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| Jul 1969
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it was amazing
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Fun, fast-reading, relatively short (204 pages) science fiction adventure story published in 1969. Written by Carroll Mather Capps (1917 – 1971), an A
Fun, fast-reading, relatively short (204 pages) science fiction adventure story published in 1969. Written by Carroll Mather Capps (1917 – 1971), an American science fiction author. Also wrote under the pseudonym of C. C. MacApp, published six other novels and had short stories published in _Galaxy Science Fiction_ , _Worlds of If_, and _Worlds of Tomorrow_ (which later merged into _Worlds of If_). This novel centers on Colonel Vince Cullow of the Space Force. He has contracted a rare disease not native to Earth, one that will leave him blind. There is no cure…though a friendly alien species, the furred humanoid Nesse, know someone who can cure the disease. Humanity doesn’t have faster-than-light travel yet, the Nesse do, and basically are offering Vince a FTL capable ship, passage as the first human being to leave the solar system and to take him to someone who will cure his blindness, and all he has to do is perform a secret mission for the Nesse. “Think it over?...When can I go?” asks Vince. Vince’s contact is a pirate named Gondal, a member of a definitely non-humanoid species called the Onsians. Gondal is intensely curious what the Nesse have Vince doing, something Vince doesn’t share, but then Gondal adds his own conditions, basically “a favor to be named later.” Vince doesn’t really have any choice, and does what he has to get treatment on the permanently sunless (but very much life-bearing) world of Shann, one inhabited by still another alien species, the Vred, who are not native to the world, while performing the secret mission for the Nesse and keeping that mission secret from Gondal while figuring out how to satisfy Gondal’s own added conditions. There are other alien species, notably the ipsisumoedans, the incredibly dangerous and war-like Chullwei, and the mysterious Lenj, who once ruled over this part of the galaxy and who gave not only the Nesse their current language but a language that is a common one throughout this part of the galaxy, but a species that completely disappeared thousands of years ago. Good worldbuilding, some parts of the story are noirish, essentially crime and espionage science fiction, there are space opera/military science fiction elements, and some gee whiz epic golden age feel science fiction as well. Gondal was a hoot at times, with a definite personality and way of talking. Interesting aliens, some action, cool worlds, I wish it had been a little longer actually. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 2024
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Sep 12, 2024
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Sep 01, 2024
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Paperback
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| 1250274567
| 9781250274564
| 1250274567
| 4.21
| 1,072
| Jun 04, 2024
| Jun 04, 2024
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it was amazing
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Outstanding ending (?) to the Noumena series by Lindsay Ellis! This will be one of the new classics in science fiction. The book has a different feel
Outstanding ending (?) to the Noumena series by Lindsay Ellis! This will be one of the new classics in science fiction. The book has a different feel than the second installment, _Truth of the Divine_, a book in which the two main characters, Cora Sabino and Ampersand, were broken, shattered, the author wisely and adeptly bringing into the story two other characters to drive the plot, and the overall tone of the book rather bleak. In _Apostles of Mercy_, there is if anything more danger, as Cora and Ampersand seriously contemplate leaving the Earth to avoid the very probable extermination of humanity from the Pequod Superorganism, yet the tone is more hopeful. I wouldn’t say light, lots of bad things happen, but Cora and Ampersand (and their allies) are very proactive in dealing with the various threats and both show real personal growth (as do several secondary characters). Some threats fade a bit, with the culture war aspects of _Truth of the Divine_ absent and government intrigue not the focus in much of the book. The main threads are the relations between Ampersand, Nikola, and their cohort, worry about the coming Pequod Superorganism, the conflict between the amygdalines and the physeterines and the physeterines and humans, and following the various character arcs, notably Cora, Ampersand, Nikola, Nils Ortega, Sol Kaplan (my favorite character), to an extent President Todd Julian, and a new major character for the series, Paris Wells. Lots of exploration of the complicated legacy of Kaveh Mazandarani, which to my surprise figured into the story in a meaningful way right to the very end. We learn a lot about the physeterines in the book and I really enjoyed that. Though there are definitely still things to explore in this universe and many unresolved issues, it felt like this novel had a real ending, with the character arcs of the major characters largely if not completely finished. I both would like a fourth book yet, given how the author finished the storylines, I am happy if this was the final installment. I highly recommend the series. ...more |
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1
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Aug 06, 2024
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Aug 22, 2024
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Aug 06, 2024
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Hardcover
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| 3.48
| 62
| 1930
| 1962
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really liked it
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_Maza of the Moon_ is definitely the oldest mass market paperback I have ever read, published 1930! My copy has cover and interior art by the famed il
_Maza of the Moon_ is definitely the oldest mass market paperback I have ever read, published 1930! My copy has cover and interior art by the famed illustrator Frank Franzetta. It is a Raygun Gothic or Raypunk story that is highly reminiscent of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, with lot of touches of John Carter of Barsoom. It is written by Otis Adelbert Kline (1891-1946), an American author of the pulp area, who mostly wrote for the magazine _Weird Tales_ where his novels appeared in serialized form, and I read had a literary feud with Edgar Rice Burroughs over planetary romance stories set on Venus and Mars, a feud that I also read was more of a fan and magazine creation than a real thing. He also largely abandoned writing to become a literary agent in the mid-1930s, famously representing Robert E. Howard, author of the Conan stories. The main character is Ted Dustin, inventor, adventurer, scientist, and CEO who is everything Elon Musk wishes he was. Set forty years after what we could call World War One, it is a very optimistic late 1950s as imagined by someone who likely wrote this in 1929, with smokeless cities run on solar power, a largely peaceful world governed by the Associated Governments of the Earth, people basically do Zoom calls all the time with their radiovisiphones, flight is commonplace with electroplanes and aerial ships, but the world is not enough. Ted leads the way to reach for the stars and as part of that process, uses a gigantic artillery piece in the Galapagos Islands to fire a shell at the Moon as proof of concept of reaching the heavens. Only the shell destroyed an underground city on an apparently inhabited Moon and precipitated a planetary war between the already aggressive P’an-ku empire and the peoples of the Earth, with a number of Earth cities devastated. It is up to Ted to basically quickly invent and manufacture not only ray gun disintegrators (degravitors) but a space battleship to take the fight to the Moon. But first, Ted invents a smaller basically one-man craft and goes to the Moon himself to do what he can to stop further Lunar bombardment of Earth. While there he meets and instantly falls in love (and the love is returned) by the leader of the other Lunar civilization, a woman named Maza an Ma Gong, with Maza and Ted variously rescuing one another and allying to defeat the evil empire. It's got a breathless pace, a wonderfully exotic Moon with underground mushroom forests filled with dinosaurs, (non-fire-breathing) dragons, and pterodactyls (no one can live on the airless, hot surface), and lots and lots of combat, with Ted basically blasting everything in sight with his ray gun, though a few times melee weapons see use. There are aerial battles on Earth, battles over the Moon’s surface, prison escapes, fighting local wildlife (usually just disintegrating them), villains promising torture, ultimatums to the Earth, and so many ray guns, as the Moon people have them too. Got a few maybe problematic elements, as the bad guys are Asian and briefly ally with the Chinese, though if you read the book the Asian characters at least on Earth aren’t monolithic. Maza is a bit of a cypher. While she has some agency and is a leader, you really don’t learn much at all about her other than she takes an instant liking to Ted and is really pretty. Ted, for his part, is the Brilliant Inventor, Quick Master of Foreign Languages, Accomplished Scientist, Daredevil Pilot, and Intrepid Hero who Saves the World and Gets the Girl. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 20, 2024
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Jul 2024
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Jun 20, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0441080596
| 9780441080595
| 0441080596
| 3.92
| 12
| 1968
| Jan 01, 1968
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really liked it
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An Ace Double (“turn this book over for a second complete novel”) copyright 1968 comprised of two novels. One is _Anthropol_ by Louis Trimble and the
An Ace Double (“turn this book over for a second complete novel”) copyright 1968 comprised of two novels. One is _Anthropol_ by Louis Trimble and the other is _The Time Mercenaries_ by Philip E. High. Louis Preston Trimble (1917-1988) was an American author and academic and wrote science fiction, mysteries, westerns, and academic nonfiction. Sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Stuart Brock. He first published in 1938 but didn’t get published as a science fiction author until the mid-1950s and _Anthropol_ was his first science fiction novel. Philip E. High (1914-2006) was an English science fiction author who saw service in the Royal Navy during World War II and starting in the 1950s went on to write a series of science fiction short stories and 14 novels. _Anthropol_ is a first contact thriller science fiction story, the main character an agent named Vernay, working for the titular organization, an arm of the Galactic Federation (or Federation). Anthropol is more scientific and diplomatic than miliary, one sent to investigate newly discovered inhabited worlds, be they inhabited by aliens or by settlers from long lost colony ships from Earth, and initiate first contact. Their chief rival is the Galactic-Military or Gal-Mil, which doesn’t like the civilian feel of Anthropol, thinks Anthropol is too shy about using military force, and doesn’t understand Anthropol’s way of sending in small numbers of agents or even lone individuals like Vernay. Gal-Mil would rather show up with military fleets and land huge number of troops as part of first contact, especially with anything even remotely a threat. The two organizations, or rather Vernay and a team of Gal-Mil, compete on the newly discovered world of Ujvila, a human-settled world that has long been isolated and showed they weren’t very friendly at all when they killed a first contact mission sent by Anthropol. Gal-Mil wants to go in by force and take over the planet, but Anthropol would rather infiltrate a rebel group and help overthrow the planet’s authoritarian regime from within, thinking it would be less bloodshed, less heavy-handed, and likely to be better accepted by the inhabitants. Twists, the government is feminist, as in anyone in any position of power is a woman and men are very much second-class citizens. Or subjects rather, as the government is a police state and is headed by a totalitarian dictator, the Kalauz (a woman). This