Lol
― TS Hugo Largo vs. Al Factotum (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 5 April 2017 23:47 (seven years ago) link
Watched a youtube video titled "Eurocon 2016 - Sala Auditori - Verne Versus Wells (ENG)" with Adam Roberts and Aliette De Bodard. It's quite fun. Quite curious about the SF history book Roberts has written, he clearly knows a lot.
There's a whole load of Eurocon panels on youtube and they have writers from a wide range of countries, mostly in English.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 12 April 2017 22:26 (seven years ago) link
Speaking English that is, but their books aren't always in English.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 12 April 2017 22:28 (seven years ago) link
Roberts is currently working his way through the entire output of Wells over at http://wellsattheworldsend.blogspot.com/
― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Thursday, 13 April 2017 00:26 (seven years ago) link
Woah, that's pretty in depth, as are his other blogs on other writers. Surely he intends to turn all these into books?
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 13 April 2017 10:10 (seven years ago) link
He's done a few Ted talks too.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 13 April 2017 10:29 (seven years ago) link
Interesting. Btw wondering if anyone has read David Lodge's book about Wells.
― TS Hugo Largo vs. Al Factotum (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 13 April 2017 10:54 (seven years ago) link
Weird fiction author Mark Samuels is homeless now. There might be some sort of charity account set up eventually. A paperback version of Written In Darkness is coming soon, it's his fifth collection.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 13 April 2017 19:06 (seven years ago) link
Subterranean editions of new Blaylock and prev. unpub.(as orig. intended, that is) Silverberg---both novellas, both expensive, duh:
http://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/r/i/rivers_edge_by_james_p_blaylock.jpg
We're pleased to announce River's Edge by James P. Blaylock, which, at over 40,000 words, is the longest Langdon St. Ives novella yet!
About the Book:
The body of a girl washes up on a mud bank along the edge of the River Medway amid a litter of poisoned fish and sea birds, casting an accusing shadow upon the deadly secrets of the Majestic Paper Mill and its wealthy owners. Simple answers to the mystery begin to suggest insidious secrets, and very quickly Langdon St. Ives and his wife Alice are drawn into a web of conspiracies involving murder, a suspicious suicide, and ritual sacrifice at a lonely and ancient cluster of standing stones. Abruptly St. Ives's life is complicated beyond the edge of human reason, and he finds himself battling to save Alice's life and the ruination of his friends, each step forward leading him further into the entanglement, a dark labyrinth from which there is no apparent exit.
Limited:1000 signed numbered hardcover copies: $40******************************************************************************************(no cover art provided for Silverbob)
Announcing The Emperor and the Maula by Robert Silverberg We're thrilled to announce a new novella by Robert Silverberg. Read on for what makes this particular project unique.
Robert Silverberg's The Emperor and the Maula was written in 1992 for an aborted publishing project and has been printed only once, in a radically abbreviated version. This deluxe new edition restores more than 15,000 words of missing text, allowing us to see, for the first time, the author's original intent. The result is both a genuine publishing event and an unexpected gift for Silverberg's legion of readers.
The Emperor and the Maula is Silverberg's Scheherazade tale, the story of a woman telling a story in order to extend--and ultimately preserve--her life. The Scheherazade of this striking story is Laylah Walis, denizen of a far-future Earth which has been invaded and conquered by a star-faring race known as the Ansaarans. Laylah is a "maula," a barbarian forbidden, under pain of death, to set foot on the sacred home worlds of the imperial conquerors. Knowing the risks, Laylah travels to Haraar, home of the galactic emperor himself. Once there, she delays her execution by telling the emperor a story-and telling it well.
That story, the tale within a tale that dominates this book, is, in fact, Laylah's own story. It is also the story of the beleaguered planet Earth, of people struggling, often futilely, to oppose their alien masters and restore their lost independence. Colorful, seamlessly written, and always powerfully imagined, The Emperor and the Maula shows us Grandmaster Silverberg at his representative best. This is science fiction as it should be written, but all too seldom is. No one does it better than Robert Silverberg. No one ever has.
Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, bound in leather: $45Trade: Fully clothbound hardcover edition: $25
― dow, Monday, 17 April 2017 19:26 (seven years ago) link
huh, dunno that one, but I p much ignore his post-Majipoor output
― Οὖτις, Monday, 17 April 2017 19:29 (seven years ago) link
i wish blaylock would write some more modern SoCal novels, i love homunculus as much as the next guy but the californian magic realism is what made him my favorite writer. I shouldn't carp, though-- at least he's writing. And he can move copies in this genre.
<3 U JPB
― iris marduk (Jon not Jon), Monday, 17 April 2017 20:01 (seven years ago) link
Wait are we discussing the cut-off date for Silverbob again? Is it time for a new thread?
― stet, where is thy Zing? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 17 April 2017 20:11 (seven years ago) link
nah
― dow, Monday, 17 April 2017 20:18 (seven years ago) link
If This Goes On —
― stet, where is thy Zing? (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 17 April 2017 20:22 (seven years ago) link
http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/titlecovers.cgi?1878722
Bought this book. Why did it have to have the most boring cover of the lot? (second last)
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Wednesday, 19 April 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
Interested to know what it's like. I've read some of her stories set in an alternate future of Vietnamese star-trabellers, and they were very good.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 20 April 2017 01:59 (seven years ago) link
I liked House of Shattered Wings and, going on the half I've read so far, the sequel (House of Binding Thorns) is better still
― Iain Mew (if), Thursday, 20 April 2017 02:15 (seven years ago) link
Got a really bad habit of buying 50 books for every book I've actually read, but I'm trying to just buy what will become too expensive or disappear soon. Here's some recent ones.
Aliette De Bodard - House Of Shattered WingsAlan Garner - Weirdstone trilogyNK Jemisin - The Fifth SeasonZen Cho - Sorceror To The CrownRamsey Campbell - Far Away And Never (his sword & sorcery stuff)Brendan Connell - Metanatural Adventures Of Dr BlackAlistair Rennie - BleakWarriorMurder BalladsAngela Slatter - SourdoughJessica Amanda Salmonson - Disfavored HeroSarah Orne Jewett - Lady Ferry And Other Uncanny PeopleTanith Lee - Wars Of VisDF Lewis - WeirdmongerGeorge Berguno - The Tainted EarthMarcel Bealu - Experience Of The NightAlfred Kubin - The Other Side (already had this but the new translation is supposed to be better)A Midwinter EntertainmentMario Mercier - Jeanne's JournalColin Insole - Elegies & RequiemsDavid H Keller - Keller MementoRichard Gavin - Sylvan DreadKarin Tidbeck - JagannathDarrell Schweitzer - Awaiting Strange GodsDaniel Mills - Lord Came At TwilightBest New Horror 26Rebecca Lloyd - Ragman And Other Family Curses
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 21 April 2017 00:31 (seven years ago) link
If you ever get round to it, let us know how the new Kubin is. I have the old Penguin Modern Classics version.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 21 April 2017 02:37 (seven years ago) link
And had no idea Sarah Orne Jewett had written ghost stories! I love her stuff--will have to seek these out ASAP.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 21 April 2017 02:38 (seven years ago) link
OK, found out what was in that Jewett collection and have made my own ebook of it (leaving out the 2 stories which are extracts from Country of the Pointed Firs). if anyone is interested, it's at http://www104.zippyshare.com/v/RG1HCa7Y/file.html
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 21 April 2017 03:04 (seven years ago) link
Ha, I've cut back a little on my own bad book buying habit and only own one of those that RAG just bought
― Stupefyin' Pwns (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 21 April 2017 03:07 (seven years ago) link
Actually, fuck Zippyshare, try https://www.dropbox.com/s/kw8hvccsbd9aypc/Sarah%20Orne%20Jewett%20%20-%20Supernatural%20Stories.epub?dl=0
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 21 April 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
Really hated that Kubin book. Just seems to wallow in misery and cruelty in this very distanced, dry tone. You could make a case for it as prophetic of WWI I guess. Reminded me of that Robert Mitchum quote - "movies that shit on mankind".
