Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Rogue in Space, A Choice of Gods, or The Grave

These are three paperbacks from one of the boxes of books I brought home from my mother’s house. The books belong to my brother and eventually I’ll get them to him in Seattle. In the meantime I’ve been toying with the idea of reading a couple. (Like I don’t have ten zillion books lined up already!)

Which should I read? I pulled these three out because they were at the top of the box. Of the three only The Grave by Charles L. Grant is more than 200 pages. It’s the horror novel. (Natch!)

Rogue in Space is a science fiction novel by Fredric Brown. “A lone outlaw encounters a unique being in the classic novel of alien intelligence,” says the cover blurb. A man in a yellow jumpsuit stands on a sand & rock plain in front of a big ochre spaceship (said spaceship looks a bit like the Marin Civic Center).

Clifford D. Simak’s A Choice of Gods has this front cover blurb: “The message came: Leave Earth alone. It is part of the experiment. [italics in original]” A robot knight stands in a clearing in the forest holding a lance or probe.

I can’t recall having read a book by any of these authors. David seems to own a few books by each. (Brown & Simak, anyway.)

So, D, which?

Anybody else have a rec?

3 comments:

David Lee Ingersoll said...

I'd pick Rogue or Choice.

I don't remember anything about the Grave specifically. I remember reading a couple or three Charles Grant novels and being disappointed. They weren't bad so much as ... not memorable.

I don't remember the plots of Rogue or Choice either but Brown and Simak have written other entertaining books that I do remember. Brown favors twists ending in his short stories. Simak had an inordinate fondness for robots. Neither of the authors were spectacular storytellers. They write old school, charming sci-fi.

Glenn Ingersoll said...

"An inordinate fondness for robots."

OK. Thanks!

David Lee Ingersoll said...

I was looking at a Clifford Simak fansite and was surprised to see how many of his novels I'd read. The guy was pretty prolific.