For what it's worth, I've been hearing a lot of good about Nina Allan recently.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 22 May 2017 00:57 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, I should note that the story by her I didn't like wasn't bad, per se, it just had all sorts of SF trappings and was future-set in a way that didn't advance or expand the story in any way, and in fact made it significantly less convincing than if it had been set now, which undercut it rather
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, 22 May 2017 01:42 (seven years ago) link
Was it her Hugo nominated story?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 22 May 2017 02:25 (seven years ago) link
Not sure: it was http://www.tor.com/2016/07/27/the-art-of-space-travel/
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, 22 May 2017 03:22 (seven years ago) link
I think he believes that things have went downhill from the days China Mieville and Ian Banks were really popular.
Isn't Jeff VanDerMeer the popular name on that kind of wavelenght right now?
― Daniel_Rf, Monday, 22 May 2017 09:51 (seven years ago) link
Not sure if he's quite as popular as they were.
James- yeah that's the one.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Monday, 22 May 2017 12:50 (seven years ago) link
i was loving europe in autumn until...it went where it did. sort of abruptly? was there foreshadowing and i'm just an imbecile? i was kinda mad about it.
― Roberto Spiralli, Monday, 22 May 2017 13:02 (seven years ago) link
no, it was pretty abrupt
― mookieproof, Monday, 22 May 2017 14:46 (seven years ago) link
Reading Paul Park's "All Those Vanished Engines". First exposure to him. so far it's more like a Faulknerian alternate history, but apparently he's written some similarly odd sf/fantasy stuff that's well regarded? Gene Wolfe gives some enthusiastic endorsement quotes. I'm into it.
― Οὖτις, Monday, 22 May 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
Think I have seen some other praise for him from the likes of Disch and Crowley, maybe.
― The Pickety 33⅓ Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 22 May 2017 17:22 (seven years ago) link
Disch, Wolfe, and Park = all (lapsed/reformed?) Catholics lol
― Οὖτις, Monday, 22 May 2017 22:38 (seven years ago) link
I thought Wolfe was full on
― twink peas it is happening again (Jon not Jon), Monday, 22 May 2017 22:41 (seven years ago) link
yeah I think he is...? Might be mixing him up w Lafferty
― Οὖτις, Monday, 22 May 2017 22:48 (seven years ago) link
Lafferty a trinity unto himself
― twink peas it is happening again (Jon not Jon), Monday, 22 May 2017 22:51 (seven years ago) link
(Idk what I mean by that)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor, the 2016 hugo and nebula winner for best novella, is not good. It's sf not fantasy but the protagonist is basically magical, she has a mysterious artefact which is a pure deus ex machina, and the mud she uses for tribal body painting turns out to be magically beneficial to the alien antagonists. To have one magical plot resolving device in a 100 page novella might be regarded as misfortune, but to have three...
― ledge, Friday, 26 May 2017 08:07 (seven years ago) link
so this Paul Park book is p incredible, you guys should get on this
― Οὖτις, Friday, 26 May 2017 15:42 (seven years ago) link
Thanks, will have a look see.
― The Pickety 33⅓ Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 May 2017 16:10 (seven years ago) link
also taking my first dip into James Blish's short fiction. Seems to have a tendency toward glib or facile "twist" endings but there's great ideas and writing along the way. The collection I'm currently reading ("Galactic Cluster") is mostly early 50s stuff. Have yet to come across anything on the same level as "Surface Tension".
― Οὖτις, Friday, 26 May 2017 16:16 (seven years ago) link
"Common Time"!
― The Pickety 33⅓ Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 26 May 2017 18:31 (seven years ago) link
you read the cities in flight books already? everyone needs spindizzy in their life.
― scott seward, Friday, 26 May 2017 18:44 (seven years ago) link
ha yeah I just finished "Common Time", which I really enjoyed apart from some of the psychobabble wrap-up at the end. haven't read any of his novels yet
― Οὖτις, Friday, 26 May 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
don't know if you really need to read all four CiF books but the first two are very cool.
― scott seward, Friday, 26 May 2017 19:49 (seven years ago) link
my wife used to have a bunch of his Star Trek novels. idk for some reason I just never felt compelled to investigate, just assumed he was kinda a mainstream hack-y writer/decent editor until I read "Surface Tension".
― Οὖτις, Friday, 26 May 2017 19:50 (seven years ago) link
cities in flight one of the biggies of sf. and influential.
― scott seward, Friday, 26 May 2017 20:54 (seven years ago) link
What about "A Work of Art"?
― The Pickety 33⅓ Policeman (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 27 May 2017 01:05 (seven years ago) link
Found a rave review by Crowley of the Paul Park book Shakey is reading, as well as various used/antiquarian bookstores selling Tom Disch's personal, inscribed copies of Park's books, some with Disch's letter of blurbage inside, in his own hand or from his own typewriter.
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 29 May 2017 14:58 (seven years ago) link
Actually I remember trying to read a YA book he wrote that came with a lot of stellar recommendations and being underwhelmed by the writing.
