The Reading Corner.

[Lord Avalon]

A Hymn Before Battle, Gust Front, When the Devil Dances, Hell's Faire, by John Ringo

Stonewielder, Malazan Empire #3, by Ian Esslemont


Visitor, Foreigner #17, by CJ Cherryh

[Buster's Uncle]

I've recently read Orion and Voyager, both by Ben Bova - the former had a lot of promise, but ultimately lacked heart, and the later is a limp attempt to write a best-seller, with no real redeeming qualities.  I am reminded that I recall some lame Bova in a lifetime of reading SF - and nothing truly awful, but not a single book I actually liked.

How did such a mediocre hack win six Hugos?  Were they all for editing?

[Lord Avalon]

Blood and Bone, 5th Novel of the Malazan Empire, by Ian C. Esslemont

[Buster's Uncle]

Non-Stop by Brian W. Aldiss.  I'm not sure if this was written/published before Universe by Robert Heinlein or after, but those two books really used up the 'generation starship fallen to barbarism and they don't know it's a ship anymore" premise pretty much forever.  This is a book I read very young and long conflated with Universe when it was mentioned, apparently being a lot better regarded and remember by many than Non-Stop...

Not sure whether I've ever actually read Universe - it could have been 44 years ago if I have, and who can recall thousands and thousands of books later?  Now I have to go have a look at the Wikipedia article and see if that shakes anything loose from the back of my haid...

[Buster's Uncle]

...Much struck me as familiar about the Wikipedia Universe summary, but I'm pretty sure I'd read the article before, and that's most likely all there is to it...  Both halves of it were published in 1941 as novellas, but the whole didn't come out as a novel until 1962, so it's a little complicated.

I see that Aldiss died just the 17th of last month.

[Geo]

And Pournelle 8 days before that...

[Buster's Uncle]

-And in a complete coincidence, Oath of Fealty is my current bedtime read...

[Buster's Uncle]

I just saw the funniest thing, reading fanfic somewhere.  A story began with several quotes, the last going:

Have Faith, for the endgame has already been written...

-Muad'Dib

"Dune"

By Robert Heinlein

It's not the misattribution that's funny; it's imagining Dune as written by Heinlein. 

-Like Paul kills Jamis, not in self defense, but for advocating Universal Basic Income...

[Elok]

Lessee, I re-read Zahn's Quadrail series, then read my first Bujold novel, The Spirit Ring.  I would describe it as "inconsequential but fun."  Gave Discworld another try in the form of Small Gods, gave it up a few dozen pages in when I realized it was basically going to be the same "ha ha, medieval Catholicism cliches" joke over and over for the whole thing.  Will try again with books my wife recommends.  Now I'm starting on something by Neal Asher, also a first for me.  It's okay so far, not wildly exciting.

Oh, and I tried a couple of Kameron Hurley books.  Apparently she's an up-and-coming voice in SFF.  Don't see what all the fuss is about.

[Buster's Uncle]

...That's mighty early on to give up on Small Gods; the plot hasn't commenced yet...

[Elok]

It was soon enough for me to get tired of the humor.  It was occasionally amusing even then, but not enough to warrant slogging through the cliches.

[Buster's Uncle]

Huh.  You recently waded through a Bujold novel, though. [shrugs]

[Elok]

Yeah, and it wasn't exactly life-changing.  My wife says Bujold writes "airplane books," and I think that's about right to judge by the one specimen I've encountered.  And that's okay.  Sometimes I feel like reading complex, multifaceted stories set in ingeniously created worlds.  Other times I have a thirty minute lunch break and my brain needs to relax as much as my body.  And, to be fair, nothing struck me as particularly cliche about the Bujold novel.  Unless there's a whole genre out there of novels about necromancy in Renaissance Italy, and she's just mining the tropes.

[Elok]

Perhaps I should say "stereotypes" rather than "cliches."  If you identify strongly with an organized religion, ancient (and largely inaccurate and unfair) memes about organized religion quickly become more annoying than funny.  Maybe if I were an atheist I'd find Small Gods hysterical.

[Elok]

However, I am presently enjoying Hogfather immensely.