I picked up a copy of The Left Hand of Darkness (along with - at last - a copy of The Dispossessed) a couple of weeks ago when I was in London. On my journey back home, at Gatwick, I was flicking through the Penguin Modern Classic edition of Ice. I should have bought it. My bag was already too full of records and books, so I put it back on the display. Next time, next time... Anyway, really enjoyed seeing your recommendations for winter. Cheers! Clive
OB- one of your best videos ever mate! So many subtle changes that work so well! This is clearly closer to the mark of what you've had in your mind all along. The books are organized on a theme, you move seamlessly from book to book making recommendations for books we haven't heard of. Excellent. Descriptions of plot and content are balanced very nicely with thematic and author backgrounds. The text block block is far enough away with you obscuring it in the middle ground that it no longer visually dominates the screen. The microphone (which you alone obsess over) is nearly invisible even when the lucite standee is empty! Let it go. The touches of self-effacing humor are more sparse, and therefore more effective; like sprinkling a few crystals of Malden salt over your chocolate truffle torte. It is rich, it is dense, nourishing and soul satisfying - like taking inventory at the end of winter vacation.
Thanks Walter, you're very kind. The mic is a kind of running joke really. The text blocks are what they are and I have a cunning space plan which I'll effect next spring when the Video Widow goes on a brief vacation with a friend (leaving me home alone ha ha to make mischief!).
Great stuff! I can't think what my first copy was, probably an Owen paperback late eighties- I have three other editions now. Great book, isn't it? There have been at least 4 editions issued in the UK in recent years. I do wish Penguin would license more of her stuff, especially 'Eagle's Nest', which is great- I foolishly sold mine on and now it fetches hundreds of pounds. Never seen a paperback edition.
Outlaw Bookseller after I'd read Ice I used to puck up Kavan books in first edition whenever I saw them, which wasn't veey often. I've ended up with about five. None of them are the early ones. The only title i can remember without going to check is Julia and the Bazooka.
@@leakybootpress9699 - My mate graham has loads of her hardcovers, he bought a job lot of them a good twenty plus years ago. Her early stuff is super-rare, as you say. I've read around 6 of her books and a biography and have generally found her work excellent.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention The Ice People by René Barjavel. (la Nuit des temps in French) It’s the story of a couple found a golden egg shaped sphere in Antarctica. They’ve been asleep for about 900,000 years by the time they’re discovered. The female of the pair is awakened from her cryogenic sleep and tells the story of her ancient advanced civilization on earth. Such a good book. Hard to find in print but well worth it. Did you know of it or did it fail to make your list? I’ve read a lot of leGuin. The other authors are new to me. I’ll have to check them out.
I know of it and agree it's well known in Europe, but is quite obscure in the anglophone world, though I was reading up on it a few months ago. It didn't make my list as it's not a book I own, but that will be remedied...glad you liked the video.
The Keith Roberts story set in the world of The Ice Schooner was called Coranda, published in New Worlds 170 and reprinted in The Passing of the Dragons, the only Roberts collection that I don't own. I'm surprised that you didn't show the Picador edition of Kavan's Ice. It is one of my prized possessions, and for years was the only Kavan popularly available. I'll bet Nicholas Royle has a copy!
Yes, it's cracking stuff. Try and get hold of 'Mercury' by her, which is covered in my book '100 Must Read Fantasy Novels' (now out of print and getting collectable, I'm told). She was a fascinating woman and although there are other books in print, her other finest one ('Eagle's Nest') is hard to obtain too (it goes for £400 now and has never been paperbacked). Hope you enjoy the rest of the channel!
Well, that's the beauty of it- the way she depicts the strange character mergings, reflective of her experience of schizophrenia and drug abuse, superb example of New Wave SF, bringing inner space into metaphoric contact with a classic SF trope, the catastrophe story.
Another v enjoyable video; some books I know well, some not at all. It's great to see some love for messrs Coney & Cowper. Twilight of Briareus is my favourite Cowper. I really must re-read him, and read the Murry books, which I picked up long ago at good prices (2 of them have 'Scarce £10' on the endpaper!).
