Відео

It is and I can't recommend it enough. Edwards mentions Cousteau and Hess as being inspirations to him and his mates. He describes the first underwater camera they ever dived with too. The story of the ship wreaks in WA (West Australia) is an absolutly fascinating one.

Ah yes - those first few pages/couple of chapters... I was a bit baffled too. I could not see the relevance to what I thought I was going to be reading (to be fair, there was no relevance). It is all Larry Devar running around a parkland, eating fake 'gell fruit' and talking to his 'belt' which I gather is his personal AI. It was odd, luckily I was in the mood for some serious WTF classic SF, so I was mostly intrigued. If you do finish it, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

You are welcome, the botfly is heavy and it is a pretty nightmarish animal. I think Bass must have actually encountered them, his details are very... detailed. The internet actually gave me less detail than some of his... This is a very detail heavy book overall and I do think it is strange that no eagle eyed spotter has ever claimed it for cyberpunk before. There are some really strong (though early) themes in it, Larry Devar especially.

Thank you! It was so good that I am really surprised more people are not talking about it. Though, I guess it is pretty unusual in a lot of ways, and a niche author with not a lot of SFF to his name. Hope you find it.

There are so many things about it that are exceptional. I actually had not noticed that he seems to like the mechanicals better than the humans - but that is very true. I'm glad other people are reading it because this is a book that has so much in it.

You are dead right 'you had to be there'. It is very hard to review because Bass has so much happening there, there is a lot of medical terminology, as a histology tech, the squamous cells just jumped out at me but there is so much medical that is way ahead of it's time... If you ever do read it, would love to hear your thoughts on it.

@@OmnivorousReader I've definitely added it to be list of books to look out for so I'll probably one day bite the bullet and order a copy if I don't see it on a shelf first 👍

He is niche, if I see him I will grab them.

lol, I think you might also enjoy portions of The Godwhale, which I just finished.

@ good call. I read half past human a few weeks back and enjoyed that one. So will seek out the godwhale soon.

@@nicholasjones3207 Excellent! Not many people seem to be reading Bass, but The Godwhale deserves to be read. I don't have Half Past Human but I will be looking out for it. I suspect it goes into more of the Hive backstory?

ha. Are you perchance a script writer for Marvel? I think I see a talent...

Thank you. I am coming around to reviewing them as I go. It takes the pressure off to 'finish' a collection rather than reading them at a leisurely pace.

That certainly tracks with the story. I too, have only been there in my mind and in books, including this one.

likewise.

Ummm... I rather think that would have been a different series, not this one. The Sookie Stackhouse series has fairies, in the later books. This is the Harper Connelly series, it is short; only four books and there are no supernatural beings at all.

@ Not Sophie. Sookie. Some evil faeries tortured her. One had sharp teeth tipped with silver & Bill got really ill from it.

@@PenangGalAntics OK, I did not read that far into that series I kind of checked out after the big reveal that Sookie and Jason's grandfather was a fairy. In any case, same author but different series. No vampires, werewolves, shifters or fairies in the Harper Connelly books.

I did... I walked into it with my eyes open too.

Excellent! To have lightened someone's day and intrigued them into possibly reading a book. This is a win of a day :) Watch out for that later ones though, they do get pretty spoilery as my enthusiasm increases.

That might have been Cooper's intent. It was definitely a harsh critique of political usage of an innocent.

AWESOME! I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Maybe avoid the other reviews I have posted though, for this book. I get pretty spoliery later.

@@OmnivorousReader Finished it this morning. There is something about Cooper's imagination and his ability to inspire mystery and awe that is unrivaled. Obviously he is a fine writer, but his prose isn't what makes him great, at least in my opinion - he just gets SF.

@@PulpMortem Oh well done! That was a sprint of a read, I am still going. A agree, there is something about Cooper, even with his inherent flaws that is just so very SF!

@@OmnivorousReader that's very odd as the general plots are so strikingly similar, if one was a parody then it might get around copyright and plagiarism in some countries as I know the US has fair use provisions for parodies. It sounds like the film is based on the Wibberley version as it is Grand Fenwick in the film and it is a satire. Perhaps it might turn out to be Cooper writing another version under a pseudonym. Either way it's a very intriguing conundrum.

