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dustydigger

Posted 2016-09-17 4:00 AM (#14316 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I have just finished the excellent Replay by Ken Grimwood,a World Fantasy award winner.When, Jeff, the 43 year old protagonist, dies suddenly from a heart attack he then wakes up to find himself once more an 18 year old college boy,but with all his memories of his past life intact.Again he lives to the same date,again he dies - repeatedly returning to the original timeline.On a later ''replay'' he meets Pamela,another replayer and some of the sheer loneliness of keeping the situation secret is mitigated. But each replay becomes shorter,first by months,then by years,till in the end the replays only last minutes.Often sad,bittersweet and haunting,I was ever eager to see what the latest replay would be like. The characters come to the conclusion that they cant ever make the world better,only different,and that what we do to treat our people with kindness and love on a regular basis will impact on their very nature,
OK<perhaps a little schmaltzy and sentimental near the end,but a satisfying and enjoyable read. Next up is H Beam Piper's Fuzzy Sapiens.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-09-21 1:15 PM (#14338 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I just finished Fifth Quarter by Tanya Huff. It's set in the same world as Sing the Four Quarters but with different characters. Vree and Bannon are assassins, sister and brother, working for the Havakeen Empire. The army has raised them and they're unquestioningly loyal. Until this mission. Bannon goes in first and Vree finds him in another body which is old and dying. The only way to save Bannon is for his consiousness to jump into Vree's body. Vree allows it and then they're going after the man who stole Bannon's body. Unfortunately, the army considers them deserters now. There's also a subplot with a bard in it. I liked the book but not as much as the first in the series. But the bad guy is very creepy and a good antagonist.

Edited by Mervi2012 2016-09-21 1:15 PM

dustydigger

Posted 2016-09-26 3:21 AM (#14346 - in reply to #14338)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Finished Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld,which is set in an alternate 1914,where after an ideological split back in the 19th century Europe is divided into Clankers,nations who have become heavily mechanized,heavily armed,and Darwinists,especially in Britain,who have cracked the genetic code and have adapted animals and birds as beasts of burden and weapons of war,which is regarded as an abomination to the Clankers. Leviathan is a whale airship. Deryn is a girl disguised as a boy to join the military,Alek is the son ofthe Archduke of Austria -Hungary who has escaped with a handful of supporters after his family were killed as an excuse to start a war. He is being searched for across Europe to prevent him being a rallying point or asserting his claim to the throne.. A riproaring adventure ensues in a wonderfully convincing and detailed world. The book has copious magnificent illustrations which truly enhance the story. My first tentative foray into YA steampunk was great fun.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-09-28 2:02 PM (#14355 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I've heard good things about Leviathan I but haven't read it yet. It sounds really interesting.
I just finished Nancy Kress' Crossfire. A group of humans travel to a distant planet in order to colonize it. They're very surprised to find a group of aliens because that's the first time humans have met aliens in this setting. However, the aliens live in small huts and don't react to the humans at all. I've read other works from Kress and liked them more. Unfortunately, I didn't connect with any of the main characters: a lawyer, and the leader of the expedition, with a dark past, the very effective administrator, and the religious, pacifist leader with a rebellious daughter. Still, the aliens were very interesting and I always enjoy good exploration stuff.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-10-03 9:49 AM (#14381 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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State of the challenge....another excellent month
Well done Pope Stig,Weesam,Ann Walker,daxxh,and devilinlaw for completing your challenges.Several others are getting near too - e.g. Diane 69/80.,infinity outlaw 35/40,kwaidan 19/20,Morpheus 18/20.piibald 37/40
860 books read (compared with 337 the whole of last year).,106 reviews. wonderfully eclectic and varied list!
I'm still a long way off,60/80 so I will keep plugging away

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-10-13 11:23 AM (#14424 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I've just finished Fritz Leiber's Swords and Ice Magic. It's the sixth book in Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser's adventures. It's a collection of seven short stories and one novella. Most of the short stories are very short and straight-forward. Sadly, they aren't as good as the stories in previous collections. But the novella is better and worth reading. In it, our heroes travel to the legendary Rime Isle and defend it against Mingol pirates.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-10-16 8:09 AM (#14434 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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My next Pick and Mix read was Jennifer Roberson's Sword-Dancer. It was rather a dark read than I expected because slavery and misogyny are a big part of the setting. Sandtiger is a mercenary, called sword-dancers in this world. He's one of the best. Then Del, a gorgeous, exotic Northern woman comes looking for him and Tiger agrees to be her guied through the desert. Del is looking for his younger brother who has kidnapped five years ago. Tiger thinks she can't succeed and is only interested in getting her to bed.
The desert setting was interesting but the way Tiger constantly puts down Del got on my nerves quickly.

daxxh

Posted 2016-10-16 1:29 PM (#14436 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I finished my 10 books for this challenge! I used this challenge for books that didn't fit in any other challenge, so I only planned on reading 10. Here are my mini reviews for the books I haven't mentioned yet.