could have potentially been problematic but I really didn’t see any issues, partially because the Federation forces had women in positions of power and treated them as equals. The other twist is to me what really makes this a science fiction story, as it isn’t just Gal-Mil and the lone Anthropol agent that are infiltrating Ujvila, as other outsiders are doing the same. Parts dragged a little but overall it was a fun story. Some action scenes, intrigue, a huge escape/heist type segment, and a nice twist. Cool secret agent story. _The Time Mercenaries_ is a science fiction adventure/military science fiction story set over a thousand years in the future. Humanity has through genetic tinkering and social conditioning removed any trace of aggressiveness and any sort of fighting ability from humanity. Understandable given a series of near extinction-level event conflicts in humanity’s past and arguably it helped humanity spread among the stars and successfully settle a number of new planets. Not so great when on one colony world, an aggressive, ruthless, highly populous, land-hungry alien species known as the Nerne has targeted the planet as the first among the human planets to completely take as its own. No interest in negotiation, in living in peace, and humanity everywhere is utterly defenseless, lacking even the ability to send its robots out to fight. So as one does, the humans of a thousand years in the future resurrect the officers and crew of the British submarine _Euphrates_. Having sunk with all hands in a collision with a friendly warship either at the end of World War II or shortly thereafter (I wasn’t clear), the far future humans are able to resurrect all but I think four of the crew and restore them (and the sub) back to life. The far future humans ease Captain Randall and his second in command, Lieutenant Cooper, into the future, first making them think they returned home to port as they remembered it, then introducing them to the new reality, including ending with basically a plea of “please save humanity, we don’t know how to fight.” The rest of the novel is just that, Captain Randall and the others assessing both what the alien threat is and what the humanity of the present is capable of, knowing that the sub and its crew alone can't possibly win the war against the Nerne, that the far future humans have to step up, and then fighting the aliens. It is a fun story, great pacing, has a lot of combat but much of it revolving around ingenious schemes and showing things that both the far future humans and the aliens would never expect. Given the author’s naval experiences, the submarine aspects of the story rang true. I liked it a lot. ...more |
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1
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Jun 15, 2024
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Jun 20, 2024
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Jun 15, 2024
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 3.55
| 31
| 1965
| 1965
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really liked it
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An Ace Double (“turn this book over for a second complete novel”) copyright 1965 comprised of two novellas and five short stories by American author J
An Ace Double (“turn this book over for a second complete novel”) copyright 1965 comprised of two novellas and five short stories by American author Jack Vance (1916-2013), author of over 60 science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels and numerous short stories. He wrote for the pulps throughout the 1940s and 1950s and is probably most famous today for the Lyonesse fantasy trilogy and his fantasy Dying Earth series. One side is “Monsters in Orbit” and I understand is really two short stories sharing a main character, both copyright 1952. The linking character is Jean Parlier, a wily, street smart, ambitious, noirish girl who in the first of the two stories is engaged in a grifting con job, hired to marry a reclusive young man named Earl Abercrombie in a space station as part of a con job for another crook to get his hands on the young man’s vast fortunes, first by posing as a servant on the space station. Jean’s work is cut out for her, as Earl is a strange person among strange people. Not only is Earl a collector of rare (and dangerous) objects and creatures, but Abercrombie Station is inhabited by people who are amazingly obese, practically globes of flesh drifting through the station’s microgravity, and an insular, exclusive society that regards the sixteen-year-old girl as undesirably way too thin and doesn’t match their ideas of feminine beauty. The second story follows the conclusion of her adventure on Abercrombie Station and has her visit the distant planet Codiron, a backwater played out mining planet, in search of her long missing parents, only a dangerous trap has been set specifically for Jean. I found the morbidly obese space station society of Abercrombie Station absolutely bizarre, thought the ending of the story a bit rushed and confusing, and I think this is the weakest part of the Ace Double book. The second half set on Codiron was far more interesting and had two really fun twists. Though brief, I liked the worldbuilding of the desolate mining planet. The less than pure, witty, and scheming personality of Jean was a lot of fun. The other half of the Ace Double is five short stories originally copyright between 1951 and 1956 and are in no way linked. “The World Between” came off as tongue in cheek at first with two warring civilizations competing over a newly discovered planet ripe for terraforming, with everyone in each civilization (at least in the story) having their first name begin with the same letter (B in the case of those from Earth, the letter K for the Kay civilization) and has what looked like at first very problematic elements (the Earth crew’s officers, enlisted, scientists are all men, with the women present are “play-girls” for male pleasure but are not otherwise obviously scientists or engineers). I do appreciate that the women are shown to be extremely intelligent, even more intelligent at times than the men, and the story became one of the most interesting terraforming stories I ever read. “The Moon Moth” was excellent, a story set on the alien planet Sirene, a beautiful, tropical world of idyllic villages, where most people live on houseboats, food just grows abundantly everywhere, there is no need of money, but also a world where everyone wears a mask at all times and the appearance of your mask is very carefully tied to your social status and to get it wrong can do everything from be mildly insulting to trigger a duel to the death. Also, people communicate by singing and the use of a range of small, portable musical instruments you need to have on you at all times, with the right instrument essential for the right social status of both parties involved (and again, you better not guess wrong as far as instrument choice). In this amazingly complex alien Sirenese society, the main character Edwer Thissell has to look for a murderer hiding among the natives, a nonnative from the Home Planets but familiar with Sirenese society, a real trick in a world where everyone is masked and if Edwer oversteps his social status in the manhunt, he could be killed by an insulted local. Great worldbuilding, a fun mystery, and loved the twist ending. “Brain of the Galaxy” is a trippy story that is hard to summarize without spoilers and at first seems a series of rather gripping vignettes of various people in trouble and facing challenges, whether from social embarrassment or in a friendly competition or engaged in war or a desperate search or in prison, all the vignettes tying together in a surprising way. Reminded me of the original Star Trek series a bit in the sense there were big moral and philosophical ideas expounded on. “The Devil on Salvation Bluff” was a fun story about settling an alien planet that is wildly unpredictable to the colonists, with among other things its multiple suns not following a fixed pattern of rising and setting and periods of darkness and sun widely varying in a completely chaotic fashion. The protagonists are charged with bringing into the civilized fold another group of colonists, the Flits, who went native as it were, not living in neat, orderly houses and working neat, orderly farms, but instead living a pastoral, wild, carefree life in the mountains. Who has the right way of living on this world, the Flits, going with the flow, or the mainstream colonists, trying to impose order on the chaos with among other things an eternal clock that marks real time despite whatever the suns are doing? I think the ending was predictable in a sense but I still liked the lighter tone of the story. “The Men Return” expanded on the theme of “adapting to a very chaotic world” as it is set on an Earth that had “swam into a pocket of non-causality,” a truly chaotic world in which air might be solid, rock might suddenly turn liquid, a species that was safe to eat yesterday would be poisonous today or a random rock might suddenly be safe to eat, absolute random chaos. There are the Relicts, humans from before the non-causality event who still hold onto rules of how things were before but are increasingly few in number as it is hard to avoid instant death or just plain starvation in this strange new Earth, and there are Organisms, who “resembled men” and were originally mentally ill people who easily adapted to the chaos, thrived even in a world where logic and understanding cause and effect and that there are rules was meaningless. Once I understood the setting, it wasn’t as hard to follow the story as I had feared, and the story is more one of “look at this weird setting” than anything else. One imagines that this trippy story would be popular in the 1960s. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 04, 2024
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Jun 15, 2024
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Jun 04, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0553382136
| 9780553382136
| 0553382136
| 3.79
| 2,503
| Oct 2003
| Sep 30, 2003
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it was amazing
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A gripping hard science fiction mystery with elements of cyberpunk, space opera, espionage, and military science fiction. In a nutshell, the novel is
A gripping hard science fiction mystery with elements of cyberpunk, space opera, espionage, and military science fiction. In a nutshell, the novel is about UN Peacekeeper Major Catherine Li, who is sent to a mining colony world known as Compson’s World. A famous researcher, Hannah Sharifi (“the most prominent theoretical physicist in UN-controlled space… [h]er equations made Bose-Einstein transport possible, had woven themselves into the fabric of UN society”), was researching on the world that is home to the quantum entangled crystals that make reliable, commercial-scale FTL interstellar travel possible but died under mysterious circumstances. Li is sent to solve the mystery of her death but primarily to find the missing dataset she was working on, one that could change the balance of power between UN-governed human worlds and the Syndicates (the two engaged in an interstellar cold war). As an added wrinkle, Li was born and raised on Compson’s World, with great difficulty escaping the rough mining planet through means she has kept hidden and if discovered, could cause her a lot of problems. Li is operating alone, unsure of if she can trust planetary authorities and the company, Anaconda Mining Corporation or AMC, who run the mines she has to investigate in, no one eager for the UN to be looking at anything too closely. This all while finding out that it looks like Sharifi was murdered and people might start to see that LI and the researcher are clones, something Li took great pains to hide and again, would be the cause of problems for Li. Author Chris Moriarty has some extremely impressive worldbuilding, as the novel has so many great elements, including the more times people make faster-than-light jumps, the more memory they lose in each jump (having to back up memories in hardware or have them restored, maybe never sure they can entirely trust the backups or restorations, with occasionally lost memories resurfacing later), the existence of Emergents (AI that have become sentient and independent, with one Emergent named Cohen a vital part of the story and a friend and maybe lover to Li), shunting (taking over the body of a person, either by AI or another human, with the human not always