So many memories from this talk! I loved Vinge's Snow Queen, and have memories of Michael G. Coney, and I adore Kyril Bonfiglioli's Mortdecai books. However with all the mentions of Aldiss, I am surprised that Helliconia Winter wasn't mentioned. That trilogy is one of my favourite SF series. I'll also call out the relatively recent "Above the Snowline" from Steph Swainston's Fourlands science-fantasy series.
Good mentions there. There are plenty of others of course, it was just that these were the ones that were uppermost in my mind when the theme occurred to me. I like Aldiss a lot, but always struggled with that series, but I rebought them in handsome hardcover firsts last year, so another attempt is on the offing sometime.
It took me a long time to circle round to "The Dispossessed" and when I did I wanted to run into the streets telling people about it. I love Le Guin's balance in that novel. It isn't a piece of one-sided propaganda for Anarchism ("An Ambiguous Utopia"), it also shows the emotional fall-out of complete abeyance to it. I loved the brilliant "in Universe" dedication too. Thanks for the usual smorgasbord of great recommendations and I agree with you that a) Le Guin was a Goddess from outer space and b) the term "cli-fi" is nails down the blackboard irritating.
Thanks Prof! A lot of people find the novel intimidating and dry on first attempt- I did myself- but it does come heavily laden with expectation. As you say, it's the emotional fall-out that creates the fine balance. And Cli-Fi...yep, almost as annoying as Sci-Fi...
When I saw the sub-title 'Ice Times' the first book I thought of was 'Pushing Ice' (Alastair Reynolds). But when I re-booted my memory with a visit to my bookshelf, it's not the sort of ice you're talking about here. Ice in a different context!
Seems an appropriate topic for winter. I thought I had ordered Left hand of darkness but still need to do it. The postal strike has delayed the arrival of a deal I got on Adam Roberts, Gradsil & Polystorm. I will see how I get on with them before progressing to Snow. Back in the 70's there were predictions that a new ice age was coming & BBC's Horizon had an episode of what would happen if the Gulf-stream stopped as was thought possible (current weather would be a warm winter spell) Enjoyed the video & look forward to more of your content in 2023. Have a cool Yule ❄
Those Roberts titles are both very odd ones, but then that's what it's all about. I have quite a number of Adam's books I've not read yet, but my favourites tend to be his later works - though I loved 'Stone', his third novel. 'The Thing Itself' and 'The This' are both superb recent books. It certainly is a Cool Yule thus far, right?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Oh yes. My heating is struggling to cope. I got both the Roberts books for £11 inc. postage. I'm sure you mention "The This" in a video. Appreciate the feedback :)
I believe the Keith Roberts story you had in mind is "Wreck of the Kissing B*tch", found in Douglas Hill's anthology WARLOCKS AND WARRIORS (Mayflower 1971).
I think it's alternate title is 'Coranda', which Allan Lloyd has just mentioned here. I'll check that anthology out, it does sound vaguely familiar...cheers!
I’ve gone through left hand of darkness twice last year, once on ebook and once on audio. Im about to reread it on a vintage ace copy my fiancé gifted me. It’s such a magical book. I’ve never read anything so precisely structured in order to get its themes across.
Well, it's not a quick point to answer, but the fact is this: for many, many decades in serious SF circles (professionals, fans) it was considered a social faux pas - to the point of being offensive - to use 'Sci-Fi' (even though it was coined by Forrest J Ackerman, an important early fan, literary agent and magazine editor) in SF cricles. 'Sci-Fi' is still to older fans and writers considered to be a flippant, dismissive term used by amateurs, journalists seeking to belittle the genre. It's also seen as a usage that reveals the user to be a lightweight, not a real, serious SF devotee. It was also widely decried by writers like Harlan Ellison and Ursula K. LeGuin, among many others as a hideous neologism, a 'fake' word that cheapened the genre. So in short, if you want to be taken seriously in SF circles, you don't use 'Sci-Fi': it's a term that refers to mass media adaptations - 'Star Trek', 'Star Wars' etc. More on this to come. Keep up the good work on your channel, by the way!
