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dustydigger
Posted 2016-08-30 7:19 PM (#14239 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Completed Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think as a winner of the Grand Master of Science Fiction award. Odd mixture of noir,fantasy and science fiction with some good ideas and it is fairly enjoyable,with your typical femme fatale of the noir genre luring some weak sap into committing crimes - only she is a witch/shapeshifter dedicated to destroying a device which could exterminate the shifters forever! Lots of psychology gobbledegook,so common at the time (1948).the blackest of noir with a very downbeat ending. Quite good fun,but the writing is clunky flat and repetitive. Could have been excellent in the hands of a better writer.
I found it impossible not to picture Lana Turner and Fred MacMurray in Double Indemnity as the protagonists! lol.But without the sparkling dialogue and sexual tension.Here the guy is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. He persists in believing that he only dreams of going off as a wolf,tiger or huge snake and murdering people,all of them old dear friends. He only comes to believe its true 20 pages from the end.Ah well Jack did his best,and I did find it interesting.
That makes 24/27 of the Grand Masters sampled,only Damon Knight,Michael Moorcock and James E Gunn left to go....next year!
Also finished Pat Murphy's The Falling Woman all about an archaeologist in Mexico unearthing the ruins of a Mayan temple. She has always been able to see shadows of the people of the past but now an ancient Mayan priestess of a mother goddess is urging her on to kill her estrsnged daughter as a sacrifice,claiming this will bring the goddess back to power. Odd sort of book,almost a travelogue for Mexico. Masses of stuff about ancient Mayan life,their calendars and religion etc. Plus the difficulties between a mother and daughter. Apart from the ancient priestess popping up now and again,and a would be dramatic climax in an ancient temple which didnt really get me excited at all,I didnt really take to this book probably because the characters never struck a chord with me,and the book somewhat tailed off. Not really award winning material IMO,but it had all those womens issues so beloved at the time. Certainly a riproaring adventure like fellow nominees Brin's The Uplift War,or even Gene Wolfe's offbeat Soldier in the Mist didnt have enough gravitas! lol. Oh well,that makes 32/52 Nebulas completed,still a long long way to go
Well done Pick n 'Mixers,747 books read,compared with 337 books in the whole of last year. Well done Pope Stig and weesam,who have completed 80 books each. Many others are doing a great job well on the way to reaching their challenge totals. Yay for the Pick n' Mixers.Two thirds through the year,still four months to go, so many of you will reach your goals for sure.

Edited by dustydigger 2016-08-30 7:29 PM

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