Science Fiction / Fantasy

[Frybabe]

You are not wrong, Pat. I went on the hunt because I couldn't remember, but here it is on Fandom's site. https://liaden.fandom.com/wiki/Clutch_Turtles The end of the last book left the Clutch Turtles ship hovering over Surebleak. Sniffing around the ARC readers comment site, it look like all out war with the Department, and I saw a reviewer mention that a lot is going on with old friends and new showing up in the book. Sounds intense.

I don't think The Collapsing Empire series is among Scalzi's best work. After reading the first book, I wasn't sure I wanted to continue the series, but did anyway. There is a new one scheduled for next year. I really hope he is working on another Haden's Syndrome book.  Head On was just as good as Lock In , and I don't even care for sports.

While waiting to pick up Ken Liu's Invisible Planets I read two of Arthur C. Clarke's short stories. The first was "Travel by Wire", his first published story, and "How We Went to Mars" which is a riot.

[PatH]

That's quite a site.  We were both saying we missed the turtles.  Maybe they heard us.  I hope the book is intense.  I've felt the books were losing their touch somewhat.

You're right about the Scalzi.  Not his best, but it was OK for fill-in reading.  The first one, especially was thin in actual plot.  And although it fitted the characters well, I didn't appreciate 10% of the words beginning with f.  Plus the second ended with some deus ex machina touches.

[PatH]

Sunday's New York Times Magazine had a very good article about how sci-fi writer Ken Liu's translations have transformed the impact of Chinese sci-fi on the western world. 


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/magazine/ken-liu-three-body-problem-chinese-science-fiction.html

[Frybabe]

Great article, Pat, and long. His short story book, Invisible Planets is ready to go back to the library.  “The Fish of Lijiang” is one of the stories in it, along with several that I had already read elsewhere.

I am now reading Accepting the Lance which was released on Dec. 3.  Lots of things going on in this book. They added new characters and brought back some of the older characters for the show down between the Department of Interior and Clan Koval. I don't know whether the fight between the two will be resolved in this book or will continue. Suffice it to say that new alliances are being forged or strengthened. It is definitely not disappointing.

[PatH]

Coincidentally, I just got my hold request for his Broken Stars from the library.

I thought of you when I read of Liu's reaction to Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. What a hoot.

It's good to hear Accepting the Lance is good.  I may not be able to wait for the paperback.

[Frybabe]

Oh, Dear!   

[Frybabe]

Well, I see I started a thriller that I forgot I started, along with Spalding's audio book which also has not been touched for a while. My audio time is being taken up by L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth, all 248 chapters of it. I must say the pace is frantic and does holds my interest. I am half way through it now.

I finished Accepting the Lance. One character I expected to see was the Uncle, but he didn't show up, nor was he mentioned.

The only other SciFi I am reading right now is a first of series freebie I got a while back called Prototype D, by Jason D. Morrow. It is about a scientist and her project to program emotions into robots for the military. So far it is holding my interest but that's about it. I'm not very far into it yet.

[Frybabe]

Have you ever heard of Hugo Gernsback? I don't remember the name, but it turns out he founded Amazing Stories. His Ralph 124C 41+: A Romance of the Year 2660 was originally published in Modern Electrics in 1925. This one is the second, updated edition. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60944  The two preface and forward paragraphs are particularly interesting. Well, it is now in my enormous collection of TBRs.

[PatH]

Yes, I have heard of him, though I think I've never read any of his stories.  The Hugo Award is named after him.  In my youth, Amazing was thought of as more pulpy than Astounding, but it gave a bunch of good writers a start.  My father was a serious fan, and subscribed to just about all of the S-F magazines, so I got to read anything I wanted.

Let me know how he reads now.

[Frybabe]

Battlefield Earth is almost done. Yea! What a story. The Scots play a very prominent part in the story what with their tenacious, can do, do or die, attitude. Love it!

Also, I am almost finished reading The Caledonian Gambit by Dan Moren. Huh! Yet another nod to the Scots and Irish through place and family names as well as lots of red hair and a penchant for riots and subversive (resistance) activities against the conquering empire. One of the main characters (a fighter pilot) is a little too wimpy and whiny for my tastes, but that is later explained, along with his fear of flying as PTSD. It is an interesting space opera type story without much science in it. Moren specializes in SciFi-Espionage stories. This is his first, I believe.

