SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?

[Lowdarzz]

As the signature says I'm currently reading the third volume in Robert Doherty's Area 51 series. Basically the series ties together all the similarities in seperate ancient human civilizations by saying that we all came from one single civilization that was influenced by aliens ten thousand years ago.

The books are a fast read but that doesn't take away from what it turning out to be a good story.

I also recently finished an alternate take on Superman's golden age origin by Tom De Haven called It's Superman. Even though I grew up with Byrnes Man of Steel origin, I enjoyed De Haven's take on the character.

The story is different in that it leaves Jor' El and the whole "last son of Krypton" angle completely out of the mix. While Clark has suspicions that he may not be human, he doesn't find out in this story. It's a quick fun read for anybody who enjoys the comics.

 

[Cyrus]

Just finished Cauldron by Jack McDevitt. A great conclusion to his Academy series.

 

[Starbreaker]

I found a copy of The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn today, so that's what I'll be reading after Gateway. I hope it's half as good as the title.

 

[Steve Roby]

I just read the latest Lovecraftian fiction book from Chaosium, The Spiraling Worm by David Conyers and John Sunseri. Like a few other recent mythos books, it's a more action-packed take on Lovecraft's concepts, with representatives of various intelligence agencies taking on cults and monsters. In a post X-Files world, it's not too surprising that this is getting popular. There's the Delta Green series, for a start. Charles Stross's Atrocity Archive stories are somewhat similar, but more literarily ambitious, being better written than the average mythos stuff and also working in homages to other influences. The Spiraling Worm is more pulpy and action-driven; it's a collection of linked stories with common characters. But it's fun enough and it's certainly better than some of Chaosium's other attempts (Joseph Pulver's Nightmare's Disciple being the nadir).

 

[Mistral]

I found a copy of The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn today, so that's what I'll be reading after Gateway. I hope it's half as good as the title.

I've read a bit of Flynn and his stories are...hmmm.... a little off the beaten path. He'll write a story with a familiar theme and then go somewhere weird with it. This isn't always a good thing. If I remember "The Wreck..." wasn't bad. Tell us what you think when you finish. Like I said-he goes strange places, sometimes seeming like he has forgotten the conventional beginning, middle and end structure of a story.

 

[S. Gomez]

I also recently finished an alternate take on Superman's golden age origin by Tom De Haven called It's Superman. Even though I grew up with Byrnes Man of Steel origin, I enjoyed De Haven's take on the character.

The story is different in that it leaves Jor' El and the whole "last son of Krypton" angle completely out of the mix. While Clark has suspicions that he may not be human, he doesn't find out in this story. It's a quick fun read for anybody who enjoys the comics.

I read that book a while back. I'll throw in my recommendation for it as well.

 

[Starbreaker]

I found a copy of The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn today, so that's what I'll be reading after Gateway. I hope it's half as good as the title.

I've read a bit of Flynn and his stories are...hmmm.... a little off the beaten path. He'll write a story with a familiar theme and then go somewhere weird with it. This isn't always a good thing. If I remember "The Wreck..." wasn't bad. Tell us what you think when you finish. Like I said-he goes strange places, sometimes seeming like he has forgotten the conventional beginning, middle and end structure of a story.

That's quite all right. My life doesn't have a conventional cohesive narrative either.

 

[theenglish]

I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy a little while ago and, after close to twenty years, have returned to the Dune series. I'm reading Heretics of Dune for the first time.

 

[Starbreaker]

I just finished up Gateway by Frederik Polh today. I know it's one of a handful of books to win both the Hugo and the Nebula. Honestly, I don't understand why. It's a good fun romp, but there's really no substance to this novel. I started skipping over the inserts of letters to home and mission reports and computer language sometime after about page 250. They would have been interesting to me if they had been placed at the end of the chapters, but they're just stuck randomly in the novel causing you to have to turn the page and finish the rest of a sentence or skip over and read it before starting the page you're on.

The concept of alien starships with predetermined destinations that you can't course correct is very fascinating. The characters are interesting enough. At some point in the novel though, when you realize that nothing has happened and nothing is likely going to happen, I think it falls flat.

I am definitely open to trying out more of Pohl's work though. I can definitely get my hands on some short fiction.

3.5/5


Currently reading The Wreck of the River of Stars by Michael Flynn, winner of the Robert A. Heinlein Award in 2003.

The Wreck of The River of Stars (2003) takes the story further into the future: by the late decades of the twenty-first century, the fusion drive has displaced the solar sail, but on board the River of Stars - once a sailing luxury liner, now an obsolete, run down tramp freighter converted to fusion — the "old sailors" hope for one more chance to show what they can do.

 

[Defcon]

I've finished Excelsior: Forged in Fire today. Not bad, but nothing extraordinary either.

Next up is a reread of COE: Grand Designs.

 

[MyCylon]

I'm currently reading "Neuromancer" by Gibson.

I have to say I'm having a really hard time getting through this one. I find it's not an easy read, and I'm not exactly enthused by his writing style. Another problem is that none of the characters particularly appeal to me so I don't really care very much what happens to them.

I do want to get through in any case, though, since it is considered a classic. And, no doubt, there are some very interesting ideas in there, especially given when it was written.

But I can tell you this, everytime I pick it up and continue a little, that "2001 - A Space Odyssey" novel right next to where I usually have Neuromancer looks REALLY tempting

 

[Mistral]

I'm currently reading "Neuromancer" by Gibson.

I have to say I'm having a really hard time getting through this one. I find it's not an easy read, and I'm not exactly enthused by his writing style. Another problem is that none of the characters particularly appeal to me so I don't really care very much what happens to them.

I do want to get through in any case, though, since it is considered a classic. And, no doubt, there are some very interesting ideas in there, especially given when it was written.

But I can tell you this, everytime I pick it up and continue a little, that "2001 - A Space Odyssey" novel right next to where I usually have Neuromancer looks REALLY tempting

I preferred "Burning Chrome", myself. I agree with you re-the characters -who cares? Y'know?

 

[Steve Roby]

I just finished up Gateway by Frederik Polh today. I know it's one of a handful of books to win both the Hugo and the Nebula. Honestly, I don't understand why.

I'm currently reading "Neuromancer" by Gibson.

I have to say I'm having a really hard time getting through this one. I find it's not an easy read, and I'm not exactly enthused by his writing style.

Reading either of those books in 2008 is not the same as reading Gateway in the late '70s or Neuromancer in the mid-'80s. What made Gateway more than just a fun romp in 1977 was the fact that it had a lot of outer space sensawonder at a time when that had been kind of out of style in literary SF for a few years, but it also had more focus on characterization than was generally expected from space opera. It was fun and intelligent at the same time.

As for Neuromancer, so many things owe so much to it now -- lots of SF movies and TV series, videogames, anime series, and plenty of other written SF -- that just by living through the last twenty years you've soaked up a lot of what made that book knock the socks off SF fans like me back then.

 

[Mistral]

Steve is right about the context of the times-a point I didn't even consider.

 

[MyCylon]

I totally agree that there's a huge difference between reading "Neuromancer" today and back when it was first released. I can definitely see why it was considered such a landmark.

Still, what's also true is that while I totally enjoy reading books such as "2001" or "Solaris" (which are both probably as meaningful as "Neuromancer" in their respective visions and concepts) which were written decades ago, the same isn't true of "Neuromancer".
As strange as that may sound, I'm definitely considering a re-read of Neuromancer when I'm through. As I've said, I find it difficult to read this first time around. I think a second read means going in already knowing what's going on so that it's easier to get to the book's core.

 

[S. Gomez]

Although I'm currently steeping myself in Shakespeare, I am looking for other books to read this summer. Would anyone care to give their non-spoiler thoughts on Dan Simmons' Hyperion books? (I ask because I've also recently discovered the poetry of John Keats, and I've heard there's a connection...)

 

[Starbreaker]

My friend who doesn't even read SF picked Hyperion and The Fall of Hyperion off my shelf and read it and loved it. I personally haven't read it, though.

I did manage to sit down down and read There is No Darkness by Joe Haldeman and Jack C. Haldeman II last night. I thought it was going to be more of a military science fiction type story, but what I got was something very interesting. It's basically three novellas about a young man on a starship voyages to other planets as a cultural study. He fights animals on Earth, someone else's war on the planet Hell, and learns all about other alien cultures on the engineered planet of Construct. The third part was my favorite and I highly recommend this book. Haldeman is not always a deep author, but from having read his last book, Camouflage, in one sitting - I can tell you that he is an author who will grab your attention and not let it go. 4/5

I am currently reading another short novel - The Mysterious Planet by Lester Del Rey. I'm already way into this one and hooked as well. My reading chip somehow magically turned on sometime this month, and I'm back to reading at least a page a minute with a high retention, which I find phenomenal.

 

[Steve Roby]

Haldeman is not always a deep author, but from having read his last book, Camouflage, in one sitting - I can tell you that he is an author who will grab your attention and not let it go.

Jack Haldeman was relatively lightweight, from the stories of his I remember reading way back when, but aside from his Trek novels I wouldn't criticize Joe Haldeman for lack of depth. He's not just a potboiler kind of writer.

I am currently reading another short novel - The Mysterious Planet by Lester Del Rey. I'm already way into this one and hooked as well.

That was one of the old 1950s Winston SF juveniles. I loved those books (when I read them in the 1970s. I'm not that old). Alan E. Nourse, Donald Wollheim, Arthur C. Clarke, Raymond F. Jones... they published some really fun books.

 

[Starbreaker]

The Mysterious Planet was certainly an interesting novel. I could tell it was a juvenile, but I don't care. I'm not that far removed from being a juvy, and it was a great read for sitting at home on a rainy day. I was actually kind of shocked by a revelation at the end. There was constant action on every page, and I often had to stop and go back and read a paragraph again because some of the transitions made absolutely no sense. There are a couple of copies on Amazon that are selling for ridiculous prices. I wonder what mine would fetch for. It's one of the 1970's reprints. 3/5

 

[Steve Roby]

I'd guess the '70s reprints aren't terribly valuable, but all the old Winston SF hardcover first editions seem to be really expensive these days. I'm okay with reprints, generally speaking, but a few of the books I read back in 1972-73 from the school library don't seem to have been reprinted. Alas. The only actual hardcover I have from that series is Del Rey's Mission to the Moon. Del Rey reprinted about five of his juveniles not long after starting up the Del Rey line at Ballantine in 1977, and if you liked that one, you'll like the others. And if you haven't read Heinlein's 1950s juveniles (Starman Jones, Have Spacesuit Will Travel, Citizen of the Galaxy, etc etc), you really need to read those.