I'm always impressed by Stephen's rolling narrative, not rehearsed, and smoothly flowing from his lithe and experienced mind. Reminds my of someone else possessed of this same talent; Eric Idle. That aside, and not lightly, I'm finding the recent slew of 'different' intros to these posts very enjoyable (not that those prior aren't!), for instance, the black and white motif here in this one. I've added Silverberg's At Winters End to this winter's TBR list. BTW OB, what earthly parallel do you think might have been Le Guin's inspiration for the Hainish? Always informative, enjoyable and helpful I find these TBR features to be. Thanks for yet another great one! Cheers
Thanks Rick- Eric Idle, is, naturally, a childhood hero of mine! Earthly parallel? Well, that's a tough one, though it would have to be a political organisation rather than a biological experiment, I guess. The UN? Who can say?
While not nessicarily a novel, I extremely enjoyed "Le Transpeirceneige", or 'Snowpeircer", which was the graphic novel that was the original inspiration of the 2013 film and 2020 thriller series. I very much enjoyed it because of how diffrent it was compared to other sci fi books set in an frozen world and how it's set on some extremely powerful 1,001 car long super train that is split into economic classes based on groups of the train cars, instead of some bunker or underground fortress, and also because I find trains fascinating.
In the introduction of At Winter's End Silverberg breaks down the sequence he planned for a trilogy: THE NEW SPRINGTIME Volume One: At Winter's End Volume Two: The Queen of Springtime Volume Three: The Summer of Home- coming He mentions that the second volume was published under a title other than the one he had intended, and the third one was never written.
Have the LeGuin , the Vinge , the Silverberge . Yes they are tops the book and the writers . I grab Silverberge and LeGuin in any form . As for ' Ice ' i have a beaten up Picador with the nude on the cover . Found ( the book ) in a bin of ' discarded books ' . Once its readable i take it . Thanks for the list .
You should do a video on books that should be Gollancz SF Masterworks. I like the series and want to read more entries. I’ve wondered how they’re selected.
I'll get thinking about this. One factor will be what Gollancz already have the rights too via their extensive publishing of SF in hardcover from 1962 until the late 90s, or how cheap it is to license other books....not sure who is making decisions now, there have been two waves of changes in staff at G in the last few years...
Glad you like the video. On the other question, put it this way: most people who have spent almost forty years of 'holidays' working will tend to grow a little weary of it. It's part of my job, so I accept its importance in this respect, but what I really dislike is the hegemonic ritual of it all- how it's impossible to escape it at all for a month (everywhere you go, whatever you do, it's present). Additionally, anyone who works in retail now experiences regular references to it all year round (seriously). When it is so predominant, as opposed to something most people only think about for a month, it's a tad tiresome over decades of said exposure. Consequently, I look forward to my holidays in late January. Subjectivity is truth, as Kierkegaard said.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Yes, your video on Curzio Malaparte is excellent. I enjoyed it so much that I subscribed to your channel. I am very innocent when it comes to Science Fiction. I’ve read A Clockwork Orange, 1984, Brave New World and The Island of Dr. Moreau. I have also read Ubik by Philip K. Dick, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and Crash by J.G. Ballard. What else? I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison and quite a few books by William S. Burroughs. Forgive me, it’s really nothing to brag about. I am only trying to exemplify my position. I know next to nothing about SF. I have come to your channel, lost and stumbling. How exciting for me! 🙏🏻
I picked up a copy of The Left Hand of Darkness (along with - at last - a copy of The Dispossessed) a couple of weeks ago when I was in London. On my journey back home, at Gatwick, I was flicking through the Penguin Modern Classic edition of Ice. I should have bought it. My bag was already too full of records and books, so I put it back on the display. Next time, next time... Anyway, really enjoyed seeing your recommendations for winter. Cheers! Clive
OB- one of your best videos ever mate! So many subtle changes that work so well! This is clearly closer to the mark of what you've had in your mind all along.
The books are organized on a theme, you move seamlessly from book to book making recommendations for books we haven't heard of. Excellent. Descriptions of plot and content are balanced very nicely with thematic and author backgrounds. The text block block is far enough away with you obscuring it in the middle ground that it no longer visually dominates the screen. The microphone (which you alone obsess over) is nearly invisible even when the lucite standee is empty! Let it go. The touches of self-effacing humor are more sparse, and therefore more effective; like sprinkling a few crystals of Malden salt over your chocolate truffle torte. It is rich, it is dense, nourishing and soul satisfying - like taking inventory at the end of winter vacation.
