Hit or Miss? Palimpsests by Scholz and Harcourt in the Ace SF Specials (series three).

[@sfwordsofwonder]

Thanks for your honest thoughts on this one. Not one I'll be seeking out.

[@GrammaticusBooks]

Good review Richard. I'd swear I read this back in the day. Although I have absolutely zero memory of it now...perhaps that's for the best!

[@vintagesf]

@@GrammaticusBooks Selective memory works in your favour.

[@salty-walt]

Thank you for saving me the lengthy search! I (personally) never have good luck with sci-fi that brings in elements of Stone age man

[@meesalikeu]

i just picked up a used 1974 ballantine paperback yesterday i think you would like, the short stories of stanley g. weinbaum. haven’t read anything yet, but i recognized a couple stories, a martian odyssey and worlds of if, so i took it. same series as best of fritz lieber and a few others. 🎉

[@vintagesf]

I have ‘The Best of Stanley Weinbaum’. It was the first “Best of …” in the series. Ira, Matt and I will get to it eventually. Amazing that there is a best of when Weinbaum passed away in his early 30s.

[@paulcooper3611]

'Palimpsests' is another one that didn't call to me and, after your review, I feel justified. I'm looking forward to your opinion of 'Them Bones'.

[@vintagesf]

@@paulcooper3611 Just started ‘Them Bones’.

[@LiminalSpaces03]

Dang! 4 out of 10! Looks like one I'll be skipping!

[@vintagesf]

@@LiminalSpaces03 Too many books to read ahead of this one. Manbreaker Crag says “Nope”.

[@calebcox4963]

Not sure if it’s morbid curiosity or contrarianism, but now I kind of want to read it.

[@vintagesf]

@@calebcox4963 Then I have a few more “recommendations” for the contrarian within my backlist.

[@SmallSpaceCorgi]

I read this when It first came out-- or, more precisely, read about half of it before I just gave up. The book was well written, but it just didn't seem to gel. I tried it again in c. 1990, and the same thing happened. I just couldn't find enough reasons to finish it.

[@thebookrapport-cx8kh]

Bad books are "special" too, I guess. LOL

[@joebrooks4448]

😊 "Camus" is a major clue that novel could be pathetic. If you have ever read Camus' fiction, he is a nilihist philosopher. His major fictional work, is one of those "life has no meaning and neither do you" slog thru nonsense endurance tests. Sort of like a lot of Malzberg...

[@vintagesf]

@@joebrooks4448 Sure there must be a lot going on there.

[@CasperHulshof]

@@vintagesf Camus did win the Nobel Prize in Literature. I think his work is profound in its own way. I'm interested in the meaning of the main protagonist's name in this book.

[@vintagesf]

@@CasperHulshof Afraid I’m not well read enough to comment.

[@joebrooks4448]

​​​​@@CasperHulshof I studied "philosophy" and "Modern Philosophy" closely from 1970 thru the early 1980s. Being directed to by A E van Vogt, RAH, Donald Westlake, and Keith Laumer.

[@StevenEverett7]

Nope. Never have seen this one. It certainly doesn't sound very interesting! 😊

[@TauZeroSF]

Something I learned in film school: never reference a great movie in your own movie. Adapting that to this book: never name your character in your book after a guy who won a Nobel prize for literature 😐🫥

[@vintagesf]

@@TauZeroSF Hmmm. Thinking of Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosch named after artist Hieronymus Bosch.

[@TauZeroSF]

@@vintagesf exceptions can prove the rule jajaja