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

Yeah I enjoyed the (first?) two Hyperion books; there might have been more. Don't remember much about 'em though (long ago, when they first came out). Seemed like a refreshing difference from the glut of fantasy, horror, cyberpunk, and military/technoid strap-ons.

Enjoyably slick, sometimes sardonic interstellar intrigue, seemed like he'd learned a thing or two from Bester, but not as intense/serious.

ian whates is a fairly reliable SF anthology editor, haven't read any fiction of his though

eric brown can be very good, but sometimes his welcome low-keyness slips the border into boringness

Actually, scott, Eric Brown often seems to be quite Simak-influenced, so he might well be your thing

so i dreamt i was the New Sun the other night, that was interesting

did you guys ever talk about the three-body problem here? some friends of mine have a sci-fi book club and they read it recently. the first one. i guess the third book in the trilogy hasn't come out in english yet.

oh that reminds me i did buy the third ancillary book but haven't read it yet. will read that soon.

Tell us about yr New Sun dream before you forget it!

New books, mostly mixed reviews, but think I might try Traveler's Rest:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/books/review/the-latest-in-science-fiction-and-fantasy.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&rref=books&module=Ribbon&version=context®ion=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Books&pgtype=article
(and maybe take a look at the others eventually, if they show up in the library)

Tim Powers has a new one called Medusa's Web.

Is it linked to one of his prior settings or all new stuff?

Appears to be a standalone.

Often wondered how much metal music themed books there is? Well there's the Axes Of Evil anthology, which is more horror orientated and Swords Of Steel (2 volumes) is sword and sorcery stories by people from metal bands.

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.staticflickr.com%2F2581%2F3808242180_125f2aeb26_z.jpg&f=1

ebook of Roadside Picnic and about 10 other SF Masterworks are currently cheap in the usual outlets.

RUR by Karel Capek
99p

Take Back Plenty by Colin Greenland
£1.49

The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
£1.49

Timescape by Gregory Benford
£1.49

This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow
£1.99

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
£1.99

War with the Newts by Karel Capek
£1.99

The Affirmation by Christopher Priest
£1.99

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky,Boris Strugatsky
£1.99

A Case Of Conscience by James Blish
£1.99

who else dove into war with the newts as a teenager eagerly expecting something way more newt-y?

Run don't walk to pick up The Affirmation and Roadside Picnic.

(xp) Just bought, may have to return now.

xposts: in the same kind of vein, are those mick farren sf books worth a read? this looks interesting (maybe) http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6624470-the-texts-of-festival

war with the newts is great! but it was not what my young self was expecting.

why haven't i read roadside picnic yet? Am I stupid?

Perhaps you're just on the hairline fracture of clever.

nah Strugatsky stuff in English has always been in and out of print, and they are a bit of tough read ime. Like, they operate under a very unusual set of literary rules, maybe the least of which is govt censorship. (I have not read Roadside Picnic fwiw)

i don't think i need any metal SF. i don't really like rock in books in most cases.

my wife is reading foundation trilogy on her kindle-y thing! seemed like an odd choice for her but she is full of surprises. i've never read them. i haven't read much asimov at all. which doesn't seem fair. i know i have some at home.

there's a bunch of his short fiction that is def in yr wheelhouse

i'll get around to it all eventually...

still tons of other 50's/60's stuff i feel like i need to get to first.

re: metal sf

that Hawkwind book is not actually good but it is mildly amusing to follow the escapades of Dave Brock, Lemmy etc. as they rock out on the edge of time or whatever

rock in sf is super dodgy always. Has ruined a couple of Elizabeth Hand reading attempts by me, and I think she's an excellent writer.

BUT-- who will write the much needed BOC Imaginos saga inspired SF novel???? Can someone lock S Pearlman in a fucking room before he's too old to remember this shit?

rock in fiction in general, i think. pretty dodgy.

totally agree, can think of a bunch of examples (Shiner, Rushdie, Lethem) who are just horrible when it comes to "I am writing a novel about a musician!"

"A Brief History of Seven Killings" was good but that wasn't really about the music (nor is it about rock)

the shiner book about unfinished albums was soooo dorky it worked, though

i don't even like great jones street by delillo and people point to that one as a good example of rock fiction.

i like that Dick was all I need to get some John Dowland into this story instead of namechecking the doors or w/e

bucky wunderlick! in the delillo book. i mean come on....

i don't even like great jones street by delillo and people point to that one as a good example of rock fiction.

almost mentioned this cuz I fucking hated it but knew ppl would disagree

rock SF should be like the scene in the masters of the universe movie when he uses the wormhole device as a keytar

i do love when MUSIC is mentioned in SF. the descriptions of future music usually pretty fun. one of my favorite things about the Ancillary books is main character being a collector of songs from forgotten/dead planets. he knows a million of them. and there are strange folk lyrics in every book.

tbf Moorcock writes credibly well about the actual music of Hawkwind and their performances in that book, it's all the other stuff that normally makes up a book (plot, characters, dialogue, etc.) that suck. from reading it you can def tell where Moorcock got bored and just left Butterworth to pick up the pieces.

The Memory of Whiteness by Kim Stanley Robinson is a CRAZY music of the future book

Space Opera by Jack Vance is one of my favorite standalone Vances, basically an opera troupe travelling from planet to planet performing Debussy and Puccini and stuff.

One of the few indicators of 'music vance likes' within his actual fiction

the original edition of Always Coming Home by Ursula LeGuin came with a cassette tape of Kesh folk music. i like it a lot. Lethem wishes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONrJIDGxHjk

(everyone knows he was a huuuuge dixieland dude)

I *love* the section in Silverberg's "The World Inside" about the musician

Didn't really mean rock music in the books, but rather fiction inspired by metal music's own imagery and lyrics. I don't think Swords Of Steel is anything to do with rock music other than who the writers are.
Like, I love those ultra dense poems in the Sunn 0))) sleeves.

Re: Andre Norton. Her Witchworld series is getting made into a film trilogy, so maybe more of her work will be reprinted and discussed.

Is Witchworld the place to start with her? And if so, Witchworld from the beginning?

i'm sure there are sf and fantasy writers who are metal fans. but i think the inspiration for the music usually comes from the books and not the other way around.

^^^

i like her early SF. but i'm not a big fantasy person. and even in her early stuff she is one of the better mixers of sf and fantasy.

I'm the opposite. A fantasy guy at heart, but like my fantasy in non fantasy trappings. Space Fantasy especially (have i mentioned my vance love in the last 5 seconds?).

I really wouldn't know where to start with Norton apart from recommendations I've noted. Witchworld may just be her moneymaker. David Pringle included it in 100 Best Fantasy not because he loved it but because he thought it was probably as good a representative book for the trend of long running fantasy series as you could get.
The books I've noted on my shopping list I've seen recommended by fans are Zero Stone(recommended by Ann Leckie), Last Planet, Saragasso Of Space and Time Traders.

Scott- different mediums develop their own fantasy imagery and tropes. One could write a science fiction book inspired by Tangerine Dream but unless you put in (probably annoying) clear references, you wouldn't know. A heavily black metal inspired fantasy book could be easy to identify, no references necessary. I'd imagine the Games Workshop franchise was heavily inspired by the heavy metal music version of epic fantasy.

Some horror writers became very influenced by horror films. Then there's horror inspired specifically by 50s horror comics (Ramsey Campbell did a bit of that). Speaking of Hawkwind, there was a Spanish science fiction/horror comic from the 70s that many have said has a definite Hawkwind influence.

Since power metal is based on cliched fantasy, I wonder if you could have a noticeable power metal style without reference to rock music?