Thanks Walter, you're very kind. The mic is a kind of running joke really. The text blocks are what they are and I have a cunning space plan which I'll effect next spring when the Video Widow goes on a brief vacation with a friend (leaving me home alone ha ha to make mischief!).
Heading to Strand with some ideas now. Thanks as always.
My pleasure!
I remember ordering Kavan's ICE from W. H. Smith's after reading Aldiss' enthusiastic comments. I still have that first edition.
Great stuff! I can't think what my first copy was, probably an Owen paperback late eighties- I have three other editions now. Great book, isn't it? There have been at least 4 editions issued in the UK in recent years. I do wish Penguin would license more of her stuff, especially 'Eagle's Nest', which is great- I foolishly sold mine on and now it fetches hundreds of pounds. Never seen a paperback edition.
Outlaw Bookseller after I'd read Ice I used to puck up Kavan books in first edition whenever I saw them, which wasn't veey often. I've ended up with about five. None of them are the early ones. The only title i can remember without going to check is Julia and the Bazooka.
@@leakybootpress9699 - My mate graham has loads of her hardcovers, he bought a job lot of them a good twenty plus years ago. Her early stuff is super-rare, as you say. I've read around 6 of her books and a biography and have generally found her work excellent.
I’m surprised you didn’t mention The Ice People by René Barjavel. (la Nuit des temps in French) It’s the story of a couple found a golden egg shaped sphere in Antarctica. They’ve been asleep for about 900,000 years by the time they’re discovered. The female of the pair is awakened from her cryogenic sleep and tells the story of her ancient advanced civilization on earth. Such a good book. Hard to find in print but well worth it. Did you know of it or did it fail to make your list? I’ve read a lot of leGuin. The other authors are new to me. I’ll have to check them out.
I know of it and agree it's well known in Europe, but is quite obscure in the anglophone world, though I was reading up on it a few months ago. It didn't make my list as it's not a book I own, but that will be remedied...glad you liked the video.
The Keith Roberts story set in the world of The Ice Schooner was called Coranda, published in New Worlds 170 and reprinted in The Passing of the Dragons, the only Roberts collection that I don't own.
I'm surprised that you didn't show the Picador edition of Kavan's Ice. It is one of my prized possessions, and for years was the only Kavan popularly available. I'll bet Nicholas Royle has a copy!
That's the one, Allan! Thanks for that. I couldn't find a pic of the Picador one at a glance. I bet Nick has three or four copies...LOL
I read Ice at the beginning of the year and was impressed.
Great video. I enjoy listening to you speak.
Yes, it's cracking stuff. Try and get hold of 'Mercury' by her, which is covered in my book '100 Must Read Fantasy Novels' (now out of print and getting collectable, I'm told). She was a fascinating woman and although there are other books in print, her other finest one ('Eagle's Nest') is hard to obtain too (it goes for £400 now and has never been paperbacked). Hope you enjoy the rest of the channel!
Loved Ice! It was barely lucid but somehow I never felt lost.
Well, that's the beauty of it- the way she depicts the strange character mergings, reflective of her experience of schizophrenia and drug abuse, superb example of New Wave SF, bringing inner space into metaphoric contact with a classic SF trope, the catastrophe story.
Another v enjoyable video; some books I know well, some not at all. It's great to see some love for messrs Coney & Cowper. Twilight of Briareus is my favourite Cowper. I really must re-read him, and read the Murry books, which I picked up long ago at good prices (2 of them have 'Scarce £10' on the endpaper!).
Yep, good writers. I don't have any of the Murray ones, though I've seen them about. I should really remedy that...
So many memories from this talk! I loved Vinge's Snow Queen, and have memories of Michael G. Coney, and I adore Kyril Bonfiglioli's Mortdecai books.
However with all the mentions of Aldiss, I am surprised that Helliconia Winter wasn't mentioned. That trilogy is one of my favourite SF series.
I'll also call out the relatively recent "Above the Snowline" from Steph Swainston's Fourlands science-fantasy series.
Good mentions there. There are plenty of others of course, it was just that these were the ones that were uppermost in my mind when the theme occurred to me. I like Aldiss a lot, but always struggled with that series, but I rebought them in handsome hardcover firsts last year, so another attempt is on the offing sometime.