willing), terraforming (with Compson’s World the only planet so far encountered with any signs of complex life, though when humans arrived was extinct except for cold, windswept algae tundra though the planet has vast coal deposits from formerly abundant life, but it is a world being made more Earth-like), an extinct Earth (evacuated and essentially uninhabited and lifeless owing to a climatic disaster, much of humanity existing in a huge space station essentially ringing Earth), constructs (genetically engineered lines of posthumans designed to do various jobs, who with considerable human help rebelled for independence but lost, those remaining in UN-controlled space essentially second-class citizens with very rare exceptions such as Sharifi, the rest escaping to form Syndicate Space, worlds controlled and populated by various syndicated genelines), streamspace (as opposed to realspace, a complex virtual world that overlies the physical world that is “more than the sum of things humans have put there” including not only Emergents but other types of AI and areas that don’t correspond to realspace, with whether or not one is connected to streamspace an important plot element), and ceramsteel (a number of people like Li have internal wirings and support mechanisms that give them added durability, speed, and other abilities but come with a cost, including making them valuable for their parts or enabling those possessing them use their biological bodies past the breaking point). Some reviewers noted the central science fiction plot mystery can be figured out fairly early on and largely I agree the main mystery of the book can be figured out given the clues the author gave, though the particular’s of Sharifi’s death weren’t obvious nor who were the main villains. The book can be read as a standalone as it has a great ending point, but I see that is book one of a trilogy and there is definitely potential for more story. The worldbuilding is rich and amazing, including biological and cultural aspects of Compson’s World I didn’t mention above. It was a little strange to read a novel largely set on a mining colony or in the mines themselves, with elements that wouldn’t have looked out of place even on 19th century Earth, but the setting was vital to the overall story and the interstellar setting of the novel. The AI character Cohen was amazingly complex and one of the better posthuman type characters I have seen in my readings, embracing what it might be like to interact with someone with abilities and an intellect well beyond that of normal humans. The book has some violent scenes especially towards the end. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 03, 2024
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Jun 02, 2024
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May 03, 2024
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Paperback
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| 1601250819
| 9781601250810
| 1601250819
| 3.72
| 373
| Jan 15, 2008
| Jan 15, 2008
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it was amazing
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Billed on the back cover as “science fiction’s original outlaw,” this book definitely contains a Han Solo type main reoccurring character, one Northwe
Billed on the back cover as “science fiction’s original outlaw,” this book definitely contains a Han Solo type main reoccurring character, one Northwest Smith (occasionally referred to as N.W. by his frequent companion from Venus, Yarol). Author C.L. Moore described his life as “a perilous affair outside the law and ruled by the ray-gun only,” his appearance “all leather and sunburn and his scarred face keen and wary” and sporting “scars that ray-guns had left, and the mark of knife and talon, and the tracks of wild years along the spaceways.” Living as a combination bounty hunter, mercenary, smuggler, and at one point briefly hinted robber, he is shown dealing with criminals and avoiding the law (which in the stories is simply called the Patrol) with his most often solution to a problem his ray-gun. In thirteen short stories, all but one copyright between 1933 and 1938 (the last in the book is copyright 1957), author Catherine Lucille Moore (1911-1987) tells the reader of various adventures of Northwest Smith and his often companion Yarol. Writing at a time when there were very few women writers and also achieving some fame as the creator of the first female sword and sorcery protagonist (Jirel of Joiry), Moore created a series of stories that gave glimpses into some great worldbuilding, a setting of “milk-white,” blonde, cherubic Venusian humans in a world of perpetual cloud cover, of a million-plus year old inhabited Mars inhabited by two different races (canal Martians – their women “coral pink, sweet as honey, murmurous under the moving moons” and Martian drylanders – one described as “grim-jawed, leathery,” both very different yet still human), of a universe that felt big and gritty and used and lived in, really interstellar in the way Han Solo would know, as life wasn’t limited to Earth, Mars, and Venus but multiple other bodies in the solar system had life (in one story the main characters are on a jungle-clad wilderness moon of Jupiter). Having said that though, this isn’t a collection of stories about N.W. being a smuggler or a bounty hunter or a mercenary or getting in bar fights in some remote Martian settlement or a seedy Venusian tavern near the docks. These things are hinted at, existing on the periphery, or prelude to a tale. No, this is an almost Lovecraftian collection of tales of N.W. being traumatized by mind-bending horrors that are difficult to comprehend. In most of the stories N.W. encounters some sort of femme fatale, often in many ways the main driver of events in that tale, and either is a monster herself, or introduces N.W. (and the reader) to some emotionally traumatizing experience where Bad Things happen to the woman and to N.W. Several of the stories are horror tales that one is glad N.W. survives, while others are sad, tragic tales where the thing N.W. wishes he had encountered wasn’t (just) gibbering mind-blasting cosmic horrors, but a super sad tale of a civilization or of one woman, tragic tales that end in sadness and heartbreak, of someone sacrificing themselves or struggling against a cosmic horror and it be all for naught. While the former tales or elements of cosmic horror felt very Lovecraftian, the latter weren’t something I associated at all with Lovecraft or those who wrote in his style and I think that sets Moore apart. Several of the very sad endings really stuck with me and I think will always stick with me (“Scarlet Dream” especially, that had such a haunting and sad ending), a type of evocative writing that seems very much ahead of its time. Some of the tales belong more in the fantasy camp than science fiction (I would call the story “Quest of the Starstone” straight up fantasy though most stories are science fiction), though all are tinged by horror to one degree or another. N.W. fights monsters, gods, and those that would use them, though many times N.W. is more an observer than an active protagonist, as either whatever happens, happens, or a character in the story other than him is the driver of events, with that character pretty much always coming to a very bad end and it is Northwest Smith that survives as a witness. A few times Moore could fall into the Lovecraftian tendency for purple prose and overly long descriptions, though unlike Lovecraft I think she did a better job of describing what the characters felt as well as including actual dialogue. She was fond of the words queer, queerly, and once I noticed their frequency I couldn’t stop noticing them, but it wasn’t a big issue for me. One of the tales near the end of the collection was very arty and dream-like, some evocative writing but also rather confusing (“Werewoman”). Overall though the tales felt surprisingly modern and if one changed the settings from Venus, Mars, that moon of Jupiter, to some other planets out amongst the stars, they definitely could pass for modern science fiction (with horror and fantasy elements). ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 30, 2024
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Apr 17, 2024
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Mar 30, 2024
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Paperback
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| 0062351435
| 9780062351432
| 0062351435
| 3.83
| 41,977
| Oct 20, 2015
| Jan 10, 2017
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really liked it
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Strange, rather endearing genre blend that seems almost equal parts science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, mystery, and magical realism. It
Strange, rather endearing genre blend that seems almost equal parts science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, mystery, and magical realism. It is set in the pretty much pocket universe town of Night Vale, somewhere out in the Southern California desert far from anything, a community that has seemingly normal things like the Moonlite All-Nite Diner, the Desert Flower Bowling Alley and Arcade Fun Complex, and Night Valley Community Radio, a town that exists all on its own, its chief employers mysterious but perhaps something related to military, scientific research, and national security, but it isn’t long before the reader learns the town is very, very different. While I had expected the X-files vibe of things like the strange lights (presumably UFOs) out in the desert or hovering over Arby’s, of secretive government agencies and townsfolk who know they are always under surveillance, I hadn’t expected straight up magical realism with bits like a radio PSA warning that sand it sentient but plants are only intermittently sentient, or learning that the librarians in the town library are literal monsters and everyone knows this, or that writing utensils are technically illegal in Night Vale (though many people have and use them) or that people eat invisible pie at the Moonlite All-Nite Diner or that existence of mountains is considered a controversial topic among the townsfolk. Against this weird backdrop of a town that is both scary (casual mentions of human sacrifice or people who just vanish) and homey (lots of people know each other and there is a sense of community), there are two main plot threads that fairly quickly converge. One thread revolves around pawn shop owner and apparently sole employee Jackie Fierro, who is apparently (eternally?) nineteen years old, has been for years, possibly decades, a strange pawnshop where people pawn the oddest things, Jackie always putting the same price on everything no matter what (eleven dollars), One day Jackie accepts a slip of paper with two words written on it in pencil, KING CITY, given to her by a mysterious man in a tan jacket. A piece of paper that once she accepted, she cannot remove from her hand for more than a moment, that no matter what she does to hide, bury, or destroy it, always appears pristine and back in the same hand. Jackie falls down a rabbit hole trying to find out who that man in tan was, why she can’t get rid of the paper, where King City is, and if it is even possible to get to King City from Night Vale (it appears not, owing to the weird rules of Night Vale, where leaving in general is hard). Meanwhile we meet office worker Diane Crayton, having a difficult time of it with her fifteen year old son Josh who keeps changing shape (literally, as in he can be a fly, a spider, something else, some combination, whatever he wants, something everyone accepts in stride), with her troubles including the disappearance of an office coworker no one seems to remember and Josh becoming obsessed with finding his missing father, a man who disappeared from their lives shortly after Josh was born, having run away, but suddenly Diane starts seeing the man, Troy, everywhere in town. Though with the X-files type mysteries, generally presented somewhat tongue in cheek, and the magical realism it could have been quite difficult to follow these two threads and how they converge, it wasn’t overly so, and in the end the story was surprisingly personal and human, about relationships, family, community, and personal growth. I liked some of the Chandleresque lines throughout the book, such as “She left the shower as most people leave showers, clean and a little lonely” and “She would sit there all day, doing what she did and no more than what she did, and then she would stop doing that and go home” and even being rather direct in its homage with “She imagined film noir, dim but high-contrast light pressing through the blinds creating smoky, white slices across the pitch-black room.” The magical realism was odd at first but I got used to it, despite not having experienced much of it. Indeed, for me, only twice previously, _One Hundred Years of Solitude_ by Gabriel García Márquez (which I did not finish) and _Salamanders of the Silk Road_ by Christopher Smith (which I did finish and do recommend). One other similar book I would like to note (and recommend) is _The Lost_ by Sarah Beth Durst, another odd desert town that has its own rules and is seemingly cut off from the rest of the world. Many, many differences, but has similar themes and vibes and might appeal to whoever is still reading this review. The book is thick, looks like it would take a long time to read, but actually read pretty fast. ...more |
