Of Lafferty that is.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 28 May 2015 18:51 (nine years ago) link
Re: Zelazny. I usually just get the most complete omnibus of anything. Chronicles Of Amber has the first 5 books but Great Book Of Amber has 10 books. But many reviewers say the latter five are very poor and kind of a different story from the first five.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 28 May 2015 19:11 (nine years ago) link
I previously quite enjoyed Walter De La Mare's "Seaton's Aunt", it had an interesting strangeness but found "Out Of The Deep" to be a real pain in the ass. It was only written (or published at least) a year later but it's a totally different style. That sort of Henry James thing where the teensiest things are obsessed over. I'm going to be wary of this guy now.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 28 May 2015 20:16 (nine years ago) link
Fizzles touted him in another thread once. I have his novel Henry Brocken on my reader and am still looking forward to checking it out
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Thursday, 28 May 2015 21:22 (nine years ago) link
He's supposed to be a very good poet.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 28 May 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
sumatra reader is v. lightweight and will open epub/mobi (for windows)
calibre is pretty awesome but it's way overkill if you're just looking at one ebook
― mookieproof, Thursday, 28 May 2015 22:01 (nine years ago) link
There is a Zelazny collection called The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth which seems to have a good selection of some of his most famous stories, including the title one and "A Rose For Ecclesiastes." Available as an ebook pretty cheap.
In theory would read the first of those Amber books to see what they are all about, but don't want to contend with doorstop omnibus of diminishing returns and limited portability.
― Hup The Junction (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 28 May 2015 23:53 (nine years ago) link
Thanks guys, sumatra's doing fine, and these pages look nice, not some crude scan; I'll try Calibre too, now that I'm finally inclined to try downloads from the local library.
― dow, Friday, 29 May 2015 00:04 (nine years ago) link
Hey, just was starting a book by Gene Wolfe, who I have resisted for years, and noticed a reference to that Zelazny story. Prior to that I read something else by GW, "Seven American Nights," which I find interesting but slightly incomprehensible until I turned to the intranetz for explication.
― Monstrous Moonshine Matinee (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 30 May 2015 13:10 (nine years ago) link
I'm rereading Farmer's Riverworld series, about 35 years after the first time. I still love the central concept, but god, PJF could be a dull prose stylist. Some of this stuff reads like an episode of Dragnet, people expositioning at each other for dozens of pages at a time.
― Chuck Lorry Peter Lorry (WilliamC), Saturday, 6 June 2015 00:48 (nine years ago) link
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/the-story-as-database
what up nerds, is this any good
― j., Saturday, 6 June 2015 18:29 (nine years ago) link
I dunno but the quote fails the random read test: ten ways of splaining how "she was herself, but different"---oh wowwwww man. And the description seems as deja vu as her lives, and I spend enough time dealing with computers, don't want no book with cyber-garble and error messages.
― dow, Saturday, 6 June 2015 19:13 (nine years ago) link
Nebula Awards presentations livestream---some people are still having trouble with it, but I'm getting it on Chrome (I just now checked back in, after delay):http://www.ustream.tv/channel/nebulaawards
― dow, Sunday, 7 June 2015 02:30 (nine years ago) link
third imperial radish book, Ancillary Mercy, keeps popping up in my recommendations. she doesn't hang about. not out until october though.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0356502422
i'm about 130 pages into the third of Reynolds' Poseidon's Children series but i'm not sure i'm enjoying it, mostly because i can't really remember what happened in part 2. (it also bugs me that the first 3 covers are all in different styles)
he (Reynolds) also has another book out, Slow Bullets, but it seemed expensive for the length so i haven't bought it (yet)
― koogs, Tuesday, 9 June 2015 10:21 (nine years ago) link
first Poseidon's Children was really boring. I guess it doesn't pick up
― Number None, Tuesday, 9 June 2015 14:44 (nine years ago) link
it's more that there was a 18 month gap and about 60 other books between the 2nd and 3rd.
the second had more spaceships in it than the first.
― koogs, Tuesday, 9 June 2015 15:00 (nine years ago) link
Finished Cixin Lui's The Three Body Problem. Starts off as a decently compelling whodunnit (and whodunwhat) but gets bogged down with infodumps in the second half and ends with a ridiculous and ridiculously rushed conclusion. Can't say I'll be looking forward to the sequels.
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 12:53 (nine years ago) link
Now I need to get on with the list of ten I promised to read this year. Only managed three so far.
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 12:56 (nine years ago) link
Let's have the list now please.
