Annie's 2016 Variety Show Reading - Part 2

And time for a new thread.

I am not good at structured reading but somehow managed to start reading through the works of a few authors.

In the last thread I had a few places where I was not sure how to count some works - is a novella a book when published individually or not a book if read online? When you read an omnibus, how many books that is? So this time I am not counting books at all - instead I am going to count just the types.

The first part of the year ended up with a lot more novels being read than usual - but almost no stories or articles and no comics at all. I expect that this will change a bit.

Welcome to the new thread.

Novels

===JULY===
103. (2003) Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan
104. (1937) The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner
105. (1978) The Faded Sun: Kesrith by C. J. Cherryh

Collections: Fiction

===JULY===
1.

Anthologies: Fiction

===JULY===
1.

Non-Fiction Books

===JULY===
12.

Magazines

===JULY===
1. Analog Science Fiction and Fact - January 1994

Graphic Novels and Non-Fiction

===JULY===
1.

Collected Comics

===JULY===
1.

Novellas, novelettes, short stories and flash fiction (anything that is fiction and is not a novel basically):

===JULY===
20. (1977) The Dark King by C. J. Cherryh, in "The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh", short story
21. (1994) Melodies of the Heart by Michael F. Flynn, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, novella
22. (1919) The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster, in Wondrous Beginnings, novelette
23. (1937) The Isolinguals by L. Sprague de Camp, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
24. (1953) Freedom of the Race by Anne McCaffrey, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story, flash story?
25. (1994) Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct by Frederik Pohl, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, short story
26. (1994) Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, short story
27. (1994) The Tetrahedron by Charles L. Harness, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, novella
28. (1994) The Lab Assistant by Erin Leonard, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, short story
29. (1994) Under the Wings of Owls by Hayford Peirce, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, novelette
30. (1994) Virtual Proof by Doug Larsen, in Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994, novella
31. (1942) Proof by Hal Clement, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
32. (1946) Loophole by Arthur C. Clarke, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
33. (1965) The Dead Man by Gene Wolfe, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
34. (1967) We're Coming Through the Window by Barry N. Malzberg, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
35. (1971) The Hero by George R. R. Martin, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story
36. (1972) Lunchbox by Howard Waldrop, in Wondrous Beginnings, short story

Checklists

C. J. Cherryh

1976 N 2016-06-27 Gate of Ivrel
1976 N 2016-06-10 Brothers of Earth
====
1977 N 2016-06-30 Hunter of Worlds
1977 S 2016-07-03 The Dark King (short story)
====
1978 N 2016-07-04 The Faded Sun: Kesrith
1978 N Well of Shiuan
1978 N The Faded Sun: Shon'jir
1978 S Threads of Time (short story)
1978 S Cassandra (short story)

Jack McDevitt

1986 N 2016-04-30 The Hercules Text
1989 N 2016-05-28 A Talent for War
1994 N 2016-06-08 The Engines of God
1996 N 2016-06-23 Ancient Shores

Checklists

103N. Broken Angels by Richard K. Morgan

Type: Novel
Length: 366 pages
Original Language: English
Original Publication: 2003
Genre: Science Fiction
Part of Series: Takeshi Kovacs (2)
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Finished: 2 July 2016
Rating:

Welcome back to the world of Takeshi Kovacs. It is 30 years after the previous novel - and Takeshi had been through a lot in the meantime. Maybe one day we will hear about all of them but when we see him here and now, we find him in the middle of a war on Sanction IV - a world in the middle of nowhere. And this is where he is found by Jan Schneider - a man that cannot be where he is and yet he is. And he has a big story for Takeshi.

The first novel showed us the world of the 25th century - with the human colonies and the virtual world and the functional immortality - the ability to get resleeved into another body when needed as long as your stack (which had been implanted on any human when being born) survives or you have a digital copy saved. A few artifacts are mentioned but the novel is human centric and it dies not answer how humanity got to this point. That second novel reveals all that.

Humanity did not find the stars on its own and the Protectorate is built on top of a dead civilization. Once upon a time the humans made it to Mars and found the ruins of the Martians - including maps, showing the path to three dozen worlds. This is where the humans colonies were built - with a bit of chance and the inevitable mistakes. And it opened a new brand of archeologists - with a new name and a new thing to look for. And the big story is another one of those - a huge find that will change everything for everyone.

And the chase is on - Takeshi finds someone to sponsor the whole thing and everyone is off to the site. Add some radiation, nanobes that are a bit too intelligent for their own good. Throw a Marsian spaceship, a gate and a few more unexplained actions, add a few betrayals and a world at a war and the story is as fascinating as the first one.

