Bad Post-Doc
Meanwhile, I found a copy of Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel, in a thrift store the other day and am going to be reading it whenever it's cool enough for me to think. (I don't do heavy reading in hot weather.) I've been meaning to read it for a while now.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Order of Kilopi
Just finished Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kako.
From the wilderness into the cosmos.
You can not be afraid of the wind, Enterprise: Broken Bow.
https://davidsuniverse.wordpress.com/
Order of Kilopi
I just finished The Testament by John Grisham. It was published 20 years ago but was still very enjoyable. And along the way i learned a few things about Brazil, Ipica tribes and the Pantanal. Which I wasn’t expecting since the core story is about the disposition of a very wealthy man’s estate.
Order of Kilopi
It must have been in the "bugs me" thread that I noted I thought I was getting The Cruel Sea by Nicholas Monsarrat for Kindle and wound up with The Real Cruel Sea, nonfiction by Richard Woodman. I've been slowly working my way through the latter, which is very long because the author is basically documenting EVERY ship sinking and U-boat attack from 1939 to 1943! I'm only into early 1942 at the moment.
Between half an hour or so a day of that, I've been re-reading some Pratchett, in semi-random order. Currently it's The Truth.
I did finally order a paperback of The Cruel Sea, which is still not available for Kindle. It's kind of expensive at US$20, but that's better than the hardback or "trade paperback" which are listed at over $800!
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
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Every now and then, some weird algorithmic glitch on Amazon briefly shoots second-hand copies of my first book, Munro's Fables, into the pricing stratosphere. I once saw a couple of copies being advertised for something over £600 each. I've never understood what goes wrong to make a couple of sellers get stuck in that sort of continuously increasing price war.Originally Posted by Trebuchet
It's kind of expensive at US$20, but that's better than the hardback or "trade paperback" which are listed at over $800!
Grant Hutchison
Order of Kilopi
I've been reading Christopher Tolkien's final three compilations of his father's Middle-earth writing: The Children of Hurin, Beren and Luthien, and The Fall of Gondolin. It makes me resent those damn hobbits even more than I did previously--to some extent they derailed the entire project, though perhaps the narratives of the First Age would never have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for the popularity of the damn hobbits.
Anyway, the final volume contains a couple of interesting quotes from JRR Tolkien's letters to his publisher.
On The Lord of the Rings:On The Silmarillion:My work has escaped from my control, and I have produced a monster: an immensely long, complex, rather bitter, and very terrifying romance, quite unfit for children (if fit for anybody); and it is not really a sequel to The Hobbit, but to The Silmarillion.Grant HutchisonYou may, perhaps, remember about that work, a long legendary of imaginary times in a 'high style', and full of Elves (of a sort). It was rejected on the advice of your reader many years ago. As far as my memory goes, he allowed it a kind of Celtic beauty intolerable to Anglo-Saxons in large doses.
Suspended
“Winning Space” by Brandon Weichert on my to-buy list.
Order of Kilopi
Nicholas Monsarratt's The Cruel Sea (fiction) and Richard Woodman's The Real Cruel Sea (non-fiction), at the same time. Both on the same topic, of course. My current interest in the Battle of the Atlantic was spurred by C.S. Forrester's The Good Shepherd.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
I finished The Cruel Sea yesterday. It's very very good. In spite of the tragedy near the end, which I was pretty much expecting.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
Ok, somewhat long story:
A couple of years ago, Amazon, having noted my interest in naval historical fiction recommended The China Station, by Andrew Wareham*. I bought it and found it interesting because it was set near the turn of the 20th century and covered aspects of naval history -- and world history -- with which I wasn't all that familiar. It was book one of a series of four. When I got to the end, there were recommendations for not just the remainder of the series, but a plethora of other series by the same author. "Wow!", I thought, "this guy's a bit of a hack!" Or maybe a pseudonym used by a publisher for multiple hacks.
Anyhow, hack or no, I read and enjoyed the rest of the series. And have re-read it twice. (I re-read nearly everything.)
