Books - Reviews by ppint.

Books - Reviews by ppint.

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Member	Item		Review/Comment
ppint. 25th Sep 2024		Book Leigh Brackett - The Sword Of Rhiannon (1955)	Rated 10/10 this is the edition first read by yr hmbl srppnt. sometime in the early-to-mid sixties, when my elder bother° borrowed it from church end public library, and the sub-teenage me glommed onto it, devoured it, and has never forgotten it since - despite having only had time to read it the once before he returned it - and couldn't remember the author, its title - nor even having read the book from my memory of the key word, ''rhiannon'', detailed description of the set-up, and the bones of the story! ° - the russian for ''brother'' is ''brat'' - and rightly so! a superb, technically "sub-burroughsian", "planet stories"-style exotic science fiction adventure story, a true gem of its kind, with the accent almost as heavily upon the powerfully exotic setting, as upon the adventure that pits matthew carse, a low-life chancer of a man, a would-be tomb-robber, against an actual, veritable god - and against the cruel, conscienceless saurian race that rules their thalassocracy on mars of yore - exercising their dominion over all other races - including lowly humanity - upon the planet through their fawning worship of this god, and their apparent obedience of him, and his kin, and studying his technological teachings, and wielding the great powers they gain thereby without any shred of compassion, no achilles heel of any inclination towards mercy - thousands of years before our would-be tomb-robber was born. . . - against such inhuman and uncaring, overbearing and unfeelingly callously cruel overlords, what chance does one, very far from heroic - let alone perfect - and utterly out of his depth chancer-on-the-run have ? - this gripped the young ppint.'s imagination, as it has enthralled so many readers in the decades since first it saw the light of day. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 11th Sep 2024		Book George R. R. Martin - Songs Of The Dying Earth (2009)	Rated 9/10 not all of the stories manage quite the same combination of fantasy, eccentricity, surrealism, and poetic justice of vance's own dying earth stories; but they all of them evince a blending of at least some of these characteristics: and it's a worthy addition to the dying earth canon - as well as having been a recognition jack vance could and did enjoy in his lifetime. (n.b. merkin editions lose the "u" from the sub-title.) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 7th Aug 2024		Book Michael Moorcock - The Jewel In The Skull (1973)	Review - well, what else could one do with dorian hawkmoon's brain ?° ° - see back cover blurb... gloom, doom and the depths of despondency doing duty providing a typically moorcockian dark flavour to this stage in the central character's career towards his eventual but certain early death - or worse(!) - michael moorcock pretty much defined this style or school of sword'n'sorcery, not as a tame copy of robert e. howard's simple strongarm swordsman, but one ever at risk of being cheated or downright double-crossed by his temporary employers, even - perhaps especially (?) - if they gain very nearly all they hire his swords to win. moorcock also introduced the idea of a constant struggle between opposing forces aimed at or personifying the dedication to the imposition of unalterable law, implacable and cruel in the name of justice - and the drive towards the ultimate chaos of purest entropy, equally unlovable and unlivable-with by humanity, a discord driving events as powerful as - or totally replacing - the hitherto traditional fantasy dichotomy of good and evil. - and he **loathed & hated tolkien's "the lord of the rings**" - ignore the idiotic lancer books cover blurb. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 14th Apr 2024		Book Alberto Moravia - Conjugal Love (1958)	Review a novel of a relationship under pressure as a couple decide to abstain from sex during a countryside stay as the rich, dilletante husband attempts to write a novel; things are complicated when the wife reveals that her husband's barber has tried to molest her sexually... - definitely not ''a romance category'' novel in the mills & boon/harlequin romance tradition. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 9th Apr 2024		Book Marion Zimmer Bradley - The World Wreckers (1979)	Rated 9/10 climactic novel of two of the main themes of the darkover series,q.v.; the relationship between the expanding terran empire, mainly benignly and protectively inclined towards darkover, but very interested in the power of the darkovan mental gifts or talents, and the privileged mentally talented darkovan aristocracy, jealous of their wealth, position and political power, for which they have paid a high price over generations, not least in the selective breeding to produce and concentrate particular laran powers, originally the sole guarantee of human survival upon this planet, as well as of these immense, albeit somewhat specialised mental