The story has enough sex and even more darkness than the first one. And it is as different from it as humanly possible - Kovacs is in the middle of it again and it is the same world but it a way it is the complementary story of the first one. A bit more standard than the first and not what I expected from a sequel but still a very good one.

>8 AnnieMod: I like the world of Takeshi Kovacs, too. I need to read the third one, Woken Furies.

>9 jnwelch:

I am trying to decide if I want to continue with that one or to read the next of his novel in publishing novel :)

104N. The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner

Type: Novel
Length: 173 pages
Original Language: English
Original Publication: 1937
Genre: Mystery; Legal Thriller
Part of Series: Perry Mason (10)
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Aeonian Press
Finished: 3 July 2016
Rating:
Note: Actual cover does not contain name of book on the front cover.

When an old dowager shows up in Perry Mason's office and try to hire him to help her granddaughter, he is not really interested. There is no body yet and he does not believe that she needs a lawyer - after all, all she needs is someone to pay some IOUs to a gambling establishment.

Of course, as always, things turn out to be more complicated than this. Perry decides to help and things go a bit awry. A man dies, Perry is in the wrong place again and if he wants to save himself and the granddaughter, he needs to find what really happened. The police and circumstances do not help much; everyone lying to everyone else is even less helpful.

On top of the mystery itself, we also get a glimpse at an era that is forgotten today - not the dames and the smoking and the racism and the 30s in their glory - but the gambling in California in the 30s - the ships 12 miles out at sea, the laws and prohibitions of the era. When the book was written, it was probably a common knowledge and just part of how things worked. 8 decades later, it is history.

Back to the mystery - we see Paul Drake not being infallible, Della Street being even more competent than usual (and I wonder how much of her relationship with Perry was considered a relationship back then and how much was just an employer/secretary normality in those days). And see a woman that is not cast as a damsel in distress - the dowager is a dangerous woman indeed.

You do not even miss Hamilton Burger or a trial - it is a straight detective novel. And a pretty strong one.

Another good entry in the series.

20S. The Dark King by C. J. Cherryh

Length: Short story
Genre: Fantasy; Mythical
Initially published: 1977
Initially published in: The Year's Best Fantasy Stories: 3
Series: N/A
Read in: The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh
Finished: 3 July 2016
Rating:

Cherryh does not write short stories often. In her first story, she tackles the myth of Sisyphus and the king's meeting with Death. It is not original really, it is a reimaging of a myth, using pieces of different versions but it is well written and entertaining. That's also her first attempt at straight fantasy and it shows that she has an unmistakable style. Not required reading but a nice story nevertheless.

105N. The Faded Sun: Kesrith by C. J. Cherryh

Type: Novel
Length: 250 pages
Original Language: English
Original Publication: 1978
Genre: Science Fiction
Part of Series: The Faded Sun (1), Alliance-Union Universe: Publishing order (3)
Format: Mass Market Paperback/ Omnibus edition
Publisher: DAW
Finished: 4 July 2016
Rating:

The war is over. In most cases, for most races, that would be a great news. But not for the mri of Kesrith - because the end of this war is marking the end of their species as well. Or so it looks anyway.

2202 years ago the mri had entered a contract with the regul to fight their wars - the regul cannot fight, the mri have a society that makes them the perfect soldiers. So the contracts were signed and since then, the mri had fought - against other mri or against the new treat - the humans. 43 years ago the old homeworld of the mri had been depopulated by the humans and the regul had moved their allies to Kesrith (by choice by the mri, despite it being a really bad world). And now, with the war over, this world will become human as well - which the mri are not even told until it is too late. The mri (which translates as the People) are nomads - not just in a world but amongst the skies - their homeworld is where their main she'pan and the Pana are - and it had moved more than once. Most castes are kept in the dark - just the she'pan knows the full history (and the Sen knows much but not all).

The novel opens with the end of the war. Niun, a kel'en of the mri is upset - he spent his whole life preparing for the war and now has no purpose. The novel is his story - which is also a story of a dead race and a story of a relationship going very wrong.

The wars were known as the mri wars despite the fact that the mri were there as soldiers for the regul. The regul are ready to deal with anyone - while the mri and the humans despise each other - they were the ones doing the killing and dying.

Cherryh creates two races that are so different from each other and from humanity - the slow moving, never lying, never forgetting regul and the caste-based mri. The three castes of the mri are separate to the point of not talking to each other and their society is based on honor and rules - even when the species is dying.

