Science Fiction Reading in July 2017

Not far off finishing Here Comes Earth: Destiny by William Lee Gordon, the second in this series. Again, okay with some neat ideas, just lacking on the execution.

Also working through A Forest of Stars by Kevin J Anderson. It's definitely helping me by reading these back to back, and I'm enjoying it. There are minor issues with some bits, but I'm enjoying the story. Also realised why I put off reading this series for so long: it's daunting when stacked!
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I picked up a Barrington Bayley title I've had in the tbr pile for years now, The Fall of Chronopolis. So far it's completely ludicrous but in an enjoyable way. Case in point: the captain of one of the story's 'time ships' is told that a covert religious sect onboard his ship is 'notoriously good at keeping their presence secret', even though he had just overheard them chanting in a cupboard as he walked past :D However, I think I could forgive Bayley almost anything as his ideas are always so grand.
 
He's one of the 1960's now nearly forgotten New Wavers, isn't he? I know we've got some fans around here, though. (I'm going to suggest Arthur Frayn, but I could be wrong...)

M.
 
I'm not really sure if he was considered a New Waver as his style was quite pulpy even if his ideas were some of the most hair raising around. Arthur and I are both big fans - Soul of a Robot and the sequel The Rod of Light are two of my absolute favourite SF books!
 
Ropie said:
I'm not really sure if he was considered a New Waver as his style was quite pulpy even if his ideas were some of the most hair raising around.
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I seem to remember him being advocated by Michael Moorcock and published under his jurisdiction at New Worlds in the 60's, which is what made me think that.
 
I've taken a break from my re-read of The Stand, as one of my library holds came in - The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neil Stephenson and Nicole Galland.

I've started a couple of Neil Stephenson novels but couldn't get going with them; too much info dumping from the start. D.O.D.O. is different so far - a real page turner with an interesting premise to do with time travel, magic and science, and there's a nice mix of techno info and story & characters (maybe due to the co-author? not sure). Anyway, so far so good.
 
Finished one author's entire oeuvre of novels in one go and read a couple of short stories in between.

Novel: Norstrilia. Cordwainer Smith's (pen name of Paul Linebarger) only novel, in which two earlier short novels have been combined (The Planet Buyer and The Underpeople). My complaint about the print quality aside (I'm looking at you, Gollancz) -- it's quite amazing how much thought through imaginative stuff Smith throws at his reader in so few pages. Not easy to describe, you have to experience it yourself. Well recommended.

Short story: The Barbarians, by Algis Budrys. Very entertaining; I was mightily annoyed when the short story indeed turned out to be very short. Would have loved more of it.

Short story: Citadel, also by Budrys. Quality stuff, thought provoking (although a bit depressing as well..).

Short story: One-shot, by James Blish. Mwah. Not terrible, but not very good either.
 
I keep a list-- I finished reading twenty SFF short stories in July so far.

Short Stories:
My favorite so far is “All that Robot s**t” by Rich Larson (Asimov’s). (Came out much earlier than July.) Straightforward language, but incredibly beautiful. Also, I liked being placed into that setting of the robot village, seems quaint. I'm biased though-- I'm a big sucker for good robot stories!

I just finished reading "Forever Bound" by Joe Haldeman (Clarkesworld, July), an interesting ride where I'm not entirely sure if he's talking about binding humans together (like a more intimate three-legged race) for fighting or if it's really about three-somes and sex. Then, I realized it's both, but does veer to this sensual/sexual/intimate experience.

I read "Qibla" by Aaron Matthew Walter Knuckey (Daily Science Fiction, June) and it's quite good as flash-fiction, for when you're too pinched on time to commit to a longer short story/novel. I like the imagery of concentric circles of people in outer space, all facing one direction.

Novels:
Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, which could be renamed as Much Ado About Bollides... I jest, but it's kind of true. I like the first 'novel' (of that duology disguised as one novel). A little heavy on the engineering, but some of it was pretty enlightening. The description and premise of the moon blowing is pretty cool. A deadpan, hit-you-in-the-groin first sentence. I also especially enjoyed the Neil deGrasse Tyson character, but also some of the others, too. I don't want to spoil it, but there's a bit of a shocker a half or three-quarters into it, which most people might know already. It really traumatized me. Clever palindrome title.

Currently reading:
Divergent by Veronica Roth, YA novel. The language and pacing is quite good, actually.

Picked up:
Cinder by Marissa Meyer, YA novel, sci-fi retelling of Cinderlla. But, didn't get far into it yet, so can't really comment on it.
 
chitman13 said:
Not far off finishing Here Comes Earth: Destiny by William Lee Gordon, the second in this series. Again, okay with some neat ideas, just lacking on the execution.

Also working through A Forest of Stars by Kevin J Anderson. It's definitely helping me by reading these back to back, and I'm enjoying it. There are minor issues with some bits, but I'm enjoying the story. Also realised why I put off reading this series for so long: it's daunting when stacked!
CddJIjKW4AAlS58.jpg
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Wow that's quite a stack!! Hope there aren't any earthquakes over there!
 
My TBR stack is only 4 high at the moment, all of which I got from recommendations given here. Finally started one, 'Wool' by Hugh Howey. I'm not very far into it, second chapter I guess. I am intrigued so far, lots of book to go. I've not been reading as much as might be expected for a 6 night shift a week job with spare time. I am doing some writing though as Hugh Howey's tale of how he got started has given me some encouragement to keep at it.
 
