sfmasterworks

Swastika Night | Murray Constantine

pick

Fascinating premise, but the execution was clunky - dialogue heavy instead of actually showing events, which made it seem longer than it was. Still fascinating considering it was published in 1937. In this envisioned future world domination is split between Nazi Germany and Imperialist Japan. Women are treated as cattle, good only for bearing children. Homosexuality among men is the norm and Hitler is worshipped as 7 foot tall, blond Aryan god.

vivastory That's interesting that world domination is split between Japan & Germany. That's the set-up for Man In The High Castle 5d

Ruthiella @vivastory Yes, the premises is interesting and maybe a logical alternative conclusion, but she takes it in a very different direction than PKD. 5d

Dilara The women as cattle and homosexuality as the norm are also prominent themes in Katharine Burdekin's Swastika Night. In fact, at first, I thought that was the book you had read!

Swastika Night

Ruthiella @Dilara It‘s the same author/book. Murray Constantine was Burdekin‘s pen name. 😃 2d

Dilara @Ruthiella Ah that explains it 😅 2d

55 likes1 stack add5 comments

HeyT

Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel | Kate Wilhelm

#BookReport
Only managed to finish my commute book this week. I also am in a bit of a reading slump and haven't made much time for eye reading.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to finish GMatLP because I have a substitute shift where there is very little actual work to do. I'd also like to make more progress on OaFK.

10 likes

HeyT

Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang: A Novel | Kate Wilhelm

so-so

This is a high so-so almost a low pick because this is very much an ideas novel versus a character/plot one. The main conflict is conformity and the collective against the individual and ingenuity.

16 likes

HeyT

Grass | Sheri S. Tepper

pick

This was really slow to start but I did enjoy it once it got cooking. I found Marjorie to be the most interesting because she was stuck in a very strict kind of rut and watching her break out of it and become the person she needed to be was interesting. At times certain plot points were obvious but you still wanted to read on to see how everything would play out.

16 likes

HeyT

Grass | Sheri S. Tepper

It‘s raining and I have the day off from work so it‘s snuggles with Rolo and a book.
#DogsOfLitsy

dabbe 🖤🐾🖤 2mo

23 likes1 comment

HeyT

Grass | Sheri S. Tepper

HAPPY #BOOKSPIN DAY TO ALL WHO CELEBRATE!

I am excited that only one chonky boi was picked and it was the double spin so I'll hit it later in the month. I've heard amazing things about Grass so really looking forward to diving in. So far leaning into the chonky boi curse seems to be going well because I haven't gotten two thick ones in the same month. (Granted, it's only month two lol.)

@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Yay!!! Enjoy!!! 3mo

dabbe The Once and Future King is in my top 5 list of all time. It should count as 4 books! 🤩 3mo

14 likes2 comments

Bookwomble

Time Out Of Joint | Philip K. Dick

"In a civil war… every side is wrong. It‘s hopeless to try to untangle it. Everyone is a victim.” ?

RamsFan1963 PKD was a very insightful man 3mo

Bookwomble @RamsFan1963 Yes! He's one of my favourite authors. According to Library Thing, I only have more books in my collection by Edgar Rice Burroughs than PKD, although that's due to a lot of duplicate books by ERB - I love a cover variant! 3mo

35 likes1 stack add2 comments

Bookwomble

Time Out Of Joint | Philip K. Dick

pick

The unreality of everyday life, and glimpses of an alternate or underlying order of being, is a common PKD theme, explored here in a setting contemporary with its writing (1958), but with glimpses that something is wrong, or out of joint.
The sci-fi element is less interesting than the phenomenological musings, but this was a time PKD's attempts to break into the mainstream was being roundly rebuffed, so I guess dressing the story in genre ⬇️

Bookwomble ... clothes helped it's publication.
The cover artist on my copy is sci-fi stalwart Chris Moore, and I love that the photo of main character Ragle Gumm on the mocked-up cover of Time Magazine is Chris himself. A witty nod to the blending of reality and unreality of the novel. 4⭐ 3mo

The_Book_Ninja Did all those drugs make him paranoid?🤔 3mo

Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja He experienced periodic psychosis throughout his life, which his drug use certainly wouldn't have helped 😕 3mo

See All 10 Comments

The_Book_Ninja And maybe his ideas wouldn‘t have been so wild🤷🏻 3mo

Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja Perhaps, or perhaps not living in distress would have helped him develop different ideas and made his life less self-destructive 🤷🏻 It's impossible to know, I guess. I'm not convinced by the idea that genius needs to be tortured, though it would naturally shape the form it takes. 3mo

The_Book_Ninja Sounds like his ideas, drugs and psychosis are chicken and egg in regards to what fuelled his imagination. Have you read Valis? Sounds like it‘s either massively entertaining or too out-there for some. 3mo

vivastory This is def one of the best SF Masterworks covers I've seen 3mo

Bookwomble @The_Book_Ninja I have read, and enjoyed VALIS, which is pretty much autobiography. I love it, but I'm a Dick-Head, so... 😄 (edited) 3mo

Bookwomble @vivastory I love Moore's artwork, though this isn't typical of it (at least for his SF book covers). It's very fitting for the novel though, and I did a double take when I looked closely at the image of Gumm! 3mo

vivastory There's nothing quite like 60s & 70s sci fi cover art 3mo

40 likes10 comments

Bookwomble

Now Wait for Last Year | Philip K. Dick

My 2023 reading summary pictured above, courtesy of StoryGraph. I actually read 181 books and 31,244 pages, with an average of 175 pages per book, courtesy of the more accurate Library Thing 😊📚

32 likes

Ruthiella

More Than Human | Theodore Sturgeon

QUESTION 3: Can you think of any ways humans might now already operate in a group of human gestalt by “bleshing”- Where the sum of a group‘s energies is greater than each individual‘s part?

KathyWheeler, Lizpixie, julesG, Deblovestoread, majkia, LeticiaToraci, kwmg40, rwmg, CatLass007, CSeydel, RamsFan1963, ravenlee, TheSpineView, Bookwomble, Roary47, PageShifter

CatLass007 The first thing that comes to mind for me is the choral groups of which I have been a part over the course of my life. It‘s true of any musical ensemble. Sports teams with stars often are not as successful as teams in which there can be standout plays from the team working together. Teams that place all their emphasis on one or two players often don‘t win because the stars get bottled up. 4mo

Ruthiella @CatLass007 Great observations! I was thinking of an orchestra or band playing instruments but didn‘t think of voices melding in a choir. And you are so right about team sports. 4mo

Bookwomble I think anytime people come together in pro-social ways to act for the interests of community rather than for selfish individualism is a form of bleshing. Despite the Western and right-wing focus on “rugged individualism“, it is cooperation and empathy which has advanced humanity, and Sturgeon's gestalt is an evolutionary enhancement of that characteristic. 4mo

38 likes3 comments

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