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defrogThe books reports will continue until morale improves. Or something like that.
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Believe it or not, I’ve never actually seen the film version of The Third Man (though I hope to one day), so I got to read this without any preconceptions from the film. This version is essentially the film treatment written as a short-story primer for the screenplay, so it differs considerably from the film, but the basic idea is intact – Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, goes to post-war Vienna at the invitation of his old school chum and hero Harry Lime, only to find Harry is dead and accused of black market racketeering. The story itself is great, but what’s really striking is the narrative style, which is told from the POV of a secondary character: Calloway, the policeman investigating Lime. Greene expertly manages to tell the story via Calloway, even for the parts where he is not present, without straining credulity, and even jumps back and forth in time (in the name of foreshadowing and suspense) without losing the reader. The second story is only related in that it was also made into a film by director Carol Reed (but, unlike The Third Man, was originally written for print, not film). The basic premise (man cheats on wife, gets caught) might sound standard, but Greene makes it work by focusing on a small boy caught in the middle and the impact events have on him. Gloomy, but masterfully done.
The Rediscovery Of Man by Cordwainer Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve read Smith’s single novel Norstrilia twice, but never any of his short stories, all of which covered about 15,000 years worth of history of the Instrumentality Of Mankind. This particular edition of The Rediscovery Of Man is the shorter version with 12 key stories, rather than the complete collection of 33 stories (which I might have got instead if I’d known it existed). It may be as well, since Smith was a very challenging SF writer – his vision of the future is utterly weird and often written as mythology, yet he writes with the assuredness of someone who knows his universe inside and out, even if he doesn’t share all the details. That makes his stories both alien and compelling, but it does take some effort to keep up with him. Some stories work better than others, but the ones that work best will probably twist yr mind forever. Reading this was like taking a long, strange trip through a detailed, impossible universe that exists only in Smith’s brain – often bamboozling and frustrating, but strangely rewarding. It’s not for everyone, but if you want to challenge the limits of your imagination, this is what I prescribe.
The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell Jr.
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
John W Campbell Jr is, of course, a legend of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, but I’d never had an opportunity to read any of his stories until now. This is a collection of his first three space-opera adventure stories (edited into the novel format) featuring the scientist team of Arcot, Morley and Wade. The first involves an air pirate, the second involves the discovery of an alien race on Venus, and the third involves the invasion of another alien race whose dead sun is passing through our solar system. In many ways it’s classic pulp science-hero fare, but it’s also a textbook example of what happens when you write science-fiction where one-dimensional characters talk about and perform science and nothing else (except fight wars and smoke pipes, maybe). Which might not be so bad if the science discussions/performance didn’t take up two thirds of the story. If science is the only part of SF you care about, you might get something from this. I thought it was okay at times, and certainly imaginative in terms of future technology (if not the aliens), but too often it’s kind of drab, and at times ludicrous (and not in a good way). I don’t question Campbell’s accomplishments as an SF editor and publisher, and perhaps his writing got better over time, so I might try him again if I can find more of his books. But at a time when some people are calling for a return to this style of Golden Age SF, The Black Star Passes makes the case for why it’s a good thing the genre evolved.
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s been a while since I’ve read Garcia Marquez. After he passed away, I was inspired to check out the few books of his I haven’t already read. This is one of his non-fiction books, recounting the ordeal of Luis Alejandro Vedrasco, a sailor in the Columbian Navy who was lost at sea for ten days in 1955. Vedrasco’s tale is interesting in itself, although there’s not quite that much drama since you already know he survives (and indeed Velasco said the only heroic thing he did was not die). Then again, high drama was never GGM’s style anyway – he tells the story in his usual laconic yet spellbinding style (although he makes it a first-person narrative from Vedrasco’s POV), and it really works for me. And anyway, the real drama is the context of the story, which ended up being an embarrassment for the dictatorship in power at the time, whose official version of events differed greatly from Velasco’s. Overall it’s one of GGM’s better books.
Revolt in 2100 by Robert A. Heinlein
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Forget the misleading jacket blurb – this book has nothing to do with Stranger In A Strange Land. But it does comprise a short Heinlein novel (“If This Goes On–”) about a rebellion against the US Govt after a hundred years of Christian theocracy, and two short stories that take place afterwards. The novel – written in 1940 – is a decent adventure story with a reasonably convincing idea of what would be involved in overthrowing a theocratic dictatorship, although narrator John Lyle can get a little annoying with his gee-whiz naivete, and the ending is somewhat abrupt. Even if that doesn’t work for you, the short story “Coventry” is worth the price of admission alone. It’s a great send-up of people who idealize rugged individualism to the point of opting out of society without fully understanding the sacrifices and skills required to actually do that. The final story, “Misfit”, is a tale of space marines turning an asteroid into a fueling outpost, with the help of math whiz AJ Libby. All up, it’s a slightly dated but good collection of classic SF.
