Appears to be a standalone.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 12 January 2016 18:49 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 17:58 (eight years ago) link
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.staticflickr.com%2F2581%2F3808242180_125f2aeb26_z.jpg&f=1
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:00 (eight years ago) link
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
― koogs, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:34 (eight years ago) link
who else dove into war with the newts as a teenager eagerly expecting something way more newt-y?
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:37 (eight years ago) link
Run don't walk to pick up The Affirmation and Roadside Picnic.
― Starman Jones said it's 2 legit 2 quit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:37 (eight years ago) link
(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
― no lime tangier, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:38 (eight years ago) link
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?
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:44 (eight years ago) link
Perhaps you're just on the hairline fracture of clever.
― Starman Jones said it's 2 legit 2 quit (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:46 (eight years ago) link
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)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:53 (eight years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:58 (eight years ago) link
there's a bunch of his short fiction that is def in yr wheelhouse
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 18:59 (eight years ago) link
i'll get around to it all eventually...
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:03 (eight years ago) link
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
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:09 (eight years ago) link
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.
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:36 (eight years ago) link
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?
― banned on ixlor (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:37 (eight years ago) link
rock in fiction in general, i think. pretty dodgy.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:38 (eight years ago) link
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)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:42 (eight years ago) link
the shiner book about unfinished albums was soooo dorky it worked, though
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:45 (eight years ago) link
i don't even like great jones street by delillo and people point to that one as a good example of rock fiction.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:46 (eight years ago) link
i like that Dick was all I need to get some John Dowland into this story instead of namechecking the doors or w/e
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:46 (eight years ago) link
bucky wunderlick! in the delillo book. i mean come on....
almost mentioned this cuz I fucking hated it but knew ppl would disagree
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:47 (eight years ago) link
rock SF should be like the scene in the masters of the universe movie when he uses the wormhole device as a keytar
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:47 (eight years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:52 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:55 (eight years ago) link
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.
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:56 (eight years ago) link
One of the few indicators of 'music vance likes' within his actual fiction
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:57 (eight years ago) link
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
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 19:57 (eight years ago) link
(everyone knows he was a huuuuge dixieland dude)
I *love* the section in Silverberg's "The World Inside" about the musician
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
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.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:01 (eight years ago) link
Is Witchworld the place to start with her? And if so, Witchworld from the beginning?
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:03 (eight years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
^^^
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:04 (eight years ago) link
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.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:05 (eight years ago) link
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?).
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:33 (eight years ago) link
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?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:43 (eight years ago) link
one of the worst books i ever read was a horror novel about a heavy metal band.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:45 (eight years ago) link
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41WhxsHqzkL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Meet The Scream. Just your average everyday mega-cult band. Their music is otherworldly. Their words are disturbing. Their message is unholy. Their fans are legion. And they're not kidding. They're killing. Themselves. Each other. Everyone. Their gospel screams from the lips of babes. Their backbeat has a body count. And their encore is just the warm-up act to madness beyond belief.
It emerged from a war-torn jungle, where insanity was just another word for survival. It arrived in America with an insatiable lust for power and the means to fulfill it. In the amplified roar of arena applause there beats the heart of absolute darkness.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 20:47 (eight years ago) link
No writer's name? Not that I want to read it.
Other example, there's a lot of stuff I thought of as "videogamey" but from reading a book by Hideyuki Kikuchi, seeing films by Tsui Hark and seeing the intro screens to Tetsuo films and Burst City, but now if people did those things again they'd be considered videogame influences. Actually that isn't a similar situation but never mind.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 21:03 (eight years ago) link
john skipp and craig spector. they were a thing for a minute there in the new horror world.
― scott seward, Thursday, 21 January 2016 21:32 (eight years ago) link
Yeah, they were 'splatterpunk' lol (along w/ david j schow irrc).
― Chicamaw (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 21 January 2016 21:33 (eight years ago) link
oy vey
― major tom's cabin (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 21 January 2016 21:42 (eight years ago) link
Some are strict on definition, but I think the splatterpunks are generally considered to be John Skipp, Craig Spector, David J Schow, Joe R Lansdale, Clive Barker, Roberta Lannes, Rex Miller, Richard Christian Matheson, Jack Ketchum, Wrath James White and John Shirley. Perhaps Kathe Koja and Poppy Z Brite.
Richard Laymon is in the Wikipedia entry but I assumed he was more like Graham Masterton who could be ultra violent and fucked up but never completely stuck to that mode. I don't know if Shaun Hutson is that gory but he's surely influenced by horror films more than older horror writers.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 23:24 (eight years ago) link
Forgotten Edward Lee.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 21 January 2016 23:26 (eight years ago) link
Most of Wolf In White Van's characters come out of the (late 70s and)80s middle school-to high school culture, involved with fantasy, some SF, metal, Pink Floyd, gaming, nickel bags, cigarettes, little beer, french kissing groping, maybe a little more (if your parents have premium cable), some guns----can't really call 'em fans, it's more of a given, more organic than that---but rallyed in a crisis, staring at a hospital ceiling----none of this ever made all that much of my world, but it's---credible.
― dow, Friday, 22 January 2016 00:22 (eight years ago) link
And amazing.
― dow, Friday, 22 January 2016 00:23 (eight years ago) link