2023 Reading List: Part 2

SF Books Singletons in a Series

So, continuing with what I've read this year. Some brief comments on each, as I find I'm not one for writing in depth reviews.

Octavia Gone by Jack McDevitt

Book 8 of Alex Benedict series.

I'm a big fan of McDevitt's work, and his A Talent for War comes highly recommended by me. 

Octavia Gone was better than the previous book released in his other series, but I kind of feel that the series has lost steam. Though I could be wrong.

If you're a fan you will likely enjoy this. If not, it depends on whether or not you like archaeological mysteries set in the far future?

 

Monster Hunter Bloodlines by Larry Correia

I've been hooked on this series since I read Monster Hunter International.

Eight books in and all the plot threads are coming together.

For those who hate Larry, I don't care. Like John Scalzi, his online persona is one thing, and face-to-face another. I found him charming, and his wife Bridget is lovely.

Besides, guns, monsters, more guns, more monster, world ending events, all written with humour that makes these a fun read.

 

Failure Mode by Craig Alanson 

This is book 15 of the series that I reviewed here. Of course we had to get the book that ties up Skippy and Joe and his merry band of pirates story.

The series as a whole is a little padded out, and a lot of the fans thought the ending felt flat. I on the other hand thought the ending was the best it could be given the set-up.

Once you've saved the galaxy any sorting out of loose ends up is everything is going to feel flat. However, there's new book out, so we shall see where the story goes next.

Alliance Rising by C. J. Cherryh 

An Alliance–Union universe novel.

Rimrunners is my favourite in this long running series. Each novel tends to be a standalone that adds to the richness of the universe. All the stories are snapshots of particular events that lead to Malazan and the Company War.

This is the story of how the balance of power between Earth, the stations, and Cyteen changes, which sounds a bit blah, blah, blah, but really isn't.

Oddments (short stories) by Marko Kloos

This is a collection of Kloos's short stories. I love his Frontlines series and must at some point try his Palladium War series too.

My copy is from the first print run and lacks the table of contents, which makes it a super rare collectable (at least in my fevered imagination).

I have the new Scorpio Frontlines: Evolution arriving soon. So this is a series I recommend. 

 

 

Memory's Legion (short stories) by  James S. A. Corey

What can I say about this series that hasn't already be said? Probably nothing.

This is a collection of all the short stories that add different perspectives to the various reveals in the main novels. Answering questions like what happened to Nagata's son? What the future holds for Amos?

 A must read for all fans of the Expanse series.

 

3zekiel (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron

This a series that isn't a series in the conventional sense of a shared setting and continuing characters, but rather a one that explores various first contact scenarios.

Both this and Clowns really gripped me, and I want to read a bunch more of his novels in due course.

 

 

 

Midworld by Alan Dean Foster

A part of his Humanx Commonwealth series: Midworld; Cachalot; Nor Crystal Tears; Voyage to the City of the Dead; Sentenced to Prism; The Howling Stones; Drowning World; Quofum.

This is pretty much a standalone story. One could see how this story along with Call me Joe by Poul Anderson, may have inspired Avatar.

Foster is not noted as a great prose stylist, but he can sure spin a solid story. His ability to weave plots is second to none.Classic old school SF.

Probability Moon by Nancy Kress 

First book of a trilogy.

Yeah, not sure about this. It has promise, but it's the first book in a trilogy, which I haven't been able to get copies of to finish reading.

 So colour me cautiously optimistic that I'll enjoy the rest as and when I get copies.

 

 

SF  Standalone Books

Redliners by David Drake

Okay, David Drake died this year, which prompted me to pick up and read this.

I think it's better than his Hammer Slammer series. Strong words when you think about the love and esteem that fans of Mil-SF hold that series in.

Here's why, it doesn't read as trauma therapy, but rather asking and striving to answer how society should handle soldiers traumatized by war?

It's a great read. Arguably his best book. YMMV.