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1
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Mar 09, 2024
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Mar 17, 2024
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Mar 09, 2024
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Paperback
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| B0B1VVBRG5
| unknown
| 3.51
| 1,155
| May 26, 2022
| May 26, 2022
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it was amazing
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Fun science fiction/thriller/comedy audiobook written by one of my favorite authors, Ben. H. Winters, I had a blast listening to it. The central chara
Fun science fiction/thriller/comedy audiobook written by one of my favorite authors, Ben. H. Winters, I had a blast listening to it. The central character is Jack Diller (voiced by Will Wheaton, who as always does a phenomenal job as an audiobook narrator). Jack wants to be an actor, but other than almost maybe but not really getting cast in a few (web) commercials, is very much not an actor. He is barely scrapping by in an aging car, badly in need of repair, delivering food through an app-based service, almost always to wealthy people in and around Hollywood and Beverely Hills he envies. Jack lives in a tiny rental house, barely has any food in the fridge, his girlfriend dumped him but is still in his life as a friend but also out of pity, with her Tech Bro boyfriend not so much threatened by her still seeing Jack but, perhaps worse, taking pity on Jack, and trying a lot to help him as well. Then one day an app suddenly appears on Jack’s phone, from Twisted Palms Audio, a link to an audio self help book written and narrated by action star Hector Bruno (wonderfully and hilariously voiced by Ron Perlman). The book, called _The Killer Instinct_, seems at first a generic cheesy self help book, incongruously written by a washed-up action star popular decades ago…till Hector starts talking to Jack, directly, by name, even seeming to know what Jack is thinking. Jack wonders if he is going insane, if he is being haunted by Hector, maybe Hector is a ghost, but soon enough Jack just accepts Hector as his new friend and mentor and starts to take his advice. Advice that first is great for Jack’s self-confidence and sense of worth, then his finances, but soon leads him down a bad path indeed. Lots of fun, great pacing, vivid characters, some great humor, a few cool twists. An enjoyable listen. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 13, 2024
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Feb 21, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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Audiobook
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| 0671653393
| 9780671653392
| 0671653393
| 3.57
| 675
| 1958
| 1987
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it was amazing
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The Enemy Stars was originally a story copyright 1958, then partially rewritten and republished in 1979. This edition is copyright 1987 and includes a
The Enemy Stars was originally a story copyright 1958, then partially rewritten and republished in 1979. This edition is copyright 1987 and includes a sequel titled “The Ways of Love.” In this far future setting, humanity has reached the stars, with ships that take potentially centuries to reach their destination, but the ships themselves can be reached instantly by matter-energy transporters not unlike Star Trek transporters only with an unimaginably vast range. The range of the machinery if it is powerful enough is practically infinite, but it must have another matter-energy transporter to lock on to. Space explorers can go back and forth to starships, meaning they don’t have to be crewed at all times, and the starships are sent out to help establish end points at systems that are worth colonizing, that once the starship makes the long, slow voyage to a system, humans can pour through the portal in seconds and start colonizing that world. Earth has a tight grip on the colonies, with a dictator known as the Protector (the state known a the Protectorate) maintain dominance over the far-flung colonies, making it easy to journey to the colonies, but incredibly difficult to return to Earth, pretty much impossible for anyone born in the colonies. The colonies chafe under the Protectorate, but so far lack the power and organization to throw off that yoke (not that people on Earth have it great either, as a rigid caste system as well as a patriarchal rather misogynistic society exists). The book details a mission to explore a dead star, one that is a featureless black sphere, darker than the endless night sky it exists in, made possible to explore by a slight diversion of the farthest out of the starships, the _Southern Cross_, sometimes called simply the _Cross_. Four men are sent out by matter transporter to the ship to explore this star, but in the course of the mission the four people become stranded in the system, fighting a series of challenges to not crash into the star, find a way to return home, to not starve, and to not go mad. The remainder of the book is how these four survive (or do they?), their philosophizing as to what is really important in life and why humanity is among the stars (this philosophizing echoed by the father and wife of one of the four men on board the ship, who back on Earth comes to terms with what has potentially happened to their loved one, David Ryerson), and as one might guess from the cover art, the mission leads inadvertently to first contact with a sentient alien species (the exact scene on the cover is in the book), with this having huge ramifications for all the characters and the setting as a whole. I liked the different chapters early on as we are introduced to the different main characters, vivid little vignettes of each person’s life and their world before boarding the _Southern Cross_. The “man against nature” survival of the _Cross_ was interesting, and I loved the vivid description of how remote and cold and uncaring and isolated that super distant system was, with passages like “but the mind sensed remoteness beyond remoteness, and whimpered. Nor was the ground underfoot a comfort, for it was almost as dark,” though in the end, for as uncaring as the dark of deep space was, love of a husband and wife, love among friends and comrades, love for exploration and duty and yes even space, love for freedom, and love among totally different peoples, prevails. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 14, 2023
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Sep 17, 2023
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Sep 14, 2023
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Paperback
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| 1476782601
| 9781476782607
| 1476782601
| 3.92
| 356
| Apr 28, 2015
| Apr 28, 2015
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really liked it
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One of my comfort reads is a Star Trek novel and this one by author Dave Galanter, copyright 2015, did quite nicely. Firmly in the galactic politics/m
One of my comfort reads is a Star Trek novel and this one by author Dave Galanter, copyright 2015, did quite nicely. Firmly in the galactic politics/military adventure plot type, the story has the Enterprise at the start of the novel on a mission to the Maabas, a formerly isolationist alien species, a treaty mission as the Maabas are joining the Federation. The Maabas are not native to the star system they currently inhabit, having fled an aggressive conquering species apparently unknown to the Federation, but have lived on the planet for millennia. In return for protection and trade, the Maabas seem poised to offer to the Federation a lot of technological advantages, some from their own efforts, others coming from Maabas research into the sophisticated technology left on the planet from its previous inhabitants. And while the Enterprise is there, those previous inhabitants, the Kenisians, show up and would the Maabas leave their planet, please and thank you. Though Kirk and company quickly figure out the Maabas knew this was likely to happen soon, a treaty is a treaty, so the Enterprise, all by herself, has to defend the Maabas. Kirk and crew would strongly prefer a peaceful, diplomatic solution to the benefit of all parties, so they get to work to find out what the Maabas knew, what the Kenisians really want, and why, and if the Kenisians won’t listen respond to diplomacy, how to defeat them. One of the main characters of the Enterprise crew is off by himself most of the book, that worked well both to highlight the character and to also give some spotlight to the characters that had to fill in back on the Enterprise, so a win-win in my opinion. The author has several new characters of importance, notably an Ambassador Pippenge of the Maabas who figures prominently in the story, Lieutenant Carolyn Palmas (the ship’s archaeology and anthropology officer, important at first for details relating to the Maabas and the treaty mission, later becoming important in other ways), and Ensign Chris Jolma (very new to his job, learning the ways of Starfleet and determined to do better). Scotty late in the book gets some nice attention, largely because of interaction with the one of the characters I just mention, and Uhura has some great scenes, though I think depicting Jolma to an extent took away time for Sulu and Chekov, not that the “new ensign who is uncertain in his job” role would work well for either Sulu or Chekov. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy figure very prominently in the novel. Not a bad story, not one of the best I have ever read, but it moved along nicely and the characters seemed true. The Maabas weren’t especially interesting and I don’t think terribly well described, but the Kenisians were interesting and had a species trait that was both vital to the story and was a really interesting extrapolation of something preexisting in Star Trek lore. Dave passed away December 12, 2020 from cancer. He was 51. This is the first book of his that I have read and I plan to read more. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Sep 06, 2023
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Sep 14, 2023
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Sep 06, 2023
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 1582882118
| 9781582882116
| 1582882118
| 3.64
| 64
| Jan 2006
| May 2006
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it was amazing
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Very nicely written collection of six short stories, all copyright 2006, collected in a Science Fiction Book Club anthology by editor Marvin Kaye. To
