FACT SF Reading Group

April 2003

April 1: The Last Hot Time by John M. Ford

This discussion at Judy and Jeff's home drew fifteen participants, including one first-timer. Our topic was John M. Ford's The Last Hot Time, a novel about a young paramedic who stumbles into a fairy world resembling North America in the 1930s, but with gangster elves. All but one of us had started and finished the book.

We found much to like. Enjoyable elements included sympathetic characters with good characterizations, clear prose, and a literary narrative style that reveals information in a carefully chosen manner. Some of the scenery was interesting, including a fantastic aquarium. The moral and ethical crises that faced the paramedic in his life-saving adventures were moving.

There were problems. The book's serious tone was unexpectedly and not what most of us wanted. The meandering plot seemed to go nowhere. And there were surprisingly uninteresting scenes of gratuitous kinky sex. Many of us felt that story was such a patchwork that it was probably created from a bunch of short stories welded together.

Many people in our group are published or aspiring writers. The writers in our group tended to like The Last Hot Time. The rest of us found the book's literary strengths were outweighed by its other problems. Several participants complained that this book was far less entertaining than Aaron Allston's Doc Sidhe books, which take place in a similar world.

Overall we felt The Last Hot Time was an interested but flawed book. After the meeting we had a nice dinner at Buca di Beppo.

April 15: Psychohistorical Crisis by Donald Kingsbury

Twelve people showed up for this discussion at the home of the Brothers Siros. Our topic, Donald Kingsbury's Psychohistorical Crisis, is a far-future novel about mathematicians who try to predict the future. Many of the ideas discussed in this book were major elements of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, which Kingsbury acknowledges as his inspiration. Seven of us started Psychohistorical Crisis but only four finished it. Two of us had read prior Kingsbury works, and all but one had read Asimov's Foundation books.

Many of us were intrigued by the idea of psychohistory, and we thought Kingsbury explored it well. This book was full of big ideas and first rate science. The depiction of mathematicians at work seemed genuine. We found this book's universe to be richer and more organic than Asimov's was. We had to admit that the basic idea of scientists predicting and guiding man's fate was not as mind-blowing now as in Asimov's time, but we liked Psychohistorical Crisis's fresh take on ethics.

We felt that many of the characters in this book were shallow/cardboard/plastic, and their conversations got a bit tedious. A couple of people felt the big "crisis" at the end fizzled. One person in our group was not interested in the basic premise. A couple of us were too busy with jobs and other distractions to read enough of the book to form an opinion.

Overall we liked Psychohistorical Crisis. One participant mentioned that he would never have read this book if it had not been a Reading Group selection, and he was very glad he did. After the meeting we had a nice dinner at Texas Land & Cattle.

-- A. T. Campbell, III