Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

Her is the thread to comment on the next book in our robot series---The Naked Sun...Let us know hat you think!

So far my mind is filled with mush and unable to think. My nostrils linger with pollen from prepping the flower and vegetable garden beds today. I forgot that I still need to wear a mask when working outside.

Rain forecast all day tomorrow. I will start reading The Naked Sun tomorrow and see if I can clear out my mind with Benadryl and Flonase.

This one is waiting for me at my library. I went to pick it up yesterday now that the library is open and discovered I didn't have my library card. It was younger, newer librarians who insisted I need the card. Some of the older ones who know me just check it out anyway and have for years, minus a few with a strict supervisor, but they know me, know how to get my account, know I have a card and know I return the books (they do this for others, too, but I never ask them to do it).

I have to find my card or ask for curbside pickup. I think I am going to do the latter tomorrow as it hasn't shown up yet but I know I still have it (but haven't used it since March 2020. I know my number by memory so have been ordering books online with no trouble and picking them up during covid)

Do I take it your library doesn't have self-checkout. Ours does and all I have to do is type my numbers in on the keyboard and away I go.

Of course right now I can't use the library as my fines have gotten too high.

My local library (still closed, drive up only) also has ebooks using an app called “OverDrive”. One can download many books onto your device like a kindle or iPad from the comfort from your home from your local library at no extra cost. The ebook would disappear after two weeks. I admit I rarely used it.

I can probably buy an ebook for the same cost of gas to drive to the library and back. Then again my nearest library is twenty miles away since I live in the boondocks. My closest neighbor is 1/4 mile away. I spend more gas for my lawnmower than my car. I do not go places that much.

I did go to my library once a week to meet with friends to study Calculus and Physics, in our old age, trying to keep our brains from turning to mush. We (five of us) often went out to some restaurant or a movie afterwards. The pandemic changed things as my brain has definitely turned to mush. I might have to start again from elementary math.

Skies above! I have become a spacer!

I prefer zoom calls (viewing) over actually (seeing) a person. I cringe when someone gets too close to me (supermarket), must be at least six feet away. I use a face mask instead of nose plugs, a minor difference and I wear gloves also when shopping.

Skies above! Where is my Cherry 2000 :)

Mickey wrote: "Skies above! I have become a spacer!

I prefer zoom calls (viewing) over actually (seeing) a person. I cringe when someone gets too close to me (supermarket), must be at least six feet away. I use..."

I love it :)! Me too, but I am now wearing a special mask that is fantastic for my allergies, but when coupled with my sunglasses and a black bolero hat (for fun) makes me look a lot like one of those crows in spy vs spy (not scifi). While I bought it for allergies it is, in fact, better than an N-95 for certain things.

I could easily have grown up just like those spacers if my dad weren't so clever. When I was small I was initially scared of germs when I learned about them and if I touched anything would imagine them moving up my arms to my mouth, etc., but not playing in the dirt (didn't think about germs living in the dirt, thankfully, since we lived in a rural area). This was before I ever read a scifi book--I was probably about six, perhaps five based on where we live and how my mind was working. No one bothered to teach me about friendly microbes.

I finished the book “The Naked Sun”.

I rarely reread anything, but I feel satisfied that I reread Isaac Asimov’s novels. Asimov’s books was the first science fiction books that I have read in High School and was hooked on science fiction ever since.

During this pandemic, like many, I took a long break from any social gatherings. I will have reread Asimov’s Foundation series and Robot Novels and some short stories. I also binge watched old science fiction tv series like: Andromeda, Warehouse 13, Eureka and Star Trek Discovery, Star Trek Picard and Star Wars Mandilorian.

I am somewhat burned out on the isolation. I am a bit weary of getting back to normal, I fear by November things will be shutting down again from new strains of COVID. I hope not, I miss going to the gym, library and learning new things. I want to get back to studying math and Physics. I want to meet people again.

In someways, this pandemic was like going to Soleria. Where viewing and not seeing, people wearing mask and gloves when meeting others in person was the norm. I feel it is time to get to back down to Earth. Like the main character in The Naked Sun, Baley, when he got back to Earth, the caves of Steel, things did not feel the same.

When things open up, life will probably never feel the same again.

Karin wrote: "I love it :)! Me too, but I am now wearing a special mask that is fantastic for my allergies, but when coupled with my sunglasses and a black bolero hat (for fun) makes me look a lot like one of those crows in spy vs spy (not scifi). While I bought it for allergies it is, in fact, better than an N-95 for certain things.”

Alfred E Newman, I am not. I worry about what to worry about. Although I liked the Mad Magazine when I much younger and the Spy vs Spy skits. For decades, and I still wear mask when gardening and mowing the yard with headphones. When outside, I wear a sun hat that looks like a French Foreign Legions hat with a long neck protection from getting a neck sun burn. I am sure I looked like an alien from outer space. Allergies can be a problem.

Mickey wrote: "Karin wrote: "I love it :)! Me too, but I am now wearing a special mask that is fantastic for my allergies, but when coupled with my sunglasses and a black bolero hat (for fun) makes me look a lot ..."

I'm so glad it's not just me :)! It's rather ironic, though, since for so many years I worried about what I looked like--either to look good or express a style, and for a while was a fashionista (then just dressed the real me, artsy, but not now because it's too hard to find artsy clothes that fit). Now I dress for comfort and that includes the mask.

My review: This was largely an exercise in world-building, with the characters serving merely as things to interact with the world. In most books this would be a weakness, but this world was so rich and thought-provoking (if not actually credible) that I was engaged even without a compelling plot or characters for most of the book. The deduction that led to the solution was satisfying.

I felt that several things about the world weren't believable: first, the Solarians discomfort with personal contact. People are social animals, and I don't think it's possible to raise children to be well-adjusted (or even rational) people without it.

Second, the fact that Gladia was portrayed as a murder tool of Leebig is farfetched and unsatisfying, as it removes all agency from her character. Sure, wives sometimes murder husbands, but it doesn't seem to be in character for Gladia.