yeah i should probably explain what i mean, like, w/ examples, but
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 21 August 2015 07:40 (nine years ago) link
i just finished Ancillary Justice. it's a pretty interesting space opera! lots of ideas about society and politics and culture. well, one culture in particular. i would recommend it. gonna start the second book today. don't know if the third book has come out yet.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 August 2015 15:32 (nine years ago) link
ann leckie says two big influences on her ancillary books were cherryh and norton and not banks. so, i guess that makes her squarer than some. i still have never read a cj cherryh book. as with norton, there are a million of them. the norton SF i have read i have enjoyed. never read any of her sf/fantasy or fantasy.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 August 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
A couple more from the library shop: Moorcock's Gloriana--is it good? And speaking of RR Martin-associated anthologies, also picked an expanded edition of the first Wild Cards, incl. Zelasny and several Martin-Dozois regulars, such as Howard Waldrop (why I bought it), Carrie Vaughn and Melinda M. Snodgrass.
― dow, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:22 (nine years ago) link
*Zelazny*, sorry!
― dow, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:23 (nine years ago) link
i've started lurking on the sffworld.com forums and they can be pretty handy. especially about new stuff. i feel like i'm the only person in the world who hasn't read the old man scalzi books. i might have to get those just to see what the hubbub is about.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:29 (nine years ago) link
Lois Bujold is big over there. so thomp might want to steer clear...
― scott seward, Friday, 21 August 2015 20:30 (nine years ago) link
I could use some Andre Norton pointers
― Corn on the macabre (Jon not Jon), Friday, 21 August 2015 21:38 (nine years ago) link
I'm skeptical about Scalzi but that's just my prejudice against military sci-fi in general talking. Heinlein's fascism can gtfo. Forever War is p good though.
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 August 2015 21:40 (nine years ago) link
i've just picked up straight SF norton paperbacks at random. i stay away from dragon covers. the store around the corner from me has literally 100+ of her paperbacks.
― scott seward, Friday, 21 August 2015 21:51 (nine years ago) link
all I know about her are those 70s tv commercials that used to run on PBS
― Οὖτις, Friday, 21 August 2015 21:52 (nine years ago) link
tv commercials ... ? for ... books?
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 21 August 2015 23:27 (nine years ago) link
I think Witch World is the signature Norton series.
Fascism or not, politics completely aside, military SF just seems really dull. But I was pretty surprised by the Edge Of Tomorrow film.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 21 August 2015 23:43 (nine years ago) link
I kinda like the Starship Troopers too but it's not the kind of thing I'd seek out.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 21 August 2015 23:47 (nine years ago) link
The film, I mean.
As a Frank Zappa fan, I have plenty of practice separating work I love from the asshole who created it. Which is my way of saying there's plenty of Heinlein worth reading.
― rack of lamb of god (WilliamC), Saturday, 22 August 2015 00:11 (nine years ago) link
i think you kinda have to read him if you are interested in the history of sf. he's so friggin' influential. for better and worse. i haven't read a ton of his books but at his best the stuff is just good storytelling and really entertaining. i've never read later stuff. just 50's and 60's.
― scott seward, Saturday, 22 August 2015 01:03 (nine years ago) link
i read maybe half a dozen of his books 20 years ago, so i guess they sufficiently drew me in. (although i do recall being mystified by 'stranger in a strange land's acclaim)
at this remove, however, i mainly remember the fascism and the approval of incest
― mookieproof, Saturday, 22 August 2015 01:49 (nine years ago) link
Dont worry guys i've read heinlein.
Andre norton ads were like sponsor announcements for some museum w her name on it...? This is a dim memory tbh. Maybe some othe2r 70s LA kids around here might remember (ned?)
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 22 August 2015 02:29 (nine years ago) link
http://www.coverbrowser.com/search?q=andre+norton&searchmode=&name=ace-bookshttp://www.flickriver.com/photos/pulpcrush/sets/72157636264124864/
Two Norton galleries nowhere near comprehensive.
