Science Fiction Reading in December 2016

[PNBurrows]

As of the time of this posting, it isn't available yet on Google play, Tanya.

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=Mineran Influence&c=books

Keep trying.

Hi Contrarius,

I have created an account on SFF to reply to your accusations against me.

The crux of your argument with my daughter is that she could not have read the book at the time of posting on the forum. Mineran Influence was RE-launched in December, and it was previously available on several ebook websites as it was published via Matador / Troubador. I have previously pointed this out to you in a private GR message which you seem to have ignored (the GR message posted below for members of this forum to read).

Google Cache of the historic page showing Mineran Influence on Google Play

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...ws_Mineran_Influence?id=nORgCwAAQBAJ&hl=en_GB

The archived page on NetGalley (13 Jan 2016)
https://s2.netgalley.com/catalog/book/81501

Mineran Influence on the Troubador / Matador went site:
http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=3829

You accused me of using Tanya's account as a sock puppet. If this were the case, I would have informed you of the above when the argument between you two started, and we would not be having this debate now. I certainly had not spent £1,300 with Matador for publication and marketing only to go and post offending articles.

So, Yes, my daughter did purchase a copy of my book. No, I did not ask her to promote my book here or anywhere else, and I was not aware of this thread.

The saddest part of this whole debacle is that you took your rage across to GoodReads. By attacking me there, you have broken the GoodReads T&C's. How is that any better than what you accused Tanya of doing here?

I have tried twice, to enter into meaningful dialogue with you Contrarius to resolve this situation and yet to continue to bully me.

In reply to few of your cutting remakes on GR,

A pinkie is the little finger on either hand. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/little+pinkie

Musicians sing in the correct tempo all the time, otherwise, they would not be very good musicians. But, maybe using the word 'precisely' was over doing it a little.

I have fired many weapons in my youth and I was enlisted in the Territorial Army. Leaving a weapons magazine full for long periods will cause a miss fire as the spring loses tension. This was not me showing off my research; it is one of my pet hates in TV shows.

The word columella is becoming a common word in the UK due to the trend nose piercings and the fact that the UK press likes to remind the public about particular coke snorting celebs that have problems with that part of their nose.
https://elementsofmorphology.nih.gov/anatomy-nose.shtml

http://www.face-online.org.uk/resources/factsheets/discovering/horticulture_intro.pdf

Prognosis / Diagnosis Point taken. I was wrong

'The distinction between horticulture and arable farming is not always clear;
generally horticulture involves cultivation on a small scale, often with a degree
of protection to the growing crop. ' quote taken from

http://www.face-online.org.uk/resources/factsheets/discovering/horticulture_intro.pdf

In my youth, I worked on horticultural, arable and dairy farms, as did most youths living in rural Wales.


I do believe your review was written in anger, and that is a shame as you have a built a position for yourself on GR, with that position, comes a responsibility to be impartial.

Contrarius, this is my third time to open a dialogue with you to settle this matter, ask your questions and let me give you the answers. I am sorry my daughter acted irresponsibly, as she is not the sharpest knife in the drawer she did not defend herself in an efficient manner.

Kind regards
Phil Burrows



______________________
HI Contrarius,

I am sorry that things between us have become fraught and must confess that I do feel that you are being a little unreasonable. I understand your anger at certain authors who break the rules, in this case, I am innocent, although I know I will never really convince you of this.

Your argument is with my daughter; she bought the via Google play as she mentioned. Matador published my debut novel as an ebook in Jan 2016 http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=3829

My daughter means well, but having dropped out of education and followed a path of ***redacted*** (which every parent fears), she has limited capabilities and dreadful vocabulary. The amount of swearing she performs on Facebook means she is the last person that I would want to be associated with my marketing; Please do not misunderstand I do love her, but from a distance. Please look at her FB page and consider, why I would use that as a persona for a 'Sock Puppet' as you put it, that would not make sense, her spelling is atrocious, her attitude abysmal.

She has the mistaken belief, that as I now have the book in paperback format, that I will become rich. This is why she started to promote it; she wants money. You will know yourself that a book is a labour of love, most authors will be lucky if they earn enough in royalties to cover the initial costs back.

I am being honest with you, and I confess that I have asked GoodReads to look at your last review, You made some valid points, but I hope you can admit to yourself it was written in anger. I have also asked the SFF Forum to remove any posts that mention me personally. I know you do not believe me, but I still have to defend myself. I do pay for adverts on Facebook; Matador put the book on Goodreads (Paid for), and I am arranging for a publicist. Spamming is not my intention.

Contrarius, Mineran Influence is my first book, it is not going to be perfect, it's an average read. I must admit I perked up a little when my proofreader ordered a copy for her daughter. As a proofreader, she reads a lot of books, so I took that as a compliment. My writing will change over time, as it has changed over the last twelve months. Hopefully one day I will become good enough to please someone thorough as you.

