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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 6, 2023 9:34:04 GMT -5
The Long Way to a Small, Angry PLanetby Becky Chambers  I've been meaning to read a Becky Chambers book for a while, and book club came to the rescue with some motivation. While there isn't anything super unique or thought provoking here, it is definitely a good read. The author blends bits of all different sci fi tropes and standards and creates a unique universe that you can just characterize as 'Star Trek with xxx' or 'Bablyon 5 without xxxx' I appreciate how difficult that can be as a well read sci-fi fan, and give credit where it's due. The plot is a little on the slow side (there are a fair measure of info dumps to get background info across..some ACTUAL encyclopedia entries, that is sorta sandwiched into the story), but does move along. The characters all have their own voice and are well developed. The slight downside was that the characters are a little too perfect and competent at times.. I never had any sense of danger or possibility of failure, and a couple of the plot points were pretty obvious from the get go, but that's not terrible...twists for twisting's sake doesn't often turn out well. Overall an enjoyable book.. I'll definitely check out the next one in the series.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 6, 2023 9:38:26 GMT -5
The Long Way to a Small, Angry PLanetby Becky Chambers That's a book I kept meaning to get to and never did. And now I'm just super burnt out on SF. I haven't been able to get in to the last three or four SF books I've tried to read. Maybe some day. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 6, 2023 10:07:59 GMT -5
 Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett This may have been the first adult novel I ever read. I read a lot of adult history, starting at a very young age. So when I saw this on my Mom's bookshelf in 1978 and recognized the swastika (having definitely read Audie Murphy's bio by then) I had to read it. I remember loving it, but I don't think I've read it since. I remembered the broad strokes of the book (amazing 45 years later, though I've also seen the movie, though it's probably been 30 years for that). Henry Faber, "The Needle" is a German spy operating in Britain during World War II. We see that he's ruthless and efficient in doing his work and avoiding capture. After he discovers the fictitious nature of the First United States Army Group it becomes a race to capture him before he can get the details to Berlin, dramatically effecting the D-Day invasion. A very strong historical thriller this was the book that put Follett on the map. It's a classic of the genre and it was nice to revisit it. |
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Post by Prince Hal on Apr 6, 2023 14:46:57 GMT -5
Eye of the Needle by Ken Follett This may have been the first adult novel I ever read. I read a lot of adult history, starting at a very young age. So when I saw this on my Mom's bookshelf in 1978 and recognized the swastika (having definitely read Audie Murphy's bio by then) I had to read it. I remember loving it, but I don't think I've read it since. I remembered the broad strokes of the book (amazing 45 years later, though I've also seen the movie, though it's probably been 30 years for that). Henry Faber, "The Needle" is a German spy operating in Britain during World War II. We see that he's ruthless and efficient in doing his work and avoiding capture. After he discovers the fictitious nature of the First United States Army Group it becomes a race to capture him before he can get the details to Berlin, dramatically effecting the D-Day invasion. A very strong historical thriller this was the book that put Follett on the map. It's a classic of the genre and it was nice to revisit it. I was working in a bookstore when this came out in paperback and raced through it in a day or so, and it was a classic page-turner. IIRC, the movie was also pretty good. Donald Sutherland was the Needle. I tried other books by Follett, like "Key to Rebecca" and "The Pillars of the Earth," but just couldn't get through them. |
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Post by Rob Allen on Apr 6, 2023 14:48:24 GMT -5
From today's newspaper:  |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 6, 2023 19:55:34 GMT -5
I question how good an article that calls manga a hot growth area (20 years ago, yes, not now), but the numbers are promising!