 

There is no Antimemetics Division and Ed by QNTM aka Sam Hughes

QNTM aka Sam Hughes writes books that will not be to everybodies taste, because he expects the reader's ability to keep up, and  takes no prisoners, gives no quarter if they can't.

That puts off some readers who expect more explanation, character development, plot etc. If that is you, probably best to skip these.

However, if you want squirrely cosmic horror to blow you mind, he's your man.

 

Redemolished by Alfred Bester (short stories and essays)

My reading, while mostly focused on SF, is still pretty eclectic because I also read to learn how to write better. Writing takes practice, and reading is part of that practice.

Anyways, enough of the bloviating.

Alfred Bester is like Roy Battie from Blade Runner. He burnt so bright, delivering two outstanding novels and some short stories to then fall to the wayside.

 

Farside by Patrick Chiles 

A story set five-minutes into the future, featuring commercial space flight, and then all hell breaks loose.

I remember enjoying this book when I read it, but for the life of me as I sit writing what to say I can't remember anything of note.

 

 

 

WHISPER Flashpoint by Brandon Fero

Marketed as the first in a series that has not seen any sequels since publication.

I know Brandon through social media, and a shared love of mecha. He started with a Kickstarter for a line of miniatures and this novel to tie everything together.

Imagine if Tom Clancy wrote Mil-SF and this is what you'd expect to read. Here's hoping sequels appear.

So that's another 14 books to the 46 I've read this year.

 

 

Non SF Books Read

Slough House Series by Mick Herron (8 books)

Slow Horses, Dead Lions, Real Tigers, Spook Street, London Rules, Joe Country, Slough House, Bad Actors, and Standing by the Wall (a collection of 5 Slough House novellas).

Okay, this series is outside my usual ball park. I forget exactly why I picked up the first book, maybe because I wanted to read how to handle characters working for intelligence services.

Without doubt this is the best written series of of books I've ever read, and I've read some pretty well written series like those from Adrian Tchaikovsky and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. So this is high praise coming from me.

There is also a series on Apple TV that has drawn accolades for the series and the acting. Gary Oldman leads, and I will pretty much watch anything with him it.

Shelter in Place by Nora Roberts

I read this because it was recommended as a good standalone that would introduce me Nora Robert's writing, and as an example of how a top writer handles stories with traumatic events that can upset readers.

It's well written, compelling, but not my cup of tea.

I shall think about trying something else of hers. Don't get me wrong, it's just I'm not all that interested in stories whose ideas are rooted in everyday pain and misery.

Summary

Total banger reads: The Final Architecture trilogy; the Slough House series; Dogs of War & Bear Head duology; Redliners; and Monster Hunter Bloodlines.

Running total number of books 46 + 14 + 9 = 69.

2023 Reading List: Part 1

SF Books Series

So, another year's worth of reading and time to pontificate on them. This year I've read a record number of books. Okay, first up books where I've read a large number of books of a series, or both books of a duology, or all three books in a trilogy.

The Retrieval Artist Series by Kristine Kathryn Rusch (16 books)

The Disappeared, Extremes, Consequences, Buried Deep, Paloma, Recovery Man, Duplicate Effort, Anniversary Day, Blowback, A Murder of Clones, Search and Recovery, The Peyti Crisis, Vigilantes, Starbase Human, Masterminds.

The first three books in this series didn't grab me like her Diving series, so I took a break before starting book four.

Then the story just took off and I was compelled to consume the rest of the books one after the other.

So highly recommended as worth your time.

 

Xeelee Series by Stephen Baxter (6 books)

Xeelee Omnibus (collecting four novels: Raft, Timelike Infinity, Flux, Ring), Xeelee Redemption, Vacuum Diagrams (short stories).

Baxter is not an author I've read before, and I started with Proxima, which is not a Xeelee book, but afterwards I thought it was time to try.

