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Posts from the ‘Scence Fiction’ Category

17
Jun

#Non-fiction biography James Tiptree jr.

 

Conclusion:

  1. Literary tastes were changing in the 1960s.
  2. Women were searching for new books
  3. …they were tired of romances, doctors and stories about horses.
  4. Fantasy and SF introduced some very talented writers.
  5. James Tiptree Jr. was born…nom de plume Alice Sheldon.
  6. Tiptree  burst onto the science fiction scene
  7. ….in the 1970s with a series of hard-edged, provocative short stories.
  8. Tiptree was hailed as a brilliant masculine writer.
  9. Ms Sheldon kept her JT persona very secret:
  10. no photo’s, no public appearances and
  11. most confusing was “his” strong
  12. feminist slant in his tales.
  13. For example The Women Men Don’t See.
  14. Women characters felt so alienated and powerless in society they
  15. choose to board a space ship with aliens rather than remain on earth!
  16. Strong point: This fascinating biography by Julie Phillips
  17. was ten years in the making.
  18. Julie Phillips takes us behind the scenes to learn the
  19. of the privileged yet troubled life of Alice Sheldon.
  20. With this information Sheldon’s short stories take on a new cachet.
  21. This book is considered one of the best biographies about a SF writer.

 

 

19
Feb

#Short Story: J. Tiptree jr. …but not her best work!

 

 

19.02.2019 – READ – The Girl Who Was Plugged in

  • This is a ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde story about a female monster.
  • 17 yr ugly girl makes a Faustian bargain.
  • She will be kept in a cabinet strapped with electrodes.
  • She will animate the artifically grown body of a perfect girl
  • …her dream..to be beautiful!.
  • Tiptree submitted this story for publication
  • …but is was REJECTED so many times
  • …she shelved it.

Last thoughts:

  • Now I know why it was refused….it was awful!
  • The story lurches, stumbles is at times painful to read
  • …because I know Tiptree can do better!
  • I read that Alice Shelden (Tiptree)
  • …was a longtime user of Dexedrine (speed).
  • It feels like Tiptree let the drug
  • …push her creative mind a bit too far for this reader!
  • #MonsterOnSpeed

 

18.02.2019 – READ  And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side

  • Title:  is from “La Belle Dame sans Merci: A Ballad”  by John Keats
  • “Frame” POV: unnamed narrator (news reporter) tells the reader about
  • a nameless station engineer at the Orion docking junction who
  • is …telling his story about seductive aliens.
  • Tone: is NOT sentimental….but erotic, lascivious
  • Message: the man  warns reporter that
  • “Man is exogamous…one long drive to find and impregnate the stranger.”
  • In this case…aliens: Procya, Lycran, Sirians, Sellice…
  • This biological drive is where humans are most at risk
  • At risk not from a monster from a star
  • ….but a signal from the human brain stem.
  • #Strange

 

9.04.2018 – READ    The Last Flight of Doctor Ain:  (1969)

  • The story drifts between the past and present.
  • Dr. Ain is on a mission to save the world for a “later race”.
  • Allusions to W.H. Hudson’s novel Green Mansions and
  • the “Gaea Gloriatric“….Gaia is the ancestral mother of all life…
  • are the keys that will unlock the theme in the story.
  • Dr Ain boards his last flight and
  • …no one sees the  moral insanity inside him.
  • Note: After the first reading I was confused.
  • It took a second reading and some note taking to
  • finally appreciate this
  • …classic short story by one of SF   ‘grande dames’.
  • #Readable

 

Last thoughts:

  1. I’ve reviewed 4 of James Tiptree jr.’s short stories.
  2. The Screwfly Solution….was very good,
  3. ..but I may have to read some ‘duds’ before I
  4. finished all the selections.
  5. I’ve included a  Wikipedia link about Alice Sheldon’s life
  6. It was unconventional….and ended in double suicide.
  7. #ReadShortStories

 

 

30
Apr

Aurealis Award 2017 Best Horror Novel

 

 

Introduction:

  1. Soon is the story of the death of a haunted town.
  2. It centers on three main characters.
  3. These neighbors are the survivors who deify the haunting.
  4. Milly – unable to leave memory of her dead husband.
  5. Li – refuses to leave the farm she worked so hard to build up.
  6. Pete – has nowhere else to go, divorced and estranged from his daughter.
  7. I’m not revealing anything else about the narrative or its subplots.
  8. You must discover this yourself.

 

Strong point:  very likeable character Milly Pryor (graceful) retired schoolteacher. She has a  no-nonsense manner mixed with amused cynicism. Her clothes have limpness, her eyes radiate arthritic pain and she keeps a hip flask of brandy close by.

