It took me almost three months to read this book. The little page counter/timer on my Kindle claimed that I should have been able to read the entire book in just about three hours, but even when using the audio read-a-loud feature, I never made it more than a few pages at a time without falling asleep. Okay, I was reading in bed, sometimes lying … Continue reading Earthlight by Arthur C. Clarke
It’s easy to compare William Tenn’s 1968 science fiction classic Of Men and Monsters to Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. Set far in the future, Of Men and Monsters describes life on earth after a race of Brobdingnagian sized aliens have colonized our planet. Unable to defeat the invading species, humanity has been reduced to living inside the walls and floors of the new dominant species’s homes, … Continue reading Of Men and Monsters by William Tenn
After the earth is threatened by alien invasion William Mandella is drafted as part of the world’s first elite corp of soldiers and sent into battle light years across space. A story as old as science fiction, perhaps, but what happens to William when he returns to an earth where decades have gone by during the months he spent travelling at nine-tenths light speed makes … Continue reading The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Arthur C. Clarke is a master of science fiction in it’s classic sense. One could probably argue that he created the genre. His novel Rendezvous With Rama is considered one of his best novels. While I found reading it today, some forty years after is was first published, a bit problematic, I would have to agree with the editors at Gollancz who labelled it a … Continue reading Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
It’s long been my belief that you should never revisit the things that most impressed you when you were young. My number one object lesson for this belief is the 1972 science fiction movie Silent Running starring Bruce Dern. (I’ve posted the trailer for it below.) I was nine-years-old when I saw it. The special effects, the ecological message, the robots, the final shot of … Continue reading The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
The least likable character wins. The losing set of stories was still very good though. For this round of my tournament of short stories I read two from The Apocalypse Triptych by Charlie Jane Anders. Both feature the same set of characters, young people who become famous for the on-line movies they make featuring absurd stunts that typically end with the main character getting himself hurt. … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories, Science Fiction Edition: “Lot” by Ward Moore vs. “Break! Break! Break!” and “Rock Manning Can’t Hear You” by Charlie Jane Anders.
Things started out well. Two interesting narratives, one in the “present,” the other flashbacks to explain how the present came to be. A core set of interesting characters, all three of them easy to root for. A very interesting idea about humanity’s first contact with alien life. It didn’t all go wrong, it just all went on too long. Even at just over 300 pages. … Continue reading Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
Babel-17 concerns an alien invasion attempt but that doesn’t really matter. Samuel R. Delany’s main concern in Babel-17 is language. What is the future of language? How might exposure to alien language’s affect us. As a sub-plot, or sub-concern, there is a question of what my sexuality look like in the future something Delany has often been interested in. He has some intriguing ideas. Babel-17 features a … Continue reading Babel-17 by Samuel R. Delany
Strike one up for the barbarian. So often, you just need the right story at the right time. I first read Cordwainer Smith last year and loved him. He’s excellent. However, the two I read for this round just didn’t do the trick. For some reason, Conan the Barbarian, did. The two by Robert E. Howard that I read for this round, “The God in … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories: Robert E. Howard vs. Cordwainer Smith
Those of us who have been at this book blogging game for some time, around ten years now for me–I’ve lost count, all know that one of things which keeps us going is the blogging friends we make along the way. Pam at travellinpenguin.com is one of mine. Recently, Pam began breaking up what must be one of the largest collections of Penguin books in … Continue reading Science Fiction in the Mail from Way Down Under
I’ve devoted this round of my tournament of short stories to science fiction and fantasy tales. I’ve just enough anthologies to make it interesting, though I’m going to stretch the genre to include magical realism and people who included some SF/F in their books. It may be a challenge, but it should be fun. Science fiction and fantasy, even at their darkest, are fun. For … Continue reading Tournament of Short Stories SF/F Edition: Ted Chiang vs. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Vol. VII
I really liked this book. Nnedi Okorafor’s fantasy epic Who Fears Death is something of a cross between Ursula K. LeGuin and Octavia Butler if both had grown up in Africa. The story follows Onyesonwu, a young woman living in what must be a post-civilization North Africa. Her culture is clearly based on Africa and the setting is a vast desert like the Sahara, but there … Continue reading Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
May Contain Spoilers 