April 2017 reading

May as well get the ball rolling.

Starting the month with Priest-Kings of Gor by John Norman. This is the third book in the series, which so far is a lively Burroughs pastiche. I was lucky enough to pick up the first UK paperback edition, with the turquoise cover. I have the first three books in the old editions now, maybe I should be collecting them?

Dusty's TBR for April
SF/F
David Brin - Infinity's Shore ✔
Jeff Vandermeer - Annihilation ✔
Greg Bear - Dinosaur Summer
Clifford D Simak - Time is the Simplest Thing ✔
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age ✔
Robert J Sawyer - Terminal Experiment ✔
James White - Ambulance Ship ✔
Andre Norton - A Mind for Trade ✔
Karen Chance - Reap the Wind ✔
V E Schwab - A Darker Shade of Magic✔
other genres
Zoe Sharp - Die Easy ✔
Margaret Duffy - Ashes to Ashes ✔
Carolyn Hart - Merry Merry Ghost ✔
A A Milne - Complete Winnie the Pooh✔

Still working on Eclipse Three and The Alien Years.

Will get back to Gavin Smith's The Beauty of Destruction after i dig out from today's snow storm. Happy Spring to all.

>2 SFF1928-1973:

Priest-Kings is maybe the best of the Gor books, regarded as a mix of what makes those interesting (to me, anyhow). As collectible items, they've had a strange non-sfnal cachet, thanks to the "Gorean" bdsm subculture.

Starting Full Share by Nathan Lowell.

Finally finished with Green Mars, hurrah! And Dusty didn't spoil the ending for me after all, lol. I don't know if that was a red herring, DD, or we have different perceptions re the revolution you said it didn't end with, but I feel it clearly did. It was a slog but I liked it, despite not being a Maya fan either.

>8 Cecrow:

I thought the most shocking and enjoyable part of Green Mars was the Sax and Anne romance.

>9 paradoxosalpha: except that it wasn't Anne, it was Phyllis.

Reading Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz. So far, so good!

>10 Cecrow:

Yeah, it's been a while. I should have checked wikipedia for character names. :(

Book club is onto Touch this month, and I just read the first few pages last night! I've heard good things, and the premise is interesting, so I'm excited for an excuse to finally get around to this one.

>3 dustydigger: Annihilation is quite good! I'll be interested to see if you're tempted—as I was—to follow it up immediately with the second book in the trilogy, Authority, which I still haven't managed to finish.

>13 lorannen:. I may have to postpone Annihilation till next month because I have managed to acquire Dan Simmons The Rise of Endymion,and I want to get started on it. Its another huge tome so I may take quite a while to finish it
Not as long as it is taking me to read Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age which I am so not liking. Can barely read 10-15 pages a day,still 70 pages left. :0(

>14 dustydigger: Did you read Seveneves? I saw a kindle deal on it, and couldn't decide if it was worth pursuing?

I am back with Alex Benedict with Jack McDevitt's Echo.

>15 Darth-Heather:. Sorry Heather,so far I've only read Snow Crash and most of The Diamond Age. Later this year I have to read Cryptonomicon,and then it will be a long long time before I get round to Anathem (EEK) and I may be very old before I get to Seveneves!!!!!

>16 AnnieMod: - I find Alex a bit enigmatic. Chase appears a lot more than him,indeed narrates the stories. Alex seems a bit peripheral at times
I have just got hold of McDevitt's Starhawk,a sort of prequel of his Academy series. Never read any of those

>15 Darth-Heather: I thought Seveneves was terrible. The characters are paper thin and the science questionable.

>2 SFF1928-1973: I remember enjoying the first few of that series, back in younger days. At some point it went off the rails in a big way, and I gave up on it. Priest Kings was definitely the most "sci-fi" of them.

I galloped through the Nebula and Aurora winner for 1995,Hugo nominee for 1996, Robert J Sawyer's The Terminal Experiment It was an absorbing mix of sciencefiction,murder mystery,philosophy,speculations on life after death - and a fractured marriage. Quite a mix,but Sawyer pulls it off for the most part.
That makes 38/52 Nebula winners read.
In a few months I'll tackle the next up,Nicola Griffiths Slow River

>10 Cecrow: Wasn't it both Anne and Phyllis, before all was said and done?

Starting April out with The Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. She's guest of honor of a regional science fiction convention here in Arizona (WesterCon70, 4th of July weekend) and I hadn't gotten around to any of her longer works yet. Seem a good place to start (and as good a time as any).

>20 ThomasWatson: I'm afraid I started losing patience with Priest-Kings after about 100 pages. Much slower than the first two books.

>18 dustydigger: I know, I had been reading them in order (in series - will be back to author in order later). I still miss Alex's voice from the first book quite honestly :) I enjoy the series - I find his ability to create a full universe without building it explicitly to be quite interesting. And there will always be place for adventure stories - what those are after all. :)

>15 Darth-Heather: >19 justifiedsinner:

I liked Seveneves - it is long and winded but somehow it works. My big problem with it was that last part - it just did not match in style. It was almost like two separate stories glued together - they follow from each other but they are just different.

>15 Darth-Heather: >19 justifiedsinner: >25 AnnieMod: I'm going to have to make time for Seveneves pretty soon. It seems to be a love/hate type of book for a lot of reviewers. I usually enjoy the stuff Stephenson comes up with so we'll see... I'm a bit sad to hear Dusty is not enjoying The Diamond Age as that is just about my favorite NTS novel. That said...

>21 dustydigger: I enjoyed reading Slow River but be warned - the title is apt. It's not by any means an action-packed story. Stylistically, Griffith reminds me a bit of Le Guin or maybe Leckie in that she writes more about concepts, character behaviors, and societal structures than about action-ey things. Slow River was good but I think I may have liked Ammonite a tiny bit more.

