Tip the Wink

The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl, © 1978, Ballantine hardcover,  autobiography

It’s funny how books find a person. I used to stop by Fred Pohl’s blog every now and then, and he had the cover of this book up as a permanent header. Then one day Steve Davidson posted something on his blog about SF (or sci-fi, or science fiction, take your pick) fandom and that led me to some other comments which led me back to this book.

I decided I wanted to read it. It wasn’t easy finding a (free) copy, as the local library had one in the catalog but they couldn’t locate it. I was finally able to get it via inter-library loan.

Once in my hands, I read it in a day or so, which is pretty quick for me, being a Slow Reader and all. The book begins with Pohl’s early interest in science fiction, beginning, as it did for so many, with a comic book. Later came the pulps and digest magazines and he was hooked. I know the feeling, I loved the Winston science fiction library books, but it was Astounding Science Fiction that really got me hooked.

Most of the book focuses on Pohl’s memories of becoming a fan, then the creation of fan groups, early efforts at writing, his first job as an editor and his career as SF writer and magazine editor, the latter mostly at Galaxy and If during the 1960’s. I found it all fascinating.

Then as the events in the book approach the time he was writing it (1976), he begins to wander into various editorial asides on such topics as cryogenics, UFOs, politics, handicapped children and other topics that are obviously close to his heart – or were at the time – but were of little interest to this reader. I skimmed the last fifty pages with little feeling that I was missing anything. There is much of interest here for the science fiction fan, but much that strays from what most will want to read.

The Happy Birthday Murder by Lee Harris, mystery, a Fawcett Book published by Ballantine Publishing Group © 2002. Christine Bennett Mysteries number 14. Edition read: ebook.

I’d not read any of this series, and picked this book solely because of the title. You see, today, Friday, is my birthday, so I thought something with the word “birthday” in the title would be appropriate. 

There are cozies, and cozies. Agatha Christie wrote cozies, and most would say Dorothy Sayers books are, and Chesterton’s Father Brown Stories, and many others. Mostly, anything not hard-boiled, or thriller, or dark and gritty, or serial killer might be labeled as a cozy by many.

This book is certainly a cozy, any violence is off stage. Characters are amateurs, setting is emphasized, but this book is what I’d call “cozy light”.

In this fourteenth of the series, Christine Bennett investigates 2 separate deaths that occurred within days of each other 12 years ago. Bennett learned of these deaths, by sorting through boxes filled with momentoes of her late aunt. Thinking her aunt had gone especially out of her way regards notes to the bereaved, Bennett wanted to meet those people. In talking with them, she discovered a small clue not noticed by the police twelve years ago: the two victims shoes had been switched, thus tying the deaths together.

What began to bother me about the book was the role Bennett plays in it. She’s a teacher, yet acts and functions as if she were a licensed detective, which she is most definitely not.

It seemed to me there was a lot of filler, and lot of talk without action, a lot of telling instead of showing. I finished the book, but I think I might have done a better job of choosing a birthday-themed book.

Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein – military science fiction. Originally published in 1959, my copy (shown) is the 1961 Signet edition.

Certainly not forgotten by the science fiction community, nevertheless not often read any more.

This one is considered a classic by the science fiction reading community, though those who have only seen the film, which frankly is not very good, may disagree. I decided to reread it after reading Jo Walton’s Brief History of the Hugo Awards. It’s one of several older SF novels I’m revisiting.

This novel follows a future world paratrooper from his entry into bootcamp though his first battles and onward as Earth fights alien races for dominance in space.

If this was published today, I doubt this would be as popular as it was in the Sixties, but at the time it was highly thought of and won a Hugo award. I enjoyed reading it again. Worth the time.

This is a revised version of a post that originally appeared in The Broken Bullhorn