Robert Strupp > Recent Status Updates

Seems I already had on my book shelves the 2nd title in the 'Culture' series, so I ordered 'Consider Phlebas, Culture #1' from Better World Books. BTW: by page 379, I've read zero about the eponymous Phlebas. Author Banks (1954–2013), writes with such fluidity, clarity and purpose his books are simply delightful. His imaginings of how life might be millennia from now and galaxies away are ingenious.

Earlier this year, or was it last year, I found 'M&M' incomprehensible, ceased reading and donated it to library. Later, I was reading article in 'Touchstone' that delved deeply into 'The Master & The Margarita,' explaining its subject. I bought the book back for 75-cents, and began re-reading. NOTE: One MUST read, alongside each chapter, the chapter-by-chapter' COMMENTARY in the back of the book. This is mandatory.

Most of the cartoons are smilers. Some of them are Laugh Out Louders. Fun book!

The last corpse in Cool Dead People is FM2030 a futurist who died in 2000, whose 'body' is frozen, hard as a carp, at Alcor in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Very good book. Even though it was penned in 2020, there was no wokeness. I don't even recall any sex, which I'm not THAT against. Each chapter is headed by that character's name revealing his or hers thoughts and actions. Just a delightful SyFy book. 5 stars.

Cute little book with short biographies on deadies, many who did/do deserve mention. Perfect for the bathroom. I simply use it to wind down after reading the very good 'The Light Years' SyFy and 'A Commentary on the Apocalypse of John,' which has an introduction longer than many books.

Written around the time I was born over 7 decades back, it seems this title wouldn't offer much for the 21st Century reader. But that's not true. It reveals the extreme freedom entrepreneurs enjoyed after WWII. I'm afraid to use Duck-Duck-Go to discover what happened to Transocean Air Lines after the book was published. Really interesting on how simply things were accomplished and deals done last century.

The Preface, Bibliography, List of Abbreviations, Notes on Translation and Introduction eat up 73 pages. Translated from the Italian, this is guaranteed to be one fun read. That's why I put it off for years, but the pastor is preaching on Revelation now, so, here I am.

Author Alanson writes in a manner of a good friend telling you a tale, which makes for relaxing reading. ET aliens attacked only Earth's power plants, but different ET race chased them off. The superior ET race then requisitioned U.N. solders to fight the same aliens many light years distant in a war that has lasted thousands of years. After being there for awhile it's discovered Earth's saviors may be 'Satan.'

Wow! The book's over so soon? Such a well written SyFy. Really enjoyed it. Of course, written in 2015, it was able to avoid all the WOKE crap. A rare book that didn't have a flat spot in it. I'm giving it 5 Goodread Stars!

Without planning, I've gotten 2, 3 books by Edward Ashton. Still waiting for used copies of Mickey 7 to become available. This is a "can't put down book." Even though it's a 'bed-time' book I'm halfway through it after only a few days. The first few chapters had some laugh out loud moments. Really funny. Written in 2015 it's predictions seem entirely possible. Why did 80% of Hagerstown instantly perish?

Easy to read, hard to read for a long setting. Odd, reading a book written near the year I was born. Rather than being about the machines, procedures and factories that, with little human input, replaced a huge portion of U.S. jobs, it's about relationships, which is fine. I bought the book to read about a 'preview' of what's going to happen as, predicted, A.I. programs replace humans.

Published 6 days before I turned age 1, I still looked forward to this book which predicted, 73 years ago, a U.S. (?) economy run by machines. Sort of like what's coming: a U.S. economy dominated by A.I. Good going so far.

This was another bedtime (11pm to 12pm) book. I always looked forward to reading it, never felt it was a bad choice, even though, I couldn't quite follow the plot. And then, when the whole story was wrapped up in the way too long last 20 pages, I was totally lost. Sigh.

I'm hoping the reviews are honest, because right now, the writing, the language, seems to be immature, for lack of a better word.

Like one of my all-time favorites (not 'fav'), White Lotus' ~ John Hersey, I did not care if Gary Gibson's 'Stealing Light,' even at 608 pages, ever ended. I do not comprehend what techniques he used, but, for 20 evenings, I just loved crawling inside this SyFy. Like many science fiction tales the ending was fairly incomprehensible, but it was quick. I'm awarding 'Stealing Light' 5 Goodread Stars!

Gibson's Tor-published 2007 'Stealing Light' is excellent SyFy. Headed for a rare 5 Stars 'Love it.' It's got none of today's WOKEness. Really hard to be "Woke" when you dealing with different alien species. The protagonist is a gal, Dakota, who is a "gal" weaker than men, roughed-up by men, but very tough, very real. It's a bedtime book and I can't wait to read more of it every night. Good that it's 608 pages.

Published in 1999 there is not one gay or trans, which today would render the book un-published. Really good stuff. Old fashioned science fiction. Only thing he 'missed,' which is probably a good thing, is how much of everything A.I. will be controlling in the future, certainly 100s of years in the future.

Typical Cornwell, easy reading, good story telling.

Well, once one reaches the end of, in this case, a 511-paged hardback book, Cornwell wraps it up in about 4-pages. And, if you have the memory of a ChatGPT A.I., it all makes sense.

Typical Cornwell stuff, easy to read, with characters that are easy to hate.

Even though 'Outpost' is number one in a series of three books, it ends just like a single book. And the 'good guy' dies, the bad guy lives.

'Outpost' beckons me to my boudoir as if 'my wife,' Morgan Fairchild, yearned to cuddle. Rather than 'warping' the universe, Gear's astronauts "inverse," using scantly comprehended physics. They've had 6 mall-sized starships vanish. 1 returned to the present...after traveling a 150yrs. The planet Donovan has a landscape that eats people, sentient cheetah-fast sixpeds, gold, gems, precious metals + breathable air.

New title from Hamilton for $6 back in 20. For a change, after reading the accolades on slipcover, this SyFy delivered. It's sooo good. And even tho the protagonist is a gal, who's tougher than sh*t, (like my 22m.o. granddaughter Lily), and the author is a male, I'm finding no fault with the story. Which could be bc I'd recently read a female-lead Patricia Cornwell work which was 300 pages of female feelings.

I was fooled by all the awards and plaudits the book won back in 1976 when, as now, any title predicting the end of life on Earth unless the only sentient creature actually able to appreciate "life on Earth," was reduced to living in caves, won awards. So far nothing much has happened, well, except, like in my Arkansas, cousins considering getting married and popping out inbreds.

The 400 page plus novel wraps up in about 6 pages. Never did explain how the red, white, and blue particles were found in the gullets of two of Scarpetta's deadies. As you all know I prefer books that wrap up quickly...but too quickly?

When Patricia Cornwell wraps up a 500 paged book, she does it in 10 pages . . . and I like it!