>2 SFF1928-1973: I read quite a few of the Gor books in my youth. Good pulpy fun at the time. From what I recall, they featured more fantasy tropes than science-fiction. Since those early days, I have veered more toward SF than F in my reading tastes so I doubt I would get much out of a revisit. Plus, likely fodder for the suck fairy.

>21 dustydigger:, >26 ScoLgo: Slow River was the only sf novel to ever make it into our library at work, when I worked for the UK water economic regulator, Ofwat. I suspect our librarian selected it on the strength of the title; the fact the the principal character ends up working in a sewage treatment plant in Hull was beyond the point. (Though it was a science fictional sewage treatment plant, in that I understood it was indoors and treated sewage like an industrial product. The French were doing that for real in the 1980s, whereas we still haven't gotten around to that level of sophistication - but I digress.)

>10 Cecrow:, >22 ThomasWatson:

Thomas is right, and so was I the first time. I was much more surprised by Anne than Phyllis.

>26 ScoLgo: Sorry,I just dont like Diamond Age at all. Stephenson certainly seems to split his readers into for and against to a huge degree. I now have a dozen pages left to read,and I am just gobsmacked with the way the plot has become so unhinged from any sort of credibility. Things have happened to the putative heroine that would have been harrowing in a normal book but I couldnt care less because of the cardboard nature of the characters (presumably intended for some obscure literary reason which I didnt care enough to fathom) ,but I just couldnt care less!
Too much of the Primer for my tastes,neither the nanotech nor the worldsetting grabbed me and worst of all,I had had so many perhaps romantic ideas of what Hackworth would be. In the first chapter I thought he would begin working for the lord and we would have an exciting fast read,with Hackworth as a hero. Well that went south very quickly,and the only real possibile heroine for me was Miranda,who kept disappearing for massive chunks of the story in a really annoying way.I just dont like Stephenson's way of telling a tale at all. Too obscure.All in all I will be glad to get on with The Rise of Endymion,and Greg Bear's Dinosaur Summermuch more my cup of tea.Action,adventure,pace and excitement,much more my sort of thing :0)

>27 RobertDay: Set in a sewage works? In Hull? Sounds delightful....I think.....

You know,I may tend to disparage an awful lot of the top SF books,but at least it generates some chat and reaction,which is all to the good.lol.

>21 dustydigger:, >26 ScoLgo:, >27 RobertDay: I loved Slow River and found it quite gripping, more so than Ammonite. However, I do want to give both books a reread.

I'm in the camp that was disappointed by Seveneves. Aside from the cardboard hero/villain character types, I found it hard to engage with the story when it was continually interrupted by massive info dumps that read like chunks of a textbook. And I found the third section of the book totally unconvincing in that after 4000 years the different groups had retained their earthbound alliances and animosities and not intermingled at all. Look at how much change there has been even in just a few hundred years of human society; I couldn't believe in his fictional one remaining static for so many centuries.

>15 Darth-Heather: My experience of Seveneves was not good and I usually like the things Stephenson produces. Without giving anything away I felt the first half was a space-flight 101 which, having grown up following the Apollo missions in detail, did not provide much new detail about life in space, and what new science there was appeared to be taken a bit too far. The second half struck me as unnecessary.

>30 Sakerfalcon: >31 pgmcc: Awww, unfortunate that so many of you didn't like Seveneves. I have only read one of his - Anathem - and I really enjoyed it, but reviews of most of his books are seriously mixed. I have Cryptonomicon in my TBR now, so I think I will see how that one does for me before I venture further.

>26 ScoLgo: I might add Diamond Age to my wishlist based on your recommendation, Stefan. What do you think of Cryptonomicon?

Just barely started a reread of Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh. I read it when it first came out but something about it didn't appeal to me so I never read any of the other books in the series. Foreigner is a group read on another board I'm a member of and I thought I'd give it a shot.

>32 Darth-Heather:, Cryptonomicon is all I've read of his so far and definitely left me interested in reading more by him. I was looking into Anathem actually, so we're like passing ships, lol.

>32 Darth-Heather: I find him hit or miss. Hated Seveneves as I said, ditto the Baroque cycle. Loved Anathem, Cryptonomicon and Snowcrash, can't remember much about The Diamond Age but remember I liked it at the time.

>32 Darth-Heather:, >34 Cecrow: My first Stephenson was Anathem and I loved it. Since then I have read the Baroque cycle and loved that too. On MTBR are Diamond Age, Cryptonomicon, Reamde, Snow Crash and Zodiac. My MTBR is way way way too large, so no idea when I'll get to them, but I have to say, thus far Stephenson has not disappointed me yet, and I am looking forward to those books of him I still have left to read.

Well,at last I finished The Diamond Age,with its odd ending. After a gruelling journey of a book,it was par for the course that the ending was so vague. All I got was that as ever humans in their fanatical groups cant get on with anyone outside the group,and even spectacular tech and wonders of human inventions cant get humans to come together. Felt pretty pessimistic about the future of any society in the book,and didnt appreciate the sudden cutoff of any real resolution.
At least reading so slowly made me aware of many nuances,especially Hackworth's secret agendas,and I am sure many many connections would be much clearer with a second read,but no thanks! It may be very clever and cannily devised,but I found it cold.
Oddly I am reading a Clifford D Simak book at the moment,Time is the Simplest Thing where there is a witch hunt against people with paranormal talents. Simak was deeply pessimistic about humans,their cruelty,fanaticism and fear of the different,and the uselessness of tech to truly benefit mankind,who at the drop of a hat will fall back into barbarism,fear and cruelty. In fact Simak often cant resolve the desperate situations for his characters,who often have to leave the area - even the world! - to save their lives. Of course,Simak's tale is told in a clear,elegant and sympathetic way,Stephenson is much more convoluted,chaotic,and certainly not sympathetic or kind! lol.
That makes 52/65 Hugo winners read!

