Mr. Burke's Reading List

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, May 1971 The fifth issue in my ANALOG PLUS 50 series. For anyone finding these reviews, my purpose is two-fold: enjoying some "classic" sci-fi, and looking for stories that I think could be adapted for TV broadcast since so much of what shows up on anthology shows is rough to awful. At some point, I'll stop numbering, but probably not until I do this for at least a year. If I do this for a year. Overall, this one was a mixed bag, but maybe it's the novelty of what I'm doing wearing off. If this stops being fun and becomes more of a chore, I'll end it. In this issue: This will be updated shortly. The Editorial: "Pollution Paranoia", by John. W. Campbell. There are three kinds of pollution: actual, political and hysterical. It's the latter two that prevent us from taking care of the first one, or any other problem. Grandiose solutions to non-existant problems (yes, there are p...

The Oracle Year by Charles Soule (2018) (Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.) The was a book group book. Yes, I've somehow become part of a book group. The book follows Will Dando who becomes known as "The Oracle" because of a Site he operates (it's refered to with a capital S) where he lists some predicitions which come true. Will had a dream where he was told 108 predictions. He writes them in a notebook, but he can't forget them, even after he burns the notebook. Will has a friend named Hamza who helps him operate the site and sell some of the predictions for more money than they know what to do with. Some of the predicitions seem like nothing, other than obscure bits that will prove to people that his predictions will come true. But after a while, they start to come together in a way that shows that they...