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Triplanetary
Edward E. Smith 1948 (Old Earth Books 2002)



"In Triplanetary, battle is joined for the control of the universe. The Arisians, benevolent humanoids who have declared themselves Guardians of Civilization, war with the Eddoreans, shapeless, malevolent beings, hungry for power at any price. They fight on both physical and mental levels, wielding weaponry of inconceivable destructiveness.
And their battleground is a tiny planet in a remote galaxy: Earth. The swamping of Atlantis, the fall of Rome, the wars that rack the world and blaze through space - all may seem historical accidents to the men involved, but each in reality is a move in a savage universe-wide power struggle...
Triplanetary is the first volume in the famous Lensman series of novels, an epic saga of galactic adventures on the same magnificent scale as Isaac Asimov's classic FOUNDATION trilogy." (worldswithoutend.com)

A pulp mag tale from 1934 that was fixed up and published in book form in 1948 as the first in "Doc" Smith's Lensman series. I only read it because it's one of the "100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels" knowing that it would be dated, juvenile and full of pseudoscientific claptrap. Smith's books were massively popular in their day so I suppose "must read" can be applied in a historic sense and you can enjoy it by embracing the silliness and having a chuckle at all the space fiction stereotypes.

Dark Matter & Dark Energy
Brian Clegg 2019 (Icon 2019)



"Since the 1970s, astronomers have been aware that galaxies have far too little matter in them to account for the way they spin around: they should fly apart, but something concealed holds them together. That ’something’ is dark matter – invisible material in five times the quantity of the familiar stuff of stars and planets.
By the 1990s we also knew that the expansion of the universe was accelerating. Something, named dark energy, is pushing it to expand faster and faster. Across the universe, this requires enough energy that the equivalent mass would be nearly fourteen times greater than all the visible material in existence.
Brian Clegg explains this major conundrum in modern science and looks at how scientists are beginning to find solutions to it."

I thought Clegg did a pretty good job; for the first time I think I got the gist of how they used supernovas to calculate that the the universe's expansion is accelerating. That's got to be the biggest scientific discovery of the last 30 years and one of the most awesome of all time.
Part of a series of books on a range of scientific subjects, I'll be looking to see if I can grab some of the others.

Clean, Bright and Slightly Oiled
Gerald Kersh 1946 (Heinemann 1946)



This is a short (140 pages) series of autobiographical sketches drawn from Kersh's time in the Coldstream Guards during WW2. The beauracracy, the boredom, the comradeship of soldiers not on active service are all present and correct. As a writer he ended up in the Army Film Unit and the decision not to commission him unlike everyone else in the unit is amusingly described in the chapter "How Not to Become an Officer". He ends up in France just after the liberation and again it's the human stories of civilians who have suffered five years of occupation that Kersh is able to describe so evocatively.
"Incapable of writing a dull word" - it's true and I haven't even started on his novels yet.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
C. S. Lewis 1952 (Collins ?)



"With their parents and Susan in America and Peter away from home, Edmund and Lucy Pevensie are sent to spend the summer at their troublesome cousin, Eustace's house. One day, Eustace walks in on Edmund and Lucy discussing a painting of a ship on the wall of Lucy's bedroom and how it reminds them of their beloved Narnia. Before they know it, all three children have been swept into the painting, back to the magical realm over which Edmund and Lucy used to rule and right onto the Dawn Treader, a ship carrying their old friends Caspian and Reepicheep. In spite of Eustace's objections, it is decided that the trio will join the crew of the ship who are on a voyage to find the seven lost lords of Narnia. Along the way the intrepid adventurers encounter many perils, meet new friends, and make amazing discoveries, but once their mission is complete they must decide whether to return to Narnia or sail in search of the World's End where legend says Aslan's home can be found."

The sea voyage into the unknown and the quest are two of the oldest tropes in literature and this book was a step up from "Prince Caspian" because of these adventure elements. Having god (Aslan) pitch up every so often to kiss Narnia better is as problematic as ever because as even christians must have noticed, it doesn't happen in real life. Maybe Earth was an experiment that didn't work out so he just leaves it to it's own devices.

Kursk 1943
Mark Healy 1992 (Osprey 1992)



"After the successful battles around Kharkov in early 1943, the German army stood poised for a major offensive in the summer of 1943. This attack was aimed at the Kursk salient, a large bulge in the front that the Germans intended to pinch off, thus trapping large numbers of Russian troops and breaking the front open for the decisive campaign to knock the Soviet Union out of the war. Soviet intelligence was well aware of German intentions however, and the Red Army had turned the salient into a mass of defensive positions. In the decisive clash of steel that followed, the Soviets bled Germany's vital Panzer forces white and finally took the initiative. The counter-offensive that followed began an advance that would finally end in the ruins of Berlin."

