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New books thirty-four to forty-one
May. 7th, 2009 05:30 pm34) Arguments for Socialism (Tony Benn, ed Chris Mullin). An interesting discussion of the challenges faced by Britain-as-an-industrial-country in the 1970s and 80s, based on speeches made by the then-minister (for industry) and edited together shortly after Labour left power in 1979. It's depressing to see how much of his proposed plan of action is still (often urgently) needed in order to address exactly the same problems (or to reduce the problems that he predicted would occur if things weren't changed, and which have duly come to pass). And how little of it the current Labour party shows any sign of interest in. Some things have changed, of course, and Benn has been shown wrong in a few of the predictions made, but not all that many. Also, see my comment on (27) :)
35) The Saliva Tree and Other Growths (Brian Aldiss). Sorry, that won a Nebula? (Reasonable pastiche of HG Wells, written 'to mark' the centenary of his birth, which probably explains it.) The rest of the collection is pretty mediocre, too, and hasn't done anything much to make me reconsider my opinion of Aldiss. It's all better than "White Mars", but that's a pretty low bar. He has written better stuff (I'm going to mention "Hothouse" and "Non-stop" again, because they're the two examples of interesting work by Aldiss that I can think of) - but, apparently, not very much of it.
36) The World Turned Upside-down (eds David Drake, Eric Flint, and Jim Baen). 'Compares favourably with any collection in the past 50 years' according to... David Drake. Actually, it's not a bad assortment of stories provided you bear in mind that they're ones the editors read when they were young - only three of the stories date as late as the 1960s. But there are quite a few by lesser-known authors, and some less-known stories by well-known authors too.
37) The Mind Cage (A.E. Van Vogt). I've long felt that Van Vogt produced better short stories than novels, and this - a novel based on one of his short stories - has done nothing to change my mind on the matter.
38) Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (Keith Laumer). Described on the cover as "the classic of space war", thus somewhat missing the point. While most of the authorised spin-off stories (and more than a few of Laumer's own later stories) are essentially war tales, the best of his original Bolo stories (which are gathered in this book) are actually about either coping with the tidy-up, or the problems of combat veterans in peacetime. The fact that the veterans in question are multiple-thousand-tonne artificially intelligent tanks merely serves to disguise the ways in which the stories relate to more normal veterans....
39) The Magician's Apprentice (Trudi Canavan). Sturdy (and substantial) prequel to her original "Magician's Guild" trilogy. Probably a bit over-long, and flags somewhat in the second half, but entertaining enough. It did, though, rekindle my long-standing desire to write a novel in which a boy and a girl from different backgrounds meet as teenagers and have to work together despite disliking each other on sight (and having strong prejudices against everything the other stands for), and still don't like each other at the end of the book. Hard-earned respect is fine, but do they always have to fall in love? [library book]
40) The Homeward Bounders (Diana Wynne Jones). Passable (better than "Black Maria" or "Time of the Ghost", but not by much), but not especially good - certainly well below average for DWJ. I liked the ending, though; a neat way of avoiding cliches. I don't feel the time spent reading it was wasted, but it's very unlikely to get re-read the way the Howl or Chrestomanci books do. [borrowed]
41) Eight Days of Luke (Diana Wynne Jones). Still not brilliant, but better IMO than either (40) or "The Game", which is the most directly comparable of her other works. I definitely prefer DWJ's own worlds (well, the more amusing ones :) to her experiments with existing mythologies, but this try is more successful than that one. [borrowed]
And that's the end of April. Only a week behind.
35) The Saliva Tree and Other Growths (Brian Aldiss). Sorry, that won a Nebula? (Reasonable pastiche of HG Wells, written 'to mark' the centenary of his birth, which probably explains it.) The rest of the collection is pretty mediocre, too, and hasn't done anything much to make me reconsider my opinion of Aldiss. It's all better than "White Mars", but that's a pretty low bar. He has written better stuff (I'm going to mention "Hothouse" and "Non-stop" again, because they're the two examples of interesting work by Aldiss that I can think of) - but, apparently, not very much of it.
36) The World Turned Upside-down (eds David Drake, Eric Flint, and Jim Baen). 'Compares favourably with any collection in the past 50 years' according to... David Drake. Actually, it's not a bad assortment of stories provided you bear in mind that they're ones the editors read when they were young - only three of the stories date as late as the 1960s. But there are quite a few by lesser-known authors, and some less-known stories by well-known authors too.
37) The Mind Cage (A.E. Van Vogt). I've long felt that Van Vogt produced better short stories than novels, and this - a novel based on one of his short stories - has done nothing to change my mind on the matter.
38) Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade (Keith Laumer). Described on the cover as "the classic of space war", thus somewhat missing the point. While most of the authorised spin-off stories (and more than a few of Laumer's own later stories) are essentially war tales, the best of his original Bolo stories (which are gathered in this book) are actually about either coping with the tidy-up, or the problems of combat veterans in peacetime. The fact that the veterans in question are multiple-thousand-tonne artificially intelligent tanks merely serves to disguise the ways in which the stories relate to more normal veterans....
39) The Magician's Apprentice (Trudi Canavan). Sturdy (and substantial) prequel to her original "Magician's Guild" trilogy. Probably a bit over-long, and flags somewhat in the second half, but entertaining enough. It did, though, rekindle my long-standing desire to write a novel in which a boy and a girl from different backgrounds meet as teenagers and have to work together despite disliking each other on sight (and having strong prejudices against everything the other stands for), and still don't like each other at the end of the book. Hard-earned respect is fine, but do they always have to fall in love? [library book]
40) The Homeward Bounders (Diana Wynne Jones). Passable (better than "Black Maria" or "Time of the Ghost", but not by much), but not especially good - certainly well below average for DWJ. I liked the ending, though; a neat way of avoiding cliches. I don't feel the time spent reading it was wasted, but it's very unlikely to get re-read the way the Howl or Chrestomanci books do. [borrowed]
41) Eight Days of Luke (Diana Wynne Jones). Still not brilliant, but better IMO than either (40) or "The Game", which is the most directly comparable of her other works. I definitely prefer DWJ's own worlds (well, the more amusing ones :) to her experiments with existing mythologies, but this try is more successful than that one. [borrowed]
And that's the end of April. Only a week behind.