He's not what could be called a writer of emotional conflict, but a big ideas author, and there are some big ideas here. Mind blowingly big.

Redemption is the last book in the timeline, which means I'm reading the last two books out of order, but this won't be a problem.

Poor Man's Fight by Elliot Kay (6 books)

Poor Man's Fight, Rich Man's War, Dead Man's Debt, No Medals for Secrets, Last Man Out, and the recently No Man's Land.

Another new to me author this year, and I'm currently reading the last book as I write this so, you can take that as another recommendation. 

I like the three main characters Tanner Malone, Alicia Wong, and Lynette Kelly.

A rich universe, with plenty of exciting alien shenanigans.

 

Drop Trooper by Rick Partlow (4 books)

Contact Front, Kinetic Strike, Danger Close, Direct Fire. First four books in an ongoing series with 14 titles published so far.

Recommended to me by Paul of the Man Cave.

I bought the first and ended up read it it one sitting. This meant I had to go buy the next three because I wanted to know what happens next?

Full throttle, high octane action featuring power armour, orbital drops and aliens.

What more do you want?

 

The Final Architecture by Adrian Tchaikovsky (3 books)

Shards of Earth,  Eyes of the Void, Lords of Uncreation.

Bought the first as a hardback because it was on sale.

I then ended up buying the rest in hardback to match, because... I don't make the rules.

Really impressive high concept space opera that has pretty solid science ideas.

Loved it so much I bought another couple of his books. See below.

 

War Dogs by Greg Bear (3 books)

War Dogs, Killing Titan, Take Back the Sky.

Recommended to my by my friend Brian, this trilogy is best described as a fever dream.

It describes a desperate war against aliens set on Mars and across our solar system.

Parts of the combat reminded me of the first half of Steakley's Armor.

Also has some interesting ideas on the Fermi paradox.

 

Proxima & Ultima by Stephen Baxter (2 books)

I picked up a copy of Proxima for free at an Eastercon a long time ago as a freebie. 

It sat on my TBR pile for years, lost under other books.

As I said above, he's not a writer who deals in emotional conflict (the passion of love etc.), rather he writes plots about big ideas of what if the universe or reality works like this...where this is some physics idea or consequence of physics.

 This duology gave me the confidence to seek out his Xeelee books.

 

Redux Duology by Gregg Cunningham (2 books)

Redux: The Lost Patrol, Redux II: The Search For Floyd.

I got the first book because of the intriguing reviews about how the author handled a  time-travel war story with cascading causality.

Where each trip creates a paradox as the outcome of each trip takes hold and has to be corrected.

This has a plot best described as a messy ball of timey-wimey time loops that interleave to form a plot that comes to a bitter sweet ending in the second book. 

Floyd, Commander Redux's faithful robot is funny to boot. Worth your time if you like adventures through time.

Provenance & Translation State by Ann Leckie (2 books)  

Provenance is a low key story that disappointed some readers, but which satisfied me. 

Translation state has a terrible cover, but holds a compelling story about the Presger translators. 

Fans will enjoy what little is given away here about the Presger and the Radaach.If you liked the original Ancillary trilogy then you'll probably enjoy these. 

If you didn't enjoy her previous trilogy, then it's probably best to avoid these two too.

 

Dogs of War & Bear Head by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2 books)

Rex is a good dog.

Rex and the other bio-engineered animals in this story are being used as special operations weapons for unpleasant wars in far-off countries.

 It will hit you in the feels. 

The sequel is arguably better.

So that's a brief overview of the first 46 of the  books I've read over the year. Next half tomorrow.

Merry Christmas 2023

Happy Hols, and or another appropriate greeting that suits.

My beloved took this picture of our tree, who is the most wonderful woman in the whole wide world.

Everyone have a lovely day and catch you later.

Ukraine Offensive Update

I've really enjoyed the series of assessments by Colonel Markus Reisner on YouTube.