powers. this hard-won over many years, and sometimes very unstable balance, such as it is, is undermined by a powerful commercial corporation seeking to gain control of these powers and their potentially extremely profitable exploitation, without any understanding of, or interest in, the risks involved - whatever the human or environmental costs of achieving this might prove to be - - including to the young regis hastur, newly come into his lordship of one of the most powerful families of the comyn aristocracy, full of noble ambitions and idealistic plans to improve the lot of ordinary darkovans, to promote talent whether it be found in the comyn or the common, "ordinary" people, and facing opposition from the more traditionally-minded and entrenched conservatives. - and the human costs most certainly will not be low, as the simplest, quickest - and, most importantly, cheapest - method would seem to be by selective assassination of the controlling comyn aristocracy; - selective assassination - or, if needs be, their wholesale slaughter. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 15th Feb 2024		Book Kevin Randle - Seeds Of War (1986)	Review unremarkable milsf; there's a reliable market for ''the merkin army in space'' fiction. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 9th Dec 2023		Book G. C. Edmondson - To Sail The Century Sea (1981)	Review somewhat delayed sequel to ''the ship that sailed the time stream'' (1965), q.v. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 7th Nov 2023		Book Claude Nunes - The Sky Trapeze (1980)	Review paranoid sf - an object lesson and a powerful warning to all those who know - or suspect - that they possess psi powers;f - no matter how glittering the prizes proffered, do not reveal yourselves: they really are out to get you. . . 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 26th Sep 2023		Book C. S. Lewis - The Screwtape Letters (1942)	Review thirty-one letters, thirty of advice; one.... not, from a senior devil to his nephew, wormwood, a junior devil, on how best and most easily to tempt the mortal in his charge, ''the patient'', into sin, pitfalls to be avoided along the way that might afford the soul entrusted to his care the chance to avoid eventual eternal damnation, and suggestions for how to recover from setbacks to his shepherding his charge down the slippery slope to hell - with occasional expressions of shock and horror at wormwood's naïvety and/or downright negligence at having allowed his charge to regain some measure of grace. if in the right mood, ''the screwtape letters'' is a good read - the humour is incisive, but mayn't lead to too much self-criticism - as well as at least potentially conducive of self-improvement... though c. s. lewis stated the letters were hard work, not fun to write, and that he was resolved to not write any further such, he did compose a further lengthy essay, ''screwtape proposes a toast'' in the form of an after-dinner speech, that was published in 1959 and appeared in omnibus edition together with the letters, as ''the screwtape letters & screwtape proposes a toast'' in 1961, q.v 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 20th Sep 2023		Book John Hersey - Hiroshima (1951)	Review this work of journalism is not fiction, and this mis-categorisation should^W has been deleted. hersey interviewed many people who had - at least for a while - survived the immediate ''nuclear bombing'', or ''nuking'' of hiroshima - which, together with the similar destruction of nagasaki - was initially celebrated, and not only the cause of celebrations, but even made the topic of jokes in america and elsewhere (and probably in the uk and the british empire, too; though i do not know this). he also did follow-up interviews with many people. following the experiences of six real people from just before the atomic bomb was detonated above hiroshima, this was thought to be so important a piece of journalism when it was received by the editor, that instead of its being broken into several episodes and published in consecutive issues, the whole article - all 31,000 words of it - was published in a single issue of the new yorker, on 31/8/1946. it sold out at newsstands within a few hours. it was published in hardcover by alfred a. knopf later on in 1946; the book of the month club sent its edition free of charge to all of its members, and it was read aloud on the american broadcasting company's network in four half-hour installments; it was also read out on the bbc on the home service, iiuc. it is probably the single most important factor in the awakening of non-japanese people to the 'til then unimaginable magnitude of the horrors of the use of nuclear weapons, and the moral questions their existence raises. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 18th Jul 2023		Book Barbara Berne - Buzzard Barbara (1978)	Review hysterical, rather than historical fiction: the humour may be totally unintentional - but it's there. . ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 18th Jul 2023		Book Piers Anthony - Prostho Plus (1974)	Rated 8/10 tales of an inadvertently intergalactic dentist - - not entirely serious, and good fun & educational sf - as well as fully hygienic! 