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dustydigger
Posted 2016-09-11 4:18 AM (#14298 - in reply to #12239)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2016		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		Whew! At last I finished Connie Willis's Doomsday Book A fair read that could have been even better if there had been less repetition and the stressing of themes had been less heavyhandedly pointed.Willis never heard that less is more
Most of the historical inaccuracies were minor or passed me by completely so didnt bother me much,except the irritation of the times ''The NHS phoned you'' and the measurements being in centimetres. Written in late 80s I would have expected feet and inches would have been more sensible,both for US and UK audiences. Instead,every time I saw centimetres it brought back the French Revolution when centimetres and metres were invented,400 years after the plague!
But I did like the theme that human beings are human beings in all their variety, strengths and weaknesses,and historians are too fond of simplifying, even dismissing this for the ''big picture''.The same attitude that dismissively states that back in ye olden days when parents lost three or four of their children before they reached five years old they didnt feel it as much as we much more sensitive modern people do.OK,cultural mores and religion may have muted things in some ways but tragedy,grief and pain were still there to be suffered.
Also read Asimov's [The Currents of Space] It was an OK read,typical Asimov,with the usual rather flat characters,but a reasonably interesting depiction of the relationship between two planets,one of which produces the only known plant kyrt which is processed into a beautiful material,the other rules and exploits the workers shockingly. Typical Asimov pessimism over human nature , and has the usual Asimov conspiracies and a slight mystery,complete with a Poirot like revealing of the culprit.{ Asmov must have been a Christie fan and enjoyed producing his own mystery series,The Black Widowers series.} To me however the writing is so dry and clunky it detracts from the story sometimes. I felt that in spades in Robots and Empire when I recently read it.
You've got to love Asimov'sboundless faith that some day humans will inhabit not hundreds,not thousands,but a million planets across the galaxy! :0)

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