Lucas Parkes

Wonderfully Speculative, But Exceedingly Dry

I decided to take this from Time Out to Did Not Finish because life is too short and I can't see myself getting anything more from this. Not bad, just not fordl me.

As a transfemme, I will be forever amused by the protagonist's name being Troon, which if you aren't trans and/ or chronically online has become a relatively newly minted slur for trans folx, particularly transfemmes, by the particularly virulently hateful Twitter transphobes. I genuinely cracked up when I statted the audiobook.

*Currently on Time Out after reading two of the five stories*

I listened to two of the five linked stories and might come back to the rest at some point, but with so much else to read this is doubtful.

The Cold War, pre-moon landing speculation here is palpable and inspired. I can't imagine just how mind blowing this would have been at the time of publishing. But reading it today, despite the clear quality of the writing and ideas, it's difficult to get over just how dense, drawn out, and dry the writing is.

I generally like to dive into books without reviews, which now I have checked out, and, like so many Audible Included titles from famous authors, it appears that this is a long way from the best and most typical work of this author. This makes it a much better read for a fan or completionist, rather than as an introduction, so I'll be sure to read more of their classics before I return.

Decent performance, if a rather bizarre use of America accent that sounds a bit like Suzy Izzard (stand up comedian) doing an impression of Michael Shannon or Broden Kelly (Aunty Donna) as one of the many Craig Mazins.… (more)

This book contains five short stories, each of which is more or less self contained yet carries the thread of the space faring Troon dynasty through a period of around 200 years. It starts in a (then to be future) 1994 with the building of a British space station (hoorah!), moves onto a (British) Moon base, then Mars, Venus and finally out to the asteroid belt.

The stories are actually well put together, although they are obviously written from the point of view of someone living in the 1950s when the Space Race was only just about to start and men walking on the moon was still a distant dream. Its also rather amusing to see Britain still being thought of as a Great Power with enough resources (at least at the start of the book) to build a space station and a moon base. History has shown that we just about managed one small satellite launch all by ourselves before giving in and just helping NASA and ESA.

There are some amusing aspects to this retro sci-fi. For example when one Troon is in space helping to construct the British space station, he's stubbing out fags on the metal bulk head. Smoking was such a common thing back in the 1950s I guess nobody would see that as odd, but I bet they don't let them have ciggies on the ISS! ;-)… (more)

Not yet finished, but have downgraded it from 3 stars (liked it but not excited by it) to two on the basis of the irk occasioned by the use of rubbish rubbish portuguese towards the end of the book. 'Bonos dias' instead of the correct Bom dia indeed! How hard is it to research this stuff? Kuh.

Apart from that, it's a linked set of short stories that are a bit too formulaic to be interesting. The stiff-upper-lip Britishness that Wyndham does so well in Day of the Triffids and so forth feels out of place in the described international effort to conquer space. Give me the society-changing theme of Trouble with Lichen any day.… (more)