Reading Science Fiction

I am currently reading Nor Crystal Tears, by Alan Dean Foster. I’m about 30% into it. I’m really enjoying it!

Well, tonight I ate a hamburger and fries, listen to an album, and finish reading Dumarest 18.

I always enjoy these novels. This one was pretty good. Going to spend the rest of the evening deciding what I want to read next. I should be able to fit one or two more books in this month.

In 1981 I was in 10th grade. In 1990 I was married. That’s a lot of change in 10 years. From childhood to adulthood.

In the early part of that decade I got much of my science fiction from movies and from gaming. I did do some reading. In 10th grade I began playing Traveller, which was really the first science fiction roleplaying game. I know there was at least one that probably preceded it, but Traveller was the first of any real consequence. This was of course in the middle of the original Star Wars trilogy releases, so a lot of our games mirrored a very Star Wars kind of approach.

There were a number of SF authors very popular at the time that our group read. The Well World series by Jack L. Chalker was always visible in the book stores and had very engaging cover art. We read those and our Traveller characters visited the Well World. A couple of years ago I revisited the first book, Midnight at the Well of Souls. It is very imaginative but horribly written. I can see why 10th graders would have loved it. Reading it again was OK. Then I tried reading the next one, Exiles at the Well of Souls. I got maybe twenty pages in and had to stop. HORRIBLE. The prose is just ghastly. There is some really terrible offensive stuff about an overweight teenage girl character. It’s just so awful. Sometime revisiting books you thought were great as a teen is not the way to go.

Alan Dean Foster was another very popular author at the time. I read some of his Pip and Flinx novels, set in his Humanx Commonwealth universe. These are enjoyable SF adventure tales. Foster is a much better writer than Chalker. A workhorse. Many of the novelizations of SF movies over the years were written by him. Again, these character driven adventure novels are great inspiration for SF roleplaying games, and I have it on my current list to explore more of his novels set in the Commonwealth. They may not blow my mind, but they will be entertaining an fun.

My college years from 1983 to 1987 did not include much, if any, SF reading, which is really weird when I think back on it. I am sure that’s when I read Dune for the first time. Most of my SF from those years was from movies.

After graduating from college I went back into SF reading. I read some of Heinlein’s more well-known books. I read many H.G. Wells novels, Asimov’s Foundation series, as well as other classics. Foundation blew me away. I feel like it was one of the first “big idea” SF novels I read. I read a lot of Arthur C. Clarke in those days as well, and enjoyed those. To this day the books in Clarke’s Space Odyssey series are some of my favorite novels.

By the end of the 1980s I wouldn’t say I was “well-read” as an SF reader, but I was getting a good base. I think I still am.

I started reading Dumarest 17 today during lunch. 📚

None of the “break/lunch” areas at work are really quiet or private. Of course, this is a workplace and I have no real right to expect either. However, I work in a library. So my new thing is quickly eating a sandwich and going up into the public area of the library, finding a quiet, secluded easy chair, and reading for 45 minutes.

Returning to the Dumarest saga after reading a few other books is very much like settling into that easy chair. I know the character, I know what his goals are, I know the downtrodden brutality of the Dumarest universe, and I know what to expect. True to form, in Chapter One Early has already killed two people with his knife. E.C. Tubb does not fool around. Right into action.

I learned of the Dumarest of Terra saga from Marc Miller, creator of the Traveller science fiction roleplaying game. They are SF adventures set in a rough and tumble universe. While it’s rare for them to tackle any of the “big ideas” of science fiction, they contain lots of cool weird stuff and provide tremendous inspiration for my Traveller game. They are just good, clean fun.

I need to start writing more detailed post, I think, in order to get the most out of this blog.

I have now ready Little Fuzzy and Fuzzy Sapiens, the two Fuzzy novels published by H. Beam Piper while he was alive. There is a third book - Fuzzies and Other People - which was found and published years after his death.

These are fairly short novels. I enjoyed them. I’d recommend reading them both if you read either, as the two are really one long story. Fuzzy Sapiens ties things up nicely.

Like all of Piper’s novels I’ve read thus far, this is not a complex narrative. There aren’t a bunch of storylines to keep track of. The prose is simple but solid.

The first book deals with themes like “what is sapience?”, corporate greed, and first contact with an alien species. The second book takes off pretty much from where the first one left off, and we see characters redeemed, concern for the rights of indigenous populations, and the use of science to solve problems. You could argue there is a strong colonialist streak in these books, and you’d be right. The planet is a colony.

Overall I enjoyed these novels. There’s not a lot of action in them. They are mostly about characters discussing events, solving problems, investigating mysteries.

When I was a teen in the 1980s these books were prominent on bookstore shelves. Piper was one of the authors you knew about. Alan Dean Foster, Phillip Jose Farmer, Andre Norton, Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke. The list goes on. Back then of course there was no internet, so learning a bit more about the authors and their lives was harder and more time consuming. The link above to the Wikipedia article on Piper is kind of interesting. His libertarian leanings are fairly apparent in The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking (yes, a dumb name for a book, and every time the term “space viking” came up in the novel I cringed). However, I did enjoy each of those novels as well. I love high-minded SF with the “big ideas” but I don’t demand it. A good adventure is fine with me.

I found this amazing blog yesterday. Dude is writing about classic SF and reviewing lots of books. Quality site.

sciencefictionruminations.com

Weirdly I have made less progress on my SF viewing goals than my reading goals. The collection of Quatermass films I got on Blu-Ray turned out to be Region 2 (England), so my player will not play them! A friend is converting them for me.

