1000 degrees below zero - Gwen Heliou

Sorry for the hollow discussion with myself, below. Especially in english, which isn’t even my second language, as you have already noticed.

First, I need to explain. Nostalgia, nostalgia & SF ? what is this all about? I’m a Sci-Fi fan, for sure, like many other people. My mother gave me some SF books when I was 10, then I became quickly a huge reader. When I started anthropology courses in college, I was a big fan of John Brunner (And most of the cyberpunk wave too, even if most of the authors would deny being involved in any wave. Gibson, Sterling, and many others, many french authors too). John Brunner was one of my favorite of course. An old man, doing some prospective fiction, a mix of politics and ecology. He wrote about worms in the “net” before the internet (The shockwave rider), he wrote about strange aliens trying to escape their own planet for centuries (The crucible of time), he wrote about polititcs and human rights (Black is the color, Stand in Zanzibar, The squares oif the city), and/or ecology too (”The sheep look up” - Of course!). There’s plenty of room inside my brain filled with his stories, and I owe this man many passionate hours, and much more reflexions.

I’m reading “House Harkonnen” at this moment, and even if it’s pleasant, interesting because of the insight into Dune’s backstory, there’s nothing to compare with Brunner’s stories. In fact, I only felt the same pleasure once when I read Snowcrash for the first time (And then many other Neal Stephenson’s books such as “Diamond age” or “Cryptonomicon”…)… It’s late, and I miss Brunner. But I won’t cry. I can’t wait for the latests Stephenson’s book to be translated in french. Because I feel no pleasure in reading a book in english, even if I can. A movie is ok, but not a book and I can’t say why. I tried with Mil Millington’s book “Things my girlfriend and I have argued about”, and it was a disaster, even if the book is delightfull… Well, in brief (what a joke), where’s the “Baroque cycle” in french ? Please, somebody, if you’ve already read it, drop me a line. Thx.