A revolting development,
This is dF
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol by Graham GreeneMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Believe it or not, I’ve never actually seen the film version of The Third Man (though I hope to one day), so I got to read this without any preconceptions from the film. This version is essentially the film treatment written as a short-story primer for the screenplay, so it differs considerably from the film, but the basic idea is intact – Martins, a writer of pulp Westerns, goes to post-war Vienna at the invitation of his old school chum and hero Harry Lime, only to find Harry is dead and accused of black market racketeering. The story itself is great, but what’s really striking is the narrative style, which is told from the POV of a secondary character: Calloway, the policeman investigating Lime. Greene expertly manages to tell the story via Calloway, even for the parts where he is not present, without straining credulity, and even jumps back and forth in time (in the name of foreshadowing and suspense) without losing the reader. The second story is only related in that it was also made into a film by director Carol Reed (but, unlike The Third Man, was originally written for print, not film). The basic premise (man cheats on wife, gets caught) might sound standard, but Greene makes it work by focusing on a small boy caught in the middle and the impact events have on him. Gloomy, but masterfully done.
The Rediscovery Of Man by Cordwainer SmithMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I’ve read Smith’s single novel Norstrilia twice, but never any of his short stories, all of which covered about 15,000 years worth of history of the Instrumentality Of Mankind. This particular edition of The Rediscovery Of Man is the shorter version with 12 key stories, rather than the complete collection of 33 stories (which I might have got instead if I’d known it existed). It may be as well, since Smith was a very challenging SF writer – his vision of the future is utterly weird and often written as mythology, yet he writes with the assuredness of someone who knows his universe inside and out, even if he doesn’t share all the details. That makes his stories both alien and compelling, but it does take some effort to keep up with him. Some stories work better than others, but the ones that work best will probably twist yr mind forever. Reading this was like taking a long, strange trip through a detailed, impossible universe that exists only in Smith’s brain – often bamboozling and frustrating, but strangely rewarding. It’s not for everyone, but if you want to challenge the limits of your imagination, this is what I prescribe.
The Black Star Passes by John W. Campbell Jr.My rating: 2 of 5 stars
John W Campbell Jr is, of course, a legend of the Golden Age of Science Fiction, but I’d never had an opportunity to read any of his stories until now. This is a collection of his first three space-opera adventure stories (edited into the novel format) featuring the scientist team of Arcot, Morley and Wade. The first involves an air pirate, the second involves the discovery of an alien race on Venus, and the third involves the invasion of another alien race whose dead sun is passing through our solar system. In many ways it’s classic pulp science-hero fare, but it’s also a textbook example of what happens when you write science-fiction where one-dimensional characters talk about and perform science and nothing else (except fight wars and smoke pipes, maybe). Which might not be so bad if the science discussions/performance didn’t take up two thirds of the story. If science is the only part of SF you care about, you might get something from this. I thought it was okay at times, and certainly imaginative in terms of future technology (if not the aliens), but too often it’s kind of drab, and at times ludicrous (and not in a good way). I don’t question Campbell’s accomplishments as an SF editor and publisher, and perhaps his writing got better over time, so I might try him again if I can find more of his books. But at a time when some people are calling for a return to this style of Golden Age SF, The Black Star Passes makes the case for why it’s a good thing the genre evolved.
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García MárquezMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
It’s been a while since I’ve read Garcia Marquez. After he passed away, I was inspired to check out the few books of his I haven’t already read. This is one of his non-fiction books, recounting the ordeal of Luis Alejandro Vedrasco, a sailor in the Columbian Navy who was lost at sea for ten days in 1955. Vedrasco’s tale is interesting in itself, although there’s not quite that much drama since you already know he survives (and indeed Velasco said the only heroic thing he did was not die). Then again, high drama was never GGM’s style anyway – he tells the story in his usual laconic yet spellbinding style (although he makes it a first-person narrative from Vedrasco’s POV), and it really works for me. And anyway, the real drama is the context of the story, which ended up being an embarrassment for the dictatorship in power at the time, whose official version of events differed greatly from Velasco’s. Overall it’s one of GGM’s better books.
Revolt in 2100 by Robert A. HeinleinMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Forget the misleading jacket blurb – this book has nothing to do with Stranger In A Strange Land. But it does comprise a short Heinlein novel (“If This Goes On–”) about a rebellion against the US Govt after a hundred years of Christian theocracy, and two short stories that take place afterwards. The novel – written in 1940 – is a decent adventure story with a reasonably convincing idea of what would be involved in overthrowing a theocratic dictatorship, although narrator John Lyle can get a little annoying with his gee-whiz naivete, and the ending is somewhat abrupt. Even if that doesn’t work for you, the short story “Coventry” is worth the price of admission alone. It’s a great send-up of people who idealize rugged individualism to the point of opting out of society without fully understanding the sacrifices and skills required to actually do that. The final story, “Misfit”, is a tale of space marines turning an asteroid into a fueling outpost, with the help of math whiz AJ Libby. All up, it’s a slightly dated but good collection of classic SF.
A revolting development,
This is dF
