CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[sadkingbilly]

Lockdown Tales II - Neal Asher

good, as expected.

lazy sod

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "After the fall" by Robert Sheckley, being an anthology of End of the World/Universe stories by assorted writers: Roger Zelazney has 3 stories in this.

Done: off to Oxfam with it, pretty much meh all in all, some of it was hard going (it might have been less hard going if it hadn't been 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. but pretty meh anyway).

Next: "The Wonder Effect" by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederick Pohl.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: A Tor Double: "Sailing to Byzantium" Robert Silverberg / "Seven American Nights" Gene Wolfe.

Done: off to Oxfam it goes. Didn't think much of the Gene Wolfe thing, I'd read the Silverberg before.

Next: "The past through tomorrow Vol 1" by Robert A. Heinlein. Golden Age stuff from the 40s.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Wonder Effect" by C. M. Kornbluth and Frederick Pohl.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Not sure I liked many of those stories. A bit meh all in all.

Next: "The Man who sold the moon" by Robert A. Heinlein.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Not sure I liked many of those stories. A bit meh all in all.

Next: "The Man who sold the moon" by Robert A. Heinlein.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: turns out there was only one story that isn't in the other Heinlein collection: "Let there be light" (wherein the solar panel is invented).

Next: "The Green Hills of Earth" by Robert A. Heinlein*. Another anthology, the first half of which is in the above.

*This hardback book was bought for "Chain Library" on the 10th of May 1955, costing 9/6d.

Stalled on the last story about slavery on Venus. 23/6/25. Still stalled 7/7/25.

Managed another 2 pages 8/7/25.

Inneresting use of the N word as applied to the Venusian natives. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The past through tomorrow Vol 1" by Robert A. Heinlein. Golden Age stuff from the 40s.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Menace from Earth" by R. A. Heinlein. Only one future history story in this lot: the one in the title.

[sadkingbilly]

'world walkers' by neil asher.
weird and wonderful, as expected.

[NotAllThere]

Starter Villian by John Scalzi

He wrote Red Shirts. Both very funny. I particulary enjoyed the joke about the villain who was so parsiminous that he only upgraded his network when windows 7 was seriously compromised. And wouldn't pay for a 300cm screen - you have to use a laptop for the other supervillians to try to intimidate you. And they don't even bother to activate encyrption on Zoom...

And it has cats.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Menace from Earth" by R. A. Heinlein. Only one future history story in this lot: the one in the title.

^{Done: off to Oxfam with it.}

<sub>Next: "The Revolt in 2100" by R. A. Heinlein. I think this is the last of the Future History short stories in my collection since I don't have "Universe".

Stalled on the 1st story, I've read the other two:</sub>

As it turns out the earlier copy of the book is missing the 3rd story in the later book.

Still stalled 7/7/25. Though I have managed another 2 pages of the 100 odd in the novella.

And another page today. It's like pulling teeth.

Unstalled 27/8/25. Only another 100 pages to go. It's set in some 22nd century religious dystopia.

4 more pages read.

20 pages read 7th September 2025. I'm on a roll. .

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "2010: Odyssey Two" by A. C. Clarke.

I'd forgotten a lot of that.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: bookclub version, probably bought from Robert The Books* in Swansea nearly 40 years ago. For £1.

Next: "2061: Odyssey Three" by A. C. Clarke.

*Was Ralph the Books**, Dylan Thomas's friend whilst Ralph was above ground.

** referred to in this article about Jeff Towns (who I also bought books from):

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/w...ansea-22381844