<html><body><span style="font-family:Verdana; color:#000000; font-size:10pt;"><div>Um, SSR isn't on the list; did you mean <i>Bill, the Galactic Hero</i>? (aka "What did Sears do after Captain Future used his credit card?" according to an ancient <i>F&SF</i> contest.) My teenage self thought it was OK but I haven't gone back to it.</div><div> IMR the Sheckley was better, but it's a fixup (and short even with the connections) rather than a novel. <i> Redshirts</i> should have been 50 pages shorter and even then wouldn't have been good by the standards of Scalzi (who I don't consider a heavyweight); there's only so long one joke can be dragged out.</div><div> After re-reading <i>Cat's Cradle</i>, I felt like I'd outgrown Vonnegut decades ago. I suspect I read <i>The Sirens of Titan</i> in high school but don't remember anything beyond the word he invented.<br></div><div> <i>Space Opera</i> is Valente trying way too hard; she's funny in person, but I think you have to be a Eurovision groupy (as she noted she is) to think this is funny. Even if it had been cut substantially it would have been tedious, with the best parts being shameless imitations of Adams. (Take this with a grain of salt if you will, as I've found most of Valente's prose unnecessarily difficult.)<br></div><div><br></div><div>/CHip<br><br></div>
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Subject: Re: [nesfa-reading-group] Bookbub’s_List_of_(sup<br>
osedly)_High-larious_books_(suposedly)_on_a_par_wi<br>
th_The_Hitchhiker’s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy<br>
From: "David G. Grubbs" <<a href="mailto:dggrubbs@gmail.com">dggrubbs@gmail.com</a>><br>
Date: Sat, March 13, 2021 11:11 am<br>
To: NESFA Reading Group <<a href="mailto:reading-group@lists.nesfa.org">reading-group@lists.nesfa.org</a>><br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">Stainless Steel Rat was ok. I thought Red Shirts was very good (I like Scalzi's writing) and anything by Kurt Vonnegut is worth reading.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sat, Mar 13, 2021 at 10:05 AM David Whitham <<a target="_blank" href="mailto:david@challengerconsulting.com">david@challengerconsulting.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"> <div dir="ltr"> <div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> Impressed would definitely be overstating it, but there are some on there that might be worth looking deeper into the reviews. I liked Stainless Steel Rat by Harrison.</div> <div> <div id="gmail-m_4100736856487482173appendonsend"></div> <div style="font-family:Calibri,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12pt;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> <br> </div> <hr style="display:inline-block;width:98%"> <div id="gmail-m_4100736856487482173divRplyFwdMsg" dir="ltr"><font style="font-size:11pt" face="Calibri, sans-serif" color="#000000"><b>From:</b> reading-group <<a href="mailto:reading-group-bounces@lists.nesfa.org" target="_blank">reading-group-bounces@lists.nesfa.org</a>> on behalf of Louis Galvez III <<a href="mailto:nesfalou@gmail.com" target="_blank">nesfalou@gmail.com</a>><br> <b>Sent:</b> Saturday, March 13, 2021 9:56 AM<br> <b>To:</b> NESFA Reading Group <<a href="mailto:reading-group@lists.nesfa.org" target="_blank">reading-group@lists.nesfa.org</a>><br> <b>Subject:</b> [nesfa-reading-group] Bookbub’s List of (suposedly) High-larious books (suposedly) on a par with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy</font> <div> </div> </div> <div> <div name="x_messageBodySection"> <div dir="auto">I’m not all that impressed with this list, but maybe you will be. <br> <br> <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bookbub.com%2Fblog%2Fhitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy%3Fposition%3D3%26source%3Dmulticontent%26target%3Dtitle&data=04%7C01%7C%7C3b2dd4134675489af2c708d8e630390b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637512442082866838%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=L5516EivipRyTH2PQUjwSTfZfRn9Fwo%2FprJdGJ9YIGs%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank">https://www.bookbub.com/blog/hitchhikers-guide-to-the-galaxy?position=3&source=multicontent&target=title</a><br mce_bogus="1"></div> </div> <div name="x_messageSignatureSection"><br> <table style="font-size:11pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif" width="480" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;width:160px;vertical-align:top" width="160" valign="top"> <a href="https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nesfa.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F02%2FNESFA-Shield-Circle-Text-Blue-Bkg.png&data=04%7C01%7C%7C3b2dd4134675489af2c708d8e630390b%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637512442082866838%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=NADO5oYb5gkUyAMscxhqbyp2i%2BOVV6wieVFP6LmZxs8%3D&reserved=0" target="_blank"><img alt="Logo" style="width: 135px; 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