The Decade In Review: 1960's

It’s time another look back.  The 1960’s were for me, a decade of highs and lows of all kinds.  The highest and closest to perfect HEP Score yet occurred in the 60’s but there were also some pretty low scores.  There were some books that I finished in a matter of days and others that I needed to enter a time warp to give myself enough time to finish.  Lots of theological themes and lots of nuclear destruction.  It’s not surprising really that in the decade of both the Bay of Pigs and the death of God in popular culture and philosophy, that The Bomb and theology would hit SF pretty hard.  Surprisingly, it managed not to feel monotonous.  Overall, I’d say I’m much happier about the 60’s than I was the 50’s and I’m feeling rejuvenated and excited about what’s to come.  YAY!

Lowest Score: The Man in the High Castle and The Wanderer tied at 14 pts

Highest Score: Way Station at 24 pts

Biggest Surprise/Disappointment: Stranger in a Strange Land.  This was previously one of my favorites, but after this re-read, it all came crashing down…

Favorite Featured Epic Quote: This Immortal.  This was a much more difficult choice than the last decade, partly because I wasn’t great about posting them last time, but also because there were some really great books from the 60’s.

Favorite Character: This is really hard to answer so I’m going to split it into sub categories…

Favorite Computer: Mycroft Holmes

Favorite Human: Conrad Nomikos

Favorite Moment:  When Dune beat This Immortal in the 1966 Deathmatch!

Favorite Gadget: This is a really unfair call to make because there was so much to love.  Martian language, though not a gadget was a pretty fun invention of the mind in Stranger.  The many unexplainable trinkets and whatnots and Enoch’s entire HOUSE was also great in Way Station.  But I think my favorite had to be the Stillsuits in Dune!

Coolest Aliens: I’m gonna give this one to the whole suite of aliens from Way Station.

Favorite Review: Way Station.  I liked this book quite a bit so I was nervous I wouldn’t do it justice (considering I rarely do any books justice with my reviews) and it seemed to come in a flash and I was even pretty happy with it.  Plus it was picked for May’s GMRC Challenge and is putting up a great showing in the polls!  Also shout out to Allie from Tethyan Books for an equally awesome review of the same book in May.

Favorite Cover: Looking at my 1960’s cover art mash-up, The Wanderer seems like some kind of ancient relic.  My favorite though has to go to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress due to the utter lack of any competition (I did like the Rodin on Stranger though).

Let's move on and examine a few more stats from my 11 reviews from the 1960’s.  The average HEP score was 18.6.  I read 3627 pages for an average of 330 pages/week.  To give you some perspective, in the 1950’s I read only 1533 pages.  Also, my language and communication skills are still in the toilet:

When I ran my reviews into the cloud, as with the last decade, I was pretty disappointed.  Maybe I’m not doing it right, but I always imagine cooler sounding words will pop up like ANGST or ALIENS or anything cooler than freaking LIKE or JUST or MUCH.  This may be the time that I have to start admitting to myself that my talent for writing reviews is mediocre at best and my vocabulary is choked with non-curse four-letter-words.  Erg.  Gut check time.  No matter what the quality of my reviews, I must finish this challenge.

People, I’ve got two decades down and I’m still going strong.  To the remaining Hugo winners, I have four words:  I. Will. Destroy. You.