The Beastmaster films and tv shows were based on her work but apparently very loosely.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Saturday, 22 August 2015 13:03 (nine years ago) link
This is pretty through, for an overview (and carefully organized, ditto monster list at end) : http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/norton_andreSister site Encyclopedia of Fantasy, adds more about subsets and individual books:http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=norton_andre
― dow, Saturday, 22 August 2015 14:56 (nine years ago) link
Did she crank them out all by her lonesome or was there a team of assistants?
― Eternal Return To Earth (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 22 August 2015 14:59 (nine years ago) link
Encyclopedia of F stopped updating in late 90s, so may have missed a few of her last books (first in 1934). The last ones were mostly, but not all, co-signed by at least one collaborator.
― dow, Saturday, 22 August 2015 15:05 (nine years ago) link
i would go early with her and just pick some standalone sf books to check out. that's what i did and i enjoyed them. the later stuff and the endless series...just don't look thrilling to me.
― scott seward, Saturday, 22 August 2015 16:48 (nine years ago) link
Sad Puppies Kicked Hardhttp://www.wired.com/2015/08/won-science-fictions-hugo-awards-matters/
― rack of lamb of god (WilliamC), Sunday, 23 August 2015 16:12 (nine years ago) link
This is quite an interesting read too. What the Hugo nominations would have looked like without the Puppies bloc
http://io9.com/this-is-what-the-2015-hugo-ballot-should-have-been-1725967147
― groovypanda, Sunday, 23 August 2015 20:08 (nine years ago) link
i've started lurking on the sffworld.com forums and they can be pretty handy. especially about new stuff. i feel like i'm the only person in the world who hasn't read the old man scalzi books. i might have to get those just to see what the hubbub is about.― scott seward,
― scott seward,
I've read quite a lot of Scalzi. Really enjoyed the first OMW book and thought Lock In was excellent. The rest of the OMW series is pretty patchy though and Redshirts is awful.
― groovypanda, Sunday, 23 August 2015 20:12 (nine years ago) link
Good articles. I liked the Eric Flint article that was linked in the Wired one, about how the award categories have become outdated in many ways.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Sunday, 23 August 2015 22:28 (nine years ago) link
really quite touched by george rr martins 'alfies' thing
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 23 August 2015 23:38 (nine years ago) link
Finally got around to The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Shorter than I'd imagined, simpler, but no less effective - upsetting, even. Especially before embarking on a shopping trip. I like the way Le Guin makes her authorial choices clear in the story itself . Googled around a bit and for what seems a straightforward moral tale there are quite a few different interpretations and reactions, not all completely vacuous. Pretty sure the key comment towards the end of this genius.com bit (I know, right?) has a firm grasp of the wrong end of the stick, though: http://genius.com/Ursula-k-le-guin-the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-annotated
― ledge, Monday, 24 August 2015 08:10 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, I enjoyed xpost Lock In too; haven't read any other Scalzi. Speaking of Norton, anybody read Mary Stewart? Always heard good things about her books, and the local library has a ton. Appealing take here, re the Merlin Trilogy:http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=stewart_mary
― dow, Monday, 24 August 2015 23:46 (nine years ago) link
i recall liking the mary stewart books quite a lot, but tbf i was like 12 when i read them
― mookieproof, Tuesday, 25 August 2015 02:44 (nine years ago) link
wha?
www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B014JSBP7A
"John Scalzi Is Not A Very Popular Author And I Myself Am Quite Popular: How SJWs Always Lie About Our Comparative Popularity Levels" [Kindle Edition]
Topics include:
* John Scalzi's blog is not that interesting and no one reads it.* John Scalzi does not understand satire as much as I, Theophilus Pratt, understand satire.* John Scalzi did not get me, Theophilus Pratt, kicked out of the SFWA.* John Scalzi's deal with Tor was not a very good deal.
― koogs, Sunday, 13 September 2015 11:48 (nine years ago) link
Ray Bradbury Stories Vol 1 is £1.99 on amazon.co.uk at the moment, or about 2p per story.
