Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the world today who are using Orwell's books as instruction manuals rather than taking them as warnings.

Piece of Cake- Derek Robinson

I recently got it into my head to start rereading my favourite books that I remember from my school teen years (so 1980's). Yes I still have my books from then. This one was closet on hand. It follows an RAF fighter Squadron during the first 12 months of WW2. It is not a glorified British propaganda story. In fact it attempts to expose many myths that are spread even today. Like the terrible tactics of the RAF that led to thousands of pilot deaths and the reluctance of high command to learn and change. The first half of the story has you learning all the characters in great depth, you know everything about them. As losses mount you learn less and less about the replacements over the months. Until near the end you don't even get a name. Just faceless untrained cannon fodder thrown into a meat grinder.

There was also a well done TV mini series based on the story in the 90's (same title), that kept the main themes remarkably intact and is also worth tracking down on DVD.

Robots and Empire - Isaac Asimov

Last book of the Elijah Bailey and I think last book before the "core" Foundation cycle.

I found that book harder to read than the other "Elijah Bailey" books. Maybe because Elijah Bailey doesn't really appear in that book, since it takes places around years and years after his death. So the main characters of tha book are Gladia, the Solarian woman he met, helped and loved in one of his adventures, a descendant of Elijah Bailey and the robots Daneel and Giskard.

To be honest, they, in a way, all lack the charisma needed to get a gripping story. The story is solid, quite well written, but since it has been written by Asimov years and years after completing his Foundation cycle, you also kind of feel he is more preoccupied about setting up for his "chef-d'oeuvre" (Foundation) than to actually make a self-contained story. Which is not necessarily bad, when you know the book is only part of a larger work, but still a little disappointing, I think.

Anyway, moving up in the Foundation cycle!

So far in 2020: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2020/post9

The Chronicles of Mallorea - book 1

In this continuation of the chronicles of Belgarion we are reaquinted with the headfigures from the earlier stories. 10 years have past since good overcame evil but now there are new problems on the horion.

I have the translated into dutch copy so i won't go in to much details about the writing style but i do enjoy the simple linings ( for example with Eddings compared against Jordan ) with a bit of a classical touch.

My reading list for 2020

ISAAC ASIMOV - FOUNDATION AND EMPIRE

The second book in the original trilogy done & dusted. I would not describe it as a riveting read, though I guess it got more exciting towards the end. I enjoyed it, but it was a struggle at times, so became a slow read. I also guessed the reveal at the end, quite early on. To be fair, I should have read the trilogy many years ago, back when there was less to compare with it, and my own imagination might have played a greater part. I also have had a few life issues to deal with of late, so that didn't help my focus, chief of which was tiredness due to lack of or poor sleep at times.

Gonna take a break and read something else for a while, before tackling the third book in the trilogy.

At this point in time, I would have to say i enjoyed his Robot novels more ... certainly less jumping around, and more thought provoking.

I've read all his short stories published before 1958, and I think all of his better novels except The Gods Themselves, and the best I've read of Asimov so far is The End of Eternity.

I've been trying (so far successfully) to give myself some structured reading time to make up for otherwise not reading due to lack of commute.

I finished Child of Fire (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty_Palaces) and enjoyed it. I agree with a lot of the criticism listed against it, but it was still a fun (albeit disposable) book. Just what I needed.

I'm on to Patricia Briggs' latest book that came out in March.

Hilberg, Raul (1996). The Politics of Memory.

Recommended. It was a good book to read in the first week of quarantine due to covid-19. It led to a rethinking of a few notions.

Will lead to reading The Destruction. Possibly will try Neumann's Behemoth also.

Tai-Pan by James Clavell
I found, read Shogun and loved it years ago. I was happy to find Tai-Pan. It seems to mean great lord in chinese.
It takes place in 1841 South China. Hong Kong, a barren island has been awarded to Great Britain after a war. A group of international traders, with British military support, is eager to colonize Hong Kong.
James Clavell engages in drama and suspense, with a cast of numerous characters with their conflicts and motivations. I look forward to finding more books by James Clavell.

The end of the third book provides good closure. However, if you feel like that, The Good Doctor came back with a sequel in 1981, Foundation’s Edge. If you go through that rabbit hole, followed by sequels and prequels. You will find a more colourful style (he had grown in mastery as a writer, which is apparent even on the third book of the original trilogy, which you will likely enjoy more; also, he wanted to adapt to the new times, when more literary value was expected from SF writers) and a nice surprise... No spoilers, but you would like the surprise. It’s a promise.

Also, if you can find his three novels of the galactic empire (there is a short story, too), they are surprisingly vivid and exotic as well, while Foundation feels more like a theatre play sometimes.

So, the takeway: after Foundation, give Foundation’s Edge a shot, and keep on in case you like what you find there... Asimov delivers on the promises he made in that book. Also, try the Empire books, you might enjoy them as well (way less “dry” than Foundation, which was more literature of ideas).

I'm happy to see this. I've been wanting to pick up his books outside of Shogun, but never have because I've been afraid they wouldn't stand up.

Asimov's best writing is his shorts. This one is my favorite collection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov%27s_Mysteries

Hard indeed. The first SF story were a hard-on was a plot element AFAIK.

Alright, I plowed through Patricia Briggs' Smoke Bitten really quickly (I usually do). I've read all of her "Mercyverce" stuff (both series), and this latest is one of the stronger ones in a while. It involves the meta-plot heavily (certain things would be lost if you hadn't read the whole series)... But it was nice to return to the heroine as the heroine instead of, like the last few novels, her being a plot device and being weaker and vulnerable. Mercy was back to being kick-ass and she was the primary one to resolve the problems again, horray!

No worries, I shall keep that in mind, and I suspected things would improve and his writing mastery ... been there with his Robot stories and novels.

My reading list for 2020


I was out in the car today, stopped waiting for my wife at some shops. We'd just been down the beach with our dogs and were on our way home.

Anyway, I had some time to kill, and even though my Kindle was in the glovebox and I am into a good ebook, I wasn't in the mood to just have an all to brief read of that, so decided it was time I tested out my new 6" phone (Moto G7) with an ebook ... see how it went as an ereader device.

I have on occasion read the odd bit of an ebook on my smaller old phone (Samsung Galaxy S2) and it was quite passable as a reader for short periods.

I just wanted a quickish not too involving read, so decided to start a shortish collection I got a little while back - WASTELANDS: The New Apocalypse by Various. So I read the Intro and the first story - Bullet Point by Elizabeth Bear. It all went rather well, and I find my new phone quite a good reading size ... using the Kindle App ... I also have the Kobo App and some ebooks in that, which is the only way to read those epubs ... short of removing the DRM and converting for my Kindles etc.

Anyway, in case any one wondered why I seem to be reading two books at the same time, that's why. :)

A little enjoyable divergence away from the no doubt controversial thriller 'Blood Relics' ... a book about Jesus Christ and the supposed healing power of his blood ... stolen relics and maybe an attempt to clone him ... archaeology ... the Vatican etc ... heady stuff. You are thrown into the action immediately with the start of the first chapter, and alternate chapters are set back in time just as Jesus is about to be crucified and up to afterward, following what happened to the Roman who had his eyesight restored from his act of mercy to put Jesus out of his misery, using his spear ... to avoid needing the knees to be broken to hasten Jesus' death.