@@adrianmcmahon5731 It is intriguing; Cooper and Wibberley are both pretty clearly different people. What would make sense is if they knew each other (they were contemporary) and used a similar device.

Thanks for commenting; no, in fact I have never heard of Frederick Brown and as far as I can tell I have never read any of his work. Thank you for bringing a new author to my attention.

You may, where I am from is complicated as we moved a lot when I was young. I currently live on the Gold Coast in Australia. May I ask why you want to know?

@ just curious because of the way you speak english :p

@@casualmajestic9223 Fair, I don't have an accent but I do have a very atypical type of received English.

I think that those are the two best ones to start with. It is always hard to recommend to people who's reading tastes are unknown but The Day of the Trifids, Midwich Cuckoos and Out of the Deeps/Kraken Wakes are the three top tier I think. Let me know how you go.

@@OmnivorousReader Thank you very much for responding to my question. I enjoy catching quite a few of your videos, even though I can't imagine reading nearly as much as you do!

@@ButOneThingIsNeedful No problem, thanks for watching!

I don't recognise that description (though I could probably figure it out, if you wanted me to) Silverberg books often did include sex scenes, more or less explicit. Thank you for watching and commenting.

@ My pleasure!

@ I looked up his books. It was Dying Inside.

@@PenangGalAntics Ah! I think that is meant to be one of his best - not sure if I ever read it though. If so, it was so long ago I am due a re-read.

I think we can assume then that 4' is four shillings, so twenty pence... This was a read rabbit hole this innocent book led down. Yes, I think a lot of people had huge hopes for the UN, shame it became such an ineffectual puppet so very fast. I think there are other stories that reveal Cooper as considering world cooperation a worthy goal. But aside from the UN, this is a really nice, and pretty individual short story and I do recommend it.

@@OmnivorousReader I do love when something randomly piques my interest and I just have to know more about a subject, it's something I've always been like ever since I was little. I've always loved learning things and it doesn't matter if it has any practical use at all. It's such a shame how bloated and ineffective the UN has turned out to be, even worse than it's predecessor The League of Nations. It's probably always going to be that the big powerful nations hobble it's effectiveness at lasting change and the it just descends into corrupt and often harmful bloat. At least in novels there can still be a utopian vision of a world working in mutual cooperation. Instead of the badly written and often dystopian novel that is reality 😉. Thank god that beauty and individual altruism exists to give hope that there's a brighter future possible. We'll that turned a little darker than I expected lol.

@@adrianmcmahon5731 Well said. I guess that is something I really like about speculative fiction; it can give us the story of how it COULD have turned out, what MIGHT have been, and how.

@OmnivorousReader I think the best SF takes an idea and runs with it to see how it would play out in an imaginative setting. Can be as simple as near future SF where things are just that but different in all manner of different what if scenarios or far future where everything is radically different technologically but humanity often has the same flaws so it can be a brilliant way to highlight aspects of who we are or could become and that's even before you get into all the little offshoots such as alternative histories, alien races etc. That's what I love about SF & Fantasy so much as it is a different way to explore who we are as a species and can draw on some very deep philosophical implications along the way.

@@adrianmcmahon5731 Absolutly! Science fiction lacking that speculative and explorative edge can be quite dull at times.

I have also always failed at jumping on a chair if I see a mouse... Perhaps I am just an outlier and not a representative specimen.

@@OmnivorousReader Possibly so, as I have to rescue my next door neighbour from spiders quite frequently, although to be fair the one I removed from her kitchen ceiling a couple of days ago was a big bugger but probably insignificant compared to Australian spiders. Now if it was a clown on the ceiling I'd probably scream my head off too, clowns are just creepy and that was even before I read the novel It.

@@adrianmcmahon5731 Ha! I agree give me a spider over a clown any day. We do have big spiders, I actually am quite fond of spiders. They are much easier to communicate with than people think, though it helps if they are larger.

@OmnivorousReader I used to be terrified of spiders as a kid (and the dark), I got over both as I got older though. Certainly wasn't because of the number of legs as I was fascinated by octopii, whales, sharks and dinosaurs (amongst other things). Clowns I've always found creepy though, they give me the heebie jeebies just thinking about them 😳.

