Wind of Change

A busy couple of days, the weekend was fun until Sunday morning came and work crises happened, it only took the morning though and then Ben had his D&D marathon at the dining room table. Monday was ripping out part of our counters waiting for the new ones to come on Wednesday then out the first stop being Winks hardware in search of the elusive cabinet hardware. Winks was described at one of the three hardware stores we visited on Saturday as hardcore hardware. We didn’t even get the hinge out of the bag when the clerk said I know, disappeared and came back with the needed item. Of course we bought two. Just in case, as it has taken several months to find this item and this is the only store selling them in the city.

Then out to Powell’s downtown and for once I bought nothing although everyone else managed to spend a small fortune. Then the realization it’s a holiday and every coffee shop was full so no treats for anyone.

 

The reading this month has been hectic. I finished Foundation and Empire by Issac Asimov which was as good as you would expect. I figured the Mule out early  but his didn’t ruin the story and I had forgotten the shock ending so it still finished with a bang.

Forge of God was the second book for the online science fiction book club I joined a couple of months ago. It’s a good read, definitely a different disaster book, the end is fairly obvious from the beginning. Some of the characters are really engaging and others are really quickly drawn, Bear seems more interested in the big idea at times, the end is however stunning and there is no way once you get to those last fifty pages or so that you are putting this down until the end. It’s a shame he didn’t write the whole book with such intensity. I have the second book Anvil of Stars and there was enough left unresolved in this book to read on.

Throughout the month I’ve been reading this Joe Boyd’s book and it is a fun, fascinating read but is very much about Joe Boyd who seems to in five years managed to miss more opportunities than most people get in a life time but he did produce some of the greatest music of the decade, discovered Pink Floyd and Fairport Convention recorded Nick Drake and the Incredible String Band and managed to avoid unplugging Dylan at Newport.

 

And then we have zombies. This is the second book in the Hater trilogy and really looks at zombies from a different perspective, doesn’t every zombie book claim that though. These zombies are intelligent, can plan their attacks and are developing throughout the trilogy, in the first book they could not control the impulse to attack, now some of them are getting more capable and able to control their Hate. It also has one of the most terrifying children in any fiction.

Fairpot Convention announced their lineup for Cropredy and since then i have been listening to Larking Poe, Ellen and the Escapades and Brother and Bones, three bands on the lineup I have never heard this looks like a good year, oyu never know maybe I can make it.

 

 

The Reason Is….

The Puppet Masters is a book I read a long time ago when I was a teenager originally and I loved. Spies, aliens and beautiful women, James Bond with science fiction what more could a young man want. The you read it as an adult and there is a certain discomfort with the sexist language and the way the characters treat the female character. Yes she is strong yes she is smart but she is still defined by the males in the book, she is the little lady who has to be protected and Heinlein’s idea of romantic love is about as convincing as a prepubescent fantasy.

Sure it’s a fun story but it’s so hard to get past  how Heinlein treats women. I know you should read these thing with knowledge of the times they  were written in but Heinlein is so often portrayed as a champion of female characters surely he could have overcome his own biases a little. The book is worth reading if only for it;s influence on the genre, it’s not Heinlein’s best but for it’s time it’s original and fun enough.

This story spawned so many copycat stories, the Invasion of the Body-snatcher’s being just one. Of course when they made a movie of this book it was a travesty even with Donald Sutherland.