("Equinoctial"); while most of humanity lives underground on Luna and delves into such hedonistic pursuits as quick-and-easy sex Change operations ("Beatnik Bayou," "Picnic on Nearside," etc.) and virtual reality sims (“The Funhouse Effect”). And then there’s that alien transmission from the stars called the Ophiuchi Hotline…

Re-reading most of these stories reminded me of what a strong, challenging brew Varley was dispensing back then; they make most of what's published now seem tame. Children being instructed in the sexual arts at a very young age, the Change warping all relationships out of true, the near-extinction of monogamy. Not to mention the explicitness of his writing: the man-on-man stuff from "Beatnik Bayou" was tough to get through….even for moi, who thinks Dhalgren is the best genre novel ever.

And I still don't know how much to penalize Varley for the sparseness of true love and affection within these stories; lots and lots of sexual calisthenics, but almost no lovemaking to speak of. So if you’re looking for romance, you might want to skip Varley’s work. But he sure is one hell of a storyteller. I tend to get very irritated by those writers who I find to be ponderous: heavy-handed, overly descriptive, one sentence just cannot smoothly lead into the next to save its life. John Varley has none of those problems.

I have tried and tried to add in the bibliography of these stories, but something keeps blocking me. I'll try again tomorrow.
 
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Close to being finished with Engines of God by Jack McDevitt. I'm thoroughly enjoying it so far. I can't decide what to read next. It's a real toss up.
 
Started on Fallen Dragon by Peter F. Hamilton. I'd heard someone comment that he could be outstripped by other sci-fi authors in individual fields, but that he was considered the best all-rounder. Having read the beginning pages I am immediately under the same impression. This is the first Hamilton book I've read. A lot of my past SF reading has come from the Masterworks collection, so this kind of contemporary SF should be quite refreshing. Ken Macleod is really the only other modern author I've read in the field, but his books can be overly weighty with politics. I think I will enjoy Hamilton. :)
 
Just finished reading 'Martin Martin's on the Other Side' (Mark Wernham); a near future tale of dystopian government, superspies and a long dead TV psychic. It's a convoluted tale that didn't make a great deal of sense at times, possibly due to the author preferring to make various statements about government instead. Funnily enough though, it's good fun to read once you get a few pages into it. Maybe it would make more sense after a re-read.
'A Sword from Red Ice' is starting to seriously starting to grind me down now. The story is good but the pace is glacial and certain characters are starting to make me bother why I'm reading their chapters... I'm just over halfway through and am wondering if I'll finish before Christmas... Because of this (and because of 'space issues' on the train) I've started reading Michael Moorcock's 'The Metatemporal Detective'.
 
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