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 7, 2023 10:52:42 GMT -5
The Shockwave RiderJohn Brunner, 1975  This is something of a dystopian tale combined with a novel of ideas. The setting is America in about the year 2030, when – among other things – a massive earthquake effectively destroyed the SF Bay area sometime in the early ‘00s (creating a bunch of odd refugee settlements scattered throughout the rest of California which later figure prominently in the plot) and the US government controls the population through oppressive surveillance aided by large corporations and, apparently, organized crime. The main protagonist is a young man named Nickie Haflinger, who was raised in a government-run facility for gifted children that is meant to turn them into the future administrators of the social order. However, Nickie ran away because he found this agenda monstrous, and he becomes something of a chameleon because – as a genius computer programmer – he’s able to change his identity at the drop of a hat by manipulating public data, thus staying one step ahead of the authorities when they sniff him out (he’s the titular ‘shockwave rider’). However, at the start of the book, he is in fact captured and being studied and interrogated by an agent at a government research facility. As the story progresses, his back story and the nature of this future society are revealed. This is an absolutely fascinating novel, mainly because it’s amazing how prescient Brunner was in predicting things like the internet (called the ‘data-net’), hackers and malware (he actually coined the term computer worm, short for tapeworm, here). I kept having to remind myself that the book was originally written in 1975 and not, say, in the late 1990s. My only criticism would be that the characters are mostly not very well fleshed out, rather they mostly serve as ciphers to drive the plot. Even so, the story is pretty exciting, as it has kind of a thriller aspect to it, esp. in the final third. I’m surprised it’s never been adapted into a movie.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Apr 8, 2023 22:20:00 GMT -5
Ahh yeah, that book was a huge deal among my college crowd.. the birth of cyberpunk. I only vaguely remember it.. might be a good one to re-read at some point. After DoomsdayPoul Anderson  The story here is pretty basic. A ship full of human space Explorers return to Earth after a 3 year mission to find the planet destroyed and missiles guarding it. They decide to figure out what happened, and to find other survivors. The neat thing about this book is Anderson's takedown of the usual Alien societies in Sci fi. He talks about how any sort of Galactic Federation would be ridiculous, because space is so large, how would they meet up? He envisions infinite galactic neighborhoods that have little or no contact. So intelligent societies abound, but don't interact much. The book focuses on a few near Earth.. the bad guys of the talk are a nomadic people that were about to apply their military system to the stars and set up a loose empire of sorts. It was very different from your standard fare, which is always good. He even manage to get a shocking bit of equality in, as the plot demanded an all-female crewed ship. There are plenty of plot flaws...the main character decides the best way to make other humans find them (there is no faster than light communication here) is to be so legendary they must hear about them. No searching, no messages, no asking for help (they consider and quickly disregard each). While the all-female ship leaves completely and sets up a trading business.. which was a bit odd. Since this was a book about what to do when the planet dies, there isn't any space battles, and only a bit of tech. It's 60s sci fi, so of course we clever humans outthink and out innovate everyone else. It defnitely had some bits to make me think though, so worth the read. |
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Post by Deleted on Apr 10, 2023 0:12:05 GMT -5
Finally got around to tackling the last book and finishing the second Dragonlance trilogy by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman-Test of the Twins  This wraps up Raistlin's attempt to depose and replace the Queen of Darkness and the efforts of the remnant of the Heroes of the Lance to stop him. It was an enjoyable trilogy, but no patch on the original trilogy chronicling the War of the Lance. Part of it might be my dislike of time travel as an element in fantasy stories (I am ok with it in sci-fi bit not fantasy for some reason), but also because aside form Raistlin's ambition, nothing about this one felt like it flowed naturally from the previous trilogy. I think that may be why all my previous attempts to read the second trilogy stalled with the first book. That said, the third volume was my favorite of the second trilogy, and it finally tackled Raistlin's ambitions. It really did feel like the first two books were padded out with filler to make a trilogy out of what could have simply been a beefy fourth volume following up the original trilogy if edited with a draconian hand to make it work as a single novel without a lot of the elements that simply seemed to meander to explore bits of the past without driving the actual story of Raistlin and his twin Caramon. But that's all hindsight and speculation n my part. I did like this third book and did like the resolution and closure given to these characters. -M |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 10, 2023 13:25:48 GMT -5
 Government Issue: Comics for the People, 1940s-2000s by Richard L. GrahamThis book gives a nice overview of giveaway comics done by the government. Graham looks at the various types of comics that were produced for the government, including such perennials as PS: The Preventative Maintenance Monthly, started for the Army by the great Will Eisner. Along the way we get to see Dennis the Menace talk about poison, Pogo (with amazing Walt Kelly art), and the one and only Smokey Bear. Graham does a good job of introducing the different categories of books and the history behind their use and then giving us examples, including some extended sequences. Yes, it's a bit cursory, but the subject is so huge there's almost no way for it not to be a surface look. Ultimately what is does is gets you thinking about just how many giveaway comics were produced and stimulates an interest in looking at them a little more closely. Particularly those that came from absolutely legendary creators. A shoutout to tartanphantom for pointing out the existence of this one in one of our Zoom meetings. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 10, 2023 14:47:12 GMT -5
