So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[Allyn Gibson]

When I was 14, I hadn't read enough to really form any good opinions.

When I was 14, I was writing Lije Baley fanfic. Seriously. I'd only read Caves and The Naked Sun, and I wanted more of that. (I hadn't read Robots of Dawn, the 1980s Lije Baley novel at that point.)

But I do like [Asimov's] short fiction. I, Robot is a pretty good collection of his short stories overall. He doesn't seem to be good with the long form or character development in general. And I liked his short lived show Probe. It might be because that was the norm for science fiction at this point in time: ideas over character development.

IMHO, Asimov is mixed as a novelist. I think Nemesis may be his best, with Foundation's Edge a close second.

Saving Hounds to go with the rest of my more Halloween focused reads. I get that it does take place before the Final Problem. But I've also read that it's mostly a stand alone novel.

Hound is completely standalone, yes. Really, all of the Holmes works are, even "The Empty House," which is the direct sequel to "The Final Problem."

Several years ago, going through 125 year old newspapers for genealogical purposes, I found a newspaper article about the William Gillette Sherlock Holmes play and a patron of a performance who called, several years before it was written, the mechanics of the reveal of "The Empty House." Fan theories have a long and rich history.

 

[bdub76]

IMHO, Asimov is mixed as a novelist. I think Nemesis may be his best, with Foundation's Edge a close second.

I'll give Nemesis a try. My library has it, but I won't get to it until November at the earliest.

 

[Christopher]

When I was 14, I was writing Lije Baley fanfic. Seriously. I'd only read Caves and The Naked Sun, and I wanted more of that. (I hadn't read Robots of Dawn, the 1980s Lije Baley novel at that point.)

Only Lije? I would've written Daneel Olivaw fanfic, if I'd been interested in writing fanfic instead of original stuff.

Several years ago, going through 125 year old newspapers for genealogical purposes, I found a newspaper article about the William Gillette Sherlock Holmes play and a patron of a performance who called, several years before it was written, the mechanics of the reveal of "The Empty House." Fan theories have a long and rich history.

IIRC, the Gillette play is also notable as one of the first instances of an adaptation character getting adopted by canon (like Jimmy Olsen or Harley Quinn), as the play's pageboy character Billy appears in some of the later Doyle stories (as well as a number of screen adaptations).

 

[Commander Troi]

When I was a teen, I devoured any Asimov I could find. I now wonder how Caves of Steel would hold up for me these days.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Only Lije? I would've written Daneel Olivaw fanfic, if I'd been interested in writing fanfic instead of original stuff.

At 14-15, I found Lije more interesting than Daneel, so my Lije stories didn't involve Daneel at all. In one, Lije was summoned to the planet of Nova Terra (the second Spacer world, in my story) to solve a murder of a pro-Earth politician on his own. I write that now, and I find the whole idea that Spacer worlds (Solaria, The Naked Sun; Aurora, The Robots of Dawn) would need an Earth cop to solve crimes a bit absurd. Yes, I know it's explained, but it's a stretch. All that time and expense. Lije isn't that essential.

I eventually wrote a Daneel Olivaw story. It was in the Foundation era, and I wanted Daneel to meet Data. At the time I thought they would get along and have much in common, but as the years have gone by I now think Daneel would have been quite alarmed by Data (no Three Laws) and would attempt to take Data's positronic brain by force. At this point I see Daneel as a bit of a malevolent wizard behind the curtain, and Bel Riose and The Mule as the tragic figures in the Foundation saga rather than villains.

IIRC, the Gillette play is also notable as one of the first instances of an adaptation character getting adopted by canon (like Jimmy Olsen or Harley Quinn), as the play's pageboy character Billy appears in some of the later Doyle stories (as well as a number of screen adaptations).

Billy was played in some London performances by a young Charlie Chaplin.

 

[KRAD]

Creators are often the worst judges of their own works.

Oh yeah. So many times musicians have put out gigunda boxed sets of outtakes and songs they cut from albums, and invariably I would listen to them and wonder why the hell they didn't put that on the album when it's better than virtually every song on it. (Specifically, that was my reaction to hearing Bob Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell," which would've been the best song on Infidels.) For that matter, Martin Barre thinks that Under Wraps was one of Jethro Tull's best albums when it's by far one of their three or four worst.

