The UK Babe Channels Forum

Change!
Isaac Asimov 1981 (Houghton Miflin 1981)



"The pace of change is accelerating to the point where it's hard to keep track of tomorrow. Fortunately, however, the incomparable Isaac Asimov has come to the rescue! In seventy-one short and highly readable essays, he sketches out a wide variety of mind-stretching changes that are in store for us earthlings—most of them probably in our lifetime. (from goodreads)

Subtitled "Seventy-one glimpses of the future" these are very short essays published in American Airlines inflight magazine in the seventies and early eighties (that's 1970s for the younger forum members). like most futurism it's all a bit tedious, particularly as forty plus years on we can see that none of this stuff has actually taken place.
An interesting example of how we should take care not to swallow the latest scientific orthodoxy on climate is the piece where Asimov discusses the feasibility of scattering coal dust on the arctic ice cap to melt it and open up the high Northern latitudes to development. He says that scientists have concluded that this may be unwise as it could trigger a new ice age.

The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13
Terry Carr (ed) 1984 (Baen 1984)



"The Best Science Fiction of the Year #13 is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Terry Carr, the thirteenth volume in a series of sixteen.
The book collects ten novellas, novelettes and short stories by various science fiction authors, with an introduction, notes and concluding essays by Carr and Charles N. Brown. With one exception, the stories were originally published in 1983 in the magazines Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Omni, and Interzone, and the anthology Universe 13.
(from wikipedia)

This is the best of the Carr anthologies so far. I didn't like or "get" a couple of the stories but enjoyed the rest. I had only read one of the selections, Greg Bear's "Hardfought" previously and I liked it a lot better the second time round. That story won the Nebula for Best Novella in 1984.

Gallipoli 1915
Philip J. Haythornthwaite 1991 (Osprey 2000)



"The Gallipoli expedition of 1915, the brainchild of Winston Churchill, was designed to knock the Turkish Empire out of the First World War and open a supply route to Russia. Although characterised by the most outstanding courage and determination on both sides, the campaign is also remembered for the military incompetence of the higher commands, particularly that of the allies. This, combined with a lack of initiative on the part of more junior officers, meant that early opportunities such as the landing on the undefended "Y" beach were not exploited. As a result the campaign bogged down into Western Front-style trench warfare. However, in spite of the bungling and incompetence of the allied higher command, Gallipoli deserves to be remembered not simply as a failure, but also for the heroism and resourcefulness of both the British Army and the men of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. The ANZACS, as these were later called. were hardy and resourceful soldiers. Their name will forever be associated with the Dardanelles Campaign." (publishers blurb)

John Keegan in his First World War book seems to think that the whole campaign was misconceived whereas this author gives several instances of where victory could have been achieved if it wasn't for the incompetence of the allied commanders. Either way it was a hellish conflict.
It's back to sea for the next in this series with the Battle of Jutland.

William Again
Richmal Crompton 1923 (Macmillan 1992)



Another set of books I read as a kid. There are 38 in all of which this is the third and each one is a collection of short stories set in the William universe. The Browns are quite a posh family with servants but William is no snob, he befriends or fights with boys of any socioeconomic group. Usually described as mischievous, I think psychotic would be nearer the mark. William is a glutton, a thief, a liar but also genuinely funny, I chuckled at regular intervals.
The chapter where he blacks up and is mistaken for a native of Borneo might not have made it into the latest editions.

Jutland 1916
Charles London 2000 (Osprey pod)



"The only major fleet engagement of World War I, the battle of Jutland has been surrounded by controversy ever since. The British public felt that Admiral Jellicoe had failed - a reaction rooted in a hundred years of the "Nelson cult", a conviction that anything short of a Trafalgar-style annihilation was letting the side down. True, the German fleet had sunk more ships and suffered fewer casualties, but the British had forced them to disengage and run for port and were still cruising off Denmark spoiling for a fight. This title recounts in detail how on an early summer's evening in 1916, the two fleets clashed head to head: the events that followed would spark a polemic that still rages today" (publisher's blurb)

There are plenty of maps and detailed written desriptions of each phase of the battle but I still found it difficult to get a mental picture of what was happening. I'll have a search online for some multimedia accounts that might clarify the issues.

