May 2016 Reading

Starting the new thread.

I'm still on the first story in Philip Jose Farmer's Strange Relations ("Mother"). You?

Still stuck reading two fantasy books: The Autumn Republic and Academic Exercises.

Just finished Ancillary Mercy. I liked it a lot. She kept on developing the characters from the first two books, plus some new ones. She continued to explore & flesh out the issues. There *was* a touch of deus ex machina in the conclusion, but much less so than lots of other series. And, without doing spoilers (I hope) the arc of development for the Breq character has been really well done across the three books. Space opera at its best.

>3 rshart3: I thought Ancillary Mercy was a great conclusion to the trilogy. Thank goodness! Sometimes there's a letdown in the last one, but not here.

I've just started Doomsday book, the 1993 Hugo Award tie by Connie Willis. Enjoying it a lot so far. Still reading The Robert Sheckley omnibus and Year's best science fiction, second annual collection a story at a time.

Just finished War of the Wing Men. Next up I'm re-reading The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance. It was the first Vance I read back in the day, so I'm a little sentimental about it.

Finishing up the trilogy Manifold: Origin by Stephen Baxter...

Just finished The Last Colony by John Scalzi. I love the Old Man's War series. Darkly funny.

I am still struggling with Infinity Beach by Jack McDevitt.

I find the book to be really dry. As a mystery, it is lacking. Very little happens in this first 100 pages that "grabs you" and makes you want to read more....it is not a page turner. Normally I would read 100 pages in at most 2 days but here I am almost 2 weeks and I am just there... cannot get excited about the story.

As a science fiction novel, he does paint his world very well and in detail. Lots of discussion on clones and use of AI. The book was written in 2000 and at one point a character refers to a "flat screen" display. I know we had flat screens before that, especially in Laptops of the day but I never called them "flat screens", they were usually referred to by the display type.... LCD or Plasma displays. I think the term "flat screen" was more popular 10- 12 years ago when TV's abandoned CRT's. So that sort of grabbed my attention for a while. But other than that and his description of his world with AI controlling everything and clones there is little meat in the story so far.

I hope it gets better soon

Finished The Hercules Text ( Jack McDevitt) (why do authors think they need to update their early novels?) and The Quiet War (Paul McAuley) (which alternates between pretty good and almost dreadful for a bit) over the weekend. Onto Asher's The Skinner at the moment and I am enjoying it - very different from Gridlinked but in a good way

>9 Lynxear:

You know, I had a similar problem with his The Hercules Text. It tool almost 100 pages to get me really interested into the book and not wondering if I want to finish it...

I'm starting Angelmass by Timothy Zahn and then I'll be picking from The Engines of God, Old Man's War or The Dreaming Void next.

Going back in the decades to 1988 for David J. Skal's Antibodies.

Starting Warchild by Karin Lowachee, which has been waiting unread on my Kindle for ages.

Rereading Children of God by Mary Doria Russell.

It's a difficult book. Not because it isn't well written. It's beautifully composed with fully fleshed-out and quite memorable characters, and a truly gripping plot.

It's just that this story is so heart-wrenching. In a good way, though.

Just starting The Mechanical.

Finished The Skinner and boy, does Asher have an imagination. Absolutely enjoyable novel.

Next - stepping away from SF for a few days so will be back when I am back reading in the genre :)

Finished The Just City by Jo Walton. Wasn't that impressed.

Finished The Languages of Pao. Back to Barsoom now for The Master Mind of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Just finished Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi. Since it's a parallel story to The Last Colony, it answered two major plot holes for me.

Started Helliconia Spring by Brian W. Aldiss.

>1 artturnerjr: One of my favorite stories.

>17 Jacksonian: Interesting. I thought it was a great novel. I liked the sequel even more.

>21 lansingsexton:

Yeah, I thought it was pretty great. A good thing, too, because after my mediocre experience with my last Farmer read (Flesh), I was gonna give up on this collection if I didn't like the first story.

Started Beginning Operations by James White.

>22 anglemark: The sequel? Do you mean The Human Division? That's on my TBR list for this year.

>25 Jacksonian: I replied to your comment #17, not to #19. I mean The philosopher kings.

The Player of Games, Iain M. Banks. I've committed to reading through the entire Culture Series. Interesting so far

>27 anglemark: Sorry about that, my bad.

