I was surprised that Unknown was another Campbell magazine, since it has a really great reputation for some of the best fantasy coming out at the time and seems to be similar to Weird Tales.
In Wizardry And Wild Romance, Moorcock mostly recommended RE Howard but taken issue with his imitators and the writers who written Conan books later on. Also that a lot of Howard's unfinished work got published and it spoiled his reputation to some extent. But I've heard some of his best work was posthumous stories that he might have polished up a bit more if he had lived.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 5 January 2015 02:12 (nine years ago) link
I dont think Moorcock had anything against Howard per se, just that Elric is a pretty obvious inversion of Conan (similar to how Jerry Cornelius is an inversion of James Bond, altho in that case I imagine Moorcock really did have serious issues w Flwming and his ridiculous sexism, racism, imperialism etc.) I only brought up the Conan comparisob cuz Tolkien was not really referenced in the Elric books, I think its a mistake to categorize them as a reaction or response to LOTR.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 03:05 (nine years ago) link
I wonder if the Pre-Raphaelites were happy with that name?
They chose it themselves!
― ledge, Monday, 5 January 2015 08:41 (nine years ago) link
Browsing through the Borderlands stacks I was kinda bummed by how uninterested I am in so much of the modern sci-fi market - just tons of derivative looking steampunk and cyberpunk stuff, smart aleck-y dystopianism. I am judging by covers, blurbs, and bios here tbf. It bums me out that my favorite new guys just don't write that much, and the market appears to be otherwise dominated by interminable series' of recycled ideas. Of course if anyone's been totally blown away by some recently emerging writers I'm all ears...
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 16:43 (nine years ago) link
Do you read the "Year's Best" type anthologies?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 5 January 2015 17:01 (nine years ago) link
not habitually
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 17:14 (nine years ago) link
Seems to me that is the last thing you want to read if you don't like current stuff.
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 18:25 (nine years ago) link
as well documented here, my favorite recent/newish dudes are Jon Armstrong and Charles Yu, but both seem like outliers and neither are particularly prolific. Post-90s I seem to be drawn to the types of guys who write a couple books and then disappear (see also: Matthew Derby). Steve Aylett I like but can only take in limited doses. Jeff Noon appears to have given up on publishing novels in the US (and there was a bit of a decline in quality post-Automated Alice anyway).
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 18:38 (nine years ago) link
this is supposed to be great!
http://www.amazon.com/Twenty-First-Century-Science-Fiction-Hartwell/dp/0765326000
― scott seward, Monday, 5 January 2015 19:38 (nine years ago) link
Still working through the Twentieth Century one!
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 19:40 (nine years ago) link
the names I do recognize (Doctorow, Scalzi, Bacigalupi) don't fill me with confidence but the rest is all unfamiliar to me so will see if I can get that at the library
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 20:14 (nine years ago) link
I think Aliette de Bodard and E. Lily Yu are both doing interesting things in short forms, but I don't really keep up with SF all that well.
― one way street, Monday, 5 January 2015 20:26 (nine years ago) link
Did you try Ted Chiang yet?
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link
not yet - so many short stories/novelettes, not sure about the easiest way to acquire a lot of them
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 20:54 (nine years ago) link
used to be some you could read free online.
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 20:55 (nine years ago) link
library has one of his books, most of his other stuff seems to be in random anthologies...?
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 20:56 (nine years ago) link
Doesn't he only have one book so far?
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
I guess? I can't really tell from the wikipedia entry, which just lists titles and not formats
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 21:02 (nine years ago) link
Stories of Your Life and Others. Give it a try. Even if you don't like it, plenty of others have read it so you will be able to have a meaningful discussion, at least in theory.
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 21:05 (nine years ago) link
library has The Lifecycle of Software Objects but looks like it would be awhile before I can get it
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 21:07 (nine years ago) link
That is a novella. I read it online. Believe you can too: http://subterraneanpress.com/magazine/fall_2010/fiction_the_lifecycle_of_software_objects_by_ted_chiang
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 5 January 2015 21:11 (nine years ago) link
ah cool thx
― Οὖτις, Monday, 5 January 2015 21:19 (nine years ago) link
You can also find The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate somewhere, it is a thing of beauty.