[Frybabe]

I have been expanding my genre tastes. There are several fantasy series I have in my Audible collection now including some of Michael Sullivan's works. This morning I ran across something that looks very interesting indeed, the Legend of the Storm Hawks (Rootstock Saga Book 1) by L.H. Leonard. Here is a promo for the book with an excerpt from BookLife. https://booklife.com/project/legend-of-the-storm-hawks-rootstock-saga-book-1-43796  It is a whopping 704 pages. Scheduled release will be in January on KIndle, I hope an Audible version will be released eventually.

[Frybabe]

I finished two freebie Targon Tales series books by Chris Reher. These are squarely in the space opera genre. Her stories are nicely done and the characters are personable. They are light , enjoyable reading and not unreasonably long. Here is a little about the author. https://www.chrisreher.com/about.html I am tempted to shell out real bucks to read the rest since they are not available to borrow.

[PatH]

We can always use some more good space opera.  Thanks.

[Frybabe]

I finally finished Battlefield Earth. My very favorite sequence was that of the dealings with the galactic Factors (investment bankers/lawyers). My favorite character names were Terl and Rotodeeter Snowl, pronounced like now. The narration was overall very good, but I could have done without so much grunt as background sounds. Music was just so-so, not my style.

The other oversized audio book I have is the complete Barsoom (John Carter) series at a little over 52 hours. It is not next on my listening agenda. Battlefield Earth as just over 46 hours.

Today, I'll be downloading the next Galaxy's Edge series book to read. After that, the next SciFi will likely be to continue reading the Targon Tales series.

[Frybabe]

PatH have you ever run across J.-H. Rosny aîné? His books are precious scarce to find in English (which means they are expensive). Early Belgian SciFi writer who, not unsurprisingly, wrote in French. He is compared to H. G. Wells. His book The Quest for Fire was the inspiration for the movie (1981) of the same name. i remember seeing that. I think it was Ron Perlman's first movie. I don't remember him in it, but I do remember Rae Dawn Chong. If I remember correctly the movie got lots of acclaim for the costume/makeup crew and the guy who created the language.

[PatH]

No, Frybabe, I don't think I ever heard of him.  I don't remember the movie, either.  It would be interesting to track him down, but as you point out, too expensive.

[PatH]

I see Amazon has a few reasonably priced paperbacks of some of his other books, but not of A Quest for Fire.  And Abe Books has a ton of cheap copies of La Guerre du Feu.  We just need to brush up our French.

[PatH]

As predicted, I didn't wait for the paperback of Accepting the Lance.  I got it at Powell's on the latest Portland trip.   As you said, lots of things going on.  I wondered, on finishing it, if it was to be the last.  They wind up a lot of things, and leave Surebleak and Korval headed toward a new identity.  But there are lots of loose ends, and possibilities for future events.  Besides, it's hard to imagine that Lee and Miller can stop tinkering with the Liaden Universe.

I have my answer already.  Fantastic Fiction has now announced Trader's Leap, to come out in December 2020.  I remember the phrase from Balance of Trade, but here it seems to mean a leap of faith into the future, and the book will deal with Shan's efforts to improve Korval's trade.  We'll see in a year.

[Frybabe]

Super, Pat. After seemingly waiting so long for the last one, we are getting another in relatively short order.

What I am reading now, finally, is Station Eleven. It is engrossing and at times the events are unexpected. The connections between the people are not necessarily clear at first and are sometimes surprising. None of the characters seem to stand out more than the others; what seems more important are the events surrounding them and how they (the events) weave in and out of the characters' lives.

[Frybabe]

Station Eleven was engrossing as is the audio book I am listening to - The Faded Sun Trilogy by C. J. Cherryh. This is also a "social" SciFi story of sorts, though set off world. Even more than Station Eleven, if find the trilogy absolutely fascinating to the point that I spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening listening to it. I finally had to put it down at 11:30pm, and then it took me a few minutes to settle down. The narrator is excellent. His delivery is smooth, flowing and almost poetic.

