February 2021 Reading Thread.

[Teresa Edgerton]

Didn't we all? --- She started writing in the late 1940's a time when the idea of a woman writing SF was quite a bit out of the norm. I would guess that the androgynous name helped.

Not me. I always knew Norton was a woman—or at least I can't remember a time when I thought otherwise. How did I know? A good question. The first thing I ever read of hers was Moon of Three Rings, around 1966 or 1967. It was a hardback from the school library, so I'm guessing the author's real name was probably typed on the card inside the front cover.

I read the "Andrew North" books much later, being attracted to them because I knew they were Norton's early works. My husband and I were renting a house with another married couple and the husband had a large collection of the old Ace Doubles. What a treasure trove that was! I went through first looking for novels by authors I already knew that I liked and so probably started with the Solar Queen novels.

I thought by now I was pretty much familiar (even if I hadn't read every one of them) with all of her early works. But I don't recall hearing of Star Soldiers before, so thanks for mentioning it, Parson.

 

[Bick]

Not me. I always knew Norton was a woman

Same.

I thought by now I was pretty much familiar (even if I hadn't read every one of them) with all of her works. But I don't recall hearing of Star Soldiers before, so thanks for mentioning it, Parson.

It's a Baen titled collection of two of her stories, Star Guard (1955) and Star Rangers (1953)

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Ah, I am familiar with both of those. Thanks, Bick.

Edit-- I have now downloaded that book. It's been so long since I read either of those stories, I probably won't remember a thing and it will be like reading them for the first time.

 

[soulsinging]

I bailed on Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead. Between that and my Moseley book, I guess I’m not really feeling the mysteries at the moment.

Instead, I’ve started Rosewater by Tade Thompson. Pretty interesting so far.

 

[Foxbat]

Just starting Michael Ondaatje’s In The Skin Of A Lion. It’s a book that I keep going back to and have read it many times before and one of my all-time favourites. It has a dream-like quality to the writing that I think leans it towards magical realism.

Ondaatje is probably best known for The English Patient but for me this one is his best work by far. It also introduces us to Caravaggio, who then turns up later in The English Patient.

 

[AE35Unit]

. But I don't recall hearing of Star Soldiers before, so thanks for mentioning it, Parson.

I wonder if Star Soldiers is an example of an unknown or previously unpublished work that was recently found...

 

[AE35Unit]

Gonna give The Rats by James Herbert a read. I've read most of Herbert's books but not read any of the rats books

 

[Bick]

I finished Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)

This novel won the Nebula Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It's a magnificent achievement and thoroughly recommended, not only for lovers of SF, but also for those who are thinking of trying out the genre. Benford is an astrophysicist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. As a significant and accomplished physical scientist in his own right, he was able to create not only an intelligent hard-SF novel that makes good internal sense, but also the best novel about science that I have ever read. As a scientist myself, I'm well aware how wrongly it is often portrayed in books and film. The scientific process, the need to publish in scientific journals, the inter-relationships between scientists, and the uncertainties behind scientific theory are all captured perfectly.

This is a time-travel story; but the difference here is that the time travel is conducted only through messages, sent from 1998 back to 1963 by way of tachyon transmissions. The attempt is being made, from Cambridge in the UK, as the world in '98 is suffering an ecological disaster. If only a message can be sent back to '63 to warn scientists then of the impending disaster, perhaps they could amend their experiments on crop optimisation - experiments that ran out of control. The method of messaging is very clever, and the dual perspective - half told from Cambridge and half from the receiving laboratory in La Jolla in 1963 - works very well. The storyline in La Jolla chiefly concerns the interpretation of the nuclear resonance 'messages' detected in a lab sample of indium antinomide and reads like a detective story. The '98-based scenes in the UK offer a counterpoint to this storyline, by providing both pathos and urgency.

Overall, this may be the finest hard science-fiction story I've read.

 

[Bick]

I am now making a start on Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake.

I read Titus Groan a couple of years back, and have been meaning to read this for some time. I love Peake's rich use of language.

