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

xp Re William Sloane, I posted about one of those two novels in the Horror Novels/Short Stories thread recently:

I don't know how I missed William Sloane's The Edge of Running Water (1939) for so long. It's exactly the sort of mad scientist story you'd expect to have been made into a Karloff movie, but the book is quite a bit weirder and more dreadful than I expected. Slick rather than pulpy prose keeps you wondering if the story will turn toward mystery or SF or horror. It's set in Maine and some scenes are Stephen King avant la lettre.

I've been trying to get the other novel included in the Rim of Morning collection from the library, but that copy seems to have vanished into another dimension, so maybe I'll spring for the NYRB paperback.

there is this guy around the corner from my house and he has this HUGE space devoted to selling books on Amazon, but also tons of shelves devoted to non-Amazon stuff and he is open to the public. I'm usually the only one in there when I'm there. a true mixed bag inside. he buys humongous cardboard tubs from the Salvation Army filled with books and usually has a few sitting outside filled to the rim with stuff not Amazon-worthy. the things must weigh a ton. anyway, his SF section has grown over time and I do find things there worth bringing home. all the paperbacks are 2 bucks and the hardcovers are usually 5 bucks. this sunday I bought:

michael swanwick - tales of old earth & gravity's angels story collections. (been meaning to find story collections of his for a while.)

ian whates - the noise revealed (never heard of him. and after I bought it I noticed that it was the 2nd book set in the same universe with same characters. so, might need to find the first one...)

eric brown - the kings of eternity (again, never heard of him. blurb-whore Stephen Baxter is a fan...)

gareth l. powell - the recollection (these last three all Solaris paperbacks. they look cool anyway. and I want to try new things.)

anyway, this place down the street is kind of an unlikely spot, but I find stuff that I would never find in an actual bookstore. lots of early 21st century stuff. a lot of it doesn't look thrilling, but enough to have me going back every couple of months. he must buy remainders in bulk.

was tempted to buy those dan simmons Ilium/Olympos hardcovers there but I don't think I can do the Greek god thing. been meaning to read him too though. since I know so many writers love his stuff.

hyperion is where it's at

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.