Finished Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Not impressed.

Just finished The Long Walk by Stephen King

>30 Jacksonian:

Ooh - first SK novel I ever read - didn't even know it was SK when I read it (it was before Richard Bachman was revealed to be a King pseudonym). What did you think?

>31 artturnerjr: I liked it. I think he did a great job getting into the head of the teenage boys, but what I liked the best was how he conveyed the boys' awareness of their own impending deaths.

Finished Master Mind of Mars. Next up is Invaders from Earth by Robert Silverberg.

I have been quite busy lately and am still working through Infinity Beach. I am a little more than 200 pages into this book and FINALLY it is getting interesting. Normally I would not go this far before quitting on a book but for some reason I stayed the course. I have definite thoughts on this book but will save them for my review when I finish.

Am halfway through Way Down Dark and not enjoying it all. Am also completely baffled how it made the Clarke shortlist. Smythe is a good writer, but there's nothing new in this book.

>35 iansales:

Yep I thought that too. It is probably a bit better written than a lot of YA dystopias but that is all. Smythe doesn't try and subvert any of the well-worn tropes of that sub-genre.

>36 andyl: I just finished shortlisted The Book of Phoenix and also was not that impressed.

>36 andyl: I also can't see the appeal of books where everyone behaves like animals - and it makes zero sense when you're relying on your environment to keep you alive.

>37 sturlington: I have that on the TBR.

Given what I've read so far, and heard about the two I've not read, if Dave Hutchinson doesn't win the Clarke then he was robbed.

>38 iansales: Did you read Who Fears Death? The Book of Phoenix is a sort of prequel to that. I liked Who Fears Death a lot more, but it was really fantasy/magical realism, not science fiction. I think The Book of Phoenix would have been more successful without the science fictional elements but it also had some troubling anti-women content. I wrote a fairly long comparison of the two books as my review.

Which others on the shortlist have you read? I haven't read either of Dave Hutchinson's yet but I've heard good things and they are both in my reading queue. I was planning to read the entire shortlist but may now skip the Smythe as I really am allergic to YA. I had heard good things about The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet--have you read that one yet?

>38 iansales:

Maybe. I haven't read Arcadia yet, nor do I own it as of this moment in time. I also haven't read The Book of Phoenix but I do own that one. However I think Europe at Midnight is far more a Clarke winning book than the other three.

>39 sturlington: , >40 andyl: I've read all but the Okorafor and Pears, I have the former but the latter is not out in paperback yet. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet is pretty much Firefly fanfic, and a pleasant enough read.

>41 iansales: Have you tried saying "Firefly fanfic" quickly?

>42 RobertDay: Before or after drinking?

Well, I'm sober right now (yes, I know it's Friday) but I kept getting the second word as 'flanflic'...

>42 RobertDay: Hahahaha! I love both Firefly and The long way to a small angry planet, so I can see the point.

I've just started Ringworld by Larry Niven. Never read anything by him before, but it seems to be pretty good!

Finished The Philosopher Kings by Jo Walton

I finished Ancillary Sword and started Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie. I'm really enjoying this series.

Finished Invaders form Earth, now starting a short story collection Starburst by Alfred Bester.

I've just finished The Corporation Wars: Dissidence by Ken MacLeod.

Now reading The Book of Phoenix, and it reads like it was written by a teenager. No idea how it made got shortlisted for the Clarke.

Finished The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes

Currently reading Tracker by CJ Cherryh

>16 AnnieMod: I got introduced to Asher by getting Skinner through SantaThing and have enjoyed several more of his novels since, so well worth checking them out if you liked Skinner.

I'm reading Superluminal which I'm hoping gets a lot better.

I finished Pines Blake Crouch but was disappointed. Perhaps I should watch the TV show as it gets good reviews.

Finished Love Minus Eighty by Will McIntosh

25% of the way through Dust, the finale to Hugh Howey's Silo series. The prequel Shift exceeded my expectations - it is considered to be the weakest of the three. (Wool started it all from the middle of the story).

Ok... I am still reading Infinity Beach and after slogging through 200 pages of world building and very little plot building, I had a modicum of interest but it took another 150 pages before the book really grabbed me. NOW after 350 pages of about 500 pages I cannot put the book down.