So recently when Amazon recommended another book by him, this time naval fiction from the beginning of WWI, I bought that as well. And the sequel. And then, (stuff that bugs me) discovered that the second one was published only just this month and I'll have to wait for the rest of the series! Oh, well.
*Not, as far as I can tell, this Andrew Wareham.
Cum catapultae proscriptae erunt tum soli proscript catapultas habebunt.
Order of Kilopi
I got around to picking up this book and agree with your comments. It wasn't bad, but unusually for me, I would have liked to see a bit longer story with some points filled in. For instance, there were a couple of relationships that occurred almost entirely off screen, to the point I didn't understand why certain characters seemed to suddenly be so close.
I did find some of the comments about Jerry Pournelle to be moving. Pournelle was an interesting author for me. I disagreed with his views a lot, I especially was unimpressed with his connection to extremist Vox Day (though I do understand it was partly financially motivated) but I've been reading his commentaries back to "A Step Farther Out" and his Byte magazine articles, as well as stories. He was bombastic but was also interesting. I was also sad to hear his wife, Roberta Pournelle, died in August. Not that I know that much about her, but so many of the authors and families of authors I grew up with have been going away. Ah well.
On a more amusing note, I was going to mention this months ago and forgot, but this site presents bad science fiction and fantasy covers with comments:
https://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/
Some are really funny, but others are just meh.
Last edited by Van Rijn; 2020-Oct-08 at 11:52 PM.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Order of Kilopi
I also picked up another Baen book, Knight Watch by Tim Akers. This is what I call a popcorn book - something that is meant for light entertainment but you shouldn't expect any deep story. It's like an action movie you might watch while eating popcorn.
It is a fantasy story, where myths can intrude on reality in a somewhat interesting way. I found the first eight or so chapters to be quite amusing, and had a fair number of chuckles reading it, but it turned more serious later with less humor. There is plenty of action, but I would have liked to see more world-building and development of the characters. The ending was adequate, but felt too abrupt.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Order of Kilopi
The cover for Starborn and Godsons might be a candidate for that site; the book has a quote on the cover from Tom Clancy saying that it's a swell story. The only problem is that Clancy died in 2013 and the book has a 2020 copyright. I realize the quote is for the overall story but please...
Order of Kilopi
Has anyone here tried Liaden universe books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller? And are there any you would recommend? Years ago, Baen had a sale on a set of Liaden books, they were listed as space opera and they are apparently fairly popular. I went ahead and took a chance, I’ve tried a couple different books and had difficulty finding the science fiction. Yes, they were nominally set in space with interstellar spacecraft, but the spacecraft could have been seagoing ships for all the difference it would make and all the action (such as it was) happened on very earthlike worlds, to the point it could have all happened on Earth. In other words, it didn’t feel much like science fiction or have the type of stories that would catch my interest. It felt more like historical fiction to me, although I’m given to understand the setting is supposed to be well into the future. I ended up giving up on both books.
I’m just curious if anyone here likes them and if maybe I started with the wrong books.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Member
Reading: Ruskin's Praeterita
Order of Kilopi
Ah, a great autobiography, and very poignant in context. His Dilecta is worth a look too, I think.
Grant Hutchison
Bad Post-Doc
The curious progression of my current depression has meant that I've been reading a lot; it's the only thing I can focus on without pressured thoughts' intruding. Perhaps Ken Follett's World Without End wasn't the best choice I could've made, given its extensive plague section, but I found my copy of Pillars of the Earth this morning, and that will do nicely.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Order of Kilopi
The Trigger by Arthur C Calrke, it is about a device that set of explosives remotely. So if there is gun nearby all gunpowder goes off in the bullets like a slow fizzle. It is more a thriller than sci-fi but years ago I must of seem the authors name and just picked it up.
From the wilderness into the cosmos.
You can not be afraid of the wind, Enterprise: Broken Bow.
https://davidsuniverse.wordpress.com/
Order of Kilopi
I've just finished David Forbes's long essay (probably equivalent to about 50 print pages) "The Old Iron Dream", which traces a particular thread of political thinking through science fiction, from John W. Campbell to Vox Day, with various stops along the way. I cannot, of course, discuss it here, but if you're interested in that kind of thing, it's very interesting.
