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Nebula Winners Thirteen
Samuel R. Delany (editor) 1980 (Bantam 1981)



The Nebula Awards are presented each year by The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. The main categories are for novels, short stories and two intermediate length categories (novella and novelette). An anthology is published for each year's awards, edited by a distinguished member of the SFFWA, which contains the winning work in the three shortest categories and a selection of other works from that year, usually from the losing nominees. This one contains stories published in 1977. Rated from 1 (nice one our kid!) to 4 (yer taalkin' shite!)

"Jeffty Is Five" - 3 [Best short story winner, 1978] (Harlan Ellison)
"Air Raid" -3 [Best short story nominee, 1978] (John Varley)
"The Screwfly Solution" 2 [Best novelette winner, 1978] (Raccoona Sheldon)
"Particle Theory" 2 [Best novelette nominee, 1978] (Edward Bryant)
"Stardance" 4 [Best novella winner, 1978] (Spider Robinson & Jeanne Robinson)
"Aztecs" 2 [Best novella nominee, 1978] (Vonda N. McIntyre)

All but one of the stories fall into the "bit iffy" to "pretty good" categories with nothing judged "outstanding, would read again".
The one really bad one is "Stardance" and the fact that it was even nominated, never mind won the award is incredible given that the voters were presumably also published writers. It's not badly written but the the central idea and the denouement are just cliche ridden drivel. It's so bad it's almost worth reading.

Septimus and the Danedyke Mystery
Stephen Chance 1971 (Puffin 1973)



"Reverend Septimus Treloar, retired as Chief Inspector of the CID after thirty years service, is now country parson of the seemingly sleepy St. Mary's Danedyke. But the rural calm of his and the villagers' lives are thrown into chaos when mysterious happenings cause them to suspect the haunting of a fabled ghost within the dark recesses of their church. But can this really be a case of supernatural spirits? Or are Septimus's suspicions of thieving mischief closer to the truth? If so, what could be the object of all this criminal plotting? Septimus must use his detective know-how to find the answers on a mission that will lead him to the secret of The Danedyke Cup, a silver gilt relic supposedly once belonging to Our Lady." (from Blackwells.co.uk).

This is Young Adult Fiction or what used to be called a children's book, although it's unlikely that it would be published today as it isn't concerned with troubled teenyboppers struggling with their mental health or sexuality. In fact the book has no characters at all under the age of twenty and is none the worse for it.

Stephen Chance is the pen name used by distinguished children's author Philip Turner for his four Septimus Treolar mysteries. I bought this one as I thought it's the one I read as a youngster but having read it I know now that it's a case of mistaken identity. I enjoyed it though so I'm getting the others as part of my second childhood reading project.

The Extended Selfish Gene
Richard Dawkins - 1976, 2016 (Oxford University Press 2016)



"The Selfish Gene' is a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. In it Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for the replication of genes. The book provoked widespread and heated debate, which in part led Dawkins to write 'The Extended Phenotype', in which he gave a deeper clarification of the central concept of the gene as the unit of selection, as well as contributing his own development of this insight. 'The Extended Selfish Gene' brings these two books together, by including two key chapters from 'The Extended Phenotype" (from Blackwells)

I remember the excitement I felt as a teenager when I whizzed through the first edition in a couple of days. This expanded fortieth anniversary edition was never going to get the brain juices flowing to the same extent because the concepts are no longer new, but I'd forgotten all the details in the subsequent decades so it was still a stimulating read.

Today and Tomorrow and...
Isaac Asimov 1973 (The Scientific Book Club 1975)



Asimov penned 399 monthly science essays for F&SF magazine from 1958 until his death in 1992 but he also wrote hundreds of articles for other publications and 32 of these from 1968-1972 are published in this book.
The "Today" section contains essays similar to the F&SF ones which are lucid explanations of a particular scientific subject with a historic context. These are all pretty good.
The "Tomorrow" section is largely Asimov trying to predict the future and giving full vent to his own political hobbyhorses, one of which was overpopulation. For instance he writes in 1970 that the earth's population would double by 2000 and this would (not may) lead to the total collapse of society. His remedy is to have birth control enforced by a world government run by, believe it or not, scientists. It doesn't sound like we would be allowed to vote for this glorified Sage Committee but I'd personally like to nominate Professor Brian Cox as Minister for Defence against Alien Invasion.

The Tale of the Body Thief
Anne Rice 1992 (Ballantine 1993)



"Returning to Lestat as the main character, the fourth in the Vampire Chronicles series finds Lestat impulsive and careless in the pursuit of what he wants: a serial killer in Southern Florida. Lestat is surrounded by mortals in this tale, an a new worthy counterpoint character to Lestat is introduced, Raglan James. James is a vampire hunter, and a formidable adversary for Lestat. James offers Lestat the opportunity to switch bodies temporarily with a young mortal. Against Louis' advice, Lestat accepts and discovers he hates everything about being human. He also finds that James has disappeared with Lestat's powerful vampire body. Louis refuses to help Lestat become a vampire again, and he turns to another mortal to help him trick James into switching souls, and giving up Lestat's body.
Centering on the themes of body and soul and soul migration, The Tale of the Body Thief is a novel of action." (from Anne Rice - the official site)

This could be the silliest novel that I've ever read. It's about vampires so the author has to work a bit harder to make it believable but Anne Rice fails miserably in this respect. The book is narrated in the first person by Lestat who is an annoying little muffin. Vain, selfish, neurotic, prone to hissy fits, all he needs is a few tatts and he could get a job as a Babeshow therapist.
The plot is ridiculous but despite that it's still quite readable so I took it to the end but I won't be reading any more from this author.