>32 Darth-Heather: I loved Anathem and at least liked everything else I've read by Stephenson. Seveneves was the only dud for me.

>32 Darth-Heather: said, "I might add Diamond Age to my wishlist based on your recommendation, Stefan..."

Uh oh... then it will be my fault if you have the same reaction as Dusty! You'll both be looking at me like: o_O

>32 Darth-Heather: then said, "What do you think of Cryptonomicon?"

Cryptonomicon was the 2nd NTS book I read and, for the most part, I really enjoyed it - though the ending felt a bit rushed. Despite getting off to a bit of a slow start with Quicksilver, I also really enjoyed the Baroque Cycle prequel, (to avoid spoilers for Cryptonomicon, I highly recommend you read it before considering the eight prequel books).

All the comments here about Seveneves have me wondering how that book will hit me when I get around to it. Maybe later this year...

Just downloaded The Collapsing Empire, which is John Scalzi's newest work (and set in a brand new universe). I've heard good reviews, although there was some disappointment that it is the start of a new series, with an unknown ETA of the sequel.

I like Neal Stephenson, but, like most of the people here, my experience with his specific books is all over the place. His imagination blows my mind, and I like his writing style, which smooths out the less coherent parts.

One book that hasn't yet been mentioned on this thread is the more recent Reamde, which is one of his more "conventional" books. Interestingly, the people who loved Anathem generally disliked Reamde, probably because the latter is much more plot-driven than idea and/or world-driven. I LOVED Reamde and was kind of "meh" about Anathem.

I liked Cryptonomicon a lot, although certain parts dragged a bit. The passage describing the hero eating a bowl of Cap'n Crunch is one of the best paragraphs ever written in Science Fiction IMHO. Seveneves is right about the middle. It got more and more crazy as the story progressed. Snow Crash was a lot of fun, but much less polished than the later works. Diamond Age was SLIGHTLY more coherent than Snow Crash, but still all over the place (but still fun!).

>39 ScoLgo: And the punishment will be severe! Narrowed eyes and everything! Actually I'm willing to risk it because it was you who convinced me to try Anathem.

Um, did you say EIGHT prequels? Eight? Are they all ridiculously enormous too? eeek.

>41 Darth-Heather: To be fair, they are mostly published as three big Stephenson sized books. At least, if the Baroque cycle are the eight books that ScoLgo means....

>26 ScoLgo: I do feel the Gor books are right on the borderline between SF and Fantasy. I consider them Planetary Romance in the Edgar Rice Burroughs sense. Nothing magical happens, and everything has a "scientific explanation" except how our hero got there in the first place. And if you can swallow spaceships that jump through hyperspace to a preselected star system, unexplained teleportation doesn't seem like a big deal.

I do rather like (but don't quite believe) that the world of Gor has remained undiscovered because it's always on the exact opposite side of the sun from the Earth.

>43 SFF1928-1973:

There's plenty of explicit homage to Barsoom in the Gor books, and they are unquestionably Burroughsian sword-and-planet. The element of the Gor books that eventually comes to completely dominate them, and which many readers have found either offensive or compelling, is the inclusion of sexual scenarios with gender commentary, which also goes back to ERB's Mars. It is, moreover, a distinct feature of the subgenre as adopted by other authors as diverse as David Lake (Xuma) and Janet Morris (Silistra).

>33 seitherin: Same thing for me: I read Foreigner, and I think the 2nd book, and just lost interest. Which is odd since I like almost everything Cherryh has done, fantasy or SF. The other exception is Cyteen, which many swear is her best book but I found dry, contrived & uninteresting. I'd be curious to hear if you like it more on a 2nd, later, reread.

>41 Darth-Heather: T'was I? <GULP!> Good thing you liked it, what with the uppercase 'N'arrowed eyes & everything...

Yep, @divinenanny has it exactly right; Much like The Lord of the Rings, (six books in 3 volumes), The Baroque Cycle is eight books spread over 3 volumes, (although I believe the eight books were also published in separate printings). Each 'book' is reasonable length but each of the three volumes clocks in at around 900 pages. I have all four volumes, (if you include Cryptonomicon), in hardcover and they are all rather hefty.

>43 SFF1928-1973: >44 paradoxosalpha: Great points. It's been so long since I've even thought about the Gor books, let alone read any of them...

>32 Darth-Heather: I loved Anathem. My favourite Stephenson was, Snow Crash. I thought it was hilarious.

Cryptonomicon was the first of his books I read (based on the recommendations of two friends) and I found it interesting, but I had slight reservations about the ending. I have found that of all the Stephenson novels I have read, REAMDE was the only one I felt had a satisfactory ending. I enjoy his ideas and keep reading his books for that reason, but I find that most of his endings are there because he needs and ending rather than their being logical or neatly worked out endings.

>Our reactions to Stephenson's novels seems to coincide. I have yet to read The Diamond Age and The Baroque Cycle. I have been shying away from the latter as I have a feeling that it will disappoint me. REAMDE was a great read and was not really Science Fiction as all the technology used exists. It was more an extrapolation of people's use of the technology available, and not too far beyond actual usage at the time of its writing.

>39 ScoLgo: The title for my review of Seveneves is, "Disappointing". Having said that, as someone who has read other Stephenson books and enjoyed them you are fated to read it to make up your own mind.