― ledge, Monday, 5 January 2015 22:41 (nine years ago) link
Read that in one of those F&SF anthologies which had other good stuff iirc
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 6 January 2015 01:50 (nine years ago) link
For a while I thought these Ramble House books were genuine but they have to be parodies a bit similar to Steve Aylett. Makes me wonder how much else of their catalogue is pastiche by new writers under a pseudonym.
http://www.ramblehouse.com/kats.htmhttp://www.ramblehouse.com/marceaucase.htmhttp://www.ramblehouse.com/owlofdarkness.htmhttp://www.ramblehouse.com/twostrangeladies.htmhttp://www.ramblehouse.com/woodenspectacles.htm
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 19:12 (nine years ago) link
There's a Jacques Sternberg story called Univers Zero. I guess that's where the band got their name?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 7 January 2015 02:23 (nine years ago) link
I had a search around and came up light, apologies if this ground has been covered elsewhere.
Can anyone recommend a decent hard SF read, maybe along similar lines to Anderson's 'Tau Zero" perhaps?
Just finished Greg Bear's 'The Forge of God' and it was much too touchy feely and I feel a bit icky.
― MaresNest, Thursday, 8 January 2015 14:10 (nine years ago) link
I haven't read this, but heard and read much praise--review from booklist gives the gist:
The Martian---Andy Weir Remember Man Plus, Frederik Pohl’s award-winning 1976 novel about a cyborg astronaut who’s sent, alone, to Mars? Imagine, instead, that the astronaut was just a regular guy, part of a team sent to the red planet, and that, through a series of tragic events, he’s left behind, stranded and facing certain death. That’s the premise of this gripping and (given its subject matter) startlingly plausible novel. The story is told mostly through the log entries of astronaut Mark Watney, chronicling his efforts to survive: making the prefab habitat livable and finding a way to grow food, make water, and get himself off the planet. Interspersed among the log entries are sections told from the point of view of the NASA specialists, back on Earth, who discover that Watney is not dead (as everyone assumed) and scramble together a rescue plan. There are some inevitable similarities between the book and the 1964 movie Robinson Crusoe on Mars, but where the movie was a broad sci-fi adventure, the novel is a tightly constructed and completely believable story of a man’s ingenuity and strength in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Riveting. --David Pitt
The author breaks down the basics of Watney's situation:http://www.amazon.com/The-Martian-Novel-Andy-Weir/dp/product-description/0804139024/ref=dp_proddesc_0/180-1509918-2958424?ie=UTF8&n=283155&s=books
I'd like to check Pohl's novel too, never heard of that.
― dow, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:07 (nine years ago) link
It (Pohl's) is a candidate for the most hilarious ending in SF history.
― ledge, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:50 (nine years ago) link
hilarious good or bad?
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:50 (nine years ago) link
that andy weir book was in my local supermarket this morning.
amazon's been pitching it at me for what seems like months but crossing over into hammersmith tescos is quite a jump.
― koogs, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:53 (nine years ago) link
xp good, but unintentionally so.
― ledge, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:55 (nine years ago) link
This guy pops in anthologies and looks intriguing but haven't read word one so far: http://www.sfwa.org/2014/01/geoffrey-landis-receive-2014-robert-heinlein-award/
― Dedlock Holiday (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:27 (nine years ago) link
Man Plus does have a ridiculous ending. It's okay, not his best novel (which, not counting Kornbluth collabs, would be JEM imo)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:33 (nine years ago) link
finished the Forever War. was not expecting the happy ending tbh. Very good, deserving of its plaudits, a few lol 70s bits but on the whole a great mix of hard sci-fi, some socio-political commentary, and a romantic subplot that I found unexpectedly moving.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 8 January 2015 16:35 (nine years ago) link
― ledge, Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:55 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is probably misleading. It's a good book, definitely worth reading if you like yr hard sf. But the ending is pretty ridiculous and (unintentionally) lulz-worthy.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 09:50 (nine years ago) link
Rendezvous with Rama?Alastair Reynold's Pushing Ice? A lot of what I complained about upthread re:Reynolds work is there, but in tolerably smaller doses, and it captures a lot of the excitement and peril of TZ. Lem's His Master's Voice. Not really similar, not much excitement, pretty philosophical and political. Very intelligent though, and definitely not touchy-feely.