Golf's Strangest Rounds
Andrew Ward 1999 (Robson Books 1999)



"Golf's Strangest Rounds is an absorbing collection of bizarre tales from the lengthy annals of the sport's history. There are stories of tragedy, eccentricity, tactical slipups and ones that defy categorization altogether - meet 'Mysterious Montague', for example, of the world's best golfers but a man who refused ever to compete in a tournament. You'll find plenty of golfing greats here - Gene Sarazen, Chip Beck, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo - all of whom have played their parts in irrational finishes, record rounds and famous freak shots. The tales within these pages are bizarre, fascinating, hilarious and, most importantly, true." (from Waterstones)

It's one of those books that you have by your bedside for a ten minute read before lights out. Most of the tales are not that interesting but it did the job required of it.

The Bafut Beagles
Gerald Durrell 1954 (Penguin 1971)



"This is the story of Gerald Durrell's animal collecting expedition to what was then the British Cameroons, in the late 1940's. The book is full of memorable characters, human and animal. The portrait of the Fon (chief) of Bafut is a marvellous character study, and the country and the people are described with fondness. Among the things Durrell writes about are dancing monkeys, a midnight frog hunt, the night he taught the Fon to dance the Conga, his group of hunters and their motley pack of hunting dogs (the beagles), and the joys and problems of keeping a large collection of wild animals." (from AllReaders.com)

I really enjoyed this book. It's nicely written and It evokes the landscape, people and animals of post war colonial Africa with affection and humour.
Please note that attitudes to race and the treatment of animals were different seventy years ago so better grab the smelling salts if you have snowflake tendencies.

FLAK 88
Chris McNab 2018 (Haynes 2018)



"The 8.8cm Flugzeugabwehrkanone 18/36/37/41 – the ‘Flak 88’ – was one of the most successful and influential artillery gun types in the German arsenal in the Second World War.

Chris McNab tells the historical, technical and tactical story of this legendary weapon including insights into operating procedures, ammunition types, crew roles and experience, and the weapon’s performance in all key theatres, primarily in terms of its anti-aircraft and anti-tank uses. First-hand accounts of the gun in combat, plus engineer and operator manuals, are supported with archive photographs and detailed close-ups of preserved 88s in the Crompton and Muckleburgh Collections." (from Haynes)

Back in the day, the 88 and it's tractor was the only Airfix kit that I built that didn't have wings and the fact that they produced a model of this gun shows it's iconic status. The book goes into quite a lot of detail on the minutiae of it's structure and mechanisms and this can be quite hard to follow from just the text and photos so I'm hoping there are online videos that fill in the gaps. One interesting fact is that in AA mode with a muzzle velocity of nearly 3,000 feet per second, a shell would take about 25 seconds to reach maximum altitude of 26,000 feet by which time the bomber has travelled nearly two miles so you can see why this type of gun was superceded by guided missiles.

Coot Club
Arthur Ransome 1934 (Puffin 1988)



"Dick and Dorothea - also known as The Ds - arrive in Norfolk all ready to learn how to sail. They couldn't hope for a better teacher than Tom Dudgeon. But Tom is in a spot of trouble. After seeing the beastly Margoletta moored clean across the nests of his beloved coots, Tom set the motorcruiser adrift. Now the enemy have offered a bounty on his head. Can they save the birds' nest from almost certain destruction? Will they avoid being caught by the awful Hullabaloos? Only some brave friends and quick thinking stands between them and disaster..." (from Toppsta)

If someone had told me a couple of years ago that as a result of a lockdown caused by a global pandemic that I'd now be avidly reading mid 20th century children's fiction I would have whacked their knuckles with my conker and called them a prehistoric clodpoll.
This is the fifth in the Swallows and Amazons series and is pure nostalgic escapism. Number six on order.

Science, Numbers, and I
Isaac Asimov 1968 (Ace 1980)



Another collection of 17 essays from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Originally published in 1966 and 1967 they include discussions on the origin of the universe, the speed of light, the moons of mars and the worlds kongest rivers. Some of the articles are dated, particularly the one on the world's most populous cities but they are all still interesting. One of the best is "BB or not BB, That is the Question" where he summarises how the weight of evidence from quasars and the cosmic background radiation gradually swung the scientific consenus away from the steady state theory to the big bang theory of the origin of the universe.
Six books in this series read, another sixteen to go.