A for....

Oh I've had a bit of fun tonight. No, not what you think, I've been watching these silly programmes on BBC Four, some sort of series on British Science Fiction. There was a trailer for the website, so when I was next at the computer I checked it out, and they've got this thing called a Timeline. It's got a load of names and stuff set up on a sort of date index, all names of science fiction books, tv series, all that kind of thing. So before I knew where I was I was filling stuff out, and commenting on these things - I will admit to being a sci fi freak these days. Twenty years ago, I wouldn't have been so forthcoming.

But exactly why was that? Well back in the sixties, girls didn't read sci fi. At the most they might have watched Thunderbirds, which had it's girls character - Lady Penelope, pretty much specifically put there for the girls. I enjoyed Thunderbirds, but I preferred Captain Scarlet. But having got in to this stuff, and we were a family that watched Dr Who, (oh yes, behind the sofa and all that, boring..) I liked sci fi. And when I found a book with a spacecraft on the cover in my brother's bookshelf, I 'borrowed' it. I still have it. Oh yes. It was an Isaac Asimov, Foundation and Empire, I think, and I devoured it. Moved on to Second Foundation, - he didn't seem to have a copy of Foundation, it was a good ten years after this that I found a copy of Foundation, and got to read it. But from the Foundation books, I think I went to the Stars Like Dust. Now I have my own personal theory that the Stars Like Dust is Star Wars with a few added extras. But that's an argument for another day. I really enjoyed the short stories - and then one day I found a science fiction section in our local WHSmiths - it was so so tiny. Perhaps half a dozen books crammed in next to the Religious and Poetry sections. But I bought A E Van Vogts' War Against the Rull. I can remember ever so clearly my sense of shock that I could actually go out and buy these books. It was kind of maybe the first adult purchase I'd ever made, perhaps even before I'd bought my first single. And actually thinking about it, the first single I ever bought was Sugar Sugar by the Archies, so we're talking what, 68, 69? I would have been 9, 10 years old. I'm not exactly sure where the War Against the Rull is right now, or I'd dig it out and see how much it cost, but I'm prepared to bet it was about 25p. It's never been my favourite sci fi, but I must have enjoyed it enough to go and buy the next - Open Planet by James White, I think his name was. I did enjoy that. Then I found more Asimovs, more Arthur C Clarke, more Van Vogt. I think the Worlds of Null A came pretty quickly, and I liked that because I liked the Aristotelian twist to it. I knew nothing about Aristotelianism at the time, but I seemed to pick up enough of it to make a bit more sense of Aristotle when the time came to learn that titch of philosophy you need to learn to make sense of history.

Asimov's three laws of robotics made sense to me. Clarke's pathos inside things like Childhood's End. I'm not entirely sure if Clarke intended it to be there, but it hit the same nerve that the Borrower's had when I was a kid - I used to worry about what would happen to Arrietty when Pod and Homily died. Who would she be with? How could one be alone in life? Ok so this may sound a bit advanced for a five year old or so, but we didn't get the books where she met Spiller till I can't remember when, so for me Arrietty was alone, for ever and ever. I can even remember having nightmares about it. Arthur C Clarke's aging humanity, abandoned by their children, with no future ahead of them had the same sting in the tail (should that be tale?)

Andromeda was listed on this site, which was interesting, 'cos my first experience of Andromeda was through the book. It was one of my favourites, and the follow up, Andromeda Breakthrough. The books are way better than the tv series. I can't tell you how much better - somehow A for Andromeda should never be in colour, it should be filmed in grainy black and white, on a moor somewhere, in barracks. I dug out my copy to find the date of it, 1975 can you believe it.

I was late to fantasy. I had this idea that the only type of SF that I'd like was golden age pulp, the sort of stories that had been in Amazing Stories. The type that show up in the afternoons on Channel 4 occasionally, or if you're lucky a late night showing on an unsuitable day of the week. Then somehow I ended up reading an Anne McCaffrey. Dragons. But at least not girly dragons, and somehow setting it on another planet made it somehow acceptable. So I read Anne McCaffrey's, all of them for quite a long while. If I find an author I like, then I read everything by that author that I can get my hands on, and move on from there. And at some point I got my hands on Dune. Oh god it was like falling in love. Those long long books, the first time of reading - the demanding adab of the story!!! I've even read Brian Herberts follow ups. I wouldn't say they reach say the first rung of Dad's calibre of story writing, but it's Dune so what can you do? There's no more real Dune, ever, sniff sniff, so I'll make do with what I can get. Like most other Dune addicts I guess.

At the moment, I'm hunting out the Darkover books. There's always another writer to discover, and a back catalogue to read through. Can't say I'm reading much new SF though. Alas I find very few new authors that grip. I do keep trying, and who knows, in ten years I might be working my way through Pratchet. I have to say I think that's unlikely. I read way more than SF, both fiction and non-fiction, so I'll never be short of something to read. Right now I'm re-reading Juliet Barker's biography of the Brontes, which is a great read. I was looking for my copy of Wuthering Heights which has unaccountably gone missing - I loose and find books all the time. Don't we all?