Sydney 1, Mikal 1

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I tried two more second hand bookstores yesterday. Books Buy and Sell no longer exists, it has been replaced with a sex toy store. I guess that says something about Sydney again. Gould's books was all I had remembered (big mounds of books everywhere), and was worth the visit. Its more organised than I remember, and I did eventually find the science fiction section. Thanks to those who recommended it in comments here. It is surprising that a second hand book store managed to have no paperback Isaac Asimov, with the four Harry Harrisons I bought make up for that I suppose. I took some photos of Gould's as well, but it turns out that the room full of PhDs can't figure out how to empty a micro SD card, so I will give up on putting them online for now.

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Sydney redeems itself, if only a little

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On the way home from our awesome soup dumpling dinner in Sydney we dropped into Elizabeth's Bookshop entirely by accident. We'd deliberately walked a block offset from where we do normally to avoid boredom, and just got lucky. The second hand science fiction selection was good (not huge, but big enough to have some stuff I hadn't already got in the collection), but then again the store was quite small. Overall much better than Galaxy. Oh, and they had a huge range of erotic fiction for some reason. That might just say something about Sydney I suppose.

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On the potentially sorry state of second hand science fiction book stores in Sydney

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Following a recommendation from Danny, I went and checked out Galaxy Books on York Street during one of my lunch times. The review says they have a good second hand section, and I am still hunting for some old Asimovs. Unfortunately, it was a waste of time. The second hand section must of only had about 100 books in it, and none of them were interesting. They did have an awesome new section though, but I figure buying books from the 1950s new is cheating. One book I might be forced to buy new is Asimov's The Complete Robot. I can't find it in any second hand bookstores that I've tried, and its not even available new in the US. Inexplicably though, it is easily available new in Australia. I am not sure why. It seems like a shame to spend nearly $25 on a book though, so I am not sure what I will do about that one yet. I will continue my hunt for a good second hand book store in the Sydney CBD. Any recommendations? Update: post title fixed after entirely deserved sarcasm from Steven.

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The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted

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This book is another Stainless Steel Rat prequel, although it was written well after the original book. This book takes up from where A Stainless Steel Rat is Born ends -- with Jim arrested (of course), on a surprisingly low tech planet. Jim must then escape, and make his way in the universe once more. He has some unfinished business with some previous acquaintances if he finds a way as well... Harrison's writing is very easy to read, especially because his science fiction books always seem to require a good dose of suspension of disbelief, although some need more disbelief than others, so I read this book as a break from my quite a lot of Asimov. The book is 300 pages, but I managed to knock it over in a day, which I guess means I found it engaging. I liked this book. Its silly, and I'm not a better person for having read it, but it was entertaining. [isbn: 9994607332;0553273078;0553173510]

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Katharine Kerr’s Deverry Series

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YearTitleNotes Act one: Deverry 1986Daggerspell 1987Darkspell 1989The Bristling Wood - US title; issued in the UK as Dawnspell: The Bristling Wood 1990The Southern Sea - US title; issued in the UK as Dragonspell: The Southern Sea Act two: The Westlands 1991A Time of Exile 1992A Time of Omens 1993Days of Blood and Fire 1994Days of Air and Darkness Act three: The Dragon Mage 1997The Red Wyvern 1998The Black Raven 2000The Fire Dragon Act four: The Silver Wyrm 2006The Gold Falcon 2007The Spirit Stone 2008The Shadow Isle 2009 (not yet released)The Silver Mage

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Isaac Asimov’s Inferno

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Inferno is the second Asimov universe book written by Roger MacBride Allen. Much like Asimov's Robots and Empire and Caliban, its what I will call an "issue book". In Robots and Empire the issue at hand was that having a long life results in risk adversity and therefore the stagnation of society as a whole. In Caliban the issue was the over protection of humans by robots, and the ultimately corrupting nature of living in a society built on slavery (even of machines), as well as stagnation caused by the risk adversity of the robots themselves. In this second Allen book, the issue is the exploitation of the "new law" robots who ultimately become the new slaves in return for a chance at freedom later. This exploitation is a criminal offence, so of course they end up with a society in which pretty much everyone has dirty hands of some form. Overall this was a good read, and probably a better book than Inferno. I certainly found it easier to read and more enjoyable. I read the majority of the book on a single set of flights between the US and Australia because it was such a good read. Its…

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Isaac Asimov’s Caliban

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This is a "robot mystery" in the style of Asimov, but actually written by Roger MacBride Allen. Wikipedia assures me that Asimov approved the outline for this book, as well as the other two by Roger: "Shortly before his death in 1992, Asimov approved an outline for three novels (Caliban, Inferno, Utopia) by Roger MacBride Allen, set between Robots and Empire and the Empire series, telling the story of the terraforming of the Spacer world Inferno, and about the robot revolution started by creating a "No Law" Robot, and then New Law Robots." Roger is an interesting author, and appears to have written quite a few books, with a strong tendency for basing them in other author's universes. Its interesting to meet an author who is so seemingly willing to base his work on that of others. This book didn't strike me as well written as Asimov's, but that's a pretty high bar to meet. It should be noted that Amazon reviews disagree with me on this point. Its rendition is certainly competent though, and the story is a good one.

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