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
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
Do you read to understand yourself or to understand other people? If what you’re looking for can be boiled down to what you have in common with others, does that mean you are essentially reading to understand yourself? Burannyi Yedigei, the hero of Chingiz Amitiov’s novel The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years, has spent his entire adult life on the steppes of Central Asia … Continue reading The Day Lasts More than a Hundred Years by Chingiz Aitmatov
Three things. First Ben H. Winters’ new novel Underground Airlines certainly works as a thriller. Fans of his earlier series The Last Policeman will not be disappointed, though there may be a certain sense of de ja vu. While Underground Airlines is set in an alternative America, one where slavery never completely ended, the main character an escaped slave forced by a government agency to hunt down other escaped … Continue reading Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey was a good time. Think Star Wars with just the Han Solo parts. None of that boring political shenanigans, just space ships and adventure. Cross that idea with a heavy dose of Bladerunner and you have Leviathan Wakes. Leviathan Wakes is the basis for the SyFy channel’s series The Expanse which I’m also a fan of. The Expanse includes quite a bit of political shenanigans but not … Continue reading Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
In 1921, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s novel We became the first book to be banned by the Soviet censorship bureau, Glavlit. Mr. Zamyatin was not able to emigrate until 1931 when he arrived in Paris, some seven years after his novel had been published in English. We may have been the model for Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World; Mr. Huxley claimed not to have read the novel … Continue reading We by Yevgeny Zamyatin
May Contain Spoilers 