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29. Asimov's Science Fiction Sep/Oct 2021
The Sep/Oct issue of Asimov's featured a couple of stories from series which don't do much for me. Rick Wilber's "Billie the Kid" takes place in the baseball playing spies universe and for the most part was the extremely detached, we'll never make you feel part of the action, viewpoint. James Gunn's "Singular Days" could be part of the evil AI from space series, but could be considered a stand alone. Despite being a short, it felt more fleshed and real feeling than the evil AI from space series.
I liked Elizabeth Bear's "A Blessing Of Unicorns". Greg Egan's "Sleep and the Soul" had an interesting alternate history concept, but the writing didn't quite click for me. My favorites among the shorts were "An Arch of Electric Skin" and "The Apocalypse and the Lake Mattamuskeet Gnat".
30. Arthur Ransome "The Picts & the Martyrs"
I really enjoyed the penultimate book in the Swallows & Amazons series. This book centers on Dick and Dorothea, who we were introduced to in Winter Holiday (The Picts) and Nancy and Peggy (The Amazons turned Martyrs). My favorite part of this book is the characterization of Nancy. Ransome never comes out and says it, but he shows Nancy walking that line of adulthood. She's always been the leader of the kids, but now she's responsible, responsible for her mother's peace of mind, responsible to make sure her friends have a good vacation, responsible for making sure things go well despite the pear shaped way they develop. She still loves to play and can be childish when she forgets, but she's making the transition from leading exploits to looking out for everyone's interests.
The plotting of the book is interesting because it plays with reader expectations and teases incidents which never happen. But in the meantime there are lots of interesting side bits.
There were passages in this book where the characterization was just perfect without ever being explicit. It's written like Maine humor, not telling the punch line, just expecting the audience to be smart enough to catch the bits which aren't said.
It is sad that I only have one book left in the series.
The Sep/Oct issue of Asimov's featured a couple of stories from series which don't do much for me. Rick Wilber's "Billie the Kid" takes place in the baseball playing spies universe and for the most part was the extremely detached, we'll never make you feel part of the action, viewpoint. James Gunn's "Singular Days" could be part of the evil AI from space series, but could be considered a stand alone. Despite being a short, it felt more fleshed and real feeling than the evil AI from space series.
I liked Elizabeth Bear's "A Blessing Of Unicorns". Greg Egan's "Sleep and the Soul" had an interesting alternate history concept, but the writing didn't quite click for me. My favorites among the shorts were "An Arch of Electric Skin" and "The Apocalypse and the Lake Mattamuskeet Gnat".
30. Arthur Ransome "The Picts & the Martyrs"
I really enjoyed the penultimate book in the Swallows & Amazons series. This book centers on Dick and Dorothea, who we were introduced to in Winter Holiday (The Picts) and Nancy and Peggy (The Amazons turned Martyrs). My favorite part of this book is the characterization of Nancy. Ransome never comes out and says it, but he shows Nancy walking that line of adulthood. She's always been the leader of the kids, but now she's responsible, responsible for her mother's peace of mind, responsible to make sure her friends have a good vacation, responsible for making sure things go well despite the pear shaped way they develop. She still loves to play and can be childish when she forgets, but she's making the transition from leading exploits to looking out for everyone's interests.
The plotting of the book is interesting because it plays with reader expectations and teases incidents which never happen. But in the meantime there are lots of interesting side bits.
There were passages in this book where the characterization was just perfect without ever being explicit. It's written like Maine humor, not telling the punch line, just expecting the audience to be smart enough to catch the bits which aren't said.
It is sad that I only have one book left in the series.
