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

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

I have finished Cowboys & Aliens. I enjoyed it and it's a pretty good adaptation of the film. It also fills the Weird West slot in my Bingo.

Two more short stories - Licence to Steal by Louis Newman and The Last Letter by Fritz Lieber. Both were ok, but somewhat on the silly side.

Two more short stories - The Drug by CC MacApp and An Elephant for the Prinkip by LJ Stecher. The Drug presented an interesting moral choice and Elephant was quite humorous.

Another couple of short stories from The Science Fiction Anthology. Prime Difference by Alan Nourse was very dated in its sexism - not unusual for the 1950s, but pretty jarring today; and Doorstep by Keith Laumer was a short, but cutting, tale about the "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude.

Another couple of short stories - Syndrome Johnny by Charles Dye and Psychotennis, anyone? by Lloyd Williams. Neither was particularly good, both from the early 50s (1951 I think).

I have started Cowboys & Aliens, which will fill the Weird West slot in my Bingo.

I finished another couple of short stories - Citizen Jell by Michael Shaara and Operation Distress by Lester del Ray. Both of them were fun, and typical of a lot of the short stories from the 50s and 60s.

I have finished Fight for Life and Death, the first book (chronologically, if not in publishing order) in the Zoo universe. Aliens attempt to terraform Earth, resulting in a patch of alien jungle in the middle of the Sahara. It's a fast-paced, fun read, and the first of over 50 books (across half-a-dozen series) set in this universe.

While there is a time and a place for warnings about online security, I don't think this list is the right place - and his comment really read like spam - so I deleted it.

I have finished Masks Volume 1, which is an excellent graphic novel featuring a number of reasonably well-known, and more obscure, heroes of the pulps and Golden Age.

I have started reading Fight for Life and Death, book one of the Apocalypse Paused series. This will fill the Set in Africa Bingo slot.

I finished another short story - Hunt the Hunter by Kris Neville - which was building into an interesting story and then just finished, leaving the story somewhat unresolved.

I have also finished Touch. This ia another very good, and very unusual story from Claire North. I always enjoy her novels, and this also fills the Female Author slot in my Bingo.

A Little Journey by Ray Bradbury. Bradbury has some fun poking religious charlatans in this very short, and somewhat silly story. But it is Bradbury, so it was a fun read.

Another short story - What is POSAT? by Phyllis Stirling-Smith. Written in the early 50s, it's an interesting take on secret societies. Reminiscent of some of Heinlein's short stories.

I have finished another couple of short stories - Aloys by R.A. Lafferty, which I thought was pretty poor, and With These Hands by C.M. Kornbluth, which is relevant to today as it examines the controversy of AI-created art against artist-created art.

I have started reading Masks Volume 1

I read Star Trek vs. Transformers. I'm a big Star Trek fan, but not much of a Transformers fan, and I didn't really enjoy the story much, although the art was good. I always thought it was unfair that the Decepticons got to transform into the cool stuff, while the Autobots were limited to cars and trucks 😝

Another excellent short story - Cost of Living by Robert Sheckley. Written over 70 years ago, it provides a disturbingly accurate description of modern consumer culture.

I finished another short story - Dead World by Jack Douglas. It's an enjoyable military SF story which reminded me of the Dorsai series, although it was written a decade earlier.

Andrea wrote: "Finished World War Z. I liked it more than I expected, seeing as I'm not a zombie fan...

I have no idea how a movie could follow that kind of format, but since its on my PVR I'll find out this weekend."

I thought the book was great, but I don't think the movie did it justice.

A book in a similar style to World War Z is V-Wars: A Chronicle of the Vampire Wars. It's been in my TBR list for ages, and I was considering it for my Features a Vampire Bingo slot, but went with Dracula Unbound instead.

Another two very short stories in The Science Fiction Anthology - Junior by Robert Abernathy and Death Wish by Ned Lang. Neither was great, and Death Wish was pretty poor.

Another story in The Science Fiction Anthology - Meeting of the Minds by Robert Sheckley. A very good story with some Invasion of the Bodysnatchers vibes - an alien lifeform attempting to merge all life into a communal mind.

I have started reading Touch. I quite enjoyed her first book - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August and this has started well also.