Very nicely written collection of six short stories, all copyright 2006, collected in a Science Fiction Book Club anthology by editor Marvin Kaye. To varying degrees, all explore the theme of a forbidden planet, whether people are banned from the planet (or part of a planet) or if not banned, shouldn’t visit it for whatever reason. The first one is “Mid-Death” by Alan Dean Foster. Set on the planet known as Mid-World, it is a planet covered in dense and very dangerous jungle, comprised of kilometers-high trees and extremely dangerous fauna and flora. Technically forbidden to everyone, the planet being Under Edict, there is an illegal corporation outpost in a relative safe spot on the world. One of the lead researchers, a man named Thom Olin, has gone missing in the alien forest and a team of four mercenaries are sent to look for the researcher. The team, full of bravado, is incredulous at the cowardly company employees who don’t go hiking through the forest towards Thom’s signal, but they soon find to their horror how unbelievably sinister and dangerous the place is; basically, it is a survival horror story set on an alien world. I think this one will stick with me. Then we Get “Walking Star” by Allen Steele, set on Coyote, the world of Steele’s Coyote saga (though it appears to be a stand-alone story). Far, far less dangerous world than Mid-World, it has a distinct Old West feel with terrain, climate, how people earn a living, attitudes, etc. Basically, a guide named Lee is hired by the richest man on Coyote, Morgan Goldstein, to look for his friend and employee named Joseph Walking Star Cassidy. Walking Star, a Native American, went to a super remote area of what is already a frontier planet, probably seeking a local hallucinogenic drug from the source, and Morgan wants him back. The forbidden part it turns out is not so much from Walking Star being in remote wilderness, but it being better for everyone that he wasn’t found. Good story, I would love to see a follow up and I am going to have to read some of the Coyote saga. “JQ211F, and Holding” by Nancy Kress is a very inventive story, basically about a military-scientific expedition to what may prove to the ultimate source of all life in the galaxy, as a team of researchers has determined that not only did panspermia explain life throughout the galaxy, but that surveys point to all that life originating from one hypothetical planet. However, the planet turns out to be a hell-world, apparently lifeless and maybe never had life. What is the explanation? Lots of personal drama among the crew, touches upon Christian beliefs, very memorable ending. Robert Reed’s “Rococo” is one of those science fiction stories I love, deep space, far future, deep in the galaxy very far from Earth, decades and centuries pass during the course of the story, giving a real feel of the unimaginable distances and times needed to cross to explore the galaxy. Love the epic scope, some interesting family drama, and we get some very alien aliens, the Scypha, with the forbidden nature of the worlds having to do with alien psychology and politics. Next, “Kaminsky at War” by Jack McDevitt, about anthropologist Arthur Kaminsky, who uses stealth light bending technology to move amongst the war-like Noks, a sort of insect-like race that is very war-like, constantly fighting among themselves. Obviously capable of beauty, tenderness, hope, and joy, nevertheless the average people are continually suffering from the dozens of dictators who rule the world’s major nations, often with militaries primarily ordered to commit war crimes. Supposed to stay the neutral and undetected observer, Kaminsky snaps after he witnesses a wedding party slaughtered by soldiers sent to destroy a small, peaceful town, he goes on a one man (or one man and one AI, coercing his reluctant lander AI named George) campaign to attack the military and try to stop the killing. Does it prove futile? Will Kaminsky succeed before his own people or the dangers of what he is doing catch up with him? Though the alien technology is little better than early 20th century, Kaminsky can still be killed and his invisibility is not 100% full proof. Enjoyable. The last story is “No Place Like Home” by Julie E. Czerneda. A little harder to get into at first with the point of view characters (and indeed all the characters) some rather alien aliens, it is a space-faring species known as the Umlari, truly space aliens for centuries, never living on planets. One ship is sent on a decades long mission to find resources for the Umlari and if possible find the original homeworld, completely lost to the species. One of the main features of the story is that a group on board known as walkers use specially grown biological avatars to traverse the worlds they explore, partially because the avatars are adapted to these worlds, partially because the Umlari can barely handle the concept of being on an alien planet under open skies. Some vivid imagery, interesting ideas, and a couple of real twists towards the end. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 22, 2023
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Aug 27, 2023
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Aug 22, 2023
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Hardcover
| ||||||||||||||
| 1524119083
| 9781524119089
| 1524119083
| 3.44
| 18
| Aug 17, 2021
| Sep 27, 2022
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it was amazing
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Violent saga lovingly based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, building on the events and setting of the books, looks like the entire series, thou
Violent saga lovingly based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, building on the events and setting of the books, looks like the entire series, though as far as I can tell not any of the comics or graphic novels. Written by Dan Abnett and illustrated by Vasco Georgiev, it is several sagas in one. The starting plotline deals with Dejah Thoris and Kantos Kan, sort of like her bodyguard, both in exile from Helium. Dejah is working on investigating and coming up with a solution to a climate change crisis on Barsoom, an ice age-level winter that appears poised to end life on the planet, her expeditions taking her to remote areas on the planet, places filled with dangerous wildlife and making her vulnerable to assassins. Another plotline is palace intrigue. Kurz Kurtos, Jeddak of Helium, his rule having swept aside Dejah and her family, publicly tolerates Dejah’s bloodline to still exist, unprecedented in Barsoom history, but privately has with some push from associates decided that Dejah and her family, the bloodline of Jasoom, and associates, despite going to honest and public efforts to indicate they support Kurz Kurtos and do not want to be back in power, must be eliminated. Eliminated in private of course, via assassins, as publicly Dejah is too well known and too popular. Not only does Kurz Kurtos want Dejah gone, but others that could threaten his rule or avenge any assassination of Dejah, notably Llana of Gathol, Tara the Queen of Gathol, and Thuvia of Ptarth, pretty much a who’s who of the Barsoom saga. Meanwhile, there is unrest among the Tharks, who are being stirred up to break their Dejah Thoris-brokered peace with Helium, also as a people feeling the pinch of the coming super winter and desperate for food. Tars Tarkas, friend of the bloodline of Jasoom, is one of the very few Tharks who don’t seem to want to break the peace treaty and still remembers Dejah and her family with fondness. On top of all this there are other players, one revealed early on, the witch queen Jeddara of the city of Zodanga, a figure I have to admit not being familiar with, who is both working with Kurz Kurtos and may have something to do with the impeding climatic doom of Barsoom. And there is another player on top of that, but I won’t say who. It’s a lot! Pacing is brisk, there is a lot of action, combat in the air, on land, underground, with huge monsters, with super soldiers (that was a surprise). The pinup gallery of cover art and other illustrations of Dejah at the end of the graphic novel aside, Dejah is actually for most of the book very modestly dressed; albeit a bit form-fitting, it covers almost all her skin except her neck and head, though other red Barsoomians wear kind of skimpy clothing. The book is violent but I don’t think especially gory, though it is tough on the wildlife! I liked the aerial battles and every time terrain was depicted, it was well done. One character is heavily hinted at being LGBTQ, though it does not appear to be a major plot point. Some of the hairstyles seemed very modern, like very recent popular styles among young people, and to my surprise there was some profanity. My favorite character had to be Tars Tarkas, who both Kept It Real and was hilarious (with some very nice illustration of his facial expressions, well done). ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 13, 2023
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Jul 13, 2023
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Jul 13, 2023
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Paperback
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| B0001MC02I
| unknown
| 3.86
| 996
| Feb 1985
| 1999
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it was amazing
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One of my favorites novellas ever, I read it years ago in an anthology, back in the 1980s when it first came out, and was excited to listen to it read
One of my favorites novellas ever, I read it years ago in an anthology, back in the 1980s when it first came out, and was excited to listen to it read again. I was pleased it was even better than I remembered it and I had forgotten just enough to still have a few surprises. The setting is one of my favorites of all time, the 50th century on Earth, all the world is reduced to five cities at any one time, each city a wholesale reconstruction of some fabled city from Earth’s past, be it Alexandria of the Ptolemies (where the story begins) or the Saharan trade city of Timbuktu or Rome of the Caesars or completely fictional cities like Asgard (but based on Norse mythology). A relatively small number of Citizens exist, who live lives of untroubled leisure as they travel from city to city, spending days, weeks, months (no one seems troubled to keep track of time) partying, resting, taking in the sights, gossiping with each other, no one actually working nor particularly curious as to the source of the lovingly crafted cities. They spend time in the Chinese imperial capital city of Chang-an for a time, then move on to 25th century New Chicago for days or even months, then go to other places as they or their friend group wish, no money required, their every need fulfilled, doing whatever they like, whether luxuriating in the city’s baths or being the guests of honor of imperial feasts or climbing the lighthouse at Alexandria or anything they like. After a time, months, maybe years, each city is eventually torn down and replaced by another city, with Rome one day being replaced by Venice or Byzantium. Though there are relatively small number of citizens, maybe a few million at most, the cities are bustling, but not with living humans, but rather Temporaries, who look exactly like humans that would have inhabit the city and the role they are assigned, but aren’t actually human, just sentient enough to fulfill whatever role is needed to maintain the illusion of the real city, whether as dancer or lighthouse keeper or street sweeper or gladiator or servant or emperor or whatever is needed. They aren’t real people, they don’t have any real autonomy, they aren’t self-aware, and they have no capacity to do much of anything beyond their assigned role. And then there is Charles Phillips, a man from 1984 New York, unsure of how he got to the 50th century, continually surprised by this world, at a loss to explain what happened between the 20th and 50th centuries, a man very much of his time. Most Citizens look nearly alike (to the point Charles often confuses them, as they all look like shorter than him, slim, dark-haired, Mediterranean types who never, ever age past what looks like late teens). Charles is with one of the Citizens, a woman named Goia, who starts out the book experiencing Alexandria with Charles, a woman frantic to take in as much of the sights as she can, to see everything today if at all possible, seemingly unaffected by the timeless and endless patience of the other Citizens who know there is all the time in the world to see all they want of each city. The novella focuses on both Charles coming to understand the world he is in, how it works, are there others like him, can he return to 1984, and with understanding Goia, why she is different from the other Citizens, how much she is like him and why, and how much they both mean to each other despite the 50th century’s very casual attitudes to commitment and monogamy. I enjoyed all the loving detail of each city that Charles visits, both their striking attention to detail (surprising in that the average citizen often seems to know relatively little ancient history, though someone in the world clearly does) and their occasional anachronisms, whether a Christian church or a mosque in Ptolemaic Alexandria or in the Alexandrian zoo mythical creatures like hippogriffs and unicorns alongside the real world camels and hippos (though all equally fascinating to the Citizens as are all equally mythical). You don’t get a lot of answers as to how the world works, though some is revealed as the book progresses, especially when Charles finds more people like himself. The heart of the book though is Charles and Goia and what they mean to each other. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 2023