>40 drmamm: I loved both REAMDE and Anathem. I thing what appealed to me mostly about "Anathem" was the monastic approach to secular knowledge; I loved the irony.

Of the Stephenson books I've read I found Cryptonomicon the most satisfying of all and really haven't been able to make myself read anything of his after that; I should tackle his "Newtonian" books at some point.

As for this month's reading I have a whole raft of books lined up: Collapsing Empire, Terms of Enlistment, City of Stairs (among others) and am currently about a third of the way into War Factory.

>51 Shrike58: There were two particular gripes I had with Cryptonomicon:
1. The creation of a totally new group of people living in the Hebrides, of the west coast of Scotland. This was unnecessary and had no basis in anything and I had to suspend a lot of disbelieve to go on after that.
2. The disappointment I felt when the ending turned out to be no more than a treasure hunt. I had loved everything up to that point and felt betrayed that a treasure hunt was the end-game.

>45 rshart3:
The first time I read Foreigner I didn't exactly bounce off it, but I put it down and though it rather humdrum. I reread it some years later and found it way more to my taste and have since read all the Foreigner series books that have appeared so far in paperback.

>45 rshart3: I've only read about 17% of Foreigner but I am enjoying what I've read so far.

>54 andyl: I've been following the Foreigner series since the first book - haven't missed one (or been disappointed) yet. The newest is on preorder from Amazon. ;-)

Jeez, I've got Seveneves, and now I don't know whether to read it or not. I loved Snow Crash, Diamond Age and Reamde.

I just started The Three-Body Problem. I don't know how much of the awkward writing is attributable to translation, but I sure hope it gets better.

>49 pgmcc: Before it (sadly) closed down, I was browsing the shelves of the local used book shoppe when I stumbled upon a pristine hardcover of Seveneves for a mere $3.00 so yes, I am destined to read it soon(ish)... ;)

>40 drmamm: >50 pgmcc: Haven't read Reamde yet. Another one I need to make time for. Those thick books require a bit of girding of the loins before diving in, don't they?

>45 rshart3: I very recently read Forty Thousand in Gehenna, Cyteen and Regenesis back-to-back-to-back. My favorite of the three was Gehenna, while Cyteen was my least favorite, (but still a very good read). Of the three, it suffered from a rather dry and lengthy setup {1} -- ~1/3 of the book as I recall. Both Cyteen and Regenesis, taken together, are really one single story - a story that seems like it's not yet finished. I am hopeful she will write more in that part of Alliance-Union.

{1} Speaking of dry beginnings... I recall Cherryh did a similar back-story infodump at the beginning of Downbelow Station that I also found a bit off-putting. By the end, that book also turned out to be a great read for me. In my still-limited reading of Cherryh, I have found it necessary to persevere through the onset of her stories before reaching the rewarding parts. When all is said & done, she hasn't let me down yet.

>58 ScoLgo: I had that problem with Cherryh, especially 'Downbelow Station', too. I had to have two goes at it before I decided it was a keeper and that I should read more of her stuff.

Just started reading Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick. I have the New English Library's Master SF Series edition from 1977.

>60 SFF1928-1973: I have positive memories of Martian Time-Slip but from many decades ago. A re-read is starting this week. About all I recall is the final scene, which stuck with me all that time.

I finished reading Pawn: A Chronicle of the Sibyl's War by Timothy Zahn and really enjoyed it. First in a new series. There's a sort of exploring an old spaceship aspect to the story that is something that really hits me in the right place.

Also finishing up Blood Enemies by Susan R. Matthews

Now reading Divided Allegiance by Elizabeth Moon...

I have read all of the Heris Serrano books,and the Vatta's War books,plus Speed of Dark and Remnant Population,both excellent,but the Paksennarion books look awfully like standard fantasy to me,so I have not got round to them.

Remember,Vatta's War fans,13th April Moon starts a new series,Vatta's Peace,with Cold Welcome.
Same day,the latest Foreigner novel,Convergence comes out.Lot of feet making their way to the bookshops that day! :0)

>59 RobertDay: I too had some problems with Downbelow Station the only one of the Company Wars series that I read only once. All the rest I have read at least twice,in some cases up to four times.
I think the Alliance universe books are Cherryh's finest achievement,a universe I love to revisit.Cherryh rarely bothers with infodumps or finely detailed history lessons,she just drops you into tension and danger at any point in the history. But its remarkable just how much we've unconsciously learned about that universe. Once you have read them all and made return visits it becomes a home from home,cramped tin can spy ship,huge Merchanter family ship or miners from the Belt struggling to make a living,top gun hotshot young pilots yearning to fly the new ships etc. Good stuff

>65 dustydigger: et al. I love most of Cherryh's books, but not all of them. I found that the main character of Foreigner was a silly idiot who whined too much in the earlier books but he got better and the society is an interesting one. Cherryh is very good at creating tension and used to keep me up at nights unable to put the books down. I have most of them and have read them more than once, or even twice!

Finished Time in Eclipse, starting Martian Time-Slip.

Currently reading James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon by Julie Phillips. A truly fascinating biography. I knew very little about Tiptree/Sheldon up until just a few years ago. Having recently read the magnificent Her Smoke Rose Up Forever collection, this bio certainly sheds light on the twisty stories Sheldon published as Tiptree.

>58 ScoLgo: Those thick books require a bit of girding of the loins before diving in, don't they?

They certainly do, but I found that once I started REAMDE I flew through it. I am a slow reader so I was surprised that I finished "REAMDE" in a week. I found myself picking it up whenever I could and make time to read at the expense of other things. My son-in-law was the same.