You are only one person, and eventually, your reviews will be buried amongst the others, so I should not be as bothered by this as I am. A fair, bad review is part of the course, but to be blamed for something I didn't do...

I hope you can read this message without anger; the topic clearly irritates you, and it has clouded our interactions.

I wish you well.

Phil Burrows
----------------------------------------
End of GR message sent to Contrarius

 

[Hobbit]

Thank you for clearing this matter up, Phil. On behalf of SFFWorld, I'm considering the matter closed. Any further response on this, from anyone, will be removed, but this has been left (for now) to allow you to clarify your position.

The owner is aware of the situation and has been asked to consider further action at SFFWorld.

 

[BigPooh5]

I haven't read a word for five weeks now, due to a period of hospitalisation and recuperation involving seemingly over-strong drugs that turned my brain to mush. I feel like I'm almost back to normal now though, or 'as I used to be', delete as appropriate.
During my 'mush' period, a title somehow got lodged in my mind; 'The Lion of Comarre' by Arthur C. Clarke. I remember buying the book, back in 1979, from a second-hand bookshop in Exeter, Devon, where I was at university. It was a double header, along with 'Against the Fall of Night', and although I remember the ATFON story quite well, about the TLOC story I remember nothing. Not an inkling. Nix, nada, zip.
Now I have to read it again. I've resisted the temptation to Google it. A friend has kindly tracked down a '.txt' version on the net, and it's now loaded on the e-reader ready to go.
Here goes, wish me luck ....

 

[Hobbit]

Ooh, pleased to see you back and hopefully better, BP5. I've got a copy of the Lion of Comarre (somewhere.)

I originally read it as a Gollancz yellow jacketed hardback from my local library,

but then had a paperback Corgi edition:

Sadly, I don't remember it as exciting as that cover. I enjoyed Against the Fall of Night much more.

 

[Contrarius]

I haven't read a word for five weeks now, due to a period of hospitalisation and recuperation involving seemingly over-strong drugs that turned my brain to mush.

Glad you're feeling better!

I have GOT to start catching up on my sff review backlog before I forget what I read! The latest sf reading that I haven't reviewed yet was The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Unfortunately, unlike so many folks here, I didn't love it. It was okay, but I never especially cared. I liked the characters well enough, but the story mostly seemed bland and obvious with little subtlety. It may have been partly the mood I was in at the time, and I'll be willing to read the next book, but I didn't really get all the excitement. Three stars from me.

 

[Hobbit]

Finished Empire Games by Charles/Charlie Stross. It's good (spies, time-lines, alternate histories), but as it is set to continue after a series of other novels (Merchant Traders series) and has no resolution (another two books to follow) it's not as satisfactory as I had hoped.

Now on with The Massacre of Mankind, Stephen Baxter's authorised sequel to The War of the Worlds. Life could be worse...

 

[Windshadow]

Now on with The Massacre of Mankind, Stephen Baxter's authorised sequel to The War of the Worlds. Life could be worse...

i just finished Baxter's sequel to The Time Machine, The Time Ships. and I was surprised at how well he captured the feeling of the writing of Wells early 20th century style. I will look forward to your review.

 

[Westy]

I will look forward to your review.

Same; that one's on my to read list early next year.

 

[mylinar]

i just finished Baxter's sequel to The Time Machine, The Time Ships. and I was surprised at how well he captured the feeling of the writing of Wells early 20th century style. I will look forward to your review.

I didn't particularly care for 'The Time Ships', it was not bad but I do agree he did OK capturing Wells' style/feel. I am not sure why the book didn't catch me. I thought it could have been half as long for example (not at all like Wells' style). I will probably reread it some day because as we all know a good book but the wrong time can lead to mistaken impressions.

 

[Windshadow]

Well The Time Ships is not a page turner thats for sure. It was easy to put it down after a chapter or two and to let it sit for a day or even a week before picking it up again. And part of that is due to that early 20th century style. I found had a story I wanted to see the end of. For points out of ten I give it 6 or 7 which is good enough to consider the next of his Wellsian attempts.
I have found Baxter an author that I blow hot and cold on. For example his Collaboration with the late Sir Terry Pratchett on the The Long Earth series... I loved the first one and liked the next but the change in tone in the later books (where I expect Pratchett's contribution became smaller and smaller) meant that I never got past the first 100 pages in 4, and 5 when they came out... but i recently picked up The Long Cosmos: A Novel (Long Earth) from the beginning and end it with out any expectations of the Pratchett wit. The result was that on its own merits I found it to be very good. A solid 7 or 8 out of 10. enough to send me back to #3 and #4 in this series and puts them back in the to be read pile.

