Welcome to Litsy!

On a five-year voyage to colonise a planet orbiting Beta Virginis, the Leonora Christine meets with an accident in space and is unable to decelerate.

This was one of my favourite SF novels in my teens and twenties, when I thought I more or less understood the science as presented. This time I consciously just accepted it. Still a great story, though.

#coffeeandabook

This really leans into the "iceberg method" with four chapters that leave a lot unsaid for the reader to intuit. The metaphor of the titular roadside picnic is really brilliant. Like a lot of sci-fi, it's more thought-provoking than ending with a clear message.

Doing the late 80s SF thing with my favourite schnauzer. THE CHILD GARDEN is definitely ideas-over-people, which is often a hard sell for me, but I love the vibe Ryman gives off. This book is creepy in all the right ways, with lots about theatre and opera.

There is a rumour that Russell was with British Intelligence during WWII and involved in Operation Mincemeat and other subversive projects, though there is no actual evidence for this. This sci fi novel detailing the disruptive campaign of an agent provocateur on an alien planet (a thin disguise for wartime Japan) was published a year or so after Operation Mincemeat was made public, so perhaps that's how the rumour started.
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"He ambled into the room, sat in the indicated chair, and said nothing."

#FirstLineFridays @shybookowl

#BookMail
Terry Pratchett said of Wasp by Eric Frank Russell that "I can't imagine a funnier terrorists' handbook," which is quite a recommendation!
Written in 1957, it describes a one-man dirty tricks campaign to undermine the power base of an alien empire with which earth is in conflict.
My edition is a 1968 Panther with a cool cover design that I imagine has nothing to do with the contents, but which has drawn me in, nonetheless! ?

I have made it to the bombs dropping segment and I gotta say, I don't love reading it right now! It kinda makes me feel sick!!

1) Definitely sitting down
2) The tagged book & Fortress of Solitude by Lethem. I really like both of them, but feel like I have been reading them for eons,
@thespineview #two4tuesday

Ragle Gumm spends most of each day entering a newspaper contest, submitting his guess as to where the "Little Green Man" will appear next on a grid. Every day, he wins. As Ragle questions the meaning of his repetitive existence, he also begins to question reality itself. Why is he famous? Why does he seem to be the center of the universe? Published in 1959, this was a quick and intriguing read.