so-soHappy Publication Day! Staples‘ second novel is actually something of a sequel to THIS TOWN SLEEPS— which I wish I had known before diving into this one! I also wish that I had a physical copy instead… the audio performance is great, but with multiple narrators, dates to keep straight & some abrupt, fever dream feeling transitions, I would‘ve preferred being able to more easily flip pages back as needed for reference in this casino based Inferno.
pickAshton‘s latest makes for a quick & fun listen! Dalton Greaves left a lonely life in WV to work for the Unity a space initiative run by a snail-like species looking for other intelligent beings. The book opens when they land on a planet with giant insect-like creatures at the same time as their space rivals, stick-bug like aliens. With humor & heart, this is a genuinely fun & well-performed listen! Can‘t wait for more from Ashton!
pickA fun novelisation of the 1966 movie by Asimov, who does what he can within the scifi premise to include realistic science as problems to be solved by the crew of scientists and technicians, miniaturised in a nuclear-powered submarine and injected into the bloodstream of a defecting physicist with an inoperable brain tumour to save his life and the knowledge he has in order to maintain a cold war stalemate.
👇🏼
My sunday afternoon : reading the tagged book and building a book related lego :)
I love a "micronauts" story, and I guess this is one of the most famous (perhaps alongside Matheson's The Incredible Shrinking Man", oh, and Honey I Shrunk the Kids, oh, and Inner Space, ok there's loads!). The trope is ancient, though, being found in folklore tales such as Tom Thumb.
The front cover of my edition (1966 first UK edition, for what that's worth) is slightly boring, but I like the back cover Technicolour movie still.
pickFor me, Asimovs Robot stories sit comfortably in a unique stasis between its 1950s style, dialect & atomic age paranoia, & the speculative, future worlds in which they‘re set. It‘s kind of simultaneously antiquated & futuristic at the same time. The Foundation Trilogy doesn‘t always work the same way. It‘s more severely & noticeably trapped in its old attitudes & kind of ages badly in comparison. But the yarns are ripping & I enjoyed the journey
The sequel to Cascade Failure was my favorite book of July. The crew of the Ambit is forced to work with their worst enemy to save the life of one of their family members.
#12Booksof2024 #July @Andrew65
Two books I bought today judged solely by their covers.
The Alien Way has a cover by my favourite sci fi artist, Bruce Pennington, so the contents are secondary, but for what it's worth, it's an alien invasion story which sounds like it could be pretty good.
A Book of the Sea beguiled me with that sailing ship, but the contents are not short stories, which I'd assumed, but extracts from longer works, which I tend not to like, but 🤷♂️
