ok ok..that was blatant plagiarism from Payne's Blog. To see more of his pics..move to flickr.
darn! why doesnt my camera ever pick up pics like these. and to add insult to injury, i keep running into guys like Payne & Solo who keep on making me feel like a n00bie with their magic-enabled digicams.
Anyway, i just wanted to complete a post that i had written last year but somehow never got the time to completely edit & publish..i goes like this
First up, something really good happened today. we have all been formally inducted as the batch of 2007 at FMS. so finally, we have been relatively assured of a slightly lesser punishing schedule for the next month or so, till the summer placement thingies start. while it does seem strange to feel euphoric about a detail as pedantic as this, it's a really soothing feeling neverthless. for better, for worse now i am in it for two years..
i know, i am off the rocker. but theek hai. this expression of 10 minutes of my life should not be snuffed out just because it fails to satisfy the incredibly urgy tastes of the jury at large.
Ok so, for the not-so-urgly. i am now in it for a year. last chance to read my 1.03 million ebooks. and finish those unsteady stacks of movie DVDs. Yippie, fun never looked so much like work. And learn atleast...something. Cant be a writer for life, and a bad one at that. that'd be one heck of a short life.
Talking about bad writers, Harry Harrison is a good one. no, not a good bad one silly. a good bad good one. or the other way round...
uh..something wrong here. chalo, who cares. The guy's real fun to read..specially if you have like a couple of hours to while away and nothing much to do..like a lazy sunday afternoon. And if you like SF..waaaaooowww !!
Well..its been a couple of years since i last read a Stainless Steel Rat one..but the exploits of Jimmy de Griz are well..quite literally out of this world. It's like reading up all your boyhood action stories in action. it delivers on the action, the story & the semi-laconic, wholly-enterprising hero and his once-fiendish devil of a woman. the writing is so breezy that at the end, you end up feeling refreshed, amused and ..ah well..wanting more ;)
Sometimes some authors do that..but usually they dont. which is kinda sad because you dont get to realise the sheer versatility. Consider the obscure fact of Authors like Asimov posing as Paul French to write the absolutely smashing Lucky Starr series or the publishers of those boyhood wonders like Hardy Boys or that sissy Nancy Drew, the publishers Grosset & Dunlap writing as Carey Rockwell for the equally entertaining Sci-fi Tom Corbett Series. Dedicated funny-man sci-fi's like Lewis Padgett of the Twonky & Gallegher fame get consigned to historical dustbins.
Consider path-breakers like Astounding SF. The SF bible of the 50s is now published as Analog Magazine As an aside, wonder how many people know that one - either Astounding or Analog. Real SF comes from places like these. At one point of time, Robert Campbell used to be the editor of Astounding SF and the "contributors" included legends like Heinlein & A. E. Van Vogt. But back to our vein, Astounding is the magazine to read if you want to read breezy SF fiction. I was fortunate enough to grab a 1951 & 1955 anthology edition (hard back) from some some shady deal during my engg college days & it's pure gold for any SF freak. Though nowadays, i get Analog mailed to me every month. (All free ofcourse, before you mouth the outrageous alternative)
To cut a rat tale short, Harrison is one author you definitely can pick up. And Stainless Steel rat is much more rewarding than any contemporary "heavy" fiction. Go ahead. be a kid. IT's FUN !!
~happily rolling back years ..engrossed in Bill, The Galactic Hero~