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dustydigger
Posted 2018-02-21 3:40 AM (#16870 - in reply to #16634)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix challenge 2018		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Read and enjoyed C J Cherryh's Convergence. Cherryh's plots are like onions,you peel away one layer to find something else below. We are still learning more and more about the actions and motives of the crew of that ship that so memorably appeared way back when Bren,totally clueless back then,was having breakfast with Ilisildi and learned of the ship's return.Lot of water under the bridge since then!
My main problem with the book was the horrible cover art. Bren-ji looks about 55 at least!!! lol.And fat!Too many teacakes perhaps?
Bring back Michael Whelan.The cover for Invader sums up the whole series for me.
Too little of Banichi and Jago for my tastes.And no Ilisidi at all.But still it was an enjoyable read.

Robert Silverberg's Nightwings was interesting and absorbing Mankind got through the First Cycle of earth's history, the technology phase,but during the Second Cycle they tinkered too much with genetic manipulation and also ruined the climate bringing catastrophe on the world - and gains the disapproving attention of aliens. Now,hundreds of years later humans are living in a sort of mediaeval style in a world that has remnants of all of history.The protagonist, a Watcher,is a weak old man with a ritualistic job looking out for the return of the aliens However no-one really believes they will return,they think it is just a legend.The Watcher,with a winged female and a Changeling are about to live through turbulent times.
The novella form of Nightwings won the 1969 Hugo and thisversion is made up of 3 novellas following the old Watcher.This is a rich and complex story in Vance's Dying Earth tradition.I've got to wonder if Gene Wolfe read and was influenced by this. I keep expecting Severian to come round the corner in the city! He would definitely fit in well!
Catherine Asaro's Nebula winning The Quantum Rose,another in her Skolian series,was nice mix of romance,family ties,and space opera,with an interesting new world description and an intriguing new mystery in the mix.. Nice light comfort read really,not too sure how it won the Nebula - but the Nebulas are like that,they come in all sorts of subgenres and I am never quite sure why they pick certain books.
David Drake's military SF Some Golden Shore was also very enjoyable light fare,the kind of stuff I read on buses and waiting for hospital appointments,which doesnt need much focus or brain power but keeps the mind occupied lol.Kristine Kathryn Rusch's Diving into the Wreck was also full of adventure but with a rather more sombre tone to it.
And lastly,in this hasty update of my Pick N Mix reads I just completed a very odd mix of hard SF,romance,marine biology,aliens and large dollops of horror,Joe Haldeman's Hugo winning Camouflage,which I liked a lot better than his acclaimed Forever War sequence That makes 55/66 Hugos read

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