I can understand the relative low rating for this book gets because of this.... if this were a new author for me I would have recycled this book long ago.

Just finished Doomsday book. One of the best books I've read for quite along time. Won both the Hugo & Nebula in 1993, and I think that was probably deserved, though I haven't read anything else from the year. Next up in the Hugo reading challenge is The demolished man. Also reading The best from fantasy and science fiction, 8th series, Year's best science fiction, second annual collection and Lightspeed, May 2016.

Just finished The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

Finished Our lady of the Ice, androids and humans and lots of cold weather, oh and some gangster goodness....

>57 dajashby: Shame about all the historical errors, though: https://sfmistressworks.wordpress.com/2012/06/05/doomsday-book-connie-willis/

>60 iansales: I'm not particularly worried about anachronisms in a work of science fiction, I have to say - although I did ask myself "Trunk call?" a couple of times, but given that 1992 was before the age of the ubiquitous cell phone & the internet, which would have made the whole business of looking for Basinghame and the isolation of Oxford due to a pandemic a bit of a stretch I ignored the problem. What this book has is (a) believable characters who you really care about, and (b) a narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat through the entire book. I thought that Roberts' complaints about what British people would or would not say were a bit ridiculous. Language and usage change remarkably quickly and who knows what people are going to be saying in 2054?

>61 dajashby:

Sure but not all the problems are linguistic, of which there were more than Roberts pointed out. Many of the problems were also problems with the historical research. This is a bit of a continuing issue with Willis as you will see when you get to Blackout/All Clear.

Although mobile phones were far from ubiquitous it was obvious that they would become so. They were widely seen and there was a chain of shops on the high street dedicated to selling them. However Willis also has issues with mobile phones as you will see when you get to Blackout/All Clear.

>62 andyl: OK, I'm not going out on a limb here, I've read 2 Willis stories, and I've been impressed. I'll post more when I've read more. On mobile phones, in Shane Maloney's crime novel Nice Try, published in 1998 the murder weapon was a state of the art mobile phone. The victim was bashed over the head with it. Try that with an iPhone.

>63 dajashby:

Unfortunately Maloney was behind the times. In 1998 the most common model was a Nokia 5110 - which would be difficult to kill someone with by that method. Probably the state of the art was the Nokia 8810 as it had ditched the external antenna. At 107 x 46 x 18 mm and weighing just under 120g (with the standard battery) it doesn't strike me as a very likely item to use as a club.

>61 dajashby: I don't know about you, but I stopped using the term "trunk call" sometime around 1980, and mobile phones and the internet both existed then (albeit not in the form they do now). It all comes down to piss-poor research, but Willis gets away with because she treats the UK and its history like a theme park. By all accounts, her description of 1940s UK is wildly inaccurate (the Jubilee Line open in 1940? It's named for Queen Elizabeth II's silver jubilee).

The presence of anachronisms *is* important, because it indicates poor craft. I certainly wouldn't expect to find them in an award-winning novel.

(Willis's short fiction, incidentally, is much better.)

>61 dajashby: By and large, I didn't have a problem with the lack of mobile phones in Doomsday Book because, as i said in my review, the mobile network is sufficiently imperfect for it to break down in moments of stress or for phones to be switched off or for people to be off the grid (intentionally or not). To me, the impact of the lack of communications in this novel is just the same whether or not the phones have cords.

The effect is at its worst when writers depict what to them were near-future scenarios where we know that things turned out differently and where those things have an impact on the story. So in Greg Bear's The Forge of God, for example, he was writing in the early 1980s about the late 1990s, and a number of his key protagonists were senior officials, scientists, journalists and academics, all of whom were early adopters of mobile phones and the internet. Of course, Bear couldn't anticipate the rapid growth and seismic effect these devices would have even that early in their product life cycle, and I don't blame him for it; but it did jar somewhat in the conduct of the story and development of the plot.

>61 dajashby: My mistake, dajashby - you were referring to Adam Roberts' review on Mistressworks, which you provided the link to, not my fairly recent review of Doomsday Book here on LT. If there's anything in the tone of my posting 66 that rubs you up the wrong way, please accept an apology.

