![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I note that there are two or three books I've read which I've yet to list - and I can't remember if I've read one or two Chelsea Quinn Yarbros. Did I read False Dawn? H'mm... What it that memorable?
CXLV: Gregory Benford, In the Ocean of Night (1977)
What begins as big object about to hit Earth turns into first contact, and it seems reasonably done. I had a chat with Benford at Worldcon, and he was keen to point out the radicalness of his group marriages - the hero has a wife and a second female partner, in a sense his wife's wife. As far as I recall, these are about the only women in the first two hundred pages of the novel. I feel somewhat akin to the feeling in The Dark Knight Returns where Wayne and Dent seemed to be going out with the only woman in Gotham City. Enjoyable novel though.
CXLVI: Gregory Benford, Timescape (1980)
Society degenerates as a group of scientists find a way to send messages back in time to the 1960s. A future is saved - but I'm less clear over whether our heroes survive. Nice time paradoxes, a relatively unembarrassing depiction of Britain, too many real people (Prince Andrew appears). I liked it better than when I read it in 1989.
CXLVII: Gregory Benford and William Rotsler, Shiva Descending (1980)
Large lump of rock is headed right at Earth - can a desperate space mission spot it before society collapses into chaos? I can imagine the miniseries, but in is half the length of Lucifer's Hammer which I can forgive a lot for. I'm no scientist, but in the rather too good to be true ending I can't help but feel the outlying rocks are rather forgotten about. There's some gravitational interaction, but it's not flying in formation.
CXLVIII: Wilson Tucker, The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970)
Intriguing time travel novel set up, with reflections on Jewish fantasy and the last book of the Bible, and hints of travel to the crucifixion and the assassination of JFK, less interesting with the actual travel to a dystopian future. Largely good stuff, but a teaser.
CXLV: Gregory Benford, In the Ocean of Night (1977)
What begins as big object about to hit Earth turns into first contact, and it seems reasonably done. I had a chat with Benford at Worldcon, and he was keen to point out the radicalness of his group marriages - the hero has a wife and a second female partner, in a sense his wife's wife. As far as I recall, these are about the only women in the first two hundred pages of the novel. I feel somewhat akin to the feeling in The Dark Knight Returns where Wayne and Dent seemed to be going out with the only woman in Gotham City. Enjoyable novel though.
CXLVI: Gregory Benford, Timescape (1980)
Society degenerates as a group of scientists find a way to send messages back in time to the 1960s. A future is saved - but I'm less clear over whether our heroes survive. Nice time paradoxes, a relatively unembarrassing depiction of Britain, too many real people (Prince Andrew appears). I liked it better than when I read it in 1989.
CXLVII: Gregory Benford and William Rotsler, Shiva Descending (1980)
Large lump of rock is headed right at Earth - can a desperate space mission spot it before society collapses into chaos? I can imagine the miniseries, but in is half the length of Lucifer's Hammer which I can forgive a lot for. I'm no scientist, but in the rather too good to be true ending I can't help but feel the outlying rocks are rather forgotten about. There's some gravitational interaction, but it's not flying in formation.
CXLVIII: Wilson Tucker, The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970)
Intriguing time travel novel set up, with reflections on Jewish fantasy and the last book of the Bible, and hints of travel to the crucifixion and the assassination of JFK, less interesting with the actual travel to a dystopian future. Largely good stuff, but a teaser.
