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dustydigger
Posted 2020-02-19 5:35 AM (#21814 - in reply to #21803)
Subject: Re: Pick & Mix 2020 reading challenge		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Finished Ransom Riggs Mapof Days,a bit disappointing. A lot of the charm of the series was going back to Edwardian and Victorian days,and the photographs really suited the story. This latest book,set in the USA in the 30s and 50s was less interesting to me,and a bit ''preachy''about civil rights etc with a rather confused story line at times.The photos for the most part were very ordinary. I think the series should have ended with the last book.
Clifford D Simak's little novella The Trouble With Tycho was a fun little read about a malignant alien presence on the moon Mystery,action,fine descriptions of the lunar landscape,and even a little thoughtful philosophy in the trademark Simak mode.
I am now reading,at about 10 pages at a time,P K Dick's Ubik. I just cant warm to his work at all. I get irritated by his overelaborate writing,which I think I am meant to be in awe of.His humour doesnt really amuse me much either. Once someone is a darling of the literary critics,he can do no wrong. They will make excuses for sloppy writing et because he had a hard time writing enough to feed his family. I think every writer of his time had that problem.,and I dont see them being excused.
I am just a literary philistine,it seems,and cant see the glory of this sort of writer (I have similar problems with Kurt Vonnegut)
My public library system has an unbelievable 35 of his books in stock,when you wont find a single Sturgeon,Fredric Brown,C L Moore,and all those other enjoyable old proper SF authors.
At one point in the SF Masterworks list on this site 10 of the 40 books published were by him. Cant be right! No one else,even the darling of the critics Cordwainer Smith has even a quarter of that number..Glad to see that the Easton Press Classics of SF list here pointedly only has one of his books on their list. Much more realistic IMO.
Sorry for the rant lol. Still got 100pagesof it left - out of a totalof 190! .

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