And from the stars are coming the humans - Stavros, the new governor of Kesrith (who had lost his world to the mri) and his aide Sten Duncan. They come with the regul and need to live amongst then (and then Duncan ends up with the mri - the usual Cherryh's way of exploring the different and the alien).

It is a slow novel, most of it is preparation and staging for the whole trilogy - and as such that is a first for Cherryh. Gate of Ivrel could be continued but was a complete story. This novel ends on a cliffhanger - and with everyone positioned where they need to be to make the story - the regul that cannot lie but can deceive, the humans just arriving and the mri on the brink of extinction. And under all that is the fact that noone really understand anyone else - the cultures are so different that any attempt to understand the rest ends up with wrong conclusions.

The world building, the races and the languages are built as well as usual - they are consistent and alien. And utterly fascinating.

21S. Melodies of the Heart by Michael F. Flynn

Length: Novella
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 5 July 2016
Rating:

In an old people's home, Mae Holloway starts hearing music in her head - not just any music but memories that she just cannot have. A newly appointed doctor at the Home decides to listen to what she has to say - despite his own private grief - his only child, his daughter Deidre is getting old very fast and would not survive puberty.

And the story weaves between two lives - one lived too slow, one lived too fast. A future that will never be and a past that could have never been. And yet, it had. It starts as a story of memories and music and then changes into a tale of genetics and scientific impossibilities and hope. It is not a happy story, it cannot be - the world does not work this way. But in a way it does have a happy ending - not the one anyone wanted but still there. Universe evens out at the end after all.

I am not much for music and most of the musical parts felt too long - it was a vehicle that was just too visible. It was the point of the story but still...

I'm caught up with you again. And enjoying your paths through Cherryh and the Perry Mason novels, and others. Seems like The Faded Sun marks something of a change for Cherryh (?)

The first one that is clearly written as part of a series. It is not the first clearly SF (Hunter of Worlds is that one - even though all of these early ones are SF, some of them would fit better in the science fantasy category...) but I think that at this point she realized that she can pull off a series where books do not stand on their own (the first Morgaine one as open ended as it was can stand alone) and went for it. Her worldbuilding is as strong as ever though - and her species building - when you have an alien that talks like an alien, behaves like one and thinks like one, it kinda works better than the usual trope of aliens that have human feelings and moral compasses. :) So now sure how much of a change it is really - I think it is more a growing up into her potential...

22S. The Runaway Skyscraper by Murray Leinster

Length: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1919
Initially published in: Argosy and Railroad Man's Magazine, February 22, 1919
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 5 July 2016
Rating:

In an otherwise unremarkable day, the Metropolitan Tower starts sliding back in time. It takes a while for everyone to figure out what happens but when they do, it turns into a race of survival - find enough food for everyone, find a way to back home and do not make things worse.

The story is dated - the science does not hold up and the attitude towards women is atrocious - they are the weak sex and they cannot do anything. Except Estelle - Arthur's very capable secretary that seem to know everything that needs to be known, in a lot of times being the only one that does. Almost 2 decades later, Della Street, Perry Mason's secretary will be created and Estelle reminded me of her - in her attitudes, in her capabilities, in the way she handles her boss. Because of the time frame, it is the other way around of course - Della sounds like Estelle but I had been reading a lot of Perry Mason lately so in my mind the connection works that way.

On the other hand, it being set in the past allows the generators in the building to be based on coal - and to allow them to have lights and lifts even when they are in the middle of a time that had not even thought of electricity.

For a story written in 1919, it is actually less dated than I expected. The story does work to a point - if you ignore the norms of the time. The resolution is almost laughable but... with the state of science a century ago, it probably made sense. And I enjoyed the story a lot - in the way I enjoy old comics - it may be goofy and impossible but it is still a nice yarn.

23S. The Isolinguals by L. Sprague de Camp

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1937
Initially published in: Astounding Stories, September 1937
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 5 July 2016
Rating:

A fruit vendor starts talking Gothic. And he is not just talking a language that he cannot know, he actually believes himself to be someone else. The initial diagnosis is clear - it is a mental problem. And then the cases start piling up - people that seem to start being someone else. The doctors and the scientists are helpless to stop whatever is happening - or even to figure out what may be the reason. Until someone has a bright idea and a police officer decides that it must be the same group that had been causing issues anyway - and between the two guesses, the truth start emerging. In the meantime, people start banding together based on what language they understand - they do not remember anything from their lives so that is the only connection they have.

The story is a product of its time - although if you replace the name of the gang with something more modern and you change the weapons, it actually become timeless. The science of the solution does not stand up to the new discoveries and the villain (because there is one) is a comic books level one but it is still a readable story 8 decades later. Although it is a bit overwritten in places - as much as I like action scenes, the ones here were a bit too... comic bookish.