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 16th Jul 2023		Book C. J. Cherryh - Rimrunners (1991)	Rated 9/10 an sf action/adventure novel of bet yeager, ex-mazianni fleet marine, an unwilling conscript onto a spook ship selling information on the movement of mallory's capital ship (and allies and recruits) now defending the merchanters' alliance to ships of the mazianni - formerly earth company's - fleet, now more than semi-feral, and to anyone else as'll pay, finding her feet, and finding, and making herself a position in the pecking order - or failing to - onboard an unhappy ship, permanently on the edge, where the officers are out to get one another, the captain's at least half gone, and most of the crew bar one seem to be unwilling but cowed misfits - and even he agrees with everyone else that he's no bloody good - - all set against - and sometimes at action stations in - the time towards the end of the company wars and its aftermath. more-or-less contemporaneous with - a little after - ''merchanter's luck'' (1982), q.v., and with and a little after parts of the hugo award-winning major company wars novel, ''downbelow station'' (1981), q.v. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 11th Jul 2023		Book Jane Gaskell - A Sweet, Sweet Summer (1969)	Review near-future set novel of a teen(?) in an england where social order has broken down, gangs of communists and fascists are fighting and controlling large areas of inner cities, and on top of this, super-powerful aliens dictate orders sent from their ships hovering(?) above major cities - and pel's strange, wild cousin frijja comes to stay... - i didn't get very far into this, before i had to renew it, or return it to the library. i returned it. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 6th Jul 2023		Book Tom Reamy - San Diego Lightfoot Sue And Other Stories (1979)	Review this seems to be the only book published by earthlight publishers - but what a book! almost all the fiction tom reamy wrote - one remained unpublished by the editor to whom he'd submitted it for first publication, so couldn't be included without being withdrawn - excluding only two°, plus his only novel, ''blind voices'', which was published ''completed, but unfinished'' (he was still polishing it) posthumously, after the heart attack which killed him.° beautifully-written, oftimes ominous, threatening, frequently horror-inducing, fantasy; earth-set but not earthbound, and well worthy of being published in such a beautiful edition. ° - missing are: jenny's friends (short story) fantastic worlds (fanzine) vol.2 #2, spring 1954 sting! (short play) in ''six science fiction plays'' ed. roger elwood (1976), q.v. m is for the million things (short story) in ''new voices 4: the john w. campbell award nominees'' ed. george r. r. martin (1981), q.v. potiphee, petey and me (novelette) (sold to harlan ellison for ''the last dangerous visions'' (unpublished); eventually appeared in ''under the hollywood sign'' tom reamy (750-copy limited edition h/cvr 2023), q.v.°° (°° - this 2023 collection is sfaik the complete novellas, novelettes, and short stories bar one (jenny's friends), compilation - it incorporates all of ''san diego lightfoot sue and other stories'' - but is considerably scarcer, and liable to be pricey - it bears a $50.00 cover price. . .) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 28th Jun 2023		Book Joanna Russ - And Chaos Died (1970)	Rated 7/10 this is a very well written, but always difficult to keep tracking, wildly uncommercial book; and it's probably the least popular of joanna russ' books: though it's a single story, it isn't a novel. it isn't a novel, because it doesn't - and couldn't, by its very nature - follow the rules-of-thumb that simplified longer works of fiction, making them more easily read and so more widely-saleable to people lacking the time or inclination to - for particular example - puzzle out and follow a story repeatedly jumping from one character's viewpoint to another's; ''and chaos died'' is confusing - and that's even though there is only one central character. she's a young woman finding it increasingly impossible to cope with the emotional and spiritual crowding of inner-city life, as she becomes ever more assailed by the needs, desires, hopes, lusts and hatreds of the strangers streaming by her in the constant crush - - she's becoming ever-increasingly sensitive mentally - to the point of feeling she may be going mad - - she's becoming a receiving telepath - - and she can't cut the constant bombardment of subconscious and conscious thoughts and emotions - - or even be certain which are her own. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 21st May 2023		Book Alexei Panshin - Heinlein In Dimension (1969)	Review the major critical assessment of the works of robert a. heinlein (to date of publication); imnsho this is well worth reading and thinking about the observations and analyses of this major author's sf & fantasy. it could not, of course, consider the later works; but these are mostly a record of his sad decline - with occasional (partial) recoveries. hated by diehard heinleinian fanatics, of which there were many; and also by robert a. heinlein - unread! 