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.
A quick update as I sit here waiting for an appointment. I’m still reading Dumarest 17. It’s enjoyable. I also just finished listening to Ring World. I will most likely read it sometime this year. The last few days have been quite busy with some home renovations. Still, I’ve managed to read at least a little bit every day. I’m trying to break myself of this idea if I can’t read for two or three hours there’s no point. Even 15 or 20 minutes is enough.
I have just a few days left in the month and decided I want to finish one more book. That would be four in a month, which is very good for me even if they are short novels. So last night I began reading Dumarest 17.
This may be the first Dumarest novel I’ve read in which Earl starts out on the same planet he finished the previous book on, with the same people. I wonder if the remaining novels will continue this trend, as we accelerate toward the end of the saga. Time will tell.
In this episode, I talk about the book, Logan‘s Run, listening to the novel Ring World on audiobook, and talk a little bit about world and universe building techniques that authors use.
I’ve bought the paperback of Larry Niven’s Ringworld at least twice in my life but never read it. Not really sure why I never dug into it. I’ve certainly read some long SF novels, so I don’t think it’s the length. Even though I thought the idea of a Ringworld was very cool, something about it just never quite grabbed me enough to start reading.
At some point over the last year or so I purchased the Ringworld audiobook on Audible, and this week I started listening to it. I’m enjoying it quite a bit, and may read the novel afterward. I often read a book THEN listen to the audiobook, which I’ve found enhances my enjoyment of the material. I listen going to and from work, and also when I’m going to sleep at night. So yeah, I fall asleep and have to backtrack almost every day, but it still works for me. I’ve listened to the first two Dune books a few times, as well as many others. Combining reading with listening helps me fully “ingest” the material. It is easy to get a bit lazy while reading (or listening) and not pay attention to what you just read or heard.
In this episode, which is about 12 minutes long, and I talk a little bit about my impressions of Andre Norton’s Sargasso of Space, my initial reactions to the novel Logan’s Run, and have a few words about old science fiction novels.
I think I’ve mentioned on the podcast that I am a big fan of the Quinn’s Ideas channel on Youtube ( www.youtube.com/@QuinnsId… ). Youtube is a beast. You really have to be patient to sort the great things from the crap, but when you do it can be worth it. Quinn makes great videos about SF novels. He does deep dives into particular aspects of them, and he’s read quite a lot.
One thing I like about Quinn’s Ideas is that he doesn’t just read current SF. For example, he has a video about Arthur C. Clarke’s Rendezvous with Rama. He does a great job of talking about the book and putting it in the context of the history of science fiction. I love that.
A few years ago I purchased the novel Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, on my Kindle, but I never got around to reading it until I watched some of Quinn’s videos about it. Now it and Fall of Hyperion are two of my favorite novels, and this year I’ll be reading the rest of the Hyperion Cantos.
Anyway, I appreciate Quinn’s exploration of SF novels and the themes involved in them. Not just informative but also entertaining.
Finished Sargasso of Space yesterday. More on that later (I’m typing my phone!).
Just another update about my reading, goals, progress, and a few other things.
I’ve made some changes to my Reading Goal’s page. I may stop changing it, and simply start noting changes in order to really have a record of how this went.
I will finish Sargasso of Space probably tomorrow, and then I’ll finish Deathworld 3. That will keep me on track for three books in three weeks, even if I have changed the books a bit. I’ll finish out April by reading the short 1967 novel Logan’s Run, on which the film was based. Reviews on Goodreads tend to be “low in stars”, but I don’t really care. It’s a short book, a classic SF film was based on it, and it may be pretty out there. Gonna read it.
Reading helper. Yes, I fell asleep shortly after I took this.
Just a quick check in. I talk a little bit about adjusting my goals, being my own accountability, partner, and playing a Science Fiction game over the weekend.
Space ships and monsters
Well, Week 2 is nearly over. It is Sunday night, 9:15pm, and I have not finished Sargasso of Space. I’m about 50% through it. I’ve been reading consistently though, which is the goal. Today was just too much. I had a lot of shit to do around the house and that kept me busy all day until I was exhausted.
That means I will need to finish it this week and get going on Endymion, by Dan Simmons. Endymion will take me a couple of weeks to read.
I am have not watched any of the Quatermass films, so my SF film viewing is likely just not going to work well as a goal, but I will keep those films on my goal list until I find time to watch them.
I did run my Traveller RPG game this weekend of course, so that was fun.
Today I ran session 26 of our Classic Traveller RPG game. We’ve been playing this campaign for quite a few years now. We play as much as we can. There have been times when family illnesses have stopped the game for extended periods. We don’t worry about it. We just keep playing.
Here’s a link to a quick session writeup on my gaming blog. You can find all the session writeups there, as well as info our our campaign which is called Into the Void.
The you say the word “gamer” to me, tabletop roleplaying games with paper and dice and whatnot are what I think of. If someone calls a video game an “RPG” I always think “no it’s not.” haha.
Well, it is 9:02pm and I’m about to start my reading for the day. Still reading Sargasso of Space, by Andrew Norton. Considering that I’m playing Traveller on Saturday, I may not finish this book by the end of the week. It’ll be close. I don’t really want to feel like I am just reading without enjoyment, just to get books read. So I’m not going to stress about it too much. Still, would be nice to keep on schedule. I have a lot of stuff to do this weekend. We’ll see how I do.