I have just finished Maelstrom, which I found extremely exciting and even better than the first book. The Rifters Series features some of my favourite types of science (I must admit that I tend to skip over the science in physics-heavy hard sf) and I am really looking forward to reading book 3 next month.

>65 iansales: So you're suggesting that William Shakespeare was guilty of poor craft? Good luck with that. Have just been reading a piece by Jo Walton at Tor about Blackout / All Clear. She agrees that there are weaknesses in the books that should have been caught, but reckons that they don't really matter if the result is a fine story that you can't put down, even on a second reading. When I've read them I'll decide whether I agree.

Just finished Spin by Robert Charles Wilson

>69 dajashby: It only matters if you know anything about the subject (i.e. Medieval History, WWII history). If you do then the effect is jarring and you take a dim view of the author who could have done a modicum of research into the subject she is writing about. Otherwise, as they say, ignorance is bliss.

>69 dajashby: When a novel is sold on - or even praised for - its historical research, then I expect its historical research to be up to scratch. True, most of the points raised by Adam in his review I missed when I read the book back in the 1990s (tho I remember the trunk call thing, and even a mention of the lights of Oxford visible on the horizon from London). It's like The Martian - the book has been sold as SMELLS LIKE SCIENCE, but the opening hurricane that results in Watney being left behind is complete rubbish. A hurricane on Mars would feel like a gentle breeze.

As for "fine story", I'd expect that as a given in an award-winning novel.

>72 iansales: I agree about The Martian and the tremendous windstorms. I have not read the book but I saw the movie and that was the first thing that jarred me... that storm and another that followed it later. If such storms existed on Mars the 2 rovers - Curiosity and Opportunity - would have been wiped out years ago. Another thing I found laughable was the state of the vehicle that he used to travel around. You look at the devastation of the camp after the storm and a few scenes later he is out in a pristine, not a mark on it... rover vehicle.

That aside though, the movie was fun to watch due to the performance of Matt Damon.

>72 iansales:

It isn't just that it doesn't stand up in the present.

OK Oxford has a major flu outbreak (although that strains disbelief - flu doesn't really survive that well in archaeological contexts) and it is quarantined. But why is there a food shortage? There are infection-proof suits - in the book as well as real life. Why can't food still be sent in by lorry and train?

The Oxford of the book is far more religious than the real Oxford, or anywhere I've lived in the UK. AFAICR Willis uses "dormitories" wrt Oxford accommodation for students which is wrong. There is the odd obsession with mufflers - which again is not current British English.

Now that doesn't destroy the book totally, but it does make it less than it should have been. These aren't difficult bits of research that you can't really expect a writer to get totally right.

>74 andyl: Tregillis's awful Bitter Seeds is much the same. It has Brits carrying billfolds, and a couple getting married in their garden. In the 1940s. It's full of badly-researched historical details.

>67 RobertDay: When Willis was writing the NHS had existed for 43 years, or near enough to. Her future world was over 60 years away then. It's perfectly conceivable that the organisation could have been repurposed at some point in that time, just as it's conceivable that it might have ceased to exist. I suspect that you're idea that Willis may not quite get what the NHS is about currently (the US healthcare system being the disaster it is) is correct, but what you're complaining about doesn't bother me, any more than I'm bothered by Lije Bailey smoking a pipe, or the ubiquitous existence of FTL travel in space operas (I was born in the UK, but have been in Australia for over 50 years, so I don't know anything much about the NHS...)

The problems with telephonic communications are obviously a plot device to increase the tension, and they do work, but on reflection they are more problematic than the NHS thing for me. It's a bit reminiscent of Spooks, the UK espionage drama, the plots of which just didn't hold up to close examination, but seemed really good at the time.

No offence taken.

>76 dajashby: My main problem with Spooks was the amount of flashy IT they used, whose user interfaces looked far more graphics-heavy, flashy and fast than anything the government sector was using at the time. (Or since.) And then they involved a representation of the organisation I then worked for, and we all fell over laughing. Even though we knew it was fiction, and my earlier encounters with BBC production staff had left me nonplussed as to their grasp on reality, we still fell about laughing.

The BBC had form on that. Apparently, when the industry asked the Beeb how they did the (for those days) colourful, complex and fast computer graphics in the tv version of 'Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy', they sheepishly admitted "We cheated. We drew them."

