I read the complete "The People" stories in the omnibus "Ingathering" earlier this year which contains "Pilgrimage" as well. Zenna Henderson's writing feels very pastoral, if that is to your taste you'll probably love it. I read someone comparing it to "The Little House on the Prairie" with aliens and it kind of is like that.
Your weekly SCI FI (SF!) updates are perfect length, well presented and most enjoyable, SFS. Cheers. PS: I always watch you posts and "like" them but I don't always comment.
Here's a topic that you may wish to comment on: Went into my local Oxfam shop last week and saw a new face at the till so I introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Paul and I'm always on the lookout for anything to do with American or English comics." "Oh." She said, "We have to put all that kind of stuff on line now." We know what that means don't we - Near Mint prices for low grade items. How long before these shops do the same for A format paperback books? Then, what will be the point of going into charity shops? My blood ran cold.
Yeah this winds me up. On the one hand I understand the charity shop exists for the purpose of generating revenue for their particular cause, all good. But I do dislike the trend of charity shops behaving like specialist antique shops or used bookshops. Part of the fun for me is the level playing field, the hopes, the dreams of finding something great for 2 quid or something. Perhaps those days are numbered. Thanks for watching 👀!
@@SciFiScavenger I agree. I spend lots in charity shops and have been known to go back with a donation if I've made a particularly good purchase. BUT -What's better (From the charity's point of view) - to make a killing on one book...or to sell hundreds of books for a small regular profit week in, week out?
I mostly read older stuff, but a couple of newish ones i enjoyed were; We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E. Taylor The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi
Thank you for editing out and mentioning spoilers in general. I enjoy your reviews, but sometimes you go too in depth and if you are talking about a book I want to investigate then I have to mute or fast forward. Keep up the good work.
It's a difficult balance to strike, to give enough information to intrigue, without giving the game away. I don't always get that right, I'm sure. Thanks for watching 👀!
I've been obsessed with a non-fiction book. It's called "a Game of Birds and Wolves" and it covers how an invalided British navy officer (tuberculosis) and a bunch of WRENS won the Battle of the North Atlantic by...playing War games!?!?!? 🤯🤯🤯. They developed the convoy escort tactics that did major damage against the Nazi U-boat Wolfpacks, and even a casual search on RU-vid blew my mind. 🤯. Some seriously fascinating stuff, particularly if you're a military historian. (something I have some pretensions of. 🐶)
@@SciFiScavenger it does! Wikipedia has a page on Operation Raspberry. Apparently the code name was chosen to denote "blowing a raspberry at Hitler". 😳😂🤣😈
Thank you for mentioning the channel here, I have been quite unwell for the last couple of weeks so this was a nice surprise to cheer me up. Coincidentally, I am currently reading my first Brian Stapleford book - The Florians. The Empire of Fear sounds intriguing and that's a very striking edition you've got there!
do you have any George Turner in your collection? there is a novel of his, Brain Child, that comes to my mind occasionally. he was an Australian critic turned novelist.
George Turner’s best known sf novel would likely be Beloved Son. The Sea and Summer from 1987 I think is an early climate change novel with a very Australian feel. Good places to start.
Thanks for adding the book recommendations to the show notes. It's missing the not-a-book 17776 by Jon Bois :) I've been putting off reading it because it's not so comfortable to read on a phone, but I should get to it already.
@@SciFiScavenger Thanks! The table of contents one path up at "17776-football/" might be a less disorienting place to link (the first chapter doesn't tell you what it is). And it might be good to mention the name in addition to the link.
Great interview! 10:40 Speaking of slowing down to the speed of plants, my favorite plant story next to Sue's Semiosis is Edmond Hamilton's 'Alien Earth' which deals with this and changed my perception of plant life the same way Attenborough's 'Private life of plants' did👍
For Sue, if you enjoy books about what it means to be a translator, have you read the Foreigner Series by C. J. Cherryh or A Memory Called Empire by Arcady Martine? Both are Sci-fi, and both deal with how important language and understanding of culture are when two peoples try to relate to each other....😊
I have read "A Memory Called Empire" and loved it. By the way, the title of the sequel, "A Desolation Called Peace," comes from a Roman historian's criticism of what "pax Romana" actually meant -- laying waste to any country that dared to resist Roman power, then declaring peace over the ruins.
@@SueBurke That is awesome! I read both books as well and absolutely loved them! Being a Bulgarian Roma who moved to the US in 1990 with political asylum after the change of regime over there, I have a very good understanding of what it is to be in the outside of two cultures, and these books were so well calibrated to that state of being!!! So, for me personally, language is intricately woven in the understanding and interpretation of culture... This is why I am so in love with the Foreigner series as well. I will strongly recommend them for this exact reason😊 Also, I already purchased your books and plan on reading them towards the end of the year 😃
this flew by just like a good book does. interesting as heck. it touched upon all my favorite themes. speculations of 'other nature,' communications, symbiosis and translation, to name a few. i'd like to mention a few books that came to mind while watching. Rumors of Spring by Grant, Hellstrom's Hive, The Green Brain, The Santaroga Barrier and the White Plague all by Frank Herbert. i think she would especially enjoy the Grant as it's listed as fantasy but is very much science fiction. the translator's role in any form of discovery cannot be overstated. just imagine traveling with a translator with their own agenda. Sacagawea was utterly vital in the Corps of Discovery and is now an historical figure.
Great, glad you enjoyed it Stephen. Thanks for the other book suggestions, always good. I must do another Audience Recommends video, been a while. Thanks for watching 👀!
Also have Hopeland on my tbr next month, along with Ned Beauman’s Venemous Lumpsucker. Macdonald’s Luna series was one of my favourites of the last few years; I can only hope he lands this one.
This is only the second one of these I've seen you do. I found the first one surprisingly enjoyable. Never thought watching someone pick out books to read would be quite this much fun. I can't wait to hear your thoughts on these since I have only read one, The Caves of Steel, and most of these I have never even heard of. Always, good to find new authors and books.
I wondered that too, but there's this from his website: "Not a sequel to his first novel Hot Head, but set in the same world and sharing some of the same preoccupations,..." Thanks for watching 👀!
The Crystal World is completely different from Crash. It’s one of JGB’s early disaster novels (originally it was a short story or novella). If you like Chris Beckett’s Beneath the World A Sea, you’ll probably get on with it. Frankly, starting you Ballard journey with Crash wasn’t optimal. His early disaster novels are his most conventional SF stories. Personally, I like the atmosphere of The Crystal World a lot and it’s easy to see how it influenced Vandermeer’s Annihilation and Beckett’s BtWaS.
Yeah, Crash was a bad place to start alright, several people have said the same thing. I'll give him another chance or two. I'd like to.read some short stories. Cheers Kris, thanks for watching 👀!
