For me in SciFi I’ve been trying to hit some classics so I’ve read ‘The Iron Dream’ by Norman Spinrad, ‘A Time of Changes’ by Robert Silverberg and also the (recent release) ‘Out of the Ruins’ anthology.

Of those three I enjoyed ‘The Iron Dream’ the most since I didn’t enjoy Silverberg’s potraryal of women (and it doesn’t seem to have literary intent like in ‘The Iron Dream’.) 'Out of the Ruins had some bangers but it was a fairly inconsistent collection for me that mostly hasn’t been memorable.

So, what are you currently reading or have recently read?

  • GreyShuck@beehaw.orgEnglish
    2·
    1 year ago

    I have - for quite some time now - been working my way through the Virgin New Adventures series of Doctor Who novels. There are over 60 of them, and although I started at a reasonable pace, my available reading time diminished a lot due to changing circumstances - and I am also reading other non-SF things as well. As a result, I am not getting through them very quickly now.

    This was the most recent phase of my “read/watch/listen to ALL the fiction in the expanded Whoniverse starting with the first Doctor” project. At this point, that project has reduced to “…and ending with the seventh: the end of Claasic Who”.

    Anyway, the VNAs - published in the ‘wilderness years’ of the '90s - were basically the first occasion on which DW media could be free from any TV expectations, and were able to do their own thing much more. Some of these worked really well whilst others just didn’t. Death and Diplomacy, which is my current one, is one of the better ones, with some great character beats for the Doctor, but not outstanding.

    I am heading towards the end of this series and will reconsider before embarking on to the Eighth Doctor Adventures. I have heard good things, but I have already listened to all of Big Finish’s Eighth Doctor material - and thoroughly enjoyed it - and I might just leave it there and get back to other SF altogether.