1982 – DaneCobain.com

Isaac Asimov – The Science Fictional Solar System | Review

Title: The Science Fictional Solar System

Author: Isaac Asimov

Type: Fiction

Page Count: 324

Rating: 3.75/5

This book made me feel kind of old, purely due to the nature of it. It’s essentially a short story collection that’s themed around the solar system, with a short story for each of the planets as well as the sun. The reason I feel old is that it was published when Pluto was still a full planet, and I remember those days. I’m literally so old that the planets have changed.

I’ve got used to enjoying Asimov’s little introductory essays, and they’re just as fascinating here as they are elsewhere. He also prefaces each story with a few notes on how scientific research has changed since the stories were written and to analyse whether the short stories still held up with the latest scientific thinking.

There are some cracking authors here too, including a piece by Arthur C. Clarke. Asimov has a story in there himself, too. All of the stories had something different to offer, and in fact what was quite interesting was that they covered such a wide variety of topics while still retaining an overall cohesive feel. It’s difficult to do that, and Asimov was pretty harsh on himself when it came to his abilities as an editor, but I think he did a pretty solid job.

It’s also kind of cool because this was published in 1982, and a bunch of the stories were 30+ years old. That meant that the introductory essays were written pretty much in between when the stories were written and the modern day, making them a nice little bridge.

So overall then, I’d definitely recommend giving this book a go, especially if you’re into science fiction and you want to read a bunch of new authors. I certainly enjoyed it and I’m looking forward to reading more of Asimov’s stuff.

Learn more about The Science Fictional Solar System.

Graham Greene – Monsignor Quixote | Review

Title: Monsignor Quixote

Author: Graham Greene

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 256

Rating: 6/10

Graham Greene – Monsignor Quixote

I feel kind of harsh about awarding this book a 6 out of 10 – after all, I usually reserve this rating for books that are riddled with typos, and there’s nary a typo in the whole novel. It’s just that Greene is capable of so much better than this, and even some of his non-fiction on subjects as ‘dry’ as the life and times of John Wilmot (the second Earl of Rochester) and Omar Torrijos, the former ruler of Panama, are more interesting.

Sure, Monsignor Quixote it easily readable, and it won’t pose any serious difficulty if you plan to get from cover to cover – it’s just that it’s also quite forgettable, a sort of odd pocket in Greene’s extensive bibliography which feels incompletely filled, as though he failed to live up to his potential. Not even the fact that it’s a pastische of Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes is enough to save it, but it probably didn’t help that I’d never read the original.

That said, I try to judge the books that I read on their own merit, and I just found Monsignor Quixote to be boring, too focused on religion and with a plot that I struggled to relate to, despite the fact that it was written towards the end of Greene’s career (and, indeed, his life) in 1982. It wasn’t for me, but perhaps you’ll enjoy it – just tread carefully, and consider some of Greene’s other work instead.