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 21 April 2017 09:30 (seven years ago) link
Great photo of Robert Blochhttp://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Content.aspx?dsNav=Ny:True,Ro:0,N:4294963828-4294955414&dsNavOnly=Ntk:All%7cRobert+Bloch%7c3%7c,Ny:True,Ro:0&dsRecordDetails=R:IM64463&dsDimensionSearch=D:Robert+Bloch,Dxm:All,Dxp:3&dsCompoundDimensionSearch=D:Robert+Bloch,Dxm:All,Dxp:3
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Tuesday, 25 April 2017 22:08 (seven years ago) link
Intriguing take on VanderMeer's new Borne, ditto on Southern Reach Trilogy, incl. how they differ:http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/24/jeff-vandermeer-amends-the-apocalypse
― dow, Wednesday, 26 April 2017 03:16 (seven years ago) link
half price sale at the musty dusty around the corner. bought:
alastair reynolds - the prefect, chasm city
pamela sargent - the shore of women
james white - the watch below
john c. wright - count to a trillion
charles stross - singularity sky
greg bear - quantico
diann thornley - ganwold's child
jacob transue - twilight of the basilisks
charles sheffield - aftermath
robert charles wilson - spin, axis
jack mcdevitt - chindi, omega, odyssey, seeker, deepsix, the devil's eye, polaris, cauldron
stephen baxter - moonseed
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:26 (seven years ago) link
i guess i'm hoping i'm a jack mcdevitt fan. they just had so many and they all looked kinda fun.
you don't have to worry about order with alastair reynolds books do you? they are all in the same future, right?
one of the reasons i still haven't read the banks culture books is because i feel like i should own them all before i read them. but maybe i really don't.
also have another big bag at home that i got on Thursday from the musty dusty.
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:31 (seven years ago) link
also got 4-disc blade runner, children of men, and cabin boy for $1.75 each. strangely, i've been thinking lately about how i wanted to see children of men AND cabin boy again.
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 15:33 (seven years ago) link
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 16:26
I'm kind of fascinated by Wright. Haven't read his work but I like his influences and some of the approach he seems to be going for and some of his work is supposed to be good. But he's one of the maddest people in fantasy, he has some really bigoty opinions, he has the most pompous online persona I've ever seen, he's one of the main figures of the puppy movement (the speculative fiction version of gamergate) and his main editor/publisher is one of the main alt-right guys. Last time I read his blog he was complaining about witches casting spells on Trump.
George RR Martin arguing with him.http://grrm.livejournal.com/485124.html
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
I'm not reading anything by this guyhttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/John_C_Wright.jpg/160px-John_C_Wright.jpg
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:27 (seven years ago) link
One of his fellow puppies seems to believe left wing people are literally possessed by demons.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:37 (seven years ago) link
Some more recent buys
Rhys Hughes - The Percolated StarsRhys Hughes - Bone Idle In The Charnel HouseAnna Tambour - CrandolinSofia Samatar - A Stranger In OlondriaCaledonia Dreamin (anthology based on Scottish words and slang)
Some I'm still waiting for in the mail
AE Van Vogt - Transfinite: EssentialAvalon Brantley - House Of Silence (she died weeks after this book was announced, it's based on Hodgson's stories)
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
i read john c wright's hugo-nominated story "The Parliament of Beasts and Birds" and it was awful. not linking it because it's posted on a fascist blog.
― Einstein, Kazanga, Sitar (abanana), Thursday, 4 May 2017 17:57 (seven years ago) link
i don't know anything about Wright. i just went by cover/blurbs.
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:13 (seven years ago) link
feel bad that half the paperbacks i read are blurbed by spider robinson and i don't think i've ever bought a spider robinson book. he is blurb king.