Life of Pi
Yann Martel 2001 (Canongate 2012)



"The son of a zookeeper, Pi Patel has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior and a fervent love of stories. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.
The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days while lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them “the truth.” After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional–but is it more true?" (from booklistqueen)

The author is very clever in the way he makes you believe Pi's story even as it becomes increasingly outlandish. I found myself annoyed with the Japanese reps scepticism until the real account is revealed and then I kick myself for being taken in. A moment later I remember that the "real" sequence of events is actually a novel and I have to kick myself a second time. This double undermining of the suspension of disbelief gives the book an interesting extra dimension but even without the philosophical aspects it's a cracking read.
Only my second Booker winner and much better than Graham Swift's Last Orders

Take Jennings, for Instance
Anthony Buckeridge 1958 (Collins 1963)



"Aunt Angela gives Jennings a bicycle, which leads to a chain of events involving a runaway boat, PC Honeyball, and the Spanish Armada. The Form 3 Natural History Club (Jennings, JCT, Chief Spotter, Frog and Tadpole Dept) threatens to disrupt the smooth running of Linbury Court but its activities are saved by the intervention of a scientific frogman on prizegiving day." (from wikipedia)

Jennings number nine. Not as inspired as the best ones it had a slightly lower coefficient of chuckle but still more enjoyable than most stuff that I read.

Verdun 1916
William Martin 2001 (Osprey 2003)



"On 21 February 1916 German General Erich von Falkenhayn unleashed his hammer-blow offensive against the French fortress city of Verdun. His aim was nothing short of the destruction of the French army. Falkenhayn was sure that the symbolic value of Verdun was such that the French would be "compelled to throw in every man they have". He was equally sure that "if they do so the forces of France will bleed to death". The massed batteries of German guns would smash the French troops in their trenches and bunkers. But the French hung on with immense courage and determination and the battle became a bloody war of attrition." (publisher's blurb)

Verdun is not a well known battle in Britain as it was a purely Franco-German affair. The Imperial War Museum says it was the longest battle in modern history and that both sides had over three hundred thousand casualties. After ten months the Germans had gained less than five miles of front and had failed to capture Verdun. These apocalyptic trench battles in WWI can make for depressing reading so I'm going to spread them out a bit and read something a bit lighter in between, maybe Stalingrad or the Fall of Berlin.

The First World War
John Keegan 1998 (Hutchinson 1998)



"The First World War probes the mystery of how a civilization at the height of its achievement could have propelled itself into such a ruinous conflict and takes us behind the scenes of the negotiations among Europe’s crowned heads (all of them related to one another by blood) and ministers, and their doomed efforts to defuse the crisis. Keegan reveals how, by an astonishing failure of diplomacy and communication, a bilateral dispute grew to engulf an entire continent...
By the end of the war, three great empires–the Austro-Hungarian, the Russian and the Ottoman–had collapsed. But as Keegan shows, the devastation ex-tended over the entirety of Europe, and still profoundly informs the politics and culture of the continent today. His brilliant, panoramic account of this vast and terrible conflict is destined to take its place among the classics of world history." (from Penguin)

I wanted an overview of WWI and this fitted the bill. It covers the whole war in 450 pages and gives you a good grounding before looking at the various theatres and battles in more detail elsewhere.
Some reviewers don't like Keegan's slightly old-fashioned style and some find fault with his analysis. The former was not a problem for me, I found it easy to read and I don't know enough about the subject to comment on the latter, which I suspect is also the case for many of the goodreads brigade.
There aren't enough maps and many place are mentioned in the text which aren't shown on the maps but this seems to be a fault with most history books even the Osprey campaign series where the maps are supposedly a strong point.

The Spirit Ring
Lois McMaster Bujold 1992 (Baen 1993)



"The Spirit Ring is a fantasy novel by Lois McMaster Bujold. It is set in a Historical Fantasy version of medieval Italy, where magic is real and the Church watches over its use to make sure it is used for the benefit of others. Fiametta Beneforte, only child of master mage Prospero Beneforte, has long tried to convince her father to train her as a proper apprentice in the crafting and enspelling of magical artworks, to little avail. Master Beneforte is consumed instead with his masterwork, a grand statue of the legendary hero Perseus, commissioned by his patron the Duke Sandrino of Montefoglia.
Everything goes wrong when Lord Ferrante of Losimo comes for an engagement ceremony to Sandrino's daughter, which ends with Ferrante murdering the Duke in cold blood and taking the city by force. Fiametta and her father barely escape, only for Master Beneforte to die defending her from Ferrante's soldiers. But Fiametta knows Ferrante's dark secret: he employs profane magics that can chain ghosts to his will, and he seeks to capture Beneforte's spirit for a new, powerful ring.
Enter Thur Ochs, a Swiss man come south to apprentice to Master Beneforte. Instead he finds himself caught up in the fight for Montefoglia, joining Fiametta and the monks of the monastery in opposing Ferrante's worldly and sorcerous ambitions." (fromtvtropes)

This was a middling sort of read. It kept me interested without being riveting. I'd read a couple of Bujold's SF novels decades ago and had no liking for them but this was better. It was her first fantasy and it got little love from the devoted fans of her Vorkosigan books and didn't spawn a series.
Second in the 1993 Locus awards for best fantasy novel.