Steve > Recent Status Updates

Highly rated, but poorly written. The author uses “fuck” like it’s punctuation, the characters’ accents jump between French and English for no clear reason, and the framing device feels like a clumsy ripoff of Interview with the Vampire. But apparently it gets better…?

The magic system feels a bit too DND; very turn based.

This book has a weird obsession with guns and books, both of which are constantly described in loving detail. The story itself feels like an erratic rush through a sub-Rivers of London world, but with surprisingly little plot. It really needs to take a breath and concentrate on building some atmosphere…

Note to author: you don’t need to remind the reader about the premise/logic/events that drive the story every 10 pages. We are not goldfish. Other than that, so far this is pulpy fun.

A Choice Of Gods: again, far better than I was expecting. More ruminative than the other tales in the omnibus, this is a more complete story. Having said that, in some respects this feels more like a fantasy than science fiction (although that may be intentional).

While still better than many stories written at a similar time, Way Station suffers from a lack of strong female characters (there are basically no female characters with much in the way of self-determination), and some of the macguffins are a little too convenient. It wouldn’t take much to update this for a modern audience however; I can see this making a good movie.

Time Is The Simplest Thing: given this was written in 1961, this is a far better story than I would have expected. Far more nuanced that other SF books I’ve read from the period. There’s even a role for a capable female character (albeit one is described as being competent “despite” being a woman). The SF itself is very hand-wavey, and is more an exercise in “what if” than an attempt at hard science.

25% of the way through, and I am desperately hoping something interesting happens soon otherwise this is heading towards my DNF shelf...