Year: 2023

A Tale of Two Surgeons

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A Tale of two Surgeons It’s always interesting when you get two books with the same title covering similar ground. Here we have the tale of two Star Surgeons, both books exploring the idea of medical care with non-human patients. Star Surgeon (1963) by James White and Star Surgeon (1959) by Alan E. Nourse. James White’s Star Surgeon is the second book in his 12 book Sector General series, although they link chronologically they can be read individually. Alan E. Nourse’s Star Surgeon is a stand alone Juvenile Science Fiction…

What to do with all that Stuff – August 2023

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As the usher brings forth the Ice cream and snacks, we wait for the main feature to resume What to do with all that Stuff. To quote the much maligned theme tune to Star Trek Enterprise ‘It’s been a long road Getting from there to here’. All has been quiet here for a while due to a mixture of technical, time and personal issues. Those issues have meant most of my time I’ve been concentrating on Booktube content and been having fun with that. Please feel free to pay me…

Black Fire by Sonni Cooper

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The Vulcan with the Jewel Earring As always I believe that we all judge books by their covers, otherwise why bother with one? The cover of Black Fire is a gorgeous painting of Kirk and Spock by the renowned fantasy artist Boris Vallejo. Once past the cover it starts with a glowing introduction from Theodore Sturgeon, this could be seen as a misstep as if you get someone with his reputation saying how good your book is it does put expectations very high. Sonni Cooper was once the publicist for…

Artemis by Andy Weir

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A Fun Crime Caper in a Hostile Environment Andy Weir’s rise to prominence with The Martian (2011) is well known, he started by serialising it on his website and then released a kindle version which shot to the top of the Kindle charts. This attracted the attention of publishers with whom he then managed to get a publishing deal with. Following up the success of The Martian was never going to be easy, and reading comments on Artemis has shown a mixed response. I congratulate Andy Weir of trying to…

City by Clifford D. Simak

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Picture of a book shop with words Book review over it along with the cover of City by Clifford Simak

A Lamentation to Mankind City is a Post Apocalyptic novel, don’t let anyone tell you any different. The Apocalypse may not be a large single world changing even but the slow isolation of Humanity, but it’s still an Apocalypse. It was written during and Post Second World War when the most destructive forces man had ever seen were used in anger. In this edition of the book there is a Foreword by Clifford Simak in which he states: ‘I, personally, was not so struck with the massive destructiveness of the…

All the Weyrs of Pern by Anne McCaffrey

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A Solid addition to the Dragonriders Series Anne McCaffrey was inspired in part to write Science Fiction due to some of the ways women were portrayed in the genre. She was the first woman writer to win the coveted Hugo award and one of the female pioneers within the genre. After the original trilogy McCaffrey was encouraged by her publisher to write the Harperhall trilogy aimed at younger readers. To all purposes after the end of The White Dragon it feels like this is where the story was originally going…

Divine Invasions – Philip K Dick on Film

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I first discovered Philip K Dick through the film Blade Runner. I was lucky enough to see it on release in 1982 and as a 14 year old Science Fiction fan I was excited to go and see it. I also felt dangerous going to see the film, at the time U.K film ratings changed, previously Blade Runner would have been a AA, which meant no one under the age of 14 was allowed to see it. The ratings changed and the dropped the AA rating and changed it to…

Intermission – Back and Forth 2022/23

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As the usher brings forth the Ice cream and snacks, we wait for the main feature to resume Looking for the next Squirrel It’s been a weird year and I’ve not spent as much time writing on this blog as I would have liked to. Rather than my normal intermission posts which can at times be obscure or even vague this, one is more a general feel about the past year. The loss of my beloved Golden Retriever Harley as much as it was expected hit me, and still hits…