Long Short Long

I saw there was a new novel out by Gregory Benford about a institute on the far-side of the moon that studies SETI messages, some of which are downloads of powerful AIs. I loved Benford's earlier stuff - I read "Great Sky River" (1987) several times. So I thought I'd check his latest out: "Shadows of Eternity", 2021, 472 pages, 128k words.

But this was done with a bit of trepidation. Benford was born in Jan, 1941, making him 81 now. Older sci-fi authors seem to become a bit sex-obsessed - "Dirty Old Man Syndrome". Plus Benford was born & raised in & around Mobile, AL. Plus the book had a cover blurb by Jack McDevitt - another old white southerner - whose novels I used to enjoy but whom I wrote off after his latest novel - holy crap, that was over 5 years ago??? Really??? [Re old white southerner: Hello pot? Kettle here ...]

But all in all, not too bad. Some interesting concepts re galactic civilizations. The protagonist is a genius woman researcher at the SETI Library, and the early action is driven by her discoveries. She has several sexual relationships over the course of the novel, but not too much drooling going on. I would say my biggest bone to pick with the novel was that plot-wise it kind of changes course and wanders for the last 1/2-1/3 of the book. Still, not a bad read.

I was then in a mood for short stories, not sure why. So I read:

• "The Wandering Earth", by Cixin Liu, 2021, 468 pages, 127k words. [Very close in size to the prior novel???]. This was engaging book of 10 stories. Liu totally goes for it - no concept too big! Awesome upon awesome! They are making his 3 Body Problem books into a movie or series.
• "Drive", by James S.A. Corey, 2022, 31 pages, 8k words. "An Expanse Short Story". I kept thinking I had read this before, but when I was pulling the link from Kobo, I saw a review talking about that this had been an episode in the TV series. So that was where I'd heard this story before. Quick & easy read, nothing special.
• "Looking for Jake", by China Miéville, 2005, 314 pages, 85k words, 14 stories. Most of these I would characterize as horror or slipstream. Miéville has some really creative ideas and writes really well.
• "Icelandic Folk Tales", by Hjörleifur Helgi Stefánsson, 2020, 189 pages, 51k words, 25 stories. Illustrated by Tord Sandström Fahlström. LOL, these stories seem to me to be real folk tales - like the kind told by everybody's grandpa who loves to pull legs, or by one's crazy uncle who is somehow believable. A lot of references to places in Iceland, and tourist attractions to visit, e.g., the church wall with a fallen section that can't be rebuilt because it was cursed by a troll. It might make an interesting travel guide?!?!? Note, I created a new "Folk Tales" collection in my Kobo eBook app and added these there as well as to Fantasy.

While mentally preparing to write this post, I went on and started reading "Eyes of the Void", by Adrian Tchaikovsky, 2022, 586 pages, 159k words. Book 2 of "The Final Architecture" trilogy. Book 1 was "Shards of Earth", blogged here. Tchaikovsky is really cranking out enjoyable, high-quality space opera. My current fav I think.

All caught up. I think this weekend it will be Music In.