― dow, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 13:46 (nine years ago) link
i enjoyed three body, i liked the oddness of it. i don't know if it was conceived as part 1 of a trilogy but i liked where it ended and i am not sure i want any more of a resolution.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 13:54 (nine years ago) link
shaggy hipster almost 70s Marvel tone
haha yeah Lord of Light reads like it could've been written by Englehart or Gerber
Zelazny was a big deal in SF/fantasy at one point, wasn't he? Can easily imagine his slangy style striking a chord with young comic book writers of the late 60s/early 70s. I know Neil Gaiman is a big Zelazny stan, and the Amber books definitely feel like the biggest influence on Sandman - some of the points of similarity are p striking.
― sʌxihɔːl (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 10 June 2015 13:57 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I always figured that zelazny and moorcock were real influences on the second wave of marvel writers.
― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 10 June 2015 14:32 (nine years ago) link
Yes and leave us not forget the comics background of Alfie Bester.Now reading God Emperor of Dune. After figuring out how to keep a lid on the helpful and torturous voices of ancestral memories and prescient options, times at least a couple of galaxies, for 3,500 years, the GE is understandably getting bored out of his skull. He doesn't really have a skull anymore, but it's becoming a throbbing phantom part, like some other parts, when He greets the unpretentious, gracefully sincere young Ambassador of the IXians. The IXians make all the implements He's becoming dependent on---including, lately, the de facto computers, officially still banned in the wake of the ancient Butlerian Jihad ("Thou Shalt Make No Machine In The Image of Man"). Now He realizes that the comely Ambassador is bred to be the most exquisite, diabolical IXian creation yet. Yet, so bored is He,that He welcomes the unexpectedly fresh bit of torture, adding something new to the cat and mouse game he always plays with opponents. Still awaiting that list, ledge.
― dow, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 15:31 (nine years ago) link
i enjoyed three body, i liked the oddness of it.
It was indeed odd. it started off like a hardboiled thriller, then became a history textbook, and finished off like flatland or the even weirder lesabendio. but i hated flatland and couldn't finish lesabendio.
for those keen on tracking my reading ambitions
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 16:07 (nine years ago) link
is second imperial radish book worth reading. enjoyed the first but didn't love it
― hot doug stamper (||||||||), Wednesday, 10 June 2015 20:55 (nine years ago) link
Question cosigned.
Thinking about the three body problem, I did enjoy the videogame sections. Although for a fictional game it seemed strangely lacking in any kind of actual gameplay, it did provide some memorable images - e.g. a mediaeval knight on horseback and on fire, galloping in from the horizon shouting "dehydrate! dehydrate!" as an enormous burning sun rises in the sky behind him.
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 22:32 (nine years ago) link
Have just actually properly finished the book - author's and translator's notes... and a brief preview of the second instalment. I couldn't help but be slightly intrigued.
― ledge, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 22:40 (nine years ago) link
what do u guys think of ramez naam?
― flopson, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 22:45 (nine years ago) link
the second radish book is more like a mystery (albeit not a terribly mysterious one) set in said universe
it's okay, but weirdly low-stakes compared to the first and doesn't seem to move the larger plot forward much at all iirc
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 10 June 2015 23:26 (nine years ago) link
xp: Kade activates the Bruce Lee program and also fights the ERD soldiers. Wats, watching the entire scene on the roof, also breaks through the ceiling to join the fight. Wats is killed. The ERD detonate explosions in the skulls of the soldiers. Sam and Kade escape.
idk doesn't really sound like my cup of tea.
― ledge, Thursday, 11 June 2015 08:30 (nine years ago) link
yeah that sounds kinda wack. i heard good things about it though, might check it out
― flopson, Thursday, 11 June 2015 16:46 (nine years ago) link
http://www.avclub.com/article/bradley-cooper-adapting-dan-simmons-epic-hyperion--220725
show for syfy
Cooper will be executive producing the series, along with Graham King and his Hangover director Todd Phillips. Itamar Moses (Boardwalk Empire) will write the screenplay.
this seems moderate to high on the wtf scale
― Roberto Spiralli, Thursday, 11 June 2015 19:58 (nine years ago) link
talk of Cooper directing a Hyperion movie has been around for a few years
I guess he just really likes it
― Number None, Thursday, 11 June 2015 19:59 (nine years ago) link
wow!
― max, Thursday, 11 June 2015 22:12 (nine years ago) link
We don't get syfy in australia, but the impression i get is that it's usually pretty low-rent stuff, right?
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 12 June 2015 00:13 (nine years ago) link
Anyone see that Penguin box set of 100 postcards of old SF cover art? Not sure if this was mentioned already.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 12 June 2015 14:51 (nine years ago) link
no, i hadn't.
a few pictures here. only 4, but that's 3 more than on penguin's sitehttp://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1405920734/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl
― koogs, Friday, 12 June 2015 15:06 (nine years ago) link
ooh!