 

[Parson]

She was very well known as a female SF/fantasy writer, and she had good company with female contemporaries such as Brackett, McClean, Moore, Merril, etc., so it wasn't that unusual in the Golden Age. She won the Grand Master award before Asimov got it. I think back in her day, everyone knew she was a woman - its perhaps only more recently, since her work has dropped out of the common consciousness that there's been any uncertainty from modern readers.

I had read possibly dozens of her books before I realized she was female. I'm guessing it took me 15 years. --- To give myself the benefit of the doubt, I started reading her books when I was about 12. One of my best remembered books from back then was her Catseye. I had a chance to re-read it a couple of years ago and still held up pretty well, 50+ years later and as a much more sophisticated reader.

----

I am about a third of the way through Rules of Redemption by T. A. White. It's holding my interest but I am becoming more and more convinced that it belongs in the "Fantasy set in space" genre, rather than a "space fantasy." ---- Catseye would be an example of the "space fantasy" genre.

 

[AE35Unit]

I finished Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)

This novel won the Nebula Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It's a magnificent achievement and thoroughly recommended, not only for lovers of SF, but also for those who are thinking of trying out the genre. Benford is an astrophysicist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. As a significant and accomplished physical scientist in his own right, he was able to create not only an intelligent hard-SF novel that makes good internal sense, but also the best novel about science that I have ever read. As a scientist myself, I'm well aware how wrongly it is often portrayed in books and film. The scientific process, the need to publish in scientific journals, the inter-relationships between scientists, and the uncertainties behind scientific theory are all captured perfectly.

This is a time-travel story; but the difference here is that the time travel is conducted only through messages, sent from 1998 back to 1963 by way of tachyon transmissions. The attempt is being made, from Cambridge in the UK, as the world in '98 is suffering an ecological disaster. If only a message can be sent back to '63 to warn scientists then of the impending disaster, perhaps they could amend their experiments on crop optimisation - experiments that ran out of control. The method of messaging is very clever, and the dual perspective - half told from Cambridge and half from the receiving laboratory in La Jolla in 1963 - works very well. The storyline in La Jolla chiefly concerns the interpretation of the nuclear resonance 'messages' detected in a lab sample of indium antinomide and reads like a detective story. The '98-based scenes in the UK offer a counterpoint to this storyline, by providing both pathos and urgency.

Overall, this may be the finest hard science-fiction story I've read.

View attachment 75748

I've read quite a lot of Benford, I want to read this one

 

[Randy M.]

Started Binti: The Complete Trilogy by Nnedi Okorafor. Only ~40 pages in, but the premise is intriguing and I like the compression of Okorafor's writing. Within a few pages we have a sense of the character, the culture she comes from, and the personal stakes for her.

 

[hitmouse]

I am now making a start on Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake.

I read Titus Groan a couple of years back, and have been meaning to read this for some time. I love Peake's rich use of language.

Fantastic book. Just wonderful. I've read it multiple times though not in the last 15 or 20 years. However, thinking about it now, I have a very vivid recall of pretty much the whole story, and can cycle through the scenes and dialogue in my head. Might have to dig it out again.

 

[Vince W]

I finished Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)

This novel won the Nebula Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It's a magnificent achievement and thoroughly recommended, not only for lovers of SF, but also for those who are thinking of trying out the genre. Benford is an astrophysicist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. As a significant and accomplished physical scientist in his own right, he was able to create not only an intelligent hard-SF novel that makes good internal sense, but also the best novel about science that I have ever read. As a scientist myself, I'm well aware how wrongly it is often portrayed in books and film. The scientific process, the need to publish in scientific journals, the inter-relationships between scientists, and the uncertainties behind scientific theory are all captured perfectly.

This is a time-travel story; but the difference here is that the time travel is conducted only through messages, sent from 1998 back to 1963 by way of tachyon transmissions. The attempt is being made, from Cambridge in the UK, as the world in '98 is suffering an ecological disaster. If only a message can be sent back to '63 to warn scientists then of the impending disaster, perhaps they could amend their experiments on crop optimisation - experiments that ran out of control. The method of messaging is very clever, and the dual perspective - half told from Cambridge and half from the receiving laboratory in La Jolla in 1963 - works very well. The storyline in La Jolla chiefly concerns the interpretation of the nuclear resonance 'messages' detected in a lab sample of indium antinomide and reads like a detective story. The '98-based scenes in the UK offer a counterpoint to this storyline, by providing both pathos and urgency.

