Daily Archives: 17 July 2004

July Books 9) River of Gods

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9) River of Gods, by Ian McDonald. Another one of my review books from infinity plus. Actually the best one so far. That leaves only Beyond Infinity and the zine to read. I’ll have to start writing the reviews soon.

One point I may or may not put in the review: I was amused that Diljit Rana, the name of a well known Belfast businessman who is now now a member of the House of Lords, appeared in this book as the founder of an Indian political dynasty. Of course, the real Diljit Rana is from the Punjab not from Varanasi, but it was a nice touch anyway; I’m sure that McDonald is at least as grateful as I am for the massive contribution Rana has made to Belfast’s restaurant and hotel scene.

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July Books 8) The Door Into Summer

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8) The Door into Summer, by Robert A. Heinlein.

As a child, I loved Heinlein’s juvenile novels. As a teenager, I read almost all of his adult novels. I remember at a vulnerable age (I must have been 12, looking up the dates) reading the first installment of The Number of the Beast in Omni, my young mind boggling at the idea of nipples going “spung!”. But once I’d found and read the complete novel, it gradually began to occur to me that while Heinlein’s past works were great, his present ones were pretty, well, dire. I have a lingering affection for Job: A Comedy of Justice but the last two I tried, To Sail Beyond the Sunset and The Cat Who Walked Through Walls, well, while I’m glad I borrowed them from someone else and didn’t pay my own money for them, I can never get those wasted hours of my life back.

So I was a bit surprised to discover that there were still a couple of novels from his earlier, good period that I hadn’t read. One was Double Star, which I caught up with last November; the other was The Door Into Summer, of which I knew almost nothing; it cropped up at 79th on Neil Sykes’ list of the top 100 SF novels, now I notice down to 92nd. I put it on my list of books to look out for in London last week, found it, bought it, read it.

And it’s a good sf novel. Written in 1956, set in 1970 and 2000, hero is a bit of an asshole (alas, unintentionally – a hint of things to come), suspended animation takes you forward in time, the mad professor’s time machine takes you back. I kept on recognising bits from films – surely that last was part of the inspiration for Back to the Future? Surely the scene with trying to get the cat into suspended animation is consciously echoed by Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and Jones (played by himself) in Alien? OK, there are one or two plot holes, and the hero’s relationship with his colleague’s stepdaughter could not possibly be written as an innocent friendship these days, but taken as a novel of its time it’s pretty good. The hero is 30 in 1970, born in 1940, so the book’s key target readership when it was first published would have been able to think of this as their own possible future.

Of course, now that we are four years beyond the year in which the end of the book is set it’s also interesting to read it as futurology (as one can also read, for instance, Bellamy’s Looking Backward: from 2000 to 1887). Heinlein has a mid-1960s nuclear war, and the capital of the USA moving to Denver, which of course didn’t happen; nor was suspended animation commonplace in 1970 or even 2000. But the spread of household appliances (the source of our hero’s wealth) is a good call, even if he got the modalities somewhat wrong; his nearest hit is the engineer’s drawing board, not too far removed from our CAD. He hints (as far as you could in 1956) at a more liberal and liberated sexual culture in the future – indeed, some would argue that Stranger in a Strange Land helped to bring that about – but completely misses the improvement in rights for non-whites as far as I can tell. (Farnham’s Freehold was still eight years in the future.) The English language, thank heavens, has not changed as much in the last thirty years (or fifty) as he predicted.

Anyway, that was worth the £4 or £5 I paid for it. Back to finishing River of Gods now.

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The second 100

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Aha, I hadn’t spotted that in fact there is a second half of Neil Sykes’ Top 200 SF books list. They are:


101 Robert A Heinlein, [C] The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)


102 Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)


