What Book Are You Reading XV - The Pile Keeps Growing!

[SS-18 ICBM]

Finished the Penguin Science Fiction Classics edition of Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker. It tells the tale of an Englishmen who travels the vast expanses of time and space to learn the secrets and evolution of the cosmos and the titular Star Maker that set it all into motion. Mostly a first-person point of view affair, it is at its heart a philosophical investigation of the cosmos, with notable leanings of the socialist variety. Key themes are the importance of loving your neighbors, the need for balance between action and contemplation, and the nature of the Star Maker himself.

Despite a dated theory of planetary formation by stellar filament interaction, the book is a rightful titan of the genre with many influences on succeeding works. Aside from inspiring Freeman Dyson's Spheres, it anticipated Wall-E's rogue servitors, Idiocracy's future degeneration, and The Last Question. While it was not the first to chronicle certain technologies like energy shields and electronic warfare, if I am not mistaken one of my favorite sections with the bird-cloud world-mind (fantastic band name, by the way) is one of the first depictions of hacking enemy systems, though with radio waves instead of computer malware.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Olaf Stapledon's Star Maker

Since it was published in 1937 one would not expect it to fit our current levels of tech.

 

[Arakhor]

I've started a new book, The Extraordinaries, by T J Klune, about Nick, a gay teenager with a dead mum and a massive crush on his city's local  superhero Extraordinary, who writes barely veiled self-insert fanfiction about his crush and dreams of becoming an Extraordinary himself. Nick's life is also complicated by being in love with his best friend, though it seems that Nick is the only one  not aware of this fact.

 

[Kyriakos]

Moving slowly in the Feynman book, since now, 1/3 in (70/210), it has a lecture of his from his time working at Los Alamos (the atomic bomb project).

 

[Kyriakos]

Started this today, now 1/4 in (20 pages).
It is nice. The usual theme for Dick books, of course (identity).
And the usual reflecting mirror too, where the protagonist has peculiar (inverted) similarities to a person from another character's past.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Reading Hitler's Armada, a realistic appraisal of the German naval capacity at the time of Operation Sealion, and a defense of the role of the Royal Navy if Hitler had attempted to invade Britain. The author argues that Hitler's ability to suppress the Royal Navy with airpower was marginal to nonexistant given Germany's lack of torpedo planes.

 

[Kyriakos]

About 3/5 in the Flow my Tears book. Hopefully things will start happening soon

 

[AmazonQueen]

Just finished Harold Wilson: The Winner by Nick Thomas-Symonds about the party leader who won the most elections since Gladstone (most of them only by a small margin though). About to start Cicero: Politics and persuasion in Ancient Rome.

 

[Smellincoffee]

I just started Dan Jones' Essex Dogs, a bit of historical fiction set during the Battle of Crecy. Jones is a medieval historian, and I think this is his first attempt so far. Enjoying the detail so far, though his dialogue isn't as entertaining as Bernard Cornwell's. Interestingly, most of the blurbs on the back are from historians like Simon Montefiore. and none of them are from Cornwell -- who has blurbed authors like Paul Fraser Collard.

 

[Kyriakos]

Hm, I now have read Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said.
The epilogue shouldn't be there, at all.
That said, the twist (in the spoiler) did imo turn this into a less refined version of Ubiq.

Spoiler :

Assuming that the policeman was experiencing himself a secondary reality, with the black person who had "three children" when due to past events that should be impossible. As for the similarity to Ubiq: there too there isn't any specific reality, at least not in all readings of it (actually, the final chapter is almost explicitly preventing any specific reality, making it all fluid)
I did read one analysis of it, where it was claimed the bad epilogue at least presents how the policeman acted out on his 'other reality' experience, by sparring the protagonist; but that too could have been presented differently, and ultimately doesn't matter.

All in all, I did not like this novel as much as other stories by Dick, and the epilogue does harm it But up to now I though that Ubiq was his most chaotic one (but, as noted, Ubiq is certainly far more refined).

Anyway, that toy might be useful. Iirc it was called "Cheerful Charlie". Curious that it could tell stuff of some significance to its handler.

 

[EnglishEdward]

On Saturday I finished reading:

Project Hail Mary

by the Californian

Andy Weir

copyright 2021, that I bought full price from the local Waterstones.

It is an old fashioned Sci-Fi book that I enjoyed immensely.

