I think that those first three title words sum up my Covid-19 experience so far. Throw in a full year of good basic fitness, and I am probably happier and more fulfilled now than I was before the pandemic. I guess I am largely a hermit, or least I can easily become one if needed. I still look forward to my next trip to the desert, which will likely be our first big journey once all the Covid dust has settled (if it actually ever does).
In book news, I have just completed my 5th year of attempting to read all the available work by the 24 authors represented in the Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery series. I have completed 14 of them, and continue on with the remaining ten, several of whom are extremely prolific. Last year I read 116 books related to those authors, and 18 other books by unrelated authors. My Avon/Equinox total is now a staggering 582 books!
Here is a summary of what I read in May. I read my usual ten books related to the Avon/Equinox project, and three by other writers. Silverberg's Hawksbill Station started off the month, another short story expansion into a full novel. Sometimes these expansions work, and sometimes they don't. In this case, despite adding background to the story and more depth of character, I still prefer the original short story, which I thought was very well done. Political prisoners are sent back in time to languish until they die. The story focuses on the men's prison, before any mammals or even good soil covered the Earth. The prisoners eat mostly trilobytes, though things are sent back to them occasionally, like vitamins. The concept is well handled, but the longer novel really doesn't add to the flavour at all.
Next came a book by Piers Anthony, an author whom I haven't quite given up on, but mostly have. His early work in SF is a definite must read, but his later material seems to be turning into formulaic crap. Through The Ice from 1989 is a stand alone story, a basic fantasy quest adventure at heart, but with many unique touches. It seems influenced by the Narnia books, though it goes well beyond those in character depth. Not a bad read, it has a very unique origin. He was given the unfinished story of a 16 year old boy who died in a car accident. His friends sent Anthony the manuscript, hoping he could get it published. The book contains a long essay as to how everything happened. His co-author is Robert Kornwise, and Anthony didn't do a bad job of editing and finishing it.
Another Harry Harrison novel starring the Stainless Steel Rat was up next, this time following the adventures of the young Rat as he learns his tricks. This is one of the most hilarious SF series ever penned, and though A Stainless Steel Rat Is Born is not nearly as funny as some of the others, it's still worth a read. The main reason the book is not as good as previous ones is that he has not met Angelina yet, the love of his life, in this story. There are still many laugh out loud moments.
Winner of best title for the month (or possible ever) is Bulmer's novel called On the Symb-Socket Circuit. With a title like that I had no idea what to expect, but it soon begins to make sense. This is a very cynical SF novel of destruction due to human indifference and stubborn, ingrained beliefs, taking place an an alien planet with intelligent life that humans use for their own ends. A shocking revelation and ending, unless you really understand human behaviour, in which a case nothing can be truly shocking anymore.
Tubb's Starslave features the single most violent male hero I have ever come across in this reading project. Captain Varl is likeable and gets things done, but certainly has a unique way of dealing with things. He is sent to investigate aliens slaughtering human colonies in space, and quickly gets himself and his crew captured by blonde amazons, with a fuzzy link to Sweden. The story is surprisingly far reaching and quite good, and is a blockbuster movie waiting to be made.
Next, I began a two book series called The Saga of Cuckoo, by Jack Williamson and Frederick Pohl. The first book is called Farthest Star, and concerns a huge object approaching our galaxy at very high velocity. A ship is sent to discover what it is, and this concerns the first part of this tense, very readable SF story. The second part deals with the expedition, years later, that travels outside the galaxy to observe this object, which is the size of two of our solar systems! Puzzling and fun to read, it does seem to be heading towards the usual "bad aliens" story, I am hoping for more than this from book two, later in June.
Book Two of Moorcock's Chronicles of Corum, a 2nd trilogy about the hero called Corum, was next. The Oak and the Ram is pretty routine stuff in the sword and sorcery department, though Moorcock's normal often goes pretty far beyond the realm of most people's imagination. I'd rather read Moorcock's sword and sorcery books over many others except, of course, for Fritz Leiber's work.