Probably a bit dry for the casual viewer, but his professional explanation of the summer offensive. I think it  provides an objective summary of the action. 

Colonel Reisner confirms that Ukrainian officials have stated that the offensive failed to meet its objectives after more than 190 days of operations.

This is not good, but it should not be seen as an excuse for the West to stop supporting Ukraine. To do so would be to encourage further Russian belligerence.

Ukraine Soldiers Explain Counteroffensive Combat

A good narrative summary of the horribleness in the Ukraine.

Most Critics Suck

Welcome to my blog, and sorry for click-bait title. Today I am going to talk about critics, and why they mostly suck. Except for the few like Patrick (H) Willems who is also film maker.

I am Ashley Pollard, and Patrick's critiques are the reason why I'm writing this piece.

Critics talk about the why's, who's, how's, when's and where's of a story they're critiquing.

Patrick's piece on Jack Snyder is especially illuminating, and since I'm now going to criticize Patrick by saying his observations about translating Alan Moore's Watchmen into a film are off base. I will add, in case any of Patrick's fan are enraged at me criticizing his take on Snyder's Watchman movie, he's right about the dichotomy.

For me, he misses a salient point; the medium is the message.

Hollywood films are their own thing, and Zack Snyder is Hollywood (that's a metaphor for the slow of thinking). If you agree that the medium is the message then the use of the comic strip medium to tell a story, and Snyder's film translation of the story are going to be at odds with each other.

It's an inevitable outcome.

A critique is a message about how another's message has been perceived by the consumer of the message, and how and what they think of the message. That's my tongue in cheek critique of critics criticizing works.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-critics per se, just the way the art of criticizing works leads to circling the drain of content. Even the best critics can produce critiques that suck.

I had so much fun writing this. Just saying so you know.

UAP Aerogel Drones

Came across this video on YouTube researching science and technology called, Aerogel - The Secret Link. The title is all click-baity, but I checked it out, and apart from a few over-excited extrapolations I think they're basically right.

I've known about aerogel for a while. It's a proposed material for deep space particle protection along with Whipple Shields. I'm a science nerd, bite me.

Anyway, I followed the links: Light-induced levitation of ultralight carbon aerogels via temperature control, Layered shell vacuum balloons, which are just ways of making a vacuum airship/balloon, that uses the fact that a vacuum is lighter than air instead of a lighter-than-air gas.

Below is a screen capture from the second link.

The problem up to now is how to make a balloon that is light, yet strong enough to resist being crushed by the air pressure?

My position on the whole UFO/UAP hysteria is that these are secret projects. YMMV

Are We Losing The Essence Of Science Fiction?

Sci-Fi Odyssey on YouTube asks Are We Losing The Essence Of Science Fiction? The answer is probably no, but I'm sharing to discuss.

A Rod Sterling quote sums up my position, "It is said that science fiction and fantasy are two different thing. Science fiction is the the improbable made possible, and fantasy is the the impossible made probable." 

So a lot of SF/Sci-Fi/speculative fiction meets that criteria. What we are then left with is taste.

My SF is better than your SF because mine has maths/literary merit/deals with serious issues etc. And here is where Sturgeon's Law comes into play, 90% of everything is trash. 

My perspective is that human beings are not capable of being rational about subjects (see Professor Sapolsky's lectures for the gribbly detail). To simplify, the ideal may be infinite diversity in infinite combination, but humans can't handle an infinite number of diverse combinations.

My conclusion led me to write my own SF books, and I can say that what I like to write is not necessarily what people like to read.

Fermi Paradox Discussed by Brian Cox

Brian Cox shares the most popular theories of why haven’t we found aliens? Sharing because it allows me to expand some salient points that are not mentioned, but need to be stated for clarity.

Assumptions

1. The speed of light sets the maximum rate any species can expand, and this, along with the inverse square law, would limit detection too.

