I managed 9 books from my Avon/Equinox authors, and one from outside that project.
First up was Silverberg's A Time of Changes, a good story though perhaps overrated by its winning of the Hugo Award for 1971. In a society where everyone thinks alike, and use of personal pronouns regarding oneself are prohibited, people (very few of them) must take a drug in order to experience thinking outside the box. Since the drug is forbidden, as is the thinking it provokes, it is a dangerous pastime. Silverberg wades into the "what is love?" question, and deals with it rather unsuccessfully. I used to think such societies were too far fetched to be believable. Now, they are found nearly everywhere in the world, especially in fundamentalist religious societies. The story does make one think about things.
Next up was Piers Anthony's 2nd volume in his Bio Of A Space Tyranny series, called Mercenary. While I have serious problems with the first book, I decided to try the 2nd one. Nearly a bad mistake. The overall story is okay, and makes for decent reading. Until the chapter entitled "Rape." It boggles the mind at what publishers will print if they think a work by a recognized name might sell copies. If an unknown writer had sent this off to a publisher it likely would have gone straight to the reject pile. At the very least, the rape chapter would have been excised or severely rewritten. There is no real point to be made by Anthony by including this chapter, other than to point out to us that there really are women out there (in space) who want to be raped. It's part of their culture, or something.
Next came Harry Harrison's final Eden book, called Return To Eden. All of your favourite and least favourite characters are back, as Harrison strives to create a world made different by the lack of a huge meteor taking out the dinosaurs. In his world, intelligent reptiles and prehistoric humans meet head on in a fight for survival of the fittest. Though extremely well written and an absorbing story, I found myself wishing the series had not gone on so long.
Warrior of Scorpio is Bulmer's third entry in his nearly endless Dray Prescott series. I am committed to reading the first five books, which form a subset within the 38 novels, but beyond that I make no promises. Though good storytelling is present, Bulmer is simply riding the coat tails of Burroughs and H Rider Haggard, offering readers nothing new in the genre of big strong warrior on a hostile planet. At least they are easy to read and pass by quickly.
Next up was E C Tubb's Twelve From Tomorrow, 12 short stories from the late 50s and early 60s. The best stories are "Sense of Proportion," which Barry Malzberg totally ripped off for his novel called Revelations; "Greek Gift," which Twilight Zone ripped off for their episode called "To Serve Man;" and "Worm In The Woodwork," a novelette in the tradition of James Bond. There is only one weak story in the collection. In addition, "Last of the Morticians" is a pretty funny tale.
Jack Williamson continues to hit homes runs, this time with Lifeburst, a mid-80s novel that has a depth and scale encountered in the works of Iain M. Banks. His concept of skywires coming down from satellites to the Earth is brilliant, and boggles the imagination. Life in a small colony on an asteroid in the Oort Cloud is well handled, and the story features several alien races, including perhaps the scariest alien monster I have ever come across. He even manages to give this deadly creature a sense of emotional depth.
The Dragon In The Sword completes Moorcock's 4-volume Eternal Champion series featuring John Daker. One of the volumes is a totally magnificent graphic novel by Howard Chaykin, a favourite artists, based on a story by Moorcock. In this final novel, which I awarded 4 stars, the champion is taxed to the max in his battle against Chaos. One of the best ideas ever is regarding the ships that travel through shallow swamps, filled with people who spend their lives on them. The three heroes that team up to defeat the enemy make a great trio, one female and two males. Written several years after the earlier books, the more mature writing style helps a lot.
Next came Guernica Night by Malzberg, a short novel that probes a futuristic tendency for huge amounts of the population to commit suicide. This one requires a second reading, at the least, as it contains many levels, and changes back and forth between three characters. Though this is a strange novel and not a standard one by the author, it is easy to read, and what you take from it depends on your personal views and philosophy of life. Any Malzberg is worth reading, but this is not top notch Malzberg.
Short stories by Blish rounded out my Avon/Equinox authors. The Genius Heap focuses on artists, musicians, and those kinds of people. they are sent off to a moon of Jupiter to live together under a grand experiment. Only the experiment they are told about is not the real experiment. Stories about creative types in SF are rare enough; this is a pretty good one. Also wroth checking out is Tiger Ride. Alien life forms can surprise, even after encountering thousands of them in my reading and movie watching. This is one of the more ingenious creations by a SF writer, of a benign but extremely dangerous to humanity type of AI. Good stuff!
My outside reading was Anne Hillerman's first novel, called Spider Woman's Daughter. Anne is the daughter of Tony, famous for his Navajo police novels taking place in New Mexico. I have read all of his books, and now Anne has taken a turn at bringing Leaphorn and Chee back to life. While treading carefully in her father's footsteps, Anne brings a female perspective to her story by focusing attention on female officer Bernie Manuelito. It was a good read, though the ending was needlessly over dramatic.
Best cover of the month (though having very little to do with the story) goes to artist Karen Carr for Harry Harrison's Return To Eden. Congratulations Karen! To claim your prize, contact me here at Blogger.
In final book news, here is a list to date of Delphi complete works I have purchased for reading on Kindle. I have already read several works from these collections, and am currently working on some short stories by Lord Dunsany.
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