Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eyes of Nine" data-source="post: 9412098" data-attributes="member: 99786">The reading of the Hugo/Nebula/World Fantasy nominees that I own has begun! Starting with the oldest and moving forward.While camping, I read CL Moore and Henry Kuttner’s Earth’s Last Citadel. Thinnest “novel” I’ve read in a long time, coming in at a whopping 128 1943 paperback sized pages. Today would barely qualify as a novella. Anyway, a good read. Reminded me of a modern (for 1943) Time Machine, where the modern protagonist and his “party” are transported to the end of time. Some surreal sequences that were interesting. Pretty mediocre characterization. Minimal racism (albeit the Nazi (an actual Nazi, it was 1943 after all) was described as “dark”, “murderous”, and “violent” multiple times). Sexism was not terrible, except it was boring. There was a faction who were “ethereal” (very Eloi-like) and there was a woman-presenting character who had the personality of a cardboard cutout, but was gossamer yet strong that was the love interest. In other words, read 80 years later, the book wasn’t appalling, had some interesting ideas, and was short. 2.5 out of 5 stars for me.Then I read Isaac Asimov’s Caves of Steel from 1953 the first (I believe) of the Lije Bailey / R. Daneel Olivaw series. Fun mystery novel set in far future where earth’s population is at it’s maximum sustainable capacity (8 billion people - I laughed). Clever solution, that was somewhat plausible with the way the world was set up. No racism, but really violent anti-robot sentiment, with that sentiment standing in for modern racism and discrimination. Lots of heternormativity, not surprising for the time it was written. I’d give it a 3.5 of 5.Currently reading Andre Norton's Witch World. Liking so far.</blockquote>

Verification