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May Reading
May is Sint Maarten month, so I got my 2 weeks at the beach. Unfortunately, it rained almost every day we were there. Not all day, but it did cut into some tanning time. Then all three of us were sick with a really persistent respiratory infection. John was sick before we left home; Ron got it next, then I got it last. I had the mildest bout, because John is still going through the final stages, and I've been pretty good for the last week.
So, between those two things I didn't get to do as much as I'd hoped. I still haven't been to any of the neighboring islands (Anguilla, St. Barths, Saba) and this was the year I was definitely going to make a day trip to at least ONE of them.
I did get to read:
05/06/2012 You Only Live Twice (audiobook) by Ian Fleming
05/06/2012 A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies that Suck by Roger Ebert
05/11/2012 Tales from Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made? By David Hughes
05/14/2012 Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett
05/15/2012 Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett
05/16/2012 Speaking of he Fantastic by Darrell Schweitzer
05/18/2012 The Jester at Scar by E.C. Tubb
05/19/2012 Star Trek: That Which Divides by Dayton Ward
05/20/2012 Lallia by E.C. Tubb
05/23/2012 The Man With The Golden Gun (audiobook) by Ian Fleming
05/25/2012 Free Amazons of Darkover edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley
05/27/2012 Jack Vance: The Moon Moth (gn) adapted by Humayoun Ibrahim
05/27/2012 Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany
It was the last book I finished in May, but I really spent the entire month reading Delany's Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. I would just have to stop every few chapters and read something less disgusting before going back to it. Seriously, I just don't need 500 pages of the uninterrupted consumption of cum/piss/toejam/snot/dickcheese/shit. I may be exaggerating -- but not by much.
Once Delany gets through the preliminaries, the last 300 pages (yes, this novel is 800 pages long) was a very nice novel about the lives of these characters, starting in the present and extending some 70 years into the future. On that level, it was SF -- but the characters live so far off the beaten track that the technological marvels of the coming decades barely touch them; they seem stuck in the world of 70's porn classics like "L.A. Tool & Die." Which ain't a bad world to be stuck in, all things considered.
If you revere Delany, read it. Otherwise, skip it.
Three Star Trek novels. The two by Christopher Bennett were excellent and even mind-bending in a "time travel is complicated" kind of way. Ward's offering was good, but seemed a bit longer than the story really required.
A couple more Dumarest novels by Tubb. What were these about again?
The graphic novel retelling of Vance's classic short story "The Moon Moth" was effective, even if I didn't think much of the artwork.Vance is awesome.
The last two Fleming 007 books both showed evidence that Fleming was close to being tapped out at the time of his death. In fairness, Golden Gun was only half-finished; Fleming had planned to rewrite most of it, but died before he could do so. So the publishers put it out anyway.
I love Roger Ebert's reviews of bad movies. These reviews are actually more entertaining NOW than when originally written, because I usually have some awareness of the movie being reviewed, even if I've never seen it (I think there were only 1 or 2 that I'd seen out of a hundred or more reviews in the book.)
Currently reading some kind of random stuff, waiting for something to grab me -- another volume of Darkover short stories, another Space: 1999 book, a couple Star Trek novels. Currently listening to Devil May Care, the 2008 James Bond novel by Sebastain Faulks. He could've spent some time working on the pacing, but it's OK. I liked it better when I read it right after it came out.
So, between those two things I didn't get to do as much as I'd hoped. I still haven't been to any of the neighboring islands (Anguilla, St. Barths, Saba) and this was the year I was definitely going to make a day trip to at least ONE of them.
I did get to read:
05/06/2012 You Only Live Twice (audiobook) by Ian Fleming
05/06/2012 A Horrible Experience of Unbearable Length: More Movies that Suck by Roger Ebert
05/11/2012 Tales from Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made? By David Hughes
05/14/2012 Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock by Christopher L. Bennett
05/15/2012 Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History by Christopher L. Bennett
05/16/2012 Speaking of he Fantastic by Darrell Schweitzer
05/18/2012 The Jester at Scar by E.C. Tubb
05/19/2012 Star Trek: That Which Divides by Dayton Ward
05/20/2012 Lallia by E.C. Tubb
05/23/2012 The Man With The Golden Gun (audiobook) by Ian Fleming
05/25/2012 Free Amazons of Darkover edited by Marion Zimmer Bradley
05/27/2012 Jack Vance: The Moon Moth (gn) adapted by Humayoun Ibrahim
05/27/2012 Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel R. Delany
It was the last book I finished in May, but I really spent the entire month reading Delany's Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders. I would just have to stop every few chapters and read something less disgusting before going back to it. Seriously, I just don't need 500 pages of the uninterrupted consumption of cum/piss/toejam/snot/dickcheese/shit. I may be exaggerating -- but not by much.
Once Delany gets through the preliminaries, the last 300 pages (yes, this novel is 800 pages long) was a very nice novel about the lives of these characters, starting in the present and extending some 70 years into the future. On that level, it was SF -- but the characters live so far off the beaten track that the technological marvels of the coming decades barely touch them; they seem stuck in the world of 70's porn classics like "L.A. Tool & Die." Which ain't a bad world to be stuck in, all things considered.
If you revere Delany, read it. Otherwise, skip it.
Three Star Trek novels. The two by Christopher Bennett were excellent and even mind-bending in a "time travel is complicated" kind of way. Ward's offering was good, but seemed a bit longer than the story really required.
A couple more Dumarest novels by Tubb. What were these about again?
The graphic novel retelling of Vance's classic short story "The Moon Moth" was effective, even if I didn't think much of the artwork.Vance is awesome.
The last two Fleming 007 books both showed evidence that Fleming was close to being tapped out at the time of his death. In fairness, Golden Gun was only half-finished; Fleming had planned to rewrite most of it, but died before he could do so. So the publishers put it out anyway.
I love Roger Ebert's reviews of bad movies. These reviews are actually more entertaining NOW than when originally written, because I usually have some awareness of the movie being reviewed, even if I've never seen it (I think there were only 1 or 2 that I'd seen out of a hundred or more reviews in the book.)
Currently reading some kind of random stuff, waiting for something to grab me -- another volume of Darkover short stories, another Space: 1999 book, a couple Star Trek novels. Currently listening to Devil May Care, the 2008 James Bond novel by Sebastain Faulks. He could've spent some time working on the pacing, but it's OK. I liked it better when I read it right after it came out.
no subject
It was nice to see you, even if only for a few minutes this trip.
I hope you've had a great time in Portland.
no subject
And it was good seeing you, even for a momentary drive-by.