#163. RAISING THE STONES By Sheri S Tepper

Published : 1990
Pages : 453
Overall Mark : 8/10

When the human settlers arrived on Hobbs Land, the native Owlbrit were almost extinct, but before the last one died, the humans learned a little of their language, ideas and religion. And it seemed that maintaining the last Owlbrit temple, with the strange statue that was its God, led to peace and prosperity. But then men from the harsh patriarchal religion of Voorstod came to Hobbs Land in pursuit of a refugee and determined to impose their own way…

SHERI S. TEPPER (1929-2016)
Sheri S. Tepper was the author of several resoundingly acclaimed novels, including The Margarets and Gibbon’s Decline and Fall, both shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Aware, A Plague Of Angels, Sideshow and Beauty, which was voted Best Fantasy Novel of the Year by readers of Locus. She is one of the few writers to have titles in both the SF and Fantasy Masterworks lists. She died in 2016.

VERDICT
This was an interesting story, showing how many religions around the world have based their foundation on weak facts and disinformation. That is the fun side of the story, though the darker side focusses more on the wars that result from these religions as well as the persecution of certain sectors of society for no other reason than it was apparently dictated by religion. A solid read that never gets to the point of becoming dull, even though it can at times feel like it is dragging out an otherwise simple and succinct premise.

#162. THE DOOMED CITY By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1989
Pages :
Overall Mark : 8/10

It is a mysterious city with an artificial sun, bordered by an abyss on one side and an impossibly high wall on the other. Its inhabitants have been plucked from different time periods of twentieth-century history and left to govern themselves, advised by the inscrutable Mentors. This is the Experiment, seen through the eyes of Andrei Voronin, a young astronomer from 1950s Leningrad, whose rise through the political hierarchy has a devastating effect.

ARKADY STRUGATSKY (1925-1991)
BORIS STRUGATSKY (1931-2012)
The Strugatsky brothers began to collaborate in the early 1950s. Arkady worked as a technical translator and editor, and Boris was a computer mathematician at Puklova astronomical observatory. Their work includes Hard To Be A God, Definitely Maybe, The Snail On The Slope and Monday Starts On Saturday. Andrei Tarkovsky's much admired film, Stalker, was based on their most famous work, Roadside Picnic.

VERDICT
I do secretly like the Strugatsky’s, though Roadside Picnic was never a favourite. This is up there with likes of Monday Starts On Saturday, though not as obviously funny. Instead this takes the political satire end of the comedy spectrum – something that was definitely risky in the time it was written – and goes with that by parodying the ideas that were so prevalently observed in the former Soviet Union.

#161. THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME By H G Wells

Published : 1933
Pages : 424
Overall Mark : 4/10

When Dr Philip Raven, a diplomat working for the League of Nations, dies in the 1930s, he leaves behind a book of dreams outlining the visions he has been experiencing for many years, detailing events that will occur on Earth for the next two centuries. This fictional ‘history of the future’ proved prescient in many ways, as Wells predicted events such as the Second World War, the rise of chemical warfare, climate change and the growing instability of the Middle East.

H. G. WELLS (1866-1946)
Born in Bromley, Kent, the third son of a shopkeeper, Herbert George Wells was apprenticed to a draper before becoming a teacher-pupil at Midhurst Grammar School and winning a scholarship to study under T.H. Huxley. Through his trail-blazing works of science fiction, his prophetic imagination and his championing of socialism, science and women’s rights he became a hugely influential figure of international renown.

VERDICT
To be perfectly honest this was not only a struggle to read but also something of a let-down. I was expecting to read a brief history of the world spanning from 1933 to 2106, but instead I got around 300 pages focussing almost entirely on the twenty years following the publication of the book and then some random excuses for why the history was so incomplete. I thought, with Wells at the helm, that this would be a clever look at our future, but its focus is so tight compared to what it claimed it would show that it couldn’t be anything but a disappointment.