I hope this does not set your expectations to a degree that you are disappointed with the book.

I did find the first few pages did not catch my attention but once I was past those I was dragged along.

>58 ScoLgo: The backstory stuff at the start of Downbelow Station is part of what set the hook for me. But then, the bulk of my nonfiction reading (when you exclude astronomy) for the past 25 years has been made up of history and biographies. That's probably given me a special tolerance for infodumps. ;-)

I'm convinced; I'll try Foreigner again at some point -- I didn't dislike it; it just didn't grab me the way lots of her books do. I don't think anything could convince me to try Cyteen again.

Today I am reading about the Battle of Arras. My grandfather was killed there 100 years today in the Arras area,and is memorialized at the Arras war cemetary.I am going this morning to lay flowers at our local cenotaph.31 years old,he left a widow and 3 children,including my mother aged 6.
One precious possession is a 4x3 inch card with a small blurred photo of him in his Yorkshire Regiment uniform,with a little poem(well it may be doggerel almost but very precious) It says;

In health and strength he left his home,
Not thinking death so near;
Death came without a warning given,
And bade him meet his God in Heaven.

No loved ones stood beside him
To hear his last farewell;
No words of comfort could he have
From those who loved him well.

Sleep on dear husband,in a soldier's grave,
Your life for your country you nobly gave.
No friend stood near you to say goodbye,
But safe in God's keeping now you lie

Too far away thy grave to see,
But not too far to think of thee.
.......................
Deeply mourned by his loving wife.

..........

My family were very fortunate in the next conflict,WWII,as they were all miners (we had 3 generations of miners till Maggie Thatcher closed down the coal industry) and they were forbidden to enlist as coal production was so vital to the war effort.
Brit history buffs will know of the ''Bevin Boys''.Desperate for coal for power,by ballot 10% of conscripts were sent to the coal face instead of the battlefield. My father has some pretty cruel stories about the treatment some Bevin Boys received down the mines,particularly the middle class boys who would have expected to be at university. Their posh accents made them targets among the rough miners. check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bevin_Boys for more details.
Wish they had had that in force in WWI. My grandfather was a ''sinker'' a skilled job excavating new mine shafts. He would have been protected and I would have known my grandfather,instead of him dying 31 years before I was even born! :0(

>72 dustydigger: I lost a great uncle on the Somme; his name is on the memorial at Thiépval and on the Menim Gate, but he has no known grave. My grandmother lived in hope of a knock on the door that would bring her brother back to her, but of course it never came.

The idea - which was fairly common amongst people of her generation - that loved ones who had disappeared on the Western Front might have lost their memory and some day come back out of the blue informed my view of Graham Joyce's The Facts of Life as one of his characters has similar experiences, and I referenced it in my review.

I never had a sense of our having an extended family, in part because there wasn't a whole crowd of cousins because my great uncle's family line was snuffed out before it could start. We always think of alternate history stories as concerning the great moments when history can turn; but the 'many worlds' theory has to mean that there are whole universes spun off because this person came back from war and that one didn't.

I have finally located the next in the West of Eden series by Harry Harrison titled Winter in Eden. Harrison is rapidly becoming a favourite SciFi writer. I am looking forward to this book and will continue the hunt for the next in the series.

The Three-Body Problem was pretty good, and now I'm reading We Are Legion.

After going to lay flowers at the local Cenotaph in memory of my grandfather's death on April 11th 1917,I didnt feel up to anything heavy so I turned to A A Milne's Complete Winnie the Pooh with (of course) the original EH Shepherd illustrations.Cheered me up feeling so superior to the gormless Pooh trying to use a balloon to get honey from a tall tree,or stuck in a rabbit hole from overeating.I have sympathy with Winnie the Pooh doing his keep fit;

''He had made up a little hum that very morning,as he was doing his Stoutness Exercises in front of the glass: Tra-la-la,tra-la-la as he stretched up as far as he could go,and thenTra-la-la,Tra-la-la-oh help!- la, as he tried to reach his toes.''

I feel quite a close connection with Pooh,we have rather the same shape,and I too feel the need for Stoutness Exercises;0)
There is so much of Milne that goes over the heads of the kids so the books stay good fun for adults and can be reread through life,as this 69 year old can testify.
Finished James White's Ambulance Ship and will go on with his Star Healer,the last of the six Sector General books I have. Next year I'll try to search our more of the series.
Books in progress include Jack McDevitt's Starhawk,and Greg Bear's Dinosaur Summer

>76 dustydigger: Winnie the Pooh is wonderful and the Shepherd illustrations are a delight. I was first introduced to Pooh by one of my sisters taking me to the cinema to see, "Winnie the Pooh and a Bluster Day". I learnt the word "zephyr2 from that film. Last year one of my daughters gave birth to our first grandchild. As a Christmas present, at my daughter's request, we gave our granddaughter The Complete Winnie the Pooh with E H Shepherd's original illustrations. Original and the best. A beautiful book.

Yes, I too love pooh, and, yes, his stoutness exercises ring true for me too.

>76 dustydigger:, Tra-la-la-la-la, huh? Maybe that's where Captain Underpants got it from. Interesting.

One of the happiest days of my father's life was when the mine closed in his hometown in central Pennsylvania, meaning that the easy way out was not available to him once he left school.

Speaking of war and remembrance finished up War Factory (B+) this evening, where in between the baroque technology, the machinations of god-like creatures, and the esoteric cultures there's a lot of mulling over where is justice in the wake of a war where pretty much all was permitted because survival was perceived to be on the line and just what is the value of individual life.

Struggling a bit with Martian Time-Slip. Not because there is anything wrong with the book, I just haven't felt like picking it up.

