Tony’s Comments (group member since Dec 19, 2018)

Tony’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

Shawn wrote: "I guess I'm more interested in sci-fi than fantasy, though with respect to the latter, I have read Tolkien's "big four" as well as Martin's SoI&F books (what's the current over-under on whether he'll actually ever publish book #6 much less #7?)."

Welcome Shawn. It's been a few years since I worked in a bookshop, so I don't hear the "insider goss" anymore, but he has apparently rediscovered his enthusiasm for writing it, so maybe he will finish it this year, but that is just a guess on my part. As for book #7, I doubt that will ever be written.

The Pre-1950 (or 1940 as it was for 2020) is always pretty easy for me - there are a number of my favourite authors who wrote in that period - Wells, Burroughs, 'Doc' Smith. Browsing gutenberg.org will usually find something of interest from the period. I've also downloaded a few issues of The Shadow pulp magazine.

Cixin Lu's Three-Body Problem trilogy has been in my Kindle list for a while, so I'm thinking that might be my translated entry - or I may use that as Author of Colour and go with the Dwarves or Elves series from Markus Heitz for the Translated slot. Of course, anything by Verne fills both the Pre-1950 and Translated slots :)

Started in 2020 but finished in 2021 (although Goodreads still wants to class it as 2020 because the new year hasn't completely rolled across America yet) - The Nano Flower

In a quick perusal of my TBR shelves, I have noticed several books of over 800 pages but I will need to do a more thorough search for one of 900+ pages.

Peter Hamilton's The Nano Flower fills in the Bio or Nano Tech slot, so I finished with only 2 slots unfilled - Tech/Magic Run Amok and Utopia.

Hopefully 2021 will see a complete BINGO card :)

I started A Modern Utopia (Unabridged): A Speculative Novel from the English futurist, historian, socialist, author .... After around a dozen pages I put it aside - it is very different from any other H.G. Wells I have read - he seems to have written it more in essay style than novel style, and I realised I just wasn't in the right frame of mind for it. I will return to it at a later date.

I have now started The Nano Flower. This is listed as the third Greg Mandel book, but I don't think not having read the first two will be a problem - they seem to be standalone stories about the same character. So far it is very cyberpunk in style, which surprised me a little from this author.

Rachel wrote: "Regarding dune - definitely the original series, as fir the sons - I would say that the ‘original’ set of three prequels are good and based directly in notes from Herbert senior and really add to t..."

I have read a couple of Brian Herbert's prequels and they were ok without being exceptional. As far as the originals go, Dune is brilliant, Dune Messiah is only worth reading because it's short and it provides a bridge between Dune and Children, and Children of Dune is very good without quite reaching the level of Dune.

The second trilogy - I couldn't finish God Emperor and didn't bother to start Heretics or Chapter House.

Andrea wrote: "I had considered that one myself, and good to know that Rogues has a short story based on it, I usually do the other way around, read the original first, so now I'll know when I tackle that anthology I'll need to tackle Wells first :)"

Ah, I wasn't clear. The short story in Rogues is by Neil Gaiman and is a follow on to Neverwhere. No H.G Wells stories in it. Personally, I find Wells more readable than Verne, although Verne is the more scientifically plausible (at least for the time). I would recommend starting with some of the better known, such as War of the Worlds or The Invisible Man.

I have finished Neverwhere to fill the Fantasy in Modern slot. This completes both the G row and the 4s column.

G1 (alternate form) - Camelot 3000 (graphic novel)
G2 (media tie-in) - Mission to Horatius (Star Trek)
G3 (award winning) - Fahrenheit 451
G4 (fantasy in modern) - Neverwhere
G5 (immortality) - Immortal at Sea

B4 (new to me author) - Witchnapped in Westerham (Dianne Lister)
I4 (anthology) - The Fleet
N4 (school) - Agatha H and the Airship City
G4 (fantasy in modern) - Neverwhere
O4 (YA) - Iron Man: The Gauntlet

I have finished Neverwhere. I liked the TV series when it came out many years ago but kept putting off reading this novel. I read it now to fill the Fantasy in Modern slot in my Bingo and I quite enjoyed it.

I had been planning to start on A Modern Utopia (Unabridged): A Speculative Novel from the English futurist, historian, socialist, author ... to fill the Utopia slot in my Bingo, but the Rogues anthology contains a short story about one of the main characters in the book, so I think I will read that first.

Ed Wood - what he lacked in quality, he made up for in quantity :) Somewhat like Roger Corman. Although, to be fair, both of them had some great ideas, but they really needed others to develop them, which often didn't happen.

Glen or Glenda was controversial and ground-breaking for the time, although it certainly doesn't handle the subject well.

No further progress in the Thomas Covenant series (finished book 7). I have finished Asimov's Robot series and his Galactic Empire series and started on the Foundation series - read Prelude to Foundation, next up is Forward the Foundation but that will be next year most likely.

I read the short story Immortal at Sea, which completes the 5s column:

B5 (translated) - Planet of the Apes (from French)
I5 (fantasy of manners) - Manners & Monsters
N5 (alternate worlds) - Runes of the Earth
G5 (immortality) - Immortal at Sea
O5 (published pre 1940) - Jirel of Joiry

So that's 2 rows (I and N) and 2 columns (1s and 5s). I'm hoping to finish another 2 rows and 1 column with my next two books, but I expect to end up 1 row and 1 or 2 columns short of a complete card.

I finished Marvel Ironman: The Gauntlet. A fun story that ties more closely to the MCU than it does to historic Marvel continuity. It also fills in the YA slot in my Bingo.

I followed that with the short story Immortal at Sea, the first story in the Immortal Chronicles. This also fills in the Immortality slot in my Bingo.

I have started reading Marvel Ironman: The Gauntlet, a story about a young Tony Stark.

I finished Mission to Horatius, which I think is one of the better of the early Star Trek novels. It also fills the media tie-in slot in my Bingo card.

My reading challenge was finished some time ago, but I still have 6 slots on my Bingo, so I am unlikely to finish that before the end of the year, but I will certainly fill a few more slots.

I have started Mission to Horatius. It's a Star Trek original series story, but not based on any of the TV episodes. Originally written in 1968, this edition is a hardcover reprint from 1999. So far (about 20% in), the characters are written pretty much as I would expect, although Kirk hasn't broken the Prime Directive ... yet :)

Irritating. It's an offer only available to the US and Canada.

I finished Manners and Monsters, which fills in the Fantasy of Manners slot and completes the I row

I1 (book with a colony) - Zero Limit
I2 (non-human protagonist) - I, Robot
I3 (humour) - May the Farce Be With You
I4 - Anthology - The Fleet
I5 - Fantasy of Manners - Manners and Monsters

So that's 2 rows (I and N) and 1 column (1s)

I have finished Manners and Monsters, a series starter set in Regency England. A light-hearted enjoyable read. For those looking for something to fill in the Fantasy of Manners slot in their Bingo card, this fits the bill nicely