June Books

It has been a banner year for fire flies in our backyard, thanks to the one heavy rain we have had.  Still no rain in the 10-day forecast, just sun and hot temps.  I am nearly completed my 4-week indoor fitness program, which has worked out really well.  It's too hot to be exercising outdoors, so we likely would be doing nothing.  Low humidity, too.  Not New Mexico low, but really low for Ontario.

Part of our county is still under full lock down, in theory.  We are stuck in Stage 2 along with the rest of the province.  No word yet on when further restrictions might be lifted.  patios only for bars and restaurants.  But Deb got her long-awaited phone call from her hair cutter--she goes next Wednesday for her first haircut since February.  I do tomorrow for routine blood work, following up on my phone call doctor's appointment last month.

I am down to 11 authors remaining in my Avon/Equinox project, after four years on the job!  I started with 24 authors.  The remaining ones are Silverberg, Anthony, Harrison, Bulmer, Tubb, Williamson, Clement (2 more books), Moorcock, Ballard, Malzberg, and Blish  After each cycle I read a book unrelated to anything, but currently I am reading books by Verne in that space.  In June I began with Hal Clement, and finished the month reading Bulmer.  In June I read 10 books by Avon/Equinox authors, and 2 by other authors.

Half Life is one of Hal Clement's finest books, and takes place in orbit and on the surface of Titan.  With humans ill and going extinct, a group of scientists is sent to Titan to search for biochemical clues to what might be happening back home.  No aliens, no bad guys, just really top notch science fiction writing.  A good start to the month!

Next, I finished up Michael Moorcock's futuristic sword and sorcery series Runestaff,which consists of four pretty decent novels, though I found more like sketches than carefully crafted ones.  One of the main characters in that series is Count Brass, and next I begin a three-novel series about him.  He is older in the Runestaff novels, so perhaps these are stories of his youth.  The Runestaff novels are highly readable, and well-suited to the excellent series of graphic novels, which one can read for free at readcomicsonline. 

Rushing To Paradise by J. G. Ballard was also a big highlight of the month's reading.  This is a stunningly powerful novel largely set on an empty south seas island owned by the French, who want to use it for nuclear testing.  A teenage boy falls under the spell of a corrupt and insane female doctor, who wants to save the albatross.  Frightening and very bold, this novel would not be loved by much by animal rights groups.  T|he almost complete helplessness of the boy as he watches his world crumble around him is easily related to the author's war time experiences in Shanghai.  Fabulous but grim storytelling.

Malzberg's Horizontal Woman is another very, very dark comedy, as a good-looking female social worker gets it into her head that she can bring people, who have been in the system for years, back into the world.  One of her techniques is to have sex with some of the men, as she tries to raise their self-esteem.  While nowhere near being pornographic, there is a lot of sex in the story,as the poor and misguided worker gradually gets herself into deeper and deeper trouble.  I am so glad I came across this amazing and virtually unheard of writer.  Truly a 'rediscovery', in the best sense.

Last in the most recent cycle comes James Blish.  Titan's Daughter is one of the harsher books I have every read from the SF back catalogue.  From 1961, it is a grim tale of racism and hatred against test tube babies who have grown into giants, all part of a plot by one man to raise humanity to the next level.  No wonder many people do not trust science today!  The early SF days, especially the movies, are all dead against any scientific progress or experimentation.  After Hiroshima, who can blame them?  But Blish is on the side of science, and makes a good point that any real progress is going to be painful, and filled with opponents.  How true, dat.  While not one of his best stories, it is one of his more thoughtful ones.

After completing another cycle of Avon/Equinox books, I finally read the final section of Verne's epic The Mysterious Island, from 1875.  At 768 pages, I took 3 sessions to fully read it, one section at a time.  Now I know what finally happened to poor Captain Nemo, and what he was up to all those years.  Very much in the same vein as the Blish, above, but from nearly 100 years earlier.   A great man, misunderstood by the masses.  As to the PC game of the same name I am playing, I should be finished soon--nearly done.  Just have to get inside the submarine and drive off, I think.

Beginning the cycle again, I read Thorns, by Robert Silverberg.  A spaceman has returned from an alien planet, but his two comrades have not.  They were all experimented upon, and the other two men died.  The survivor was literally taken apart and put back together, with "improvements," then released to return home.  Needless to say he has some psychological and physical problems there.  He is introduced to a young woman whose fertile eggs were removed from her at 17.  She is the virgin mother of 100 babies, over 60 of whom survived.  She is not allowed to see them again, ever, and has been discarded once her usefulness has expired.  Together, the two of them try to forge a relationship, guided by a filthy rich man who gets his kicks from their suffering.  A pretty grim story, but quite well done.  A precursor to the author's Man In The Maze, one of two books by Silverberg in the Avon/Equinox series itself.

Next came the last volume I had left to read by Norman Spinrad, consisting of 4 novellas about a possible future America.  it is called Other Americas.  He's still alive today to see what is happening to his beloved country.  All four are grim, though they also have humour showing through as well.  One of the stories I had read before.  The only one written especially for this 1988 volume is called La Vie Continue, and is actually a decent summation of much of his writing from his most productive period.  Usually his novels are very long, so it is refreshing to see him writing so well in a short format.

I finally got around to reading the first Xanth book by Piers Anthony, called A Spell For Chameleon.  His whole take on magic here is completely tongue-in-cheek, but he is such a good writer and story teller than I can see how people would become addicted to this stuff and think it was as serious as Tolkien.  In fact, the main character, Bink, is so upstanding that he makes Frodo look like a common criminal.  Good stuff, but I seriously doubt I'll get around to all 40+ books in this silly but fun series.

The Lifeship was a collaboration between Harry Harrison and Gordon R. Dickson.  When an alien ship transporting humans is sabotaged in space, several humans and two aliens make it to a lifeship and escape.  The story is one of adventure and survival, but also espionage, a popular theme in much of SF.  Very well handled, though I have no idea how this worked out between the two writers.

Finally comes an Ace Double, The Chariots of Ra being one of the better entries in the Keys to the Dimensions series by Kenneth Bulmer, and Earthstrings, the 2nd novel I have read by John Rackham, who also wrote a few Man From UNCLE books.  The Rackham story is the better of the two, but the Bulmer story is quite good in its class.

And now, a pause for art.  The DIA might reopen on July 10th, but our border with the US remains firmly closed.  Here is another wonderful and stunning Dutch landscape from the Detroit collection, by an artist famous for his landscape with cows.

 Landscape With The Ruins of Rijnsburg Abbey, ca. 1645.  Aelbert Cuyp, Dutch, 1620-1691.

Unframed 40" x 55.5". 

 Detail of left side.

 Detail of the ruin.

 Detail of sky above ruin. 

I just received a long and chatty phone call from Dino N.  I last saw Dino a few years ago when he and Katherine came to visit us in A/burg..  I met Dino in Gr. 2, when he emigrated from Italy.  He spoke no English.  Through grade school and most of high school, Dino was my best friend #1.  He began to study art at Cambrian College when I was switching over from Assessment to Music, but he never stayed.  After that he moved to Toronto and we gradually grew apart.  Dino was best man at my hippy wedding at Lake Penage.  He got into the wool business in Toronto, and did very well for himself.  He is now retired, and called me from his e cottage.  He is painting again, and has promised to send photos of his recent work.  Really good to hear from him again, and looking forward to seeing his art!  We hope to connect either in Sudbury or Toronto later this summer.

Mapman Mike