#159. THE LEFT HAND OF DARKNESS By Ursula K Le Guin

Published : 1969
Pages : 304
Overall Mark : 8/10

Genly Ai is an ethnologist observing the people of the winter-world Gethen. The people there are androgynous, normally neuter, but they become male or female at the peak of their sexual cycle. He becomes drawn into the complex politics of the planet and, during a long tortuous journey across the ice with a disgraced, outcast politician, loses his professional detachment and reaches a painful understanding of the true nature of Gethenians and, in moving and memorable sequence, even finds love…

URSULA K. LE GUIN (1929-)
Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honour. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have already attained undisputed classic status. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

VERDICT
In comparison to the rest of her Hainish stories, this one in my opinion gives the best background to the race of androgynous aliens. There is much more in-depth descriptions and explanations of exactly what their society is like, whereas the other books seemed to assume you already know. Of the series that I have read, this is probably the best one so far.

#158. LIMBO By Bernard Wolfe

Published : 1952
Pages : 413
Overall Mark : 7/10

In the aftermath of an atomic war, a new international movement of pacifism has arisen. Multitudes of young men have chosen to curb their aggressive instincts through voluntary amputation – disarmament in its most literal sense. Those who have undergone this procedure are highly esteemed in the new society. But they have a problem – their prosthetics require a rare metal to function, and international tensions are rising over which countries get the right to mine it…

BERNARD WOLFE (1915-85)
Bernard Wolfe was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He worked as a military correspondent for a number of science magazines during the Second World War, and began to write fiction in 1946. He became best known for his 1952 SF novel Limbo.

VERDICT
This is an interesting satirical novel focussing on what life would be like if we were to chop off our limbs to prevent us from going to war. Clearly Wolfe thinks it wouldn’t work, but what he presents is an interesting concept. The idea that the actions of one man, albeit misinterpreted actions, could lead to such a movement is both funny and worrying, with a conclusion that really proves that mankind will go to war no matter how much they try not to.

#157. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN VOL 2 : SWORD & CITADEL By Gene Wolfe

Published : 1982, 1983
Pages : 615
Overall Mark : 8/10

Exiled from his guild, the former torturer’s apprentice, Severian, is now the Lictor of Thrax, a city far distant from his home. But it is not long before he must flee this city, too, and journey again into the world. Embattled by friend and enemies alike, pursued by monstrous creatures, Severian must overcome hitherto unimagined perils, as he moves closer to fulfilling his ultimate destiny. This edition contains The Sword of the Lictor and The Citadel of the Autarch.

GENE WOLFE (1931-)

Gene Wolfe is one of modern fantasy’s most important writers. His best-known work, the four volume far-future Book of the New Sun, won the World Fantasy, BSFA, Nebula, British Fantasy and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. He has won the World Fantasy Award four times for his novels and collections and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award for his extraordinary body of work.

VERDICT

THE SWORD OF THE LICTOR - This had a lot more of a sci-fi feel to it than the first two books, with him fighting various monsters such as the Alzabo, and although that did in part take us away from the idea of this being a perfectly relatable story told in a different time, it did add to the story and make it all the more intriguing.

THE CITADEL OF THE AUTARCH - This had much more of a fable feel to it than the previous book, with its focus at times on storytelling as well as introducing the ideas of time travel and aliens, and it is this volume that finally reveals the big secret readers waited four years to find out.

#156. THE BOOK OF THE NEW SUN VOL 1 : SHADOW & CLAW By Gene Wolfe

Published : 1980, 1981
Pages : 603
Overall Mark : 8/10

Severian, a torturer’s apprentice, is exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his prisoners. Armed with his ancient executioner’s sword, Terminus Est, Severian must make his way across the perilous, ruined landscape of this far-future Urth. But is his finding of the mystical gem, the Claw of the Conciliator, merely an accident, or does Fate have grander plans for Severian the torturer…? This edition contains The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator.

GENE WOLFE (1931-)
Gene Wolfe is one of modern fantasy’s most important writers. His best-known work, the four volume far-future Book of the New Sun, won the World Fantasy, BSFA, Nebula, British Fantasy and John W. Campbell Memorial Awards. He has won the World Fantasy Award four times for his novels and collections and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award for his extraordinary body of work.
VERDICT
SHADOW OF THE TORTURER - The characterizations in this novel are probably the best I’ve read in a long time in regards to SF and fantasy. The interactions work well and we aren’t faced with ridiculously hard to pronounce people and place names which I found refreshing. Severian, the lead character, is a little hard to get a grip on, but that makes him all the more intriguing.

THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR - This second volume didn’t feel as strong, although the interplay between characters was still well observed. Also it felt a little more fantasy oriented than the first volume, especially as it grew closer to its conclusion.