Huge E-book Sale

Over half of our e-books will be on sale starting today, and will be available at all of the usual e-book vendors (Kobo, Apple, Amazon, etc.). Most are priced at $.99, and none of the sale titles are above $2.99. Here are the temporarily reduced e-books:

Science Fiction

• Sleep State Interrupt, by T.C. Weber
• The Wrath of Leviathan, by T.C. Weber
• Free Radicals: A Novel of Utopia and Dystopia, by Zeke Teflon
• The Watcher, by Nicholas T. Oakley

Classic Fiction

• The Jungle: The Uncensored Original Edition, by Upton Sinclair

Anarchism/Politics

• Venezuela: Revolution as Spectacle, by Rafael Uzcátegui
• Venezuelan Anarchism: The History of a Movement, by Rodolfo Montes de Oca
• The Heretic’s Handbook of Quotations, Chaz Bufe, ed.
• The Best of Social Anarchism, Howard Ehrlich and a.h.s. boy, eds.

Science

• Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology, and Politics in Science, by John Grant

Humor

• The American Heretic’s Dictionary, by Chaz Bufe
• Bible Tales for Ages 18 and Up, by G. Richard Bozarth

Atheism

• Disbelief 101: A Young Person’s Guide to Atheism, by S.C. Hitchcock
• Spiritual Snake Oil: Fads & Fallacies in Pop Culture, by Chris Edwards

Performing Arts

• Stage Fright: 40 Stars Tell You How They Beat America’s #1 Fear, by Mick Berry and Michael Edelstein
• An Understandable Guide to Music Theory: The Most Useful Aspects of Theory for Rock, Jazz, and Blues Musicians

Book Review: Tuf Voyaging

 

(Tuf Voyaging, by George R.R. Martin, 2013, Bantam, $16.00, 440 pp.)

reviewed by Zeke Teflon

Bantam has re-released George R.R. Martin’s 1986 fix-up sci-fi novel, Tuf Voyaging. (Fix-up novels are comprised of pre-existing pieces, often short stories and/or novellas, fit together to make a coherent whole.) It’s loosely based on biblical tales and characters, with the title character’s, Havilund Tuf’s, seedship vessel bearing the name “Ark,” and with chapters titled “Loaves and Fishes,” “Call Him Moses,” and “Manna from Heaven.”

Tuf Voyaging, however, is not a biblical parody. (If you want that, your best bet is G. Richard Bozarth’s Bible Tales for Ages 18 and Up.) Rather, it’s a social science fiction tale focusing on the perils of runaway population growth and religious dogmatism. Martin is quite open about this. Among other things, the action in Tuf Voyaging largely revolves around a grossly overpopulated but technologically advanced planet, S’uthlam. (Reverse the letters, transpose the “t” and “h,” take out the mandatory “sci-fi apostrophe,” and . . . well, you get the idea.)

Despite this grim subtext, the book is light reading in the tall-tale tradition; its tone is very similar to that of Mike Resnick’s “Inner Frontier” stories. It’s also similar in that it has extravagant, often-amusing caricatures rather than fully developed characters. In contrast to the panoply of grotesques in Resnick’s works, in Tuf Voyaging the only character worth mentioning is Tuf himself. And the reader only sees Tuf’s surface: logical, sarcastic,  almost eerily calm and restrained, yet quirky (a vegetarian gourmand who loves beer and cats)–with all this presented via a distant third-person point of view. In short, Tuf is a cardboard character–and one entirely appropriate to a tall tale.

Those familiar with Martin’s other more famous works, and expecting an intricate plot and well drawn characters, will be disappointed in Tuf Voyaging. But those happy with a simple but amusing tall tale, with a social/political message with which they’ll probably agree (any sane person would), will enjoy the book.

Recommended.

* * *

reviewer Zeke Teflon is the author of Free Radicals: A Novel of Utopia and Dystopia.

 

Related articles

• This George R.R. Martin Book Might Restore Your Faith in Human Nature (io9.com)
• While waiting for more Game of Thrones, a different book from George R.R. Martin (blogs.ottawacitizen.com)
• I Found a Cool Story the Other Day, #21 (frederation.wordpress.com)
• George R.R. Martin and his THRONE… (yeomansintheforkblog.wordpress.com)