Reviews and Comments

Chris J. Karr

cjkarr@books.theunseen.city

Joined 2 years, 4 months ago

Someone who failed their 2023 Reading Challenge and looking forward to making up for that in 2025.

Hanging out at bsky.app/profile/cjkarr.bsky.social these days.

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Charles Stross: A Conventional Boy (Hardcover, 2025, TorDorCom)

A conventionally solid entry into the Laundry Files.

A shorter Laundry tale, but a solid addition to the overall "mythos".

Thought I would miss Bob more than I have (he does show up in the shorter stories accompanying the title tale), but I also enjoy Stross exploring this fun world he's built patiently.

H.P. Lovecraft, Sonia H. Greene, Alfred Galpin, Jr., James F. Morton Jr., Samuel Loveman, B.C. Brightrall, W.C. Brightrall, Betty Jane Kendall, Edith Miniter, Lilian Middleton, Maurice W. Moe: The Rainbow, Vol. 2 (United Amateur Press Association)

The second issue of Sonia H. Greene's amateur journal for the United Amateur Press Association.

Solid second issue

A solid follow-up issue for "The Rainbow", including essays on amateur publishing, appreciating art and poetry, and introducing one of my favorite H.P. Lovecraft tales, "Celephaïs".

Having finished this, I'm only more eager to finally get around to tackling Greene's autobiography "Two Hearts that Beat as One".

H.P. Lovecraft, Sonia H. Greene, Alfred Galpin, Jr., James F. Morton Jr., Rheinhart Kleiner, Samuel Loveman: The Rainbow, Vol. 1 (United Amateur Press Association)

The first issue of "The Rainbow", published by Sonia H. Greene. The issue includes several …

Interesting time capsule

This was an interesting issue to read, an interesting time capsule of amateur publishing in 1921.

The bulk of the content was provided by publisher Sonia H. Greene, which is not a bad thing, as she is quite quotable and interesting to read, especially her thought on the proper role of amateur journalism and the need for high standards to lift amateur writers up (including her future husband H.P. Lovecraft) into creating meaningful works.

Robert W. Chambers, Kenneth Hite, Samuel Araya: The King in Yellow - Annotated Edition (EBook, 2023, Arc Dream Publishing)

The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by the American writer Robert …

Excellent presentation of Chambers' classic.

Hite really outdid himself with the annotations, which only add layers of enjoyment where it would be easy to skim over, especially the details of Paris during that era.

finished reading Solaris by Stanisław Lem

Stanisław Lem: Solaris (Paperback, 2017, Literackie)

The cult-classic by Stanislaw Lem that spawned the movie is now available for your Kindle! …

A longer and meandering science fiction classic. Full of big ideas, and a clear predecessor to modern masters Jeff VanderMeer and Ted Chiang.

NOT a great book if you're looking to get through a large number of books in a year, but a GREAT book if you want to sit with it and slowly enjoy it like a fine whisky.

Frank Herbert: Dune Messiah (2019, Penguin Publishing Group)

Thinky Sci-Fi

Interesting sequel to "Dune". It's much more political than war drama, picking up 12 years after its predecessor.

I enjoyed the contrast to the adventure and fighting in the last one (It certainly subverts expectations!), and I'm interested in seeing where this story heads next.

Alexander Belayev: Soviet Science Fiction (1972, Collier Books)

Interesting collection of stories

The stories in this collection were a bit hit-or-miss. Other than the names used within, (judging by this collection) Soviet science fiction seemed to have a lot in common with Western science fiction from similar eras. I wouldn't have been surprised to see any of these stories pop-up in a similar collection rescued from the local used bookstore.

Some of the tales failed to land with me, but I think that's more a function of eras than region of origin. Some of the tales seemed to be a bit slow and plodding, but not more so than Western stories of that era.

That said, the last tale about cryo-hibernation was worth the price of admittance alone. I won't spoil more than that.

Frank Herbert: Dune (Paperback, 2021, Ace)

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, …

Classic

It's been two decades since I originally read "Dune" and this re-read (to get ahead of the movie) was a delight. Looking forward to continuing on with the rest of the Frank Herbert-authored sequels in the weeks and months ahead.