open

Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

You are logged in as a guest. ( logon | register )
Posting a reply to: Re: The Pick & Mix in 2017

Back
General Discussion -> Roll-Your-Own Reading Challenge
Guest name
Subject
Message

Emoticons
HTML: Yes
Anonymous: No
MBBS Code: Yes


 Disable HTML
Enable emoticons



You are replying to:
dustydigger
Posted 2017-07-14 5:14 AM (#16014 - in reply to #15978)
Subject: Re: The Pick & Mix in 2017		Quote Reply



Elite Veteran

Posts: 1004
1000
Location: UK
Ihave had a hectic time lately,so I havent read all that much,and got behind with the posts againI
Whe I tried Joe Haldeman's Forever Peace last year,and as the early part seemed to a war book,dark and downbeat,and I had been very lukewarm about the other Forever War books,I abandoned it. Reading it now for my Defining Books of the 90s challenge over on WWEnd I persevered and was a bit surprised and relieved when after about 100 pages it veered off into a tale about group trying to to prevent a Doomsday weapon getting into the hands of a religious fanatic,and a method of turning humankind into pacifists! Fast paced action,but as ever with Haldeman I dont find his plot scenarios very credible. But at least it was a fast moving adventure,and a mere 350 pages. That is very small among most 90s books. lol.
I found Nicola Griffith's Slow River absorbing and interesting stuff. Never read a book before where the heroine works in a futuristic sewage works! lol. Griffith deftly interweaves three different time frames by a variety of tenses and POV,which took a while to get used to,and there was a lot of lesbian sex(it seemed that almost every character was a lesbian!) which was a little uncomfortable for my tastes,but it was an excellent read with a sympathetic flawed heroine..
Finished Theodore Sturgeon's famous short story ,Microcosmic God.A brilliant scientist/engineer,Kidder has developed an amazing array of useful inventions and cures(including a cure for the common cold!) and while he devotes all his time to science on his private island his venal banker has become immensely rich producing all the useful things Kidder so carelessly invents. But he greedily wants even more,and the scientist Kidder's latest invention could make its owner ruler of the world - and the banker wants that power for himself.Unbeknownst to anyone, Kidder has developed a synthetic life form, which he calls "neoterics." These creatures live at a greatly accelerated rate, and therefore have a very short lifespan and produce many generations over a short period of time. This allows Kidder, by presenting them with a frequently changing environment, to "evolve" them quickly into highly intelligent lifeforms who fear Kidder and worship him like a god. Kidder can control his neoterics' environment, and thus force them into developing technology far beyond that of humans. While earlier inventions had been his own, Kidder created the neoterics with the intention that they would become the source of many newer and greater inventions.
What makes such a strong impression on me in this story is the cold scientific inhumanity of Kidder,much more shocking than the venality of the banker.The story was written in 1941,years before the horrific experiments of Mengele etc were revealed,but we today cant escape the thought of scientists shaking off all ethics to focus on their thirst for knowledge and power.I wont soon forget Kidder poring over his little creatures,devising callous experiments on them,while accepting their worship.
Gene Wolfe said this was the first SF story he ever read,and claims''it all was pretty much downhill from there''.
Finished,FINALLY, Jeff VanderMeer's Acceptance. a reasonable end to the Southern Reach trilogy I suppose,though not very cheery to say the least! I only liked one character in the whole series,the lighthouse keeper,never got fully engaged with the series at all,and was irritated by the style,(mentioning an important point,going on without comment while looking into the rambling thoughts of bland characters I didntcare about,then returning with a little more detail pages,chapters or even in another book later!)Interesting premise,but not written in a style I enjoyed,or at least was willing to invest thought and effort into following very carefully.It took an awful lot of slow close reading,so its a relief to have finished :0)
I am now reading Ken McLeod's The Cassini Division,Zelazny's Madwand,and Randall Garrett's Too Many Magicians,a Lord Darcy book
That makes 53/80 titles read for the Pick N Mix challenge,and 474 for the gang as a whole. Excellent! Wonder if we can reach 800 for the year?

Edited by dustydigger 2017-07-14 5:25 AM

(Delete all cookies set by this site)