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Jul 07, 2023
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Jul 01, 2023
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Audiobook
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| 3.22
| 9
| 1965
| 1965
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really liked it
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Another Ace Double, my second, in which there is no back cover blurb/reviews, but both sides are the front of a book; flip over and turn the book upsi
Another Ace Double, my second, in which there is no back cover blurb/reviews, but both sides are the front of a book; flip over and turn the book upside down, it is another book. This one is two novels rather than an anthology and a novel, both relatively short. One is _We, the Venusians_ by John Rackham, copyright 1965, with John Rackham a pen name for John T. Phillifent, (1916-1976), an English electrical engineer and science fiction and fantasy author who wrote mostly under the Rackham name. Apparently, most of his works were issued with the works of other authors with the Ace Doubles. The other is _The Water of Thought_ by Fred Saberhagen (1930-2007), copyright 1965, an American science fiction author best known for his Berserker novel series (which I have enjoyed), though this series does not appear as far as I can tell set in the Berserker universe. Both stories are thematically similar, with one set as one might guess on Venus (the Venus of hot jungles and swamps, not the Venus we know actually exists) and other on a much more temperate planet called Kappa. Both planets feature small human colonies who regard either all the native bipedal very human-looking natives as unintelligent animals (_We, the Venusians_) or a mixture of primitive people but still humans and again a large group of human-looking animals (_The Water of Thought_). In both cases, Terrestrial humans are trying to exploit the “animals” and in both cases the Terrestrial humans are quite wrong about whether or not they are “animals.” Both books have a dashing main character hero, with _We, the Venusians_ focusing primarily on pianist (!) Anthony Taylor and _The Water of Thought_ on planeteer Boris Brazil of the Space Force. Both are adventure stories, though the primary obstacles differ, with _We, the Venusians_ just surviving in the jungles of Venus and contending at least at first with the dangerous fauna, while Kappa in _The Water of Thought_ lacks dangerous wildlife but there is danger a plenty from some of the natives and some of the Terrestrial colonists. Both novels have criminals at the heart of the danger, though it is explicit and allowed crime (colonial exploitation, though the slavery aspects may not be well known outside Venus) in _We, the Venusians_ and very much black market and hidden in _The Water of Thought_. Both books explore what it is to be human and while at first seem extremely racist, it becomes clear that the authors are condemning racism, not endorsing it, though it is shocking especially in _We, the Venusians_ depicting a Terrestrial society where racism is so blatant, obvious, and unquestioned, not just against the Venusians (the Greenies) but against anyone not white on or from Earth. I think I liked _We, the Veusians_ a bit better for featuring such an alien world with an alien ecology and such fantastically awful people as the villains, though I liked the nods in _The Water of Thought_ to _Heart of Darkness_ and _The Island of Doctor Moreau_, as while those were not dominant elements, they did explain the reality of one of the antagonists. Though I think the diatribe against modern music early on in _We, the Venusians_ was rather odd, which read like a condemnation of all rock music, I was pleased at how much music fit into the overall story. I think both stories shied away from having truly strong and independent women characters, that both for a time had women characters that showed independence and agency and were important to the male protagonists, in the end the authors had them fall short though not necessarily because they were women (perhaps, each reader will have to decide I think if the author had them fail because of gender roles or just novel events). I think _The Water of Thought_ worked for the length it was, though _We, the Venusians_ could have benefited from a somewhat longer treatment. I think some of the characters in _The Water of Thought_ blended together a little, but it wasn’t a huge problem for me. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 17, 2023
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Jun 22, 2023
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Jun 17, 2023
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Paperback
| |||||||||||||||||
| 0765356473
| 9780765356475
| 0765356473
| 3.26
| 110
| 1986
| Jan 15, 2007
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really liked it
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This is only my second David Drake novel, the previous one I read was his excellent _Time Safari_. _Bridgehead_, copyright 1986, was another time trav
This is only my second David Drake novel, the previous one I read was his excellent _Time Safari_. _Bridgehead_, copyright 1986, was another time travel story but unlike _Time Safari_, the time travel aspects are actually a bit secondary at times. In a nutshell, humans from the far future, 12,000 AD, have come to the present, to a university to work with “the locals” to build a time machine. The future people, the Three Travelers, Keyliss, Astor, and Selve, two women and one man, are able to visit their distant past and the main character’s present with time machines but they also want the locals to build their own time machines with local materials under the direction of the Three Travelers. The motivation of the Three Travelers is basically stated as “our future will not exist unless you develop time travel” and oh “don’t tell anyone especially your government about us.” So, the researchers and engineers don’t really question the Three Travelers too much and build working time machines, with under their future friends’ guidance, make early on in the novel a trip to the swampy forests of the Carboniferous. Nice, safe, a demonstration of concept. Only, the Three Travelers aren’t being truthful, at all, about a lot of things, some of their lies and omissions quickly revealed when they take a bunch of the locals to visit the dinosaur-filled Mesozoic…and are attacked by chlorine breathing aliens known as the Vrage, who attack the locals and the Three Travelers with energy weapons and tanks. The rest of the book is basically fighting the Vrage throughout space and time, the locals coming to terms not only with the Vrage, not only the lies told by the Three Travelers, but to the grave danger posed to present day earth by both the Vrage and the Travelers. I think the Vrage were very interesting aliens, if you like science fiction combat there is an awful lot of it, I think well done and something I understand David Drake excels at. There are some nice twists and turns in the story, and I enjoyed how even with far future weaponry the dinosaurs were no joke as far as being threats. I think descriptions of the Mesozoic environment were vivid and also mysterious too, though the mystery aspects become explained later. I liked how the locals, despite being in way over their head, definitely are proactive in trying to fight and to save the Earth, even using technology they really don’t understand at all going to places they don’t understand at all. Downsides, early on in the book the author throws a lot of present-day characters at the reader and I had a hard time keeping some straight or even understanding why they were in the story in the first place. Also reminded me of watching Alien, that on the initial viewing, it isn’t clear that Ripley will emerge as the main character. Main characters, two, a man and a woman, emerge in the story, but looking back I couldn’t have picked them out at the beginning. It kind of surprised me how at times the Vrage and the future people could be a bit incompetent and sloppy, though I supposed that humanized them (the present-day characters also made mistakes too). I do think some of the few scenes with the Three Travelers talking to themselves were questionable, as early on one scene of what they say to each other doesn’t seem to fit what we learn later in the book (I went back and reread that scene); not a deal breaker, but I think if one is going to have twists and surprises, maybe maintain the mystery and not include scenes that at least appear contradictory. I think my biggest complaint was so many of the human characters were kind of thinly fleshed out and a bit interchangeable, at least at first, reminding me of a Tom Clancy novel, that the main characters are distinctive but so many others just feel cut from the same cloth and hard to keep track of; I wonder if this is a common issue with military fiction. It was a fun and fast read though. The fight scenes are exciting and the locals visit some interesting places. Twists and turn go right up to the final pages too. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 15, 2023
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Jun 16, 2023
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Jun 15, 2023
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Paperback
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| 3.48
| 23
| 1959
| 1959
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really liked it
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Fun anthology of five stories set on Venus, copyright between 1935-1954, back when it was thought that the clouds of Venus hid either an ocean world o
Fun anthology of five stories set on Venus, copyright between 1935-1954, back when it was thought that the clouds of Venus hid either an ocean world or a rainy swamp world. The stories often read at times surprisingly modern with not that many anachronisms (lots of smoking in some of the stories for instance, a woman drinks quite a bit of alcohol toasting her pregnancy in another, though the colonial aspects of some were a bit darker). I think all of them would have worked well as stories set on alien worlds other than Venus, that change the name/star system and the story would work just fine as modern science fiction. The first story is “Field Expedient” copyright 1954 by Chad Oliver, a story in which an eccentric billionaire named James Murray Vandervort sends his top employee Keith Ortega and Keith’s wife Carrie to oversea a secret and technically illegal colonization project on the cloudy jungle world of Venus. Less adventure story than the rest of the book, it has some beautiful images of Venus (a world I would love to visit) though the story is more Big Idea and philosophical in nature, exploring ideas like the advance of civilization. I liked the touches of life on Earth before we see Venus, kind of a Chandleresque version of Blade Runner. Then is “Venus Mission” copyright 1951 by J.T. McIntosh, a noirish space adventure story of survival, starring roguish, selfish, kind of boorish, but very clever and capable anti-hero Warren Blackwell, famed war hero against Venus’s native inhabitants, the sinister semi-telepathic Greys. Warren is a man refusing to make the Big Sacrifice to save their crashed ship, lost in the foggy jungles of Venus, and the young woman crewmember Virginia Stuart, determined to do the right thing if Warren won’t to save the crew. Tense, exciting, a bit violent, I appreciated the strong woman character and the creepy jungles, though the colonial feel of humans on Venus and the nearly monolithic view of the alien Greys was a bit dark as was the ending. “The Luck of Ignatz” copyright 1940 by Lester Del Rey felt probably the most dated in terms of technology and dialogue, reading like a 1930s era freighter and sailors were inspiration for a spacefaring vessel traveling to Venus, focusing on the unluckiest sailor ever, Jerry Lord as he desperately tries to get to Venus to find the love of his life. The best part was his friend and companion Ignatz, a Venusian zloaht or snail-lizard, an absolutely delightful alien intelligence that is key to the story. It was an interesting juxtaposition of very very 1930s feeling people and almost tech too with some nicely done and rather modern alien ecologies and anatomy. “The Lotus Eaters,” copyright 1935, by Stanley G. Weinbaum, is next, with definitely the most unusual view of Venus, introducing the reader to a world where Venus has one side permanently in sunlight and is a charred desert, one side permanently in darkness and an icy, ultra cold wasteland, and humanity having settled a narrow twilight zone between the two spheres. The books centers on two explorers, a husband-wife team of American “Ham” Hammond and Brit Pat Hammond, as they explore and endure the dangers of the Dark Side of Venus. Some cool aliens mixed in with pulpish danger from dangerous native inhabitants. The dialogue and attitudes felt of the time, but points for some cool aliens. Finally, is “Terror Out of Space” copyright 1944 by Leigh Brackett. Of all the stories, it is the one that most felt like it began in the middle, right in the action, but it also had the most alien aliens and the most alien version of Venus in the anthology, truly feeling like another world and also a world that could exist. Some great aliens, gripping action and survival scenes fighting very dangerous creatures (and at one point the main character’s – Lundy’s - crewmembers), and as one might guess from the title, had one foot firmly in the horror camp. A fun anthology and a pretty quick read. ...more |