When I went looking for a glossary of names and terms, I discovered I had read another Cherry novel several years ago - Downbelow Station - which, it turns out is also part of a series. I've ordered the two books that, storywise, come before it. These two were repackaged into on volume, but it was less expensive to buy the two separately.

[Frybabe]

I didn't want to bore everyone in the Library about my SciFi reads, so I am elaborating here on the book very interesting novel I just finished called The Universe - or Nothing by Meyer Moldeven which the author released on Project Gutenberg via the Creative Commons. When I went looking for info on the author I found this interview. https://www.govloop.com/member-of-the-week-meyer-moldeven-a-93-year-young-member/ Another book, The Interstellar Slingshot, appears to be the same, but with a different title and maybe a few differences, like the main character's name which is Brad in Universe is Jesse in Slingshot. At any rate, the book comes with an epilogue and an afterward, and includes an appendix and references. The appendix includes  "Principles of Governance Among Nations in Space" written by the Associate General Counsel for the Smithsonian Institution and reported in The Futurist, page 60, May-June 1990. I found the issue, but this article was not listed on the preview page for back issues that I found. So, I don't know if the article is real or not. Considering the name of the Asst. General Counsel is not listed, it is suspect. Nevertheless there are and have been for quite some time, treaties and such regarding space law (Astolaw), rules of conduct and territorial issues that may come up.  The book can also be found on ManyBooks.net  Good story, worth reading.

[PatH]

That's an interesting bio, Frybabe.  Since he was 93 in 2010, he's very likely no longer around.  I wonder if he knew my brother-in-law, who also worked at Wright Pat after WWII, having become an engineer via the GI Bill.

[PatH]

I just got hold of Ken Liu's book of stories, The Hidden Girl. which our library just got.  For once I was almost at the top of the hold line.

[Frybabe]

Let me know how you like it. I need to put it on my list.

I am in the midst of the last of the first Galaxy's Edge series, Retribution, and still listening to Age of Myth (Book one) of a fantasy series mentioned in the Library.

Imagine me reading fantasy. It reminds me of Steph. What would see say? I still think of her on occasion, especially now that I am reading fantasy too.

[Frybabe]

I sure am making a lot of typos lately that I am not catching. Bummer! My fingers seem to want to type a word other than the one I am thinking.

I've finished Retribution and with it the end of the first Galaxy's Edge series. There are two more series in the same universe to read. I am sure some of the characters will show up in them here and there. I also have a short story on both Ebook and Audible which i have read.

Now I am reading Rocannan's World. I had already read "Semley's Necklace" but here it is as prologue to the novel. I wasn't overly fond of the story, but reread it to refresh my memory. The necklace takes on something of an important role in the novel, at least in "Part 1: The Starlord".

As for The Age of Myth, it is finally drawing me in more tightly to the story. At first I was having more trouble following the action and characters. From the descriptions of the inhabitants the story seems to be set with at least one of the groups just getting into the Iron Age, but most of the descriptions seem to depict groups at the end of the Iron Age and the beginning of the Dark Ages, but prior to Christianity. I was surprised to hear the name Caractacus mentioned. The real Caractacus gave the Romans a very hard time when they invaded Britain under Emperor Claudius. He also was the head of the Silures who controlled southeastern Wales    and for a time, Cornwall. There are those who believe that the knights in armor are Gods, and they come with advisors and teachers who amount to wizards . The farmer/hunters have their foreseers who read the future in bones, and who believe in goblins, demons and such. Some are beginning to suspect such beliefs as nonsense. I keep falling asleep on the story so have to go back and relisten a little more than I'd like.

[PatH]

I think Rocannon's World is the first of her Hainish series.  She hadn't yet gotten slick about describing the anthropology of her worlds, but it's a good story.  One of that series that I like, though it's short and hasn't made much of a splash, is The Word for World is Forest.

I make even more typos on my new laptop than before, because its touch is so light, and autocorrect adds some doozies.  It's a good thing I'm still a compulsive proofreader, or my posts would be a mess.