More Than HumanTheodore Sturgeon, 1953  Finally got around to reading this one after knowing/hearing about it for what seems like forever. Previously, I’d only read Sturgeon’s short stories (about two dozen, including a novella or two), but never any of his novels. And I have to say, this one really does live up to the hype. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, it basically posits a new or next phase in human evolution, which would involve different individuals with varying psychic abilities functioning as a single unit in a form of gestalt, to use the story’s own terminology. The story here involves the formation of the first such unit, which begins with a mentally disabled man called ‘Lone’ who has telepathic ability – he’s referred to as a ‘fabulous idiot’ (the title of the first of the book’s three sections). He is eventually joined by three girls, one a telekinetic and twin sisters who seem unable to learn speech but can teleport, and then by a baby with Down syndrome who is a savant with a computer-like brain and whose thoughts can be picked up by the girls. This ‘line-up’ eventually goes through some changes as the story progresses. I won’t get into a plot summary here, because it gets pretty complicated, but I’ll just say this is an incredibly well-written story that posits some fascinating ideas and also engages with themes like, first and foremost, loneliness, but also disability and, briefly, racism (the two teleporting sisters are Black). Despite some aspects I would criticize, most probably due to the time in which it was written, this is definitely worth reading.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Apr 10, 2023 15:57:36 GMT -5
Invasion, by Robin Cook.  It's the first novel by Cook that I read, but I understand he's a popular author of thrillers with a medical flavour. Here he adds SF to the mix, as we're dealing with an alien invasion. I enjoyed it, but The Andromeda Strain this ain't. As a biologist myself, I was a prime target for all the name-dropping that occurs in this story, although very often I wasn't sure if the writer had actual experience with the concepts he put forward. Many of the biological processes mentioned (and on which the plot hangs) didn't make much sense. That's often the problem I have with SF that tries to stick to the science in an explicit manner; too often, the make-believe scenario suddenly stops working because reality doesn't agree with some plot-mandated twist, and it feels as if the author hopes the reader has stopped paying attention. Much better to leave a lot of things vague, so as not to paint oneself into a corner. On the plus side, the characters are engaging, the pace is rapid and fitting for a thriller, and the stakes are high... very high indeed, as only our brave group of heroes can save humanity! Luckily they are helped by their smarts, their medical expertise, and by insane coincidences. The plot goes like this: there's an alien species, so old it seems to have forgotten its original form, that sends little probes throughout the universe to seed it with a certain integrating virus that inserts itself into native DNA. Said virus can then be activated by a protein that later probes will inject into hapless victims, resulting in either their death (if they are judged genetically "inappropriate") or mutated into an alien form. The "new" aliens then build a transporter device that allows travel between the new planet they colonized and all the others they have taken over in the past. (It is suggested that the aliens seeded the entire universe with DNA to begin with, which doesn't explain how it could still be compatible but at least makes an effort in that direction). As in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the main characters witness the transformation of colleagues and friends, quickly realizing that a lot of people start acting strange and seem to form some kind of connected organism. Studying this strange new plague, they try to bring their research results to the CDC; however, it's already been taken over by the aliens. Luckily, over the internet, they happen to contact another scientist who has been studying the same phenomenon. Even more luckily, said scientist just happens to live right next to a secret base where the US government used to study potential biowarfare agents. Luckier still, said secret base is currently deserted, fully loaded with test animals and reagents, and the scientist knows how to get in! From then on, it's a simple matter (in terms of storytelling) to cook up a cure, engage in some technobabble that uses real words but an insanely compressed timeline, and to find a way to defeat the aliens because these incredibly advanced beings are apparently too dumb to realize that our atmosphere has changed over the past three billion years. (And it's not as if they didn't have an opportunity to learn about it, as they're paid us return visits every 100 million years or so). Going from a situation where everything is lost to the eventual happy ending takes something like 25 pages; I was even sure at some point that this would only be the first part of a two-book series. It's not that I enjoy ends that drag on and on, but in this case the climactic battle seems like something out of a G.I. Joe comic. I just can't accept that an advanced alien species in the process of putting the final note to their master plan could be vanquished by a quartet of people ramming a car all the way through an outside fence, stairs, a lobby, and then a very, very important room with a cosmic gizmo in it. Even a medieval planner would have said "moat" at some point, or even "protective wall". In any case, I'd rate the book "average" on account of it being a fun ride, even if it felt a little sophomoric as SF tales go... more like Invaders from Mars than Invasion of the Body Snatchers..
