Book Review: 2001: An Odyssey in Words edited by Ian Whates & Tom Hunter

To celebrate the centenary of Arthur C. Clarke’s birth, NewCon Press has produced a volume of stories that all contain exactly 2001 words. It’s a fantastic concept, giving rise to a great selection of brief yet entertaining stories but, even with a page count of around 200 pages, that still amounts to rather a lot of stories for me to cover in a single review. Some of the contributions have a definite Arthur C. Clarke feel to them, others reference various of his well-known works, notably ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, and others are just great Science Fiction. There’s a chance that with so much to comment on, I could end up writing this review in 2001 words, too.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Catching Up With the Classics

There are lots of novels hailed as classics of the genre – those that won the Hugo and/or Nebula awards, those that were reprinted a lot, or that have been included in the SF Masterworks series, or that are often included in various ‘best of’ lists. In recent years I’ve made an effort to get hold of as many of these ‘classics’ as possible to fill in the gaps in my literary heritage. They haven't always lived up to their reputation. Here’s a brief review of what I’ve read recently:

Childhood’s End – Arther C Clarke – it was OK but rather dated now.

Desolation Road – Ian McDonald – wonderfully lyrical

The Dispossessed – Ursula K. LeGuin – Pretty good, but a little dated.

Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss – Brilliant.

The City and the Stars – Arthur C Clarke – Good but slow.

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K. LeGuin - Brilliantly evocative.

Stranger in a Strange Land – Robert Heinlein – Don’t know what the fuss was about.

Ringworld – Larry Niven – Didn’t enjoy at all.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Robert Heinlein – Enjoyable, but not great.

Gateway – Frederick Pohl – Genius.

The Songs of Distant Earth – Isaac Asimov – It was OK.

Hyperion – Dan Simmons – Brilliant.

Lined up on my shelf I have Helliconia Spring

Book Review: The Light of Other Days by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter

This is the paperback edition of 'The Light Of Other Days', released an unusual ten years after the hardback original. Penned by the late and current chairmen of the British Science Fiction Association, Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter, it is sub-titled 'A Novel Of The Transformation Of Humanity'. As the book progresses, it becomes evident that the transformation is of that indefinable characteristic known as humanity as much of humanity itself.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Reading List

The BSFA Award shortlist has been anounced, and unfortunately I've not read any of the 4 short-listed novels. I don't see how I'll have tome to read them before April either.

I've read Albedo One #37 and Interzone #226 in the past couple of weeks, as well as At All Costs, the latest Honor Harrington book from David Weber. I say latest, but it seems to be 4 years old. It's taken me that long to get round to it. I've now started Colin Harvey's Winter Song and my contributor copy of Galactika finaly arrived today. That won't take long as I can't read Hungarian.

Lined up I have:

Cherie Priests two books Boneshaker and Clementine, which will be my first steampunk novels
The Light Of Other Days by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Hard-Luck Diggings: The Early Jack Vance, one of my favourite authors
Journeys: Stories by Ian R. Macleod, his forthcoming new collection

Book Review: The Last Theorem by Arthur C Clarke & Fred Pohl

Ranjit is a maths student at a University in Sri Lanka, where the high and lows of his life form a backdrop to his obsession with solving Fermat’s last theorem. As a backdrop to this are regular updates on the world’s steadily worsening news, a depressing state of affairs that has an effect not only on Ranjit but also on the Grand Galactics, a race of almost omnipotent beings who have taken it upon themselves to keep order in the Galaxy. As in so many other tales, they decide humanity needs to be wiped out. But what an endlessly entertaining tale Clarke and Pohl have woven out of these threads with a humour that reminded me of Pohl’s ‘Gateway’. It’s a story that often reminded me of other classic novels, but at the same time highlighted how those same themes can be used with verve and originality.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.