that's a p impressive list of authors
― Οὖτις, Monday, 12 June 2017 20:01 (seven years ago) link
Would recommend Simn Morden: At the Speed of Light to anyone here like James Redd who enjoyed Carter Scholz, Ian Sales, etc
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 13 June 2017 02:48 (seven years ago) link
Will check out, thanks
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 13 June 2017 03:00 (seven years ago) link
Also he's Simon and i cannot type
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 13 June 2017 08:09 (seven years ago) link
Figured that out.
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 13 June 2017 11:19 (seven years ago) link
Started reading Jack McDevitt's Deepsix. McDevitt is apparently the heir to Asimov, Clarke, Anderson, Simak, AND Pohl. Hey, blurbs don't lie.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 13 June 2017 17:14 (seven years ago) link
Is there a realist oil painting of a spaceship on the cover
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 13 June 2017 18:03 (seven years ago) link
it's actually not too realist. i like his covers. they make me want to read them.
http://www.sfreviews.com/graphics/Jack%20McDevitt_2001_Deepsix.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 04:17 (seven years ago) link
i like the font on a lot of his paperbacks...
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/514mc6OXDTL._SX308_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
― scott seward, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 04:21 (seven years ago) link
Reading Ubik, my first PDK. It's good so far! Read eight pages. The writing is *way* more graceful than High Castle, which I found almost unreadable.
― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 13:12 (seven years ago) link
I mean, actually unreadable, because I couldn't finish it.
Ubik is amazing. Definitely in the top 5 of the 15 or so pkd i have read
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 14:54 (seven years ago) link
yeah it's peak PKD
High Castle is overrated imo
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:00 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, feel like there is too much, um, naturalism and not enough paranoia.
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:12 (seven years ago) link
turns out the i ching is not really a great sf author
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 14 June 2017 15:17 (seven years ago) link
Ubik is maybe my favourite PKD
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Thursday, 15 June 2017 02:56 (seven years ago) link
Tell it to the homeopape!
― Guidonian Handsworth Revolution (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 15 June 2017 03:25 (seven years ago) link
High Castle is not an especial PKD favourite of mine either, but I'm slightly puzzled by Chuck Tatum saying that it's the quality of the writing that put him off. Dick was never known to be an particularly elegant prose stylist - could be downright clumsy/ugly when he was really churning books out - but it's generally agreed that High Castle is his most 'polished' SF novel. He spent a comparatively long time writing it, it was a rare hardcover original for him, and it won him his only Hugo award. Whereas the opening chapter of UBIK has always struck me as quite an clunky beginning, before the whole thing hits that sweet PKD zone.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 15 June 2017 08:14 (seven years ago) link
Oh, and I recently started Blood Music by Greg Bear, but the first twenty or so pages were so filled with science-speak - that I didn't understand a word of - I quickly set it aside. 'Hard SF' is just not for me, I guess.
― Bernie Lugg (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 15 June 2017 08:17 (seven years ago) link
I don't think I'd enjoy super Hard SF either but I value the existence of niche and obscure art more than ever, even if it makes me feel frustrated and insecure sometimes. Anything that makes the "plot and relatable/likable characters are all that matters" crowd miserable is a good thing.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 15 June 2017 14:18 (seven years ago) link
the opening chapter of UBIK
iirc a significant chunk of this chapter is descriptions of people's ridiculous clothes, which, tbh I always find hilarious
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 June 2017 15:38 (seven years ago) link
i like reading technical stuff for some reason. even though i'm dumb. i like reading really long interviews with audio engineers and stuff like that as well. even though i'm dumb. i find it soothing. i figure i'll get the gist of it. i am the least math and science-oriented person you will ever meet.
― scott seward, Thursday, 15 June 2017 16:22 (seven years ago) link
i like that too, it's like I'm resting on a thick comfortable mattress of science which I do not understand at all but feels good on my back
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Thursday, 15 June 2017 17:08 (seven years ago) link
JnJ otm!
― scott seward, Thursday, 15 June 2017 17:55 (seven years ago) link
this blish story ("this earth of ours") from 1959 mentions "lysergic acid grenades"? Who was hip to LSD back then?
Blish worked for Pfizer after WWII, maybe that's how he heard about it. I wonder if that phrase gave Brian Aldiss the idea for Barefoot in the Head.
― alimosina, Thursday, 15 June 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
yeah I made that connection to
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 June 2017 18:11 (seven years ago) link
too
Whereas the opening chapter of UBIK has always struck me as quite an clunky beginning,
Interesting! Given how much I'm enjoying Ubik I will probably go back and try MITHC again. The first chapter of Ubik is entertaining, though! It's full of exposition but I like how the PKD narrator keeps including jaded phrases like "of course" and "as usual" as if everything happening is just the same old same old - it's quite a nifty way of doing world-building without being square about it. (I'm guessing this is a typical PKD trope?)