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 11th May 2023		Book Basil Dawson - Dan Dare On Mars (1956)	Review the story is both unique - neither a novelisation of, nor turned into one of the fourteen-or-so novel length dan dare cartoon/comic stories told over a year or longer in eagle comic - and it is incompatible with the canonical dan dare mars, as detailed in the second eagle comic dan dare story, ''dan dare: the red moon mystery'' (serialised in eagle comic 5/10/1951-20/6/1952, also collected as a graphic novel (dragon's dream 1979). it is set in 2002 in the dan dare future, after ''operation saturn'', which basil dawson wrote some of, under the pen-name of don riley, when frank hampson collapsed through overwork, and before ''prisoners of space'', but the novel wasn't published until dan & co. were on cryptos, towards halfway through the longest and greatest of the comic's stories, ''the man from nowhere'' and ''rogue planet'', by which time i suspect the readership had grown up with dan dare and his colleagues, and the well-developed vision of this future, sufficiently to expect a novel presenting altogether more substantial a story, with significantly greater depth of thought than this ''fair, but unambitious'' mystery adventure. (tbc: plot hook / set-up to be composed and added; but there's a bus or two to be caught soon, and some shopping to be done...) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 4th Apr 2023		Book Robert Muchamore - Dark Sun (2008)	Review yeuccchhhh! 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 2nd Apr 2023		Book Joanna Russ - The Female Man (1977)	Review ''the whileaway novel'': intended to be an sf adventure novel sequel to the author's somewhat controversial (within sf fandom at the time) ''when it changed'' (''again, dangerous visions'' ed. harlan ellison (1972), q.v.), examining the same and similar social questions of sexual social (in)equality and potential/future developments, and their effects, through a work of fiction in considerably greater depth - - which it is - - it turned slowly in her hands as she wrote it into a scream of frustration and even rage at the inability of merkin science fiction fans - allegedly and even actually intelligent men (mostly men) - to even consider that these things might be different; in effect, that they, themselves might be even a bit sexist - - and frederik pohl, who was the bantam books sf editor at the time, bought and published it. - screams of outrage from much - most? - of merkin fandom could be heard the other side of the atlantic, even in ''little ol' lancaster''. . .° ° - and prob'ly reached the auntie podes, too (- no?) - yes, technically, this novel is a failure: as the author of the intended sf adventure novel, joanna russ lost her focus and it turns by its end into a personal criticism of the overwhelmingly sexist nature of the (merkin) world of written sf, of sf fandom, and of publishing - and, ultimately, of merkin society as a whole then, now - and in the sciencefictional futures thus far imagined in the works of then almost entirely male, overwhelmingly mostly white writers of sf. - it is a classic. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 28th Mar 2023		Book Robert Graves - Hercules, My Shipmate (1945)	Review graves' retelling of the legend of jason and the argonauts from the point of view of one of them, based upon the presumption that the legend was based upon a historical event - which it may well have been; and quite possibly more than one, probably bronze age, expedition(s) primarily in search of the fabled wealth of colchis on the shores of the black sea - and to loot whatever of it, or aught else, they could. the technique of filtering alluvial particles of gold from the waters of becks and rivers using sheeps' fleeces is both practical, and known to've been used in that area (and elsewhere); and was still in use in places in the second half of the 20th century c.e.° (° - yr hmbl srppnt. s'spects, but does not know, that this continues into the first half of the 21st century c.e.) unfortunately, while the adventure story is exciting, and its and the background details are definitely intetesting, the characters of the main players don't come alive off the page: how to portray the members of a crew of ''heroes'' who are essentially ~eighteen-to-thirty year old armed thugs a-viking as significantly different from one another, and at least one or two of them as sympathetic characters - to anyone who isn't of a similar thuggish mind-set - hopefully, most of his readers - was a skill robert graves hadn't yet learned. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 14th Mar 2023		Book Paul Tabori - Harry Price: Ghost-hunter (1974)	Review despite the semi-title, and (sometimes hyphenated, sometimes not) sub-title, this is mainly an account of investigations into claimed examples of mediums and paranormal by harry price, and his exposures of them as fraudulent; though it does include a - fairly brief - account of his life as a whole. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 31st Jan 2023		Book David Derek Stacton - The Power Gods (1958)	Review ''nevada's equivalent of our own (by comparison) rather disarmingly decent and dandy-ish teddy-boys are motor-bicycle-borne adolescent hoodlums who, in this book, are led by a tiger of a golden-haired girl into armed robbery and a killing or so. extremely exciting, with something of a documentary quality about its presentation of life in the western-desert jet-set.'' - the spectator 26/12/1958 - this appears to be a crime & violence (with a little bit of sex) ''gangsploitation'' novel 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 2nd Jan 2023		Book J. G. Ballard - Crash (1975)	Rated 8/10 it might be worth a ''9'', but yr hmbl srppnt.'s only read it the once, and definitely does *not* desi^W wish to read it again. it's very well thought out & through, very well written - and *horrible*. in an all too-near future, a cult is arising, centered upon the work of a charismatic, self-publicising ?research? ?psychiatrist?, prizing and preserving the wounds received in car crashes as a reflection of the damage received by the drivers' cars, and similarly prizing and preserving the damage received in those crashes as a reflection of the wounds received by their human occupants, and glorifying - and finding erotic arousal, and perhaps ecstasy, from both. - as the cult spreads and it, and its values, become increasingly accepted into our social mainstream, it also becomes increasingly difficult to discern or define any aim for life separate from the aims and inevitable objective of achieving increasingly horrific car/self-inflicted crash injury and - ultimately - the glory(?) of a gory mechanical death. - as we make our creations and our constructions more intelligent and - arguably - more human-like, do we not make ourselves more construct-like and more inhuman: - and is this inevitable ? - gave a whole new meaning to ''auto-erotica'' - - and arguably invented ''auto-necrotica'' as humanity's highest aim. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 12th Dec 2022		Book Jane Lindskold - The Pipes Of Orpheus (1995)	Review what happened to the children of hamelin afterwards? who was the piper, and what did he do with them - what did he have in mind for them when he led them away, seduced by the magic of his music - if he had anything in mind at all ? and can any of them succeed in escaping him - whilst any of them yet survive ? 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 12th Dec 2022		Book Jane Lindskold - Brother To Dragons, Companion To Owls (1994)	Review publishers have categorised this novel as fantasy; jane lindskold sees it as near future sf - but she's only the author, and what do authors know? set in the present day, more-or-less, the central character is at least technically mad - she talks and listens to what her small rubber dragon has to say, after all (and to walls, and other inanimate objects) - and, not entirely deliberately, when her home is closed as a result of budget cuts, she embarks on an adventure - a rather scary adventure that might be called ''real life'' in ''the real world'' by some, involving not always friendly gang members; and it begins to look like someone may want to kill her - but *why* ? . . 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 16th Oct 2022		Book Matt Gardner - The Curse Of Quintana Roo (1972)	Review oh, *please* would you add a genre/publishing category of ''rubbish'', oc? ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 12th Oct 2022		Book Spider Robinson - Für Zeitreisende nur gegen bar (1986)	Review ''even jove nods.'' not every item on wikipedia is always and invariably factually correct: if you bother to compare the contents of the two books, you may find this is one of those occasions. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 9th Oct 2022		Book Spider Robinson - Callahan's Crosstime Saloon (1977)	Rated 8/10 more drink than food - and more sfnal tall tales, puns, etc. than drink. . . lovely entertaining stories in the ''competing raconteurs in a bar tradition'', with an added inclination towards puns... - puns, and peanuts. . . 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
ppint. 22nd Jul 2022		Book Holly Lisle - Sympathy For The Devil (1996)	Review definitely a holly lisle-ish style version of an ''unknown worlds-ish'' sf author's approach to the risks of setting free the odd demon or several from the bowels of hell, and both foreseeable, and some utterly unanticipated consequences thereof; - *very* different from james blish's classic ''black easter'' q.v.. . . #1: ''sympathy for the devil'' holly lisle (1996), (this book) #2: ''the devil and dan cooley'' holly lisle, walter spence (1996), q.v. #3: ''hell on high'' holly lisle, ted nolan (1997), q.v. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

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