ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

Snagged the Audrey Schulman book on Kobo for 2.99, fyi

maybe the coronavirus is just the living planet's way of preparing our bodies for helliconia summer

Reminds me: I've been thinking of trying to dig up my old paperback of Charles Oberndorf's Sheltered Lives: published in the early 90s, it looks back on AIDS as in the first or next wave of pandemics, leaving chronic conditions in their wake, for which sex is to blame, can't ever be anything else in the environment, no no no. Mainly what I remember are distant "quarantine" camps, other people keeping heads down and working for the fuel to keep working in cubicles etc. Mainly, state of siege as new normal is what I related to, since there was always some kind of crisis humming back there, even before post-9/11!---- SFE adds: His first novel, Sheltered Lives (1992), sets the fully realized lives of his protagonists – a male prostitute and his client, who may be a terrorist – in a mid-American, Dystopian, Near Future world where vast Keeps house vast populations under constant surveillance by an AI with a sense of humour; the AIDS-like plague, that has distorted Sex and justified repression in general, is not cured. The possible terrorist is def against the camps, so look out. http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/oberndorf_charles

The male prostitute works in a state-run, sanitized facility.

Some observations I made elsewhere...

I really wish the blue flame thing came up again, I wonder if he did have further plans for that which he didn't use. Maybe in Powers Of Darkness or Dracula's Guest, both which use discarded ideas?

Although the journey to the castle in Coppola's version is lovely, it doesn't really compare to the book with it's more impressive landscape. And the packs of wolves at command!
Murnau and Coppola kept Dracula as the driver but seemingly nobody kept Dracula as Jonathan's daily chef or briefly wearing a straw hat. These might seem to undermine his aristocratic bearing but Stoker's Dracula prefers to take whatever he can into his own hands.
How about the woman demanding her child back?

I was wondering a lot about what a more decadent Bram Stoker would have done with his "this man belongs to me" dream.
And the idea of Henry Irving's acting being grotesquely over the top is quite tantalizing; Stoker going into a hysterical fit during a performance.

For all the fame of the book I've hardly seen much discussion of so many aspects.

Although decadents, foreigners and New Women might have inspired the vampires to an extent, I think it's a boring way to view classic vampires as simply misunderstood liberals being hunted by conservatives.

There's some very interesting takes here and I like the idea of Mina being a compromise or concession to liberals. Very very good reviewer I discovered recently.
https://johnpistelli.com/2019/10/17/bram-stoker-dracula/

I think the aristocratic element has been commented on a fair amount. Guy Maddin leaned hard on this by focusing on the idea of foreign wealth and deliberately cast Dracula as an east Asian dancer.
Holmwood/Godalming uses his own aristocracy extensively and Mina praises the power of his money to help them all. Again, these things never seem to get re-used, partly because they are so long and convoluted; Holmwood/Godalming is probably the least interesting character.

I after reading so much about it, I think it's clear that it cant just be about one thing above all else, there's a lot going on. I think that's usually true of things with lasting power.

Or perhaps just things that last for a wide audience who like different aspects of the thing. Maybe simple yet powerful things hold a smaller audience but for just as long.

The guy flying on the We Who Are About To cover reminds me of 2000 AD's Tharg.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to start reading The Parable of the Sower.

http://www.valancourtbooks.com/the-valancourt-book-of-world-horror-stories-vol-1.html

Haven't heard of a single author of those announced so far!

Watched a French youtube interview with Stableford from 2016, but it's quite long and a lot of time is spent going through a translator. I always assume that prolific translators must know their languages well enough to listen and speak fluently, but yesterday saw a prolific chinese translator who taught in china for several years say he still needs help from his chinese wife to understand chinese language films.

Stableford says his personal favorite books by himself are Prelude To Eternity, Alien Abduction: The Wilshire Revelations and Vampires Of Atlantis. None of them his better known works.

Was just informed that M. Luke McDonnell is the pseudonym of an acquaintance of mine

her husband’s office is across the street from my house

HI DERE

Might even create a separate thread for that kind of thing.

Done. Post Yr Screenname GIS Results Here!

It's kind of secret, Report on Probability A keyhole side view into ILX.

Some fairly promising pitches and prices here:
http://view.mail.macmillan.com/?qs=4d1ce37ee5d40c4b11d4340c2c17106e38aa3811d8ecc94a3d85a6fea673895b13938a46b3016cd22768c4d4ba7e202f8515a38aae16306c3395eadcf40ee9ea436a1e9c0e8c485eb43c9ac2c5d8e0ee654fd5045799ec7a
Incl this:
The Empress of Salt and Fortune
Nghi Vo
With the heart of an Atwood tale and the visuals of a classic Asian period drama, Nghi Vo's The Empress of Salt and Fortune is a tightly and lushly written narrative about empire, storytelling, and the anger of women.

“A tale of rebellion and fealty that feels both classic and fresh, The Empress of Salt and Fortune is elegantly told, strongly felt, and brimming with rich detail. An epic in miniature, beautifully realised.”—Zen Cho

And maybe this, despite heavy breathing---simmer down now, Library Journal!
K. M. Szpara's Docile is a science fiction parable about love and sex, wealth and debt, abuse and power, a challenging tour de force that at turns seduces and startles.

