Fascinating ....heartbreaking

From the author of The Eighty-Dollar Champion, the remarkable story of the heroic rescue of priceless horses in the closing days of World War II

The Eighty Dollar Champion is a must read ....just the best feel good read in a long while ....and true.





good reviews on this coming up

surreptitious57 wrote:
The Dispossessed : Ursula Le Guin

One of her best and a winner of both the Nebula and the Hugo
I am rather slow in getting into it but hopefully that shall pass

This is the third mention in as many days that I have seen about this book. Definitely on the list.

Posted these before but she completed the trifecta with the third Hugo win in a row.

Drifting behind what I'm buying

looks fabulous

absolutely incredible true tale well told.

Really enjoyed Tin Can Sailors - cover to last electron. On to The Great Influenza

Surface Detail : Iain Banks

Above average space opera but still no match for Alastair Reynolds who is the undisputed king of this genre and then some
But better than the overrated Dune I recently read which in no way deserves the reputation it has acquired over the years

Dune was a product of its time ...and over hyped but still terrific.


looks good....still being mesmerized, appalled by the Great Influenza.

Eon : Greg Bear

Asteroid with seven chambers in it built by humans from a different past [ not this one another one ]
Seventh chamber goes on forever. My second attempt at reading it so will hopefully finish it this time

Unfortunately not although I did manage to read a bit more than last time but still had to stop
Why it won a Hugo I have no idea but on the basis of what I actually read is not at all deserved

It is convoluted but it certainly deserved the Hugo. It's a huge leap of imagination and I think better than SevenEves. Bear is known for hard scifi and this one is vivid.
Review of Eon here

https://blog.sfgateway.com/index.php/gr ... -baxter-2/

Macdoc wrote:

Posted these before but she completed the trifecta with the third Hugo win in a row.

Am half way through the second volume. Pretty good, writing style annoys me a bit sometimes (it's almost like YA fiction at times), but very imaginative.

It is YA fiction and there is some backstory of what she was going through as she wrote it.....can't recall. I struggled a bit it was wildly different so stayed with it.

Where does it say it's YA?

I certainly hope shes not YA as I would really love to read her
I have not seen any reference to it and so maybe its not true

She writes fantasy which is a problem too as I do not read it but she writes science fiction as well so might give her a chance
The genres I never read are horror and fantasy and chick lit as they are not sufficiently realistic for my reading requirements

YA is wide ranging these days and there is no set definitions ....if you are judging a triple Hugo winner by a marketing genre maybe rethink your approach.

There is almost an even split for YA readers between young adults and adult readers ....Young girl saves the world sort of.....her power grows, young stone eater helps her ......this is a complex and very far ranging series of novels

Syenite is a classic YA heroine and there are some classic YA themes of young girl acquiring the mantle of power under a wise old master but it goes far beyond that and deserves the awards for it's innovation if nothing else.

It's an excellent, imaginative work of fiction loaded with social themes that are relevant now...some as wild and vivid as Perdido Street Station by China Mieville.

Mieville himself defies categories

A Category Unto Himself: The Works of China Miéville
Jared Shurin

https://www.tor.com/2014/10/14/a-catego ... -mieville/

and I'd class Jemisin with him in that off the walls imagination/world building ...the diverse species of Perdido Station no more or less fantastical than a Guardian or Stone Eater.

Suggest you don't read this as it has some spoilers but likely won't even make sense if you haven't read the series.

Layered Themes in The Broken Earth

https://tolkienaboutscifi.wordpress.com ... ken-earth/

Perdido Station has inspired a crazy array of artwork. Good review of the book here
http://armorbelle.com/2017/11/22/perdid ... ok-review/
His Scar is also good and in the same "world" tho I don't think as breakthrough as Perdido.

I have read one Mieville and that was The City And The City which was very a powerful imaginative piece
But steampunk is unfortunately not a favourite genre of mine so I dont know if I will be reading him again

I think that genres are necessary in order to guide one in their reading material of choice
And every writer is put into a category including those who dont want to be put into one

Ultimately there are only two categories : good writing and bad writing and all else is irrelevant to this
You can find truly phenomenal writers in any genre and just as equally absolutely awful ones as well
The knack is to be able to separate the two and this can only come with actually reading their books

I will give Jemisin a go and try and read her with an open mind
However I am wary of reading YA because it is aimed at a younger audience so it will
not address adult themes with the same degree of authenticity as it otherwise would

The most famous YA writer is of course JK Rowling with Harry Potter but I never have and never will read any of them as they do absolutely nothing for me. I know that many adults do read them but if what I am reading is not entirely realistic I simply switch off. Wishy washy fiction does not do it for me my mind automatically rejects it as it is essentially hardwired to do so

I recently tried reading Revenger by Alastair Reynolds my favourite author. But I had to stop very early on because
it was a book for children and as such lacked his usual attention to detail wrt dark plots and dark characterisation

I think it is great that writers are aiming for the younger market but it is not a market I am a member of so I accept this
and focus instead on the market for me namely serious fiction [ which is usually although not exclusively science fiction ]

So something like The Magus by John Fowles you would write off as it has a fantastical aspect, or Robertson Davies. I started reading so called Adult books when I was 7 or 8.

There is a huge difference between YA and childrens books. YA these days is as dark as it comes.....I look at it as could the book appeal to teens ....usually by way of a character who they can relate to.
Jemisin has that character big time....maybe even two if you consider the one stone eater.

Hunger Games and other very dark dystopian fiction includes characters and adventures that appeal to teens but also read widely by adults.

I'm surprised you like Scifi at all as most are as unrealistic as any witch and wizardry fantasy. David Brin's uplift series for instance or the entire Vorkosigan Saga by Bujold.....even legendary ones like The Foundation requires a huge suspension of disbelief.

You certainly did not sample the best of Mielville at all. I found he was experimenting with the City and the City and did not quite pull it off tho it was "interesting" and the guy can write.

If you really want a wordsmith ...Guy Gavriel Kaye is simply astonishing.
Jemisin is as out there as it comes and you may not like it at all.

I rarely consider ANY science fiction as serious fiction....speculative fiction yes and some very well written but not serious fiction.

The English Patient, almost anything by Fowles, The Alexandria Quartet, The Lighthouse, Jude the Obscure , The Reivers. (almost anything by Faulkner )....those are all serious fiction but junk like Catcher in the Rye and anything by Tom Wolfe just tripe.

Maybe A Canticle for Leibowitz is one sci-fi that fits to serious fiction, it's almost as far out as Jemisin. 1984 perhaps as well and Huxley's Brave New World, Anathem might turn out classic.

Reading the review on the Revengers it certainly is space opera and has a YA appeal but not a children's book by any stretch.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sci ... ter-space/

Science fiction and fantasy are entirely separate genres and so are not at all the same
I have absolutely zero interest in wizards or witches because that to me is for children

Hunger Games may be read by many adults but it also does absolutely nothing for me
If that is your idea of quality dystopian fiction you are setting the bar very low indeed

I am going to pass on Jemisin because she is definitely too fantasy for me
I have been looking around for more space opera instead and have found

The Ancillary Trilogy : Ann Leckie

The Uplift Trilogy : David Brin

The Foundation Trilogy : Isaac Asimov

The Vorkosigan Saga : Lois Mcmaster Bujold

is recommended on Quora and so despite your criticism of it [ and the other two trilogies ] I may check it out too
Never heard of Guy Gavriel Kaye but if he is space opera or hard science fiction then I want to check him out also
You have a very negative bias against science fiction which I do not share so I take your opinions not very seriously

Never read The English Patient but the film is an absolute classic