Serieses of books

[firstfrost]

Infinity Beach (by Jack McDevitt)

This gets off to a little bit of a slow start - until about page 80 or so, I kept reading a bit and then putting it down and doing something else. But then it picks up, and I stopped being able to put it down until I was done. It's got an interesting long-ago mystery, and spooky bits, and reasonable characterization. Some of the things that the protagonists do, they seem to get away with a little easily, but then, it's a society in which most people are rich introverts, so there's not much crime and thus probably less security. The mystery-following is well done and varied, with lots of document recovery; it thus ends up reading a little bit like a Call of Cthulhu-type mystery but in a science fiction genre. Four and a half stars, and I want to run a game with fancy documents again.

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles (Dealing with Dragons, Searching for Dragons, Calling on Dragons, Talking to Dragons) by Patricia Wrede

More children's books in the "revisionist fairy tale" genre (like The Unhandsome Prince, but generally good fun. They're kind of repetitive when all read at once, and do have the children's-book tendency for most of the random NPCs encountered to be helpful, but there's a lot of humor and surprises like a remarkably touching encounter with the dwarf formerly known as Rumplestiltskin. The villains get a little boringly gloaty and foolish, and never seem to remember that the good guys can beat them if they have half a chance. Three and a half twinkly stars for the first book, falling to two and a half by the fourth.

The Robot trilogy (Caves of Steel, The Naked Sun and Robots of Dawn)

This is like those music recommendation sites that, after I check a lot of boxes for what I like and don't, proudly tell me that I should like the Beatles. Well, for heaven's sakes, I already know if I like the Beatles or not, it's not like I've totally failed to notice their existence so far. I'm pretty sure nobody needs my advice on whether or not to read Isaac Asimov's second most famous body of work (except maybe harrock, who is oddly behind on his fiction due to all that non-fiction he reads). I just wanted to read them again, and have my own copies this time.

Comments

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I read an awful lot of Asimov as a kid, and didn't really notice this. Then again, I read a lot of science fiction written before I was born as a kid, and remember mad cross-casting going on in my head just because most of the interesting people were boys. Perhaps that means that I did notice rather strongly. But it caused me to not pick up so much on what the original girls in the story as written were doing. I do remember reading Caves of Steel and thinking much less about Jessie Baley's cosmetics than wondering if actual men really didn't talk in public bathrooms or if this was a weird overcrowded future thing like eating vat-grown fungus.

I never read any Doc Smith until I was older, but if I had I'd probably be re-reading it now and thinking "wow, I totally don't remember any of this girls can't be Lensmen stuff."

[ricedog.livejournal.com]

wondering if actual men really didn't talk in public bathrooms

It was a New York thing.