I had been writing little mini-reviews for the books I read,
but have fallen behind! Since the last one (the second book
in the Gateway series) I have read a few more. I think I'll
only do little micro reviews for them. The books are as
follows:

- Heechee Rendezvous     by Frederik Pohl
- The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
- 2001: A Space Odyssey  by Arthur C. Clarke

Heechee Rendezvous is the third book in the Gateway series.
I am cheating a little with this one as I did not finish
it. I read somewhere between a third and half. I was luke
warm on the second book and the third is further diminishing
returns... at least as far as what I read. I think part of
it is that I never really loved Frederik Pohl's writing. The
first book, Gateway, worked in spite of the writing. I can't
say that the same is true for the sequels. Especially when
compared with the writing of Arthur C Clarke, which I have
been reading a lot of lately.

The City and the Stars was really quite fantastic. The style
of the writing is at least equal to the quality found in 
Rendezvous With Rama (which I previously wrote about). This
book is broader in topic and maybe more fantastical in
nature. It takes place extremely far in the future and
humanity has changed. I dont want to give much away, but if
you like Clarke's writing and have not tried this one, it is
definitely my favorite so far so I highly recommend it.

I found 2001 extremely boring for the first... 2/3 or so. No
actually, I really liked the beginning. The beginning takes
place in the past and follows an encounter with a group of
australopithecines (I cannot remember from my college days
whether that is the correct spelling or not and do not want
to look it up). I would have read a whole book of that plot.
It moves on though. The next section of the book was as dull
for me as a reader as it likely was for the crew of the ship
it takes place on. As in the movie there is betrayal by a
computer and the book gets quite good after that. It is a
shame that the bulk of the book is so boring and not at all
in keeping with the rest of the Clarke works I have read.


I am currently reading "Dhalgren" by Samuel R. Delaney. I
talked about it briefly over gemini[1]. It is, thus far, a
thoroughly kaleidoscopic novel so far. Extremely bewildering,
but in a good way? I am hopeful that it stays in a good way
as I could see it teetering over the edge, but so far so
good.


I have been missing having time to write more on gopher, and
on gemini too I suppose. I hope you are all doing well and
staying safe! If you have any book recommendations please
send them my way ( sloum AT rawtext.club ). In general I
prefer thinking sci-fi to space opera and am also a big fan
of "literary fiction" of the sort that Michael Cunningham
writes.