The Fold - Peter Clines. This book started out great. A reluctant genius gets involved in a DARPA-like lab that is involved in folding space. Pretty cool until the end. It was almost like the author finished a different plot.

Making Wolf - Tade Thompson. I liked this one. It's a crime novel set in a fictional African nation. I am not sure why it's considered speculative as there was no magic or advanced tech in it. It is violent, but so are many African nations. It's dark and gritty and seemed realistic (as much as someone who has never been to Africa can believe based on what is read in the news). I would recommend this one.

Beacon 23 - Hugh Howie. This was a very thought provoking book that explores PTSD and how the human mind deals with it. I would recommend this one, too.

Gypsy Plus - Carter Scholz. This is actually a collection of short stories, essays and the novella Gypsy. Gypsy is excellent. It's probably one of the more realistic depictions of a long space voyage that I've read. It's rather dark - no happy endings here, but I thought it was well done. The other short stories and essays weren't very good. Skip them and just read Gypsy.

Deep Navigation - Alastair Reynolds. Alastair Reynolds is one of my favorite authors, so I was bound to like this one. I don't really like short fiction that much, but most of the stories in this collection were good. My favorite was 'Stroboscopic" - about a life or death virtual reality game.

Europe in Autumn - Dave Hutchinson. This was good. Europe has fractured into many small countries and travelling can be quite challenging. Rudi is a cook who gets recruited by an underground organization to smuggle messages and sometimes things between countries. But not all of the countries are in this universe. Excellent book - highly recommended.

Europe at Midnight - Dave Hutchinson. This was better than Europe in Autumn. Although it's book 2 in the series, the characters are new. This book takes place primarily in England. This is my favorite book of the year, so far (but I haven't read Alastair Reynolds' Revenger yet) I can't wait for the last book of the trilogy.

The other 10 entries for this challenge were all short fiction. Most were nominated for the Hugo or Nebula, which is why I read them. I really didn't like them and was rather disappointed. I did like the one story that wasn't nominated for anything - The Long Goodnight of Violet Wild by Catherynne Valente. The imagery in this story is fantastic.

Edited by daxxh 2016-10-16 1:40 PM

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-10-18 6:03 AM (#14441 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Too bad that The Fold wasn't great. I've really liked Clines' superhero zombie books but haven't yet picked up that one.
Hutchinson's books sound very interesting. I'll have to check them out.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-10-19 4:41 AM (#14449 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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My next read was Tim Powers' The Stress of Her Regard which mixes history, fantasy, and legendary beasts. The English Romantic Poets Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats, and Mary Shelley play a big part in it. They're all stalked by vampiric beings who give them the ability to write but demand a terrible price in return. Unfortunately, I thought the book was far too long.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-10-23 4:05 AM (#14473 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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My next read was Jennifer Roberson's Sword-Singer, the sequel to Sword-Dancer. This time Tiger and Del, the two sword-dancers, head to North where Del has to face the consequences of her actions. This time Tiger is out of his element in the North and he's very unhappy about it. Various enemies hunt them, such as the loki which are capricious demonic spirits. I liked the book better than the first one. However, Del and Tiger argue almost all the time and the book ends in a huge cliffhanger.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-10-23 11:32 AM (#14474 - in reply to #14473)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Early in October I completed the awesome Sword of the Lictor by Gene Wolfe.The further Severian travels away from Nessus the weirder,more surreal bewildering the saga gets! I would not believe that anyone could predict what will happen even a mere five pages ahead lol.Haunting,dazzling,extraordinary,bewildering and plain amazing,but never easy.
Another mindbending book this month was Isaac Asimov's The End of Eternity,and I struggled with it,finding ample irritating examples of the usual flat characters and plodding pedestrian prose.But had to admire the fascinating and complex time travel premises,Asimov's usual turning things inside out,and the startling link with the Galactic Empire which underpins Asimov's whole opus,but seemed missing here till the very end.I wont even attempt a review,but I really was impressed by Scott Laz's excellent review here on WWEnd. What he said!
To continue the mindblowing theme this month I am working through Iain M Banks Use of Weapons,where the main story,in chapters prosaically called One,Two Three etc are interleaved with the digging out the reasons why the black ops protagonist is suffering burnout,struggling to reminder some deeply hidden forgotten horrors. These go backwards,being labelled XII,XI,X,IX and so on.Humour and horror cheek by jowl!
And last but certainly not least,I am loving Vernor Vinge's hugo winning A Fire Upon the Deep. Space opera on the widest scale intercut with a mediaeval society of very unusual aliens.Good characterisation too. Took a LONG time to puzzle out the Zones of Thought and what exactly the various alien races really were like.All in all this is proving a mindblowing mindcracking but fascinating and exciting month

