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GMRC Review: The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
Scott Lazerus came to Worlds Without End looking for a good list of books. He found David Pringle’s Best 100 Science Fiction Novels to his liking and is currently working his way through the list. He has posted a bunch of reviews for WWEnd including several for the GMRC. Be sure to check out Scott’s excellent blog series Forays into Fantasy too!
When I started reading science fiction, Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were the “big three” SF writers—already thought of as the authors of classics while they were still alive and writing. Of the three, Asimov was the favorite of my youth. I appreciated his rigorous logic, humanism, and devotion to the idea that human rationality and science would continue to move us forward into a challenging but ultimately triumphant future. Having not read his work for decades, I looked forward to reacquainting myself with Asimov, but with some trepidation, since it seems that the “Good Doctor” has lost some of his critical luster over the years, and it’s true that sometimes the favorites of adolescence are best left to remain as pleasant memories. David Pringle included The End of Eternity (1955) in his 100 Best, but only grudgingly: “He is one of the best-known sf writers in the world, so I felt I had to include something by Isaac Asimov, though I confess I have little enthusiasm for his work.” His essay on the novel certainly reflects that lack of enthusiasm.
Returning to the novel, the source of the difficulty with Asimov quickly became clear. Asimov, possibly more than any other author, embodies a common dichotomy in Golden Age science fiction: the focus is on ideas and plot, while characterization and prose style often do not hold up to the standards that modern genre readers expect. Asimov was open about the fact that his prose was purely functional and transparent—its job was to present the story without in itself being noticeable. For young readers, this may be especially appealing, but the success of the stories rides on the mind-blowing concepts and/or engaging plots on which Asimov’s fictions succeeds or fails. Readers looking for complex characterization or vivid descriptive writing will have to look elsewhere. But for anyone tolerant of such failings, or willing to overlook them in the interest of a good story, The End of Eternity still holds up as one of the great time travel novels, a nice blend of science fiction and mystery (a strength of Asimov’s), and a fine example of the author’s humanistic themes.
2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Awarded to Gene Wolfe
In news that will surprise absolutely no one on the planet, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America have named the legendary Gene Wolfe as their 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master.
The award is given, more or less annually, for contributions to the literature of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Check out the official press release for some nice comments from last year’s recipient, Connie Willis, and others.
If you’re a participant in WWEnd’s 2012 Grand Master Reading Challenge you can add Mr. Wolfe to your challenge list if you’ve read him this year. If you’re a fast reader you have a couple weeks to get him in under the wire!
Our congratulations to Gene Wolfe!
Man of Steel Official Trailer Looks Super, Man
I’m really liking the look of this. Superman has always been a bit one dimensional. I don’t mind that he has to struggle with who he is and what he’s going to do with his powers so long as he ends up being the Superman we all know and love. Fingers crossed.
SF Manga 101: Akira
Glenn Hough (gallyangel) is a nonpracticing futurist, an anime and manga otaku, and is almost obsessive about finishing several of the lists tracked on WWEnd. In this series on SF Manga Glenn will provide an overview of the medium and the place of science fiction within it.
Oh, hello. I was just sitting here by the fire meditating on…well, ok. I was asleep. But I did think of something interesting to share before I get to Akira.
Nausicaa was originally published between February 1982 to March of 1994. Akira‘s original run was between December 1982 to June 1990. Ghost in the Shell’s initial release was between May 1989 to November of 1990.
I’ve maintained that Nausicaa, Ghost in the Shell (GITS), and Akira are the top three. This means that nothing published since ’94 has cracked the top three. Top five, yes. Top ten, absolutely. But not the top three. 18 years. I think that’s a long time to have no movement at that level. Nothing has come along which is that good, which is that important to SF. It’s an interesting observation for us to ponder.
