Sunday 10th February: The second weekend in a row when I've not been out to see any live music (this time due to being on standby for work), no match at Elland Road for me to comment on (although Leeds did drw 1:1 at Northampton yesterday and I haven't been to the cinema in weeks.
I have, however, read a few books so far this year so I thought I'd comment on some highlights.
Now, I normally struggle a bit with some early (say pre-1980s) science-fiction. I find the writing style to be generally dense and, in some of the classics (as evidenced by what is reprinted in the SF Masterworks line), I just don't get the stories or some of the meanings. Maybe I'm just not clever enough to understand the science fiction that tries to comment on the real world. However, I really enjoyed two 1970s books that I read recently - The Inverted World (Christopher Priest, 1974) and Orbitsville (Bob Shaw, 1975).
Both these books are short - just a couple of hundred pages each (practically short stories in today's world of doorstep-sized trilogies) - and both are genuine "sensawunda" SF. The first tells the story of Helward Mann, recently granted an apprenticeship with the Guild of Futures, the group that maps out the path taken by the ever-moving city whose inhabitants are ignorant both of the city's motion and the real world that surrounds the city.
Orbitsville (which, I have just found out is the first part of trilogy) concerns Vance Garamond who, after being involved in the accidental death of her son, flees Earth and the vengeful President Elizabeth Lindstrom. Out in the stars, he dicsovers a Dyson Sphere which, in a universe in which only two habitable planets have been found, offers hope for an over-crowded Earth. Garamond reports the find and Lindstrom herself follows him to the sphere, eventually allowing humanity to migrate there, while formulating a plan to get revenge on Garamond and his family.
Even in their short lengths, these two books show more ideas and characterisation than a lot of today's novels. Both are easy reads and there is no message or interpretation/interpolation of our world. They are, quite simply, well-told stories.
The other books I have finished since 2008 started are:
Confessor (Terry Goodkind, 2007): The final volume (book 12!) of the Sword of Truth series. This series went on too long for me and the ending was a little weak.
Barrayar (Lois McMaster Bujold, 1991): Aristocratic, military SF, telling the events leading up to the birth of Miles Vorkosigan, Bujold's most famous character. I enjoyed this one more than I expected to.
Hot Sky at Midnight (Robert Silverberg, 1994): A environmental warning set on a near-future Earth where global warming is taking its toll. Well-written with some good characters, but I didn't really get the ending.
Rewind (Terry England, 1997): The story of seventeen adults who, after entering an alien spaceship, are reverted back to ten-year-old bodies. This book show the reactions to them by scientists, family and humanity in general. Not bad, but it seemed to be a story that needed an SF idea to tell it, rather than an SF story.
Circus of the Damned and Lunatic Cafe (Laurell K. Hamilton, 1995 and 1996): Books 3 and 4 of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. This is an attempt at a more adult version of Buffy - supernatural creatures not only exist but live alongside us and have legal rights. I didn't really like the first book (Guilty Pleasures, 1993) but had bought most of the series so had to persevere. Happily, the rest (so far) have been much better, weaving pretty good stories and well-written action, with a good dash of humour in each. Any book which boasts a man with lycanthropy who turns into a swan can't be all bad...!
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