Recently finished James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Wow! Absolutely riveting biography that provides tons of insight into the personality that generated those incredible Tiptree stories. I had trouble putting this one down. Highly recommended.

Now reading: Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke. At ~30% in, I am enjoying it quite a bit.

>82 ScoLgo:

Recently finished James Tiptree Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. Wow! Absolutely riveting biography that provides tons of insight into the personality that generated those incredible Tiptree stories. I had trouble putting this one down. Highly recommended.

Thanks for that. I've had that one on Mt. TBR for a couple of years now. It just moved a little closer to the summit, thanks to you. :)

>83 artturnerjr: I thought I knew most everything there was to know about Tip, and reading that book was a revelation on how little I knew. I still miss her, and wish she hadn't left. That is a very well-written and worthwhile book. You should move it to the top of that mountain.

>83 artturnerjr: I hope you enjoy it. ('enjoy' might be the wrong word ;)

Have you read much Tiptree/Raccoona fiction? If not, be warned that this book contains many spoilers. I was glad I had read the Her Smoke Rose Up Forever collection before diving into this detailed bio.

>84 Lyndatrue:
>85 ScoLgo:

Actually, I've only read two of her stories ("Beam Us Home" and Houston, Houston, Do You Read?), but damn, those were two of the most powerful pieces of fiction (note that I said fiction, not science fiction) I've read in years. My library has a copy of Her Smoke Rose Up Forever - I think I'm going to check it out as soon as I get a break in my reading schedule (hopefully soon), and I'm gonna try really hard to get that bio onto next year's TBR.

>86 artturnerjr: Houston, Houston, which I quote frequently and the brilliantly chilling "The Screwfly Solution" are two of my all-time favorite SF stories. I also own the biography, but haven't got around to it yet. I remember her saying somewhere that her childhood exposed her to many things no child should see (words to that effect).

Finished reading Oath of Gold by Elizabeth Moon...

>86 artturnerjr: I recommend strongly Tip's short story "The Women Men Don't See" and also "The Last Flight of Doctor Ain" which are both the kinds of short stories that cause you to think about things in ways you may not have before.

>87 lansingsexton:
>89 Lyndatrue:

Thanks! And now I have to stop reading before I run out to the library in my pajamas to get that book! :D

Well, I was not aware of the backstory of "James Tiptree Jr" until this discussion. I will have to delve into her work & life now also. Good grief, how can someone have such an interesting life?

Finished Foreigner by C. J. Cherryh. Switching to fantasy with The Thousand Names by Django Wexler.

Finished The Alien Years by Robert Silverberg. Added a mystery into my reading rotation in its place.

>93 seitherin: How did you like The Alien Years?

>94 lansingsexton: I found it a little unsatisfying. The aliens appear not to have a rhyme or reason for showing up or for leaving. The resistance as personified by the Carmichael clan have a very narrow and limited vision about how to undermine the aliens. As a story of just the Carmichael clan, I liked it. As an alien invasion story, not so much.

I finished Winter in Eden... very disappointing... not as good as West of Eden. Little paragraphs about many plots. He did this - he did that kind of writing. At the end of the book again was more stuff about language/dictionary of the Margu language. It is like he wants to write a book in this language... whenever I found a term I wanted the definition of ...it wasn't in that freak'en dictionary!!! I might read the final in the trilogy if I stumble across it but I won't be actively seeking it out.

Finished Our Lady of the Ice. Alternate reality detective noir set in Antarctica - with robots & androids. I enjoyed it. Rating: 3.5 stars.

Picked up Annihilation last night. In the early going, it is very surreal.

>97 ScoLgo: Snap. I am reading this too. Was expecting something in the Lovecraft style,seeing things in the shadows,lurking,but I'm intensely irritated by the heroine,whiney,self obsessed and tending to repeat herself. I am at the point where if she calls the tunnel a tower once more I will surely scream. Used to the elusive yet menacing style of weird fiction,this seems a bit vapid,heavyhanded and just leaden paced.Intriguing ideas let down by the style and the insipid heroine.I'm at 50%,and its an OK read,but award winning? What am I missing? lol. Lovers of this book please enlighten me as to its meaty themes,if any.
I'm hoping the second half of the book picks up,or else I am off to revisit Arkham for a fix of weird fiction.Annihilationis popcorn fiction as far as I am concerned,certainly not Nebula winning quality.

Read Europe in Winter and thought it very good, so was very pleased to see it win the BSFA Award last weekend. Then read Pirate Utopia, which is a fun alt history although the prose feels a bit simplistic. Currently reading Those Who Can: A Science Fiction Reader, in which various authors write about the process of writing in reference to the stories by them in the anthology. Delany's 'Thickening the Plot' is especially good, and mirrors my own approach to writing far more than all those How To Write books...

Whilst at the Eastercon, I acquired and started Charlie Stross' Halting State and ended up having to finish it before the weekend was out. Possibly it was the fact that it's essentially a novel about the IT industry - and so is really in part about my life - made me identify with it; also possibly the fact that it is still very reflective of UK politics at the moment, despite being set in an independent Scotland with the rest of the UK still in the EU. Indeed, it would transfer to a post-Brexit environment very well. One of the protagonists reminded me of the female detective in the old 'Taggart' tv series as well...

And I loved the cover art for the Orbit UK paperback, which consisted of a series of little game avatars, the last of which was a game avatar of Charlie Stross himself.

