I’m working on two books right now: A City on Mars, by Zach and Kelly Weinersmith; and Making Money, by the late great Terry Pratchett. I’m about half a chapter from finishing the latter. I read most of it yesterday, and laughed out loud more than I have at a book in years.
A City on Mars is quite an enjoyable read, but it’s a bit of a slower one than Pratchett. I find myself taking breaks in between sections to contemplate the unanswered questions that they raise about the realistic challenges facing anyone who’s thinking of leaving the planet for good (especially the question of reproducing). I’m about halfway through.
I googled and apparently is more like THREE thousand years in the future, which makes absolutely no sense, even for early Science Fiction and its lack of sense of scale and Deep Time.
I’ll stick to my head cannon where Caves of steel is about the year 2200 or so and Foundation and the rest are set 1 or 2 thousand years later at most.
As people have already said, it’s more like 3000 years in the future (see the Wikipedia page, for instance). You have to allow time for the off-earth colonies to be established, grow, and
In a way, it doesn’t matter. The society doesn’t “ring true” for 300 years or 3000 in the future. It feels like shortly after WWII American society.
And before Exapno comes along to say that the story is meant to be recognizable to the just- post- WWII audience it was written for, I want to say that if you’re setting your story well into the future you don’t put absurd anachronisms into it. So you shouldn’t have your future people going to watch Andy Hardy movies or have listening to programs on the radio being their chief forms of entertainment. Asimov can’t be faulted for not incorporating the Internet or still having his character smoke a pipe, but the vision of the future ought to be credible in not closely resembling the (then) present.
Wow, I’ve read most of Asimov’s sf, including Caves of Steel, and I had no idea the book was set that far in the future! That’s just stupid. I thought it was a century or two, at most.
About two months ago a friend, knowing that I liked legal thrillers (Grisham, Turow, Connelly, for example) recommended an author named Phillip Margolin. I hadn’t ever heard of him, so I was surprised when a quick internet search revealed that he has written over 25 novels, dating back to 1978. Besides several standalone books, he’s written three series, each of which focuses on a Portland attorney. I decided I’d start with the latest of these series, the protagonist of which is a young attorney named Robin Lockwood. There are seven of these books, and in each story, Lockwood is defending a client charged with a seemingly impossible-to-defend crime, but in spite of great mortal danger to herself, Lockwood manages to prove the innocence of her client. I listened to each book; they run from 6 to 10 hours, so they are all relatively quick, and enjoyable, reads. I’m done with the Lockwood series, and today I started on another of his series, a novel entitled Executive Privilege. If you like legal who-dun-its like I do, I’d recommend this author.
Finished Zorro: The Daring Escapades, edited by Audrey Parente and Daryl McCullough, of which the best story was “Of a Rebellious Nature”, by Pamela Elbert Poland.
Now I’m reading How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? And Other Perplexing Puzzles From The Toughest Interviews In The World, by William Poundstone. If I were asked that question, my instinctive response to that question would be “with ranged weaponry”.
I’ve been rereading Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with my fifth-grader. It’s even sillier than I remember, and is an interesting counterpoint to Phantom Tollbooth: Alice is fairly similar in both its peripatetic tendencies and its wordplay, but it’s IMO superior in every way. Alice as a character is so much more interesting, the wordplay is much less obvious, the characters are weirder and scarier. I love it.
And I just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s House of Open Wounds. Turns out that Terry Pratchett and China Mieville wrote a novel just for me!
Okay, not really, but the book draws heavily on two of my favorites. It’s weird and awful like Mieville, and funny and warm like Pratchett, and wise and political like both of them. I loved City of Last Chances, and this sequel is possibly even better. Highly recommended!
Finished How Do You Fight a Horse-Sized Duck? And Other Perplexing Puzzles From The Toughest Interviews In The World, by William Poundstone. Actually, the interview question is “Which would you rather fight, one horse-sized duck or one hundred duck-sized horses?”
The correct answer (which I knew) is the former. Anyway, it had some fun puzzles.
Now I’m reading Rivets!!!: The Science Fiction Musicals of Mark M. Keller and Sue Anderson. These were originally performed at a science fiction convention.
Finished Rivets!!!: The Science Fiction Musicals of Mark M. Keller and Sue Anderson, which were fun. The songs were to the tunes (mostly) Sullivan’s songs from his operettas with Gilbert. I especially enjoyed “Three Little Lensmen Cool” and “A Model of a Modern Major General”, the latter about board games available at science fiction conventions.
Now I’m reading Wilder: How Rewilding Is Transforming Conservation and Changing the World, by Millie Kerr.
Took a brief break from 1632 for two quick reads I picked up this weekend
The Plot: The Secret Story of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by graphic artist extraordinaire Will Eisner. I’ve wanted to read a history of this anti-Semitic forgery for a while. Eisner researched this one well, and goes all the way back to the beginning. Done in comic-book form, although, as one commenter remarked, it’s really a tragic-book format.
The Weirs – by Warren D. Huse – One of those Arcadia Press books with mostly old pictures and not a lot of text. It reproduces a lot of images from about 1880 to the early 20th century showing the development of Weirs Beach and the surrounding area in Laconia, NH. I’ve been fascinated by this area for quite a while. At one time there was an enormous hotel there which burned down in the 1920s. There was an iron Confederate statue which was reportedly destroyed completely by lightning, and the veterans of the Union army used to meet there every summer for a major encampment. Eventually they built a series of permanent summer houses, a dining hall, and a speaking platform. Some of the houses remain (and are impressive), but several burned down, and the other things were destroyed in the 1938 hurricane. There was an observation platform, too, but that also burned down.
There’s still the Half Moon complex of stores and penny arcades and eating places, and a handful of restaurants, and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railway and the MV Mount Washington tour boat. And Weirs Beach and a Drive-In. There have been two water parks, but they’ve both gone. Veterans still come, but a bigger summer presence is Laconia Motorcycle week. Interesting stuff. But i can’t help but feel that the current attractions – even nearby Funspot, the largest video game arcade in the world – are but a pale shadow of what was once there.
On audio, I found that I already heard Cussler’s The Sea Wolves, so I got Michael Harriot’s fascinating Black AF History – The Un-Whitewashed History of America. Very provocative and well-researched. I’d still dispute some of his interpretations, but he brought out a lot of things I was completely unaware of.
Due to life circumstances, I haven’t so much as opened a book in the last three weeks. Looking forward to getting back in the groove!
I started this morning on My Throat An Open Grave by Tori Bovalino, a YA novel about a wacky little town who believes in a deity called the Lord of the Wood, and a girl who goes to him hoping to rescue her stolen little brother. The book has a warning at the beginning about blood, gore, animal death, etc. but I think I’ve already gotten past that point and it was a real nothingburger. I mean, if you can get past the title and cover art, you’re tough enough.
Finished Wilder: How Rewilding Is Transforming Conservation and Changing the World, by Millie Kerr, which I recommend to anyone interested in the subject.
Now I’m reading The Oppenheimer Alternative, by Robert J. Sawyer, which is an alternate history SF novel.