Well I finally finished Infinity Beach by Jack McDevitt. By the last 150 pages the book becomes a page turner and ends with this reader wanting more... which is not what I expected during the first 200 pages.

I am changing focus for my next book and will read a piece of Historical Fiction that I have been looking for in used bookstores for years - Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead

Er, The naked and the dead was published in 1948. It's not historical fiction. ;)

I finally finished Downbelow station which I ended up admiring rather than enjoying. The scope and detail are impressive, but overall I found it quite dry and difficult to care about what was happening. The Chanur books were far more engaging. I have a couple of other books in the Alliance-Union sequence so I'll give those a go.

>79 anglemark: it is a work of fiction in a historical setting taking place about 70 years ago.... It is historical fiction by my books and by many others who have similarly tagged this book as such... whether it meets your criteria is of little consequence to me.

>78 Lynxear: >79 anglemark: I have never read Mailer's The Naked and the Dead although I have seen the book cover everywhere since I was a kid.

In LT's description area I read "Based on Mailer's own experience of military service in the Philippines during WW2, 'The Naked and the Dead' is a classic portrayal of ordinary men in battle.". One of my Dad's {a WWII vet} friends was on the Bataan death march, man did he hold a grudge! {for numerous good reasons!} I think he resented being worked as a slave after the march more than anything. I will put the book on TBR list maybe.

I recently streamed Ken Burns documentary The War and was able to stop the film and look up some comments from the English general Montgomery in his book's, Memoirs Montgomery of Alamein, index when he happened to be at places mentioned in the film. It made an interesting footnote to the film series. Got the book for $.25 at a library sale.

>82 DugsBooks: yes, it has a deserved reputation for being a hard hitting novel about the ordinary American soldier in the Pacific theater in WWII. So far I am into the book for 100 pages and there are about 5-6 characters of note. Each different in attitude and well developed in this story... It will be a very interesting education for me through reading this story.

I'm sorry if I offended you. I have never heard any other definition of historical fiction than a piece that the author places in a time period significantly earlier than their own. But perhaps the term has acquired a wider denotation these days.

>81 Lynxear: Not according to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_fiction#Definitions

Finished Cibola Burn . Just as addictive as the other books in that series.

>85 iansales: Wikipedia is just quoting other people's opinions, not stating them as facts. Their own definition at the head of the article is "Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting located in the past."

I think that is sufficiently ambiguous.

Finished Starburst, which was fun but rather dated in view of the amount of Freudian psychology. Next up is Who? by Algis Budrys.

Finished Life As We Knew It and The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer

>87 EnsignRamsey: But doesn't that make everything except sf historical fiction?

Well, perhaps it's just a matter of perspective. Today's contemporary fiction will become tomorrow's historical fiction. And if the reader has an interest in a particular period, are they not going to be interested in a novel because of when it is set, rather than when it's written? The perceptive reader's approach to the act of reading that novel will be slightly different depending on the context, that's all.

Unless you're intent on preserving the genre purity of historical fiction as "fiction written about the past". I would have thought we were beyond that, now.

After all, we are now reading science fiction that was set in times which are now history to us. That doesn't automatically invalidate the story, if the story has other things in its favour, such as good writing, interesting characters or a sound and interesting plot.

In other news, I'm taking a bit of a relax from prose by looking at a compendium of the first 18 months of the Dan Dare strips, Dan Dare; Pilot of the Future. This dates from the late 1980s, before such things were called 'graphic novels'... Just to add to the point in my last post, these stories are set in the 1990s; from the perspective of post-war Britain, that must have seemed impossibly distant.

>84 anglemark: >85 iansales: >87 EnsignRamsey: >91 RobertDay: I would like to end this discussion as it is not relevant to this talk thread. I have my own view as to what is and what is not historical fiction as I stated in >81 Lynxear:. I believe through looking at tags my view is shared by a significant number of people. 'nuff said....

>92 RobertDay: I have all the Hawk Publishing omnibuses of Dare stories - and some of them took some hunting down.

