Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham (1963)

[AE35Unit]

A short book that starts slow and gradually builds to a story about a great discovery, which soon falls flat-Wyndham should have made more of the revolutionary idea. But it quickly becomes tedious and boring; by half way through it has become quite a slog. Luckily its only a short novel.
A good idea that is mishandled by Wyndham who puts too much filler in sentences and paragraphs, (waffle) and a lot of the non-dialogue text reads like a high brow monologue, i.e. tedious.
Its now on bookmooch

 

[Vertigo]

I liked it, not his best, but I did still like it although it's certainly no action thriller. I liked the way he presented one of the few looks at longevity that I've seen in SF that is honest about the pitfalls; population, boredom, no career advancement etc. These things are so often swept under the carpet by books containing longevity. However it did feel very dated as do several of his books that are set in his own time rather than a distant or even close future. And it is quite slow paced but again I have often found this with Wyndham's writing.