24S. Freedom of the Race by Anne McCaffrey

Length: Short Story/Flash Story?
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1953
Initially published in: Science-Fiction Plus, October 1953
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 5 July 2016
Rating:

I really did not like this story. It is derivative and not long enough to actually be able to allow a new view into an old story.

The Martians had invided the Earth and enslaved the population. But the planet is different enough so that the Martian women cannot carry a child to term - so the Martians have no chance to survive without babies. But the human girls can give birth even to babies that are not genetically theirs. And the enslavement continues until someone has a bright idea. I really hoped the story is not going there - a virus that kills the babies is really an old old idea.

The writing is not bad which saves it from being an awful story but it is unoriginal and pointless...

25S. Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct by Frederik Pohl

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 6 July 2016
Rating:

Pulling off very short stories is hard - there isn't enough space for building a character or a story someone cares about. That is why I usually read the Probability Zero stories in Analog without expecting much. And then I am pleasantly surprised when one of them works.

Humanity evolving on Earth is not exactly good news for the Great Galactics. They are looking for place for a new colony and sharing a world with other intelligent races is not really something they do. Plans get built and discarded and at the end one is found. The part that made me laugh is that it fits perfectly with where we are at the moment as species.

Charming story. It may not be as deep as some of Pohl's other works but it is delightful.

26S. Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 6 July 2016
Rating:

On a discussion board, a group of scientists is discussing an alien form they had discovered. It does not take long to realize that the aliens are actually humans and that we are listening to another race discussing us - and seeing how they see us.

Stories told by the viewpoint of another race are hard to pull off - some human-centric views always bleed in. This is the case here as well - although it almost works out properly. What brings the story down is the length - it is a bit too long for the format and the story itself - keeping it shorter would have left it a lot better.

27S. The Tetrahedron by Charles L. Harness

Length: Novella
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 6 July 2016
Rating:

No. Just no. Stories written in 1994 and set in 2003 should not sound like this. I've read a 1919 story a few days ago that sounded more modern that this.

A company is contracted to secure a patent for a time machine. But someone is challenging it and it is down to finding evidence on where it was mentioned first. An associate spends a lot of money and time and finds nothing. And then a female associate is called in and she figures it out - which causes all the men in the room to gasp in shock - because she is woman, you see. She is also the only woman there, with a desk in a undesirable place - and being passed over for anything. And it is time for a trip to the past. And the story gets even worse from here on.

It feels like a costume drama. And one of the worse ones at that. Add to this the constant whining of the men in the party (especially the useless associate that now wants all the credit), a woman that believes that she has no chances and makes some rash decisions based on that and Leonardo Da Vinci who sounds like a 21 century artist... And the end is just laughable - recognition and lack of just makes no sense.

And this story could have been so good.

28S. The Lab Assistant by Erin Leonard

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 6 July 2016
Rating:

A doctor finds a way to detect genetic diseases in embryos. He cannot cure them so his solution is to destroy the embryo before it evolves - the same way nature does when things go horribly wrong. Of course, he also seem to have a Hitler complex - he wants to cure everything including skin color issues(!?) and minor diseases.

Now let's have a lab assistant that has a genetic disease, is disabled and is not white. And she accepts the job to help the doctor despite hating his research.

Both characters sounds cartoonish - both of them are exaggerated, one-dimensional and unbelievable. This is not a story - it is an agenda manifesto. There are way to explore the topic of choices but that is not it.

29S. Under the Wings of Owls by Hayford Peirce

Length: Novelette
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 6 July 2016
Rating:

If there is a way to look into the minds of serial killers and find out all their victims this way, is it worth tramping on human rights? The story explores a future state of society where the question comes up - with the usual Senate nonsense of agendas and beliefs being more important that what is best for the people. And in between is the story of a family that had quite of a bad experience when they went on vacation.

It is a gory story in places with feelings overriding reason more than once. Not bad on its own but a bit too heavy on the politics.

30S. Virtual Proof by Doug Larsen

Length: Novella
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1994
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Series: N/A
Read in: Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 1994
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

Welcome to the future of police investigations. Virtual realities had evolved and are used both for training and for pleasure. And one day, the owner of one of the places where people can rent the space and equipment to experience it, calls the police - there is a man that seem to be making up his mind towards killing a woman.

The problem of course is that it is not proof - intentions are not enough and them being from a virtuality does not help much. And the team decides that they need to protect the woman -- without being discovered by the colleagues... or the woman. Falling in love with her was definitely not the plan.