The biggest tank battle in history and the last major offensive by the Germans in the east, not a million miles away from Kharkiv where the Russian armour has been recently performing with less success.
Another good entry in the Campaign series.

Year's best Sf 4
David Hartwell (editor) 1999 (HarperPrism 1999)



This series ran for 19 years from 1995 and I read the first three back in the 90s before losing interest in the genre. Lockdown got me back in the groove and I picked up where I left off with this one which is now my most recent "Best of the Year" anthology.
It's a really solid collection with none of the "they must have bribed the editor" stories that are often present in others. Gender is a theme of a few of the stories anticipating a present day obsession. First contact is also the subject of several stories including Ted Chiang's "Story of Your Life" which was adapted into the film "Arrival". The film's good but the story is better in that the aliens motives remain unknown. I have to admit though that I wasn't convinced in either as to why knowing the future means that you just accept it and would never try to change it.

The Lord God Made Them All
James Herriot 1981 (Pan 1982)



"Finally home from London after his wartime service in the RAF, James Herriot is settling back into life as a country vet. While the world has changed after the war, the blunt Yorkshire clients and menagerie of beasts with weird and wonderful ailments remain the same. But between his young son, Jimmy, trailing him around copying his every move, stubborn farmers refusing to try his 'new-fangled' treatments and a goat that has eaten 293 tomatoes, Darrowby is far from quiet. And with another baby on the way, life is about to get even more chaotic . . ."

It's mostly set in the late 40s and early 50s although apparently a lot of the animal stuff was from later decades and transported back in time. There's also accounts of a couple of vetting gigs he took on in the 60s, escorting livestock to the USSR and Turkey, which were interesting.
The way it ends makes you think this is the last of his semi-autobiographies but I notice that another one was published over a decade later. I'm pleased about that as they make for pleasant relaxing reading.

Running Free
Sebastian Coe & David Miller 1981 (NEL 1982)



Three quarters of the book covers the three years 1979-81. 1979 and 1981 were the years when he broke multiple world records and 1980 was the olympic year when he blew the 800m gold, losing to his arch rival steve Ovett, and then redeemed his reputation in the 1500m. This is all covered by the distinguished journalist David Miller with comprehensive verbatim accounts by Coe and his father and coach Peter.
It's worth having a look at some of clips of him in action to appreciate the beauty of his running form. Most runners bob up and down, wasting energy moving their centre of mass upwards on each stride. Coe's head just stays level and he seems to glide effortlessly along.
His two 800m world records lowered the mark by an incredible 1.77s and the fact that only two men have run faster in the last 42 years shows how brilliant he was as a half miler.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde 1891 (Collins 2010)



"'How sad it is! I shall grow old, and horrid, and dreadful. But this picture will remain always young… If it was only the other way!'
Wilde's first and only published novel recounts the story of handsome Dorian Gray who upon having his portrait painted desires that it will age and grow ugly while he may remain eternally beautiful. The painting, which reflects each of Gray's sins and transgressions in its hideousness, haunts him until it finally becomes unbearable. In this dark tale of duplicity and mortality, Wilde creates a world where art and reality collide."

Gray is an arrogant upper class snob, egged on by his best mate who is cynical, epigram spouting caricature of Wilde himself. Gray's debauchery could only be hinted at because of when the book was published but as the author was a paedophile that's probably just as well.
It's well written and easy on the brain but not particularly thrilling given the supernatural gothic premise.
Listed in "1001 Books...", "Fantasy: The 100 Best Books" and "Horror: Another 100 Best Books"

Stephen
Carl Watkins 2015 (Penguin 2019)



"Remembered as a time in which 'Christ and his saints slept', Stephen's troubled reign plunged England into anarchy. Without clear rules of succession in the Norman monarchy, conflict within William the Conqueror's family was inevitable. But, as this resonant portrait shows, there was another problem too: Stephen himself, unable to make good the transition from nobleman to king."

The civil war was between Henry I's daughter Matilda and Stephen who was another of William the Conqueror's grandchildren. There's quite a few battles and sieges taking place which we don't hear much about. The author is a distinguished academic but his main interest is religion so maybe an odd choice for a reign that involved so much military activity.