Thursday, October 30, 2014

Blast Off

Finally really got going on my recently purchased LoA cache. Finished The Space Merchants by Fred Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth in reasonably speedy fashion and was happy to do so. Great verve in the story-telling and over-flowing with ideas. What's not to like? Even the outmoded sexism was great fun in its way. Also remarkably prescient for 1953 - the stuff about replenishing greenhouse gases made me catch my breath and was a reminder that we've known about the mess we're in for a good deal longer than we are to admit.

Moved on temporarily from the sci-fi to get me some Hammett: Red Harvest, in case you were wondering. The opening pages reminded me of just why I've always preferred him to Chandler - and I don't say that lightly.

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