Books: Clearing The Deck, Vth And Final Part

[woodwardiocom]

Deathworld by Harry Harrison

A 1960 SF novel about a planet where the flora and fauna are out to kill all humans. The colonists (presented as tough but rigid in their thinking) hire a smart, lucky outsider to help them with the problem. He uproots their whole system. Mildly interesting novel that named the "deathworld" subgenre, though it's far from the first example.

Giant Lizards From Another Star by Ken MacLeod

A reasonably good collection of poems, stories, and nonfiction, including the conspiracy bouillabaisse "Cydonia". The con reports are a bit dull for anyone who wasn't there, and his essays on socialism mostly make me suspect he's using the term to mean something very different from how I use it -- and there's a distinct subtext of, "I became a socialist to get laid." Might be my imagination. But still.

The Willful Princess And The Piebald Prince by Robin Hobb

A novella set in the same universe as her Assassin/Fool series, this is an account of one of the legends of the Five Duchies, in which a lot of good people make bad mistakes. Stands alone pretty well, recommended.

Scratch Monkey by Charles Stross

An earlier novel by Stross, and far from his best, in which humans are deluded pawns in interstellar AI conflicts played out over decades. Our heroine gets put through one nasty mission after another, and the ending is bleak. Includes some interesting back-material on publishing.

Enough As She Is by Rachel Simmons

Fascinating book on how to raise daughters in a society that places impossible standards on them, while devaluing them. I am certainly going to hand this book to my daughter before too many more years go by, and I hope I can put its advice into practice. Recommended.

Unknown Worlds Of Science Fiction and Epic

Odd publishing realities led Marvel Comics to put out a number of magazines in the 1970s, distinct from comics. UWOSF (I picked up 3 issues) was a short-lived, black-n-white magazine, consisting of a mix of comics adaptations of SF stories, new comics stories, and non-fiction articles and interviews. The authors represented are the A-list of the era, including Ellison, Niven, Herbert, Van Vogt, Silverberg, etc. And, the "Slow Glass" framing conceit of each issue is nice. Epic (I picked up four issues) was similarly a mix of adaptations and new material, and much of it was in color. Again, the authors are A-list, including Howard, Ellison, Moorcock, and more. Both, forty years later, seem a bit juvenile. They were pushing the edge of what was allowed in "comics" format for the time (so there's violence, boobs, and even the occasional genitalia), and it comes across a little, eh, graceless? Like the target audience is teenage boys? Which it probably was? Still, both manage moments of beauty, and it's rare to see comics adaptations of contemporary SF these days.