Finished Martian Time-Slip. It's great SF, and one of Philip K. Dick's best novels IMO. Dick has created a truly memorable character in the shape of Arnie Kott, chief of the Water Workers Union. He's a kind of amalgamation of a school bully and the worst boss you ever had, with a bit of Al Capone thrown in. Other characters include a schizophrenic and an autistic boy, but it's worth bearing in mind that this fiction doesn't portray a factual account of their conditions. Neither schizophrenics nor autistics have precognition, nor can they transport you through time.

Next up I'm reading Tongues of the Moon by Philip Jose Farmer.

>98 dustydigger: Finished Annihilation - ★★★. Didn't love it. Didn't hate it. Whatever I was expecting going in, it wasn't a modernized Lovecraftian-type of story. The surreal plotting, strange transmogrifications, and mysterious alternate realities being hinted at were interesting enough that I will read the next book in the series, if only to see where VanderMeer takes this next.

Now reading The Watch Below. My first James White novel. Liking it so far. The tongue-in-cheek humor is a pleasant surprise.

Also been working my way through Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. Picked this up for free a while back during a Kindle giveaway. Quite a few good stories in here. It would be a bargain at twice the price... ;)

>101 SFF1928-1973: At 20 minutes reading time before bed a night, I'm still not done, but so far it's as good as my dim memories of it said it was. Readers just have to realize this is Dick's personal universe, with its own laws of science and psychology.

>102 ScoLgo: I reread The Watch Below last year. Be warned that the humor goes away. It's much darker than White's Sector General books. I quite liked everything except how he wrapped things up.

Finished up City of Stairs (A) this evening; despite being a second world fantasy with functioning magic this is very much a book of its time, what with its emphasis on the moral costs of power and belief in the wake of the fall of an oppressive empire that deserved its comeuppance but where the successor regime is itself beginning to eat its children. Despite what felt to me like some erratic world building I look forward to reading the next two books in the trilogy (...series?).

Starting another Harry Harrison novel Skyfall... a bit dated (mid 1970's when written) but will be interesting to read about Russian/USA co-operation in space, as seen back then.

>104 ChrisRiesbeck: Finished The Watch Below last night. Another ★★★ read. I rather enjoyed the way White split the narrative between the human and alien viewpoints. The patriarchal tone grated a bit. Didn't really mind the wrap-up. I got the feeling the aliens were just humans in rubber suits. Ah well, still a pretty decent story if one allows for the date of publication, (1966).

Next up: Parable of the Sower.

>102 ScoLgo: Eagerly awaiting your take on Authority. I devoured Annihilation, and jumped right into the second book, but, a year later, still haven't finished it.

Finished Annihilation.It was OK,so-so,whatever. It did pick up a little in the later stages,but I never felt spooked at all,I found it curiously flat. Probably because the protagonist,the Biologist,was also, while obsessive about describing her inner self, curiously flat,and was probably the most alien thing in the book - maybe deliberately? Didnt care.I prefer a more elusive shadowy sense of fear,this seemed far too detailed in one way,whilst not giving us much resolution in other ways,presumably since this should have been one 600 page book,not a trilogy.
I happened to get all three from the library at the same time,so I'll continue with book 2 Authority next month,crossing my fingers that I dont stall like Lorannen! :0)
A much happier experience was A A Milne's Complete Winnie the Pooh. Timeless,its always a delight to return to the 100 Aker Wood(Christopher Robin's spelling there) to visit our honey loving poet Pooh,shy anxious little Piglet(of the excitable ears)the very bouncy Tigger and all the group. Got to wonder if Douglas Adams got some pointers for the depressed Marvin in HHGTTG from Eeyore.There is a distinct resemblance!Any sensitive and intelligent child will see common faults and anxieties of his own there ,and receive comfort.Delightful.
I have about 100 pages left of David Brin's Infinity's Shore,and about the same number of pages in V E Schwab's excellent YA A Darker Shade of Magic,then I start searching out gems for May!

>108 lorannen: I'm waiting for Authority and Acceptance to come available via Overdrive. Both have been on hold for a while now... What made you stall out on book 2?

>109 dustydigger: I hope you have better luck than I did!

>110 ScoLgo: Without getting spoilery, I just found myself having a hard time getting invested in this phase of the story—I didn't care about the characters, and, for whatever reason, the mystery wasn't as much as a driving force in this one, as it was in its predecessor.

Wish I could say I'm enjoying Tongues of the Moon, but I just can't seem to care what happens to the last survivors of the human race following a nuclear apocalypse. Maybe that is the point of the story, that the human race isn't worth saving? But I'm not halfway yet, so I should persist a bit longer. Anyway I think I spotted some misdirection by the author, and I'll be happy to see myself proved correct.

Finished Tongues of the Moon, a routine post-apocalypse drama with a shade of cold war paranoia. If it didn't have Philip Jose Farmer's name on it I would have guessed it was written by Poul Anderson on a bad day. Not nearly as much fun as, say, The Lovers.

Next up I'm reading Almuric by Robert E. Howard.

Just finished Doomsday Book by Connie Willis. I've been meaning to read this one for a long time, and I'm sorry I waited. Pretty strong stuff, and not a book for people who crave HEA endings, but realistic and believable in the way it did end. I don't think I'll wait too long to read another by this author.

Next up, New York 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Finished Martian Time-Slip, starting Gaia's Toys.

V E Schwab's A Darker Shade of Magic could be classed as YA but at the higher age end as there is a lot of violence and some very creepy and sadistic villains. Good world building,with alternate worlds overlapping in London. Quirky characterisation,sparky dialogue,well written,lots of magic and action. Excellent,I will look out for book 2,A Gathering of Shadows.
I hope to finish David Brin's Infinity's Shore tomorrrow,and then its on to Jeff VanderMeer's AuthorityAt least we have a different protagonist,though he seems a bit dysfunctional too!

