#155. CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG By Maureen F McHugh

Published : 1992
Pages : 313
Overall Mark : 9/10

After the Second Great Depression and the American Liberation War, the US has been left as a satellite state of China. In this strict world of Communist orthodoxy, young New York construction engineer Zhang Zhongshan must find his way in a worl that disapproves of both his cultural heritage and his sexual identity.

Not everyone can change the world; sometimes, the ultimate challenge is to find a way to live in it...

MAUREEN F. MCHUGH (1959-)
Maureen McHugh’s first story was published in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone magazine in 1988, and just a handful of stories followed before her first novel, the critically acclaimed China Mountain Zhang, in 1992. She has won the Hugo and Shirley Jackson Award for her short fiction, and the James Tiptree Jr Memorial Award for China Mountain Zhang, her best-known novel, which was also shortlisted for the Hugo and Nebula Award. She lives in Los Angeles.

VERDICT
This was such an interesting character driven piece. The stories are a little disjointed, going back and forth between Zhang and a number of supporting characters who don’t necessarily prove themselves to be of immediate relevance but even from the opening chapter there are some great set pieces and awkward social interactions that only help in expanding on the lead character and showing how he manages to grow as the story progresses towards its conclusion.

#154. STARSHIP TROOPERS By Robert A Heinlein

Published : 1959
Pages : 275
Overall Mark : 6/10

5,000 years in the future, humanity faces total extermination. Our one defence: highly-trained soldiers who scour the metal-strewn blackness of space to hunt down the terrifying enemy: an insect life-form known only as ‘Bugs’.

This is the story of trooper Johnny Rico, from his idealistic enlistment in the infantry of the future through his rigorous training to the command of his own platoon. And his destiny is a war that will span the galaxy.

ROBERT A. HEINLEIN (1907-1988)
Robert A. Heinlein was educated at the University of Missouri and the US Naval Academy, Annapolis. He served as a naval officer for five years but retired in 1934 due to ill health. He then studied physics at UCLA before beginning to publish SF with ‘Lifeline’ for Astounding Science Fiction in 1939. Among his many novels are The Door Into Summer, Double Star, Starship Troopers, Stranger In A Strange Land and The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

VERDICT
Definitely not what I was expecting, and far from being Heinlein at his best this is still an interesting book that acts in some ways as sci-fi propaganda while managing to remain a mostly enjoyable read. Fans of the movie will be surprised by how different this is, and those who loathed the much-maligned movie might be pleasantly surprised.

#153. THE MIDWICH CUCKOOS By John Wyndham

Published : 1957
Pages : 220
Overall Mark : 8/10

In the sleepy English village of Midwich, a mysterious silver object appears and renders all the villagers unconscious. The next day they awaken – to find that all of the women are pregnant. But the blonde, golden-eyed children of Midwich cannot be human: they grow too fast and their minds exhibit frightening abilities that give them control over others. Inevitably, their nature brings them into conflict with the villagers, just as a chilling realisation dawns on the world outside...

JOHN WYNDHAM (1903-69)
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris started writing short stories in 1925. He wrote under many pen names, eventually settling on John Wyndham for his modified form of science fiction, which he called ‘logical fantasy’. He is best-known as the author of The Day of the Triffids, but he wrote many other successful novels including The Kraken Wakes, The Chrysalids and The Midwich Cuckoos (filmed as Village of the Damned).

VERDICT
Fans of alien invasion stories might find this a little tame due to the subtle nature of the invasion, but I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the methods that mankind chose to use in battling the menace. In spite of the twee surroundings and old fashioned nature of the book, there is still an element of defeatism present in this that is just as relevant to the world we now live in.

#152. MONDAY STARTS ON SATURDAY By Arkady & Boris Strugatsky

Published : 1964
Pages : 243
Overall Mark : 9/10

When young programmer Aleksandr Ivanovich Privalov picks up two hitchhikers while driving in Karella, he is drawn into the mysterious world of the Scientific Research Institute of Sorcery and Wizardry, where research into magic is serious business.