dustydigger

Posted 2016-10-28 4:44 AM (#14508 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Lester Del Rey's Marooned on Mars waswritten in 1952,so way before the Mariner mission supplied us with the stark truths about barren Mars. After that no more Barsooms etc,but at least here we could still some rather interesting martians,the weak remnants of a great culture which is running out of water and resources. Typical plucky young hero(who had stowed away on the first voyage to Mars as you do) As usual we have smoking,atomic fuelled rocket ships which have to land on three fins,and delightful make do and mend solutions to problems such as soldering holes in the walls of the rocket when the inevitable meteorite storm attacks the ship. Yep our hero just happened to have his soldering kit at hand to put things right immediately!That makes three of this series where I have seen meteorites are a problem
One or two interesting features. The crew are typical Right Stuff types. Our hero is scared to death,but the crew dont blink an eye,and their pulses remain rock steady. Perhaps the pilot really was Chuck Yeager in disguise.
Then there was a comment at the end when as The young hero is appointed to be liaison with the martians,one of the crew rather cynically states there will be no trouble with the natives until the humans have civised them enough that there own culture will go to pieces. Not quite the gung ho tone promoted by the rest of the book! Pleasant light fun,a nice return to the old style SF that a whole generation grew up with.I am very much enjoying this series

dustydigger

Posted 2016-11-01 4:21 AM (#14521 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Finished Vernor Vinge's excellent A Fire on the Deep.Some problems with the writing,and some of the ideas which seem great at first sight dont hold up fully at close scrutiny,but I love space opera,and this one has the whole galaxy as its background,great aliens,interesting idea of Zones of Thought and a good plot. Great fun.
Then John Scalzi's Zoe's Tale,which read as young adult.,similar in intent to Orson Scott Cards Ender's Shadow,being a counterpoint to the story told in The Last Colony. Enjoyable enough,but just a bit lightweight in the themes department,and a heroine to I pictured in my mind as Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Pleasant enpough fluff really.
For Halloween I revisited a few Edgar Allan Poe stories. Lush melodramatic,and still give a frisson.

state of the challenge - 927 books read(337 in total last year). Hopefully we can exceed 1000 in the whole year.
Well done kwaidan,who completed 20/20 and piibald who managed 40/40!
Others are very close to finishing - Morpheus 19/20,kabouter 19/20,infinity outlaw39/40.I am on 70/80. We're getting there!

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-11-08 4:09 AM (#14538 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I read Seanan McGuire's newest book in the Toby Daye series, "Once Broken Faith". It's the tenth in the series and while it wasn't the best so far, it was still very good. If you like faeries and urban fantasy, I heartly recommend this series.

I also read two humorous modern fantasy books from Tanya Huff: "Summon the Keeper" and "The Second Summoning". They were light and fun reads. The main character in the first book is Claire Hansen, a Keeper which is kind-of a witch who seals off portals to hell. The first book has also a romance triangle which wasn't as annoying as they usually are. Oh, and Claire has a talking cat with her. In the second book Claire's young sister Diana is also a main character. Diana is a teenager and a very powerful Keeper. The second book also has an angel and a demon who have to deal with teenaged bodies. So, lots of sex jokes and other jokes, as well. I liked them well enough but they were pure fluff.

Next up will be China Mieville's "City and the City" which I expect will be quite different.

Edited by Mervi2012 2016-11-08 4:10 AM

Leyra'an

Posted 2016-11-08 11:42 AM (#14541 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Completely lost track of this thread. In recent months I've read Shadow & Claw by Gene Wolfe, To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Farmer, Guards! Guards! by Pratchett, Ringworld by NIven, The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov, and The Stars Are Ours by Andre Norton. Currently reading All The Traps of Earth by Clifford Simak. Counting that one, I have four books to go.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-11-11 4:54 AM (#14555 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Yay,keep it up Thomas,hope you finish. Feeling quite smug that I have read everything on your list except the Simak.When I reopen Dusty's Bar after New Year I hope we can have a sort of campaigh to resurrect interest in some of the older writers.Have you read Jim Harris's blog about all the books which no longer made it onto version 4 of the Classics of SF list? I was absolutely gobsmacked at some of the books that were lost - Animal Farm,Bring the Jubilee,The Chrysalids.Downward to the Earth,The Long Tomorrow and Zelazny's short stories in particular. Plus some of the lighter fun oldtimers like Kuttner,C L Moore,Harry Harrison etc,perhaps not classics but good fun. Got to expect it with the passage of time.Since SF is really about the preocupations of the present,we should expect books to lose relevance and seem oldfashioned,but its sad really. Time winnows the chaff away.