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1
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Jun 10, 2023
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Jun 14, 2023
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Jun 10, 2023
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 0981514839
| 9780981514833
| 0981514839
| 3.61
| 528
| Sep 01, 2008
| Sep 01, 2008
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really liked it
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Really fun time travel adventure story filled with dinosaurs and timey-wimey science fiction fun, I found it fast pacing and enjoyable to read. The st
Really fun time travel adventure story filled with dinosaurs and timey-wimey science fiction fun, I found it fast pacing and enjoyable to read. The story has at its main character Julian Whitney, a paleontologist specializing in the Cretaceous, a professor at a tiny university in Creekbend, South Dakota. He is called in by a colleague of sorts, a woman he admired from afar but really hasn’t had any reason to have much in the way of any personal interaction with and definitely not any professional association, an experimental physicist named Yariko Miyakara. Yariko with her colleague Dr. Shanker, is working on a spatial translocation device, basically an object that will teleport matter. Yariko and Shanker keep getting odd results, namely beetles no one can identify, and would like some help in knowing how the machine is translocating beetles to their lab, or at least from Julian, where the beetles come from. In short order one, Julian tells them the beetles are from the Cretaceous and long extinct, two, Yariko and Shanker reveal that the beetles don’t stay that long in the lab, that at some point they “go home” as it were, they revert back to their original time, and three, there is a lab accident sending to the Late Cretaceous Julian, Yariko, Shanker, Shanker’s dog Hilda (who happens to be in the lab), and an unlucky security guard named Frank. An additional person is incompletely translocated to the Cretaceous and half of him is left in the lab (he is instantly killed). What follows are two plot lines, the main one the people in the Cretaceous who have to come to terms with where they are, survive, figure out a possible path home, and again, survive, surviving storms, floods, finding food and potable water, navigating the terrain, and avoiding the many many predators. Meanwhile, in the present, Chief of Police Sharon Earles and Sergeant Charlie Hann are trying to figure out the mystery in the present, of where the researchers are, first thinking they died, then not so sure. I enjoyed it. I was surprised there was a plotline in the present, as there were forces at work that could endanger the time travelers from the present. There were some surprising twists and turns in the past too that I liked. Lots and lots of dinosaurs and a good sense of place for the Cretaceous. Published in 2008 and given how many times the twentieth century was mentioned in the text, probably was originally written in the 20th century, it isn’t surprising some of the dinosaur information is a little out of date (such as the topic of feathered dinosaurs) but I didn’t see anything inaccurate for the time. The book gives the reader a wide variety of dinosaurs in different areas and many exciting encounters. The book is not perfect, as noted by some readers there a few typos, though I only recall one that stuck out (I still understood what was being said though). I do not think there were that many loose ends, one sure, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The end was surprising and like I said, some nice twists and turns. Pacing was phenomenal and it read fast. Maybe some of the characters were a little one note at times but no one was badly written. It is mostly an adventure story and in that it succeeds. ...more |
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1
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Jun 05, 2023
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Jun 09, 2023
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Jun 05, 2023
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Paperback
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| 3.39
| 23
| 1964
| 1964
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really liked it
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Part of a series of Ace publications from the 1960s where there were two books of a sort in one, each side with a front cover and to read the other bo
Part of a series of Ace publications from the 1960s where there were two books of a sort in one, each side with a front cover and to read the other book you had to flip over and turn the book upside down. I have several and though this is the first one I have read, I hope to read several others. This particular one is a collection of stories by Margaret St. Clair. _Three Worlds of Futurity_, one of the books, doesn’t refer to any story of that name, but is a collection of short stories ranging in copyright from 1949 to 1962 and the title instead is in reference to the three worlds used in the stories, Mars, Venus, and Earth. Not the Mars and Venus we know of today, but late 1940s and early 1950s versions, back when such worlds were thought possibly and even likely to be habitable and even with their own native inhabitants. All five of these short stories have appeared elsewhere and two of them under different titles. The other side of this Ace Double is a novel of 114 pages that is copyright 1964 and is a far as I know new to this book, titled _Message from the Eocene_. All of the stories in the book are proceeded by a black and white illustration. The first story in _Three Worlds of Futurity_ is titled “The Everlasting Food” and is set on Venus, an ocean world where nine-tenths of the surface of the planet is covered in a kilometers deep ocean. The natives, or at least the original inhabitants when Earth came to the planet, all hail from a mythical point of land far out from any of other islands and came from some other world (possibly Earth, as they are essentially human and can marry and have children with people from Earth). The story is about a husband, a man from Earth named Richard Dekker, who is faced with a difficult decision, giving consent to a surgeon to save his Venusian wife Issa. If she doesn’t get the surgery, she will die in about an hour, if she does get the surgery, it will deprive her of Seeing ability, sort of a psionic or extrasensory ability, something Issa said she would rather die than live without. Very early on in the story Richard sees there really isn’t a choice to be made, gives his consent, the surgery save’s Issa’s life, but it drastically changes Issa, her mentality, her abilities, creating a dangerous superbeing. It is up to Richard and Issa’s foster (Earth) sister Megan to try and stop Issa. The highlight of the story is a dangerous journey across the storm-ravaged ocean of Venus in pursuit of Issa, very vivid and well-described, quite exciting. I think a few aspects of the world building could have been better fleshed out such as what the Seeing exactly was, but it was a well-paced adventure tale with a climatic ending. Being set on Venus aside, I think it aged very well despite being copyright 1950. Then we get “Idris’ Pig,” this one copyright 1949. Set instead on Mars, the tone is quite a bit different than “The Everlasting Food.” There is still adventure, but it definitely has a much more humorous and light-hearted tone, about a visiting Terrestrial named George who gets roped into an off-the-books errand for a buddy, delivering a Martian pig in a sort of cloak and dagger meeting once their ship lands on Mars. Not really a Terrestrial pig mind you, but an alien life form, completely harmless except for smelling extremely badly, but nevertheless a dangerous mission as others want the pig and will do anything to intercept George. Lots of shenanigans, action, adventure, and a love-hate relationship with a Martian named Blixa. The author throws lots of proper noun names for various Martian things but somehow they didn’t slow the story down at all. Some aspects of romance and marriage in the story were dated (not just with Blixa), but I did find Blixa a very strong and independent character and very likable and interesting. Some subtle nods to previous Martian stories, such as some implied near nudity in public, but other than George clearly appreciating the female form, nothing I though objectionable or in any way explicit. Then we get “The Rages,” one of those science fiction stories that seemed prevalent in the late 1940s, the 1950s, and 1960s about everyday life of everyday people but explored with a science fiction element, maybe set today, or the near future, or the far future. In this world, everyone is very heavily medicated, constantly taking pills for both their physical and mental health and with a culture that anything other than a norm of always smiling, always being positive, never being cross, always being social, no one sweats, everyone’s hair looks perfect, not engaging in anti-social activities like frowning or walking out after dark alone. Anything to prevent a “rage,” in which people were just downright anti-social. If the rage was short-lived, they could retreat under a rage cover and not be seen by others, if one wasn’t available someone might be able to throw a blanket over you so you wouldn’t be seen. If the rage was massive or long-lived, why you went away for permanent treatment. This is Harvey’s world and he doesn’t have enough euph pills to make it before his next ration. Euphoria pills or euph pills are the most important pills anyone takes because these are the pills that prevent rages. Not having enough euph pills to last him starts Harvey on a journey that has him questioning everything. Definitely a commentary on the conformity of the 1950s (copyright 1954), the prescription of various drugs, and on whether being sexually active was something that needed to be “treated.” I would have liked to have seen the story gone on, but it is also a “idea’ short story, exploring the set up for a story but not much beyond giving the reader interesting things to contemplate. It's interesting though and there are elements of the setting I would have liked to have explored further. There is a scene of almost rape in the story, so trigger warning; I don't think the author was in any way condoning rape and it seemed to fit the context of the story with people's psychology and society in general messed up by such heavy use of medication for absolutely everything. Then is “Roberta.” This is an odd one, relatively short, but involving it would seem split personalities, the title character having changed their gender to a woman, and multiple murders. I really don’t know what to make of it other than to say the murders are so abrupt and shocking. Finally is “The Island of the Hands,” copyright 1952, one I had read previously and recently in _The Hole in the Moon and Other Tales by Margaret St. Clair_. The commentary at the beginning of that book pointed out that this strange tale may have been heavily influenced by stories about the Bermuda Triangle, which was quite novel at the time. It is an odd tale that I would call magical realism, not science fiction. The flip side is _Message from the Eocene_, and is a sprawling tale (copyright 1964) that spans through space and time, incorporating so many on the surface disparate elements, including two warring civilizations on an Earth before live evolved there, a third strange benefactor alien civilization more powerful and wise than either of these two, a haunted house, a haunted mine, Tibetan monks, and a manned expedition to Venus, all the different plot elements having at their center an incorporeal (but once corporeal) being named Tharg, desperate to finish what he started on a primordial Earth and to somehow communicate with the humans that evolved there. For paleontology fans, I am sad to say the Eocene part just sounds cool I guess, as nothing in the story has anything to do with the Eocene. Though the character of Tharg does experience all of the history of the Earth, it is blink and you miss it (such as dispensing with the entire age of dinosaurs in a single sentence). The plot elements of his story felt very episodic and had very different feels, making me wonder if the story appeared as a serialized novel somewhere else. It has a very uneven feel, and the early section with Tharg still in a physical body on the primordial Earth were hard to follow as it was so alien. It's interesting though, and I kind of wanted the story to go on, as for all its epic scope, it also felt like prologue. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jun 02, 2023
