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Robert Cosgrove
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 1710
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| Posted: 03 June 2016 at 3:21pm | IP Logged | 1
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To be honest, I liked it better when Asimov's universe was unmerged, the robot detectives in one corner, the Foundation series in the other. Even in comics, much as I loved the then-rare event of a team-up (other than Superman and Batman) and went wild over the JLA, I've come around to the view that a character's universe has more integrity self-contained.
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Robert Cosgrove
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 1710
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| Posted: 03 June 2016 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | 2
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Finished AL PLASTINO; LAST SUPERMAN STANDING, or perhaps more accurately, the last silver-age Superman artist standing. In my years in fandom, I've met a lot of Curt Swan partisans, and am myself a Wayne Boring partisan, but few partisans of Plastino. When I look back at the silver age stories, however, it's clear that Plastino drew a lot of significant Superman stories--first appearance of Braniac and the Bottle City of Kandor, first appearance of the adult Bizarro, first appearance of Metallo, and many others. I didn't know much about Plastino's career outside of Superman, and this book by Eddie Zeno went along way to remedying that. I am looking at his artistic skills with new respect, though I have to say, I still rank him behind Boring and Swan.
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 890
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| Posted: 05 June 2016 at 11:53am | IP Logged | 3
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Now starting:
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Robert Cosgrove
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 1710
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| Posted: 05 June 2016 at 4:14pm | IP Logged | 4
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Just finished Philip K. Dick's Man in the High Castle. It's sat on my bookshelf unread for about ten years now (not an unusual thing for me, as my reading aspirations outstrip my time and my reading ability), but I was inspired to finally get to it after watching the eponymous Amazon Prime series. Proving once again my plebian tastes, I liked the adaptation better than the original, a repeat, more than two decades later, of my experience with Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and its movie adaptation, Bladerunner (I do prefer the title to the novel, though).
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James Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2014
Location: United States
Posts: 890
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| Posted: 06 June 2016 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | 5
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Now starting:
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Chris Wood
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 July 2009
Location: United States
Posts: 166
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| Posted: 07 June 2016 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | 6
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I was only slightly familiar with the series through watching an episode or two on PBS, but I'm really enjoying these stories. Lots of fun!
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Robert Cosgrove
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 January 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 1710
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| Posted: 09 June 2016 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | 7
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Just finished listening to the book on CD of Jon Meachum: Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. It's not an "authorized" biography or one that GHWB had a right to review before publication, but the author benefits from extensive cooperation from his subject and the subject's family, including access to GHWB and Barbara Bush's diaries.
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Thom Price
Byrne Robotics Member
L’Homme Diabolique
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
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| Posted: 13 June 2016 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | 8
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Book three of the ANNO DRACULA series; a novel alternately called JUDGEMENT OF TEARS or DRACULA CHA CHA CHA. An alternate history which weaves Dracula in with numerous other fictional and historical characters. This one is a bit hokier than its predecessors; characters include (not very) thinly disguised versions of James Bond and Tom from THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY. On the other hand, the novel has one of Dracula's former wives being Zsa Zsa Gabor, which tickled me enormously.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133413
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| Posted: 14 June 2016 at 5:41am | IP Logged | 9
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Continuing with THE CAVES OF STEEL, I'm reminded of Asimov's habit of having one too many zeroes in his dates. This story, in which all the described tech seems not-quite-STAR TREK level is, he tells us, set three thousand years in the future.Something I recall reading Gene Roddenberry saying was that he decided in creating STAR TREK that he would not try to be too "futuristic." He phrased it something like "people will still wear trousers and push buttons." As we see technology racing along at breathtaking speeds, the latter seems more and more unlikely even within our lifetimes, but once we step thousands of years hence the likelihood of technology being recognizable seems even more remote.
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12731
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| Posted: 14 June 2016 at 6:38am | IP Logged | 10
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THE CONQUERING TIDE, by Ian W. Toll.
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Robbie Parry
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 June 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 12186
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| Posted: 14 June 2016 at 6:43am | IP Logged | 11
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Continuing with THE CAVES OF STEEL, I'm reminded of Asimov's habit of having one too many zeroes in his dates. This story, in which all the described tech seems not-quite-STAR TREK level is, he tells us, set three thousand years in the future.
***
I had this problem when modern DOCTOR WHO did an episode set in the year one billion - and it just didn't sit right with me.
I'd be careful with anything I wrote that had lots of zeroes in my dates. I mean, I certainly wouldn't have automobiles, for instance. If we are still using cars to get around in, say, the year one billion, or are still commuting to work, then humanity has fucked up. Just my view. ;)
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 133413
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| Posted: 14 June 2016 at 9:53am | IP Logged | 12
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I also had this problem with CAMELOT 3000, which I felt looked more like it was set a hundred years in the Future.
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