I completed Ballard's short stories volume 1, reading 10 stories from 1963 and one from 1964. Standing out in a very high level pack were The Sudden Game, a tale of Orpheus and Eurydice; A Question For Re-entry, about a UN worker far up the Amazon River searching for a fallen space capsule; and The Subliminal Man, who tries to convince his doctor that new and enormous highway signs are a severe threat to the world.
On A Planet Alien continues Barry Malzberg's series of home runs, as we get his totally original and off the wall version of a small human crew making first contact with aliens on another planet. Malzberg's writing is at such a high level, yet he still manages to always tell a coherent tale, despite the increasing incoherence of his main protagonist. Watch the expedition's captain lose his marbles, one by one, as all hell breaks loose around him. Yet another in his fine series of "Do Humans Really Belong On Other Planets?"
James Blish's The Triumph of Time completes his 4-volume Cities In Flight Novels. This is simply the best SF series ever penned, and this last volume is in the top five best SF novels ever written. An absolutely stunning conclusion to the Okie drama, and a series that I will read again someday (4x so far).
In other books read, I managed to complete Volume Two of Burton's Arabian Nights. I am reading all ten volumes on Kindle, a bit at a time. So far several of the stories in these first two volumes were dramatized by Pasolini in his film. Next came the first novel (and the first I've read) by Joan Vinge, called The Snow Queen. I had read a a novella by her awhile back, and had high hopes for her novel. What I got was an almost classic case of what someone thinks should go into a SF fantasy novel. There are few surprises, and though Vinge can draw characters quite deeply, they really aren't that interesting to read about. That goes double for the main heroine, who is pretty much your basic loaf of white bread. Nearly 550 pages still isn't enough for all the characters she tries to cram into the novel. Sometimes we are left at the end of a chapter in a cliffhanger ending, and have to wait several chapters before she returns to that particular story. And while she can write well and develop characters, she really has no sense of space, as in how to describe a city, a room, a castle, etc. It's like attending a play or opera with hardly any background scenery. Her novella that I liked so much was entirely set in a bar. I have a later book by her on the shelf, which I may or may not get around to someday, but she is no longer a priority.
I finished up with The New Tomorrows, edited by Norman Spinrad. This has been on my shelf a very long time. I thought it was just a collection of SF stories. But it isn't. It's a group of speculative fiction stories from the late 60s and very early 70s. Experiemental stories are by Moorcock, Delany, Silverberg, Ellison, Knight, Sladek, Disch, Aldiss, and Farmer. Only a story by Ballard seems to be missing in this extremely fine collection. A great way to end the month!
In movie news, we watched Brother From Another Planet, Deb's choice for leaving May 31st. Directed by (and starring) John Sayles, this was our (at least) 4th viewing of this incredible and fun movie. Joe Morton, an escaped alien slave, ends up in Harlem running from his two white pursuers. A classic SF movie, with much of it set in a small bar.
Getting back to the Japanese Noir festival, we watched Stakeout, from 1958 and directed by Yoshitaro Nomura. This is one of the best police dramas I have seen, as far as realism goes. For much of the movie nothing happens, as two Tokyo detectives stake out a house in a distant small city, where a killer might try to contact his old girlfriend. The long pre-credit sequence takes place on a crowded and very hot train, on a 24 hour journey with no seats available. We don't yet know these are two policemen. The entire series of shots is totally brilliant. Next we move to a small Inn run by three women, overlooking the stakeout house. It's hard to describe what happens, which is essentially nothing, for most of this time, but the details and handling of it are amazing and wonderful. Even the eventual take down of the criminal is almost a non event, handled so professionally by the two officers. At nearly two hours in length, this is a really good film, which seems to prove that violent American films aren't the only (or the best way) to treat a subject such as this. In fact, an American remake would be quite hilarious, if not impossible.
Turning briefly to art, here is one of the stranger pictures from the DIA. Many years ago I wrote a manuscript about the museum's collection of 17 C Flemish painting. I was even allowed a visit to storage to see the paintings not on display, of which this was one. However, Water, by Jan van Kessel the Elder is now on display, a tiny oil on copper. I am a fan of his art, and have encountered it in the Prado and the Kunsthistoriches, among other galleries. He often does small nature paintings for large chests and cabinets. It was fun to write about this painting, and it's always fun to view it, too.
Signing off for now.
Mapman Mike
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