It is a nice story, despite the cliched characters of the policemen, and it works in some ways. Original it may not be, but it is readable and entertaining.

1M. Analog science fiction and fact. No. 771 (Jan. 1994)

Type: Magazine
Length: 320 pages
Original Language: English
Original Publication: 1994
Content/Genres: Science Fiction; Non-Fiction
Format: Paper Digest
Publisher: Dell
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

Double issues allows for more than one long story - and this one is not an exception. No exceptional stories in this issue although "Melodies of the Heart" by Michael F. Flynn, "Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct" by Frederik Pohl and "Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin" by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody are pretty readable and quite different from each other. On the other hand, the two worst stories ("The Tetrahedron" by Charles L. Harness and "The Lab Assistant" by Erin Leonard) have a lot in common: same author ("Erin Leonard" is a joint pseudonym of Charles L. Harness and Shiloh Erin Cullen), agenda ahead of the story and in the case of The Tetrahedron, one of the worst presentations of a historical period and person that I had read in years.

The non-fiction parts of this issue were actually much better than the fiction:
- Stanley Schmidt's Editorial talks about the US space program and its dissolving in these days. Reading it 22 years later, it is a nice piece of history (and the letter section contains some notes about it as well)
- "The Real Physics of Time Travel" by Ian Stewart is looking at one of the usual tropes of SF from the science side - and is it turns out, it is possible - except not by us (no tools for the experiment) or in our universe (not without finding more energy sources somewhere). It is a very technical article and the physics is pretty involved. It may need an update these days but the basics still apply. And mentioning SF works where they did something properly (or not) was pretty amusing.
- "The Force of the Tide" by John G. Cramer (as part of "The Alternate View" column) discusses what causes tides - both on Earth and in general. The format used (an interview with himself) works for the topic and even if I knew the science facts, it was an interesting read.
- The review section looked at 9 books - I've heard of 2 of them and I am not interested in the others. Which may explain why I had not heard of them I guess.
- A biolog of Doug Larson and the obituary of Chad Oliver were informative
- Two additional pieces that are too short to be stories but are nevertheless fiction:
- "Top Ten Phrases Heard Immediately Before "The Big Bang"" by Paula Robinson is funny and "From the Travel Diary and Sketchbook of Braxton Montague Shew III (Groundsliding Bellywalker)" was hilarious (a one page letter from one alien to his mother about another alien with interesting ways to read)

Reviews of all the short fiction individually:
Melodies of the Heart by Michael F. Flynn
Creation Myths of the Recently Extinct by Frederik Pohl
Excerpts from the Discussion of the Controlled Vibration Theory of Communication Among the Un-Kin by Sarah Zettel and Laura Woody
The Tetrahedron by Charles L. Harness
The Lab Assistant by Erin Leonard
Under the Wings of Owls by Hayford Peirce
Virtual Proof by Doug Larsen

31S. Proof by Hal Clement

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1942
Initially published in: Astounding Science-Fiction, June 1942
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

In the depths of the Sun, life exists. As do wars. And it's nut just Sol that supports life - all stars do. And the people that live there cannot imagine life on planets without the radiation of the stars. Actually they cannot even see objects that do not emit radiation.

During a regular run for neutronium, Kron tells his guest a story about the death of one of his old friends - a death that is so unbelievable that it is considered just a story. And even if you expect that it will tie to Earth somehow, when the story splits into the double telling, it is nicely done. It is an adventure story at heart - but a bit unconventional.

Clement had made a career of writing stories about the different and the alien from the name of the non-humans. And this first story already shows this talent - it is a wonderful gem.

32S. Loophole by Arthur C. Clarke

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1946
Initially published in: Astounding Science Fiction, April 1946
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

What if Martians were around when humanity looked at the skies? And what if they had a much better technology? According to Clarke, they would try to suppress us from leaving the planet by suppressing the research that can get us there. Of course, they would need to be human to figure out how humanity would react to it.

Charming story of first contact and considering it was Clarke's first, it is even more impressive. It is a little thin - as short as it is, there is no much space for anything and the epistolary form is keeping it restricted but it is still a good story.

33S. The Dead Man by Gene Wolfe

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1965
Initially published in: Magazine Sir!, 1965
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

That could have been a mainstream story - as it is it is more a ghost story than a proper science fiction one. Wolfe had been a favorite author of mine for a long time and this story disappointed - it is missing his usual style and imagination - and it feels almost as a writing exercise and not as a proper work.

