Series of science fiction novels

A fortnight ago I mentioned reading the Strugatskys' Roadside Picnic. Not only is it a good piece of science fiction but it is also a slender volume, my library's copy coming in at under 150 pages. It has been some time since I read, say, Matheson's I Am Legend but I doubt that's much larger. Decent fiction need not be lengthy. It is not as if even Orwell's 1984 is all that fat a book.

These days a high fraction of acclaimed science fiction novels appear to be fat volumes. That is okay: it gives me a good few hours' reading. However, they are also either obviously part of a larger series (cycle or whatever) or less obviously so: I should learn to be less surprised when they reference events I don't know then end inconclusively. I am all for having plenty to read but if I am new to the author then I am not about to invest quite that much time in them to get a complete story, especially when so many are mediocre.

What happened? Did we reduce the tax on words or fire all the editors? Am I looking at the wrong publishers? I don't mind sequels per se, nor do I mind reuse of built worlds: e.g., Banks' Use of Weapons is not his first Culture novel but hardly benefits from one having read others. Or I don't mind when one can stop early without missing much, probably occurring when it was not yet clear there would be a sequel, except that is not easy to tell at a glance.

Much as I liked, say, Egan's Axiomatic I need not restrict myself to short stories. I would simply like to find the section of the library that offers us science fiction novels that do not expect us to read a set of related books; I fear that they would not need much space to house that subset. In the meantime I find myself looking out for reprints of classics that I missed the first time around, back when authors could still fit a story into one book.

Small tax update

In reviewing my draft of our US tax return I have concluded that we should also file Schedule 4. The 2018 redesign of Form 1040 has certainly increased the page count.

Scottish children

Here it's currently 49°F with wind and light rain. There's a kid playing outside in t-shirt and shorts. I remember my surprise on first moving to Scotland at seeing kids still wearing thin short-sleeved school shirts at the end of Fall. As a kid I don't think I was ever like that even down in Cornwall.