Stephan > Recent Status Updates

‘But, my opponent protests, we have a God-given mandate to spread enlightenment through the stars, dispensing our own brand of Civilization to the savages. This is the Uncle Remus school of sociology – the good dahkies singin’ spirituals and Old Massa lubbin’ every one of dem! It is a beautiful picture but the frame is too small; it fails to show the whip, the slave block – and the counting house!’

I sometimes have trouble with Heinlein, but this one is excellent (so far).

In the first half of the book, about the only autonomous action of the protagonist was to kiss the beautiful princess. But now he is firing atomic pistols, smashing skulls, and operating subspectrum radio transmitters like a pro ;-).

On the one hand, this feels a little bit simplistic for its 1947/49 publication date. But on the other hand, this is really Space Opera in the Soap Opera sense, and quite a bit of fun. I do hope the protagonists gets to to a bit more agere, though - up to now he's mostly just on a fantastic ride...

Kaum angefangen, schon liegt ein laktonisches Raumschiff im Kreuzfeuer der Diskus-Schiffe der Orathonen, und wird wie von einer gigantischen Faust durchgeschüttelt! So gehört Science Fiction! ;-)

This is certainly a fascinating world with interesting implications. I would have liked a bit more of an arc of suspense, but things have been picking up in the second half.

Through with the second book in the book. The writing is good, and the scenery is excellent. But I have the feeling that the purpose of the characters is mostly that of a moving camera, providing perspective, but with a rather minimal personal arc...

The first of the three books in the book is done. It's great fun, especially the combination of a essentially modern worldview with 16th century knowledge and beliefs - everything is new and fresh, every hypothesis needs to be tested.

Wow!

A fast-paced start through a quite short book....so far its fun!

Ich mache mal eine Pause bei Quicksilver und schiebe das hier ein - bis jetzt macht es Spass! Eher ein YA-Feel, aber der Protagonist ist in den 50ern ;-).

It's full of wonderful descriptions of historical people and events, and most of it even checks out against real history. But I wonder if Stephenson is eventually getting somewhere...

Interesting perspective on an interesting time. A bit on the slow side, so far...

It starts with an info-dump on 17th century European politics. It's well-written, of course, but I wonder how much the publisher made Stephenson add this to get the reader up tp speed ;-).

This is really multi-facetted and gives the reader a fascinating look at The Culture and the galaxy it's embedded in.

This is really multi-facetted and gives the reader a fascinating look at The Culture and the galaxy it's embedded in.

Only 10% in, and it's still somewhat fragmentary, but it's really good and engaging!

This is really pulpy pulp. But the author throws us into a fairly rich (if bog-standard) universe that feels a bit like a hand-me-down from Anderson (Flandry) or Andre Norton (Witches). And the main protagonist feels a bit like James Bond in his most Connery moments... ;-)

Anne Bonny and Calico Jack aka Jack Rackham are introduced - I think the actual pirating is about to begin...

So far it's a smooth read!

Der zweite Band ist erstaunlich komplex strukturiert - aber alles läuft auf die künstlichen Sonnen hinaus, in denen die Schlachtschiffe der Telaner vergehen...

Have I mentioned that this is not a 140 page book, but a 600+ page monster collection? I've just finished "Marque and Reprisal", which starts as a quite bad (but in a goodish way) space adventure novel, and then stops dead after ~50 pages, when it should really start...

It's a mixed bag. Most of the stories are decent to good, but the order and selection of them is incoherent. And at least some of the biographical information is plain wrong.

If one thing about this work is certain, it is that there are too many books share variations of the same title. This one is an at best semi-organised collection of short works of Poul Anderson - although so far most are not short stories. I've read novellas (like the titular one), poems, and an essay, but not a real short story. Most of the works are at least decent, but their order is a mystery full of surprises...

This was quite a surprise. Whoever selected the cover picture obviously did not read the stories (or cared about them). Most of the stories are deeply concerned with humans and the environment, with an alien element that initiates events - and then mostly let them run their course, not always to the benefit of humanity. Don't expect happy ends...

Definitiv extrem interessant. Es kommt mir fast etwas impressionistisch vor - das Gesamtbild entsteht so nach und nach im Kopf. Eindrucksvoll souveräner Umgang mit Neurodivergenz, wenn ich das richtig lese (und mit Gender-Themen, aber das habe ich nicht anders erwartet).

This 5th volume of the excellent series starts with an unexpected flashback to the time before the hospital was built - done with White's usual competency and style.