I did rewatch Aliens and Prometheus. I love the Alien franchise. I even love the ones that people say suck.

There are a number of SF films on Netflix that I have not seen, as well as Amazon Prime, so I will likely delve into those in the coming weeks.

I have mentioned the Quinn’s Ideas Youtube channel. Quinn does deep dive videos about many SF novels and series, with Dune, the Three Body Problem, and the Hyperion Cantos being some of his most detailed work. I enjoy his channel a lot.

This video was great. A quick comparison of the Foundation, Dune, and Hyperion settings.

I started reading Little Fuzzy, by H. Beam Piper.

I had this book in paperback form many years ago and for some reason just never read it. Now I’m reading it on my Kindle.

I’ve read two of Piper’s novels in the last couple of years, The Cosmic Computer and Space Viking. I found them entertaining and very easy reading. Great inspirational fodder for my Traveller game, if not the best prose every written. They are, like all novels for the most part, “of their time.” This was published in 1962. When I was a teen in the 1980s the Fuzzy books were in all the book stores. Like books by Alan Dean Foster and the other popular authors of the time.

Today is June 22. I think I can read this and another novel by the end of this month.

I started listening to Endymion on Audiobook. It is, of course, my practice to listen to book on audio if available AFTER I read them. The audiobook (on Audible) is an excellent production.

Also, I finally got my Quatermass DVD collection out to watch and it is REGION 2!!! That means it will not play on my US blu-ray player. DAAAAMMMMMNNNNN.

I’m a good month behind on my reading. I just finished Endymion, one of the best SF books I’ve ever ready. I could go on and on, and will at some point when I’ve had more time to think about it.

I am 75% through Endymion, by Dan Simmons. Yes, I have been taking my time and really relishing every sentence. No rushing.

There is a scene in an ice cave - it is so deeply emotionally moving. Beautifully written and envisioned. The prose is wonderful and not overdone. I am just blown away. So much to say about this in a later post.

Well, some weeks (and set of weeks) are just not conducive to reading). Finally got back to readying Endymion the last couple of nights. Just a few chapters, but better than nothing. Great book, and every time I get back to it I just want to stay up all night and finish it, but I don’t.

I’m on vacation this week. Of course it is June in North Texas and we are supposed to start 5 or 6 days (at least) of 100F + days, which always sucks. I should have plenty of reading time, when I’m not busy with other stuff. Ugh. Not much of a vacation, honestly.

Though I haven’t been posting much, I have been reading. I’ve just been taking my time, reading a chapter or two of Endymion every night. Lost a couple of nights due to a Memorial Day holiday trip. I’m back at it now.

I had some good discussions with my friend John over the weekend. We were staying at his farmhouse out in the country. John is an SF reader. Lots of fun discussions.

2 chapters of Endymion tonight.

Reading has been difficult this week. Work and additional work at home has kept me pretty worn out.

Still, last night about 9:30pm I decided that rather than finish the pissed off that I got no reading in I would read one chapter from Endymion. So I sat down and spent about 30 minutes reading, and it was glorious. Seriously. Such a great SF novel, and it was nice to feel the accomplishment of enjoying something even though I was very tired. Yay for me!

Progress is much slower on Endymion that I had hoped for. I have been very busy trying to get our home back in order after putting new floor in two rooms. This involved, of course, moving all the stuff out of both rooms, living in clutter for a couple of weeks, and now trying to move only SOME of the stuff back in.

The good news? My office/gaming room/podcasting studio is now almost back together and will be much nicer. I’ve gotten rid of a huge amount of stuff that simply wasn’t of any use and really bringing me no joy. The space has been repainted too. It is nice and fresh. I’m going to put a nice chair in there and a little table and lamp JUST FOR READING. This is kind of a dream of mine - to have a place I can get up early and read in solitude with a lamp and some coffee.

The room used to be jam-packed with stuff. A real mad scientist’s laboratory. Now it is and will be a place of mental tranquility and order.

Anyway, I should be able to get some reading in the rest of the week. The hardest part is over. Now just a matter of fine-tuning the room.

I started reading Endymion, by Dan Simmons. Reading slowly to really savor it. I spent some time on the Hyperion Cantos wiki to review some of the key events and ideas in the first two novels.

The first chapter blew me away. It was an immediate reminder of the quality of Simmons' writing.

I finished Dumarest 17 today.

Next I will ready Endymion, the third book in the Hyperion Cantos. Long novel. It will take me a couple of weeks to read it slowly and really savor it. Before that I start I will spend some time reviewing the first two books in the Cantos through the Hyperion wiki and some other resources.

Here were my goals for April (below). I read three novels. I did not finish Deathworld 3. I will try to get that done in May. I did get started on Dumarest 17 though, and I’ll finish it early in May. Maybe tonight.

I have been reading at least an hour each night. I try to start at 8pm, a but sometimes I don’t really get started until 9pm. The old me would have just gotten mad and sulked. But I’m learning that even 15 minutes of reading every day is better than none. Some days (most) it is the only one of my pastimes I really get to enjoy at all, so 15 minutes is valuable.

Week 1, April 2-8: Read Dumarest of Terra #16. Finished April 9
Week 2, April 9-15: Read Sargasso of Space. Finished April 21
Week 3, April 16-22: finish reading Deathworld 3
Week 4, April 23-29: Logan’s Run. Finished. Began Dumarest 17

When I finish Dumarest 17 I’ll spend probably 2 weeks reading Dan Simmon’s Endymion. I don’t want to rush through it. The Hyperion Cantos is quality SF. Well-written, sophisticated, big ideas. I want to really enjoy it.