[Frybabe]

Yes, too short. I didn't want to leave Rocannon's world so soon. Now I am in the middle of Planet of Exile, which I am also enjoying. I think the next in the Hainish cycle is City of Illusions.  I read the short stories in The Wind's Twelve Quarters eons ago, but will go back and pick out the Hainish Cycle and if they were not incorporated in the novels like "Semley's Necklace", reread them. i

I have finished Age f Myth and must now decide which audio book to listen to next, the next in the series or something else.

I suddenly have an urge to reread Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population. I probably will not though, because I have so many worthy (and some unworthy) books that remain unread as yet. Sigh!

[PatH]

There's nothing wrong with abandoning your TBR pile to read an old favorite, Frybabe.  I do that a lot, especially with bedtime reading.  And Remnant Population stands up well to rereading.  I haven't read Planet of Exile or City of Illusions, though I've read most of the rest of the cycle.  The one I could never get through is the greatly admired The Dispossessed.  There is also Four Ways to Forgiveness, four loosely connected stories about a rather confusing two-planet civilization.

[Frybabe]

Pat, I originally did not care for "Semley's Necklace", but since I reread it in conjunction with Rocannon's World it faired better. I had the same gee I want more feeling for Planet of Exile. In that one I could truly feel the struggles and fears of the people involved, and felt a strong empathy for them. Now, City of Illusions, so far,  is not doing a thing for me. The stories I didn't care much for were from the Earth/Sea series, I think. It was so long ago that I started on the short stories in The Wind's Twelve Quarters that I forget what all was in there except for Semley. At any rate, a bunch of the stories I didn't care for and never finished, I see, them, only reading the first eight. I'll have to go through them again. The only other novels of hers I read are The Lathe of Heaven, The Dispossessed, and The Left Hand of Darkness.

[PatH]

The Lathe of Heaven and The Left Hand of Darkness are two of my favorites.  Lathe has the additional appeal for me of taking place in Portland, so a lot of the places are familiar.  I always hoped I would spot her somewhere, as we would have gone to some of the same places, but I never did.

I wrote in the Poetry section of her translations from Spanish of the poems of Gabriela Mistral, which I like a lot.

[Frybabe]

I tried listening to Larry Niven's first of series Ringworld. It just did not appeal to me at all. The narrator was fine, the beginning just didn't entice me to read further. Maybe I will try it again later. I know lots of people liked it.

I've finished rereading Way Station by Clifford D. Simak and Joe Haldeman's Forever War (first of trilogy), may or may not reread the other two. Haven't decided.

I am not trying out some old Scifi books. The first is called The Red Planet by William John Locke. Although I have it in my SciFi folder, so far it doesn't seem to be science fiction, but if following a disabled war Vet around his local neighborhood. I like the story. The second is called Space Viking by H. Beam Piper. I only read into it a page or two. It looks good too.

[PatH]

Frybabe, I never got anywhere with Ringworld either.

I forget if you've read anything by Piper.  He wrote Little Fuzzy, and several sequels.  John Scalzi retold Little Fuzzy as Fuzzy Nation, an improvement over the original in my opinion.  I see Space Viking is part of a series, which I didn't realize.  I'll be interested to hear what you think of it.

[Frybabe]

I didn't know that it was part of a series either. Will look into it.

Yes, I read both Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Nation. In fact, after I read Fuzzy Nation, I went back and read Little Fuzzy again since it had been a while.

[Frybabe]

Have you read Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice? What an interesting novel. Not so much because of the story itself, but the main character especially holds my attention. Now, I am not at all into Zombies, the Walking Dead or their equivalents, but it took a little while to figure out that is just about what the main character/narrator is, or at least, his body is. So, now I am hooked. Part of the "corpse corps" he/she/it once controlled twenty bodies at once, and before that a ship for around a thousand years. The story unwinds by swinging back and forth between past and present. The description of the character reminds me of something between the Borg and the adherents of the Underverse from Chronicles of Riddick. I have yet to get to how this mind got from "being" a ship, then a commander of 20 bodies, and then got disconnected from the rest. The book is also something of a gender bender.

