2015 books: 35-38

[the_siobhan]

I had the idea I was behind where I was last year in terms of books read, but I just checked and I am way ahead. I'll tell Axel this next time he bugs me about how much of my stuff is still stacked around the house.

    

The 1982 Annual World's Best SF edited by Donald A Wollheim and Arthur W Saha. I got this in, go figure, 1982. I've read so many collections by now I think I can say this is a good one - I had my favourites, obviously; I loved the Cherryh and hated the Shea - but I liked the fact that there was a good variety in setting and voice. I think I decided to leave the collections out of the profile count so I won't be including this one. I do think it is worth noting, however, that of the three women authors featured here, two of them are known only by their initials and the third uses a male pseudonym. So that tells you something about the state of SF publishing in 1982.

    

Time Wars created by Poul Anderson and edited by Charles Waugh and Martin H Greenberg I have no idea what "created" means in this context. This book hails from 1987. It's a collection of short stories that all include a war or battle and some sort of time travel. It appears that my criteria for a good collection is "all the stories don't sound the bloody same," so this one qualifies even though I never like all the stories. I loved the premise of the Garrett story, even though I rolled my eyes at the too-obvious fridging. At least one of the stories is actually an excerpt from a book - they took a big chunk out of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight.

    

The Forest of Peldain by Barrington J Bayley I have no idea where this book came from. A medieval style society on a planet where only a few islands are habitable. One of the largest islands is covered by a forest of man-eating plants so dangerous it has never been colonized. A man appears and claims that the forest only rings the coast and that there is a kingdom in the centre, so the High King of the islands sends a force to take it. It's a fast read, there isn't actually much story here. Most of the book is taken up by descriptions of how the various plants kill and digest the invading soldiers. Apparently Bayley wrote Warhammer campaigns at one point, which kind of fits; the book reads like a game quest.

There is a grand total of one woman in the entire book. And the brown people on this planet are all cannibals because of course they are. What the fuck is it with these mid-80's SF writers?

    

Wizards' Worlds by Andre Norton when I was a teenager I named Andre Norton as my favourite author. I was genuinely worried about re-reading any of her books now, after so many of my former favourites haven't held up. I needn't have worried, her writing has held up a lot better than most of the stuff I've been re-reading. This book is a collection of short stories, all about encounters with magic or unknown forces. If I have any complaints at all about this collection it would be that almost all have the same background and character types, so eventually all the stories start to feel the same.

Comments

[greylock]

I think I decided to leave the collections out of the profile count
Why? That, to me, makes no sense.

I do think it is worth noting, however, that of the three women authors featured here, two of them are known only by their initials and the third uses a male pseudonym

It was the (kinda) 1970s.
I have to say, Cherryh bored me (with Downbelow Station) and I have not read Shea), and Tiptree was, based on a single short, uber-masculine in her writing.

And, for every JK Rowling there is an RA Lafferty.

I have no idea what "created" means in this context.
Oh! I know!
PA wrote Big Time (Was that a song by the guy from Genesis?) which is about a ... time war.
I "blogged" about it last year. And he wrote a sequel, that I can't find right now in my library, but the idea is there's a time war between the Spiders and some other people, and people are pulled out of time to fight it... and there is a null-space pleasure palace with "entertainment girls" or something.

I rolled my eyes at the too-obvious fridging.
Before that was even a thing.

they took a big chunk out of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight.

When I say "clearly, misogyny at work", it's not my usual sarcasm, but the fact McCaffrey's Pern books were labelled as such by a blogger recently.

when I was a teenager I named Andre Norton as my favourite author.

I.... had the opposite. I made it two books into Witch World, which clearly my school librarian loved.

I needn't have worried, her writing has held up a lot better than most of the stuff I've been re-reading.

To be fair, my Norton has been limited since then to the Beast Master books or Quag Keep (if you or Axel are partial to D&D, or you know someone who is, and you hate them, I suggest these) but as much as I would recommend those.

[greylock]

Time Wars created by Poul Anderson

Ignore me. I was thinking of the Big Time things by Fritz Leiber.

[the_siobhan]

>I think I decided to leave the collections out of the profile count
Why? That, to me, makes no sense.

Because I am lazy and don't want to tally up every single short story individually.

>I have no idea what "created" means in this context.
Oh! I know!
PA wrote Big Time (Was that a song by the guy from Genesis?) which is about a ... time war.


So you're saying that the initial concept was his? I find it hard to believe that nobody came up with the concept earlier.

>I rolled my eyes at the too-obvious fridging.
Before that was even a thing.

Oh, it's been a thing for a long-ass time. We just finally have a word for it.

>they took a big chunk out of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonflight.
When I say "clearly, misogyny at work", it's not my usual sarcasm, but the fact McCaffrey's Pern books were labelled as such by a blogger recently.

I have no idea what you mean by that.

[greylock]

Because I am lazy and don't want to tally up every single short story individually.
Every 7-10 stories is a book.
Done.

So you're saying that the initial concept was his? I find it hard to believe that nobody came up with the concept earlier.

As you know, I was wrong. But ideas like this, by NAMES, seem to resonate, so I figure people want to swim in the same pool.

[the_siobhan]

>Because I am lazy and don't want to tally up every single short story individually.
Every 7-10 stories is a book.
Done.</I. Uh yeah, but the individual stories are written by different people. Or are you suggesting I just go with the majority? That would probably be the most honest since the safe money is that the majority of the stories are written by old straight white guys.

[greylock]

I think I missed out on what you were counting,
I would, however, this it was fair to count 7-10 shorts as a full book, if you need a book count.

[the_siobhan]

I'm talking about tallying the percentage of books I read that are written by women, poc or queer writers. I already tally the total books - it's in the subject line.

[greylock]

I'm talking about tallying the percentage of books I read that are written by women, poc or queer writers.

Aha. Somehow I forgot that.

I still think you could run a ready reckoner, assuming it's in the spirit of the thing. It might be interesting to crunch the data at the end, or too much work.