>116 dustydigger:, thanks for that review of Schwab's work, I've been curious about whether it was too YA-geared and that helps answer the question. Sometimes the story's good enough that I can overlook a youth-geared narrative (e.g. really enjoyed Jonathan Stroud's Bartimeaus trilogy).

Touch is shaping up to be quite excellent. For the first half of the book, I wasn't quite getting why folks kept referring to it as a something of a thriller, but the plot just kicked into high gear. I suspect I'm just going to finish the whole thing tonight.

Just finished Scalzi's The Collapsing Empire, the first installment of his new space opera universe. (Not at all related to Old Man's War universe). I liked it. Entertaining story with an interesting premise and solid world (universe?) building. A nice spread of different characters, although none of them are too deeply written. Fans of darker or grittier SF may not like his style, as the dialog tends to the breezier side, with a generous helping of humor. Even when bad things happen, it's hard to get "feel their pain" so to speak. He is definitely NOT Richard K. Morgan or George R. R. Martin or even Iain M. Banks! But...I enjoy both styles, so I liked the book. I am disappointed that there is no definite conclusion to the story - you are left hanging until the next installment.

>117 Cecrow: Apart from the protagonists being young,there are few concessions to a YA audience. Well worth a read.I've already ordered the rest of the trilogy fr .om the library,though I dont know where I'll manage to fit them in. I keep on adding new reads! lol

Just started The Many Selves of Katherine North by Emma Geen. Not bad so far, though you can tell it's a first novel by someone who's had too many quirky similes for breakfast!

In regards to the whole series I wasn't sure until the climax of the third book in the trilogy that VanderMeer hadn't lost control of his material early on, but the pay off was worth it. I do wonder if The Biologist was consciously meant to be a representation of an autistic individual.

I also finished that novel yesterday evening and my hot take is that it's only okay, not great, Scalzi. Part of the problem is that the book is just not long enough for the story that he's telling and maybe what was needed was some sort of prologue between the old emperox who is introduced at the start of the book and his trusted associates to introduce the problems his successor is going to be faced with. On the other hand, we probably all should be grateful that Scalzi junked his notion of making this book something of a homage to Frank Herbert!

I have been catching up on my TBR list so have been in historical fiction land this month.

That said, I didfinish one sci fi classic this month that is part of my salute to the 50th anniversary of Star Trek. It's one of the first published fiction short stories of fan fiction, called Star Trek: The New Voyages I and was a mainstay of my earlier years. The stories are innovative, the writing is strong, and the insights into the characters are well done. A note on the review page mentioned that the editors are women and hence much of the stories are the inner world, and I have absolutely no qualm with it.

Also start The Worm Ouroboros since I never finished it . . . 30 years ago. It's quite imaginative, and now that we have the narrator's voyage out of the way the story is allowed to progress.

And to >72 dustydigger: and >73 RobertDay:, my sympathies on your loss. There is a fantastic passage in Birdsong (part of my TBR pile) that describes a monument to the "never found" in Arras, and your words about their memories remind me of the human cost of this war. It's hard to fathom the amount of loss, the towns that ceased to exist because all their young men had died, or they were bombarded out of existence. I'll raise a glass to their lives and memories. Glad you both made it here :)

I'm reading Too like the lightning which is good but requires concentration.

DidNotFinish Everfair by Nisi Shawl (168 pp.)

I reached page 168 in this book, out of 381, and I still didn't care. This is an ambitious book. I understand why it was nominated for a Nebula Award. It's alternate history and fantasy where English and American whites and blacks set up a free colony in the heart of the Congo and eventually defeat King Leopold and his Belgians against all odds. There are so many characters, so many points of view, so much politicking, that the interesting parts of the story got lost in it all from my point of view. And skimming through to the end confirms that for me, it was just not worth the time and effort expended. Your mileage may very well vary. It is a worthy book, dealing with issues of freedom and race and religion and technology and gender. I just couldn't hang with it.

Finished Parable of the Sower. Another masterful piece of writing and world-building from Octavia Butler. Heading directly into Parable of the Talents next.

I also picked up The Shadow of the Torturer for a re-read. It's been decades since I first read this tetralogy and I had forgotten how early in the game Wolfe foreshadows things to come.

And... still waiting for my Overdrive holds of Authority and Acceptance to come through so I can finish off The Southern Reach trilogy.

About to start a re-read of The Three Body Problem for a book group. I was a bit underwhelmed with it before so hoping for some fresh insights this time.

Finished Almuric but I won't comment on it here because it is straightforward Sword and Sorcery without any SF dressing. If anyone is curious there are some good reviews on this site.

Next up I'm reading Deathworld 2 by Harry Harrison.

Currently reading Necessary Ill, which is very good.

I finished Skyfall by Harry Harrison and I found it to be a decent read... Maybe not 100% possible and a bit on the stereotypical side but then again I liked Alas Babylon with all its faults.

I am moving back to Crime & Mystery for a while now

I finished David Brin's Infinity's Shore,which was quite enjoyable,though a huge tome of well over 500 pages. It is set on a world where 7 or 8 species of aliens have been living in peace for generations,hiding out on the planet for a variety of reasons,but now they have been discovered by pirates and cruel oppressive aliens. The series isnt the easiest of reads with its copious details of all the different races,it took a lot of work to grtasp everything ,but it all came together in the end. Too long though,and there were a good number of POVs.You would inv.ariably be left with a cliffhanger,and perhsps wouldnt return to the tense situation for dozens of pages,not a style I really enjoy.Still engaging good fun,with sympathetic characters. I'll go straight on to the final volume of the trilogy,Heaven's Reach. Slightly shorter,only 450 pagers! lol