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

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

G33z3r wrote: "I've noticed that when I buy a graphic novel on Amazon it automagically shows up in my ComiXology account, but the inverse isn't true."

I thought there was a way to set it so that the link was both ways, but I haven't really tried. I had a Comixology logon before Amazon bought them, so I still use that and haven't bothered to link my accounts.

I'm intending to reread all of Asimov's future history series before the release of the Foundation TV adaptation next year - a total of 16 books (5 Foundation, 2 Prelude to Foundation, 3 Galactic Empire, 4 Robot and 2 books of Robot short stories).

G33z3r wrote: "Also free in US. Great! I just noticed I had 0 books logged in the Graphic Novel challenge, and Monstress won the Hugo Award a couple of years ago."

I hadn't realied there was a separate graphic novel challenge, so I've now signed up to that. I have had Monstress in my Comixology account for several years, but I haven't got around to reading it yet.

The announcement that the long-awaited Foundation series how has an air date of 2021 has inspired me to continue my reread of Asimov's future history. Having read the robot short stories, I have now started The Caves of Steel

I took a break from SFF to read Tyrant: Dividing America, a book that postulates what might happen if Trump (in the book it's President Donald E Vil) loses the election and refuses to accept the result. An interesting area to explore but the book is poorly written, both from a wordcraft point-of-view and from a suspension of disbelief point-of-view.

As far as Warhammer fantasy goes, the books that are chronologically earlier are the most recently written, which ties in with GW's decision to stop publishing the Warhammer Fantasy miniatures game and replace it with Age of Sigmar. So the older books don't require a lot of knowledge of the world setting - in fact, most of them are written in series and the series fill in the back story that is required.

That is pretty much the case with most of the 40K books as well, they tend to be reasonably self-contained.

I think The Horus Heresy is probably a good starter point - it will do a better job of setting the scene for the Warhammer 40K universe. There are well over 50 books in the Horus Heresy series, the first 4 are pretty much in order, after that it jumps around a lot following different characters.

As for the Warhammer fantasy universe, I think the War of Vengeance series is the chronologically earliest series written so far, but I'm not sure how relevant it is to the bulk of the Warhammer fantasy novels around, as the Age of Sigmar takes place well after the War of Vengeance, and most of the novels written so far take place well after the Age of Sigmar.

Which is going to turn up sooner - Apple's Foundation adaptation or Amazon's LotR adaptation? I think they've both been in the works for about the same length of time

I finished the graphic novel Camelot 3000. The artwork is absolutely gorgeous and it's a nice mix of Arthurian mythology and sci-fi, although it needed to be longer to tell the story it wanted to - the ending was somewhat rushed.

G33z3r wrote: "As Wells' oeuvre is out of copyright, you can also find his works for download at Project Gutenberg."

Yeah, I visit Gutenberg pretty regularly.

Andrea wrote: "If people still need to fill their Utopia slot for the BINGO challenge H.G. Wells' utopian tale is there."

There were quite a few HG Wells books there - I grabbed them all, although I'm pretty certain I have most of them in dead tree versions. I also got the Somtow and a few others to add to my already bulging Kindle collection :)

I've started reading the graphic novel Camelot 3000

I have started reading another collection of short stories - Jirel of Joiry. All of these stories were written before 1940, making CL Moore a contemporary of Burroughs, Howard and Lovecraft, and one of the very few women writing in this genre at that time.

I finished The Rest of the Robots and then read The Bicentennial Man. Solid, but not as good as I, Robot and I think it shows that not all of Asimov's robot short stories really fit in the same universe as his robot novels.

I read the Marvel-DC crossover graphic novel The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans. One of the better of the crossovers between the two companies.

So far I have:

B4 Author new to me - Witchnapped in Westerham, Dianne Lister
B5 Translated to English - Planet of the Apes (from French)

I1 Colony - Zero Limit
I2 Non-human Protagonist - I, Robot

N2 Alternate history - Second World War: An Alternate History
N3 Free book - Xenophobia
N4 Featuring a school - Agatha H and the Airship City
N5 Alternate Worlds - Runes of the Earth

G1 Alternate form - Conan: Witch Queen of Archeron (graphic novel)
G3 Award winning - Fahrenheit 451

O1 Standalone - There and Back Again

11 so far with no lines or columns, but close in a few places

Continuing with Asimov's robot series - I have started The Rest of the Robots

I finished I, Robot. Most of the stories hold up quite well although the earliest of them, Robbie, is very sexist.

It has always surprised me somewhat, that authors of the Golden Age, such as Asimov, were quite remarkable in some of their predictions with respect to robots and computers ("thinking machines") and yet really didn't grasp the true effect they would have on society.

Currently rereading I, Robot

I finished Agatha H and the Airship City. Very enjoyable.