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

Tough to say, intimidated by his graphomania and other manias myself. Perhaps at this point I prefer his earlier work, based on partial reading of this collection.

I would go with the 2008 reissue of Strange Relations. The original 1953 collection was just five novelettes (including one of my favorite by him, "Mother,") but the new edition adds The Lovers and Flesh, two good early novels. Those seven stories hit most of his major themes and will definitely let you know if you want to dig deeper into his work. One of the novelettes, "Daughter," is a sequel to "Mother" and also a pretty funny retelling of the Three Little Pigs story iirc.

"Mother" definitely a good place to start.

agreed on the ancillary books

Flesh also a fun read for baseball fans, as it has turned into a blood sport in the far future.

Couldn't find anything with Pohl and Bradbury other than a very short clip. Did find this clip of Zelazny reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRQ4wKLfYbc

http://borderlands-books.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/borderlands-books-to-close-in-march.html

I confess in recent years I haven't frequented it as much as I used to (mostly cuz I can't spend as much money on books as I used to and spend a lot more time at the library), sad to see them go though. I made a point of getting that hardback copy of Silverbob's Vol. 3 Short Stories from them just a couple months ago.

Just finished Rogues, yet another xpost George RR Martin & Gardner Dozois-edited loosely thematic anthology of new short stories, novelettes and novellas (I think, though forget the word-limit for each category; some long-ass offerings for sure). I should say "finished with," since I won't bother with yet another Martin bog at the very end: yet another Game Of Thrones prequel, apparently intended to read like a modern-English version of an ancient chronicle (JRRT does it better, RR; sorry, since I gather from some of your dismissals of GOT critiques that you think you're improving on his work in some ways, at least). I know how this (with no dialogue, no scenes per se, just a lot of reference material for your TV writers and fans) will go from skimming and from the one in Dangerous Women. M&D the previous multi-genre entry in M&D's series of collections. That one was a lot richer and even deeper overall: maybe roguery is just too cute a linkage for so many stories at once? Or I can't handle lightening up, especially in transitioning from My Brilliant Friend and The Brothers Karamazov? Nah, it's the editors' fault!
But, of the stories most relevant to this thread (multi-genre, like I said with some good light mystery/caper yarns), Carrie Vaughn's "Roaring Twenties" (flappers who are actually witches on a mission, in an enchanted yet lobby-Fed-hacked speakeasy), has feminine narrative perspectives x interactions on the fly, ditto Lisa Tuttle's "The Curious Affair of The Dead Wives" (spooky late-Victorian love/sex quests, gender-self-image and other personal adjustments, plus power struggles, going bump in the night).
Scott Lynch is just a guy, but his witches are positively sassy with the resourceful responses in "A Year and A Day In Old Theradine." Think Leiber and Vance would approve. (They're both name dropped in Martin's intro, as is Howard, but I'll have to take RR's word for the roguery of Conan.)
Daniel Abraham's "The Meaning of Love" also moves right along with the lucid twists, but more bittersweet, in cycles of majors and minors, like a good who-knows-how-old robust folk ballad. Somewhat similar shading/realness but in a pastoral setting and different-enough voice: Patrick Rothfuss's "The Lightning Tree," whose central figure is like a more sensitive Tom Sawyer, albeit one who is evidently a fairy, the kind with an eye for human lasses (and vice-versa, though they may not be---well, you'll see).
The most surprising story is Paul Cornell's "A Better Way To Die," about a good subject of a bad (and/or mad? Or just superrealpolitik) king and regime and way of life, a subject and brave agent who truly believes in "the balance" when the king and some senior advisors shift between levels of cultural piety. integrity, sanity---can we really continue a sense of reality and power based on primogeniture when multiple realities are the seemingly do-able New World(s)? Somehow, this seems like a serious question here, as the cards and scenes are re-shuffled and played. The author has written Dr Who scripts. also for Batman & Robin and Wolverine comics (and a Superman graphic novel at my library), so maybe all that helped with roping me in, as it prob did re my early hero Alfred Bester.

"wobbly-Fed-hacked," the Fed hacker is wobbly, baby, geez what a small screen sorry all the fluffs here.

JRRT does it better, RR; sorry, since I gather from some of your dismissals of GOT critiques that you think you're improving on his work in some ways, at least

lol

"you know what Lord of the Rings is really missing? Quality rape scenes"

Yeah, his basic defense (vs all kinds of objections) is "I bring the realness to fantasy." But Westerns doesn't *realleee* have a culture: despite "let's put in some relationships" from time to time, activities, incl sexual (voluntary and otherwise) mine a narrow vein.

Westeros! Damn you small-screen autocorrect!

Sorry, I'll try not to do this at the library from now on.

But Westeros doesn't *realleee* have a culture

aggh yes thank you this bugs the shit out of me! (full disclosure I have only watched the show I am not bothering w the books) His version of realism is like some parody of 80s comics "they're not just for kids any more!" reportage - ie, "realism" = boobs + blood.

the huge cultural forces/institutions of the middle ages that he draws inspiration from - religion, lyric/epic poetry, regional traditions/holidays/celebrations - these are all either waaaaaay in the background in GoT or totally ignored altogether

(I meant he draws his inspiration from the middle ages there, if that wasn't clear)

few things turn me into a JRRT/LOTR stan faster than seeing someone claim that GOT is more adult/mature/complex (etc) because it's more violent or (worse) "darker" than tolkien.