 

[mylinar]

Well The Time Ships is not a page turner thats for sure. It was easy to put it down after a chapter or two and to let it sit for a day or even a week before picking it up again. And part of that is due to that early 20th century style. I found had a story I wanted to see the end of. For points out of ten I give it 6 or 7 which is good enough to consider the next of his Wellsian attempts.
I have found Baxter an author that I blow hot and cold on. For example his Collaboration with the late Sir Terry Pratchett on the The Long Earth series... I loved the first one and liked the next but the change in tone in the later books (where I expect Pratchett's contribution became smaller and smaller) meant that I never got past the first 100 pages in 4, and 5 when they came out... but i recently picked up The Long Cosmos: A Novel (Long Earth) from the beginning and end it with out any expectations of the Pratchett wit. The result was that on its own merits I found it to be very good. A solid 7 or 8 out of 10. enough to send me back to #3 and #4 in this series and puts them back in the to be read pile.

I've had the same experience with the Long series. I just read the first one over again and it was still a good read. I didn't immediately pick up the next one however. For some reason I thought I'd already read the finale but just checking Amazon I realize that is not true. Perhaps I saw the hardback in the store, examined it and put it back. I like to keep my series of the same variety/format. Did the same with 'Babylon's Ashes' since all my other Expanse books are the large paperbacks though I sorely want to read it.

 

[chitman13]

I finished Creation Machine by Andrew Bannister. I'm not entirely sure about it - it's good, but missing something for me. I'll likely check out the sequel to see where things go.

My Christmas present this year was The Orion Plan by Mark Alpert. It's a novel about an alien probe landing in a park in New York (under the guise of a meteorite) and the way it contacts various humans and establishes a foothold by doing so. It's really interesting, well written, and fast paced, and it's never clear just what the goal of the probe's intelligence is until later in the novel. All in all a good find for me and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

I'm almost done with Shadow of Victory by David Weber. Boy, this is a long book. It's also frustrating because it covers the same time period as the other recent Honorverse books, though from different points of view. I understand why Weber has done this, and it is interesting, but I'm getting to the point where I want to see the story move forward.

I've just started Alien Morning by Rick Wilber - and interesting one so far about first contact when aliens arrive on Earth.

 

[Ropie]

I remember buying the book, back in 1979, from a second-hand bookshop in Exeter, Devon, where I was at university.

It wasn't the 'read-and-return' place on Fore Street hill was it? I lived in Exeter for a few years in the early 00's and found a lot of fairly rare titles in there that I never returned. Sadly, it closed down 4 or 5 years ago.

I've been stuck in comic land for the past month. I rarely read them but when I do I tend to stay there for a while. Just finished collected Alpha Flight vol 2. I really love them for John Byrne's depiction of Canada, which seems like the most beautiful place on Earth in a lot of his drawings (I've never been there though, yet!) and the characters are pretty interesting too. I have some Tin Tin to read next I think.

 

[Av Demeisen]

I finished Creation Machine by Andrew Bannister. I'm not entirely sure about it - it's good, but missing something for me. I'll likely check out the sequel to see where things go.

Thinking back on it, one of the things that bothers me about Creation Machine is its lack of originality. This level of appropriation of other writer's ideas is not a good thing in a debut novel. Especially one that is flawed in certain crucial storytelling respects. There is so much Banks, especially Against a Dark Background, in there, it isn't appropriate.

I'm curious about the kind of reviews Bannister's next book will get, but no pre-order.

 

[HighWiredSith]

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis Taylor
Babylon's Ashes by James SA Corey
Star Wars Catalyst by James Luceno
The Ember War by Richard Fox

 

[farseer2]

Now on with The Massacre of Mankind, Stephen Baxter's authorised sequel to The War of the Worlds.

<Philosophical musing mode on>

How can a sequel to a book in the public domain not be authorized? And authorized by whom? It belongs to all humanity...

 

[Hobbit]

Ah: authorised by the family of the person who wrote the original. If the original author was still alive, I guess he would have to authorise it...

 

[ArtNJ]

I'm reading a fun & interesting indie book, https://www.amazon.com/Are-Legion-B...=8-1&keywords=we+are+legion+we+are+bob+book+2. I suggest not reading the back cover and trusting me - and the 482 favorable Amazon reviews - and the fact that it is free if you have kindle unlimited and very cheap if you don't. It has "replicants" (AIs that are made from scans of human brains), cryogenics, Von Neuman probes, space exploration, discovery of an alien race, a bit of space conflict. The science has a sort of Heinlein Door Into Summer feel, with at least a bit more rigor, and obviously more modern concepts, but the same general feel & a good measure of the same kind of charm.

If you must have the plot, go read the blurb on Amazon. Not major spoilers, gives away where the first 20-30 pages go, but I dunno, just think it would be neat to discover as you read.

 

[John William Thiel]

Just Asimov's, if you recall the contents page of the December and January/February issues you'll know what I've read this month. Asimov's is going through a change of life, a form of mutatis mutandis wherein there is a lot of introspection, rites of passage in the stories, summarization of the dismal effects of mankind's errors and somewhat feeble speculations as to solutions there may be. The stories have a lot of existential spirit. I would predict a Renaissance for 2017.