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

what was I thinking, Beaumont didn't write any Star Trek episodes ... his Shatner connection is The Intruder

The $6,000 paid by the recent documentary Charles Beaumont: The Twilight Zone’s Magic Man finally put it in the black.[6] Gotta see both of those! Description of the film is really appealing.

Just got this at the library shop:

Michael Moorcock's Legends From The End of Time

This thirteenth volume in Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion series, newly revised for its U.S. publication, collects probably the final "Legends from the End of Time," being further adventures of the Iron Orchid, the Duke of Queens, Lord Jagged of Carnaria, the Everlasting Concubine, Lord Mongrove, My Lady Charlotina, Bishop Castle, Werther de Goethe, Lord Shark, Doctor Volospion---time travelers Dafnish Armatuce and the appalling Miss Mavis Ming---as well as some unusual visitors, like Elric of Melnibone.

Introduction by Michael Moorcock

Pale Roses

White Stars

Ancient Shadows

Constant Fire

Elric At The End Of Time

299 pages hardback, first ed. 1999, White Wolf.

listed as WW12515.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pkpgg

Left Hand Of Darkness on the radio

Michael Moorcock's Legends From The End of Time

*love* this stuff - altho I haven't read the Elric one

xpost Wow, thanks koogs! Sure wish NPR would get into radio drama (get back to? Think they did some radio science fiction long ago)(the 70s PBS mini-series of Lathe of Heaven still shows up on YouTube)

I wanna read this---reviewed by Wall Street Journal's Tom Shippey:

Everyone has heard of Schrödinger’s Cat. There’s a cat in a closed box with a flask of cyanide, which has a 50-50 chance of being broken, depending on whether an atom happens to undergo radioactive decay. Until an observer opens the box and forces the system to resolve to a single state, the cat is simultaneously alive and dead—in “superposition.”
That’s just a thought-experiment, a way to connect an event on our scale with something so incomprehensibly sub-atomic it hardly matters, right? Wrong again, in David Walton’s engrossing and illuminating sci-fi thriller “Superposition” (Pyr, 304 pages, $17).
The trouble starts when Brian from the New Jersey Super-Collider turns up on his college friend Jacob’s doorstep in a state of terror. Brian is not quite a mad scientist, just believably unreliable and irresponsible. Not only has he realized that the universe is a quantum computer, he’s discovered some of it is sentient, and he’s made contact.
What he’s made contact with are “self-aware intelligences generated from the complexity of particle interaction on a large scale.” They promised Brian immortality, but now they see him as a threat. They first manifest as a “man with no eyes,” but Jacob’s friend Marek, a down-to-earth Romanian carpenter, uses his own folk-tale vocabulary to call them “varcolacs.”
Soon Brian is dead, in a locked-room mystery. Not much of a mystery to the police: The room can be unlocked only by fingerprints; the only two people with prints on file are the dead man and Jacob; and Jacob is found with the gun that shot Brian, firearm residue on his fingers, and Brian’s blood on his shoes. A complete no-brainer.
Except for quantum entanglement. Jacob and his whole family are in superposition, which means there are two of each of them (Brian was, too, until he “resolved” to being dead). So “Down-Spin” Jacob is on trial for murder while “Up-Spin” Jacob is still at large, and both are trying to figure out what happened.
How is this going to play in court, one may well wonder? Mr. Walton’s narrative keeps switching from the incomprehensible world of far-out science and demonic “varcolacs” to the familiar but tense world of courtroom battles. The scenes where scientists try to explain things to the defense lawyer, so he can try to convince the jury, go far beyond Schrödinger’s Cat.
At the same time, there’s a running contrast between the science and both Marek, who doesn’t “talk professor,” and Jacob’s tough South Philadelphia background. He escaped from it into science, but now it turns out useful. Who really did shoot Brian? A thriller full of hard-science explanations, with the two strands eventually “resolved”: This is the way sci-fi ought to be. Shouldn't say "sci-fi," but I think he's right. It's one way SF should be.)

Just started my first Jo Walton. Good so far!

Cool, which one?

Tooth and claw. Is it representative?

I've just read about her work here (my local library has Farthing):
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/walton_jo

For a second I thought you guys were talking about a Gene Wolfe book.

Tried to read the recent Hugo Winner, afraid I did not make much headway.

the second part of the bbc left hand of darkness should be up now. it's part of a a bigger le guin season, including something similar done for earthsea.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05pkmyg

(bloody bbc pages that insist on loading a large swf player where a jpg would do)

Cool, thanks for keeping us current.