2. The average distance between stars is approximately 6 light years. 

3. Space is very big. The volume of the milky way is approximately 785,398,163,397,448 light-years. That's 785 trillion light years.

So if you divide the average distance between stars into the volume, then we get 130 trillion years of travel time. Now that sets the maximum time it would take to visit every star, and of course we, or a hypothetical alien species, wouldn't  need to visit every star.

I've discussed this on my other blog where I bloviated on Aliens in BattleTech, and four years ago on this blog about the Fermi Paradox. If you click the latter, I gave a ball park figure of 31 billion years to colonize the galaxy at slower than light speed.

Obviously, the assumptions will generate a different range of guesses, but that's the best we can do.

Clash of Steel Anthology

A hundred tons of steel and more firepower than the devil himself… they should be invincible, but armored combat is brutal and mistakes are fatal.

Within, mech jockeys and tread heads take on the world one powerful blast at a time, risking it all for duty, fame, and glory.

But deep down, they fear a savage contradiction:

Armor can be your salvation.

It can also be your worst nightmare.

Which will hold true? Climb into the commander’s hatch and find out. Buy a copy of this amazing anthology today. You deserve answers!

Amazon US

Amazon UK

I'm honoured to be in this anthology, along with some rather famous writers. My contribution is an 8000 word short story set in my Gate Walker universe called, Indian Summer Rain.

PteroDynamics X-P4 Transwing®

 

They call this a sizzle video.

For those wondering what I'm doing, a few of you do ask what I'm writing, I've been editing other people's work... mostly.

Mostly being broken on occasion by editing my Cosmic horror novel.

Slow and steady will get me to my goal.

Barbie: A Subversive Review

 

And, to answer Hans-Georg Moeller, I don't know or care what is authentic. If a product triggers joyful emotions by manipulating my emotions that evolved over millions of years, then I think that's clever of them.

Of course, since I know that the western industrial media complex seeks to sell me on stuff, then if I'm bothered I can choose to not engage.

The caveat being whether or not one has any real choice in a world where physics says everything is determined, even if the variables mean that one can't calculate the outcomes. So saying don't watch Barbie can lead to you watching it.

Yeah, studying physics and quantum mechanics does your head in.

You're welcome.

What Do Scientists Think About UFOs/UAPs?

Worth watching for the statistical analysis of the numbers and what it means for the chances of any unidentified object seen in the sky.

How much money do I actually make as a writer

Title says it all. The guy breaks down the likely earnings for both Trad and Indie authors.

Five Times Interstellar Got Physics Wrong

I so wanted to love Interstellar. Just the pictures of the black hole alone made it a visually stunning movie. But, several things threw me out of the story.

The first being the use of the SLS to launch the crew to the orbiting ship. Not because the SLS is in anyway or shape bad, but because it set my level of expectation on the technological assumptions; no single stage to orbit rockets.

Then what so we see later? Single stage to orbit rockets. Not only that, designs that could never carry enough fuel for the Delta-V required to fulfill the mission.

After that the film might have well been Star Wars, which I love, but Interstellar had none of the joy or excitement of the former. As for the plot, again I had no problem with the MacGuffin, but what it wrapped around it was I felt utter trite sentimentality.

And don't get me wrong, I don't mind sentimentality, I do dislike trite story telling.

Indian Summer Rain

This is a notice that I've been invited to write a short story for an anthology. The shift from trying to write my novel, to actually writing a short story to meet the set deadline has rather discombobulated me.

Also, much to my surprise, new ideas for the story are springing into my mind.

So, the words are being put on paper (metaphorically that is), and as all writers know, the words must flow.

This notice is to inform you all that I'm really hard up against a deadline, and any correspondence I owe will be late. I apologize for this delay. Remember the words must flow for stories to be written.

RT: 5,569 words

Picture a clue to amuse, a space filler, or to be ignored: delete as appropriate.