103 Robert L Forward, Dragon’s Egg (1980)


104 Kurt Vonnegut, Cat’s Cradle (1963)


105 Alexei Panshin, Rite of Passage (1968)


106 Edgar Pangborn, A Mirror for Observers (1954)


107 Samuel R Delany, The Einstein Intersection (1966)


108 A E van Vogt, The World of Null-A (1948)


109 A E van Vogt, Slan (1946)


110 Ursula K Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven (1971)


111  Gibson & Sterling, The Difference Engine (1990)


112 Yevgeny Zamiatin, We (1924)


113 Iain M Banks, Player Of Games (1988)


114 J G Ballard, The Drowned World (1962)


115 Brian Aldiss, Hothouse (1962)


116 John Varley, [C] The Persistence Of Vision (1978)


117 Damon Knight [ed], [A] The Best from Orbit (1975)


118 Arkady & Boris Strugatsky, Roadside Picnic (1972)


119 Olaf Stapledon, Star Maker (1937)


120 Isaac Asimov, The End Of Eternity (1955)


121 Fritz Leiber, The Big Time (1961)


122 Nancy Kress, Beggars in Spain (1993)


123 Bruce Sterling, Islands in the Net (1988)


124 Roger Zelazny, This Immortal (1966)


125 H G Wells, The Invisible Man (1897)


126 Michael Swanwick, Stations of the Tide (1991)


127 Gordon Dickson, Dorsai (vt The Genetic General) (1960)


128 Roger Zelazny, [C] Doors of His Face (Lamps of His Mouth)


129 William Gibson, [C] Burning Chrome (1986)


130 Greg Bear, Eon (1985)


131 C J Cherryh, Cuckoo’s Egg (1985)


132 John Brunner, The Sheep Look Up (1972)


133 James Gunn [ed], [A] The Road to Science Fiction [S1-4] (1977)


134 Robert A Heinlein, Citizen Of the Galaxy (1957)


135 Fritz Leiber, The Wanderer (1964)


136 Harry Harrison, Make Room! Make Room! (1966)


137 Cordwainer Smith, Norstrilia (1975)


138 Thomas M Disch, On Wings of Song (1979)


139 Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat [S1] (1961)


140 C S Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet [S1] (1938)


141 Pat Frank, Alas (Babylon)


142 Kate Wilhelm, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976)


143 L Sprague DeCamp, Lest Darkness Fall (1939)


144 Edgar Pangborn, Davy (1964)


145 John Crowley, Engine Summer (1979)


146 Cordwainer Smith, [C] The Rediscovery of Man (1975)


147 Stephen Baxter, The Time Ships (1995)


148 Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1886)


149 Keith Roberts, Pavane (1968)


150 Isaac Asimov [ed], [A] Before the Golden Age (1974)


151 Larry Niven, [C] Neutron Star (1968)


152 John Wyndham, The Chrysalids (1955)


153 Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)


154 John Wyndham, The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)


155 Olaf Stapledon, Odd John (1935)


156 Alastair Reynolds, Revelation Space (2000)


157 Thomas M Disch, 334 (1972)


158 John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider (1975)


159 James H Schmitz, The Witches Of Karres (1966)


160 Algis Budrys, Rogue Moon (1960)


161 Iain M Banks, Use of Weapons (1990)


162 Russell Hoban, Riddley Walker (1980)


163 A E van Vogt, The Voyage Of the Space Beagle (1950)


164 Octavia Butler, Dawn (1987)


165 Samuel R Delany, Nova (1968)


166 Healy & McComas [eds], [A] Adventures in Time and Space (1946)


167 Ian Watson, The Embedding (1973)


168 Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle In Time (1962)


169 Norman Spinrad, Bug Jack Barron (1969)


170 Greg Egan, Permutation City (1994)


171 Jonathan Lethem, Gun (With Occasional Music)


172 Joe Haldeman, Forever Peace (1997)


173 Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus (1972)


174 Greg Bear, Darwin’s Radio (1999)


175 Jack Williamson, The Humanoids (1949)


176 Ward Moore, Bring the Jubilee (1955)


177 Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow (1955)


178 Mary Doria Russell, The Sparrow (1996)


179 Karel Capek, War With the Newts (1936)


180 C M Kornbluth, [C] A Mile Beyond the Moon (1962)


181 Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years Of Rice and Salt (2002)


182 Geoff Ryman, The Child Garden (1989)


183 Ursula K Le Guin, [C] The Wind’s Twelve Quarters (1975)


184 Christopher Priest, Inverted World (1969)


185 J G Ballard, The Crystal World (1966)


186 Roger Zelazny, Dream Master (1966)


187 Robert Silverberg, A Time of Changes (1971)


188 Michael Moorcock, Behold the Man (1969)


189 Robert J Sawyer, The Terminal Experiment (1995)


190 Ben [ed] Bova, [A] SF Hall of Fame: The Novellas (1973)


191 M John Harrison, Light (2002)


192 John Christopher, The Death of Grass (1956)


193 Robert Charles Wilson, The Chronoliths (2001)


194 Connie Willis, Passage (2001)


195 Wilson Tucker, The Year of the Quiet Sun (1970)


196 Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano (1952)


197 John Barnes, Mother of Storms (1994)


198 Bruce Sterling [ed], [A] Mirrorshades (1986)


199 Gene Wolfe, [C] The Island of Doctor Death (1980)


200 Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time (1976)


I’ve only read about 50 of these. Still, there’s plenty of time… and I doubt if, for instance, Connie Willis’s Passage or Robert Charles Wilson’s The Chronoliths will really stand out in ten or twenty years.

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Top 100 sf list again

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Neil Sykes has revised his Top 100 SF novels listA Mirror for Obervers, which I admit I hadn’t heard of, and slightly more surprisingly Heinlein’s The Past Through Tomorrow, Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, while in come Lem’s Solaris (reasonable), Ellison’s Deathbird stories (haven’t read them), Delany’s Dhalgren (also haven’t read it) and Niven and Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer (oh, for heaven’s sake!). The full list, with those I’ve read bold and those currently on my shelves awaiting my attention in italics, is:


1 Frank Herbert, Dune (1965)


2 Orson Scott Card, Ender’s Game [S1] (1985)


3 Isaac Asimov, Foundation [S1-3] (1951)


4 William Gibson, Neuromancer (1984)


5 Ursula K Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)


6 Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)