And on a personal level I am not pleased that no less than 28 books I have read have been removed!
***************
Whoo - hoo! I am now part of the Elite! Well,an Elite Veteran with 600 posts under my belt

dustydigger

Posted 2016-11-18 4:06 AM (#14603 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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I flew through the last of the Heinlein juveniles,Time for the Stars Wow,what a contrast with The Rolling Stones which was the frothiest of humorous froth. So much is packed into a mere 188 pages in Time for the Stars with lots of science,space exploration adventure and danger.
When mankind sets off to the stars,desperate to locate liveable planets to ease Earth's dire overpopulation, the technology will get the ships up to 99% light speed,so radio waves will be impossibly slow for communication over the huge distances.So they decide to use the simultaneity of telepathy between twins,which is unaffected by distance.We follow the story through one such pair of twins,Tom and Pat. One twin will go on the spaceship,the other will stay earthbound to receive the ship communications. RAH carefully shows some of the interesting effects of relativity as the twin on earth ages by decades,while barely months or a few years passes by in the ships.
One interesting topic is the matter of relationships between twins which rather than being depicted as all sweetness and light can actually be quite fraugh . We also have contac t with aliens who pretty much wipe the floor with the humans,with a lot of deaths. Surprised that RAH managed to get so much of that through the publisher. This is definitely up at the top of of the audience's age group.
Then at the end is tacked on an unexpected tech development,slightly deus ex machina in my mind,but on return to Earth the spacers find that society has moved on tremendously in 50 years and they are just a minor little footnote in the history books.. Got to say despite the YA tone of the book I found this a much more agreeable and interesting take on relativity than Joe Haldeman's Forever War.(Yep I am one of the few who didnt take to that book in the slightest!).
I would rate this as one of the better of the Heinlein juveniles with its complex relationships and the stuff about relativity. Good stuff.
I am now about a quarter of the way through A A Van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle and have started ERBs At the Earth's Core

dustydigger

Posted 2016-11-19 6:57 AM (#14612 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Just completed A E Van Vogt's [Voyage of the Space Beagle] a fix up of some of his earliest stories. The writing is a bit stodgy.,characterisation nonexistent,and some of the science theories are a bit lame or vague,but the book earned its place in Jim Harris's Defining Books of the Fifties because of some of its ideas being used later.
Such as the fact that this is a five year voyage out across the galaxies seeking out life forms and new planets. It has an outsider who promotes a new science which integrates all others,but his dependence on sheer logic and rationalism separates him from his fellows,who are wary of him and his lack of human warmth. Each section of the book shows a new and dangerous lifeform to be bested. Certainly they killed off beasts a lot more readily than Star Trek,but the Enterprise voyagers did their fair share,high ideals or not!
Then in one episode a beast gets into the ship and steals crew members to act as incubators for the creatures eggs. After the crittur is finally killed the surgeon does an op to remove the egg,burning the eggs as they are removed. Suddenly-

''an ugly round scarlet head with tiny beady eyes and a tiny slit of a mouth poked out. The head twisted on its short neck and the eyes glittered up at them with hard ferocity.With a swiftness that almost took them by surprise the creature reared up and tried to to climb out of the vat. The smooth walls defeated it. It slid back and dissolved in the flames that poured upon it.
Smith licked his lips and said''Suppose it had escaped and dissolved into the nearest wall?''

Well,we all know someone with an evil imagination DID let the creature escape in a very gruesome fashion and frightened the wits out of millions of filmgoers in a modest little film called Alien.
But you can see why Van Vogt was able to contest them and settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. :0)Hope it was a good sum! :0)

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-11-22 6:36 AM (#14622 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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China Mieville's "the City and the City" was indeed quite different. It doesn't have fantasy (or scifi) elements as such, but it does have a divided city. Beszel is a divided city but not in a physical way. Inside and beside it is another city, Ul Qoma, which is different legally, culturally, and especially in the minds of the citizens of both city states. Daily, they see the buildings and people of the other city but must ignore and unsee them. If they dont, they are guilty of a breach which the most heinous crime either city has. Breaches are governed by the mysterious organization called the Breach. They are the bogie men making sure that the citizens of two cities keep apart from each other. This book is really a hard-broiled detective story but in fantastical cities.