Indignation: Addiction and Hope

Brin doesn't always manage to convert his ideas into practical actions that work, or at least not from what I've seen. His arguments about bets come across differently when looking at them from the other side of the argument. 

They come off as the intellectual equivalent of bullying. At least to me.

There again I look at everything as confrontation between differing perspectives, with negotiation and deescalation  being the prime goal so that that a problem can be worked on cooperatively. But, what do I know?

However, this talk struck a chord; It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth, the minor fall, the major lift...

Science Fiction: Gatekeeping, Fandom & Genre Stagnation

Caught this, and I have opinions, which are probably not fair given this guy is doing an informal video talk about his opinions. Here's the reply I left.

I'm going to have to go away and think about this. While a lot of the points raised are worth discussing, I found some of the conclusions weak. For example, Sci-Fi as a term, coined by Forrest J. Ackerman, who arguably was the first high profile SF media fan as opposed to SF literature fan.

I used to rankle at SF being called Sci-Fi or skiffy, but nowadays I don't think it really matters because any negative implications from the term have long been overcome by the ubiquity of SF as a genre. Looking down on the term says more about the person looking down on it than the genre; namely intellectual snobbery.

And that's my problem with gatekeepers for what is essentially something that no longer makes any sense in the world as it is now, as compared to the 1930s, the evolution through the genre from the 1940s and 50s, to the new wave of the sixties and early 70s etc.

I tend to agree that fantasy encompassing sword and sorcery, epic fantasy and the such is not trying to emulate the sense of wonder that SF achieves when at its best. And as you say, revolutionary ideas are different to the evolution of tropes.

However, placing publishing as gatekeepers who are upholding the traditions of the genre doesn't stand up to scrutiny. An equally convincing argument can be made that they've held back the genre because their goals are to make profits, not evolve the genre per se. And, I agree these are not mutually contradictory goals, but the evidence is in product on the shelves.

Also, writers like Kristine Kathryn Rusch are self-published, yet also featured in traditional magazines (she is a Hugo award winner back in the 1990s), and the problem is rather diminishment of publishing from corporate buyouts. If anything one can argue that despite the criticism of self-publishing as being slapdash, this is the only area where a writer can write what they want, rather than write to market.

Of course, I would concede that a large number of self-published writers will write to market, but this has always been the case. It is a feature of capitalism, not a bug. As such, there's room for all fiction to reach the market, but the problem I fear you're actually railing against is how to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

That's a problem that I have no answer to, except that broad sweeping generalizations about self-publishing, and arguing from what one prefers has led to the arguments we see in social media. The vastness of cultural products, their accessibility, and becoming jaded from a glut of books to read only leads to a cul-de-sac of refined taste, and and as such becomes largely inaccessible to the general book reader.

TL;DR: There's room for revolutionary stories and re-framed retelling's of old stories.

Slow Horses: Strange Game - Mick Jagger

I've read the first six books, and I'm now looking forward to the opportunity to watch the TV series. Of course, that means signing up for Apple TV, but they also have a couple of other shows we'd both like to watch, so it will happen some time soon.

For soon that is defined as in the near future.

Worth watching just for the Mick Jagger theme song. The humour is very British, but that's a good thing, and then there's Gary Oldman, and he's well worth watching too.

Snappy Title...

The month has passed me by. I thought of a snappy title, but didn't want to give the wrong impression. So the long and the short of the month is that I've been reading a lot. It takes me away from problems that are outside of my control. It is what it is.

Failure Mode the last book in the Expeditionary Force series by Craig Allanson

The finale. Sort of figured out the shape of the ending, as in there is a story that is set up in a certain way and the ending has to deliver on the promise. So while the details of said ending were well played, there was nothing unexpected. No twist that might have made me go, I didn't think of that! Fun read.