Yeah his big rejoinder is, "What's Aragorn's tax policy?" ooooo---but what's Joffrey's tax policy, or that of anybody else on the Iron Throne or other Thrones. Do the peasants (or whomever) pay tribute and if so when do they harvest or mine or weave or distill or etc.? Everybody's fighting fleeing fucking drinking plotting arguing snarking talking talking talking 24/7 All's I know of their economy is the dwarf Hand of The King said the Iron Throne was far beyond overdrawn at the Bank of Something cos forever war.
(Again, this is the show: hopefully the novels are better than this, and much better than the "chronicles," which are wayyy worse than the show)

Beyond the big institutional stuff like religion and economics (which, granted, are only dealt with peripherally by Tolkien), he gives some sense of the culture all the characters are embedded in - the songs they sing, the things they like to eat, what they smoke, the stories they tell - you get a sense of the lives of average people. there's none of this GoT, it's all scheming and nursing old grudges and fatalism plus boobs

Tolkien is so fucking bucolic, where's all the high infant mortality, infectious diseases, serious cancer problem from all the pipe smoking.

shakey are you actually comparing the amount of detail in the LOTR books vs a tv show? this is bizarre and pointless even for you

I don't think that's what I'm doing, no

Tolkien is so fucking bucolic, where's all the high infant mortality

Among the hobbits aside, there don't actually seem to be any infants at all

The comparison is fair, considering four seasons of GOT, with no commercials breaking up the epic eps. I enjoy them sometimes, from moment to moment, but overall they do slog on, with no particular takeaway. I hope the novels are better

Is it four now, or five? No prob waiting for Season Whatevs DVDs to show up at my village library, this spring maybe.

Reading around in this Damon Knight anthology of ghost stories called The Golden Road. So far so good.

is there an sf/fantasy book covers/art thread? or should I start one? or just image bomb this thread

Rolling fantastical art thread (including fantasy/horror/weird art, surrealism/visionary, religious spectacle art and subtly strange art)
I'd be happy if you used this thread. It's not getting much action.

that doesn't quite seem to fit the bill for what I had in mind (ie Charles Moll book covers)

Charles Moll fits in fantasy though. I made that thread for everything from Bosch, Dali to pulps, paperbacks and all sorts of commercial art.
Start another thread if you insist something more specific but I just wanted anything fantastical or weird in there.

reading this now. more than 300,000 words! SF size queens crack me up. so far nothing has flattened me or made me ponder my existence, but it has been entertaining.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10968501_10153689509587137_1212808210369550914_n.jpg?oh=d35d015f6380e049278f231d4045112e&oe=554FD1CE&__gda__=1431543256_cbb0d020b32b3a57fadcd471ad3d13dd

I think I might have saw that recently because I'm sure I seen a "year's best" collection of surprising size.

that cover is terrible

steam monkeys

Used to read those Dozois anthologies religiously, but in recent years there seems to have been a bit of a fall-off in quality. Or maybe I'm just less in sympathy with current trends in SF short stories. i don't know. There seems to be a standard sort of voice used by most of the anthologised writers -- Robert Reed is a prime example -- which I am a bit bored by even though I can't quantify why. Or maybe it's just that Ted Chiang keep not writing new stories often enough.

Aaargh, I see that j michael straczynski is writing the TV version of 'Red Mars'. I don't see that this can end well.

oh man red mars on t.v.???!!!!

will watch no matter how bad...

i swear i was JUST thinking of how that would be cool for t.v. especially if they really followed the books.

That's really too bad they have straczysnski on it

there's no way this will be good

Used to read those Dozois anthologies religiously, but in recent years there seems to have been a bit of a fall-off in quality. Or maybe I'm just less in sympathy with current trends in SF short stories I gave on 'em too. It's like he (while turning out so damned many collections, various series and stand-alones) just stopped doing much close reading, and I went from liking maybe 50-60-70% of each volume to---much less, or so it seemed (as in the recent, weaker co-edits with Martin, they get longer as they get worse, thus any bad story can have outsize impact, making the overall impression even worse). And yeah, the last one I read had a really barfy story narrated by the maudlin owner of a dying doggie: a *Robert Reed* story, of all things, and I used to really enjoy the solemn pulp vitality of his salad days. Seems like a Dozois fave too, and there they are, circling the drain together. I guess I'll give the series another shot one of these days, though.

Think it's him, more than any overall SF trends, though I guess his taste has some influence.

How's the xpost Damon Knight ghost story collection, James? Edited or written by him? Either way, didn't know he was into ghosts; intriguing.

that Babylon 5 guy wrote for this awesome show:

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

after he left his writing gig at He-Man...

He-Man and the Masters of the Universe – Staff Writer; wrote 9 episodes
She-Ra: Princess of Power – Uncredited Co-Story Editor; wrote 9 episodes
Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors – Staff Writer; wrote 11 episodes and script for undeveloped movie
The Real Ghostbusters – Story Editor; wrote 21 episodes and Primetime Special
Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future – Executive Story Editor; wrote 13 episodes
The New Twilight Zone – Story Editor; wrote 11 episodes
Jake and the Fatman – Executive Story Editor; wrote 5 episodes
Murder, She Wrote – Co-Producer; wrote 7 episodes
Walker Texas Ranger – Supervising Producer; wrote 1 episode
Babylon 5 – Executive Producer; wrote 92 episodes
Crusade – Executive Producer; wrote 10 episodes
Jeremiah – Executive Producer; wrote 22 episodes
Sense8 – Executive Producer; wrote 10 episodes

And that's neglecting his amazingly shoddy comics output

i kinda want to read the script he wrote for the undeveloped jayce and the wheeled warriors movie.