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AvonVilla

AvonVilla@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 2 years, 2 months ago

In 1972 I was nine years old and my Mum bought me a copy of "Trillions" by Nicholas Fisk. We lived on a farm six kilometres from the town of Canowindra in NSW, Australia. I had enjoyed picture books and Australian classics like "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie", "Blinky Bill" and "The Magic Pudding", but somehow "Trillions" seemed like a REAL book, with ideas and characters to relate to.

Farm life makes you receptive to the universal gateway of books. I can remember being so engaged in a book, that when I had to do a chore like feed the horses, I'd work as fast as I can, as if I was missing out on the book the way I would be if I had to interrupt a TV show.

That was the start. I have logged all my reading for the last 15 years or so, and I've now added most of those books here. That can tell you the rest of the story.

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AvonVilla's books

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William R. Catton: Overshoot 4 stars

To quote John Michael Greer: "Plenty of books in the 1970s and early 1980s applied …

We were doomed in 1980, and we're doomed now

4 stars

The basic premise of this book is that technology has allowed the human population of planet Earth to grow to an unsustainable level, and when the resources used to enable that technology are exhausted, we are going to experience a catastrophic crash.

The book was published in 1980, and it is peppered with references to the oil crises of the 70s. That was when people in America and similar countries got their first taste of what would happen to their lives if the oil tap got turned off. Since then, as we now know, we've been able to keep the oil flowing. But the overshoot hypothesis remains in place, because the oil and other resources WILL run out at some stage, and when they do we will have made the problem even worse because we now have 8 billion people instead of 4 billion. To feed them all, we still …

Rudger Bregman, Elizabeth Manton, Erica Moore: Humankind (Hardcover, 2020, Little, Brown and Company) 4 stars

Humankind: A Hopeful History (Dutch: De Meeste Mensen Deugen: Een Nieuwe Geschiedenis van de Mens) …

A must-read in the age of polarisation and division

4 stars

The central argument of this book is that human beings are basically decent people who care for each other and have an urge to co-operate. The author seeks to debunk the ideas like the one presented in the novel "Lord of the Flies", that people are violent and destructive at heart, and that without the restraints of civilisation, we would collapse into conflict and chaos. This misanthropic concept is also put forward by 17th century philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who claimed humans are inclined to descend into a "war of all against all".

Instead, Rutger Bregman proposes that our natural, primitive state is dominated by an urge to be social, to please each other, to co-operate. He compares it to the way some domestic animals have evolved to be friendly and playful, and says that this is the driving force behind evolutionary success. His nickname for the loving, caring humanity is …

Marion St. John Webb: Knock three times! (Hardcover, Funk & Wagnalls Company) 4 stars

To Hell with Narnia, go to The Possible World

4 stars

Sometime around 1971, I saw the dramatised version of "Knock Three Times!" on TV in Australia. It left a big impression on my pre-teen self, but I didn't get around to reading the 1917 book it was based on until now. I think it's a bit of a lost classic, with enough originality and verve to be on the same shelf as "Alice in Wonderland" and "The Wizard of Oz".

Instead of a rabbit hole, wardrobe, or house-launching tornado, the magical land here is accessed via a door in a particular tree in the wood. After (of course) knocking three times, we are granted access to "The Possible World". Our "Impossible" dimension is seen as tainted, and it serves as a sort of dumping ground for evil creatures exiled from the fantasy land to keep it pure. The nomenclature references the concept of "the best of all possible worlds", although …

reviewed The Citadel of the Autarch by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the New Sun, #4)

Gene Wolfe: The Citadel of the Autarch (1982) 5 stars

The Citadel of the Autarch is a science fantasy novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, …

A blinding nuclear fusion of science fiction and fantasy

5 stars

I gave the first three volumes of The Book of the New Sun 5 stars. In reality there are large parts of them which confounded me. Perhaps with more careful re-readings I would dock a star or two. Or maybe I'd like them even more, and defy reality to add to a perfect score. 11 out of 10!

Having finished the fourth and final book, I have a perception that there were fewer mysteries in it. The great adventure of Severian speeds up. He is caught up in war, he encounters time travel anomalies, he achieves the destiny he mentioned in the very first chapter of the saga. There are no stories within stories to perplex the reader, but Severian's philosophical speculations are at times lengthy. He muses in detail about the miracles he has performed, wondering whether the relic he carried, or some power within himself was the cause. …

Gene Wolfe: The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun) (Paperback, 1991, Legend paperbacks) 5 stars

Monsters, giants, aliens and philosophy

5 stars

By the time you get to the third volume of "The Book of the New Sun", you should be used to Severian's philosophical digressions. You will have heard him say many times, either directly or obliquely, that there are contradictions, inaccuracies and mysteries in his account of the events which have led him from the Citadel of Nessus to the Northern city of Thrax.

These ponderous diversions continue in "The Sword of the Lictor", but somehow, in this book, they seem more digestible. This could be because the story contains some old-fashioned scary monsters of a most thrilling kind, and a series of battles where Wolfe shows us he can write an exciting action scene just as well as he can weave a confounding tale with multiple interpretations and a web of literary allusions.

I particularly enjoyed the encounter with the Alzabo, a man-eating monster which absorbs the memories of …

Gene Wolfe: The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun, #2) (Paperback, 1982, Pocket) 5 stars

The Claw of the Conciliator is a science fantasy novel by American writer Gene Wolfe, …

It is no easy road!

5 stars

Although The Book of the New Sun is unquestionably a single novel published as a tetralogy, its second volume is delineated by narrative structures which set it apart. Severian, the narrator and protagonist, skips over a period of time and resumes his tale without revealing precisely what happened immediately after the events at the end of the first book. He ends this volume, like the first, with the characteristic words "here I pause", followed by a warning that his tale is a difficult one. He will not blame the reader who gives up and does not continue to follow his tale.

In the middle are surreal events of bewildering, even frustrating opacity. At the same time, there are breathtaking imaginary creations which stay with you long after you turn the last page. If you have succumbed to Severian's tale, by now you are addicted. You must keep reading, if only …

reviewed The shadow of the torturer by Gene Wolfe (The Book of the new sun -- v.1)

Gene Wolfe: The shadow of the torturer (1981, Arrow) 5 stars

The Shadow of the Torturer is the first volume in the four-volume series, The Book …

le Guin's blurb nails it - a masterpiece begins

5 stars

This book is superb and unique, the first volume in a fantasy saga of deep beauty and horror. It is set on a far future earth, where alien life has blended with native species under an ageing sun which will soon fail and deprive the planet of life-sustaining light. In the southern hemisphere, a "Commonwealth" is ruled by a supreme leader called the Autarch. Punishments under the law include torture and execution, to be carried out with utmost precision by members of the guild of torturers. The protagonist and narrator, Severian, is kicked out of his guild for malpractice, and begins a journey which leads to him becoming the new Autarch.

That summary of the setting and the basic plot doesn't explain the dreamlike mysteries of this future world. Severian is narrating his story after gaining almost supernatural insights into the earth and its history. But the events he recounts …

Jonathan Stroud: The Legendary Scarlett and Browne (2025, Random House Children's Books) 4 stars

Another typically explosive, fun read from the reliable Mr Stroud

4 stars

The Scarlett and Browne series is like a mash-up. The setting is similar to John Wyndham's "The Chrysalids", but Stroud's mutant outcasts struggle against religious tyranny in a very British post-apocalyptic world, rather than Wyndham's north American nightmare future. There's also a bit of the flavour of "His Dark Materials", "Riddley Walker" and "The Prince in Waiting" in Stroud's latest trilogy... all very good quality ingredients, blending to create a dish with a flavour of its own.

A not-so secret ingredient is the influence of the western, as the sharpshooting, gunslinging outlaw Scarlett McCain faces off at high noon against various adversaries. Hilariously, she and Albert Browne roam the wildlands astride bicycles , rather than horses.

And so we come to this conclusion of the trilogy. I re-read the first two books to get back in the groove, and perhaps I overdosed a bit, because I found this third installment …

Karel Capek: R.U.R.: War with the Newts (2011, Gollancz) 4 stars

AI, fascism, human extinction and other follies

4 stars

Two of the most famous works by Capek are collected in this SF Masterworks edition. I greatly enjoyed both of them. R.U.R. is, unusually, a play. It tells of the creation of synthetic humans and the disastrous consequences. It is famous for coining the term "robot", and it is as relevant as ever in this technological age, more than a century after it was written.

"War With the Newts" is more overtly satirical, darkly comic in places. It is a novel about the discovery of an intelligent amphibious species, which proves itself adept at using many aspects of human technology, while being incapable of adopting other elements of our culture. The book is loaded with references to the political and military calamity into which the world was careering at the time it was written, 1936.

I feel further enriched to learn about Capek. He was Czech, and his homeland features …