Science Fiction & Fantasy Award Winning Book Group discussion

Happy New Year, everyone!

This month I've chosen No Enemy But Time by Michael Lawson Bishop. My husband pointed out that Michael Bishop passed away in November, so I thought it would be fitting.

We are reading this because it won the 1982 Nebula Award.

It won over some stiff competition: Helliconia Spring, Foundation's Edge, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer, By Robert A. Heinlein - Friday, and The Sword of the Lictor.

Enjoy - and as always, beware of spoilers.

So sad to hear that he passed away.

I haven't heard of this one much before, so going into it with an open mind.

Having trouble getting into this one.

Oh how annoying for you - it's in the Science Fiction Masterworks in the UK so it's reasonably priced in kindle and paperback - but I don't suppose that's any use to you?

I'm not a huge fan of the anthropology-based stories, but once into this one, I am enjoying it. I do like the developing story of the ancient past dreaming/visit and the childhood of dreamer Joshua.

What do you think about the writing style of not using quotation marks?

I'm about halfway through and mildly enjoying it. I like the adventure part but find the flashbacks to be 'meh'. Hate to admit it but I've skimmed the last couple of them.

My brain adjusted fairly quickly to the lack of quotation marks but I'm not really a fan of that kind of thing. I think The Knife of Never Letting Go did something similar but I could be wrong.

The science in this is so hand wavey that I'm thinking of this as a fantasy. The dream visits work so much better in my mind that way. I had to laugh when (view spoiler)[ the 4' tall proto-humans beat off a pack of hyenas (descibed as 4' tall at the shoulder) with sticks. (hide spoiler)]

The end of the month has crept up on me very unexpectedly! I am running behind with my reading but I have not abandoned this one yet....

Nick, I agree - this month has flown by. Lots of work and real life getting in the way. (Also a smutty romance series I got trapped in.) I'm at 67% right now. Not sure where this is going.

Jon - I sometimes like the science to be unspecified. That way I don't have to try to understand it... LOL. Hand wavey - love it.

I have no idea how to rate this one. I'm not sure if I am satisfied with the ending or not.

I also was surprised to read that what I read was a revised edition (by the author) where he changed things and condensed it AFTER having won the Nebula. Proves that a writer is never satisfied.

So towards the end he says something about it all being a dream and he's not 'really' back in time although his dream is the equivalent of being back in time all things being equal. If I understood it correctly. (view spoiler)[But then he brings his daughter back from a 'dream' and then reconnects with Helen through drug use. Add in the chrononauts that rescue him and I just thought that some parts of the story resembled some of the magical realism that we've read. There's some weird stuff in this book. (hide spoiler)]

Back to the lack of punctuation throughout - in the end it wasn't the lack of quotation marks and such that bothered me. It was a sentence switching from one subject to the next halfway through the sentence. That really annoyed me by the end.

I did enjoy the afterword that the author wrote explaining why he thought he won the Nebula that year. He thought that since the other nominees were all big time authors that maybe they split much of the vote between them and he snuck through.

My version didn't have the afterword - that sounds interesting.

Overall, I thought it was good, but quite dull.

I liked Kampa, I thought the characters were good. The interpersonal drama was really well done, I think, considering that it was the sort of thing that could easily just be melodrama if it was done badly (mommy issues and family betrayals).

The speculation of what life was like in the Pleistocene Africa was kind of interesting - but I think it would've been just as mildly interesting in a short monograph without the rest of the story.

Even so, it was just a bit slow and not quite enough happened for me to be gripped. If I hadn't been reading it for the group, I think I easily could've put it down and forgotten to pick it up again.