Summer Reading 2008

Ramblings:
Summer Reading List: Final Report
by Ron Hill

What I read (or tried to read) this summer. . .
updated 08.18.08

Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, August, September issues

An easy start to summer vacation, as well as a good break between longer reads. Each issue has probably one "novella", which seems to be a story at least 50 pages long by F&SF's editor's standards, blus four or five
short stories. My favorite story from the above three issues: "Arkfall", by Carolyn Ives Giman, the cover story of the September issue. This was a straight science fiction story about a planet that is completely covered by frozen seas, and how humans are trying to inhabit this weird environment. The story was like the old time stories, and the people in the story were believable, and used science to get out of a sticky situation.

Analog Science Fiction Science Fact, 1969

CLICK HERE to find out about my time travel experience on Mount Desert Island. . .

Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Moby Dick: A Screenplay by Ray Bradbury

Alas, I was not to finish the whaling voyage this time, but perhaps when a cold, drizzly and damp November invades my soul, I will go to sea again (like Thanksgiving break). I made it almost halfway through, stopped by the overbearaing and archaic whale and industry details that Melville describes in the middle of the narrative. I did, however, purchase the just-published screenplay by Ray Bradbury, of the 1956 John Huston Film. Bradbury did a fine job of trimming the beast down to less than 200 pages of crisp dialogue and moody sea spells. This is an interesting study in adapting books to film, and Bradbury's metaphoric style is ever-present.

Death of a Doxy by Rex Stout, 1966
BABEL-17 by Samuel R. Delany, 1966
The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R. Delany, 1967

Enough high literature. . . it's summer. . . and I do love used bookstores!
I read the Nero Wolfe mystery in a hotel room while on a college tech prep teacher's
professional development seminar in late June. I read all of the Nero Wolfe mysteries
before 2000, and have returned to them occasionally since. This is a good one from the 60s,
not as intricately plotted but the interaction between Archie and Wolfe is in top form.

I read BABEL-17 over the 4th of July weekend. It's a fun space-opera with a really neat
woman protagonist who is a worlds-renowned poet (a common trait of may characters
in Delany's books). This one deals with interpreting a language before the Invaders destroy
the humans. Delany is one of the most popular science fiction authors of the 'new wave'
movement. He put out almost a dozen novels in as many years, won four Nebula awards
and one Hugo award, then turned to fantasy in the late 70s, and is a poet, genre and literature
critic and professor.

The Einstein Intersection is another early novel from the middle of Delany's sci-fi career,
rich in mythological and religious symbolism. You can tell he is getting ready to drop some
deeper ideas into his work. . . but for now these books are fun, pulpy and escapist,
what summer reading is all about. A number of used Delany paperbacks will find their way to
Maine on the family vacation later in July... truly as 'beach' books!

Triton by Samuel R. Delany, 1976
Jewels of Aptor by Samuel R. Delany, 1962
Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany, 1975

I finished Triton on July 14. This is Delany's last true science fiction
novel, before he started dabbling in fantasy with the Neveryon series.
I found it a very good read. Published in 1976, it is still relevant and
just as outrageous as his earlier novels in the 60s. There's a war between
the worlds (planets like Earth and Mars) and the moons (satellites like
Triton and Titan). It is political, social, and romantic. It deals with sexual
orientation and the theater. Some of it's ideas foreshadow today's issues of
Homeland Security and unlawful detention and torture.

I just started Jewels of Aptor, Delany's first novel, written when he was 19.
It's sort of a post-holocaust story, set in the distant future, where mutations
and monsters are prevalent. Nuclear war was a common theme at the height
of the cold war, so many books like Canticle for Leibowitz and Alas Babylon. . .
those were the good old days!

Meanwhile, I am also reading Dhalgren, one of those huge, sprawling books
that you can pick and cruise through 40 or 50 pages and still feel like you
know exactly what's going on from the last time you looked at it a week ago.
Dhalgren is notorious for it's very frank dealings with sex, race, and violence
in the city of Bellona, which is cut off from the rest of civilization, where
buildings burn without being consumed and two moons drift in the night sky.
It's as if some unexplained (so far) ecological or cosmic disaster has taken
place and the few hundred people left in the ghetto of Bellona are in shock as
they try to live life as normally as possible. I tried this one when I was 14,
and was disturbed by a graphic depiction of two guys having sex. 30 years later,
I'm 300 pages into it, and find the handful of characters fascinating. It's like a
roadside accident and you can't help looking.

The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr, 2005
Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut, 1990
Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley, 1948

Sherlock Holmes was a good break after vacation, and Caleb carr did a fine job of recreating Holmes and Watson and further developing Sherlock's brother Mycroft, a shadowy figure of British intelligence. I heard once that Ian Flemming based his character 'M', James Bonds' boss, on the concept of Mycroft Holmes. I try to read at least one Kurt Vonnegut book a year. His style is always brisque and breezy, but his thoughts and satire are dead on. Hocus Pocus is about the country in the future – 2001 – after the Viet Nam War and the United States has sold out all it's industrial corporations to foreign control. Vonnegut reminded me of Aldous Huxley, so I dipped into this lost classic. Both authors use science fiction elements in a psychedelic, disjointed narrative style to tell us about what is wrong with us society.

Ballad of Beta-2 by Samuel R. Delany, 1965

And I end the summer as I began, escapism. This is an early and short Delany piece, with many of his common themes: a main character who is a writer in over his head. As I write this book report, I am preparing to head back to the classroom, and my reading time is much reduced. . . sigh.

If you have comments on these or other books, email me.