pick(1969) Joe Fernwright is a repairer of pottery in a future world where most pots worth repairing have been repaired already. Joe is recruited by a near-godlike being to join a project that goes to raise a sunken cathedral (with lots of broken pots) on a distant planet. It's a strange, surreal story with themes of transformation and imperfect information. It's fascinating and disorienting, in the way of an alchemical allegory.
#ClassicLSFBC
so-so84/100 Not one of my favorites, seems more confusing than even the usual Dick novels. A creature named the Glimmung has gathered together a group of people from various planets, to come to Plowman's Planet to help it raise a sunken cathedral called Heldscalla. Seems a pretty straight forward plot, but it has the usual Dick touches about reality, predestination, metaphysical theories on good and evil. I found the ending vague and confusing, and
pick#ClassicLSFBC
This is one of PKD's more surreal novels, one of his later ones leading towards the VALIS books, so the plot is minimal and ideas & archetypes are prominent.
The story begins in a future pseudo-socialist dystopia: Joe leads a pointless, unfulfilling life, filling his time with vacuous games played remotely with people he's never met. In an episode of mental crisis, Joe is saved from the secret police by a mysterious alien entity, ⬇️
I didn't read last month's #ClassicLSFBC selection due to a library delay, but I am reading this month's (not least because I nominated it, so I really should! ?).
I had an uncertain feeling that I had a "Potteries" bookmark that would be an appropriate match, and I was right - in my uncertainty! I don't have one. So the pictured is not the best example of #BookmarkMatching but it shows elements from the baked clay Minoan Phaistos Disk ⬇️
Here are some books I don‘t have time to read this month. 😂
🪴 Galactic Pot-Healer - for #classicLSFBC
🗽 Language City - for book club, p. 115/378
⚠️ A Psalm for the Wild Built - for Banned Books Week which is in October this year? Rescheduled accordingly
⭐️ Where the Forest Meets the Stars - for the #keywordchallenge
🔥 The Fireman - for IG group read, p. 463/750
🤠 The Gunslinger Born - for #losersclub with @BarkingMadRead
#tbr
September's selection for #ClassicLSFBC is Philip K. Dick's Galactic Pot Healer. I confess I'm totally unfamiliar with this book, so it should be interesting going in totally blind. Being PKD, I'm sure it's going to be wild and weird. I hope everyone enjoyed August's selection, The Left Hand of Darkness. I think it's one of LeGuin's best novels, and a totally unique world creation.
#ClassicLSFBC @bookwomble @Ruthiella @TheSpineView
pick(1969) It's a story about culture clash and friendship on a world whose natives are sexually neuter for most of their lives, except once a month when they may become either male or female. I remember bouncing off this when I first encountered it in grade school, so was delighted to find it completely absorbing as a thought piece, as a story about cross-cultural friendship, and as an adventure yarn.
This was the August pick for #ClassicLSFBC
pickI had to renew my library card to order The Left Hand of Darkness for this month's #ClassicLSFBC pick, and while I was there randomly picked up this graphic novel, which, to my delight, is a blend of Tintin and Indiana Jones.
Julius Chancer is the young archaeology assistant to London-based antiquarian Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey. It's the 1920s, and Hollywood starlet Lily Lawrence teams up with Julius to help extricate her boozy aristocratic ⬇️
pickClassic SF novel about an ice age planet where the inhabitants are neither male nor female except at certain points in their reproductive cycle when they may become either.
I first read this around 1980 and found it enthralling, loving the exploration of the ideas. I then read it again 20-odd years ago when I found the journey across the icecap tedious. This time it was more enjoyable but it didn't have the wow factor from when I first read it.
