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Pick & Mix 2021 challenge
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-01 4:40 PM (#22775)
Subject: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Hello again folks. Ann Walker welcome,you joined almost ahead of me!
I am intending to read my usual mix of award winners,classics,and quite a lot of good old fashioned relaxing pulpy stuff from the 50s and 60s.
I want to complete the Locus best novels of all time list. I've read 47/50 of the list,just Dhalgren, Earth Abides and Last and First Men to go! It will be my first completed list,as I stopped following the Hugos and Nebulas around 2016. Our library hasnt bothered adding the latest books for several years due possibly to budget cuts,or they have lost interest in the lists,which certainly seem a bit patchy in quality these days.
This month though I will be reading Robert McCammon's Boy's Life and some good old pulpabout space tugs and doctors in space. Cool,
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-08 3:44 PM (#22814 - in reply to #22775)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		1. Robert R McCammon's Boy's Life was an OK read,as far as I was concerned,but I didnt go into raptures as so many people have about this book about a year in the life of an 11 year old boy in rural Alabama in 1964.I found it far too long.It started out when the boy and his father saw a car containing a tortured dead man chained in the car career into a deep lake. It was over 500 pages later before we got the answers to the mystery,in between was numerous tales of the boy's life,often purported with have some magical elements.Found the denouement barely credibleI'm afraid. Lots of somewhat crude boisterous humour,not really my cup of tea,and while some sections were affecting and emotional and brought alump to my throat at times I felt the rapid changes of the story somewhat jarring at times..Lots of bullying too,which I never enjoy reading about.
Ah well,it was read as part of a challenge,so at least I finished it! lol.
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-24 4:57 AM (#22864 - in reply to #22775)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I really enjoyed Alan E Nourse's Star Surgeon about a young alien who desires to be a surgeon in a pangalactic set up where almost all doctors are humans,and Earth has become a giant hospital treating sick aliens from across the galaxy..This juvenile series predates James White's Sector General series by several years.Not sure if White was ffamiliar with the series.there are definitely similarities. And White even called the second book Star Surgeon in 1963!
Poor old Nourse,he never wins.The Sector General books became famous instead of his books,and then the makers of Blade Runner wanted the title without any copyright issues,so they bought up the rights to the book,discarded the whole book,which had no similarities whatsoever to the film!
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-24 10:53 AM (#22865 - in reply to #22864)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		YAY! FINALLY finished Boneshaker. I get the feeling that I was supposed to be bowled over by a big denouement,but since I never connected with the heroine(?) it left me totally cold,shrugging ''so what?'' :0) Will not be continuing the series.
Rest of the month I am reading other genres,though perhaps another couple of short stories from Mark R Kelly's list will be squeezed in.Such as Game of Rat and Dragon.
For pure fun and indulgence and celebrating the inauguration I did a reread of Heinlein's All You Zombies.No one like Bob for making time travel understandable (well,fairly......)
All You Zombies is still a good read. Not as shocking or mindblowing as when first encountered,naturally, but brilliantly executed. OK,its harder today to deal with the dodgy sexism and very strange reationships (to say the least) - typical later Heinlein - but the story still has great impact.
Here are the time travellers byelaws which he has above his bed

Never Do Yesterday What Should Be Done Tomorrow.
If at Last You Do Succeed, Never Try Again.
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine Billion.
A Paradox May Be Paradoctored.
It Is Earlier When You Think.
Ancestors Are Just People.
Even Jove Nods.





Edited by dustydigger 2021-01-24 10:56 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-28 4:55 AM (#22870 - in reply to #22775)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I read a fair to middling Edmond Hamilton tale,World With a Thousand Moons,and a shorter story,The Stars,My Brothers.A bit bland,and written well before his marriage to Leigh Brackett,so none of her subtle nudges towards a more modern take on women.Its claimed that they always worked apart save for one collaboration,but definitely his work in general improved greatly in later years. Apparently he did a lot of work on the early Superman and Batman stories for DC comics,including the well respected Last Days of Superman episodes in 1962.
Iam sorting out my reads for February,mostly 1950s stuff. Also trying for two or three award winners per month.Trying to fill in any early gaps in my lists,so probably Christopher Priest The Inverted World and Michael G Coney Brontomek will feature. Have read 67/69 Hugo winners,and 54/56 Nebulas,but am doing very badly with the BSFA award,only read 17/59 winners,despite being a Brit! lol Shame on me.I do have plans for reading a reasonable number this year to at least partially fill the ignorance gap. Looking at:
Michael G Coney - Brontomek!
Allette de Bodard - House of Shattered Wings
P K Dick - A Scanner Darkly
Colin Greenland - Take Back Plenty
Christopher Priest - Inverted World
Mary Doria Russell - The Sparrow
Ian Watson - The Jonah Kit
At least that will bring my tally into the mid twenties,but a long way to go.

Edited by dustydigger 2021-01-28 4:59 AM
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-01-31 4:12 PM (#22892 - in reply to #22775)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Hey,Pick N' Mixers we got off to a good start for the 2021 challenge. 16 of us read 70 books in January! Excellent.
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dustydigger
Posted 2021-02-18 8:19 AM (#22929 - in reply to #22892)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2021 challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Brontomek was a pleasant enough read about a planet being colonized that is failing,colonists are leaving .When a huge corporation seems to come to the rescue everyone greets them with open arms. Then surprise surprise the corporation brings in massive armoured agricultural robotic machines called brontomeks to cultivate drugs,and aliens called amorphs that can take on human forms . Things go down hill rapidly from there. It was an OK read during snowy weather during lockdown,but award winning? Not in my opinion.
Cordwainer Smith's famous short story Game of Rat and Dragon was interesting. When humans developed a type of FTL they found that in the dark expanses of space there are violent aliens who just want to destroy all humans using a form of telepathy to kill men,or leave survivors raving mad and in great pain. Humans have developed a technology to use laser lights,and form telepathic links with cats who see the aliens rather like huge rats and can counter them much better than slower humans can. They hate light,so earth is safe,but space travel is very dangerous,and earth would be isolated without these teams protecting ships. Pretty good stuff for 1955! I keep meaning to read more Cordwainer Smith. So far I've only read Norstrilia.Maybe next year?Oh boy,already planning 2022 reads,cant resist it!
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