I just finished "Women of Futures Past: Classic Stories" edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. It has 12 science fiction short stories from various female writers and an excellent introduction from Rusch were she writes about how and why people seem to forget that women have been writing SF since the beginning. Short stories from women are not collected into anthologies and so are forgotten and ignored, even when the books women write are (sometimes) still in print. Stories by Bujold, McCaffrey, Zenna Hendriksen, Pat Cadigan, Cherryh, LeGuin, James Tiptree Jr., Andren Norton, Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore, Connie Willis, and Nancy Kress. Some of them are excellent.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-12-05 2:02 PM (#14668 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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YAY!Completing Ben Aaronovitch'sThe Hanging Tree,ERBs At the Earth's Core,and Lester Del Rey's Rocket Jockey finally completed my Pick N'Mix challenge for 2016,80/80.
I am out of hospital after my knee replacement,sadly had an infection,stayed in hospital longer than is normal,and have generally had a ropy time in recovery,specially being spaced out on meds,so I am relieved to reach target. Sadly I am about 18 books short of my planned 100 reads for the year,but real life just overpowered me this year....sigh......
I intend to run the P & M again next year,but sadly without a forum.I just didnt find the time to do it justice this year,and we had only a few contributors.My online time will be limited next year,as I will be main babysitter for my new great granddaughter and tragically my sister has developed Alzheimer's so thats another drain on time,I will have to ration time,and so the forum will be a casualty.
I may however still make an occasional post or comment on this 2016 thread just to keep an eye on how we are doing.

Mervi2012

Posted 2016-12-09 5:03 AM (#14681 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Congrats, Dustydigger! You've done really will with all the struggles in your life! I'm happy to hear that P&M will return next year.
I've just finished Timothy Zahn's Cobra so I'm just one book away from completing the challenge. I've only read Star Wars stuff from Zahn before. Cobra turned out quite different from what I expected. It's set far into the future where Dominion of Man has spread to many planets. They're at war with an alien race. Jonny joins the army and becomes a Cobra: his bones and tendons are made almost unbreakble and he has nanocomputer put in which enhances reflexes. The Cobras are sent into occupied human plants and infilterate the locals and lead the resistance. But that's not all the book at all. We see what the Cobras do after the war and follow Jonny for decades. It's very easy to read and sucked me right in.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-12-10 4:05 PM (#14686 - in reply to #14681)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Mervi,I have read a couple of Zahn's Quadrail series about a James Bond sort of guy who deals with lots of aliens on the Quadrail,an intergalactic transport system which is the only link between galactic civilisations.Enormous fun,fast paced and exciting.In 2017 I will be reading his Heir to the Empire in 2017 while trying to locate more of the Quadrail series

Engelbrecht

Posted 2016-12-12 1:02 AM (#14693 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: RE: Pick and Mix 2016

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I decided to use this challenge to show my top 10 Reads of the Year.

This year, I added two new favorites - Franz Kafka's Castle and Jamie Williamson's nonfiction The Evolution of Modern Fantasy, so it was something of a banner year for me. I wasn't too sure what to expect from Marge Piercy's He, She and It, but it was a strikingly impressive book. Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series, starting off with Night's Master, was just lovely - beautifully written with a poetic style that reminded me somewhat of Dunsany. Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles was wonderful, as I said in my review of it. The pieces in George Orwell's essay collection Facing Unpleasant Facts gave me a great sense of the man behind 1984. And Guy Gavriel Kay's Children of Earth and Sky lived up to lofty expectations. All in all, it was a great year.

Dusty, I'm sorry to hear of the adversities in your life, but I hope for good things and good books for you in the coming year.

dustydigger

Posted 2016-12-14 8:10 AM (#14711 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016

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Thanks Englebrecht,I am finally making some progress with my recovery,though its a slow job. I know from experience that it will take at least another 6-8 weeks to get back to some mobility,but I'll get there in the end
Some interesting reads there,Englebrecht,so glad you found some good reads. I thought you had read every book in existence! I dont read much fantasy but someday I do intend to read some Tanith Lee and Guy Gavriel Kay. Need to push the envelope a little,but at the moment I am working my way through the 90s SF,and also some golden oldies. Unlike you after 30 years out of the genre I have masses of great reads just waiting for me to find time for them

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