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Post by berkley on Apr 11, 2023 13:30:53 GMT -5
More Than HumanTheodore Sturgeon, 1953 Finally got around to reading this one after knowing/hearing about it for what seems like forever. Previously, I’d only read Sturgeon’s short stories (about two dozen, including a novella or two), but never any of his novels. And I have to say, this one really does live up to the hype. For those who may be unfamiliar with it, it basically posits a new or next phase in human evolution, which would involve different individuals with varying psychic abilities functioning as a single unit in a form of gestalt, to use the story’s own terminology. The story here involves the formation of the first such unit, which begins with a mentally disabled man called ‘Lone’ who has telepathic ability – he’s referred to as a ‘fabulous idiot’ (the title of the first of the book’s three sections). He is eventually joined by three girls, one a telekinetic and twin sisters who seem unable to learn speech but can teleport, and then by a baby with Down syndrome who is a savant with a computer-like brain and whose thoughts can be picked up by the girls. This ‘line-up’ eventually goes through some changes as the story progresses. I won’t get into a plot summary here, because it gets pretty complicated, but I’ll just say this is an incredibly well-written story that posits some fascinating ideas and also engages with themes like, first and foremost, loneliness, but also disability and, briefly, racism (the two teleporting sisters are Black). Despite some aspects I would criticize, most probably due to the time in which it was written, this is definitely worth reading. I just read this for the first time not too long ago myself - within the last year or so. Yes, one of the better American SF books I've read lately, as I've been going through the 1950s tryng to hit some of the SF classics I've missed along the way. The other standout was George R. Stewart's Earth Abides, as far as the US stuff goes. Ive been having better luck with British SF from that period - e.g. John Wyndham, Nevil Shute's On the Beach, a re-read of Clarke's Childhood's End. But I'll be getting into some good American SF in the near future as as I've decided to read or re-read some favourites like Robert Sheckley and Philip K. Dick, along with a few classics I haven't read before at all, like A Canticle for Leibowitz.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 12, 2023 3:38:43 GMT -5
Read this recently:   This is the second Jeffrey Archer book I’ve read, the first being Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less. Like that book, Best Kept Secret is engrossing and compelling, but the story seemed to just stop rather than end. Almost like a wrestling referee discreetly telling wrestlers to end the match due to time constraints, it felt that Archer was under some time constraints to end the story. Of course, that isn’t what happened. It feels that way, though. I will try other books of his. |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 12, 2023 11:19:39 GMT -5
The Cosmic RapeTheodore Sturgeon, 1958  A little raisin-like pod or seed or something passes through a few birds, only to get accidentally swallowed by a grazing horse which is then slaughtered for low-grade fast food meat and miraculously doesn’t get destroyed by the equine digestive system nor the meat grinder and ends up in a discarded burger that gets consumed in ally by a blustering, alcoholic homeless loser named Dan Gurlick. Finally finding a more-or-less suitable host, the pod/seed or whatever gets to work manipulating him – because it’s the instrument of a hive-mind alien intelligence called the Medusa which has already conquered quite a bit of outer space real estate. This is a rather interesting take on the alien invasion trope, with a pretty unusual and interesting twist. However, even though this is a pretty short novel (about 160 pages), I think it would have worked better as short novella or even a short story. Don’t get me wrong, it’s really nicely written prose, but much of it just seems like padding. Interestingly enough, this novel was published simultaneously with a condensed version of the same story in the August 1958 issue of Galaxy Science Fiction under the title “To Marry Medusa” – which might be slightly spoilerish, but it’s certainly better and more fitting than the novel’s atrocious title. At some point I may go back read that version…
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