34S. We're Coming Through the Window by Barry N. Malzberg

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1967
Initially published in: Galaxy Magazine, August 1967
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

That was delightful. If you are a writer and trying to solve your first story, writing one that claims to be just a letter that explains why you cannot write a story is a genius way to go for it. Asking the editor for money is even better. And when you throw in some time travel into the mix, it becomes a great short story.

35S. The Hero by George R. R. Martin

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1971
Initially published in: Galaxy Magazine, February 1971
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

A war is raging in the universe and humanity had created war worlds - place where people are bred and grown to be soldiers. Of course, this is not where the command stuff is coming from - they are Earth born and bred.

After a particularly bad battle, one of the best soldiers decides that after 20 years, he wants to take his retirement - this is what the contract says that he can do. Except that unlike everyone else before him, he does not want to go back to the barracks - he wants to go to Earth, the planet he is fighting for, the one he had never seen. But there is a reason why people do not do that.

The end is probably planned as a surprise but it was easy to see it coming. It still is a good story - Martin had his craft under control even that early in his career.

36S. Lunchbox by Howard Waldrop

Length: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Initially published: 1972
Initially published in: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, May 1972
Series: N/A
Read in: Wondrous Beginnings
Finished: 8 July 2016
Rating:

A charming short story about humanity sending a craft to Mars, without realizing that there is life there already. And that life is not amused by someone coming and killing its food. So attack follows and while the people back on Earth wonder what happened, the locals find what they can use the poor probe for. It as an amusing story of first contact.

And apparently I managed again to disappear for 2 months. :) Too much work and not feeling like writing reviews (instead I did quite a lot of reading)... So slowly catching up here - not in order but keeping order inside of series and authors.

The Perry Mason novels:

107N. The Case of the Lame Canary - Perry Mason 11, Original Publication: 1937, Finished 2016-07-17

Perry Mason is not really interested in taking a new case - until he sees a canary that seems to have a lame foot. And just because of that he decides to get involved in yet another weird case - not even a murder this time. A car crash in front of a house seems unrelated to the people in the house - although the lady that comes with the canary, Rita Swaine, is. Her sister had married a man she does not love and the sister is worried.

Of course this being a Mason novel, the bodies start dropping pretty fast and both the client and the lawyer get in trouble. You know that the problem will be solved at the end but that does not take anything from the suspense. Add to that some mislabeled luggage and a marriage proposal (Mason to Della) and the story is ready to wrap.

Another nice entry in the series.

113N. The Case of the Substitute Face - Perry Mason 12, Original Publication: 1938, Finished 2016-07-31

Apparently the second attempt of a vacation succeeded (albeit being called a business trip so Mason can research the law in far away lands) and Della and Mason had been away from LA. We catch up with them on the last leg of the trip - between Hawaii and the mainland. And this is where he meets Mrs. Newberry, her husband and their daughter Belle. Before long, one of the passengers falls in the water, a shot is heard and the new friends of our favorite lawyer are in trouble.

The story and the ship soon arrive on shore and Mason's client is accused of murder. And Della, Perry and Drake (and his agency) are off trying to figure out what happened and what is the truth. Of course, it turns out out that there is a lot more than just the missing person (as a body is never found) - fake names, weird pictures, missing money, entrance in society and an eyewitness tie the story badly. Until Mason pulls one of his regular tricks of course.

One of my biggest issues while reading the book was that Mason seems to be missing clues he usually would have seen immediately. I was ready to chalk the novel down as one of the weakest ones... until Mason remarked on that. Was it the vacation? The company? Something else? Who knows - but with the problem being addressed, the novel now actually works - showing that even Mason is not on the top of his game all the time.

Most of the series novel are highly formulaic but I still enjoy them. They work, even 80 years later. Part of it is the charm of the years and the times I never lived in (when all the women were dames and all the men were drinking and smoking and when the world was young and people actually had to go to a pay phone to make a call and when credit cards did not exist...). Whatever it is, it seems to be exactly what I need at the moment.

118N. The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe - Perry Mason 13, Original Publication: 1938, Finished 2016-08-06

If you think that malls were invented in our times, you will be surprised - department stores used to have restaurants (or tea rooms) in them since at least the 30s. And when Della and Perry are caught in the rain, they decide to eat their lunch in one of them. Of course, they manage to meet some interesting people and get in the a middle of a bit of a legal issue (no bodies this time) and at the end they end up with a new client.

One of the women they met in the store, the young niece Virginia, comes to Mason's office the next day with a story of diamonds and a missing person. The case does not seem to match what Mason usually handles - until some bodies start showing up. Add a gun, a mysterious owner of the diamonds and Sergeant Holcomb, who being his usual gruff self almost makes the case for Mason and bloody shoes and there are too many things pointing to the wrong people.

