Old Favourites

Critical Mass News, Snippets

At the August Critical Mass, we chose an old favourite worthy of a re-read.

Gerald chose Cordwainer Smith’s Scanners Live in Vain, which can be found in the collected works, The Rediscovery of Man

The SF Masterworks edition has 30+ short stories, including The lady Who sailed the Soul, The Game of Rat and Dragon, Mother Hitton’s Littul Kittons, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard and The Dead Lady of Clown Town.

Kate suggested two children’s books, both by Robert C. O’Brien:
The Secret of NIMH (originally Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH) and Z for Zachariah (published post-humously)

Beata selected Ostatnie życzenie (The Last Wish) by Andrzej Sapkowski (author of the Witcher series, originally written in Polish). This is a collection of short stories about The Witcher.
The title story is the one where Geralt meets Yennifer, seeking her help to capture a genie.

Adam chose Simon R Green’s Blue Moon Rising , the opening novel in the Forest Kingdom series.

Prince Rupert, a second son, was sent out to slay a dragon. The task became more complicated when he spared the dragon, which collected butterflies…

Roman selected Lisa Goldstein’s second novel, The Dream Years, about a surrealist Robert St Onge, in Paris, 1924, who argues with André Breton and eventually finds himself in 1968 at the Paris riots, helping surrealist anarchists fighting for the power of the imagination.

Jeff selected Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart. A fantasy set in Imperial China (subtitled “A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was”), it follows Master Li and Number Ten Ox as they search for a cure for a plague caused by a poison. He also mentioned William Gibson’s Burning Chrome (short story collection) and George Turner’s Beloved Son.

He also mentioned

  • Captain WE Johns’ series of space books. (A total of ten.)
  • EV Olde’s The Clockwork Man
  • Donald Suddaby, Village Fanfare or The Man from the Future
  • Brian Stableford, the David Lyddyard trilogy because the third volume took years to appear.
  • Brian Stableford, the six volume Emortality series in internal chronological order. [Originally published out of order which was how Jeff read them…]

Andrew suggested Martha Wells’ Witch King