Another week until Christmas Eve.... It's moving along very quickly. A rainy, gloomy day today but fairly mild. I'm not complaining.. :) My poor wife is in bed with a very bad headache today.
:0( Hoping she'll feel better with a good rest.
Just Finished
I've completed two books this weekend, one Science Fiction and one Mystery. It took me awhile to get into the former but once I got into the flow of the story and the characters, I enjoyed it so very much. My reviews for both books are below.
"My first comment about Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh is Wow! I've never read anything by Cherryh before. I was aware of her books when I'd rooted through the SciFi section of my book stores but I'd not tried anything. Recently, I was running through the years in my BLog and for each year listing various book award titles. Downbelow Station won the Hugo Award for best SciFi novel in 1982. So I thought I should check it out... So with that preamble...
This is such a fantastic book! I readily admit that it took me a few chapters to start understanding the various people, worlds, etc but once I got into the flow, it just got better and better.
How to summarize? Over centuries Earth began to expand into the stars to keep Earth's economy moving. They set up stations floating around various worlds and from there continued their expansion outward to the Fringes. Downbelow Station circles the planet Pell and it is sort of the hub between Earth and the stars. On the planet are the Downers, beings sort of like Ewoks or Fuzzies (from H Beam Piper's Fuzzy books). Earth men work the planet in concert with the Downers, passing supplies up to the station for the stations use and trade.
War is brewing between Earth's old fleet run by a hard (crazed?) leader, Mazian and the Fringes, AKA the Union and Pell finds itself caught in the middle, trying to be neutral but at great risk. Throw in the Merchanters, those ships that travel between the stars and you've got an interesting mix of great characters.
Pell is run by various families with the Konstantin's one of the main ones and they also provide the major characters. This family must tread carefully and try to keep Pell safe from all. Stations all around are being destroyed and refugees flocking to Pell and overloading the station. There are plots and subplots galore. I found myself being drawn into the characters and the excellent story. It starts a bit slowly but then moves along at breakneck speed until the excellent, satisfying ending. I truly loved this story and world that CJ Cherryh created. I can't recommend the story more. (5 stars). I'm looking forward to exploring her work more now."
"I've read three other books by Elizabeth Ferrars; Skeleton Staff, The Crime and the Crystal and Murder of a Suicide and for the most part enjoyed them. The Cup and the Lip was also entertaining. It moves along at a nice clip and kept me interested in what was happening.
Author Dan Braile has a number of friends, fellow writers for the most part, up at his home, Gray Gables. He is to take part in a question and answer session with some of his compatriots and the local arts society. But Dan has been ill for awhile and friend Peter is asked to come up from London to replace him in the session. Strangely, Dan thinks he's being poisoned, maybe by one of his visitors so Peter gets involved in that mystery.
After the function, Dan disappears and another acquaintance, Rolfe, shows up. As the group tries to find Dan and wonder whether they should call the police as well, a dead body is discovered.
So there you go, many questions to be answered and they are all explored. Is Dan being poisoned? Is one of his guests the perpetrator? Why would someone want to poison him? Whose body is discovered?
The book keeps you entertained and the ultimate solution was satisfying. I enjoyed. (3 stars)"
Currently Reading
According to the Goodreads' statistician, I've read 114 books this year and need to read 6 more to complete my Challenge total of 120. I've got 4 on the go at this moment and a couple of others set aside. I'm not counting on finishing my challenge this year, but we'll see. I've started the following two books to replace the two I just completed; one Canadian Lit and one Science Fiction.
"In this stunning debut novel, Catherine Bush confronts - with surreal lyricism and edgy, deadpan with - the plight of the Nineties 'twentysomething' generation coming to grips with an era of dysfunctional nuclear families and the growing threat of environmental apocalypse.
Helen's world is the ultimate survival test, where toxic-food scares, contaminated water, sweeping chemical fires, and monumental earthquakes have become indistinguishable from the collapse of personal relationships and the distance within families. What can you do when your astronaut mother orbits the earth, your father finds saving people from earthquakes more important than keeping a family together, and the media persist in manipulating your private life?
Brilliantly, disturbingly imagined and masterfully wrought, Minus Time is a work of timely vision that will swiftly find the pulse of a generation well acquainted with the double-edged blade of irony and awe."
"The Space Wanderer - an Earthman wearing an eye-patch, levis, and a shabby gray sweater who roams the cosmos in a Chinese spaceship...
The Space Wanderer - a man without a planet who has gained immortality from an elixir drunk during a sexual interlude with an alien queen in heat...
The Space Wanderer - an intergalactic rover whose constant companions are a dog, an owl, and a female robot programmed for, among other things, unique fleshly delights...
The Space Wanderer - a pretty nice guy whose only fault is that he asks questions that no one can answer; primarily, Why are we created only to suffer and die?"
For now, stay warm and dry and have fun getting ready for Christmas!
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