Leviathan Falls last book in The Expanse series by by James S. Corey

The conclusion to the Holden and proto-molecule shenanigans that was the basis of six seasons of TV space show awesomeness. The books are subtlety different to the show, which is neither good nor bad. Arguably the books do some things better than the show, and the show does some things better than the books. For example Cara Gee as Drummer, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Chrisjen Avasarala

Again, the promise of the story and the title pretty much gives away the plot of the book. The epilogue was a welcome, if slightly predicable from projecting the consequences of the plot, meant again that the basic shape of the ending was obvious; it was just the order of the details.

That might be me being a bit harsh.

Shards of Earth & Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

The first two books of the Final Architecture series, which I think is going to be a trilogy. Has the whole Expanse vibe going for it, except the setting is farther into the future.

Really enjoyed both. They kept me thinking, and surprised me too. So highly recommended.

War Dogs Trilogy by Greg Bear

War Dogs, Killing Titan, and Take Back the Sky read as a result of his passing, which was not your typical MilSF story. Felt like I was reading a fever dream, or someone recounting a their trauma.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamysin Muir

Another fever dream of a read, is this gay romp; think Rocky Horror Picture show, featuring lesbian necromancers, which I understand is now a thing.  We met the author at a convention several years ago, before the dark times, and she was a scream to hang out with. Not a book for everyone, but a book that a lot of people will enjoy.

I've managed to read a bunch of other books too, but I'll talk about them next time.

However, I will say that I've started reading Mick Herron's Slow Horses series, as research for Anderson's character development in my current draft of Two Moons. 

Also, I've managed to get about half way through the editing of my Cthulhu novel, The Bureau, which is good.

Things are looking up. That's all for now.

New Year: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Time to look back over what I've read this year, and I've read a lot more this year, exceeding any expectations I might have set (I read about 25 to 30 books each year), which is good.

I'm going to start with a metaphor that may or may not work, gentrification.

The SF genre started out as slums. No self respecting writer would write science fiction, think of those who said things like my story is about the future not just squids in space.

Yes, Verne and Wells wrote what we would call SF, but they didn't think of themselves as SF authors. The foundations of the genre were built on their work, but it was Hugo Gernsback who coined the word scientifiction, his preferred term for the genre of science fiction.

Stories that were to be built on science.

His magazine Amazing Stories being the mechanism for bringing this new genre to the market. To say he was a bit of a wheeler-dealer who played fast and loose in business is just an illustration of the human condition where everybody is struggling to make money.

So from these humble beginning the genre evolved, weighed down by aspirations of respectability.

Some writers wanting to be seen as more than purveyors of squids in space. That in a nutshell is what drove the writers in the genre, which can be seen in the New Wave and Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions.

Hence my metaphor of gentrification.

Arguably, which is what I'm doing here, is that it is the gentrification of the genre that has led to the current divide in SF between the traditional published authors of the last 40 years and the independent authors that have risen out of Amazon's KDP.

Nailing my colours to the mast, I see the political shenanigans of the genre as more indicative of the divide between high and low brow culture than anything else. I hate snobbery, so colour me as ambivalent towards the intellectual rarefaction from high brow pontification (yes, that's an ironic sentence).

So, here's my opinions on what I've read this year.

SF Series

Expeditionary Force series by Craig Allanson (14 books)

With all of the above in mind, otherwise why would I write it, Allanson is the E. E. Doc Smith of the 21st Century. This will probably replace the Lensman series that young readers will find that introduce them to SF.

So, not great literature, but fabulous story telling, which some older readers of a more refined mindset may find repetitious, but remember other people have simpler tastes, and that is a good thing.

Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (2 books: Skin Game & Peace Talks)

Hopefully I don't have to extol the virtues of this series? In a fair world where snobbery wasn't rampant these would've won the Hugo, and be considered good gateway books to the SF&F genre. But we don't live in a fair world, and it's worth remembering that if it were fair then everything bad would've happened because we deserved it.