It also reminded me that I intended to reread Norman Spinrad's hilariously unpleasant alternate history, The Iron Dream.
Grant Hutchison
Established Member
Thanks for the recommendation. John W Campbell, even though he seems to have been a fine editor also has carries some pretty big baggage for his championing of something that is also unmentionable.
Suspended
In lighter news, the ARA press looks to publish an updated version of N-1 with Nick Stevens’ art
Bad Post-Doc
I've been reading a book called The Crime of the Century, about the Richard Speck murder case. Speck murdered six student nurses and two Filipino nurses who lived in student nurse quarters, leaving one survivor, another of the Filipino nurses. And maybe someone with a little more sensitivity toward Filipino culture would've written a better book; "jabbering in her singsong dialect" is a phrase I'd expect of Lovecraft, not a true crime book from 1996.
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Gillian
"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"
"You can't erase icing."
"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"
Order of Kilopi
Yeah, that seems insensitive, unless it’s from the murder’s own perspective denigrating someone he wanted to kill.
The greatest journey of all time, for all to see
Every mission makes our dreams reality
And our destiny begins with you and me
Through all space and time, the achievement of mankind
As we sail the sea of discovery, on heroes’ wings we fly!
Established Member
I have just finished Ben Bova's latest book - "Uranus" and I would not recommend it at all. I have been a happy reader of his works for around 40 years but I am afraid that, based on this book, at 88 he should be prepared to rest on his laurels. I came very close to not bothering to finish it a number of times but I hate doing that and so 'forced' myself to finish it. It reads, for the most part anyway, like a bad piece of of daytime TV with the main character being the proverbial 'ex-prostitute with a heart of gold'. For most of the book the fact that the story is set on a Space Station orbiting Uranus has little to no bearing on the plot. Luckily, it is a Library book so it cost me nothing but time.
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Ozduck, I just read that Ben Bova died yesterday. Sadly, he died of Covid-19 complications. He reached a respectable age, and even if he wasn’t at his peak, it sounds like his mind was still working working well enough (he could still write, after all). Still, sad to hear, and another loss to the pandemic.
I really appreciated his work when he was editor of Analog magazine. Lots of enjoyable stories during his tenure. I had mixed reactions to his own stories - there were some I liked quite a bit, yet enough that I didn’t that I drifted away from following his work.
Have you ever read The Starcrossed? It’s set in the future but it is based on his experience as a technical advisor on the ill-fated Starlost series, where he was regularly ignored. The story also includes a fictionalized Harlan Ellison and Spider Robinson and I found it to be very funny. I kept wondering how much of it actually was based on real events. It is something I like to remember him by.
Last edited by Van Rijn; 2020-Dec-01 at 04:47 AM.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Established Member
I am sorry to hear about his death from that pernicious virus. Over the years he gave me a lot of enjoyable reads. He was still able to write a book 1,000 better than I can but it was not up to the standard that I expected from him.
I have never read "The StarCrossed" and don't ever remember seeing it in my local library. However, being a "Fantasy" novel I would have steered clear of it anyway as I am generally not a fan of that genre. I had to have a look to see if Spider Robinson is still alive and happily he is even though he has sufferer a number of personal tragedies..
Order of Kilopi
I’m not sure where you saw that, but it is near future science fiction, though admittedly not very serious science fiction. There is no magic or other fantasy elements. The main character is a Ben Bova stand-in that invented a holographic projector that has replaced TVs and takes the job as technical advisor to a new science fiction holoshow. In the not so serious vein, smog* is perfumed and colored in a vain attempt to make it more acceptable (like pink smog that smells like bubblegum) and some LA buildings are built lightweight and are basically rockets - designed to take them out to sea if the “Big One” hits. The holoshow turns out to be a complete disaster and the story is about the absurd situations with the various people involved. There is good reason to think it is a fictionalized version of his experience with the Starlost**, with various absurd elements turned up to eleven and the story changed enough (the future setting) to avoid the lawyers. It was one of his early books (1975) so I’m not surprised it wouldn’t be commonly seen in a library. I do see it has a reasonably priced Kindle release on the US Amazon site.