Isn't It odd that he is out of style? I think his books are at least the equals of many other ones that keep being talked about. Certainly his Galactic Civilisation is more engaging than Banks' and I am looking forward to reading more. I may even go back and re-read Sundiver, now that my expectations are different I might like it better.

@@OmnivorousReader He doesn't seem to publish as much since the late nineties so perhaps he has just fallen off most people's radar. He'll probably be one of those authors who have a resurgence once some "rediscovers" him in a few years time. Adrian Tchaikovsky is probably the closest modern writer I can think of. I do love Iain M. Banks though but your point about his Culture is a fair one as it's more a background element that gets fleshed out more over time than a big feature of his world building. His non Culture SF is good too. If you haven't read any of his non SF work I would recommend trying Complicity and I do have a soft spot for The Crow Road too.

@@adrianmcmahon5731 I guess he has gone on to other life experiences and you, I and others like us can hang on to his books and then be all smug when they are rediscovered. Tchaikovsky really impressed me too, he was actually the one that made me think it was worth looking into more modern writers. Iain M. Banks - I have a huge amount of respect for his books, I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of them I even like a couple of the Culture books but I can be quite impatient with them at times too. That might just mean I am due to re-read them.

I am delighted when people like books, regardless of whether I did or not. No way am I some arbitrator of what is/is not a good book and this one is exceptionally well received, many people do like it. I clearly didn't but that is just me and my reviews reflect me. Thank you for watching and commenting, you are always welcome and encouraged to disagree with my opinions about books :)

Well, I hope it is allowable for women also :P I have had it recommended to me multiple times. I just need a whole stretch of uninterrupted reading time to start on them all *sigh*

They are tough. Much easier in youtube, where you can do them one at a time, than in goodreads. But still a struggle.

Well it is certainly not for everyone, and this author is not for everyone. I maybe should narrow down WHO might enjoy reading it.

Yes, Australia has been decimal my whole life and it is really hard to google the symbols used for shillings and pence. I am so glad I never had to do the swap over.

Oh, I can just imagine the look on the face of the department of immigration interviewer: "On what grounds are you sponsoring this person?" "Well, they have a marvellous Jack Vance collection which they are willing to bring to Australia with them..." Seriously though, so sorry you guys are having such a bad time. I hear Italy is fast tracking any applications from Americans in sympathy.

Thanks for the kind wishes my friend and I’ll take that as an unqualified yes! 🤗

@@CptSamel back to books - I don't know that I have every read Kronk, I DO have Son of Kronk on the shelf though, in case I find it one day.

Ahhhh.... sorry? I should have gone with British or UK I guess. My bad. He really is niche and hard to find here.

@ it doesn’t bother me - I’m English and would gladly claim him :)

Look forward to hearing what you think of 'em :)

That is a lot of commitment! And I have so many questions about this book - Possibly you can tell me why he never did Autumn? And, is it just me but does the Prelude in Spring feel like it was meant to be a standalone, or maybe a completely different story? Thank you for watching and commenting :)

@OmnivorousReader Most of "Helliconia Winter" is set in late Autumn, as Winter is closing in. The action taking place on Helliconia in the three books is not a fully interconnected story arc, nor was it meant to be. The orbiting human station provides the only marginally continuous narrative. Multiple readings should clarify most of the ambiguities of an initial dive in, should you care to invest the time.

@leestamm3187 I probably will re read. Eventually. There is a lot about them that is frustrating but I don't feel fine with the series yet.

I hope I remembered to mention that it was probably a 'it's me not you' situation? I meant to. I would probably have liked it better in a different mood and I actually think that you will enjoy it a lot. You like the older books, mystery, crime and the pulps (respect! The pulp fiction is inspirational). So this will probably be something you fully enjoy. I read a lot less crime and mystery than I used to and I am picky with it. The historic setting was still interesting though and from what I have seen of your reviews you will probably relish the characters and their weird, dated behaviours. Where I was just impatient with them. I hope you do read it, or another of his books because I would love to hear your review of them.

Almost literary yes, that is fair, still fantasy but very lush writing. Wait till you are in the right mood for something different before you first Tanith experience is my recommendation. Look forward to hearing what you think of her :)