Kris Longknife series by Mike Shepherd aka Mike Moscoe (19 books)

Think Hornblower, or Honor Harrington, and you'll have a good grasp of what this series is about. Could also be a contender of the next  E. E. Doc Smith or perhaps David Webber?

I don't know. All I can say is that I consumed them as fast as I could read.

Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells (6 books)

And just to be contrary, not really contrary, just detached from all the emotional turmoil that subsume the genre since 2009 or thereabouts, here is a series by a traditional published author who has had a along career before these breakout books (breakout being the term for best sellers that used to be the hallmark of publishing, back in the day, before the event).

Again, I consumed them with a passion only tempered by the cost of them.

Centers of Gravity by Marko Kloos (Book 8 of the Frontlines series)

An ending of the story for the characters, but hopefully not an end of the stories in this universe. There is much left unresolved about the Lankies and the fate of humanity in a hostile universe.

I've just read that there is a spin-off series coming out, which is good news. I'm now looking forward to reading it.

SF&F Singletons

Clowns by Peter Cawdron

My Sweet Satan by Peter Cawdron

Peter's stick is writing first contact novels. He plays with different scenarios for each of his stories. He's written a whole bunch of these And both of these were great. Cerebral SF that make you think. I like the attention he pays to the psychology of first contact.

I shall be reading more.

The Rise of Io by Wesley Chu

The Fall of Io by Wesley Chu (sequel that's really the second half of the story)

My beloved bought these, and I read them so we could discuss what we thought. They were fine, but truth be told I could barely remember reading them.

I don't regret reading them, but they weren't memorable. Read so that I have an understanding of what is happening in the genre, and not look like a complete fool.

Nor Crystal Tears by Alan Dean Foster

Read this oldie that remains a goldie. Foster is what I would consider a pedestrian writer, his prose doesn't set the world alight, but it is workmanlike, all the joints fit, the finish is smooth. Again, in a fairer world he would be talked about more, because if he'd written these in the 50s and 60s he would've been considered a successor to the greats.

And, I should add, this is a delightful story.

Re-Reads

Alien by Alan Dean Foster

Aliens by Alan Dean Foster

After describing Foster as pedestrian, you may wonder why I read and re-read his work? They answer is complicated, but can be boiled down to the fact that I'm drawn in by the unpretentious stories. The deliver what they promise, and he ends them well enough.

Workmanlike (courting controversy with gendered language) they show people as just people (even aliens are people), and that is good enough for me.

A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt

McDevitt is one of those authors I buy in hardback. He's much maligned by the glitterati of SF for his settings being the 1950s transposed into space. Not a failing in my mind, because psychologically I doubt that the evolution of humankind into some future transhumanist vision of mankind will ever be realized.

Not that it can't happen, but if it does then writing about it will be as comparable to the visions of traveling to the Moon in a chariot pulled by Swans.

A Talent for War is one of those books that blew me away, and still stands up when re-read. Arguably, he's never written anything quite as good since, but I still buy his books in hardback, and that should tell you all you need to know.

Odds & Ends

38 North Yankee by Ed Ruggero

Very much the oddity here, but I'm a wargamer, and this is one of those books that any wargamer interested in what if scenarios will likely read. It is dated (doh, you don't say, Ashley!), and the writing is in what is called omniscient 3rd point of view, which is out of fashion.

But only snobs care about fashion, all I care about is story. And the story here deals with the North Koreans invading the the Republic of Korea. Given how much Korean drama this year on Netflix I suspect this drove me to read this book now.

Non-Fiction

Existential Physics by Sabine Hossenfelder

I read science fiction, I write science fiction, and I'm all too aware that I'm not a scientist. So this is me keeping up with what a scientist thinks about science, and Dr. Hossenfelder has a delightful wit that makes her discussions even more interesting for those of us who sit on the sidelines of the advance in science.

So, I make that 52 books I've read this year, which is a record during the time I've kept a blog recording such fripperies. It is good.

I finish this by wishing you all a Happy New Year.