Shejidan / What have you been reading lately?

**Posted by Surtac** 11/05/2025 7:46 pm

starexplorer wrote:
Please let us know how the Reynolds is!

I shall. I'm about 10% in so far and enjoying it immensely. It is reminding me a little of his much earlier work Century Rain and I'm not yet sure why that is so.

**Posted by Aja Jin** 11/06/2025 4:43 pm

I forgot to mention, in Deathstalker there is an homage (chapter 13) to one of the SF greats:

I am therefore empowered to move on to the next stage of my programming
to prevent you escaping or awakening the sleeping Hadenmen.
Owen, Hazel: pay attention. Code Blue Two Two.

Recognize it?

**Posted by Surtac** 11/06/2025 5:35 pm

Aja Jin wrote:
I forgot to mention, in Deathstalker there is an homage (chapter 13) to one of the SF greats:

I am therefore empowered to move on to the next stage of my programming
to prevent you escaping or awakening the sleeping Hadenmen.
Owen, Hazel: pay attention. Code Blue Two Two.

Recognize it?

I don't think I've had enough coffee yet this morning. All my brain is fetching for me is an obscure memory of Rick Raphael's Code Three and I doubt that's it. That Deathstalker scene takes place on the Wolfling world iirc, so maybe an oblique reference to Gordon Dickson?

**Posted by Aja Jin** 11/06/2025 8:39 pm

Surtac wrote:
Aja Jin wrote:
I forgot to mention, in Deathstalker there is an homage (chapter 13) to one of the SF greats:

I am therefore empowered to move on to the next stage of my programming
to prevent you escaping or awakening the sleeping Hadenmen.
Owen, Hazel: pay attention. Code Blue Two Two.

Recognize it?
I don't think I've had enough coffee yet this morning. All my brain is fetching for me is an obscure memory of Rick Raphael's Code Three and I doubt that's it. That Deathstalker scene takes place on the Wolfling world iirc, so maybe an oblique reference to Gordon Dickson?

There are no underpeople in the referenced story.

**Posted by Surtac** 11/13/2025 4:07 pm

Aja Jin wrote:
Surtac wrote:
Aja Jin wrote:
I forgot to mention, in Deathstalker there is an homage (chapter 13) to one of the SF greats:

I am therefore empowered to move on to the next stage of my programming
to prevent you escaping or awakening the sleeping Hadenmen.
Owen, Hazel: pay attention. Code Blue Two Two.

Recognize it?
I don't think I've had enough coffee yet this morning. All my brain is fetching for me is an obscure memory of Rick Raphael's Code Three and I doubt that's it. That Deathstalker scene takes place on the Wolfling world iirc, so maybe an oblique reference to Gordon Dickson?

There are no underpeople in the referenced story.

Ok. Put me out of my misery, please. Try as I might, all my brain is giving me now is some half-remembered piece of Asimov's late period robot stuff. It's so long since I've read any of that I can't remember any specifics.

In other news, I am continuing to slowly savour Reynolds' Halcyon Years. I had to LOL when the phrase 'down these mean streets' serendipitously appeared.

**Posted by Aja Jin** 11/14/2025 7:45 am

Cordwainer Smith, Think Blue, Count Two. It’s the activation phrase for a protective action, powered, of course, by a laminated mouse brain.

Halcyon Days was terrific.

**Posted by starexplorer** 11/14/2025 11:40 am

Aja Jin wrote:
Cordwainer Smith, Think Blue, Count Two. It’s the activation phrase for a protective action, powered, of course, by a laminated mouse brain.

Halcyon Days was terrific.

A happy memory!

**Posted by Surtac** 11/14/2025 3:11 pm

Aja Jin wrote:
Cordwainer Smith, Think Blue, Count Two. It’s the activation phrase for a protective action, powered, of course, by a laminated mouse brain.

Halcyon Days was terrific.

Thank you, sir. Today's priority task is to track down a copy. I should have it somewhere in the stacks hereabouts.

Btw, the next LOL moment for me in Halcyon Days was another literary reference, but this one was a part of a song lyric from the 1970s.

**Posted by Surtac** 12/01/2025 9:05 pm

Well, I finished Al Reynolds' Halcyon Years some time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. An excellent read from Al, and I still chuckle to myself when i think of a certain perfectly placed 70s song lyric fragment dropped into the protagonists internal thought processes later in the book. (And now it has ear-wormed me again and has to go onto todays musical soundtrack.)

My reading since has mainly been more British crime/police procedurals, though I did find time to track down and re-read the Cordwainer Smith story mentioned upthread.

Next serious SF book I'm looking forward to is the new Dave Hutchison due sometime this month - I have it pre-ordered already. It's not part of the Fractured Europe sequence, but i'm thinking of doing a re-read of those anyway next year and have built it into the 2026 reading list I'm currently drafting.

What books are people looking forward to seeing in 2026?

**Posted by starexplorer** 12/02/2025 12:40 pm

My reading has been so limited in recent years that I rarely read books when they come out. I am playing catch-up. Which has the sole advantage of allowing discretion based on the critical responses of other readers. This is just a phase, I think.