― koogs, Sunday, 13 September 2015 11:58 (nine years ago) link
* John Scalzi does not understand satire as much as I, Theophilus Pratt, understand satire.
i love this
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Sunday, 13 September 2015 12:22 (nine years ago) link
Burned and almost burned out by xpost God Emperor of Dune, finally took a peek at Heretics, and boy am I glad. Paul and his immediate family paid the cost to be the boss & co., now its their ultra-manipulators the Bene Gesserit's turn, also their mostly male janissaries/progeny (it's complicated) and their power-sharing clients/vendors/rival (also complicated). Discoverting that you have secret zensunni, even Sufi, principles->antidogmatic dogma in common doesn't ease the tension, just makes it more complicated. Character development x intrigue maybe not quite up to Le Carre, but even if the rest turns to crap, the first 167 pages will still have been worth reading (& McNulting).
― dow, Sunday, 13 September 2015 20:59 (nine years ago) link
the BG's mostly male etc, that is
― dow, Sunday, 13 September 2015 21:00 (nine years ago) link
it's the best/most exciting one imo
― mookieproof, Sunday, 13 September 2015 21:36 (nine years ago) link
Got a copy of Ancillary Justice for $3--I'm going in!
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Monday, 14 September 2015 01:41 (nine years ago) link
You're a better man than I, as always.
― The Starry-Eyed Messenger Service (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 14 September 2015 02:06 (nine years ago) link
curious to know what you think of it, james. i actually ended up liking the 2nd book more. it's definitely not your TYPICAL space opera.
more typical is the first book in the Coyote trilogy that i started. but it's entertaining in that trad dad way. can definitely see why it gets the HEINLEIN WOULD BE PROUD! blurbs.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 September 2015 16:28 (nine years ago) link
i would say my one reservation/complaint about the Ancillary books is it was REALLY hard for me to picture what the hell people looked like. which i guess fit the gender-neutral scheme of things, and i got used to it, but everyone mostly just became a name to me. very little in the way of physical description. and i can definitely see hard SF people hating the lack of science. none of the tech is explained at all really. but i didn't really have a problem with that.
― scott seward, Monday, 14 September 2015 16:48 (nine years ago) link
OK, I have to say I did enjoy it, without finding it the astounding book that all the awards would suggest. Funny that something marketed as a space opera, and with a cover like that, consists almost entirely of people have guarded conversations in small rooms. At the end it did have the disappointing falling-away feeling you get from being only at the end of volume 1, but if vol 2 is even better then I'll have to get hold of it. But yeah, that was pretty good.
none of the tech is explained at all really. but i didn't really have a problem with that.Me either, as long as the writer keeps it consistent, which was the case here. (Not that I mind some rigorously thought-through brain-boggling physics, either)
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 September 2015 04:47 (nine years ago) link
yeah, i don't know if all the awards really does it any favors. sets it up to be some mindblowing thing, and it really is just...a decent SF novel! which is still a good thing. impressive that it's her first novel though.
― scott seward, Thursday, 17 September 2015 11:46 (nine years ago) link
a biologist friend of mine just texted me that he's attending a conference today on the SF estuary and (for some reason) KS Robinson is there giving a lecture
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 17 September 2015 15:54 (nine years ago) link
KSR kinda the go-to guy for all things futuristically dire. he will even play your party or bar mitzvah for a price.
― scott seward, Thursday, 17 September 2015 16:42 (nine years ago) link
some M R James chat on here. i've been reading ghost stories of an antiquary for the first time and it's been a real treat. spiders!
ditto bradbury's illustrated man.
both short, genuinely spooky tales. (and both recommendations / gifts from ledge iirc)
that said, lol, haunted bedsheets...
― koogs, Friday, 18 September 2015 09:26 (nine years ago) link
'a horrible, an intensely horrible, face of crumpled linen' < old sentences that haunt your thoughts
― ledge, Friday, 18 September 2015 10:29 (nine years ago) link
Reminds me: The Daedalus catalog, while pitching Masterpieces of The English Short Novel, asserts that "George Eliot profoundly influenced Henry James with her horror story The Lifted Veil": true? Didn't know she wrote horror; anybody read this or other such by her?
― dow, Friday, 18 September 2015 15:52 (nine years ago) link
AThe Lifted Veil is very good, though Its the only such story by her that i know of. Can definitely see how it would have influenced henry james's creepier stuff. Edith wharton's, too.
― as verbose and purple as a Peter Ustinov made of plums (James Morrison), Friday, 18 September 2015 23:05 (nine years ago) link