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Jun 04, 2023
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Jun 02, 2023
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Mass Market Paperback
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| 048680562X
| 9780486805627
| 048680562X
| 4.07
| 55
| Aug 14, 2019
| Aug 14, 2019
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it was amazing
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A collection of seventeen short stories written by Margaret St. Clair (1911-1995), a prolific but I think largely forgotten author these days. In her
A collection of seventeen short stories written by Margaret St. Clair (1911-1995), a prolific but I think largely forgotten author these days. In her career, she wrote eight novels and over a hundred short stories (and left two uncompleted novels when she passed away) and published also under the names Idris Seabright and Wilton Hazard. Beginning with an introduction written by Ramsey Campbell, a short but nice biography and a reflection on the various short stories within (best read I think after reading the stories), the rest of the book is the anthology, a number of stories with no connection with one another save the author, ranging from the earliest, her first published science fiction story (in 1946) and ending with a short story published in the 1979 anthology _Amazons!_ edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Most of the stories are from the late 1940s, the 1950s, and one story published in 1960. The stories selected for this anthology include science fiction, horror, weird fiction, urban fantasy, and pure fantasy. Some had a Twilight Zone feel, others a Ray Bradbury feel to them, whiles others were Lovecraftian, while still others had an interplanetary space adventure pulp feel to them, at least on the surface, though underneath was always something else either Twilight Zone-esque or Lovecraftian. Some as I mentioned were weird fiction, not quite in the horror camp or otherwise hard to categorize, but odd, memorable, and yes weird or at leat unsettling. Though there were a few dated elements here and there, they all held up well and avoided too many of the tropes and stereotypes that are negative from mid-20th century fiction (and when they were included, they were definitely examined through the lens of speculative fiction). I though the first one, “Rocket to Limbo,” published in 1946, was brilliant, with a great twist and like Campbell said in the introduction, is a story about ordinary people surrounded by the “gadgetry of super-science,” people who don’t really understand any of it. “Piety” was another story, like “Rocket to Limbo,” that had something like a meta commentary on real life and both had also a timeless aspect to them. Then is “The Hierophants,” basically Lovecraftian horror in a space salvage operation, though it is more than Lovecraftian in the end, nicely done. “The Gardener” is a horror story set in a science fiction setting as well, in the far future when humanity has colonized the stars, with a bad man getting what’s coming to him. “Child of Void” is also Lovecraftian horror, nicely written with a child’s point of view and a story where you can see the author deliberately chose not to talk about a few things directly but you can see them about what is not said or what is passed by, some clever writing. “Hathor’s Pets” is more science fiction horror, this one about alien abductions, though with a Twilight Zone-esque twist. “World of Arlesia” was very strange, hard to categorize, maybe horror, maybe science fiction, maybe even magical realism. “The Little Red Owl,” published in 1951, was an uncomfortable story, one that really fits more into the weird fiction category than horror and features psychological abuse of children from the point of view of someone who thinks this isn’t abuse, but love. “The Hole in the Moon” is a short but very memorable tale, more really a vignette, of a post-apocalyptic world and a man lonely for female companionship no matter the risks. Next is “The Causes,” which the introduction talks about being barroom fantasy, a subgenre I had never heard called that but one I instantly understood, sort of urban fantasy often with a humorous twist. “The Island of the Hands” is magical realism and very odd, though I get the point the story was centered around. Interestingly, Campbell notes that recent publicity around the first definitions of the Bermuda Triangle may very well have influenced Margaret’s writings in this short story. “Continued Story” from 1952 is next, very Twilight Zone like, featuring a dangerous magical toy shop. “Brenda” was another tale of weird fiction, memorably, enigmatic, and uncomfortable, featuring another main character that wasn’t quite right, thought not as obviously so at first as the one in “The Little Red Owl.” “Stawdust” was just flat out bizarre and hard to describe without spoilers. On the surface it looks like science fiction, but really is fantasy with some horror and again contained some meta commentary on life. “The Invested Libido” is a strange tale, one that felt very much like a Ray Bradbury tale, interesting but hard to categorize, though I do think it is both a story of its time and a story with something to say about today too. “The Autumn After Next” published in 1960 was my favorite tale, a nicely written story of a warlock missionary trying to get an alien society to embrace magic, a great tale and highly original. Great quick worldbuilding and a wonderful twist ending. The last one, “The Sorrows of Witches,” (the one published in 1979), was a low fantasy/sword and sorcery tale of a necromancer queen and her lover. The only pure fantasy (as opposed to science fantasy or urban fantasy) story in the collection, would appeal to Conan and Red Sonja fans. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 15, 2023
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May 20, 2023
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May 15, 2023
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| 3.50
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it was amazing
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Sep 12, 2024
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Sep 01, 2024
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| 4.21
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it was amazing
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Aug 22, 2024
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Aug 06, 2024
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| 3.48
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really liked it
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Jul 2024
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Jun 20, 2024
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| 3.92
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really liked it
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Jun 20, 2024
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Jun 15, 2024
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| 3.55
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really liked it
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Jun 15, 2024
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Jun 04, 2024
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| 3.79
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it was amazing
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Jun 02, 2024
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May 03, 2024
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| 3.72
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it was amazing
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Apr 17, 2024
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Mar 30, 2024
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| 3.83
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really liked it
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Mar 17, 2024
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Mar 09, 2024
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| 3.51
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it was amazing
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Feb 21, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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| 3.57
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it was amazing
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Sep 17, 2023
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Sep 14, 2023
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| 3.92
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really liked it
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Sep 14, 2023
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Sep 06, 2023
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| 3.64
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it was amazing
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Aug 27, 2023
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Aug 22, 2023
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| 3.44
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it was amazing
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Jul 13, 2023
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Jul 13, 2023
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| 3.86
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it was amazing
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Jul 07, 2023
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Jul 01, 2023
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| 3.22
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really liked it
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Jun 22, 2023
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Jun 17, 2023
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| 3.26
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really liked it
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Jun 16, 2023
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Jun 15, 2023
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| 3.48
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really liked it
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Jun 14, 2023
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Jun 10, 2023
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| 3.61
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really liked it
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Jun 09, 2023
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Jun 05, 2023
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| 3.39
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really liked it
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Jun 04, 2023
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Jun 02, 2023
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| 4.07
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it was amazing
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May 20, 2023
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May 15, 2023
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