Poll

Which book did you vote for? Why?

I'm probably going to vote for Treason, although I read that not too long ago. It was really good in audio format. I've read all of them except Pilgrimage before & liked them very much.

Notes on availability:

Ship who sang: paper, kindle, audio all available.

Treason: paper, kindle, audio.

Lucifer's Hammer: paper, kindle, audio all available.

Pilgramage is only available as a used book. But Ingathering: The Complete People Stories contains the same stories in Kindle format. No audio format available.

They walked like men: paper only.

Let me know if you can find other editions of those last 2, because some people only use one format.

"They walked like men" sounds fun, and so does "Pilgramage". But partly due to availability I'm voting for "Ship who sang". May change my mind later, of course.

All this month's choices are interesting enough for me to read. So I chose the one by far most unknown. Trying to get hold of a copy is part of the fun for me.

I voted for Pilgrimage, because I nominated it and because I want to read it. But I'd be OK with Treason also. I'm not going to read the McCaffrey book any time soon - I'm having a hard enough time with her Dragonriders of Pern series.

Since Treason is doing so poorly, I'll probably change my vote. I'm leaning toward "The Ship Who Sang" since it's been so long since I last read it & I can't find an audio version of "Pilgramage" which would be my second pick.

Pilgrimage is one of my all time favorite books. Getting ahold of copies may not be easy, but oh, so worth it.

And the winner is .......... Lucifer's Hammer.

I wish this site would automatically close the poll at the right time, but looks like Jim will need to edit it.

I wanted "The Ship Who Sang". But I'll console myself with the fact that locally the Golden Gate Bridge has started singing.

https://twitter.com/markkrueg/status/...

Ed wrote: "And the winner is .......... Lucifer's Hammer.

I wish this site would automatically close the poll at the right time, but looks like Jim will need to edit it..."

No, it will automatically close at midnight PDT.

Dang it. I'm once again confused about what day it is. OK. Lucifer's Hammer might not win, but it looks likely that it will.

I apologize for the malfunctioning of my time machine. But now it seems that it really has won all over again!

While re-calibrating my time machine, I traveled to August 2014, the last time this group read Lucifer's Hammer.

ESCANDALO!

It should have been ineligible since the group has read it before. This shakes my faith in our democracy! I am hiding behind dark glasses and hope no one will recognize me around town.

Back then, there were 4 books for the group to read that month. So Lucifer's Hammer didn't get much activity.

Ed wrote: "I apologize for the malfunctioning of my time machine. But now it seems that it really has won all over again!"

And we should wish it many future wins as well! :)

So, do we read it in July?

We had kicked around the idea of rereading books after a while. This one slipped by & everyone has voted, so I'm loathe to cry foul. I'd say we read it, but discuss whether we should allow it in the future. I'd prefer to do that in a separate topic. I created it here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Should we read the runner-up as well?

I read this in the early 1980's and remember the general plot and also that I like it a lot. I usually don't like to re-read stuff since there is so much stuff out there I haven't read for the first time. But since it's been so long and I have fond memories of enjoying it the first time I will stick it on my Kindle and see if I can get too it in the near future. It will be interesting to see if the changes in my views and attitudes that occurred in the last 35-40 years will give me a different impression of the book. I just started "Four for Tomorrow" by Roger Zelazny with "Invincible" by Stanislaw Lem in the on-deck spot but I'll try to squeeze Lucifer's Hammer in between the first and second story of the Zelazny collection.

I started reading Lucifer's Hammer and hit a very funny and surreal interview of scientists at JPL at about the 13% in mark. I am surprised that I don't remember anything so far especially the scene below. While everybody was insisting the comet wouldn't hit the Earth they started to do a "what if" just for "fun".

"What we need is a good analogy. Um . . ." Sharps's brow furrowed.

"Hot fudge sundae," said Forrester.

"Hah?"

Forrester's grin was wide through his beard. "A cubic mile of hot fudge sundae. Cometary speeds."

Sharps's eyes lit up. "I like it! Let's hit Earth with a cubic mile of hot fudge sundae."

Lord God, they've gone bonkers, Harvey thought. The two men raced each other to the blackboard. Sharps began to draw. "Okay. Hot fudge sundae. Let's see: We'll put the vanilla ice cream in the center with a layer of fudge over it . . ."

He ignored the strangled sound behind him. Tim Hamner hadn't said a word during the whole interview. Now he was doubled over, holding himself, trying to hold in the laughter. He looked up, choked, got his face straight, said, "I can't stand it!" and brayed like a jackass. "My comet! A cubic mile of hot . . . fudge . . . sun . . . dae . . ."

"With the fudge as the outer shell," Forrester amplified, "so the fudge will heat up when the Hammer rounds the Sun."

"That's Hamner-Brown," Tim said, straight-faced.

"No, my child, that's a cubic mile of hot fudge sundae. And the ice cream will still be frozen inside the shell," said Sharps.

Harvey said, "But you forgot the—"

"We put the cherry at one pole and say that pole was in shadow at perihelion." Sharps sketched to show that when the comet rounded the Sun, the cherry at the oblate spheroid's axis would be on the side away from Sol. "We don't want it scorched. And we'll put crushed nuts all through it, to represent rocks. Say a two-hundred-foot cherry?"

"Carried by the Royal Canadian Air Force," Mark said.

"Stan Freberg! Right!" Forrester whooped. "Shhhh . . . plop! Let's see you do that on television!"

"And now, as the comet rounds the Sun, trailing a luminous froth of fake whipped cream, and aims itself down our throats . . . Dan, what's the density of vanilla ice cream?"

Forrester shrugged. "It floats. Say two-thirds."

"Right. Point six six six it is." Sharps seized a pocket calculator from the desk and punched frantically. "I love these things. Used to use slide rules. Never could figure out where the decimal point went.

"A cubic mile to play with. Five thousand two hundred and eighty feet, times twelve for inches, times two point five four for centimeters, cube that . . . We have two point seven seven six times ten to the fifteenth cubic centimeters of vanilla ice cream. It would take a while to eat it all. Times the density, and lo, we have about two times ten to the fifteenth grams. Couple of billion tons. Now for the fudge . . ." Sharps punched away.

Happy as a clam, Harvey thought. A very voluble clam equipped with Texas Instruments' latest pocket marvel.

"What do you like for the density of hot fudge?" Sharps asked.

"Call it point nine," Forrester said.

"Haven't any of you made fudge?" Charlene demanded. "It doesn't float. You test it by dripping it into a cup of cold water. Or at least my mother did."

"Say one point two, then," Forrester said.

"Another billion and a half tons of hot fudge," Sharps said.

I remember that clearly. It is funny & it made an impression. Try to remember to repost this when we actually start reading the book.

Whoops, looks like I jumped the gun. When do we officially start reading the book?

Jim wrote: "Whoops, looks like I jumped the gun. When do we officially start reading the book?"

As the title of the poll says "July 2020".
;)

Sorry. I haven't been able to keep my dates straight between being retired and now locked down here in NJ with the coronavirus. I'm about 20% through and will have to keep going so I don't lose the thread and also because it's an enjoyable read. I promise I'll try to keep my months straight in the future !!!!

Not a problem. I've been known to jump the gun & lose track of the date myself.
:)