It took me a long time to circle round to "The Dispossessed" and when I did I wanted to run into the streets telling people about it. I love Le Guin's balance in that novel. It isn't a piece of one-sided propaganda for Anarchism ("An Ambiguous Utopia"), it also shows the emotional fall-out of complete abeyance to it. I loved the brilliant "in Universe" dedication too. Thanks for the usual smorgasbord of great recommendations and I agree with you that a) Le Guin was a Goddess from outer space and b) the term "cli-fi" is nails down the blackboard irritating.
Thanks Prof! A lot of people find the novel intimidating and dry on first attempt- I did myself- but it does come heavily laden with expectation. As you say, it's the emotional fall-out that creates the fine balance. And Cli-Fi...yep, almost as annoying as Sci-Fi...
Some great recommendations. I have two copies of the Christopher. I should get around to reading at least one of them.
When I saw the sub-title 'Ice Times' the first book I thought of was 'Pushing Ice' (Alastair Reynolds). But when I re-booted my memory with a visit to my bookshelf, it's not the sort of ice you're talking about here. Ice in a different context!
Seems an appropriate topic for winter. I thought I had ordered Left hand of darkness but still need to do it. The postal strike has delayed the arrival of a deal I got on Adam Roberts, Gradsil & Polystorm. I will see how I get on with them before progressing to Snow.
Back in the 70's there were predictions that a new ice age was coming & BBC's Horizon had an episode of what would happen if the Gulf-stream stopped as was thought possible (current weather would be a warm winter spell)
Enjoyed the video & look forward to more of your content in 2023. Have a cool Yule ❄
Those Roberts titles are both very odd ones, but then that's what it's all about. I have quite a number of Adam's books I've not read yet, but my favourites tend to be his later works - though I loved 'Stone', his third novel. 'The Thing Itself' and 'The This' are both superb recent books. It certainly is a Cool Yule thus far, right?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Oh yes. My heating is struggling to cope. I got both the Roberts books for £11 inc. postage. I'm sure you mention "The This" in a video. Appreciate the feedback :)
@@zetectic7968 -I'll be interviewing Adam on the channel in around a month.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thanks for the news alert. I will look forward to that 😀
An excellent and informative video.I enjoyed it so much.Big thanks
Cheers again Victor, always a pleasure!
I believe the Keith Roberts story you had in mind is "Wreck of the Kissing B*tch", found in Douglas Hill's anthology WARLOCKS AND WARRIORS (Mayflower 1971).
I think it's alternate title is 'Coranda', which Allan Lloyd has just mentioned here. I'll check that anthology out, it does sound vaguely familiar...cheers!
I’ve gone through left hand of darkness twice last year, once on ebook and once on audio. Im about to reread it on a vintage ace copy my fiancé gifted me. It’s such a magical book. I’ve never read anything so precisely structured in order to get its themes across.
Yeah, it really is a Modern Classic that stays a Modern Classic!
ooooh interesting notes on the use of scifi (would love to hear more about why on this?) enjoyed the recommendations as always :)
Well, it's not a quick point to answer, but the fact is this: for many, many decades in serious SF circles (professionals, fans) it was considered a social faux pas - to the point of being offensive - to use 'Sci-Fi' (even though it was coined by Forrest J Ackerman, an important early fan, literary agent and magazine editor) in SF cricles.
'Sci-Fi' is still to older fans and writers considered to be a flippant, dismissive term used by amateurs, journalists seeking to belittle the genre. It's also seen as a usage that reveals the user to be a lightweight, not a real, serious SF devotee.
It was also widely decried by writers like Harlan Ellison and Ursula K. LeGuin, among many others as a hideous neologism, a 'fake' word that cheapened the genre.
So in short, if you want to be taken seriously in SF circles, you don't use 'Sci-Fi': it's a term that refers to mass media adaptations - 'Star Trek', 'Star Wars' etc. More on this to come.
Keep up the good work on your channel, by the way!
I have had the Snow Queen by Joan Vinge on the shelf for some time now. I picked it up for the cover lol. I guess time to read it
..yep, good time now...