The novel ends up with one of those powerful courtroom scenes that Gardner excels at. It makes it a stronger novel although I missed the usual sleuthing - in order to have the last scenes, some of it had to be shorter.

120N. The Case of the Perjured Parrot - Perry Mason 14, Original Publication: 1939, Finished 2016-08-07

We had stories with a cat, a dog and a canary. Now it is time for a story with a parrot. And this parrot is found next to a dead man - a very wealthy man who seems to have somewhat complicated personal life - two wives, named the same, not knowing about each other, knowing him under different names.

Mason is hired by the son - expecting a legal battle from who he knows to be the wife; not even realizing that there is another wife as well. And in order for Mason to solve the murder and to find out what happened, he needs to untangle the personal life of the victim first.

This is one of the very rare mysteries that do not take place in LA so we do not see the usual cast of adversaries for Mason (some of them make an appearance but it is a local cop and DA that go against him). The story is full of the usual references to the era it is written in and some of them are fascinating (the air travel schedules and the air travel details are... interesting for example) but the story as a whole is weaker - the coincidences are happening a bit too often.

A decent entry but nowhere near the better ones I've read in the series. Still a good read though.

121N. The Case of the Rolling Bones - Perry Mason 15, Original Publication: 1939, Finished 2016-08-08

Once upon a time, two men found gold in Klondike. By the end of that winter one of them was dead and one of them was rich. Now, decades later, the heirs of the man that returned want to declare him incompetent - mainly because he seems to have fallen in love.

It is a niece that comes to Perry to ask for help against these plans - but before long the first body appears (not much surprise there). The problem is that the man cannot be dead - because he is already dead. And that's how starts a yarn of the past and days when people were getting rich by finding gold. For a while, I was wondering where Gardner is going with the story but then when the aliases and names started rolling, the story turned into a double story - one side in the 30s with Mason; one back in the Klondike.

A woman that is not what she appears to be, a man that cannot be alive, another that dies two times. It is obvious that names had been exchanged but the reasons for it are not straight forward - and it seems that the story is a lot more complicated than anyone expected. Mason deciding to protect his clients and manufacture some clues do not help things much.

At the end the story wrapped in nicely but I am a bit ambivalent about what the lawyer did - legal it may have been but it was not very morally sound. Despite the reasons for it.

I enjoyed the window in the past as seen from a later past - seeing the past with the eyes of the people that would have been dead before I was born (were they real) is fascinating.

122N. The Case of the Cautious Coquette - Perry Mason 34, Original Publication: 1949, Finished 2016-08-09

Gardner needs to make the police look foolish and brutal - so Holcomb is back. By that time in the series, he had been replaced by Lieutenant Tragg but Tragg is too intelligent to fall for the plot the Mason devises - so our favorite sergeant is back.

It all starts easy enough - a hit-and-run victim hires Mason to find what happened and get him compensation (or that is what it amounts to anyway). An advertisement in the papers for witnesses brings a few young ladies to the attention of the lawyer - including a letter that lures Perry into investigating in an interesting way and then another woman makes sure he is really suspected in murder - because of course the bodies start dropping at some point. We know he is innocent but in order for him to prove it but because of his earlier actions, convincing the police may not be that easy. Enters Holcomb - the man who is so blinded by his disdain for Mason that he sees only what he wants to see.

It is a throwback to the early tales of the series in a way - Perry is more refined but the story could have fit in the first 15 or so. Reading it among them worked nicely for me - I am not sure how I would have liked it if was later and who close are Perry, Della and Drake to their characters at the time - as it is, they are very close to their late 30s presentations.

139N. The Case of the Baited Hook - Perry Mason 16, Original Publication: 1940, Finished 2016-09-10

And back to the normal order of the series.

A middle of the night call ends up with Perry being hired to defend a woman... and he has no idea who she is. So when a man is killed, the main mystery is not who killed him really - it is who the client really is. It is a little hard for Mason to pull his usual tricks when he never knows who he needs to protect.

And just to make sure that it is more complicated than it should have been - a girl that had inherited money even though she is not part of high society, a high society girl with no money, an old woman with an extraordinary story, a wife, even Della Street - it could be any of them. And if one of them is to be protected, another needs to be thrown to the wolves. And herein lies the problem for our lawyer - so he ends up maneuvering to protect everyone.

Mix all that with a story of a Russian heiress, a sunken boat, a home when mothers can leave their children until they can get them back (or stop paying after which the kids can be adopted) and corruption in one of those homes and the story gets even more complicated.