Ancillary Justice, which was Leckie's debut novel won the 2014 Hugo Award for "Best Novel", the Nebula Award, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Locus Award, the BSFA Award, and four others. Quite an accomplishment.  Her next two in the series, Ancillary Sword also won the BSFA Award , and both it and Ancillary Mercy garnered the Locus Award.

[Frybabe]

Well, that didn't take long. I have finished Ancillary Justice already. Very well done. I highly recommend it for those who don't mind the narrator's present/past remembrance switches and attempts to fit into a "gender-blind" society. There is an interview at the end where Leckie explains how she came up with and dealt with the main character narration. In her Acknowledgements section, she had high praise for libraries stating that "...I'm not sure it's possible to have too many of them". I have the next in the series on hold.  Her newest book, The Raven Tower, published just last year is getting some high praises also. It is a fantasy.

[PatH]

Frybabe, I did read Ancillary Justice, and liked it, though I had a harder time than you in figuring things out, don't think I did as good a job.  I mean to read the other two, but first must go back and reread Justice, to remind myself.

Somehow, I'm having trouble reading much, listening to music, too, which is silly, but this epidemic puts me into an odd, edgy mood, and it's hard to concentrate.

Speaking of music, I wonder what's with our sister site.  I hope it's just something that has happened before, some administrative glitch with the provider.  I'd hate to lose track of some of the people.

[Frybabe]

Pat, I have not had any trouble as of this morning, but several people have complained about not being able to get in with Firefox or Chrome browsers. Right now, I am using Microsoft Edge and, surprisingly, liking it. Edge is now using Chrome technology.

One thing I noticed about Ancillary Justice is that, and Leckie acknowledged, she based some of the societal structure of the Radch is based somewhat on the Roman Empire. She was mainly talking about the religious aspects, but I thought the military structure was similar. The religious ceremonies reminded my more of Buddhist or Hindi ceremonies. I would have liked an explanation as to why it was so important for all the Radch to wear gloves, how they came about that custom. Yes, it is worth reading again.

I know what you mean about being a bit to distracted and fidgety to read/listen much. I went through that, too, even though my routine did not change much. Strange. 

[PatH]

I'm glad the website is still there.  I haven't been able to get in for some days with Safari, which is all I have on my current computer and phone.  I'll catch up when the problem gets solved.

I noticed the Roman-ness too.

[Frybabe]

Well, I was mistaken. Safari is not working for one or two either. I suspect an incompatibility between the OS and the applications until one or the other catches up with an update. The gals over on Seniors and Friends suggest switching browsers. I believe Rammel is looking into the problem from the server end.

 I was having a different kind of problem the day before yesterday, but it cleared up after I updated my drivers which MS said were up-to-date, but my HP support program said weren't. It still would not work right until I shut down and completely powered the machine off for a while. Must have been a bit stuck somewhere.

I didn't care for H. Beam Piper's Space Tug, so now I have waiting Jack London's The Red Plague which is his one and only novel considered a post-apocalyptic SciFi. I will probably bounce back and forth between that and Autumn Bridge the next book after Cloud of Sparrows.

[Frybabe]

I am now well into the second audio book of the Michael J. Sullivan's Legends of the First Empire series. Now I can loosely narrow down the time period for this series to the end of the Iron Age and beginning of the modern. The author mentions Caratacus several times (mostly in the past tense). The real Caratacus was born around 15AD. Elves, dwarves, giants, wizards and mystics still exist in this world, but new ideas, ways of doing things, inventions (like saws circa 100BC-15AD), and weaponry are challenging the old ways and surpassing them. Collectively called The World of Elan, Sullivan has written four series which each include both books(about 20 so far) and short stories. Sullivan also wrote a stand-alone time travel SciFi novel, Hollow World. It might be worth checking into.

After starting and discarding several novels (SciFi and Thriller), I finally settled on Robert Silverberg's Hawksbill Station. It is, so far, keeping me interested.

I am also itching to pick up my hard copy of C. J. Cherryh's Hard Time to be followed by Hellburner, both of which are set in her Company Wars universe as is Downbelow Station which I've already read.

BTW, Elizabeth Moon's Remnant Population, which I like so much, will soon be out in audio book form. I may or may not get it depending on how well I think the narrator treats it.