Reply to: CUK Book Club: Currently reading...

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Secret War" by Brian Johnson (1978). A letter from Oslo, Battle of the Beams, Radar, Enigma etc.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. The chapter on Enigma was pretty meh, but the chapter that included The Great Panjandrum was larf out loud funny, with Nevil Shute Norway steering the thing, rockets falling off the wheels & whizzing everywhere, plus the dog chasing them & the photographer nearly being run over by it.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "ULTRA goes to war" by Ronald Lewin. (1978).

This one mentions ENIGMA, the contribution of the Poles, COLOSSUS, Bletchley Park, Tommy Flowers, and even has a photograph of the latter receiving a doctorate from Newcastle in 1977.

Done: off to Oxfam with it: being a paperback it's in imminent danger of falling in half at the illustrations.

Next: "Too much and never enough" by Mary Trump. More about the Moronic Orange psychopath.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Mother Earth" by I. Asimov.

Set before "Caves of Steel". I'd never heard of this one and have never seen it in an anthology.

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...ge/59/mode/1up

So here it is in all its glory.

Done. And it doesn't need to got to Oxfam once it's read. .

Next: "The Secret War" by Brian Johnson (1978). A letter from Oslo, Battle of the Beams, Radar, Enigma etc.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Stainless Steel Rat wants you" by H. Harrison (1978).

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: TBD.

[NotAllThere]

Doughnut - Tom Holt.

Notre Dame de Paris was very good. Darkly funny.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Looks very much as if I don't have book 5 either.

Next: "Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the H2G2" by Neil Gaiman. The updated 2003 edition: remaindered at £3.99.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Hitchhiker A biography of Douglas Adams" by M. J. Simpson.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The rough guide to H2G2" by Marcus o'Dair. Paid 99p for this 28/9/2013. Bargain. It's already reminded me how much I've forgotten about books 3, 4, and 5. Never bothered with 6.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Looks very much as if I don't have book 5 either.

Next: "Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the H2G2" by Neil Gaiman. The updated 2003 edition: remaindered at £3.99.

Goes into some detail on the differences between the Radio Series, the first two books, and the TV series.

Too early to have compared those with the rather dire film.

I think I don't have the 5th book because the 4th book was so mediocre.

[DoctorStrangelove]

"The illustrated history of Gadget Warfare: The Vietnam War" by F. Clifton Berry Jnr.* 82nd Airborne.

All that materiel, all those crazy weapons, Puff the Magic Dragon, Agent Orange, Daisy Cutters, CBU-55 FAE.

And they still lost to little men with AK47s and bicycles.

If there's something to be grateful to Harold Wilson for, it's keeping us out of that mess.

*That's the late F. Cliffton Berry Jnr.

https://www.airforcemag.com/f-clifto...-jr-1931-2020/

Done: read for the 2nd time: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "Mother Earth" by I. Asimov.

Set before "Caves of Steel". I'd never heard of this one and have never seen it in an anthology.

https://archive.org/details/Astoundi...ge/59/mode/1up

So here it is in all its glory.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Secret Warfare" by Bruce Norman. Published 1973. No mention of ULTRA, ENIGMA, Bletchley Park or COLOSSUS, these remaining secret at the time. No idea when I bought this but it was at least 20 years ago, if not 30.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. I didn't attempt to understand any of the codes/cyphers mentioned. The most recent mention was of the Krogers.

Next: "ULTRA goes to war" by Ronald Lewin. (1978).

This one mentions ENIGMA, the contribution of the Poles, COLOSSUS, Bletchley Park, Tommy Flowers, and even has a photograph of the latter receiving a doctorate from Newcastle in 1977.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "The Magic May Return" edited by L. Niven. An anthology containing "Not Long Before The End" being the first of Niven's Warlock stories plus stories by other writers in the same vein.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. "Strength" by Poul Anderson and Mildred Downey Broxon was very good: the end of magic leading to the return of the glaciers and the fall of a civilisation held up by magic, presumably 14000 years ago in north America.

Did look at some other swords & sorcery stuff but neither book appealed particularly, so:

Next: TBD.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: the wizard one "The Magic Goes Away" by L Niven.

This one is an illustrated trade paperback. Bought far back in the mysts of tyme. Probly 1979. 2nd printing.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: "The Magic May Return" edited by L. Niven. An anthology containing "Not Long Before The End" being the first of Niven's Warlock stories plus stories by other writers in the same vein.

[sadkingbilly]

dun. end a bit disappointing.

now Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky

weird, quite amusing though.
next - echogenesis by Gary Gibson

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "N-Space" by L. Niven. More Known Space stories.

Done: off to Oxfam with it. Took a long time to read those last 40 pages.

Next: TBD.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Next: "Rainbow Mars" is in the pile & it's more of the time travel oevre.

Done: off to Oxfam with it.

Next: the wizard one "The Magic Goes Away" by L Niven.

This one is an illustrated trade paperback. Bought far back in the mysts of tyme. Probly 1979. 2nd printing.

[sadkingbilly]

the final architecture trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky
very entertaining imo

now: Europa deep by Gary gibson

dun. end a bit disappointing.

now Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky