Hannu Väisänen: Kuperat ja koverat

Continues an”autobiographical” story of a Finnish artist. The events in the book might be true, but then again they very well might not be. The book has creative language which is written mostly in stream of consciousness style.

Jatkaa Hannu Väisäsen aikaisempaa muistelmakirjaa. Kun aikaisempi kirja, Toiset kengät, käsitteli lähinnä lapsuutta tämä kirja kattaa kursorisesti lukioajan Savonlinnassa ja taideopinnot Helsingissä. Ote on vähemmän elämänkerralliselta vaikuttava ja tyylilajina on enemmän anekdotaalinen tajunnanvirta, jonka todellinen elämänkerrallisuus on ehkä hieman epäilyksiä herättävää. Kirjan minä-hahmo Antero ajelehtii enemmän havainnoijana kuin aktiivisena tekijänä epämääräisestä asunnosta ja omalaatuisesta tuttavuudesta toiseen valmistuen sinä samalla kuvataitelijaksi ja pitää ensimmäisen oman näyttelynsä. Kielellisesti ja tyylillisesti tosiaan kirja vaikutti toisentyyppiseltä kuin aikaisempi lukemani osa, enkä tästä ihan yhtä paljoa pitänyt, ihan luova ja omaperäinen luettava kuitenkin.


431 s.

Analog Science Fiction - Fact March 1971

This issue was read from my phone during lunch hours, so that might have hurt my concentration somewhat. A bulk of the issue is taken by a serial and there are only three stories.

The Missing Man • [Rescue Squad] • novella by Katherine MacLean
An underwater dome is destroyed in an apparent bomb attack causing a lot of destruction. A youth gang/terrorist cell is one suspect, but who did they do it? The story was felt fairly unstructured and went from a catastrophe tale to a police procedural to an engineering problem solving story to an action piece. Pretty overlong, writing as such was ok. ***
The Operator • [Federation of Humanity] • novelette by Christopher Anvil
Most women have died in a fairly new colony world. A shipload of women land there... and then there are twists and turns aplenty. A part of series and I have no knowledge of any of other parts, so there wasn’t enough back story and I didn’t get really into the story. It felt more than a little overlong. ***-
May the Best Man Win • shortstory by Stanley Schmidt
A man who has returned as a hero from an interstellar expedition is the most popular candidate for US presidency. He has some doubts, as due to time dilation he is only 34.5 and not required 35 years (when his calendar age is well past that) and almost declines. The party officials talk him over eventually. A fairly stupid story. If the candidate is so serious about such a small “technicality”, why bring it up when the votes from the primary are already being counted and not earlier? ***-

Analog Science Fiction and Fact, January 2001

A fairly average issue. Not exceptional. No real stinkers except the Williamson story. I have yet to read something by him I would enjoy.

Relic of Chaos • [Hartigan O'Reilly and Gwen Chryse] • novella by G. David Nordley
A police detective who is working on a space station which is orbiting Saturn must find a sacred relic which has been stolen from Vatican. The thief is extorting the Catholic Church and demanding some very secret information. I couldn't really get into the story, as the premise sounded SO ridiculous: the relic is a common wooden box owned by Mother Theresa (the world would probably be a better place without her, anyway – preaching against birth control in India - that is lunacy if anything) so it has no real historical or other value. I would imagine that the Catholic Church has truckloads upon truckloads as valuable or more valuable relics. Why would they give a s*it for one which doesn't even sound very special in any way? There is murder and mayhem, all for that box? I really couldn't accept that. The writing itself is competent; maybe the story could have been somewhat shorter. ***+
Vibes • novelette by Laurence M. Janifer
Beings which consist of vibrating noble gas atoms are dying on a strange planet. What is killing them? A story which is written in extremely verbose and meandering style. I really didn't get it at all. It felt like a parody of something I didn't recognize, or it was supposed to be humorous and I failed to get the point. **½
Resurrection • shortstory by James Van Pelt
The crew of a generation spaceship wakes up on 100 year rotation. A girl is afraid to go to cryosleep and stays awake. A man who has been in love with her wakes up after a hundred years to find out that the love is still alive. An emotional story which has a few problems with logic. ***
Augie • shortstory by George Zebrowski
People are using AI "butlers" which takes years and years of training to work properly. And even then they may malfunction like the Angie" of this story and behave like spoiled eight year olds. Would that kind of AI helper really be worth all the trouble no matter how efficient it would finally be, I wonder. ***
A Singular Clone • shortstory by Marie Ming
A medical story in the best James White / Sector general style. How to cure cancer from protoplasmic life form who is fragile, can't tolerate any anaesthetics and shoots poison as involuntary reflex against pain. A pretty nice story, only downside was that there was no background for the characters at all. It felt like a middle piece from a larger story arch. ***
The Nth Step • novelette by Jack Williamson
Continues the story from Dec 2000 Analog. The clones return to earth only to find that all humans have disappeared. I couldn't really get into the story. Writing felt longwinded, not very good, the story telling was detached and not compelling. The ending just fizzled out.**-

Galaxy Science Fiction January 1953

Not too bad issue, amusing tales which are quaintly old fashionable.

The Defenders • novelette by Philip K. Dick
The ultimate war has been going on for seven years. Americans have retreated to subterranean habitants while very intelligent and sophisticated robots wage the war above on the earth which has turned to an inhabitable wasteland. A group of soldiers would like to see the earth by their own eyes. The robots are very reluctant to allow that as the radioactivity is very lethal for humans. Or so they say. If I say that the story ends with very positive and optimistic way, it is easy to guess what is happening in the world above the caves. ***+
Teething Ring • shortstory by James Causey
An alien anthropologist who is doing field work on an American suburb makes a mistake and thinks that earth is much more advanced than it is. He leaves a neural amplifier behind him and an infant uses it. It is a pretty ineffective model though, it only cubes the iq score… nice little amusing simple tale reminiscent of Sheckley. ***
Life Sentence • shortstory by James V. McConnell [as by James McConnell ]
A man has murdered his wife and her lover. It was first murder for years and society finds a new way to punish him: it won't let him die. As frail and old, he has one more new year’s day without even knowing how long he has spent in a hospital. A fairly good story which strives for literate writing - doesn't quite make it – but is not bad. ***
The Inhabited • novelette by Richard Wilson
An alien invader inhabits minds of different people and likes it a lot. Until it goes to the mind of a schizophrenic and finds it is not able to get out and such people would trap his people if they were to invade. A fairly good story, very “oldstyle” but still entertaining. ***+
Prott • shortstory by Margaret St. Clair
A man is studying strange creatures resembling a poached egg. They appear in the space when the space ship travels at a certain speed. He manages to make telepathic contact with them, and they send strong messages about “-ing the –“, without really specifying what that means. The story is presented as a diary which has been recovered from space. The man has decided never to return to earth so that the aliens won't find the way there. Of course he doesn't manage. Not much point in this story, or I wasn't able to find it. **½

The Princess Bride by William Goldman

The film which is based on this book is probably more famous than the book itself. The main plot was very familiar - I have seen the movie several times and the movie plot follows the book almost in verbatim except for a few scenes which have been dropped out of the movie (apparently they would have been too complicated to shoot). At the end of this edition, there are also some unconnected scenes from the “second part” of the book. (Unfortunately, that can’t be published as the writing is supposed to be done by Steven King and he hasn’t written it yet). The book has a framing story which tells how William Goldman heard these stories as a child. When he hunted down the book as an adult, he found that there were some boring bits besides the good parts as his father had omitted the boring bits while telling the story. Then he decided to abridge the story by removing all the boring bits, and was able to produce something even his son loved. However, there were a lot of legal difficulties with the curator of the original author’s estate, which all were eventually settled. All that is totally fictional, as fictional as the basic plot probably everyone knows: The Story of the True Love (+ some exiting action) where a beautiful girl falls in love with a farm boy who ends up as a pirate while his love of life is courted by the evil prince of the realm, who is plotting the assassination of his bride to be.
The book is as good as the film; the writing is warm and witty. There are lot of action, a lot of humor, a lot to love in this book.


416 pp

Galaxy Science Fiction July 1952

A pretty good issue.

Star, Bright • novelette by Mark Clifton
A single dad is taking care of his daughter, who turns out to be a Bright, a kind of new step in evolution. She is much more intelligent that her father by the age of four or five, even though her dad is a “Tween” (something between the normal people and Brights). She learns soon to communicate telepathically and contacts another Bright child, whose parents soon “happen” to move to next door. The powers of the kids rise with a fast rate, until they apparently get trapped to another dimension. A well written and very good story in spite of a fairly worn premise. ****
Wailing Wall • [Marco 4] • shortstory by Roger Dee
A ship is stranded on a planet where humans used to be slaves of another species. The society seems to be very strange. That idea sounds a lot better than the story actually is. A lot of fairly pointless discussion several things which pretty poorly connected with the subject matter and a sudden ending. Pretty mediocre story. **
Dumb Martian • novelette by John Wyndham
A man who has taken a job on an asteroid for five years buys a Martian girl for his companion. He gets soon bored with the stupid “mart” and occasionally batters her and treats her overall very badly and condescendingly. A scientist comes to visit them and treats the “stupid mart” as a real human woman, which of course irritates the hero immensely. The scientist soon disappears after an "accident" . The Martian seems to be so stupid that she doesn't really react to that at all, at least it seems so.. A very good story, there was somewhat too much exposition at some places, but otherwise very entertaining and well written story. Something Astounding would never have published: an alien beating a human. ****-
Shipshape Home • shortstory by Richard Matheson
A science fiction author and his wife have found a real deal: a furnished apartment with extremely low rent. The apartment house has very creepy looking janitor, and the wife starts to suspect that he has some sort of sinister plans. And she claims that there are some sorts of engines at the basement. It shouldn't be hard to guess what is going to happen. Not too surprising plot. Loose writing, there is far, far too much arguing and discussing between the author and the wife about the same thing with even same words. The worst story of the issue.**-

Analog Science Fiction and Fact December 2011

A fairly good issue, seem to be somewhat above the average.

Ray of Light • novelette by Brad R. Torgersen
A strange alien space ship arrived and deposited millions of mirrors in space which block the sun. The last humans live at the bottom of ocean tapping geothermal heat. A daughter of the main character has disappeared. A very good story about hope, well written, could have been somewhat longer. ***½
Turning It Off • shortstory by Susan Forest
Everything has ”safeties” which prevent practically all sorts of accidents. Even people have safety systems which prevent accidents by falls etc. But they also dampen the sensitivity of skin. Two teenagers find a way to turn off their safety systems and experiment a little. A fairly good story, could have been slightly longer. ***+
Freudian Slipstream • shortstory by Brad Aiken
A scientist how is travelling to a colony world works while on suspended animation on a cure for a disease which threatens the existence of the new world. Somewhat confusing first, but most thing did make sense eventually. ***
Hidden • shortstory by Kyle Kirkland
A genetic treatment which makes someone extremely intelligent has been available for some time. There is a slight problem; those have the treatment usually go destructively mad before they are thirty. One supergenius has taken over a military installation, which has an experimental extremely powerful bomb. An attorney who has some experience with supergeniuses is drafted to find out what is going on. Not too bad, background probably more interesting than the story itself. ***
Art for Splendor's Sake • shortstory by Dave Creek
Continues a series where humans are trying to help two alien species coexisting on a planet which will be turned inhabitable by solar emissions (or something) in a near future. There are some schisms between the species, there is some tension among humans and so on. A fairly light piece. ***-
The Impossibles • novelette by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
A story from the “Disappearance Artist” universe. A young attorney is working on a court which handles interspecies affairs. The work is very stressful and there never are any cases where you could get an acquittal, at best you can make some slight plea bargains on the punishment. The attorney gets a case where a pregnant young female is going to be punished for theft by cutting away her hand, most certainly killing her in the process. A very good, well written and enjoyable story. There will probably be more stories involving the same main character, at least I hope so. ****
Not for Ourselves Alone • novelette by Charles E. Gannon
Aliens are approaching Jupiter after annihilating a human colony on the Barnard’s star. An international group faces them mainly in order to gather some intelligence and if possible to delay their attack agains the earth. A LOT of info dumping and details of orbital mechanics, otherwise an adequately presented fairly ordinary story about heroism. The attack is prevented far far too easily in about two lines at the end of the story.***-

Alexander McCall Smith: Kalaharin konekirjoituskoulu miehille

A mma Ramotswen “mystery”. Not much detecting here. A light book where problems tend to solve themselves. A depression can disappear between books by itself, there are no really unfortunate events at all anywhere. A slightly better than the previous book, I might even pick up the next one in the series at some time.


Mma Ramotswe romaani. Etsiväntyö jää kirja kirjalta vähäisemmäksi tässä sarjassa. Kirjassa kuvataan lähinnä tavallista elämänmyönteistä elämää Botswanassa. Tällä kertaa ongelmina on kilpailevan etsiväntoimiston ilmaantuminen, etsivätoimiston sihteerin mma Makutsin rakkaushuolet ja perustama miehille tarkoitettu konekirjoituskoulu sekä mma Ramotswen ja hänen kihlattunsa kasvatuslapsen huono käytös. Kuten vähän pelkäsin, kihlatun, J.L.B. Matekonin masentuneisuus on kadonnut yhtä äkillisesti kuin se ilmaantuikin. Todennäköisesti ottolapsen käytösongelmat ovat seuraavaan kirjaan mennessä samanlaisesti sormianäpsäyttämällä kadonneet. Suhteellisen naivia, äärimmäisen hyväntahtoista, mutta elämänmyönteistä kerrontaa, jota on nopea lukea, etenkin kun kirjat ovat kovin lyhyitä. Sen verran paremman tuntuinen kuin edellinen osa, että en ihan vielä taida sarjaa hylätä, vaan luen seuraavankin osan taas kevyenä välipalana raskaampien kirjojen välissä.

285 s.