Internet says If you like Tau Zero, try Timescape by Gregory Benford and The Haertel Scholium by James Blish, I haven't tried them.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 10:02 (nine years ago) link
oddly i'd've said Rama too but would probably have chosen Revelation Space over Pushing Ice (PI probably closer to Tau Zero in theme, i just prefer RS as a book)
Greg Egan's Diaspora too, although it's nothing like those two.
i read Forever War immediately after / before Tau Zero and the similarities were startling.
― koogs, Friday, 9 January 2015 10:23 (nine years ago) link
Diaspora if you like books by, for, and about mathematicians.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 11:50 (nine years ago) link
On a whim went back to the all-time speculative fiction poll to decide a reading list for this year, came up with the following (pending further investigation):
091 Thomas Disch - Camp Concentration087 Octavia Butler - Lilith's Brood085 Gene Wolfe - Book of the Long Sun084 Flann O'Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds083 Joe Haldeman - The Forever War082 Russell Hobon - Riddley Walker074 John Crowley - Engine Summer071 Ursula K. Le Guin - The Lathe of Heaven064 James Tiptree - Her Smoke Rose Up Forever062 Ted Chiang - Stories of Your Life and Others047 Philip K. Dick - Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Have read all but 11 of the top 50, mostly missing some fantasy and a bit of dick.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 12:02 (nine years ago) link
085 Gene Wolfe - Book of the Long Sun aargh how did this get in here I am not good with computer
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 12:03 (nine years ago) link
+ 045 Madeleine L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time. Damnit.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 12:06 (nine years ago) link
Had mixed feelings about that on old Rolling F thread, can paste them if you're curious. But gist of it: could see how this influenced the early 60s configuration of what's now called YA fiction, for transitional, middle school/high school, mercurial readers, but, as with some traditional complaints about CS Lewis's allegories, I (sometimes) felt like the religious bits were in my face, like yet another helping of sweets. Overall, the author came off like an intelligent, observant, imaginative, occasionally carried-away granny. Still, glad I checked it out, and was told (on old thread, I think) that subsequent books in series were stronger (also apparently books in later series, judging by article about her in Science Fiction Encyclopedia online).This is the L'Engle to start with, pretty sure.
― dow, Friday, 9 January 2015 15:00 (nine years ago) link
subsequent books in series were stronger
ah the old harry potter defence, always great to hear especially when each installment in the series can stop a heavier door than the last.
yeah this one's more of a maybe as i'm not crazy about YA type stuff, for the most part, mentioning CS Lewis doesn't strengthen the case. still, i won't rule it out in case i find myself in the mood or stumble across a copy.
― ledge, Friday, 9 January 2015 15:12 (nine years ago) link
It's very short and fast, but with no sense of skimpiness or hastiness---impulsiveness, maybe, re idealism. Which reminds me just a bit of Tiptree, now that I think of it, and don't sleep on xpostHer Smoke Rose Up For Ever, or any of her other stuff, though it does get even more reckless toward the end.
― dow, Friday, 9 January 2015 16:23 (nine years ago) link
mentioning CS Lewis doesn't strengthen the case
I'm not a huge Lewis dude (never could make it through any of the Narnia books, even as a YA) but I will stan for the sci-fi trilogy, which, while def heavy handed with the Xtian allegories, is still pretty strange and batshit. The first one is like an HG Wells homage, the second one is the dumbest, and the third is the best fwiw
― Οὖτις, Friday, 9 January 2015 17:04 (nine years ago) link
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is incredible. true master shit there.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 9 January 2015 17:05 (nine years ago) link
and Riddley Walker! omg what a book. had to stop myself from buying it the other day when I saw it in a shop, even though I've already read it. the terrible sleeve design prevented me.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 9 January 2015 17:06 (nine years ago) link
Outic what do you think of the third inkling, Charles Williams?
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Friday, 9 January 2015 19:12 (nine years ago) link
haven't read. is he worth it?
― Οὖτις, Friday, 9 January 2015 19:15 (nine years ago) link