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 18:14 (seven years ago) link
> alastair reynolds - the prefect, chasm city
> you don't have to worry about order with alastair reynolds books do you? they are all in the same future, right?
not those two, no. there is a trilogy and chasm city is set in the same universe (and was released just before/after/during it) but isn't part of the trilogy so...
the prefect is a bit of a romp, reminds me of rendezvous with rama. outside of revelation space it might be the one i'd recommend to curious people.
― koogs, Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:36 (seven years ago) link
Robert Charles Wilson's Spin is pretty good
― Brad C., Thursday, 4 May 2017 19:37 (seven years ago) link
still making my way through Ramsey Campbell - The Darkest Part of the Woods. Really great, my first thing by him, I'm taking my time and savoring it.
― gimmesomehawnz (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 4 May 2017 20:42 (seven years ago) link
At his best he's great, I love "The Brood" and "The Fit". There's a fairly clear consensus that his short stories are better but I haven't read any of his novels yet.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 21:00 (seven years ago) link
Never read a bad Ramsey Campbell story but there's quite a lot that didn't do much for me.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 4 May 2017 21:02 (seven years ago) link
okay, the other bag of books i got from the sale. i actually got myself nice barely-read U.K. Mandarin paperbacks of the Gormenghast trilogy which i've never read. they are nice. will read!
robert j. sawyer - rollback, calculating god leigh brackett - alpha centauri or die!, the nemesis from terra, the coming of the terrans
neal asher - gridlinked
zenna anderson - the anything box, holding wonder, the people: no different flesh, pilgrimage
roger zelazny - the last defender of camelot, isle of the dead
ace double: john rackham - treasure of tau ceti/k.m. o'donnell - final war and other fantasies
neal stephenson - snow crash
robert silverberg - the alien years
allen steele - lunar descent
jack williamson - seetee ship/seetee shock
ace double - lan wright - the pictures of pavanne/ellen wobig - the youth monopoly
nancy kress - yesterday's kin
― scott seward, Thursday, 4 May 2017 22:59 (seven years ago) link
Re Scott's haul pt 1:
greg bear - quantico : this is superior snear-future scf-gi crime/technothriller stuff: not winning any awards for prose (not that it's bad, just functional), but it does its thing with inventiveness and is pretty clever
robert charles wilson - spin, axis : these are excellent
jack mcdevitt - chindi, omega : these have some nice ideas, but dodgy prose, and dangers of space/intriguing alien life repeatedly undermined by inadvertent bathos
stephen baxter - moonseed : probably one of his better non-series books
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 5 May 2017 01:17 (seven years ago) link
have you ever heard of those zenna henderson books? i VERY MISTAKENLY wrote "Anderson" above. they look so cool. very much of their time. they've probably been in that store for years and i just never noticed them.
https://www.blackgate.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/The-People-No-Different-Flesh-Zenna-Henderson.jpg
― scott seward, Friday, 5 May 2017 02:00 (seven years ago) link
http://ofearna.us/books/henderson/anything.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ODVReKSiL._SX329_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
http://www.adherents.com/lit/images/aut_Hendeson_AboutAuthors.jpg
― scott seward, Friday, 5 May 2017 02:04 (seven years ago) link
i haven't even read them and i already want to find the hardcovers...
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51q1tQlCJpL.jpg
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51zQUsn-e0L.jpg
― scott seward, Friday, 5 May 2017 02:07 (seven years ago) link
Hmm. SF Encyclopedia gives her as a recommendation. plus we have a winner for least flattering author photo ever.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 5 May 2017 03:13 (seven years ago) link
they made one of her People stories into a t.v. movie with william shatner that i vaguely remember.
― scott seward, Friday, 5 May 2017 03:40 (seven years ago) link
list from January:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/5/13811144/sci-fi-fantasy-book-recommendations-2017
― scott seward, Friday, 5 May 2017 16:41 (seven years ago) link
Those Zenna Henderson stories show up in some classy anthologies. Have yet to read one though.
― Trelayne Staley (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 5 May 2017 16:47 (seven years ago) link