January 2021 Reading Thread.

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I notice the original novel-length version of "Who Goes There?" has surfaced and been published as Frozen Hell. Anyone read that/have any thoughts on the two versions?
 
The Scribbling Man said:
I notice the original novel-length version of "Who Goes There?" has surfaced and been published as Frozen Hell. Anyone read that/have any thoughts on the two versions?
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I'd never heard of Frozen Hell.
Downloaded it now and I've saved it in a folder with Who goes there?
One day I'll read them back to back.

Update:
Looking through my ebooks and I've also got the novelization of The Thing by Alan Dean Foster, I've stuck that in the same folder as well
 
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Toby Frost said:
I'm continuing to read The Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb, but it's a slog. The writing is fine, the setting isn't terribly interesting (it's a castle in a medieval kingdom, populated by gruff people who spend a lot of time telling the hero not to do various things because it's unmanly), but the real problem is the lack of plot. It's a lot like an autobiography, in that it tells a sequence of events that happened to the subject, but doesn't have any sense of going in a particular direction.

I read somewhere that the BBC didn't adapt The Honourable Schoolboy as the foreign setting was too expensive to film.
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I found that as well, assassins apprentice is a rather slow read that I personally didn't much enjoy, but once I got past it I enjoyed the second, Royal assassin, far more, so if you stick with it you might have that to look forward to, and from what I've heard the third is even better, which I plan to get to soon.
 
There’s a short story collection based on / inspired by Campbell’s story:

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Oh dear, I’m not enjoying the F. Paul Wilson novel, Wheels Within Wheels. It’s turned into an ill-considered “libertarian” treatise, in which Wilson expounds on his dubious ideas on economics and politics. It’s a little Heinleinian in this regard, but without the appealing prose and story to go with it. Big government’s bad, taxes are bad, free market nations don’t start wars etc. Not very intelligently done, and with whole chapters of tell rather than show exposition. Not sure I’ll make it through the last 60 pages. It doesn’t help if you side with the ‘bad guys’ I guess! The libertarian ‘heroes’ are right numpties. Oh, and it’s boring.
 
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Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

I read Doomsday Book about 15 years ago and loved it. I read To Say Nothing of the Dog last month and really enjoyed it. This book split into two is a masterpiece, in my opinion. A thousand pages just fly by. I'm really upset that there aren't any more books in this series because I could read them nonstop. Time Travel and World War II are two of my favorite genres, and the blending is exceptional. The main characters don't stand out that much, but the setting they're tossed into is the star. I've been fascinated by the blitz since I read Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and this gave me another opportunity to explore what that time might have been like.

5/5 Stars
 
I am catching up on books, not all of them fantasy, that have received a lot notice here and there.
Many were read at the end of that armpit of a decade, 2011-2020. The rest in 2021.
The eight (so far) Abercrombie First Law/Age of Madness books.
The first two Rivers of London by Grant.
The first two Bobverse by Taylor.
Picking away at Songs of Dying Earth. 3/4 done. A truly massive tribute to Jack Vance and his book. edited by George RR Martin and Gardner Dozois, it came out about a decade ago. If you like(d) Vance you'll love the diverse take that the authors have on his world. I use it as my backup to read when I don't have another book at hand.
Also working on former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster's book Battlegrounds, on foreign policy and how it was not implemented by Trump. A long heavy read. McMaster comes across as stodgy military, conservative, but hugely knowledgeable. I find myself agreeing, disagreeing, but somewhat blown away by his level of analysis.
Even though I have other stuff at hand, I could not resist picking up A Legacy os Spies, John Le Carre's next to last. Convoluted as all of his, perhaps not as grabby as earlier stuff that I loved. About half through.
 
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Disappointed to read that, Bick. I adored Wilson's Repairman Jack series.
 
I managed to finish the Wilson. It did pick up in the last 40 pages, which made it finishable, but certainly not enough to make it a recommender. The plot was a bit ropey, really, and the middle section was bad.

Now on to something which I’m more hopeful about: Destiny Doll, by Clifford D. Simak. It’s been a little while since I read my last CDS book, and this is highly rated by some Simak fans (though it does garner mixed reviews I think). Fingers crossed.
 
Rodders said:
Disappointed to read that, Bick. I adored Wilson's Repairman Jack series.
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They are most probably much better, Rodders. And I very much enjoyed Healer, so chalk this one up to an off-day for Mr Wilson. It was originally serialised in Analog, and may have been expanded and edited for the final novel to its detriment.
 
Bick said:
Now on to something which I’m more hopeful about: Destiny Doll, by Clifford D. Simak. It’s been a little while since I read my last CDS book, and this is highly rated by some Simak fans (though it does garner mixed reviews I think). Fingers crossed.
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I'll be interested to hear what you make of it.
 
