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2011 Reading I-XVIII
Let's see if I can keep on top of this. I need a separate file...
I: Alfred Bester, Extro (1975) (aka The Computer Connection, The Indian Giver
I really enjoyed this a decade or two ago, but this time it felt a little much. Of course, relatively speed reading doesn't help in a manic book, and this leaps around. Twas always the case, of course, but in Tiger and Demolished I had the sense of a structure the manic was fighting against.
II: Alfred Bester, Golem100) (1980)
In which Bester indulges the synaesthesia - characters explore alternate states of consciousness as a coven of women raise a demon. Fun, but so what?
III: Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising (1973)
I don't think I read these as a kid, and it reminded me a little of John Gordon, who I guess was a little later. One of those kid will help in the struggle against the powers of darkness novels. Enjoyable.
IV: Susan Cooper, Greenwitch (1974)
Third in the sequence, bringing the characters from book one - I assume - together with book two (and how many Wills are there in children's fiction? This is a fisher king ritual narrative, in Cornwall. Good stuff. I want to read the next two, but I suspect it's too fantastical to fit the project - or other children's sf fits better.
V: Gore Vidal, Kalki (1978)
The autobiography of a feminist and pilot who is drawn into the circle of Kalki, a quasi-Hindu and Vietnam vet who prophesies the end of the world. I've never read any other Vidal, but I'm sure I will. This clunks a bit - has that feel of Robbins-Wolfe-off season Vonnegut that is maybe making a meal of the narrative.
VI: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1972)
Charming and beguiling anthropomorphic story in which Mrs Frisby (a mouse) needs to move her family to safety, and is aided by intelligent rats. Slightly odd, because I assumed it would all be a bit more sinister given experimentation in labs.
VII: Brian Earnshaw, Dragonfall 5 and the Royal Beast (1972)
Moral parable - spaceship of two adults and two kids land on alien planet, and kids make the wrong assumption about one of the indigenous species. Has a neat Lucian of Samosata reference.
VIII: John Brunner, Total Eclipse (1974)
Gripping if talky Brunner novel, where a diverse group of thirty humans explore the remnants of an alien civilisation which rose to high technology and went extinct in a couple of thousand years. The book wrong footed me twice - I don't recall an eclipse, so we must be talking metaphor, and it seemed headed for the sort of ending which Russ spoofs in We Who Are About To, only... (So which are the stories where humanity tries to rebuild from half a dozen people then? Is it a straw narrative?). It seems also to be a precursor to The Sparrow, another talky book. Must read Jameson on the novel. Must also, in due course, read more Brunner.
I: Alfred Bester, Extro (1975) (aka The Computer Connection, The Indian Giver
I really enjoyed this a decade or two ago, but this time it felt a little much. Of course, relatively speed reading doesn't help in a manic book, and this leaps around. Twas always the case, of course, but in Tiger and Demolished I had the sense of a structure the manic was fighting against.
II: Alfred Bester, Golem100) (1980)
In which Bester indulges the synaesthesia - characters explore alternate states of consciousness as a coven of women raise a demon. Fun, but so what?
III: Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising (1973)
I don't think I read these as a kid, and it reminded me a little of John Gordon, who I guess was a little later. One of those kid will help in the struggle against the powers of darkness novels. Enjoyable.
IV: Susan Cooper, Greenwitch (1974)
Third in the sequence, bringing the characters from book one - I assume - together with book two (and how many Wills are there in children's fiction? This is a fisher king ritual narrative, in Cornwall. Good stuff. I want to read the next two, but I suspect it's too fantastical to fit the project - or other children's sf fits better.
V: Gore Vidal, Kalki (1978)
The autobiography of a feminist and pilot who is drawn into the circle of Kalki, a quasi-Hindu and Vietnam vet who prophesies the end of the world. I've never read any other Vidal, but I'm sure I will. This clunks a bit - has that feel of Robbins-Wolfe-off season Vonnegut that is maybe making a meal of the narrative.
VI: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH (1972)
Charming and beguiling anthropomorphic story in which Mrs Frisby (a mouse) needs to move her family to safety, and is aided by intelligent rats. Slightly odd, because I assumed it would all be a bit more sinister given experimentation in labs.
VII: Brian Earnshaw, Dragonfall 5 and the Royal Beast (1972)
Moral parable - spaceship of two adults and two kids land on alien planet, and kids make the wrong assumption about one of the indigenous species. Has a neat Lucian of Samosata reference.
VIII: John Brunner, Total Eclipse (1974)
Gripping if talky Brunner novel, where a diverse group of thirty humans explore the remnants of an alien civilisation which rose to high technology and went extinct in a couple of thousand years. The book wrong footed me twice - I don't recall an eclipse, so we must be talking metaphor, and it seemed headed for the sort of ending which Russ spoofs in We Who Are About To, only... (So which are the stories where humanity tries to rebuild from half a dozen people then? Is it a straw narrative?). It seems also to be a precursor to The Sparrow, another talky book. Must read Jameson on the novel. Must also, in due course, read more Brunner.