And unlike most of the cases, here Occam's razor works perfectly - you need to look for the real story under all the red herrings.

I liked that book a lot more than I expected to - for at least half of the book I was finding some of the turns phony - until they turned out to be invented and not real. And having a straight mystery in the series was a nice break.

140N. The Case of the Silent Partner - Perry Mason 17, Original Publication: 1940, Finished 2016-09-12

This novel starts a new era for Perry Mason - Sergeant Holcomb is gone, Lieutenant Tragg is the man Homicide detective (at least the one we see anyway) now. Additionally, it is the first novel (that I remember anyway) which does not start with Perry Mason - we start in the flower shop of Mildred Faulkner who has real problems with some options that she had forgotten existed. A rival is trying to get her business - so she calls Mason to ask for help. And our lawyer is brought into a story of greed, gambling and eventually murder. Except Mason is not Mildred's lawyer - he is her sister's. And Mildred is the one that really need a lawyer.

It is refreshing to have a detective that is at least as intelligent and quick thinking as Perry. He tries a few early moves but realizes that this is not the dump policeman anymore and things are evenly matched. And Tragg is ready to work with Perry when it is needed - instead of dismissing him all the time. Add illegal gambling salon and people that do not seem to be able to say the truth - and we are back on track with an interesting mystery.

I missed Drake - maybe because of Tragg and his surprisingly quick mind, Perry ends up doing most of the work that usually the detective does. We do see him occasionally but not as much as in the previous books. I hope that Gardner will manage to find the way to fit both Tragg and Drake together - more working minds make for a better book.

141N. The Case of the Haunted Husband - Perry Mason 18, Original Publication: 1941, Finished 2016-09-14

Meet Stephane Clair. She has an wealthy uncle who wanted to control her life - so she ran and had been working in San Francisco since then - a job after job, based on her looks and youth. Until she decides not to comply with yet another boss - and hitchhikes to Los Angeles. Things do not go over very well - she ends up in a hospital, accused of driving a car that killed a man in a very bad crash -- when she knows that she was not the one driving. On top of everything else, the car had been stolen. Thankfully she has a friend that goes to Mason - and Mason decides to take the case.

And he is off - against Hollywood and its influence, working with Lt. Tragg (for most of the story anyway), trying to find not only how to save his client but also who was driving the car at the time. Tragg cannot go after the Hollywood magnate (or at least is not allowed to) so he works with Mason, probably giving him some more liberty than usual.

Of course everything would have been a lot easier if Drake and Mason did decide to play white knights and bring a woman from New Orleans to Los Angeles. They believe her to be the wife of their suspect - but then as soon as she gets where she wants to be, she disappears. Which makes the case harder - and puts Mason in a bad situation. Especially when people start getting murdered.

Usually in the novels, Mason's client is accused of the murders fast enough - that almost do not happen here. And the cooperation between Tragg and Mason continues from the previous book (and Drake now is prominently featured) and Tragg almost manages to outwit the lawyer. It is another enjoyable story.

As for the mystery - all the clues are in place, it is just down to disproving any other theory. And Mason, Della, Drake and Tragg end up doing it marvelously.

143N. The Case of the Empty Tin - Perry Mason 19, Original Publication: 1941, Finished 2016-09-16

You do not expect to find an empty closed tin between your tins of preserves. But that is what Mrs. Gentrie finds in her basement - and even though she tries to dismiss it, it seems to be important for her sister in law.

Meanwhile a man is killed in the house next door (or so it looks - no body is recovered) and another neighbor calls Mason for something that he does not want to disclose. Perry is intrigued so he goes there - and hears a story of old partnership and China, a missing heir and a cranky old man. The client is absolutely annoying - both for the lawyer and for the reader. And something in the story sounds fishy. The code that is found in the empty tin does not help clarify things.

Then a call comes. And Perry Mason ends up finding a body (but decides to leave Drake to report it - which the detective is not very happy about). Before long, Della and Mason will find another body and a link to arms smuggling in the Far East (with WWII already started outside of the US, that has long repercussions for the situation in the world). Add a love story (or 2), some innocent love and some not so innocent one, a heiress that resurfaces and dead men coming back from life complete the story of the mystery.

Tragg and Mason work together to some extent but because of where Perry shows up and mainly when, they both play their own games. And that almost makes the problem unsolvable.

At the end, the truth end up being in front of everyone's eyes - it comes down to one wrong assumption. It is a nicely constructed story - and I want to see where the stories will go when the war really starts.