And where science, sorcery and socialism meet, can chaos be far behind?

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
If Terry Pratchett never read this book, I would be amazed. There is so much in here that fans of the Discworld series would enjoy and recognise, and more besides. The humour is dry yet sometimes absurd, and the plot is clever enough to have been one of Douglas Adams’ Dirk Gently storylines. Well worth the read, and the best of the Strugatsky brothers efforts I’ve read so far.

#151. SWASTIKA NIGHT By Murray Constantine

Published : 1937
Pages : 196
Overall Mark : 8/10

Seven hundred years after Nazism achieved power, Hitler is worshipped as a god. The fascist Germans and Japanese struggle to maintain their populations. An Englishman named Alfred is on a German pilgrimage. According to official history, Hitler is a tall, blond god who personally won the war. Alfred is astounded when shown a photograph of Hitler before a crowd. He is shocked that Hitler was a small man with dark hair and a paunch. And Alfred’s discovery may mean his death...

MURRAY CONSTANTINE (1896-1963)
A pseudonym for the feminist SF writer Katharine Burdekin. Born Katharine Cade, she was the younger sister of Rowan Cade who created the Minack Theatre in Cornwall. In addition to her Utopian and Dystopian fiction, she wrote several children’s books, including The Children’s Country under the pen name Kay Burdekin. Her best-known work remains Swastika Night, written as Murray Constantine – a pseudonym that was not confirmed until two decades after her death.

VERDICT
I actually enjoyed this book, with its bleak look at a future that could have happened if Hitler had won World War II. It’s amazing to read when you realise that this book was actually published before the war had even begun, so Burdekin not only comes up with a dystopian future based on a fiction but also predicts the war itself. The idea that Nazism moves its focus onto women once it has all but wiped out anyone else they deem unfit to be part of the so-called master race is a scary one as women are portrayed here as being treated like animals or something almost sub-human. An interesting parable of what could quite easily have been.

#150. A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY By Vernor Vinge

Published : 1991
Pages : 538
Overall Mark : 6/10

This is the story of Pham Nuwen, a small cog in the interstellar trading fleet of the Qeng Ho. Both they and the Emergents are orbiting Arachna, a dormant planet which will shortly wake up when its On/Off star relights after decades of darkness. Both groups hope to exploit the coming age of technology and commerce on Arachna.

But while the Qeng Ho seek only to trade aggressively, the Emergents’ plans are far more sinister, amounting to little short of genocide...

VERNOR VINGE (1944-)
Vernor Vinge is a retired San Diego State University Professor of Mathematics, a computer scientist and science fiction author. He is best known for his two epic space operas A Fire Upon the Deep (1992) and A Deepness in the Sky (1999), both of which won the Hugo Award and were shortlisted for the Nebula. He is the winner of 5 Hugos, 4 Prometheus Awards and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, among many others.

VERDICT
This was pretty slow paced and at times I couldn’t tell where Vinge was going with the narrative, but eventually things got a little interesting. Like the previous book, I found it hard to follow what was happening that was of any real importance, but the characters were still fun to read about even if I wasn’t one hundred per cent sure at all times what their plans or motivations might be.

#149. ALWAYS COMING HOME By Ursula K Le Guin

Published : 1985
Pages : 525
Overall Mark : 6/10

A long, long time from now, in the valleys of what will no longer be called Northern California, might be going to have lived a people called the Kesh.

But Always Coming Home is not the story of the Kesh. Rather it is the stories of the Kesh. Stories, poems, songs, recipes – Always Coming Home is no less than an anthropological account of a community that does not yet exist, a tour de force of imaginative fiction by one of modern literature’s greatest voices.

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
It’s hard to judge this as a novel as it is more of a fictional anthropological guide to a made-up society. Le Guin does an awesome job of creating a world from the basic elements right up to the most important parts, but it is quite the challenge to wrap your mind around. There are stories interspersed between studies of the Kesh, but these are few and far between and just as hard to read as the rest of the book. It’s worth the effort to some extent, but it’s inaccessibility makes it more of an oddity than a must read.