 

Strong point: I enjoyed the dogs in the story! Lois Murphy must own a dog(s) because she gave some great descriptions of these rascals …and life long companions. Gina, Pete’s dog, is an important character in the book!

 

Strong point: Murphy keeps the tension palpable. The characters are under constant pressure to return to their safe homes before sunset. In the darkness the deadly ghouls appear.

 

Strong point:  There is a lot of foreshadowing in the book…you just have to find it! In 6 of the 7 chapters there are dream scenes read them carefully. But the most cryptic clue lies tucked in chapter 3!

 

Weak point:  So where’s all the horror ?

The descriptions of the ghoulish chimera  in the mist weren’t that scary!   This book  did not leave me white-knuckled…scared out of my wits. There were a lot of snaking, uncurling, lassoing and winding tendrils. There was a convoy grey vehicles in town with anonymous dark-suited men who left no footprints. The mist spoke in whispered hissing, sinister crooning, mesmerising chants and muted shrieks of laughter.  There was a lot of  scratching and tapping on the windows while  terrible faces leered in  the house.  Now that is nothing that makes me recoil in fear.

 

Conclusion:

  • Leaving my comfort zone is not easy.
  • But I had no trouble reading this horror novel.
  • It is a well written story (60%)
  • and Murphy has interjected the narrative with
  • unsettling paranormal elements. (40%)
  • This is good news if you just want to dabble in this genre
  • …taking fear in small doses, one chapter at a time.
  • The law cannot cope with the supernatural.
  • Ghosts are often rooted in past events
  • …and they demand vengeance.
  • Sometimes…
  • bad things happen to good people,
  • circumstances are beyond our control,
  • somebody or something wants to take over.
  • #C’estLaVie
17
Apr

Girl Reporter

 

Finished: 12.04.2018
Genre: Adult fiction (YA); Science Fiction
Rating: A+
Review:

  1. I just loved this novella
  2. ….perfect for commute in the train.
  3. I had to smile…
  4. while I looked around at all the millennials in the coupé.
  5. Tansy Roberts just nailed it with the ‘new vocabulary‘ for the
  6. networked, connected, vlogging, livestreaming, vid, twitter feed generation.
  7. Friday Valentina (#SuperheroSpill reporter) made me laugh:
  8. “There’s something beautiful about the perfect hashtag.
  9. Truly, the hashtag is the epic poem of the 21st C.”
  10. Have  some fun and enjoy Tina (mother), Friday Valentina
  11. Solar, Astra, The Dark and many more characters.
  12. This book is full of snark and satire!
  13. Strong point:  snappy dialogue
  14. Tansy Roberts’ dialogue:
  15. develops the plot
  16. reveals characters’ motivation,
  17. creates an cyberspace experience for reader
  18. makes an average story extraordinary.
  19. #MustRead
  20. #MustLaugh

 

 

11
Apr

From the Wreck Aurealis Award 2018 Best SF Novel

  • Author: J. Rawson
  • Title: From the Wreck
  • Published: 2017
  • Trivia: Winner Aurealis Award  2018  Best SF-novel
  • Trivia: Aurealis Award recognises the achievements of
  • Australian science fiction, fantasy, horror writers.

 

Why is From the Wreck considered science fiction?

  1. SF is not always about space ships, aliens, monsters,
  2. ..robots or giant man-eating insects.
  3. The first requirement for SF is that it should be possible!
  4. Realistic fiction is what  could have happened,
  5. …fantasy is about events that could not have happened
  6. …SF is about events that have not happened, or have not happened yet!

 

  1. This book is based upon the shipwreck of the SS Admella in 1859.
  2. But what has Jane Rawson done in her story to
  3. …bring this narrative into the science fiction category
  4. …and not historical fiction?
  5. I’m determined to find out.

Narrator:

  1. Third-person, non-participant narrator
  2. There are six chapters narrated by the ‘being from another dimension”

Structure:

  1. The Wreck –  2 chapters
  2. Life on Land – 4 chapters
  3. Henry – 9 chapters
  4. Cured –   4 chapters
  5. Some Journeys – 12 chapters

Setting:

  1. Rosewater  (small town above Adelaide)
  2. Portland (George works in Seaman’s Home in this town)
  3. Adelaide (George travels to this city to meet some characters)

 

Introduction:

  1. From the Wreck  tells the remarkable story of George Hills.
  2. He survived the sinking of the SS Admella off the South Australian coast in 1859.
  1. George “..rolled into the waves…but they would not have him…”
  2. the waves …”instruments of the Lord“
  3. People trying to help save George….he calls them
  4. “monstrous humans declaring death is near”
  5. “What do they know?
  6. George thinks
  7. “Death was not for him.
  8. He lived now in another  world.”
  9.  “Why had the waves not taken him? Why was he here?“
  1. He is haunted by his memories and the
  2. …disappearance of a fellow survivor.
  3. She is a  woman from another dimension
  4. ...and George must find her.
  5. She can…
  6. lure him
  7. destroy him
  8. return scraps of his health and sanity
  9. tell him what he had done was only a dream.

 

What was the hook that drew me into the book?

  1. Rawson begins her book with the description of the
  2. ship wreck by three different points of view.
  3. Rawson writes an amazing ‘cryptic’ second chapter
  4. …and I was hooked.
  5.  In chapter two Rawson switches constantly among
  6. four personal pronouns: WE  — I — THEY —   IT.
  7. If you read this chapter too quickly your eyes will glaze over.
  8. I read  line-for- line making a note as to what/who the
  9. …pronoun was referring.  It changes!
  10. This was the only chapter I had to read in this way
  11. …the rest was easy going.
  12. But it is important to understand who is talking in ch 2!
  13. Believe me..after you finish the book
  14. …you should re-read chapter 2.
  15. The pieces of the puzzle will now fall into place!

 

Theme:  abandonment, loneliness, and guilt.

  1. The George  suffers from all these feelings
  2. …which Rawson has translated into a story.

 

Tone: Gothic

  1. Part 1:
  2. whitened swollen ghosts had dragged themselves across the deck
  3. ghosts who wanted nothing more now but to be left alone
  4. looked at the ghosts about him…they were gone —
  5. He is  a creature of the devil.
  6. Ocean-fed devils
  8. Part 3:
  9. “You’ve seen these ghosts“
  10. …headless monsters walking the streets after dark wringing out
  11. …the bodies of cats and rats to drink their blood..”
  12. It is a sprawling birthmark.
  13. …was throbbing, rippling, pulsing. “Another brain in my brain…”
  14. …seethes and stretches, the edges crawling across his back..”
  16. Part 4:
  17. “What do you know about haunting? he asked.
  18. Or spells. Potions. Do you know anything about
  19. …spells to stop a haunting?’

 

Strong point: inner dialogue

  1. Internal narrative is the life’s blood of any story.
  2. Readers don’t just want to see what’s happening to your character.
  3. they want to know what he thinks.
  4. For example: George has thoughts that he
  5. …would LIKE to tell his brother-in-law
  6. ....but cannot.

 

Strong point: tension

  1. Suspense drives the narrative.
  2. Good example is in ch1  part 2.
  3. Tension is building.
  4. Rawson  is withholding information.
  5. She keeps the reader
  6. …waiting and waiting for a shocking revelation.
  7. The character is keeping his secret from his family.
  8. The reader will soon know the secret as well.
  9. Tension:
  10. Why does Henry…George’s son of 5 yr
  11. …use words like niche and reprobate?
  12. Uncle William is amazed  by small Henry.
  13. Does it mean he is ‘different’?  (big words for little kid!!)

 

Strong point:  pace

  1. I never really took notice of ‘pace’
  2. …until I started reading books more carefully.
  3. A writer uses her craft to equally balance action, drama, and plot elements
  4. …and I just miss it completely!
  5. Rawson mixes slow and quick pace chapters  part 3 “Henry” .
  6. Quick: Dialogue:  question – answer b/t characters (George – Alice Jarvis)
  7. Slow – reflections – inner dialogue, dream sequence – Henry dreams of ocean.
  8. Quick: wife about to give birth…George is rushing around get the doctor!
  9. Slow: introduction of new characters with long descriptions, back round
  10. Quick: …heart throbbing revelation for Henry!

 

Conclusion:

  1. Question?
  2. Alien being  has its own philosophy… but what is it?
  3. Why is  alien being implanting itself into  humans?
  4. Why does it insist on adapting to new shapes and forms?
  5. What has happened to push George or the edge?
  6. He is  so committed to finding the truth
  7. …that he’s willing to physically die for it.
  8. These  questions and more, you will have to answer
  9. yourself  after reading this
  10.  Aurealis Award 2018 …winning SF  novel!
  11. #MustRead…..amazing!

 

Last thoughts:

  1. As a reader who  is not drawn to the science fiction genre
  2. …this book delighted, surprised and inspired me
  3. …to read more of Jane Rawson.
  4. I must give science fiction a chance!
  5. This book is original, so well-written
  6. ….clean, sharp and spooky.
  7. I’ll never look at my cat in the same way….!