2009 Reading XX-XXVI
I seem to have run out of enthusiasm to write about these - I also seem capable of travelling with a pile of books and failing to read any of them. Nor have I entered my Riverside purchases into the database yet, let alone anything more recent.
XX: Christopher Priest, The Space Machine Reread for the Riverside paper - Priest's rewrite of two Wells novels, which doesn't quite connect up with reality, and in which it turns out the male character needs as much liberation - or more - than the female. One of several novels of the period which engages with sf's history.
XXI: Michael Moorcock, The Steel Tsar Reread for the Riverside paper - later addition to the Oswald Bastable books, in which it goes all steampunk and a version of Stalin appears. There is even a character named Nesbit. One of several novels of the period which engages with sf's history.
XXII: E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers Short stories about the Bastable children, where an Edwardian middle class family fall on hard times (down to their last servant...) and the children come with ways of making money, short of pimping themselves. They are saved in the end, so everything is fine. Oswald presumably narrates this, but there's not much connect with the Moorcock trilogy. Read for Riverside paper.
XXIII: Barry Malzberg, Herovit's World Metafiction in which sf-hating hack writes sf he hates and tries to break out of the contract he has to write more rubbish sf. I suspect some bitterness on the author's part as he bites the feeding hand.
XXIV: Picasso: Challenging the Past Tie in with the National Gallery exhibition - fascinating if too biographical
XXV: Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell to Earth Reread for Leuven paper, Adaptations book, seventies book and a seventies paper. No real new insights, but spotting more falling references, and weird quotes about being queer: "his way of walking ... reminded Bryce of the first homosexual he had ever seen ... Newton did not walk like that". Bryce is an sf fan, too: "He walked down town, hoping that there would be a science fiction movie ? one with resurrected dinosaurs clomping around Manhattan in bird-brained wonder, or insectivorous invaders from Mars, come to destroy the whole damn world (and good riddance, too), so they could eat the bugs"
XXVI: Robert Sheckley, Immortality, Inc Reread for rewatch of Freejack - Thomas Blaine, yacht designer, is rescued from a car crash and finds himself adrift in the future - as an unwanted PR stunt, as a spare body, as a hunter on a life and death manhunt, as a wanted man, as a series of bodies. A curious mix of body swap a la Mindswap and hunt a la Victim novels. Not one of his stronger works. Halfway for the year. Could Try Harder...
XX: Christopher Priest, The Space Machine Reread for the Riverside paper - Priest's rewrite of two Wells novels, which doesn't quite connect up with reality, and in which it turns out the male character needs as much liberation - or more - than the female. One of several novels of the period which engages with sf's history.
XXI: Michael Moorcock, The Steel Tsar Reread for the Riverside paper - later addition to the Oswald Bastable books, in which it goes all steampunk and a version of Stalin appears. There is even a character named Nesbit. One of several novels of the period which engages with sf's history.
XXII: E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers Short stories about the Bastable children, where an Edwardian middle class family fall on hard times (down to their last servant...) and the children come with ways of making money, short of pimping themselves. They are saved in the end, so everything is fine. Oswald presumably narrates this, but there's not much connect with the Moorcock trilogy. Read for Riverside paper.
XXIII: Barry Malzberg, Herovit's World Metafiction in which sf-hating hack writes sf he hates and tries to break out of the contract he has to write more rubbish sf. I suspect some bitterness on the author's part as he bites the feeding hand.
XXIV: Picasso: Challenging the Past Tie in with the National Gallery exhibition - fascinating if too biographical
XXV: Walter Tevis, The Man Who Fell to Earth Reread for Leuven paper, Adaptations book, seventies book and a seventies paper. No real new insights, but spotting more falling references, and weird quotes about being queer: "his way of walking ... reminded Bryce of the first homosexual he had ever seen ... Newton did not walk like that". Bryce is an sf fan, too: "He walked down town, hoping that there would be a science fiction movie ? one with resurrected dinosaurs clomping around Manhattan in bird-brained wonder, or insectivorous invaders from Mars, come to destroy the whole damn world (and good riddance, too), so they could eat the bugs"
XXVI: Robert Sheckley, Immortality, Inc Reread for rewatch of Freejack - Thomas Blaine, yacht designer, is rescued from a car crash and finds himself adrift in the future - as an unwanted PR stunt, as a spare body, as a hunter on a life and death manhunt, as a wanted man, as a series of bodies. A curious mix of body swap a la Mindswap and hunt a la Victim novels. Not one of his stronger works. Halfway for the year. Could Try Harder...