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 June 2017 22:50 (seven years ago) link
Yeah lol I read this description and was, like, I have no fucking idea how to picture this but it's funny and gets the vibe across:
He wore a varicolored Dacron wash-and-wear suit, knit cummerbund and dip-dyed cheese-cloth cravat. His head, massive like a tomcat’s, thrust forward as he peered through slightly protruding, round and warm and highly alert eyes.
― Chuck_Tatum, Thursday, 15 June 2017 22:54 (seven years ago) link
(I'm guessing this is a typical PKD trope?)
this is def a thing he does a lot. The off-the-wall descriptions in the opening chapter stuck out to me though, in that it seems like a sustained riff that I don't remember him really leaning on much in other books. (He does generally have a tendency to throw in silly/cheap elements into any given scene but he really lays it on thick in the beginning of Ubik)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 15 June 2017 22:57 (seven years ago) link
got this for father's day, looks fantastic. Pic of him on the jacket is great, sad that he died when he was only 34
https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fd.gr-assets.com%2Fbooks%2F1376407621l%2F41605.jpg&f=1
― Οὖτις, Monday, 19 June 2017 19:18 (seven years ago) link
that looks great
iirc he had abominable oral hygiene (where did i read that)
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Monday, 19 June 2017 20:26 (seven years ago) link
aw the lovable scamphttps://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nndb.com%2Fpeople%2F218%2F000077984%2Fcmk-2.gif&f=1
― Οὖτις, Monday, 19 June 2017 20:27 (seven years ago) link
Damon Knight, The Futurians.
Kornbluth said there was a story in his family that one day when a passerby cooed at him in his baby carriage, he announced, "Madam, I am not the child you think me." His parents, like Wollheim's, were nonreligious Jews; Kornbluth didn't find out about dietary laws until one summer at Grossinger's, a famous Jewish resort in the Catskills, when he innocently asked the waitress for ham and eggs.He had a deep voice, Tartar eyes and a sullen expression. He rarely smiled, and when he did, did not expose his teeth. The reason for this may have been that he never brushed them, and they were green.
He had a deep voice, Tartar eyes and a sullen expression. He rarely smiled, and when he did, did not expose his teeth. The reason for this may have been that he never brushed them, and they were green.
― alimosina, Monday, 19 June 2017 22:59 (seven years ago) link
That first sentence quoted there caused genuine lols
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Tuesday, 20 June 2017 01:31 (seven years ago) link
Books i find on the street pt. 973 pic.twitter.com/r6bL235Gsu— Chief Rocketeer (@JoshuaBizabcock) June 20, 2017
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 15:43 (seven years ago) link
that cover fucking ROCKS
― or at night (Jon not Jon), Tuesday, 20 June 2017 15:44 (seven years ago) link
1955!
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 15:47 (seven years ago) link
Silverbob's first published book
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 15:48 (seven years ago) link
trying to remember what paperback that kornbluth cover is from...i know i have it at home.
― scott seward, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 16:14 (seven years ago) link
looks like a Richard M. Powers
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 16:17 (seven years ago) link
yeah, he was so awesome. the painting was for sale!
http://www.artnet.com/artists/richard-powers/man-on-earth-paperback-cover-b4rsyQCyN6t4VOT32cZGUA2
― scott seward, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 16:25 (seven years ago) link
best covers:
https://www.google.com/search?newwindow=1&biw=1366&bih=662&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=richard+powers+paperback+cover&oq=richard+powers+paperback+cover&gs_l=img.3...34350.43905.0.44353.68.42.5.0.0.0.171.3778.28j12.40.0....0...1.1.64.img..33.14.1319...0j35i39k1j0i67k1j0i7i30k1j0i7i5i30k1j0i8i7i10i30k1j0i8i7i30k1.nSUULVYWjAU#imgrc=_
― scott seward, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 16:27 (seven years ago) link
Andy Partridge agrees: http://chalkhills.org/reelbyreal/a_Powers.html
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 16:43 (seven years ago) link
Just read the first two stories (the second almost a novelette, developmentally as well as length-wise) in Kelly Link's Get In Trouble: immediately tasty bits but positively 0 spoon-feeding the reader. Respect!
― dow, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 17:27 (seven years ago) link
Anybody else getting mostly links instead of images? Seems to be a general ILX thing these days.
― dow, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 17:28 (seven years ago) link
Links work, but still.
― dow, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
ooh thx for the heads up on new Link, will get
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 20 June 2017 17:30 (seven years ago) link
An intriguing translation wishlist
http://thebedlamfiles.com/commentary/foreign-novels-in-translation-my-twelve-most-wanted/
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Thursday, 22 June 2017 22:45 (six years ago) link
huh curious about the Hungarian, never heard of him before
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 22 June 2017 22:49 (six years ago) link