“This powerful debut is filled with achingly tender and brutally raw prose. Szpara strikes out at capitalism as well as the pharmaceutical trade and its effects, while dancing on the emotional knife's edge between love and obedience.”—Library Journal starred review

I have had my eye on the Nghi Vo book.

This is the writer and publisher of Tartarus Press
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePl4wQT4KdE

This video has been removed by the user

Was it controversial or something?

Not at all, unless showing off museum worthy collectables is making people rage with jealousy.

Think this is a re-upload here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVU0CowrJl0

https://www.thisishorror.co.uk/tod-051-the-secret-life-of-molly-tanzer/
Had a lot of fun listening to this, especially when she talks about Thomas Day and Roald Dahl

https://www.tor.com/2015/11/16/the-coode-street-podcast-episode-256-suzy-mckee-charnas-and-pamela-sargent/
Making me bump Charnas up my list, because she said the third book of Holdfast put almost everyone off the series. She says it's the proudest mistake she's ever made. They both seem calmly pessimistic.

trying to find some decent escapist space opera, tried adrian tchaikovsky's children of time - 1/4 of the way in and i'm giving up. not enough space, not enough opera, high on the Reynolds scale of 'all the human characters are awful' and i'm not particulary keen to learn more about the giant spider pro/antagonists.

i burned through leigh brackett's the big jump in an hour or so - it was like reading the 'in all old movies' thread: "say bud, don't get sore" * 1000.

next up: ksr's 2312 (loved aurora & the mars trilogy); elizabeth bear's ancestral night.

trying to find classic sf i haven't read before, especially by women, and my god how much of this stuff is 'set in a post-apocalpytic future'? not keen, especially not right now.

i assume you've already read the stars my destination

kindle monthly deals often have whole series of SF things that look interesting, but could be shovelware of the worst kind

this month, for instance

Evan Currie's Odyssey One series

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Into-Black-Remastered-Odyssey-Book-ebook/dp/B005ML0EZS/ref=sr_1_30

that's 500+ pages and there are currently 7 books, all with 4+ star reviews, but there's no accounting for taste.

cheap though.

my only other recommendations would be Banks (which you've read) or (early) Reynolds, which you don't like. 8)

M john Harrison: Light
I did not really get the acclaim this received

not hugely keen on bester or most stuff from that era.

i don't hate reynolds! he does a great sensawunda. I've been harsh on him upthread, i just tired of his characters holding lifelong grudges schtick. prob should give house of suns a go, or whatever is latest multivolume blockbuster is.

i'm not particulary keen to learn more about the giant spider pro/antagonists.

― Paperbag raita (ledge), Monday, April 6, 2020 9:33 AM

A lot of people particularly loved the spiders.

are they better than the spiders in Vinge's "A Fire Upon the Deep"?

I have no idea, I haven't read either, I didn't know there were spiders in Vinge's book.

re: Light - I think that was the first M. John Harrison novel I read, prior to that I'd only read short bits from the New Wave period. I don't think its a masterpiece but I do like that cycle of novels, its a good mix of cosmic phantasmagoria and noir and I find his prose very sharp and dense.

the only two Vinge books I've read are that one and its prequel and they were both very good, solid relatively hard-science/space opera hybrids. Not been inclined to check out anything else of his though. Haven't read any of his ex-wife Joan's stuff either.

Trying to filter some of the things you don't like, ledge, I cautiously suggest Lois McMaster Bujold and Galactic Empires, the 2-volume Aldiss anth, from '76 or so, that helped pave the way for Bujold (and lesser talents).

The spiders were always going to be a controversial choice given arachnophobia exists. I enjoyed it, but haven't bothered with the second one (and didn't like his ironclads thing). He seems to have like 10 books out all of a sudden.

I've reached the point with Reynolds where I'm not anticipating the next book and I do see your point. You should probably stay clear of Revenger then! House of Suns is iirc more clans with feuds. Terminal World might suit. Or Century Rain (both less space opera-y).

I was more invested in the spiders than the humans, for sure

started john scalzi's interdependency series. haven't read anything by him before, but this one seems to have some 'foundation' in it

Trying to filter some of the things you don't like, ledge, I cautiously suggest Lois McMaster Bujold and Galactic Empires, the 2-volume Aldiss anth

thanks! for parental reasons i do 99% of my reading on an ereader in a dark room - I've been waiting in vain for some bujold to be available, might have to go back to dead trees for her.

Scalzi seems like a decent guy, but I find his prose irritating

I had Galactic Empires Vol. 1 as a kid but have not seen it as a legit or illegit ebook

P sure all the Bujold is on Amazon as e-books because I went through a phase of reading most of her catalog last year.

ok, i have a kobo not a kindle but should be able to convert if i can get hold of them, thanks.

found them. jesus, these covers:

https://www.baen.com/allbooks/category/index/id/2060

just roll w it u will come to love them, i am going to make t shirts out of captain vorpatrils alliance

xp No way! Those covers are peak mass market luridness. The story goes on for generations btw, and I guess probably offer diminishing returns but I held on for like 15 books between Amazon and what the public lib had.

adam otm iow

The Penric omnibus has a decent cover.