back from a wet bank holiday weekend

Went down south for the bank holiday weekend, where I was once again net-deprived. This probably saved you all from much squeeing about steam trains yesterday. Unfortunately I seem to have done something to my arm while typing on the laptop's own keyboard instead of the ergonomic one, so will need to restrict typing for a few days -- or fire up Dragon, which could be... interesting.

Book review: James Blish - Mission to the Heart Stars

Short YA novel, a sequel to "the Star Dwellers". I found that I could read and enjoy this book without having read the first one, as there's enough backstory worked into it that new readers aren't left floundering. It's set in a relatively near future, not long after mankind has first developed an interstellar drive and made contact with other intelligent species. One of those species is an energy-based lifeform which has been around since the Big Bang, but which is nevertheless culturally compatible with humans. The Angels have sponsored humans for membership in another galactic culture, one that is short-lived by the standards of the Angels, but still remarkably long-lived and stable by human standards. So long-lived that even having the normal probationary membership period cut in half at the Angels' urging means waiting 50,000 years for full membership.

Naturally, some politicians are too impatient to wait. And so begins the mission to the Heart Stars, a journey to the heart of the empire to ask in person for immediate full membership. Along the way, the crew of the diplomatic mission ship see exactly how that peaceful, prosperous stability is achieved.

The book has a reasonable balance of engineering and social commentary. The science behind the faster-than-light drive is pseudo-science, but it's the sort that's extrapolated from real physics and internally consistent, not pure plot-devicium powered. It's a little too overtly preachy, but that's largely a result of it being a YA book written in the mid 60s. I'm not sure I'll keep it any longer, but it's a book I enjoyed enough that I've read it more than once.

LibraryThing entry
Mission to the Heart Stars (A Panther book) on Amazon UK
Mission to the Heart Stars on Amazon US
at Powell's

August book log

Several books this month. One reason is that I worked out part of why I can read the Cybook on the bus, and applied that to print books -- I glance up for a second during the page-turn flash on the Cybook, and that helps minimise motion sickness. It's not the only thing going on there, but it's enough in combination with sitting over the back axle (thank you to micavity for the tip), that I've been able to read some print books as well. Thus I can grab a print book even if I've forgotten to load some new ebooks.

Oh, and I entered 600 books into LibraryThing this month...


Gerald Durrell: The Stationary Ark

Brief review on LJ, DW and WP


James Blish: Mission to the Heart Stars

Brief review on LJ, DW and WP


Harry Harrison: The men from PIG and ROBOT

Brief review on LJ, DW and WP


James Anderson - The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy

An affectionate and funny spoof of the classic 1930s country house murder mystery, with a great many nods to the masters and mistresses. Rather too many characters and their independent but interlocking intrigues for me to keep track of what was going on, and the characters and their intrigues aren't quite interesting enough for me to not care about that. I'd probably have enjoyed it more if I'd read all of the classic mysteries alluded to. And I'm not convinced that it *is* possible to work it all out without guessing, even if I adored part of the solution to the primary mystery itself. I don't regret buying this, but I'm glad I paid remainder price rather than cover price.

LibraryThing entry
The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy (Burford Family Mysteries 1) at Amazon UK
The Affair of the Bloodstained Egg Cosy (Burford Family Mysteries 1) at Amazon US


John Carnell: New Writings in SF 10

Anthology series, with issue with 7 new-in-1966 stories, edited by John Carnell. To review later. [review]


WJ Burley: Wycliffe and the Winsor Blue

One in the long-running police procedural series. To review later. [review]

ETA: knew I'd forgotten one...
Harry Harrison: Plague from Space [review]