Overall, this may be the finest hard science-fiction story I've read.

View attachment 75748

Glad to hear it holds up as well as I remember it. I need to reread it again.

 

[Rodders]

I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home half my week, so reading has been massively curtailed.

Finished Brian G. Turner's "Survivor" which i found very enjoyable. Quite a tight plot and Jaiger and Vannick are enjoyable characters to follow.

Now on to the final part of the Trilogy with "Insurrection".



Apologies to AE35Unit, but i like how you change your avatar to the book cover you're reading at the time and i am unashamedly going to copy that.

 

[AE35Unit]

I've been fortunate enough to be able to work from home half my week, so reading has been massively curtailed.

Finished Brian G. Turner's "Survivor" which i found very enjoyable. Quite a tight plot and Jaiger and Vannick are enjoyable characters to follow.

Now on to the final part of the Trilogy with "Insurrection".

View attachment 75783

Apologies to AE35Unit, but i like how you change your avatar to the book cover you're reading at the time and i am unashamedly going to copy that.

Happy birthday dude!

 

[Rodders]

Thanks Larry.

 

[Pyan]

Reading Castles of Steel, by Robert Massie. A history of the naval engagements of the First World War Dreadnought era. Recommended.

 

[Vertigo]

I finished Timescape by Gregory Benford (1980)

This novel won the Nebula Award, the British Science Fiction Award, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. It's a magnificent achievement and thoroughly recommended, not only for lovers of SF, but also for those who are thinking of trying out the genre. Benford is an astrophysicist and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine. As a significant and accomplished physical scientist in his own right, he was able to create not only an intelligent hard-SF novel that makes good internal sense, but also the best novel about science that I have ever read. As a scientist myself, I'm well aware how wrongly it is often portrayed in books and film. The scientific process, the need to publish in scientific journals, the inter-relationships between scientists, and the uncertainties behind scientific theory are all captured perfectly.

This is a time-travel story; but the difference here is that the time travel is conducted only through messages, sent from 1998 back to 1963 by way of tachyon transmissions. The attempt is being made, from Cambridge in the UK, as the world in '98 is suffering an ecological disaster. If only a message can be sent back to '63 to warn scientists then of the impending disaster, perhaps they could amend their experiments on crop optimisation - experiments that ran out of control. The method of messaging is very clever, and the dual perspective - half told from Cambridge and half from the receiving laboratory in La Jolla in 1963 - works very well. The storyline in La Jolla chiefly concerns the interpretation of the nuclear resonance 'messages' detected in a lab sample of indium antinomide and reads like a detective story. The '98-based scenes in the UK offer a counterpoint to this storyline, by providing both pathos and urgency.

Overall, this may be the finest hard science-fiction story I've read.

View attachment 75748

I read his Galactic Centre series, the first of which, In the Ocean of Night, was very good but then they tailed off a bit and to be honest the last two (of 6) were pretty dreadful. Just utterly confusing, but trying to describe/speculate on conditions at the centre of the galaxy was rather ambitious and maybe my knowledge of physics just wasn't up to it!

I have had Timescape on my to read list for quite a while (I believe it's also an SF Masterworks book) and have now moved it up for my next batch of buying. I'm generally not a great lover of time travel books, I find they lack plausibility, but maybe a harder SF approach might work for me! Worth a go anyway!

 

[AE35Unit]

I read his Galactic Centre series, the first of which, In the Ocean of Night, was very good but then they tailed off a bit and to be honest the last two (of 6) were pretty dreadful. Just utterly confusing, but trying to describe/speculate on conditions at the centre of the galaxy was rather ambitious and maybe my knowledge of physics just wasn't up to it!

I began reading them years ago when I borrowed Great Sky River from the library, thinking it was a stand alone. I loved it and for me its best in the series. I then got all the books and went back to the start. But I found the early books before GSR quite dull. The later ones were much better.