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 June 2015 16:26 (nine years ago) link
did PKD write the game-players of titan in 24 hours? just a guess. man, i gotta find some of that speed stuff.
― scott seward, Friday, 12 June 2015 19:09 (nine years ago) link
when worlds don't collide---SF fans,LGB(and maybe proto-T?)activists in the 50s:http://www.laassubject.org/index.php/monomania/kepner
― dow, Friday, 12 June 2015 22:15 (nine years ago) link
fascinating
btw:In September 1923, Kepner was found wrapped in newspaper under an oleander bush in Galveston, Texas
― Οὖτις, Friday, 12 June 2015 22:55 (nine years ago) link
Since I'd totally forgotten the good ol thread you reposted that on or to, I'll recip as note to self:Science Fiction and Teh Gays
― dow, Friday, 12 June 2015 23:30 (nine years ago) link
Varies tremendously. At one end of the scale you have Battlestar Galactica, at the other Olympus.
They're also producing a series based on Corey's Expanse novels which lands later this year.
― groovypanda, Saturday, 13 June 2015 19:39 (nine years ago) link
The final Apollo Quartet book, All That Outer Space Allows really delivered, successfully tying together the various, um, microworlds, he was investigating in a meaningful way. Thanks to James Morrison for alerting me to its existence.
― Never Mind The Blecchs, Here's The James Redd Orche (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 13 June 2015 20:25 (nine years ago) link
Will have to check that, haven't come across the AQ books. Haven't read the xpost Expanse series either, but Daniel Abraham, who is 1/2 of James SA Corey, wrote a really good, unusual story I talked about upthread; it's in the Rogues anthology. There's a Corey story in another Dozois & Martin collection I mentioned, Old Mars.
― dow, Sunday, 14 June 2015 01:19 (nine years ago) link
Got pulled into an unexpectedly sustained final reading of God Emperor of Dune. As taught by Children of, I made like a sandworm and tunneled past the GE's manipulative philosophical bullshit, to the part(s) of the Golden Path made of plot twists (incl. turns of POV and character development). Good enough (for this Dune junkie) that way, but I'm worried that dingleberry pearls of wisdumb will be taken at face value in Heretics of Dune, by radical reactionaries vs. the post-GE establishment (though if that happens, I'm sure the author will demonstrate error of their ways, at some length).
― dow, Sunday, 14 June 2015 17:49 (nine years ago) link
By Jove---http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2015/06/soliloquy-for-pan_13.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Wormwoodiana+%28Wormwoodiana%29
― dow, Monday, 15 June 2015 04:18 (nine years ago) link
Quite by chance I took At Swim-Two-Birds (don't really know what it was doing on the all time spec fic poll. but there it was) and the free Lafferty omnibus mentioned upthread away for the weekend. Disconcertingly un-disconcerting switching between them - O'Brien prefers to hypnotise you with interminable blarney where Lafferty is happier to wrap things up with the corniest of punchlines, but otherwise they are more than comfortable bedfellows. This from Lafferty I thought particularly Flannish:
The basement room smelled of apples and ink. The editor was there as always, filling the room with his presence. He was a heavy man-image, full of left-handed wisdom and piquant expression. The editor always had time for a like-minded visitor, and George Florin came in as to a room in his own home and sat down in a deep chair in front of the "cracker barrel." "It's been a rough day," Florin said. "That makes it doubly good to see you."
"Except that you do not see me at all," the editor said. "But it is quite a presence that I project -- all the kindly cliches rolled into one. All the prime comments commented so perfectly once again. The man I took for a model was Don Marquis, though he was a columnist and not an editor in that earlier century. He kept, as you might not recall, a typewriting cockroach in his desk drawer. I keep a homunculus, a tiny manthing who comes out at night and dances over the machinery inserting his comments. He is one of our most popular characters, and I give him some good lines."
― ledge, Monday, 15 June 2015 12:48 (nine years ago) link
finished game-players of titan. i didn't like that book at all. so dumb. reading this now:
https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/17670_10154003985842137_1963265635912919803_n.jpg?oh=8f3187c8e11301baf927219f5547b735&oe=55EFB74D
― scott seward, Monday, 15 June 2015 15:10 (nine years ago) link
also, saw Tomorrowland with Cyrus yesterday and really enjoyed that. it looked so nice and had such great detail. also, that speech at the end by House M.D. hit pretty close to home. about how people just want to watch end of the world movies and zombie shows instead of trying to make the world better because they have given up and figure there is nothing they can do because we are doomed. he was speeching at ME! oh well.
― scott seward, Monday, 15 June 2015 15:17 (nine years ago) link