 

[Christopher]

Oh yeah. So many times musicians have put out gigunda boxed sets of outtakes and songs they cut from albums, and invariably I would listen to them and wonder why the hell they didn't put that on the album when it's better than virtually every song on it. (Specifically, that was my reaction to hearing Bob Dylan's "Blind Willie McTell," which would've been the best song on Infidels.) For that matter, Martin Barre thinks that Under Wraps was one of Jethro Tull's best albums when it's by far one of their three or four worst.

Maybe that explains why the deleted ending to Red Dwarf: Series 8's "Only the Good..." is so vastly better than the incoherent mess of a cliffhanger the creators stuck us with instead (and then never resolved, picking up the revival a decade later as if something like the deleted ending had happened instead of the "canonical" one).

 

[Greg Cox]

Today's comic-book haul: Werewolf by Night, Godzilla, and Red Sonja.

 

[bdub76]

When I was a teen, I devoured any Asimov I could find. I now wonder how Caves of Steel would hold up for me these days.

His short stories work better for me than his novels.

I read across genres, so my expectations are different than if I only read science fiction and nothing else.

I finished up Caves of Steel at lunch today, and it was meh. He creates an interesting world with some cool concepts, but it's mostly talking heads debating tech stuff. There isn't much of a character arc. The characters are pretty much the same at the end as at the beginning. The biggest problem is that the book really was too short. (It should have been another hundred pages.). An investigation into the murder barely took place. And the twist was not all that interesting. It was good enough that I didn't DNF it, but it wasn't good enough that I'd recommend it.

So my books completed this month: Sign of Four, Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, Aftertaste, Miss Austen, and Caves of Steel. I have eight more chapters of Emma to finish that one for Jane Austen July. It's okay, but it's not Austen's best by any stretch, but I'd recommend the modern adaptation: Clueless. I'll probably finish it before the end of the week. I do recommend Miss Austen and the Sherlock stories. I don't recommend Aftertaste or Caves of Steel.

I'm now a couple of chapters into Remains of the Day, and it's a completely different read.

 

[JD]

I needed an ebook to read at work, so I started STTOS: No Time Like the Past by @Greg Cox yesterday. I was kind of burned out on TNG after a whole bunch in a row, and I'm already working on the Millenium trilogy for DS9, I was kind of in a Voyager mood, but the VOY books I own that I haven't read are the Dark Matters trilogy, and my copy of the first book is a paperback, so that ruled them out. That left me with either one of the whole bunch of TOS novels I own but haven't read or the Rise of the Federation, and I decided on NTLTP since that could also kind of scratch my VOY itch. I also love the idea of Seven teaming up with the TOS crew. I always like to watch the episodes that tie into the book either before or right after I start it and after carefully looking through the Memory Beta page for it, don't worry I was able to avoid any big spoilers, I decided on The Apple and All Our Yesterdays. So I watched The Apple yesterday and hope to watch AoY tomorrow, I saw connections to Let This Be Your Last Battlefield, but I already saw that one by coincidence a couple months ago on MeTV so I don't need to watch it again.

 

[USS Firefly]

I needed an ebook to read at work, so I started STTOS: No Time Like the Past by @Greg Cox yesterday. I was kind of burned out on TNG after a whole bunch in a row, and I'm already working on the Millenium trilogy for DS9, I was kind of in a Voyager mood, but the VOY books I own that I haven't read are the Dark Matters trilogy, and my copy of the first book is a paperback, so that ruled them out. That left me with either one of the whole bunch of TOS novels I own but haven't read or the Rise of the Federation, and I decided on NTLTP since that could also kind of scratch my VOY itch. I also love the idea of Seven teaming up with the TOS crew. I always like to watch the episodes that tie into the book either before or right after I start it and after carefully looking through the Memory Beta page for it, don't worry I was able to avoid any big spoilers, I decided on The Apple and All Our Yesterdays. So I watched The Apple yesterday and hope to watch AoY tomorrow, I saw connections to Let This Be Your Last Battlefield, but I already saw that one by coincidence a couple months ago on MeTV so I don't need to watch it again.

Are you allowed to read at work?
I want that too!
Does your firm needs people?