 

[Takhisis]

I bought full price

I thought you only bought books at Oxfam?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Finished Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe. Extremely disappointed. Was my first Moorcock story and will probably be my last.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Finished Corum: The Prince in the Scarlet Robe. Extremely disappointed. Was my first Moorcock story and will probably be my last.

I think the best of the Eternal Champion books Moorcock wrote were the Hawkmoon series which are set in a post-apocalyptic future. Identifying the remnants of our society in his hellish future was always interesting.

 

[Stengeh]

I'm currently reading Escape from Shawshank. Watched the movie, too. Almost finished it, the book is unreal interesting. I recommend it to everyone.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I think the best of the Eternal Champion books Moorcock wrote were the Hawkmoon series which are set in a post-apocalyptic future. Identifying the remnants of our society in his hellish future was always interesting.

Thanks, but Moorcock's stories seem more suitable for comic books, movies or video games. There's an especially cheesy scene towards the end of the book where Corum, Elric and Erekosë link arms to 'become one' and slay monsters belonging to some madman who owns a tower that can traverse the planes. Not only does the implementation of the concept beggar belief – Corum is in the middle while the other two wield a sword each at his side, and seem to face no difficulty killing several monsters at once – or that the concept itself is very video-gamey – they are fighting against a sorcerer only whose magic can work in the tower, but when they link arms their magic works as well, but not otherwise – but that this awesome alliance doesn't come about to help Corum in one of the two epic showdowns at the end of the third book, but only to slay a sorcerer, capture his tower and rescue the Companion Eternal, whereafter they all go their own ways.

Reading what I just wrote I'm not sure that I was able to adequately explain my disenchantment with Moorcock's story style. I suppose you can sort of grasp what I was driving at?

 

[AmazonQueen]

Thanks, but Moorcock's stories seem more suitable for comic books, movies or video games. There's an especially cheesy scene towards the end of the book where Corum, Elric and Erekosë link arms to 'become one' and slay monsters belonging to some madman who owns a tower that can traverse the planes. Not only does the implementation of the concept beggar belief – Corum is in the middle while the other two wield a sword each at his side, and seem to face no difficulty killing several monsters at once – or that the concept itself is very video-gamey – they are fighting against a sorcerer only whose magic can work in the tower, but when they link arms their magic works as well, but not otherwise – but that this awesome alliance doesn't come about to help Corum in one of the two epic showdowns at the end of the third book, but only to slay a sorcerer, capture his tower and rescue the Companion Eternal, whereafter they all go their own ways.

Reading what I just wrote I'm not sure that I was able to adequately explain my disenchantment with Moorcock's story style. I suppose you can sort of grasp what I was driving at?

I can.
Moorcock was important in the development of fantasy, using anti-heroes as main protagonists, developing the idea of the multiverse etc, but his writing and plots aren't great, and whilst his characters have a bit more complexity than Tolkiens or Howards they still aren't great.
I haven't read any of them in over 20 years.

 

[Kyriakos]

One of the very few fantasy authors I like, is Lord Dunsany

You can easily find all of his work online, since copyright has expired.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I can.
Moorcock was important in the development of fantasy, using anti-heroes as main protagonists, developing the idea of the multiverse etc, but his writing and plots aren't great, and whilst his characters have a bit more complexity than Tolkiens or Howards they still aren't great.
I haven't read any of them in over 20 years.

The funny thing is that I very much enjoy the works of Tolkien and Robert E. Howard, even though I know Howard's stories are little more than 'barbarian strong, civilised people weak', but there is a vague indefinable sort of poetry to Howard's writing that makes reading them actually enjoyable. I don't tend to have problems with works that were written in the formative years of their genre which may not have aged well such as The Well at the World's End or The Worm Ouroboros.

My issue with Moorcock seems to be that I think he is writing for the wrong medium. I once read an Elric comic book (I don't think it was by Moorcock himself but by someone who was continuing the stories but I could be wrong) and it was fun in a cheesy, campy sort of way (the moody illustrations certainly did help). But those same ideas in a conventional book form I found incongruent and uninspired.

 

[Hygro]

Almost done with Bronze Age Mindset by Bronze Age Pervert. I assumed this book was completely underground but it turned out to be widely read by its target audience. It is the truest glorification of naked rightwingedism in its most direct and contemporary form, a sincere and uncompromising ode to pirate fascists bringing destruction for venomous glory.