Bick said:
Now on to something which I’m more hopeful about: Destiny Doll, by Clifford D. Simak. It’s been a little while since I read my last CDS book, and this is highly rated by some Simak fans (though it does garner mixed reviews I think). Fingers crossed.
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Hugh said:
I'll be interested to hear what you make of it.
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Same. I was considering reading either that or Shakespeare's Planet next. I've heard mixed things on Destiny Doll, but it sounds like an interesting one at the very least.
 
Finished reading Leviathan Wakes. The quote on the front cover was very accurate, "As close as you'll get to a Hollywood blockbuster in book form". Heavy on entertainment and action and less about big ideas, though that's not to say there's none at all. It was a bit cliched at times and maybe didn't need to be quite as long as it is but a good read nonetheless.

I'll move on to the second book now, Caliban's War.
 
Ophiuchi Hotline by John Varley - Difficult one this! Maybe I just don't get on with Varley's writing, I wasn't desperately thrilled with his Gaia series. There are a lot of interesting ideas in this book which I might have loved had they been in a more believable setting and it hadn't had that horrible '70s male author wishful thinking thing that in the future everyone would be wandering around naked and having casual sex all the time. Have you noticed that this seems to have been a particularly popular trope with male rather than female authors of that era? Also there's a strange mix of very good realistic hard science and utterly fanciful science. I'm not sure I can be bothered to continue with the series. 3/5 stars

Strange attractors by Jeffrey A Carver - I was surprised how much I enjoyed this after a slightly weird start. The main character from the first (very different) book in the series finds himself on huge structure that is part of a vast network of such structures spanning the galaxy, constructed by unknown aliens in the, presumably, distant past. In this it has some similarities with Greg Bear's Eon with many different environments inhabited by many different alien species all or most of whom appear to have been transported to this structure in much the same manner as the MC, in other words without their consent. The futuristic science is too far off the charts to be considered hard SF but sufficiently plausible to be convincing. An enjoyable read and I will be continuing the next in the series. 4/5 stars

Sword of Kings by Bernard Cornwell - The penultimate book in this series. After getting a little weak in the middle Cornwell seemed to find his feet again and the latter books have been very good, though rather more speculative in their history than the earlier books. Not without it's flaws but still and excellent read and I'm looking forward to the final volume. 4/5 stars

I'm currently about 100 pages into The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks: A Critical Introduction by Simone Caroti, which I'm finding extremely interesting if a little slow going! Alongside interesting analysis of each book (I shall probably slow down and read in parallel once I catch up with my ongoing reread of all of Banks' Culture books) there are also odd snippets of surprising information. Like the first Culture book Banks wrote was Use of Weapons even though it was the third published. Also it (or at least it's first draft) was the first book that Banks wrote that (eventually) was published, written before The Wasp Factory, Walking on Glass and The Bridge. Also worth noting that he several times make reference to Sally Ann Melia of Science Fiction Chronicle magazine and who was also present on these pages for a while, posting a number of reviews of Banks books in the reviews section.
 
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Vertigo said:
Strange attractors by Jeffrey A Carver - I was surprised how much I enjoyed this after a slightly weird start. The main character from the first (very different) book in the series finds himself on huge structure that is part of a vast network of such structures spanning the galaxy, constructed by unknown aliens in the, presumably, distant past. In this it has some similarities with Greg Bear's Eon with many different environments inhabited by many different alien species all or most of whom appear to have been transported to this structure in much the same manner as the MC, in other words without their consent. The futuristic science is too far off the charts to be considered hard SF but sufficiently plausible to be convincing. An enjoyable read and I will be continuing the next in the series. 4/5 stars
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Interested to read this Vertigo and to see you liked it so much. I read and enjoyed Neptune Crossing last year. This is the direct sequel to that book? I’ll have to keep an eye out for it in my fave big used book store. Carver seems like a nice guy too.
 
Spade said:
Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis

I read Doomsday Book about 15 years ago and loved it. I read To Say Nothing of the Dog last month and really enjoyed it. This book split into two is a masterpiece, in my opinion. A thousand pages just fly by. I'm really upset that there aren't any more books in this series because I could read them nonstop. Time Travel and World War II are two of my favorite genres, and the blending is exceptional. The main characters don't stand out that much, but the setting they're tossed into is the star. I've been fascinated by the blitz since I read Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, and this gave me another opportunity to explore what that time might have been like.

5/5 Stars
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It's - it's - yes! It's Colonel Worf and I claim my prize :D
 
Thanks Vertigo, I’m going to have to pick up that Simon Caroti book.

Looking forward to Banks’s Notes and Drawings on the Culture book to be released, too.
 
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