Episode #297: The Family Bookcase {3}

Before we get into the meaty part of the blog post, a little rant is in order. To refresh, back in the day, I had Yahoo! as my main e-mail provider. That didn't last very long as I eventually moved over to Hotmail and Gmail as my two main e-mail providers, leaving Yahoo! to collect all kinds of junk mail (this turned out to be a smart move as Yahoo! was hacked some 12 years ago, in what turned out to be the largest data breech in history).

Anywho, I'm getting very disappointed with the quality and the amount of spam that I have been receiving at my Yahoo! addys. I feel so neglected and unwanted because I no longer have any decent micro fiction stories to read any more.

Now, the meaty part.

I have two more book choices I want to pontificate on, with one of them actually being my wife's. She's the epitome of a non-reader as she averages about one book read every seven years, shorter if something piques her curiosity. Maybe. Anyways, she was prompted to buy this book because she got hooked into the original version of the BBC series that was shown on PBS back in the day.

Now personally, I'm not quite sure how I found my way to the James Herriot book series. I distinctly remember reading the entire massive four book hardcover series (which after doing a bit of research for this post, was a compilation of his other books) that I had borrowed from my public library. I also remember listening to the books on tape versions that were read by the lead actor of the BBC series Christopher Timothy, so I'm guessing I made it to the book series that way. And of course, I watched the BBC series on PBS back in the 80's and 90's.

For the uninitiated, James Herriot was the pen name of English vet James White (who had good biography written by his son some several years after his death) and his adventures working as both a big animal and little animal vet in Yorkshire, England.

If you enjoy animal stories, as well as stories about the veterinary trade and life living in rural England, I highly recommend this wonderful author, his book series and the original version of the BBC series that ran in the 80's/90's (I can't speak of the reboot, as I did not have the opportunity to watch it), because if a writer can get my very non-book reading wife interested in reading, imagine what they can do for a member of your family.

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With this particular book, the back story is usually the same as how other books are acquired in this house: I have no idea. 

And to be brutally honest, I have no idea how this book caught my eye, beyond the cover catching my attention. There wasn't much of a back cover blurb beyond a few blurbs by three well known publishers of the day (1982), and I don't believe that I had developed my book choosing routine yet.

Curious fact about this book, the copy that you see is actually part of the second run of the mass-market version, and the third version (as of 1982) overall. I did a bit of research for this book as well, just to satisfy my curiosity and the first author listed was/is quite prolific and well known in the sci-fi genre.

Looking back on this novel, which is set in a futuristic version of  California (that we desperately wish was still around) that suffered through the upheavals of a global war, the use of RPG's (for the uninitiated, role playing games, e.g. Magic the Gathering or D&D) as the main setting for a very interesting murder mystery was something I don't believe I read previously.

I didn't do too much of a dive for this post beyond checking for the catalyst of this story, the murder itself (which is actually quite ingenious for its time and I've only seen used one before in a Keanu Reeves/Dan Aykroyd movie), as I wanted to make sure that I wasn't misremembering a key part of this book. The book itself is quite yellowed with age, so I didn't want to risk losing pages from opening the book too wide.

I found this book to be interesting enough for me to consume quickly (how quickly I cannot say, other than there was a very long stretch of time where I consumed books in the same manner that frat boys would consume beer in a week). I don't remember what my opinion of the book was back then either, but it did manage to stick in memory just enough over the decades that some 35+ years later I'm able to write about with a good deal of clarity.

What I can say with confidence was that I truly enjoyed this book, especially one that clocked in over 400 pages. I'm quite particular when it comes to reading sci-fi and the various sub-genres that fall under that umbrella, where I lean more towards stand-alones than series. I do like series, but when they go on for far too long (Robert Jordan soured me on fantasy series in more ways than you can possibly imagine) is where I have a tendency to say "no mas".

With that being said, I hope you enjoy this latest chapter of my family bookcase. I highly recommend both books, as well as both authors, as they seem to have enough of a back catalog to keep you occupied for quite a while.

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