March 2019: Reading Thread

[AE35Unit]

Didn't finish the Larry Niven book (Gift from Earth), just did not enjoy it at all.
Now for something completely different, reading The Piano by Jane Campion/Kate Pullinger
I've never seen the film but the book is an easy, pleasant read. And it features my favourite instrument...

 

[tobl]

Kratman may not be for me then. Incidentally, I wouldn't be too put off by my jingoism comment on Flint - its not that extreme and recent chapters have been well (better) balanced. The last two chapters I read, describing the Battle of Breitenfeld, were excellent - a real history lesson, well told.

That depends... About kratman i mean. Great action and developed arguments generally. Think watch on the rhine. Honestly the guy is very good. And frankly normally i agree with him. It's Just That sometimes i think He Gomes too far without reason in the books.

 

[Bick]

Didn't finish the Larry Niven book (Gift from Earth), just did not enjoy it at all.

I enjoyed this, though its probably his weakest book from the period. Protector and World of Ptaavs are both better. You've read them?

 

[Extollager]

I am about to start I Am (Not) a Number: Decoding The Prisoner (2017) by Alex Cox. The author analyzes the episodes of that enigmatic series in the order they were filmed, not the order they were broadcast, and comes up with new theories about what it all means.

I trust there'll be comments on it here!

 

[Paul_C]

I re-read Aliette de Bodard's The Tea Master and the Detective, I'm still not sure quite what to make of it. It feels a little like a small part of a larger book even though it's fairly self-contained, so maybe I need to delve a little deeper into the rest of her writing to fully appreciate it.

Last night I started If Then by Matthew De Abaitua, which I've just discovered is book two of a series, so now I'm not sure whether to stop and read book 1 first.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

The Wisdom Of Wolves.
apart from a terrible clanger on wolf domestication, this is pretty good so far.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Well I finally finished The Fall of Shannara, The Black Elfstone, by Terry Brooks. What a fantastic story kept me gripped from the first. I read the first four of the Shannara series years ago and saw that there are four books to finish the series. And the fate of the world rests on the shoulders of an exiled Druid, a conflicted warrior and a young woman struggling to master a powerful magic. 8/9

 

[vanye]

I finished Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson. It was an easy, enjoyable read, if a bit dated in some respects. It is probably stupid of me, but I found his treatment of female characters and the humour connected to sexual abuse offensive. Still, a gripping imaginative story and good writing.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I trust there'll be comments on it here!

It was a thin little book, so I have already finished it. The author's hypothesis:

Spoiler

The Village is in England, operated by the British government as a place to keep scientists with important information. Number Six is not a secret agent, but a rocket scientist. Number One is not a person, but the designation of the rocket that launches at the end of the last episode. It's the first manned Moon shot.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I have just started the Nebula-winning novel No Enemy But Time (1982) by Michael Bishop. So far, its very well-written indeed.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The author's hypothesis:

Were the arguments for the hypothesis convincing? Because on the face of it, it sounds rather plausible. After all, people made a lot of assumptions based on the role he had played before (I know that I did). Ignore that, and it opens up any number of other possibilities.

 

[hitmouse]

It was a thin little book, so I have already finished it. The author's hypothesis:

Spoiler

The Village is in England, operated by the British government as a place to keep scientists with important information. Number Six is not a secret agent, but a rocket scientist. Number One is not a person, but the designation of the rocket that launches at the end of the last episode. It's the first manned Moon shot.

Interesting. I never felt a need for a unifying hypothesis, and I assumed the same from the scriptwriters. The hinting at underlying things which probably did not exist in a baroque and gnomic way was part of the fun.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The author makes a fairly convincing case, although he has to dismiss the episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (the one where Number Six has his mind transferred into another body) because it contradicts other episodes. Anyway, it makes for a fun game.

 

[Rodders]

Paul F. Wilson “The Touch” after this I will completed the main part of his adversary cycle although I did find a couple of stories that are connected to the series.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

The author makes a fairly convincing case, although he has to dismiss the episode Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling (the one where Number Six has his mind transferred into another body) because it contradicts other episodes. Anyway, it makes for a fun game.

Then it sounds like something I might want to read. Thanks.

 

[AE35Unit]

I enjoyed this, though its probably his weakest book from the period. Protector and World of Ptaavs are both better. You've read them?

No I've not read those two. I find Niven can be very hit and miss. Some of the wording in Gift from Earth just didn't make sense to me, I got a little lost in places and just gave up.
I enjoyed Ringworld but again sometimes it can be confusing (especially the third sequel), and I read a book of his that mentioned the Pak Protectors. I just couldn't make head or tail of it.

 

[Bick]

No I've not read those two. I find Niven can be very hit and miss. Some of the wording in Gift from Earth just didn't make sense to me, I got a little lost in places and just gave up.
I enjoyed Ringworld but again sometimes it can be confusing (especially the third sequel), and I read a book of his that mentioned the Pak Protectors. I just couldn't make head or tail of it.

The two books I mention explain his whole universe quite well, as they start it all off and they're also better stories. If you don't read Protector and World of Ptaavs it might not all make sense. Also, I think Protector is a great SF novel - I recommend you give it a go.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm reading The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged 13 3/4, by Sue Townsend. Very funny and laugh out loud, have to be careful where I read it. 9/10. Mind you I am waiting for tonight to see which books that the book group will choose.

 

[Bick]

I finished 1632 by Eric Flint. It was a pretty quick read for a fairly long book, and I enjoyed it. It's not quite SF, it's not quite alternate history, it's in the funny sub-genre of 'modern folk displaced to olden-times', rather like Crichton's Timeline. Overall, I would say it was well done, though it comes across as slightly jingoistic in places and also presents the idea that 'life is cheap' in 17th century Europe rather too gleefully on occasion. But what I did really like, is that it was well researched (I think) and I learnt an awful lot about the 30 years war in central Europe, whihc I prevously knew nothing about. It was in places like an entertaining history text book - which was actually the best thing about it, in retrospect.

I'm now turning to a slightly more challenging book - the final volume in Gene Wolfe's idiosyncratic Book of the New Sun, The Citadel of the Autarch. Having read the first three volumes (occasionally with some slight difficulty), I must finish the overall work before I start to forget what's been going on. Not that Wolfe spends much his time worrying if you know what the heck is going on while your actually reading it, of course. I'm hoping that in the final volume of the tetrology it will come together. (I as going to write all come together, but I suspect there's little chance of that!).

 

[hitmouse]

I finished 1632 by Eric Flint. It was a pretty quick read for a fairly long book, and I enjoyed it. It's not quite SF, it's not quite alternate history, it's in the funny sub-genre of 'modern folk displaced to olden-times', rather like Crichton's Timeline. Overall, I would say it was well done, though it comes across as slightly jingoistic in places and also presents the idea that 'life is cheap' in 17th century Europe rather too gleefully on occasion. But what I did really like, is that it was well researched (I think) and I learnt an awful lot about the 30 years war in central Europe, whihc I prevously knew nothing about. It was in places like an entertaining history text book - which was actually the best thing about it, in retrospect.

I'm now turning to a slightly more challenging book - the final volume in Gene Wolfe's idiosyncratic Book of the New Sun, The Citadel of the Autarch. Having read the first three volumes (occasionally with some slight difficulty), I must finish the overall work before I start to forget what's been going on. Not that Wolfe spends much his time worrying if you know what the heck is going on while your actually reading it, of course. I'm hoping that in the final volume of the tetrology it will come together. (I as going to write all come together, but I suspect there's little chance of that!).

You really need to read Urth of the New Sun afterwards.