*This was written before LA had made much progress on air pollution.
**If you aren’t familiar, The Starlost was a show that started with a great concept, and was initially intended to be reasonably hard science fiction. The lead writer was Harlan Ellison with Bova as technical advisor. Reportedly, it all fell apart when they found out they wouldn’t get a prime time slot, and the budget was massively slashed. You could still see elements of solid science fiction in the show, but also hit your head against the wall stupidities. Bova said they would come to him, listen to his detailed advice, smile and thank him, then would walk away and completely ignore him. Eventually they stopped asking. It’s a tragedy because you could see something that might have become a science fiction classic if things had gone a bit differently.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starlost
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Established Member
Doh!!! - I looked up "The StarCrossed" and, stupidly followed a link to a Fantasy novel called "StarCrossed" without checking the name of the author and only quickly glancing at the precis of what seemed to be a silly book.I was wondering why it seemed such an unlikely type of novel for Bova to write - mea culpa.
The 'actual' "The StarCrossed" is much more what I would have expected him to write. I had a look at the 'master' catalogue for the State Library service and there are about 40 books & anthologies by Ben Bova listed but not "The StarCrossed" - I will have to get the Kindle edition for my next o/s holiday (whenever that is). And, thank you for the quick rundown of the details behind "The Starlost". I have never heard of it and doubt very much that it was ever shown on Australian TV. Even though over the years many Canadian shows have been broadcast here so I guess it is possible that I was just fortunate enough to have missed it. I did note that I can buy the whole series on Amazon but I think that I will spare myself the pain of watching it - especially after looking at the Opening Credits
Last edited by ozduck; 2020-Dec-01 at 08:06 AM.
Order of Kilopi
You’re welcome. Someone uploaded it to YouTube so you can see what it is like if you want. Here is the playlist for the full series:And, thank you for the quick rundown of the details behind "The Starlost". I have never heard of it and doubt very much that it was ever shown on Australian TV. Even though over the years many Canadian shows have been broadcast here so I guess it is possible that I was just fortunate enough to have missed it. I did note that I can buy the whole series on Amazon but I think that I will spare myself the pain of watching it - especially after looking at the Opening Credits
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...WcZRkfZicAuzei
If you are sufficiently dedicated, I might imagine you could complete one episode, but I wouldn’t bet on it. I liked the concept of the ark ship, the gigantic domes, the expert system AI that was more interesting than the ‘60s Star Trek computer in some ways, but the acting, the stories, the FX failures . . . well.
On the original run, I didn’t see all of the series, and even when I was a young teenager I found a number of problems with it despite being intrigued by the premise. I did get the DVDs some years back and it was a struggle to make it through all sixteen episodes. I didn’t try a second time. Though it was still nice to see something nostalgic I hadn’t seen for decades (some of the episodes would be shown again at odd hours during the ‘70s, but it disappeared after that, never being popular). It was bad, but there were things I had liked about it. When I was young, I had more fun thinking of my own ark and my own stories, so it was an inspiration of sorts.
"The problem with quotes on the Internet is that it is hard to verify their authenticity." — Abraham Lincoln
I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?
The Leif Ericson Cruiser
Order of Kilopi
I wonder if Robert Heinlein received any credit for that show.
Orphans of the Sky (c 1941 and 1943)
The gigantic, cylindrical generation ship Vanguard, originally destined for "Far Centaurus", is cruising without guidance through the interstellar medium because long ago, a mutiny killed most of the officers. Over time, the descendants of the surviving loyal crew have forgotten the purpose and nature of their ship and so have lapsed into a pre-technological culture that is marked by superstition. Since they come to believe the "Ship" is the entire universe, "To move the ship" is considered an oxymoron, and references to the Ship's "voyage" are interpreted as religious metaphor. They are ruled by an oligarchy of "officers" and "scientists." Most crew members are simple illiterate farmers, seldom or never venturing to the "upper decks," where the "muties" (an abbreviation of "mutants" or "mutineers") dwell. Among the crew, all identifiable mutants are killed at birth.
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