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Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-08 3:33 PM (#33734)
Subject: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Hi people here we go for another year of hopefully great reading.
My plans for the most part are to concentrate on rereads,particularly old SF and a little fantasy.perhaps.
Must admit I am often underwhelmed with modern SF. Probably all this course correcting the genre to even up women's place in the genre,gender politics etc is very necessary but as ever with such corrections things can go too fart the other way. its natural and expected Yep I'm a female who has been reading in the ASF/F genres for many decades(first junior books out of the public library aged 7 was The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe,first adult books I got out the day I got my adult library card aged 13 was Ray Bradbury's Golden Apples of the Sun and ERBs A Princess of Mars. I cut my teeth on Van Vogt,Ted Sturgeon,Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke, and Silverburg.later branching to Zelazny etc.I am quite comfortable therefore with the heavy preponderance for multiple decades of straight white male authors in the genres. I roll my eyes all the time when people post to complain about the lack of women in the books of the 50s etc. It is what it is,all subgenres and the like have their own parameters expectations and rules and the like. If you dont like those limits etc dont read the genre then. Spec fic is spread very wide,there is something for everyone. I am never going to enjoy grimdark people.I understand the pioneers of such books especially G RRMartin had legitimate beefs with the stodgy books of the time and made iconoclastic efforts,very successfully to usher in an age of moral shades of grey,everything and everyone tending to the dark side. I am never going to enjoy such works myself,but see no point in complaining that EVERYONE in these books seems to be unpleasant lol.
And so I can appreciate why most of the latest award winners are female ,and the issues highlighted cover gender and womens issues an awful lot,but after a lifetime of conditioning I am still more likely to enjoy and feel comfortable with older works and at this time when real life is fraught with difficulties ,multitudes of brilliant ideas and themes in often less than 200 pages.appeals to me so for the most part I feel more comfortable with the old white guys even if the women arent up to much in the stories. . So sue me.
But what I love about this challenge is that because of its broad latitude in reading themes its always great fun for me t take a fun stroll through the wildly different shelves that appear here.Everyone has such fun and diverse reads,its great.
So have a great year and enjoy great books everyone.
Happy reading.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-15 4:54 AM (#33750 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		.Finished the excellent A Drop of Corruption, Robert Jackson Bennett's sequel to The Tainted Cup. Great character work,adequate mystery story but like with Tainted Cup it was the striking world settings that fascinated me the most,so fresh and unusual,and I really enjoyed seeing more of the biotech cum magic rather than the more military setting of the first book.I really felt that this was a rich very diverse world,not one standard cultural scenario.
The whole milieu is interesting. Is this our future world if biotech developed strongly in a barely post mediaeval time.Or is it more like a dying earth type of world where high sophisticated society is long gone,even millennia gone much like a Gene Wolfe/Jack Vance tale. Or is it just a different world,those Leviathans dont sound very earthly! lol.I went from one opinion to another as I read. Nice to have a book for once that has something to mull over while enjoying an old fashioned mystery tale
I also read a novelization of the Buffy the Vampire film. Not great of course and Josh Whedon was totally correct in making major changes in setting and Buffy's character when creating the TV series. lol.But its not on WWEnd so its not going to count

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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-18 12:22 PM (#34078 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I enjoyed Ben Aaronovitch's novella The Masquerades of Spring,a tale of a Rivers of London character set in the Jazz Age in New York.which was surprising but very interesting. I learned a lot about NY life in the 1920s especially the demi-monde and how inter racial mixing took place,often difficult and dangerous circumstances,especially complicated by same sex relationships. Add some jazz,weird musical instruments that affect their owners,tough gangsters bahtub booze and a fun look at a much younger Thomas Nightingale,and it all made for a pleasant read on a wet miserable day outside, a warm cosy home indoors. Good stuff
Still have Aaronovitch's Stone and Sky to bring my following the Rivers of London series to completion.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-18 12:22 PM (#34079 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I enjoyed Ben Aaronovitch's novella The Masquerades of Spring,a tale of a Rivers of London character set in the Jazz Age in New York.which was surprising but very interesting. I learned a lot about NY life in the 1920s especially the demi-monde and how inter racial mixing took place,often difficult and dangerous circumstances,especially complicated by same sex relationships. Add some jazz,weird musical instruments that affect their owners,tough gangsters bahtub booze and a fun look at a much younger Thomas Nightingale,and it all made for a pleasant read on a wet miserable day outside, a warm cosy home indoors. Good stuff
Still have Aaronovitch's Stone and Sky to bring my following the Rivers of London series to completion.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-01-18 12:36 PM (#34080 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Grr! I hate windows11. Ever since so called updates a few weeks ago which annoyingly took nearly 80 mins to complete my laptop has been clunky and extremely slow. I finished the last post clicked submit nothing seemed to happen so i clicked again and then now have 2 copes of the post. Never had this problem with Windows 10. I am a dinosaur technologically speaking so I am just continually in a bad mood now when using my keyboard.. never had a single problem with this HP laptop for over a year now with 11 nothing but annoyance since .