>93 Lynxear: We discuss things so that we might learn. The fact that The Naked and the Dead is partly autobiographical seems to rule it out as historical fiction by pretty much every definition on the planet. If "a book set in the past" is enough to qualify a novel as historical fiction, then everything except science fiction qualifies as historical fiction. Which would be, to put it bluntly, astonishingly stupid. The fact some people have tagged a semi-autobiographical novel as "historical fiction" neither defines the novel nor makes their tagging correct. I once saw a band tagged on last.fm as "music that makes me want to f*ck a goat". Where do you go from there? Did that person ever have sex with a goat? Did they assume other listeners of the band would want to? Why would they tag a band with that?

My point being that tags are next to useless as definers of anything. "Has a red cover" is a valid tag, but of no critical value whatsoever. Tags are personal and should be treated as such.

>95 iansales: "The fact that The Naked and the Dead is partly autobiographical seems to rule it out as historical fiction"

The novel is not autobiographical at all. It is loosely based on his experiences but an exaggerated views of stories he heard of while he was in that war and theater. You should not base your information on Wikipedia.

Here is an interview that the author gave regarding The Naked and The Dead:

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/mai0int-4

It is good reading if you wish to educate yourself.

Here are a couple of excerpts from that interview

"I've written books where I've pushed it very far, far beyond my own experience, and other books where I stayed very, very close to the experience I received, as in The Executioner's Song, for example. Now in The Naked and the Dead I did something in between the two. To wit: I had a lot of experience in the war, but it was not as intense as the experience of the people who were the characters in my book. Nonetheless, it was close enough so I could extrapolate a bit. I could exaggerate to a degree, because I had a sense of what the outer possibilities were, as you do when you get a little bit of combat. You get a very good idea of what a lot of combat might be like. "

" I had lived among these soldiers for two years and I knew a lot about them. And so, when it came to drawing them, developing them, they became very real to me. In a certain sense, if your characters in the novel don't become as real to you as the members of your family, then you're in a lot of trouble. Your characters are not going to develop. But, once you've got characters who are real, and start to develop and you live with them, and they're -- as I say -- they're as real to you as uncles and aunts and cousins and friends, then they start to do things on their own that are very good. And so, I think the reason The Naked and the Dead has that realistic feeling -- although to repeat, it was not that realistic -- is precisely because the characters carried along, and you believe in the characters. And, once you believe in the characters, the book tends to become more realistic, whatever its stance. "

Finally... I looked up a writer's reference as to what Historical Fiction means

http://fmwriters.com/Visionback/Issue34/historicalfic.htm

Now you may not believe in their definition but it supports my view and that is fine by me.

"..... So historical fiction is a close relative of history, but not simply a retelling of the lectures we learned to dread in high school. We write historical fiction, and read it, not to learn about history so much as to live it. It is the closest we can get to experiencing the past without having been there. We finish a history and think "So that's what happened!" We finish a work of historical fiction, catch our breath, and think "So that's what it was like!"....."


We are hijacking this thread when all I wanted to do is let readers know I was changing reading themes... now end this please

After a jerky start I finished up The Daedalus Incident (B-) this evening, let's just say that if I didn't like the main characters I might have had a hard time reading this mash-up of scientific romance and straight-up space adventure. Actually, I'll probably have more problems with this book once my book group gets done with it but I admire Martinez for his nerve in even coming up with this book

I just finished some interesting alternate history, Hystopia. I think my favorite little touch was when one character said "There should be a catchphrase for..." and then described a Catch-22, and another answered "There isn't a catchphrase for that."

Finished The Robert Sheckley Omnibus. He had a nice line in short stories with a clever twist. Also includes the longer Immortality Inc..

Started Zero World, and so far I'm liking it very much.

Just about to start my last unread Graham Joyce, The Year of the Ladybird. (Touchstone references the US title.)

>92 RobertDay: Dan Dare was probably the first science fiction I was exposed to. I wonder what happened to those Eagle annuals? BTB Welcome to the Beard and Glasses Brigade.

>102 dajashby: I have all the Hawk Publishing reprints of Dare, and the Grant Morrison/Rian Hughes one from the early 1990s. Oh, and the recent 2000AD omnibus.

>102 dajashby: Likewise; my early influences were Dan Dare, and later 'The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire' in a (slightly later) improving comic in the UK, 'Ranger' (named for the US kamikaze Moon probes, a slightly odd choice if you think about it), which was later absorbed into 'Look and Learn'; whilst on the tv I was seeing all the Gerry Anderson puppet series from 'Supercar' onwards, and, of course, 'Dr.Who' from episode 1.

