Sherringham Blog

Man's Best Friends

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:21:00 +0100

City
By Clifford Simak

And now for another old but "classic" science-fiction novel, this time Clifford Simak's City. I read this before Slan and enjoyed it more.

City is a "fix-up" novel from 1952, based on stories published in Astounding Science Fiction between 1944 and 1951. This is the story of Mankind's future, and far future. It is a melancholic story, almost elegiac, and one of a long sad decline. The age of exploration and excitement is over and most people fade away into a "dream" world of their own, or take other post-human form, thus separating themselves from humanity.

The book has a grand sweep, jumping ahead in time but keeping some focus on human history through the Webster family and their robot servant "Jenkins". Jenkins lasts a long time and sees the slow eclipse of humanity. As well as the robots, animals have also been bred and modified to be our intelligent companions. Dogs are no longer mute but think and talk and have their own civilisation, mindful of avoiding the mistakes we made: violence and war in particular.

I found a lot to like about the sweeping history and its philosophical airs, even though not a great deal happens and there is little actual science. It's a quiet and reflective novel. In the end, the dogs are the robots' best friends but still have a yearning for the past and their Human companions (the "websters"). I enjoyed City quite a lot.

Boy vs World

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:10:00 +0000

Slan
By A. E. van Vogt

Another "classic" old science-fiction story from the 1950's. I read van Vogt's Voyage of the Space Beagle a while ago and enjoyed it but it had a few faults. It definitely showed its age in places but that did not distract from the whole too much. Slan was not as good as that.

Slan is about a race of genetically advanced humans capable of mind-reading as well as having far superior intellectual and physical powers than normal human beings. Standard humans are their antagonists and the two "races" have fought a terrible war hundreds of years ago, leading to these "slans" (named after the scientist who first came across their new biology) being hunted and exterminated to almost extinction. Slans have to hide to survive. Our focus is on a young slan boy as he grows up and fights back.

I was disappointed with Vogt's novel. Like the Voyage, Slan showed its age and was a bit superficial, with little character development or human interest. But given all that, it was much more basic than I expected: much more like a book for children and I didn't find it well written. Maybe it is best characterised as an adventure story for boys. However, it's not a long read, and not dull, so I did finish it.

There are many books that work for both children and adults, some aimed at young readers but still accessible and enjoyable to adults too. I've taken an interest in some E. Nesbit books for example but "The Hobbit" also springs to mind, as do many Robert Louis Stevenson works. Slan didn't really rise to this level at all; perhaps not rising much above its pulp origins (from wikipedia, "first serialized in the magazine Astounding Science Fiction (Sept–Dec 1940))". I have a few other Vogt's on my book shelf though and I will try another sometime in the hope I find something better.

Up All Night

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 10:31:00 +0000

Beggars in Spain
By Nancy Kress

A bad cover, but a short, interesting and readable book. Don't get me started about book covers ...

This award-winning novella is set in the near future; a future that might as well be today given how familiar it is. Genetic engineering is now capable of changing and improving many aspects of us, and not just the physical traits of height, strength or looks. A discovery has led to the capability of modifying the coding that relates to sleep and this leads to the birth of people who do not need to sleep at all.

The sleepless turn out to have a big advantage over those of us who spend so much of our lives in bed. They can do a lot with all the extra time: learn, practice new skills, make money. This advantage leads to worldly success but also jealousy, and eventually increasing antagonism. As history shows, humanity usually doesn't appreciate a group of people "better" than us, even if they are decent, moral, law abiding citizens. The novella follows the lead character and her "sleepless" group through a world that starts to turn against people like her.

This was a short and quick read (100 pages) but well told. A very believable tale told without unnecessary drama or excitement and better for that. The book has easily seen flaws if you think about it but nothing glaring to put one off the main point. The novella has been expanded into a full novel and there are also sequels, and I might check them out at some point, but as a satisfying tale, the short version is one I would be happy to rest at.

Many Lives

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 16:13:00 +0000

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
By Claire North

This novel is about a man who dies only to discover he is re-born in the same year and in the same place as he was before. He then lives through the same period before dying, then being re-born yet again; this happens every time he dies. So, immortality apparently but of a slightly different configuration to one we normally find in works of fantasy. The difference between this novel and Kate Atkinson's Life After Life is that Harry August remembers his previous lives. I really liked Life After Life and I like this novel as well, perhaps more. It was certainly a novel I savoured reading.

Written in the first person, after dying once or twice Harry comes to realise and accept what is happening and all the possibilities this presents: good and bad. It turns out that there are also a few terrible dangers being someone with this condition. The dangers come from the "linear" sorts (i.e. normal like you or me) as well as people who live and die the same way he does. These special people are uncommon but have formed a secret "club" over the course of history. They sometimes get messages from the future due to the way their lives can overlap.

It turns out that the future is going significantly wrong and Harry needs to find out why; and if things can be fixed.

A really enjoyable almost-mainstream science-fiction novel. Claire North is definitely a novelist to read again. In fact, Slow Gods is on my queue now.

Read Head

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 16:08:00 +0000

Jirel of Joiry
By C. L. Moore

I really love the cover to this book. Unfortunately, the contents are not nearly as good.

C. L. Moore, Catherine Moore, is not a well known author today, perhaps fading into some obscurity if it were not for some keeping knowledge of the "Golden Age" of Science Fiction alive (a period that started in the 1930's). I recently watched a YouTube talk by Jeet Heer where he talked about The Best of C. L. Moore, which he liked, and that encouraged me to pick this up. These are old stories, first published in Weird Tales magazine, the most famous American pulp. The first story in Jirel of Joiry is "Black God's Kiss" from 1934.

I had to push myself through the first, then the second story here. I reminded myself that I originally found Jack Vance's Tales of the Dying Earth hard going because it seemed "pulpy" and written in quite a "basic" style. But by the end of the first book it had found its footing and I was enjoying it a lot. "Jirel" didn't get better for me though and did not seem to improve. I found it dull and repetitive. Too many descriptions of landscapes and feelings that got a bit boring and turgid after a while. I groaned when I hit the word "skyey". From Black God's Shadow :

A cloud floated across its face, writhed for an instant as if in some skyey agony then puffed into a mist and vanished, leaving the green face clear again.

Jirel is a bit of a female Conan and that should be interesting, but there is almost no fighting or sword play, excitement or world building, let alone character. She gets emotional, with lots of anger, hate, love - but that's about it. I don't often drop a book I'm reading but I gave it up after three stories and decided to move on to something better. I have a big pile of books to read, supposedly good ones. I will give Moore another chance in the future: either Doomsday Morning or Northwest of Earth.