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 29 May 2017 17:02 (seven years ago) link
enjoying Gridlinked by Neal Asher. his first book from 2001 and he's written a novel a year since then. and they are all mostly set in the same universe with some of the same characters/worlds popping up. would definitely read more. his wiki describes his stuff as post-cyberpunk space opera and that about sums it up. gritty and violent and vast. he's inventive too. lots of cool science stuff.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 01:53 (seven years ago) link
Omg @ Blish's "Work of Art", what a story. A bit of Flowers for Algernon now that I think about it.
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 30 May 2017 02:24 (seven years ago) link
Hadn't seen this Sheckley collection before----part of NYRB Father's Day sale:
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0726/9203/products/store-of-the-worlds_1024x1024.jpg?v=1428420074
Also wondering about these Priest and Wyndham books at bottom of same page:https://www.nyrb.com/collections/fathers-day-sale/products/store-of-the-worlds?variant=1094931409
― dow, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:11 (seven years ago) link
Have you read Priest's 'Inverted World'? It's brilliant, and mind-boggling in the best way.― James Morrison, Monday, January 26, 2009 5:47 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkIs there anyone left on this borad who hasn't read Inverted World?― Jesperson, I think we're lost (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, March 10, 2016 10:34 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― James Morrison, Monday, January 26, 2009 5:47 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
Is there anyone left on this borad who hasn't read Inverted World?
― Jesperson, I think we're lost (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, March 10, 2016 10:34 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:45 (seven years ago) link
Inverted World is a masterpiece, I should really own a copy
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:47 (seven years ago) link
Chocky isnt bad
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:48 (seven years ago) link
Wyndham?
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:57 (seven years ago) link
Oh, sorry just scrolled up. Get the Sheckley too, Don.
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:58 (seven years ago) link
Unless you have already read all the stories in it
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 7 June 2017 01:59 (seven years ago) link
anyone read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky? it's the only vaguely sf thing that i haven't read in this month's cheap amazon monthly list.
― koogs, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 08:17 (seven years ago) link
I've been curious about him for awhile because of stuff ilxor lamp has posted about him
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 7 June 2017 13:34 (seven years ago) link
i enjoyed children of time. some interesting ideas that are maybe 70% thought through within the framework of an entertaining narrative. i remember the politics struck me as a lil suspect but possibly unintentionally so.
― Roberto Spiralli, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 14:47 (seven years ago) link
It's 99p, I'm not sure why I'm worried. (600pp though)
― koogs, Wednesday, 7 June 2017 18:03 (seven years ago) link
Is it me or is it remarkable that this blish story ("this earth of ours") from 1959 mentions "lysergic acid grenades"? Who was hip to LSD back then?
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 10 June 2017 03:29 (seven years ago) link
Also features an open and explicitly gay character, which also seems unusual
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 10 June 2017 03:36 (seven years ago) link
On both counts, maybe he was thinking of Allen Ginsberg? It was legal then and used in psychotherapy sometimes----Cary Grant said it really helped---Henry and Clair Booth Luce took it, dunno if it helped them, but Roger Sterling and one of his wives took it in marriage counseling, realized it was time to part amicably (although that was in the 60s, but it wasn't a Controlled Substance 'til 1965, I think?)---Ken Kesey volunteered to take part in a sanctioned experiment while working at the hospital which inspired One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and well you know---also:https://erowid.org/chemicals/lsd/lsd_timeline.php
― dow, Saturday, 10 June 2017 03:50 (seven years ago) link
Is the open and explicitly gay character also evil? Otherwise, this was pretty unusual too!Sturgeon wrote many stories during the Golden Age of Science Fiction that emphasised the importance of love, regardless of the current social norms. In his short story "The World Well Lost" (1953), first published in Universe magazine, homosexual alien fugitives and unrequited (and taboo) human homosexual love are portrayed. The tagline for the Universe cover was "His most daring story";[30] its sensitive treatment of homosexuality was unusual for science fiction published at that time, and it is now regarded as a milestone in science fiction's portrayal of homosexuality.[31] According to an anecdote related by Samuel R. Delany, when Sturgeon first submitted the story, the editor (John W. Campbell) not only rejected it but phoned every other editor he knew and urged them to reject it as well.[32][33] Sturgeon would later write Affair with a Green Monkey, which examined social stereotyping of homosexuals, and in 1960 published Venus Plus X, in which a single-gender society is depicted and the protagonist's homophobia portrayed unfavourably.[22] from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_themes_in_speculative_fictionWonder how he got Campbell to accept it after all? Universe was a pretty interesting mag, but didn't know about that story.
― dow, Saturday, 10 June 2017 04:02 (seven years ago) link
Blish's character is def a stereotype (a pouty, effeminate poet) but no he is not evil, he fits more of an "unexpectedly resourceful sidekick" role
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 10 June 2017 13:24 (seven years ago) link
The LSD ref is a one line throwaway that has no bearing on the plot, which makes it even more strange to me - like its just a ref to contemporary science stuff added for color.
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 10 June 2017 13:26 (seven years ago) link
He must have picked it up from some research paper or scientific journal
― Οὖτις, Saturday, 10 June 2017 13:27 (seven years ago) link
Best of Subterranean: will prob check out a used copy (pre-order for trade pb is $45, ouch)
http://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/e/best_of_sub_press-cvr_names.jpg
― dow, Monday, 12 June 2017 16:24 (seven years ago) link
is it pretty fat?
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Monday, 12 June 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link