Then I read my first sf novels in 1968 - Chester Anderson & Michael Kurland's Ten Years to Doomsday, followed closely by Alan Nourse's Raiders from the Rings. Possibly three years later, my father brought home Brian Aldiss' Report on probability A from the library, in the mistaken belief that it was a Mills & Boon romance for my mother (the Holman Hunt painting on the cover that plays a big part in the story was what threw him) and he gave it to me. I found it exciting even though I didn't understand a word of it. It was all downhill from there.

In light of that, I suppose the beard & glasses were inevitable.

Dark orbit by Carolyn Ives Gilman. Good, intelligent entertainment and it has definitely hooked me. We'll see if it improves to the point of becoming a memorable read or stays at the current level.

Finished Who? Next up is Slaves of the Klau by Jack Vance.

I finished my read of A Fire Upon the Deep last weekend, and posted my review today.

>107 paradoxosalpha:

To clarify something you mention in your review, Children of the Sky (published in 2011) is a direct sequel to aFutD; A Deepness in the Sky (published in 2000) is a looser prequel. There's a significant bit of dramatic irony that someone reading Deepness first would miss, and a character in common, but it's a much looser connection than that between Children and Fire. Either you mean something very different by "linear sequel" than I mean by "direct sequel", or someone misinformed you about that bit.

>108 lorax:

I just edited to drop that basically parenthetical remark, which I did of course derive at secondhand. Thanks for the tip.

>107 paradoxosalpha:, I'm in the same boat, still looking at titles from the 1990s as "current ones I need to catch up on".

>104 RobertDay: Did you buy the Don Lawrence Collection editions of Trigan Empire?

>105 anglemark: Are you interviewing her next month?

>112 iansales: Nope, I'm interviewing Jerry Määttä, the scholar GoH.

>113 anglemark: I'm tempted to bring my Gilman books along to get them signed (fortunately, she's not very prolific).

>111 iansales: Sadly, I don't have a copy. My other half does.

>115 RobertDay: All 12 volumes? See https://iansales.com/2012/10/05/the-trigan-empire/

Finished The Grace of Kings which was disappointing. Could have done with a much better editor that whoever he had.

>104 RobertDay: My family migrated to Oz from England over Christmas 1963. I remember seeing the first episodes of Doctor Who in England, and then again in Australia some time in 1964. (None of this simultaneous broadcasting in those days...). I suspect the Eagle Annuals didn't make it into the steamer trunks. We were reading The Lord of the Rings at the time, and I seem to remember that we'd finished The Fellowship of the Ring before we left, and then spent a month at sea before we got to The two towers. Don't remember why (Why we didn't read them on board I mean). I can remember reading most of The Foundation trilogy in the local bookshop - it must have been in 1969, but before that I had read HG Wells, CS Lewis (Narnia and Out of the silent planet, etc.) and Alan Garner. Probably The Day of the triffids. My Mum was a a primary school teacher and a great reader.

Finished The water knife by The water knife by Paolo Bacigalupi, now on The philosopher kings by Jo Walton

>116 iansales: Twelve volumes? Good grief. I must've missed getting that memo; I never knew it lasted that long....

Just finished N.K. Jemisin's The Fifth Season. Now I'm reading Walter Hunt's Elements of Mind and David Steffen's Long List Anthology.

Use of Weapons by Iain M Banks: I'm going through the entire Culture series. This one's a bit weird

The Castle of the Otter by Gene Wolfe: a book about the Book of the New Sun series. Interesting stuff, especially the exotic languages bit.

I am now into Currency, book #7 of Neal Stephenson's The Baroque Cycle. While working my way through this staggeringly complex tale, I have also read a few other titles on the e-reader...

- Valis by PKD (4/5 stars)
- The Divine Invasion by PKD (3/5 stars)
- The Transmigration of Timothy Archer by PKD (3/5 stars)
- ON by Jon Puckridge (3.5/5 stars)
- All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders (4.5/5 stars)
- Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (2.5/5 stars)
- The Fall of Colossus by D.F. Jones (3.5/5 stars)

Currently also reading After the Saucers Landed by Douglas Lain. A strange book written in a rather unique style. Not sure what to make of it yet at ~1/3 of the way through.