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-02-01 6:25 AM (#34519 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I also enjoyed Ben Aaronovitch's holiday away from London in Aberdeen of all places complete with his water goddess wife, his parents,his 2 yr old twin girls,his wizard apprentice cousin and his boss . Some holiday! Stone and Sky is another fun romp in the Rivers of London series.
A wyvern,a huge vicious bird and selkies all have a go at him not to mention another wizard and lots of nefarious oilmen on their oil platform out on the wild North Sea.Add talking foes and Abigail gaining a lover and its all just pure fun. Much needed as a boost to the spirit in a incredibly bad beginning to the year 2026 on the world stage. January feels as if it has lasted 31 weeks instead of 31 days.:0(
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-02-01 6:34 AM (#34520 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Finished Ben Aaronovitch's The October Man a novella about The Folly's magic practitioners counterparts in Germany.. Lots of interesting stuff about ancient germanic history,and winemaking made a nice change of place in the Rivers of London series,but I know no german at all so some of the titles and place names needed a bit of study to grasp,but a pleasant enough read if not of the highest rank.
That brings my Rivers of London titles to completion,but I havent reread any of the books. It would be fun to start again with that new recruit constable Peter Grant and watch his development through the series.The same thing with The Laundry Files too.
Now I go back to poor Harry Dresden and the rough year after the horrendous battle where he lost someone very close to him.
I have been doing very light reading this week. And it was my 78th birthday on 31st From tomorrow must try to buckle down to some proper reading if I can fit it in.. The chaos on the world stage has consumed far too much of my time and focus in January. You couldnt make up some of the crazy stuff. It seems that crisis events went from once a week to once a day and now sometimes 2 or 3 things in one day! Madness.I
Far too much time spent openmouthed watching unbelievable events on the screen. More focus on reading is required.....
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-02-15 10:13 AM (#34560 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Finished Jim Butcher's latest Dresden Files outing Twelve Months I did enjoy it but thought the first half showing his massive depression after the loss of his beloved belaboured that fact a bit too much,and for a bit too long.Another point was that with each book Harry seems to be aiming a little more for sainthood ! lol. But I did find the descriptions of a badly devastated Chicago interesting and realistic in that even after a full year there is still so much to put right. Then we have so many old friends,and enemies,to catch up on.
And most of all we see a lot of the terrifying Mab,Queen of Air and Darkness.Things always have a sharp uneasy edge whenever she is on stage.Good stuff.
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-04-03 4:04 AM (#34657 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Didnt have the greatest enthusiasm for Nnedi Okorafor's Binti trilogy. I first read Binti a few years ago. It was OK a young adult sort of flavour about a young tribal woman who is the first of her insular very trditional tribe to go off to university on a distant planet. But during the space flight aliens slaughter everyone but Binti. Pleasant enough but nothing special IMO but it won bothe Hugo and Nebula for best novella so what do I know? lol
I didnt like it enough to continue the series but this year is the year of award nominees so I reread Binti and continued the series.
Binti: Homecoming was more interesting as she returns to her home world. We learn much more about the tribal tensions etc and there was a more intricate plot so I enjoyed this much more and looked forward to the final Binti:Masquerades of Spring. Oh dear i wasnt keen on this. It seemed haphazard almost incoherent and confusing..I previously tattempted another of Okorafor's books,cant even remember which, and gave up after a couple of chapters. I dont really enjoy either her style of subject matter,so sorry,bye bye Nnedi!
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-04-25 12:22 PM (#35046 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Enjoyed my reread of C S Lewis The Last Battle,I love Pauline Baynes black and white illustrations,still inextricably linked to the Narnia books after 75 years. Learned something new too,that Tolkien was a huge fan of Baynes,used her illustrations in various of his children's books and originally in the early years thought she could illustrate Lord of the Rings but it just grew and grew for decades ,so that was abandoned. But when the famous iconic one volume edition of LOTR was issued with that famous cover of the stone gate and the yellow trees and the wild landscape with tiny figures of the Fellowship in the distance,that was Pauline Baynes work!. Cant believe I was ignorant of this for 60 years! lol.