Finished Here Comes Earth: Destiny and the finale, Here Comes Earth: Diaspora by William Lee Gordon. I think the whole trilogy can be summed up by saying that there are some cool ideas, but it's generally lacking on execution.
 
Finished Upon This Rock: Book 1 First Contact by D. Marusek and it was one the best books of the year and quite a big surprise; below the blurb and my Goodreads review

Blurb: An epic new science fiction series about family, faith, and alien invasion in the wilds of Alaska

When a shooting star plunges through the atmosphere and touches down in the Alaska wilderness, only two earthlings are around to witness the event. But they see two utterly different things. What park ranger Jace Kuliak sees is a UFO and the arrival of a dangerous alien species from beyond the solar system. What Poppy Prophecy sees is the star called Wormwood, as recorded in Scripture, and the arrival of a an archangel of the Apocalypse.

The thing is — they’re both sorta right.

Poppy Prophecy is the despotic patriarch of a large End-Times prepper family that is busily converting a depleted copper mine into its own private doomsday bunker. Their copper mine is a century-old relic from territorial days when East Coast robber barons ruled Alaska and plundered its mineral wealth. Today the abandoned mine sits in the middle of the largest, wildest, most majestic national park in the United States. But Poppy isn’t impressed by mere natural beauty, and he doesn’t mind bulldozing federal land when it suits his purposes.

Backcountry Ranger Jace Kuliak does mind, and he and fellow rangers confront the fundamentalist family in an armed standoff over the construction of an illegal airstrip. It doesn’t help matters when Ranger Kuliak falls hopelessly in love with Poppy’s second daughter, the lovely, innocent, and totally clueless Deuteronomy.

An uneasy truce between the Prophecys and the park service is shattered when the falling star lands in their back yard and is claimed by both sides. What is it? Who is it? Better yet, of all the pit stops on all the planets in all the galaxies, why did the Visitor choose this particular rock to screw with

I saw this novel absolutely by accident and the blurb above didn't seem that interesting (another alien probe with nefarious intentions...) but the author (whose earlier future books were of the extremely interesting but difficult prose kind and always on the "try again"maybe this time they will really work for me list) was on my "always check his new books" list so i looked at the amazon excerpt and i just got hooked on the writing and characters and the novel delivered in spades

wouldn't want to spoil too much as it really pays to read the novel and get acquainted with the crazy cast of characters from the Alaskan wilderness (including a cameo of the state's famous governor and vice presidential candidate) so i will note a few things:

- descriptions of nature and the feel of the Alaskan challenge are vivid and show the author is a resident there

- irony abounds

- the story is not quite linear as there are past interludes, but most of the background is separated in a few short story like notes within the last 60-70 or so pages at the end of the novel proper which are referred during the text and can be read then or at the end

some of the things one learns about in the novel are how to make love on a glacier, how to use the Alaska state equalization fund to buy an old copper mine in a national park (here it helps to have 16 children of course), how not to enforce the rule against annoying pets in national parks, how to drive an old school bus over a glacier, what kind of materials were the old testament trumpets made out, what is the current gender and sexual orientation of angels as opposed to biblical times (angels have to adapt to modernity too!) and so on...

- while a first volume and obviously with things just getting started, there is some closure and the action promises only to heat up (so to speak) in the next volume

Highly recommended and a top 10 book of the year for me
 
Gemina by Kaufman and Kristoff. Loving it! I didn't read it for a while thinking it wouldn't be as good as Illuminae because sequels never are, but I suspect it's even better. It feels like the publishers have given them more room to play this time. It's oodles of fun. And the constant varying of the textures of delivery of information, keep me refocussing, keep me interested. The patchwork story building method is something I like. It makes the reader feel part of the process. The personal intercepts are so funny, and it has scary creatures! Gotta have scary creatures.
 
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Very quickly finished Bayley's The Fall of Chronopolis the other day.

Classic Bayley - heroically invincible main male character, all sorts of odd phenomena and systems explained in some detail, and the odd mind-blowing concept thrown in for good measure. Bayley creates a scientifically and theologically detailed universe, a bit like our own but with a strict and overarching method of time travel, that was gifted by god at some point in the past.

That's the good bit. The bad bits include the tedious warring that goes on between two distinct factions, separated by a gulf of (politically) inaccessible time between 2 'nodes' on the 'wave' of time. The emperors, princes, captains and commanders are all very Star Trek-ian but fall badly short on character depth, and therefore their endless battles were of only limited interest to me. Presentation is decidedly pulpy, but although Bayley is not Jack Vance, his use of language is not dull.

And Bayley is cruel to his characters, very cruel, especially the few women who are raped many times (brushed off with a line or two about rituals) or treated as victims in other ways. As for the fighting warriors: anyone falling into the 'strat' (the endless sea of unfettered time itself) has an eternity of madness to look forward to instead of a noble death. And if you are lucky enough to avoid the strat, everyone is on an infinite loop of repeating lifetimes - and knows it - with only minor changes to the system each time they die!

It all adds up to a rather woeful bag of pleasure and pain, but I did sort of enjoy it. Nowhere near as good as the four other books I've read by him but it's an earlier one. 2/5
 
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Hobbit said:
Here's where you tell us about what you've been reading in Science Fiction this month. Good or bad, we want to know what you think.

Mark
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Aside from the usual (August 1962 science fiction magazines; Jack Vance's The Dragon Masters was very good, and eerily similar to another dragon-starring series....) I am reading More Soviet Science Fiction, with an introduction by Isaac Asimov. I am enjoying it, though I am not quite sure how much of that is attributable to the material, itself. I'll be reviewing it soon.
 
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