I'm always impressed by Stephen's rolling narrative, not rehearsed, and smoothly flowing from his lithe and experienced mind. Reminds my of someone else possessed of this same talent; Eric Idle. That aside, and not lightly, I'm finding the recent slew of 'different' intros to these posts very enjoyable (not that those prior aren't!), for instance, the black and white motif here in this one. I've added Silverberg's At Winters End to this winter's TBR list. BTW OB, what earthly parallel do you think might have been Le Guin's inspiration for the Hainish? Always informative, enjoyable and helpful I find these TBR features to be. Thanks for yet another great one! Cheers
Thanks Rick- Eric Idle, is, naturally, a childhood hero of mine! Earthly parallel? Well, that's a tough one, though it would have to be a political organisation rather than a biological experiment, I guess. The UN? Who can say?
While not nessicarily a novel, I extremely enjoyed "Le Transpeirceneige", or 'Snowpeircer", which was the graphic novel that was the original inspiration of the 2013 film and 2020 thriller series. I very much enjoyed it because of how diffrent it was compared to other sci fi books set in an frozen world and how it's set on some extremely powerful 1,001 car long super train that is split into economic classes based on groups of the train cars, instead of some bunker or underground fortress, and also because I find trains fascinating.
Yes, it's a novel concept, which goes a long way in SF.
Middle book of the Weather Trilogy by KSR.
I did think about that one.
In the introduction of At Winter's End Silverberg breaks down the sequence he planned for a trilogy:
THE NEW SPRINGTIME
Volume One: At Winter's End
Volume Two: The Queen of Springtime
Volume Three: The Summer of Home-
coming
He mentions that the second volume was published under a title other than the one he had intended, and the third one was never written.
Thanks Daniel, I thought it was this series! TAke care, my friend.
Have the LeGuin , the Vinge , the Silverberge . Yes they are tops the book and the writers . I grab Silverberge and LeGuin in any form . As for ' Ice ' i have a beaten up Picador with the nude on the cover . Found ( the book ) in a bin of ' discarded books ' . Once its readable i take it . Thanks for the list .
You should do a video on books that should be Gollancz SF Masterworks. I like the series and want to read more entries. I’ve wondered how they’re selected.
I'll get thinking about this. One factor will be what Gollancz already have the rights too via their extensive publishing of SF in hardcover from 1962 until the late 90s, or how cheap it is to license other books....not sure who is making decisions now, there have been two waves of changes in staff at G in the last few years...
lovely, ty
I think a land whale just went by my house. Brrrrrrrr. Ice is amazing, definitely my book of the year.
Try some of Kavan's other stuff. The later short stories are particularly good. 'Eagle's Nest' is amazing, but super-rare, sadly.
Any chance on doing a top science fiction books to read in the summer video?
Yes. It's on the cards!
I love the earlier Peter F Hamilton books eg the Greg Mandel books... then he went mega long? K
That seems to be the general consensus among the more literary and serious readers...
Are you a Christmas hater? Just curious. Excellent list.
Glad you like the video. On the other question, put it this way: most people who have spent almost forty years of 'holidays' working will tend to grow a little weary of it. It's part of my job, so I accept its importance in this respect, but what I really dislike is the hegemonic ritual of it all- how it's impossible to escape it at all for a month (everywhere you go, whatever you do, it's present).
Additionally, anyone who works in retail now experiences regular references to it all year round (seriously). When it is so predominant, as opposed to something most people only think about for a month, it's a tad tiresome over decades of said exposure.
Consequently, I look forward to my holidays in late January. Subjectivity is truth, as Kierkegaard said.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal I worked in retail forever. In that context, your view is understandable.
Oh hell! I love you
The feeling is mutual. I'm assuming you've watched my Curzio Malaparte video in my Capri Literature playlist?
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Yes, your video on Curzio Malaparte is excellent. I enjoyed it so much that I subscribed to your channel.
I am very innocent when it comes to Science Fiction. I’ve read A Clockwork Orange, 1984, Brave New World and The Island of Dr. Moreau. I have also read Ubik by Philip K. Dick, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and Crash by J.G. Ballard. What else? I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison and quite a few books by William S. Burroughs. Forgive me, it’s really nothing to brag about. I am only trying to exemplify my position. I know next to nothing about SF. I have come to your channel, lost and stumbling. How exciting for me! 🙏🏻
@@obliviousassassins -Well, you have read some of the very finest SF there has ever been, so keep going the way you are!