Jeff VanderMeer ‏@jeffvandermeer 2m2 minutes ago

While I've been writing Southern Reach science fiction, my dad's been fighting fire ants using poison frogs: http://entomologytoday.org/2014/12/02/compounds-from-poison-frogs-may-be-used-to-control-fire-ants/
https://entomologytoday.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/fire-ants2.jpg?w=618&h=396

Just read Algernon Blackwood's "Anicent Sorceries" last night. It starts off great with the beautifully evoked town and impressive description of ancient memories. But I felt he spolied it with constant reminders of how timid the main character was, how catlike the other characters are and being generally too long winded and repetitive. The big climax was unexpectedly cliched too but there is an interesting aspect added at the very end that complicates the whole thing.
Blackwood sure can write, when his bad habits aren't getting the better of him.

me and the boys did sci-fi creature paintings today.

mine

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xat1/v/t1.0-9/10915258_10153868984772137_7032079947527538038_n.jpg?oh=b372008d10ee2457b196c0c32572d71e&oe=55A130A0&__gda__=1436278370_1ceb361f9622d7649d280d4c7f01b7cb

rufus's

https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-9/11150832_10153868656372137_1472511509627354177_n.jpg?oh=f7d01a7a090634a92eb3b0b2a8ce1b85&oe=559D1633&__gda__=1440352086_5d7975d2380d7fd234ea1973e329ea47

cyrus's

https://scontent-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11159500_10153868433017137_3157729600342907999_n.jpg?oh=5336c96df7da660b8b2e1bda7154ddcc&oe=55A449E8

Nice, that first guy looks like he's got an owl tattoo with a really long beak.

Those are amazing. Y/all should do 50s paperback covers.

Especially since Rufus has invented his own language.

what is rufus' saying

Rufus's painting is great!

the only Jo Walton book I've read (many xposts) is Among Others, which is a sort of nostalgic companion piece to her tor.com essays: it's a semi-autobiographical diary of a 15-year-old book nerd, containing lots of capsule reviews/impressions of '70s sf novels + some fantasy elements. It's not bad, but as I don't have an encyclopedic knowledge of old-school sf, most of the references went over my head. the 'novels mentioned' list is enormous, and I'm not even sure if it's complete.

Jeff Vandermeer thinking out loud about challenges of writing (and reading) fiction, def. incl SF, in the present and coming up (heating up) era. Really want to read this book he's reading, The Geological Imagination
http://electricliterature.com/the-slow-apocalypse-and-fiction/#.VTm2ejO284s.twitter
Re what he says about the wheel of life and what we may now understand better about other critters' understanding, got me thinking again about human x chimpanzee characters in Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, mentioned upthread.

The Geologic Imagination, that is.

John Crowley's 'Beasts' did a very good job at looking at the world from some non-human (esp. canine) viewpoints

gene wolfe invented pringles? i did not know that.

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/sci-fis-difficult-genius

Whoa Wolfe profile in the nyer?

Godwhale by TJ Bass is a sequel but does it stand alone too?

His books contain all of the nasty genre tropes—space travel, robots, even dragons

oh fuck you

"On the other hand—suspended in this slow apocalypse as we are, neither raw nor fully cooked—we may soon not accept these things in novels set in the present-day, either. We may begin to see novels of the mundane and modern that seem like they could be written thirty years ago, give or take a smart phone or two, as symptomatic of a failure. The only form of nostalgia not seen as grotesque may be a yearning for that moment in time before we had set upon a course that would ultimately require radical change to ensure human survival or the survival of the planetary biosphere. Who, sane, ethical, would wish for a time like ours of unrelenting animal carnage, for example? For the dead wreckage of our systems being sold to us as the height of technological evolution?"

from the vandermeer thing. which is filled with things i have been obsessing about. like, at what point does our entertainment become beside the point. or just perverse. probably have to have actual hellfire raining down on people before that happens, i guess. resilient little buggers that we are.

