May 2021 Reading Discussion.

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That puts an end to the long wait. Adding to the ever-growing collection, here's another of Murakami's works. Super excited about this. Haven't started reading yet, but with 4 more days left in the month, I'm damn sure I can finish it.
Next, I finished reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Really loved the play. It is quite close to my ideology and belief of life in general, so I was able to connect well.
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Started this epic. Would be months before I finish but super excited.
Lastly, I read This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt. Talks of the life and pain of the indigenous Americans. Excellent read and highly recommended. Really enjoyed reading this especially after Tommy Orange's - There There.
 
“Star Science Fiction Stories no.2” edited by Frederik Pohl (1953)
Frederik Pohl's second selection of previously unpublished stories, and once again he ensured that he bought the best stories available from the best authors in the field. Hence a selection of good solid stories with one or two excellent ones for good measure. Here's the first publication of Jerome Bixby’s much-anthologised "It’s a Good Life” (maybe it's an age thing, but I feel more sympathy for young Anthony on this read than previously), and I love Alfred Bester’s “Disappearing Act” detailing General Carpenter’s war for the American dream. There's also a very pleasant Simak-style Richard Wilson story "Friend of the Family".
 
The IX by Andrew P Weston (2015)


Soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds, including the IX Legion of Rome, are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing, and transported to the far side of the galaxy.
Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark ultimatum:
Fight or die
 
Danny McG said:
The IX by Andrew P Weston (2015)


Soldiers from varying eras and vastly different backgrounds, including the IX Legion of Rome, are snatched away from Earth at the moment of their passing, and transported to the far side of the galaxy.
Thinking they have been granted a reprieve, their relief turns to horror when they discover they face a stark ultimatum:
Fight or die
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I've already read this! Only a few months ago...dammit

So now I'll instead start the new one by Adrian Tchaikovsky Shards of Earth
 
Ellizze said:
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That puts an end to the long wait. Adding to the ever-growing collection, here's another of Murakami's works. Super excited about this. Haven't started reading yet, but with 4 more days left in the month, I'm damn sure I can finish it.
Next, I finished reading Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Really loved the play. It is quite close to my ideology and belief of life in general, so I was able to connect well.
View attachment 78850
Started this epic. Would be months before I finish but super excited.
Lastly, I read This Wound is a World by Billy-Ray Belcourt. Talks of the life and pain of the indigenous Americans. Excellent read and highly recommended. Really enjoyed reading this especially after Tommy Orange's - There There.
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Funnily enough, Demons is next on my list after Sax Rohmer's "The Mystery of Fu Manchu" and "A backdrop of stars" - a compilation of works by Aldiss, Harry Harrison etc from the New English Library. I've been slowly collecting the New English Library sci-fi books as I'm a big fan of the cover art from this period like Peter Elson's cover to Asimov's Space Ranger series, or the licensed John Berkey paintings. Not so much this cover though, tbh.

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Ordered Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone & Alfred Bester's THE STARS MY DESTINATION.

Anyone have a favorite Ian Watson book?
 
I read Lois McMaster Bujold's The Assassins of Thasalon. It's always good to have a new Bujold story, particularly the first novel in a few years. I liked it, although after having read so many Bujold stories some of the plot developments did feel a little bit familiar. Despite that there were occasional surprises as well.

I did like the subversion of expectations where the story spends the first half building up Methani as the main antagonist but as soon as Penric and company arrive in Thessalon they find out he's been murdered.

One of her strengths has always been the characters and I thought Iroxi was a good addition to the cast of returning characters from the previous stories. It's perhaps not my favourite out of the Penric and Desdemona stories but still good.

Now I've started S.A. Chakraborty's final book in her Daevabad trilogy, The Empire of Gold.

hitmouse said:
Finished Desolation Road by Ian McDonald, which I enjoyed.
I really liked both Brasyl and River of Gods, which I read a few years ago.
I think this book was his debut novel and it is a little self-consciously mannered style-wise in places. The first section is very reminiscent of Marquez, as others have commented, and the ending reminds me somewhat of the film The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean.
Definitely worth a look.
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I did like this when I read it a few years ago although not quite as much as some of the McDonald's later books.
 
I have started The End of Eternity (1955) by Isaac Asimov. In his group biography Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (2018) Alec Nevala-Lee calls it, in passing, Asimov's best novel. We'll see.
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
I have started The End of Eternity (1955) by Isaac Asimov. In his group biography Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction (2018) Alec Nevala-Lee calls it, in passing, Asimov's best novel. We'll see.
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It's not, but I did enjoy it (as I dimly recall). You can always find someone who thinks every book is the authors best, can't you?
(Attaching LRH to the list of notable influences on the era is odd, incidentally. van Vogt, Sturgeon or Kuttner/Moore had much greater impact in that era).
 
I finished Amphitrite by Brandon Q. Morris. It was listed as a "Hard Science Fiction" work. I found that assertion debatable. It did not have FTL, but one of the central characters, a robot, seemed almost as far fetched to me as that. The characters seemed to me to be just this side of believable. I do not believe I'll read the two sequels.

I've just started "Warpstar: First Contact by J. L. Maynor. I found it when searching for "first contact" books. I'm giving it a shot, but it started out with at least one strike against it. As cheesy as it sounds the cover looks very third rate and that makes me think the writing will be the same. But I love First Contact books, so it gets a semi-shot.
 
Parson said:
I've just started "Warpstar: First Contact by J. L. Maynor. I found it when searching for "first contact" books. I'm giving it a shot, but it started out with at least one strike against it. As cheesy as it sounds the cover looks very third rate and that makes me think the writing will be the same. But I love First Contact books, so it gets a semi-shot.
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Out of curiosity had a look on Amazon at the cover - it looks no cheesier or amateurish than most self-published books to me, tbh. Hope its better written than most though... What would put me off (as well as the self-pub thing) is that its called Book 1, but the author hasn't published any other books, so I suspect it may leave things hanging.
 
Danny McG said:
This was very good, a typical mismatched crew of a shabby space freighter find themselves up against a massive enemy.
Very trope-ish but done very well.
Proper fun to read :)
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I've added to my wish list but will probably wait until at least book 2 comes along. I hate waiting a year of more for the next book in a series.
 
Danny McG said:
This was very good, a typical mismatched crew of a shabby space freighter find themselves up against a massive enemy.
Very trope-ish but done very well.
Proper fun to read :)
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I was looking at that in a bookshop a couple of days ago. I may have to pick it up sometime.
Vertigo said:
I've added to my wish list but will probably wait until at least book 2 comes along. I hate waiting a year of more for the next book in a series.
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At least with Tchaikovsky I feel I can rely on him to publish the sequels regularly given how prolific he is, I think this is the fourth book he's published so far this year and it's still only May.
 
About to start a book I've been looking forward to for some time -- William Blake vs the World, by John Higgs.
 
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