>123 ScoLgo: Book 7? When did the trilogy expand?

>124 iansales: Apparently there weren't enough sales with the huge tomes, so he split them each into three, and then sold them again. Yep. Here you go; this will make your head hurt.

http://www.librarything.com/series/The+Baroque+Cycle

(Personally, I think the man needs an editor.)

>125 Lyndatrue: I never got beyond book 2 (of the original trilogy). I've not read anything by him since.

Just picked up The best Australian science fiction writing, edited by Rob Gerrand, from the second hand bookshop at South Melbourne Market. Contains 30 stories, by 30 different authors (including 2 collaborations. I find that I've met 15 of them at various times (16, counting the editor).

Just finished Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard

>128 Jacksonian: I'm reshelving our library and held that one in my hand just three minutes ago! Was it any good?

I agree. Neal Stephenson reminds me of Thomas Wolfe of "Look Homeward Angel". He was another author who could write but conciseness was not one of his virtues either.

>129 anglemark: It is well worth the read. Darkly funny and a good morality tale to boot.

>125 Lyndatrue: >126 iansales: >130 jerry-book: Brevity is not the only thing I look for in my reading. While I agree that it can be a nice thing, I also sometimes enjoy a long drawn-out sprawling epic... and The Baroque Cycle is certainly that! ;) I happen to enjoy the detailed digressions Stephenson explores in his fiction more than I find them irritating. Often, they are laced with sly humor, and that is something that appeals to me.

With that said, I recognize that Stephenson's sometimes overly-verbose style is not for everyone.

Just finished Dust, the very satisfying conclusion to Hugh Howey's Silo Saga, and have moved on to Sand, which has received comparably good reviews.

Finished Beginning Operations and started Alien Emergencies.

Just finished The Engines of God and thought it was pretty good.

Just starting The Hammer of God by A C Clarke...

Just starting Planetfall by Emma Newman. It's intriguing so far.

Finished The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry

I personally think that it's excellent.

Just finished up Chapelwood (B), the continuing (final?) adventures of a Lizzie Borden who fights Lovecraftian horror.

Finished The Affinities by Robert Charles Wilson

Part way through "Consider Phlebas" by Ian Banks. This may be the first of his Culture books.

>142 jerry-book:

Yep, Consider Phlebas is Culture #1. Player of Games is #2. I think the Culture books are stand-alone but someone else will have to confirm because those are the only two I have read so far.

>142 jerry-book: >143 ScoLgo: Yes, they are all standalone.

Though it obviously helps if you've read the others; but sequence of reading doesn't really come into it. Look to Windward references the Culture/Idiran War, but not in the way of a proper sequel (galactic distances see to that); and one of the later novels has what I can only describe as an Easter Egg hidden in plain sight whose significance would be lost on anyone who hasn't read the novels in order of publication. I suspect that if Iain had lived longer, we would have seen more of that sort of thing cropping up.

And in any case, Banks was quite capable of breaking his own rules (though whether by design or accident is another matter, given that 'Consider Phlebas' sat in a drawer for ages, as I understand it). The opening line of the novel takes on a whole different meaning once you've read a number of Culture novels and appreciate the important business of the Naming of Ships...

Just finished The Martian by Andy Weir

JUNE THREAD - https://www.librarything.com/topic/224124

Why is the June thread hiddeen away here,instead of being at the top of the topics page? I was scrambling up and down the list of topics thinking I was going crazy,that I had seen it somewhere. Was only when I rechecked May I found it! :0)

>148 dustydigger: What do you mean? The June thread is here: https://www.librarything.com/topic/224124

>149 anglemark: Yes but its not showing on the topic list . May is there but to see June you have to click on the topic above.Is this the normal way? Or is my computer wonky.

>150 dustydigger: I don't understand what you mean. I guess we are looking at different views. This is what Talk looks to me:

If you go click on the talk link from your home page, you have a list of choices down the right hand side. oops the left hand side rather

>150 dustydigger: You may have accidentally set it to 'ignore'. Check at the top of the page (of the June thread).

Yup! dont know how I did that! :0)

We in the software support trade call that sort of thing "a code ID-10T error". And the thing about ID-10T errors is that we've all done them at some point, no matter how clever or experienced we are...