Dang Scott THANKING U for that piece which is enormously impressive and has me converted to wanting to read some fucking van der meer asap. He has articulated some twistings and horrors which, in me unarticulated, have been pushing me in certain directions without my even realizing it

don posted that piece! i am thanking don. so much to think about reading that thing.

i wish people would here would read area x/southern reach cuz i would still like to have a discussion thread. maybe i'll just start a thread/

gonna post his reddit thing here so i remember to read it:

http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2o2jsx/i_am_jeff_vandermeer_nytimes_best_selling_author/

wherein i learn that alex garland is gonna direct the first southern reach movie...

read these recently on skot's enthusiasm -- liked them a lot. not a fully satisfying ending, but not bad given the expectations raised

i'm having a hard time picturing a movie? i dunno

it was cuet how all three books were dedicated to his wife

i started a thread.

xpost You're welcome, Scott, and thanks for the reddit. I wanna read Area X too, soon as I find a nicely priced copy (I'm a cheapskate).

library!

Heh, yeah, when I have the nerve to request another purchase...

Ursula Le Guin's Threshold (aka The Beginning Place), definitely one of her lesser novels. Beaten down american youngsters find solace in a fantasy land where time moves at a different pace, so far so Narnia, but the book spends as much time in the real world as in the fantasy realm, which is really a very thinly sketched and transparent proxy for their real life struggles. She's not interested in building up a detailed fantasy world (despite a lot of laborious and hard to follow geographical description) - ok no dwarves or elves or fucking mannered fauns is fine, but there's nothing else to keep you engaged, let alone enchanted.

Camp Concentration, a masterpiece - relatively speaking - of writing and ideas, but don't think it's entirely successful. Louis is a great character but it feels like the story is just a thin frame to hang him on. Most of the other characters are barely there, the main plot is hardly taken seriously. And a reverse Flowers for Algernon is a near impossible conceit to pull off but Louis starts off so clever there's virtually no sense of progression. Still it's very smart (but no heart) and amusing.

Got Riddley Walker on the shelves but might get Area X too...

Disch is so frustrating to me - an obviously really sharp guy, often with compelling ideas etc. but p much everything I've read of his is flawed in some basic, fundamental way (with the possible exception of 334, easily his best). I agree that Camp Concentration feels like some extended Twilight Zone episode that all hinges on the twist/reveal at the end, and without that there's not a whole lot. The entire novel is all perfunctory artifice hung around that central conceit. 334 succeeds because of the disconnected and episodic nature, I think. When it comes to novels, he tends to let whatever the central premise is become this oppressive thing that squeezes out all the other stuff that makes novels interesting - Echo Round His Bones and the Genocides are prime examples.

Riddley Walker otoh is incredible, that's a real masterpiece.

Saki "The Open Window". Funny little story.

Both Saki repressive read have been "all in their head" type affairs (something I normally don't like but it's good in these ones) but I'm curious if his horror stories would ever be as monstery as a title like Beasts And Superbeasts suggests.

http://blackcoatpress.com/murdererworld.htm

Mervyn Peake's centennial: new illustrated edition of Gormenghast Trilogy, with intro by Moorcock, plus sep publication of long-lost final volume; Guardian has essays by Moorcock and Mieville, plus other commentary I think, haven't had time to read yet--Cory Doctorow comments and links here, with excerpt of Mieville:

http://boingboing.net/2011/07/02/mervyn-peakes-centen.html

Oh well, Volume 4---based on a fragment and his outline, otherwise written by his wife---was already published in 2011:
http://www.amazon.com/Titus-Awakes-Novel-Mervyn-Peake/dp/159020428X/ref=pd_sim_b_4/184-9175235-8027269?ie=UTF8&refRID=02CEMYZ539SK0Z2H1NHV

intriguing overview from SF Encyclopedia's sister Encyclopedia of Fantasy, which stopped publishing in '97, so nothing about the fourth book:
http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=peake_mervyn

I bought the ebook of that edition of Gormenghast back in December, but now it says it is unavailable.

I haven't heard anything good about the fourth book sadly.

Oops---that was all via Doctorow's (or somebody's?) new Tweet, but I finally just now noticed that the linked boingboing post is from 2011! Sorree! Anyway, still news to me, duh.

eBook unavailable. Print version is still available, I think.

finished Robert Reed's "The Cuckoo's Boys" - thx for whoever recommended that, I will keep my eye on this guy. Nothing totally blew me away but stories are all very well crafted and he's fueled by good ideas.

have moved on to Zelazny's "Lord of Light" (which is ridiculous and remarkably cynical but in a fun way) and Harrison's "The Centauri Device" which, despite being written 25+ years prior to Light/Nova Swing, is incredibly similar in style and tone.