7 Larry Niven, Ringworld (1970)


8 Robert A Heinlein, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)


9 George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)


10 Dan Simmons, Hyperion (1989)


11 Ursula K Le Guin, The Dispossessed (1974)


12 Frederik Pohl, Gateway (1977)


13 Joe Haldeman, The Forever War (1974)


14 Walter M Miller, A Canticle for Leibowitz (1959)


15 David Brin, Startide Rising [S2] (1983)


16 Arthur C Clarke, Childhood’s End (1954)


17 Douglas Adams, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy [S1] (1979)


18 Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man (1953)


19 Ben Bova [ed], [A] The Best of the Nebulas (1989)


20 John Brunner, Stand on Zanzibar (1969)


21 Ray Bradbury, [C] The Martian Chronicles (1950)


22 Gene Wolfe, The Shadow of the Torturer [S1] (1980)


23 Arthur C Clarke, Rendezvous With Rama (1973)


24 Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination (1956)


25 Roger Zelazny, Lord of Light (1967)


26 Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human (1953)


27 Robert A Heinlein, Starship Troopers (1959)


28 Isaac Asimov, [C] I, Robot (1950)


29 Philip K Dick, The Man in the High Castle (1962)


30 Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1954)


31 Harlan  Ellison [ed], [A] Dangerous Visions (1967)


32 Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon (1966)


33 Orson Scott Card, Speaker for the Dead [S2] (1986)


34 H G Wells, The Time Machine (1895)


35  Niven & Pournelle, The Mote in God’s Eye (1975)


36 Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep (1991)


37 Philip K Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)


38 David Brin, The Uplift War [S3] (1987)


39 Kim Stanley Robinson, Red Mars (1992)


40 Clifford Simak, Way Station (1963)


41 H G Wells, The War of the Worlds (1898)


42 Connie Willis, Doomsday Book (1992)


43 Isaac Asimov, The Gods Themselves (1972)


44 Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash (1992)


45 Aldous Huxley, Brave New World (1932)


46 Philip Jose Farmer, To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971)


47 Gardner  Dozois [ed], [A] The Year’s Best Science Fiction [S] (1984) (that is, I bought the latest one last week)


48 Gregory Benford, Timescape (1980)


49 C J Cherryh, Downbelow Station (1981)


50 Arthur C Clarke, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)


51 Isaac Asimov, The Caves of Steel (1954)


52 Greg Bear, Blood Music (1985)


53 Robert Silverberg, Dying Inside (1972)


54 John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids (1951)


55 Pohl & Kornbluth, The Space Merchants (1953)


56 Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age (1995)


57 James Blish, A Case of Conscience (1958)


58 Clifford Simak, [C] City (1952)


59 Hal Clement, Mission of Gravity (1953)


60 Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (1818)


61 Jules Verne, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870)


62 George R Stewart, Earth Abides (1949)


63 Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars [S1] (1912)


64 Philip K Dick, Ubik (1969)


65 Lois McMaster Bujold, Barrayar (1991)


66 Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962)


67 Isaac Asimov (et al) [eds], [A] Hugo Winners/New Hugo Winners [S] (1962)


68 Tim Powers, The Anubis Gates (1983)


69 Arthur C Clarke, The City and the Stars (1956)


70 Philip K Dick, The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch (1964)


71 Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five (1969)


72 Arthur C Clarke, The Fountains of Paradise (1979)


73 Poul Anderson, Tau Zero (1970)


74 James Blish, [C] Earthman, Come Home (1955)


75 E E ‘Doc’ Smith, Grey Lensman [S4] (1951)


76 Joanna Russ, The Female Man (1975)


77 Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864)


78 Joan D Vinge, The Snow Queen (1980)


79 Robert A Heinlein, Time Enough For Love (1973)


80 Stanislaw Lem, Solaris (1961)


81 C J Cherryh, Cyteen: The Betrayal [S1] (1988)


82 Harlan Ellison [ed], [A] Again, Dangerous Visions (1972)


83 Robert A Heinlein, The Puppet Masters (1951)


84 Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan (1959)


85 Samuel R Delany, Babel-17 (1966)


86 Brian Aldiss, Helliconia Spring [S1] (1982)


87 Harlan Ellison, [C] Deathbird Stories (1975)


88 Samuel R Delany, Dhalgren (1975)


89 Robert A Heinlein, Have Space-Suit – Will Travel (1958)


90 Niven & Pournelle, Lucifer’s Hammer (1977)


91 Frederik Pohl, Man Plus (1976)


92 Robert Silverberg [ed], [A] Science Fiction Hall of Fame 1 (1970)


93 Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men (1930)


94 Robert A Heinlein, The Door Into Summer (1956)


95 Thomas M Disch, Camp Concentration (1968)


96 John Varley, Titan (1979)


97 Michael Bishop, No Enemy But Time (1982)


98 Robert A Heinlein, Double Star (1956)


99 David Brin, The Postman (1985)


100 Vonda N McIntyre, Dreamsnake (1978)


So that’s 81 read and 6 on the shelves waiting.

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