Anyway, Akira. I’ve gotten the impression that of the mangas I’ve talked about in this series, it’s Akira that many of you might have heard of before. That Akira, much more so than GITS or Nausicaa, had a media punch behind it. It was a big deal way back when for the Epic/Marvel team to publish Akira. It was an even bigger deal for them to finish the series after several years of hiatus. So when Dark Horse says this about Akira, they say it with that big deal mentality:
Book Gift Suggestions: Fantasy
We’ve all had those friends and family members who just don’t “get” genre fiction–who think that Fantasy is all about Hogwarts or football, who think that Science Fiction is no more than J.J. Abram’s oeuvre, who think that Horror is just a zombie in a hockey mask slicing up co-eds. You can either continue to inwardly seethe at these ignoramuses, or man up and buy them some fiction that will blow their minds and make them addicts just like you. To that end, we at Worlds Without End have put our heads together to come up with a list of books for the genre-clueless people in your life.
Today’s list contains half a dozen Fantasy books or franchises to knock the socks off the people who don’t have good genre taste… yet.
The Dresden Files, by Jim Butcher
Butcher’s series about the self-deprecating wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden serves as a great introduction to the Urban Fantasy subgenre. Nearly every fantasy trope ends up on Harry’s to-do list at some point: vampires, warlocks, werewolves, faeries, ghosts, demons, archangels, and even the Shroud of Turin. The stories are frequently funny and always fast-paced, which makes the failure of its small-screen adaptation all the more perplexing.
Perfect For: Readers of thrillers and mystery novels.
First books in this series:
- Storm Front – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Fool Moon – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Grave Peril – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Summer Knight – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Death Masks – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Kingkiller Chronicles, by Patrick Rothfuss
Some have described this series as Harry Potter for grownups. That’s a trite way of interpreting Rothfuss’ story about a polymath ne’er do well trying to survive through a school that focuses on alchemy and magical theory. It’s a lot smarter than the premise makes it sound. Rothfuss is well-educated himself, and he claims to have spent the better part of a decade writing and rewriting the first novel. This actually turns out to be a good thing.
Perfect For: The over-educated smartasses in your life.
First books in this series:
- The Name of the Wind – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Wise Man’s Fear – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Dark Tower, by Stephen King
As far as I know, this series is King’s longest foray into Fantasy. Despite being only seven novels long (with an eighth “midquel” just published), it took King twenty-two years to complete the whole thing, publishing the last three in a great burst from 2003-4. Alternatively a magical realist action-adventure story and a running metafictional commentary, King considers this to be his magnum opus, and it has been a hit with his fans.
Perfect For: Lovers of complex and referential storytelling.
First books in this series:
- The Gunslinger – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Drawing of the Three – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- The Waste Lands – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Wizard and Glass – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
- Wolves of the Calla – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
This 800-page doorstopper is an alternative history of England during the time of the Napoleonic Wars if magic had been a real historical phenomenon. The novel is written as a faux-history text, and I have to admit that Clarke even had me fooled into thinking that many of the references to pagan and medieval magic traditions were taken from the real world. It’s a love story mingled with the methodical restoration of magical practice, and all of its societal implications.
Perfect For: Admirers of alternate history, world-building, and the Romantic literary movement.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
The Once and Future King, by T.H. White
The four-book series (and a fifth posthumous volume) on the life and adventures of King Arthur’s royal court was a big hit when the first volume was published way back in 1938. This is not a thorough retelling of the Arthurian body of legends, but rather a selection of episodes (mostly well-known from Malory) that allow White to focus on the themes of war and morality that, being and Englishman writing during World War II, were heavy on his mind. The whimsical idea that Merlin is a backwards traveler through time has its origins here, and the Disney film The Sword in the Stone is a loose adaptation of White’s first volume of the same name.
Perfect For: Anyone who likes the show Merlin but wishes it were a bit smarter.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
Grendel, by John Gardner
Gardner as a novelist has nearly disappeared from the American literary scene, despite once having multiple novels on the bestseller lists. Even though he’s now appreciated almost entirely for his books about writing, Grendel has remained a perennial favorite. Telling the story of Beowulf from the monster’s point of view gives Gardner the opportunity to dramatically explore (as he claims) the darker aspects of Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential philosophy. The novel also incorporates many of the postmodern conceits popular at the time, and despite its serious subject is laced with humor and irony.
Perfect For: Someone who read Wicked but thought the witch was the villain.
