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

Thanks for the tumblr article. I don't think it gives away much actually.

lois mcmaster bujold occasioned in me this feeling of "i wish i was reading something exactly like this ... only good," while i lost a bloody day to her. and, too, to some vague, passing fluish sickness, which i suppose i can't blame on 'barrayar', much as i'd like to.

there's something morally distasteful about space opera, the possibilities it allows one of writing about Society and Politics and Culture without having any knowledge about any of the three

Is there a Sturgeon's Law generalization to be gained by crossing out Space Opera and replacing it with something else?

yeah i should probably explain what i mean, like, w/ examples, but

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.

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.

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.

*Zelazny*, sorry!

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.

Lois Bujold is big over there. so thomp might want to steer clear...

I could use some Andre Norton pointers

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.

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.

all I know about her are those 70s tv commercials that used to run on PBS

tv commercials ... ? for ... books?

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.

I kinda like the Starship Troopers too but it's not the kind of thing I'd seek out.

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.

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.

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

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?)

http://www.coverbrowser.com/search?q=andre+norton&searchmode=&name=ace-books
http://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.

This is pretty through, for an overview (and carefully organized, ditto monster list at end) :
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/norton_andre
Sister site Encyclopedia of Fantasy, adds more about subsets and individual books:
http://sf-encyclopedia.uk/fe.php?nm=norton_andre

Did she crank them out all by her lonesome or was there a team of assistants?

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.

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.

Sad Puppies Kicked Hard
http://www.wired.com/2015/08/won-science-fictions-hugo-awards-matters/

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

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,

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.

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.

really quite touched by george rr martins 'alfies' thing

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

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

i recall liking the mary stewart books quite a lot, but tbf i was like 12 when i read them

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.

Ray Bradbury Stories Vol 1 is £1.99 on amazon.co.uk at the moment, or about 2p per story.

* John Scalzi does not understand satire as much as I, Theophilus Pratt, understand satire.

i love this

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).

the BG's mostly male etc, that is

it's the best/most exciting one imo

Got a copy of Ancillary Justice for $3--I'm going in!

You're a better man than I, as always.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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

KSR kinda the go-to guy for all things futuristically dire. he will even play your party or bar mitzvah for a price.