Reading Science Fiction

In this quick episode, I just talk about taking a three day break from reading and also playing our science-fiction role-playing game on Sunday.

A session report from Sunday’s session of my Classic Traveller RPG campaign.

www.gaming.concretelunch.info/itv-sessi…

A quick check in. I am reading the novel Blood Music right now. I managed to read for complete novels this month. I doubt I’ll finish this fifth one. But I’m getting a good start for October.

Currently reading: Blood Music by Greg Bear 📚

Finished reading 2023: Web of Sand by E.C. Tubb 📚

This was book 17 for me for the year. Not sure what to read next. Will take a look a the physical and virtual reading piles tonight.

Another quick podcast in which I discussed reading my third book this month, by Robert Silverberg.

Currently reading: Web of Sand by E.C. Tubb 📚

Yup, hitting the brutal galaxy of Earl Dumarest again. I expect he’ll survive… Always fun reads.

Finished reading 2023: To Open the Sky by Robert Silverberg 📚

Want to read: And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ 📚

My wife told me about this author last night. This book looked interesting.

Currently reading: To Open the Sky by Robert Silverberg 📚

Hugo Nominees/Winners I have read.
Winners in Bold
Entry starts with award year

1954: Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke [Ballantine, 1953]
1954: The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov [Galaxy Oct,Nov,Dec 1953]
1960: Starship Troopers (alt: Starship Soldier) by Robert A. Heinlein
1961: Deathworld by Harry Harrison [Astounding Jan,Feb,Mar 1960]
1962: Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein [Putnam, 1961]
1963: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick [Putnam, 1962]
1963: Little Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper [Avon, 1962]
1964: Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1963]
1966: Dune by Frank Herbert [Chilton, 1965] (tie)
1966: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein [If Dec 1965,Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr 1966; Putnam, 1966]
1969: Nova by Samuel R. Delany [Doubleday, 1968]
1970: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [Delacorte, 1969]
1971: Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg [Scribner’s, 1970]
1972: Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey [Ballantine, 1971]
1974: Rendezvous With Rama by Arthur C. Clarke [Galaxy Sep,Oct 1973; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973]
1974: Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein [Putnam, 1973]
1975: Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said by Philip K. Dick [Doubleday, 1974]
1977: Children of Dune by Frank Herbert [Analog Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr 1976; Berkley Putnam, 1976]
1983: Foundation’s Edge by Isaac Asimov [Doubleday, 1982]
1983: 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke [Ballantine Del Rey, 1982]
1985: Neuromancer by William Gibson [Ace, 1984]
1987: Count Zero by William Gibson [Asimov’s Jan,Feb,Mar 1986; Gollancz, 1986]
1989: Mona Lisa Overdrive by William Gibson [Gollancz, 1988; Bantam Spectra, 1988]
1990: Hyperion by Dan Simmons [Doubleday Foundation, 1989]
1991: The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons [Doubleday Foundation, 1990]
1993: Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson [HarperCollins UK, 1992; Bantam Spectra, 1993]
2010: Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)

Finished reading my 15th novel of the year today at lunch.

I know I keep harping on this, but it feels good. It feels like an accomplishment. While I do have a 20 book goal for the year, I’m not just trying to race through these novels. There is no point in that. I’m reading at an enjoyable, casual speed and really immersing myself in them. It is the consistency of ready at least 5% of a novel every day this is creating the success because it is becoming 1) something I look forward to and 2) a habit. 

Tonight I’m starting a novel by SF author Robert Silverberg. I’ve read a number of his novels and they have been enjoyable. While I knew of him already, a few years ago I read his short story The Iron Star in this anthology of space opera and military SF. I was kinda blown away by the emotional and ethical impact of this story and it made me a fan. Silverberg, like many of his generation of authors, really started writing in the SF magazines and went through a formative period in which he wrote a hell of a lot of stuff. The material I’ve read is from his “mature author” era. His work from this period can be a bit more cerebral than some of the adventure space opera stuff I’ve been reading a lot of lately. It will be a good shift for me. 

Finished reading 2023: Midworld by Alan Dean Foster 📚

This was a damned good read. Highly recommend.

Let me start by admitting that I don’t know why this sticks in my craw so much. But it does. And what is a blog if not a place to exorcise these sorts of demons?

I have ranted from time to time about the outright theft of intellectual property and plagiarism in the James Cameron film “Avatar.” When I watched this film in the theater it was clear he’s simply stolen the planet name Pandora from the Frank Herbert novel “The Jesus Incident”, and gotten the term “Avatar” from the name of the planetwide collective intelligence in that film called Avata. Other elements of the novel were also clearly influenced if not stolen from the Herbert novel.

As I read Midworld there are similarities that could very well have been influences on the film, but nothing that is just outright theft.

Then I read the entire Wikipedia article on this film. The section on Critical Response has even more clear examples where he just lift stuff from other films and novels with essentially no attribution. Amazing. Is this common? I was astonished.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avat…#Critical_response

I don’t fault a director for reading SF. Hell, I think it is good. But man, why not at least acknowledge the novelists in the credits?

In this episode, just a few more thoughts on the novel that I’m reading, and the James Cameron movie Avatar, and a few comments about reading on the Kindle. 🎙️

In this episode, I talk about the novel Midworld, and possible influences on the movie Avatar.

A few remarks on Alan Dean Foster’s novel “Voyage to the City of the Dead”, and a few comments on the first parts of his novel “Midworld.” 🎙️ 📚

Currently reading: Midworld by Alan Dean Foster 📚

Finished reading 2023: Voyage to the City of the Dead by Alan Dean Foster 📚

Boom! Fun book.

Final poster (for now) for podcasting/gaming/home office decor changes.