BooksOfTheMoon

Catfang

By Nicholas Fisk

Rating: 2 stars

I vaguely remember these books from when I was young and picked them up cheap from a charity shop or something. Basic story is as follows: four children, stuck on Earth instead of with their parents who are pioneers on a new world, find a meteorite, hollow it out, stick a drive unit into it and blast off after their parents, having Adventures on the way, mainly concerned with the Octopus Emperor, who’s out to get them, for some reason.

These books aren’t nearly as good as some of Fisk’s other work (such as Trilions or A Rag a Bone and a Hank of Hair). The main characters are rather annoying and there’s no real sense of tension. I guess they may have been written for a younger audience than either of the books mentioned above. Worth reading for nostalgia but not much more (not that this is going to stop me for looking out for the last two in the series).

Book details

ISBN: 9780340265291
Year of publication: 2014

Sunburst (Starstormers #2)

By Nicholas Fisk

Rating: 2 stars

I vaguely remember these books from when I was young and picked them up cheap from a charity shop or something. Basic story is as follows: four children, stuck on Earth instead of with their parents who are pioneers on a new world, find a meteorite, hollow it out, stick a drive unit into it and blast off after their parents, having Adventures on the way, mainly concerned with the Octopus Emperor, who’s out to get them, for some reason.

These books aren’t nearly as good as some of Fisk’s other work (such as Trilions or A Rag a Bone and a Hank of Hair). The main characters are rather annoying and there’s no real sense of tension. I guess they may have been written for a younger audience than either of the books mentioned above. Worth reading for nostalgia but not much more (not that this is going to stop me for looking out for the last two in the series).

Book details

ISBN: 9780340248799

The 1975 Annual World’s Best SF

By Donald A. Wollheim

Rating: 3 stars

Another collection of short stories, which, if it doesn’t contain the best of that year, certainly makes a good stab at it. All the stories in the collection are good but there are a couple of real gems that continued to haunt me well after I had finished them. In particular, A Song for Lya by George RR Martin which has a pair of telepaths (a married couple) brought in to investigate why humans are joining an alien cult where everyone commits suicide was a wonderful read. It was, in essence, a story about the nature of love, hope and life and very memorable.

The loose theme connecting the stories is utopia, what it means to us, how fragile it could be and how one man’s utopia is another’s hell. 1975 seems to have been a good year for that.

Book details

ISBN: 9780879971700
Publisher: DAW
Year of publication: 1975

Deep Space

By Robert Silverberg

Rating: 3 stars

This is a collection of short stories tied together by the theme of the universe, it’s size and the Stuff that could be out there. The quality was good overall, with some of the stories being excellent. In particular, Noise by Jack Vance about a guy whose liferaft lands on a planet with ethereal life forms and Lulungomeena by Gordon R Dickson about a bet on the frontier of explored space. Worth reading if you’re after some perspective on the scale of things.

Book details

ISBN: 9780525662648
Publisher: Dutton Books
Year of publication: 1973

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