- Purchase – Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Kindle, Audible
Star Trek: Into Darkness – Official Teaser Trailer
OK, this trailer looks pretty damn good! Khan and another Enterprise destroyed? That’s the Trek we all know and love. Does anyone else feel that the Enterprise has as much hope of making it through a movie in one piece as a character played by Sean Bean? They keep going back to blowing it up for a big emotional moment but I think we’ve all become desensitized to it by now. It’s like seeing the Statue of Liberty destroyed over and over. The impact is lessened each time. To the creators of Star Trek (with apologies to Charlton Heston): “You Maniacs! You blew it up already! Ah, damn you! Damn you all to hell!” Of course maybe it’s not the Enterprise that goes down in the trailer. One can hope.
Six Clips from The Hobbit, Precious
Entertainment Weekly has posted 6 clips from The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey so you can spoil the movie for yourself if you like.
- The goblin chase
- Swords are named for the great deeds they do
- Who did you tell about your quest?
- There is nobody home!
- I wasn’t talking to you!
- Give him the contract
Thanks to TheOneRing.net for the links.
Apollo’s Outcasts by Allen Steele
On his blog Stainless Steel Droppings blogger Carl V. Anderson reviews SF/F books and movies, conducts author interviews and even hosts his own reading challenge: The 2012 Science Fiction Experience.
“On my sixteenth birthday, I went to the Moon.”
This isn’t the way it is supposed to be. Turning sixteen should be a special, memorable time for any teenager. It should be unforgettable. And for Jamey Barlowe, it was. In the early hours of the morning of his sixteenth year Jamey and his two older sisters are unceremoniously awoken by their father and rushed out of their home under cover of darkness. In the midst of the chaos and confusion the children are able to discover that the President of the United States is dead, an incident that is being reported as an assassination and the Vice President, Lina Shapar, is calling for the detainment of a group of American citizens that she believes may have had a part to play in the President’s death, a group that includes Jamey Barlowe’s father.
Jamey Barlowe was born on the moon. As a result he suffers from a condition that has left him crippled for the majority of his life. If Jamey ever dreamed of returning to the place of his birth it was not like this. But for Jamey and the five other young people leaving with him, this isn’t a time for dreaming, it is a time for cold hard reality. Their destination is Apollo, a mining colony on the Moon, and although they are being sent their for their own protection they will soon discover that safety is all a matter of perspective and the Moon holds harsh challenges for each and every one of them.
WWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: November Review Poll
This is the penultimate GMRC review poll! For November we featured 6 GMRC reviews in the blog and it’s time again to cast your vote for the best.
Remember, you don’t have to be a GMRC participant to vote and the poll will remain open until December 15th so you have plenty of time to read any reviews you missed.
- The Day After Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein – Carl V.
- The Listeners by James E. Gunn – valashain
- Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison – galleyangel
- Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson – Carl V.
- The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin – triseult
- The Big Time by Fritz Leiber – Allie
Winner gets the following:
- GMRC T-shirt – your choice of colors so long as it’s black
- GMRC button – you can never have too much flair
- Set of WWEnd Hugo Award bookmarks guaranteed to hold your place in any paper book.
- Book of your choice from the WWEnd bookshelf – winner gets a list of titles to pick from
- Everlasting Glory – So you’ll have that goin’ for ya. Which is nice.
Runners up will get a GMRC button and a set of bookmarks. Thanks to all our reviewers and good luck!
And back, by popular demand, is RhondaK101 with the latest stats.
Authors with the most books read:
- Isaac Asimov (54)
- Robert A. Heinlein (51)
- Arthur C. Clarke (45)
- Joe Haldeman (43)
Authors with the most different titles read:
- Robert A. Heinlein (19)
- Robert Silverberg (18)
- Isaac Asimov (16)
- Poul Anderson (15)
Books most frequently read:
- Joe Haldeman – The Forever War (25)
- Alfred Bester – The Stars My Destination (22)
- Frederik Pohl – Gateway (17)
- Ray Bradbury – Fahrenheit 451 (17)
- Philip José Farmer – To Your Scattered Bodies Go (15)