Made my day.
It was pleasant to realize that The Day of the Minotaur was a a book in the retelling a myth sub genre. I also was delighted that it centred on Knossos and the Minotaur tales. One of my all time favourite reads was Mary Renault's
. The King Must Die also featuring the same myths though in very different style and method. Renault's novel was published 6 years before Swann's book.Wonder if he read Renault.
I quite enjoyed the Swann book,though the style was extremely flowery,perhaps very appropriate for this tale of centaurs,dryads minotaurs and other Beasts, living quietly in the forest glades far from belligerent humans The characters are charming,the ancient settings lush and beautiful,and the restrained romance between human beauty and the Beast is sweet. All pleasant enough but is it really up to Hugo and Nebula nominee levels? Hmmm......
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-04-25 12:30 PM (#35047 - in reply to #33734)
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Location: UK		Did a quick reread of Scalzi's third Lock In series,Head On.It got a bit bogged down in sport corruption and had quite a large collection of characters which I found a bit difficult to keep track of. But I enjoyed the premise and the banter.
I indulged myself in a pleasant hour reading one of the most interesting and original Conan stories,The Tower of the Elephant. Full of some wonderful Howard prose some adventure including an encounter with a nasty giant spider ,and a delightful description of an alien with a human body but an elephant's head. Conan has neve seen an elephant before so its fun seeing his gobsmacked amazement at the strange character. Also some sadness and pity,so all in all a great read.
For such a short book,175 pages,it took me a long time to read Poul Anderson's Tau Zero Not just hard SF,but diamond hard,this novel speculates just what would happen if a ship off to colonise a planet 30 light years away,a trip taking about 5 years(five years missions of Star Trek come to mind,this was after all a 1970 Hugo nominee ). 2.5 years speeding up as near to light speed as necessary,then deceleration to reach the planet. On board time 5 years of course,outside decades will go by.. Of course catastrophe strikes , and the velocity inexorably increases,the ship's acceleration becomes impossible to control. Lots of relativity info here a bit hard for this science ignorant lady,and I often had to read a paragraph several times to understand,so progress was slow. I perhaps unkindly and unfairly despised the colonists who all fall apart mentally quite soon into the flight.Hah! Our dear old Enterprise folks would not have fallen to bits.lol. The protagonist is a security/police officer and its his job to encourage even bully people into having at least a smidgeon of hope .The cast of characters are rather bland barely sketched in. The science is the star here,not the humans.
Of course it all gets sorted,a happy ending but the last 30 pages were just bonkers,I was gobsmacked at the ideas . But the descriptions of the universe throughout were vivid and glorious.There were still big ideas being depicted in SF in 1970!
Tau Zero didnt win of course,Ringworld took the prize. More big ideas,a magnificent Big Dumb Object and a focus on a small group of well depicted characters naturally beat a story with a difficult premise and dull characters.
Still Tau Zero is a worthwhile read,and actually has been very influential on later hard SF writers
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dustydigger
Posted 2026-04-25 12:37 PM (#35048 - in reply to #33734)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge for 2026.		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		When Asimov wrote Caves of Steel a murder mystery set far in the future the world population as around 2.5 billion,and he postulated that a world population of 8 billion was almost incredible. Humans live in huge towers and in deep subterranean levels. Many humans had left for colonies on 50 worlds and big rifts of fear and suspicion have divided mankind into 2 different cultures. A small number of spacers liaise with humans and when a spacer is mrdered in a sort of locked room mystery detective Lige Baley is sent to solve the crime with an extremely human like robot Daneel Olivaw in support. Very creaky now but still good fun.It spawned an awful lot of buddy stories of all sorts over the decades,and a lot of TV series
Finished a reluctant read of Andy Weir's Artemis
Hmm. After The Martian made such a big splash people were eagerly awaiting this book,and sadly were quite disappointed. I was put off reading it for years because of that but finally read it now. I liked the descriptive bits about the moon and the single lunar city. My problem lay with the character of the protagonist. I think Weir got the tone all wrong. Maybe a male character speaking and acting this way would have passed muster,but I did NOT find the wild maverick 26 year old Jazz charming or admirable. Instead she was abrasive and somehow not someone I could empathise with which is bad news in a first person narrative.
I also wasnt a great fan of the humour either but thats probably just me,grumpy old woman.
I did like Weir's next book Project Hail Mary a little more but Weir would not be a great favourite writer for me.
Not a problem,though. He hasnt published a novel for 6 years! lol
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