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

There's some stuff there I have to get, like the Jean Lorrain, but that is possibly the worst publisher name ever, even more so than Cheeky Frawg.

I like it. Justin Isis probably named it, definitely sounds like him.

Affordable copies of Marcel Bealu's Experience Of The Night showed up on amazon recently.

Man, I tried Stephen Baxter's new War of the Worlds sequel, The Massacre of Mankind, but it combines a lack of Wells's wit and brevity with a surfeit of Baxter's clunky prose and dialogue, so gave up on THAT

I enjoyed Wool, although questions remain. (Where were they pumping the water to? What about the bends?) And the geometry of the place still alludes me, the distance between floors, the radius.

Not sure I want to bother with the other 2 though.

Hadn't seen this before: PKD's Lies Inc., “one of his last novels, expanded from the novella The Unteleported Man.” Anybody read either of these?

https://www.amazon.com/Lies-Inc-Philip-K-Dick-ebook/dp/B005LVR0AG/ref=pd_ys_c_rfy_25_27?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B005LVR0AG&pd_rd_r=JJTBVE5DG28YTQVN05M6&pd_rd_w=y3cig&pd_rd_wg=DTxM6&psc=1&refRID=F8XCYGDG2C44PND6X229

It's all right but it's maybe the fourth- or fifth-best novel he published in 1964 ... I read the Lies, Inc. version and it did not seem substantially weirder or more incoherent than some other Dick novels.

It's probably most interesting in the context of his 1963-64 outpouring -- all of those books feel tightly interrelated.

Yeah i agree w that assessment

Adam Roberts' The Thing Itself, disappointing. Was expecting something a bit cerebral, got something somewhere in between Robert Rankin and Dan Brown, and as ludicrous as either of them. Central idea itself was pretty clever, if flawed, & ok I have a degree in philosophy but I don't think it needed explaining four or five or six times.

KSR's Aurora much more my cup of tea. He manages to make a feature out of the usual bug of dry prose and info dumps by having it narrated by an AI, with a nascent interest in creative writing.

agreed re: Aurora. Although part of me thinks it's emblematic of KSR's shortcomings as a writer that his best-written character in the book is the AI. I do wish he'd break out of his hard-sciences straitjacket sometimes.

plugging the gaps in my Silverbob reading - so far I would say "Downward to the Earth" is top tier

KSR is like Marilynne bleedin' Robinson compared to Greg Egan.

from a discussion of KSR, esp. Green Earth, upthread aways:

"a more poetic or metaphysically inclined writer would have done something more interesting with the ship AI in the final stretch but eh whatever": It may be that his poetic or poetically-inclined side and his POV on science and technology don't mesh---Green Earth seemed wobbly sometimes, but the strongest passages (by far) are those where he goes for what he knows, as an outdoors guy, and in related love for Thoreau and Emerson (incl. the tension between them, which he surely feels as an outdoors/indoors guy, ingesting info and pounding out all those books), and some for Tibetan Buddhism too.

― dow, Monday, July 25, 2016 9:08 PM (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also, he's observed the lives of scientists, in Southern Cali and DC, so that helps, even if he still doesn't pull it all together (at least in this one-volume mix-down of the original trilogy, which I still haven't read).

― dow, Monday, July 25, 2016 9:12 PM (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

he is great at describing natural phenomenon and environments (although I do routinely have to look up some of his terminology, dude is so specific!), and I agree that's where his poetic side shines through. what I was getting at though is something that has to do with more basic plotting and conceptualizing in his work - he's very much bound by a commitment to scientifically-based realism, there's no real room for the fantastic or mystical or metaphysical, even in instances where it might improve the story. So where someone like, say, Arthur C. Clarke could thread the needle and employ both where appropriate, KSR doesn't let anything even remotely "unrealistic" creep in, everything is restricted by cold hard facts. I feel like the few instances where he breaks this rule are when he finds some way to artificially extend the lives of his characters, but maybe he just thinks that is more plausible than interdimensional hyper-aliens or whatever.

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, July 26, 2016 1:57 PM (six months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Reminds me, I should read some more Clarke, maybe incl. the late collabs w Baxter, can see how they might be compatible.

― dow, Tuesday, July 26, 2016
(Later that week, James Morrison says the collabs def seem mostly Baxter.)

Think the opening quote was maybe Οὖτις, re Aurora?

yes

Greatly enjoyed the sweep and careful tracking of The Wild Shore, though read it eons ago.

Yeah I read wild shore last year, it's really really special.

a more poetic or metaphysically inclined writer would have done something more interesting with the ship AI in the final stretch but eh whatever

It does wax somewhat poetic after it discovers the power of lo-ove. I thought its development was handled pretty well overall. Some metaphysics does creep in with the ghosts but I couldn't tell if it was an attempt to circumvent realism, or to add a bit of local but realistic colour (people do think they see ghosts after all), or a bit of misdirection. Also why was Freya so tall...

Anyway definitely minded to try more KSR, maybe the wild shore although I don't generally hanker after post-apocalyptic scenarios.

just go back to Red Mars

Yeah I was thinking of doing that, cos might have some good outdoors stuff along with the hard science in the dome or whatevs

the mythic arc of John Boone in the first one is really well done, one of my favorite things about it, but yeah there's tons of hard science/martian geography too

RIP Edward Bryant
https://www.blackgate.com/2017/02/11/ed-bryant-august-27-1945-february-10-2017/

Another obituary
http://file770.com/?p=33402

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/14/515193632/author-philip-pullman-announces-a-follow-up-trilogy-to-his-dark-materials

Cool! It's been more than 10 years since I read the original trilogy, but there's enough time to re-read the books before October 19.

finished "Downward to the Earth" = def one of Silverberg's best, v impressive all the way through. Funny that he didn't think much of it at the time.

"the mythic arc of John Boone in the first one is really well done, one of my favorite things about it, but yeah there's tons of hard science/martian geography too"

there's lots of stuff in those books that will end up being the future mythology of the planet along with Boone. future lore. Coyote, Hiroko and her secret colony, the kids who grow up weird. they are kinda the most memorable too. more memorable than most of the Russian characters anyway. and then the Bedouins show up! there is a friggin' ton of geography, that's for sure, but lots of other stuff too.

Not sure if this is the right thread, but someone I like gave me Patricia Briggs Moon Called to read. Is there any chance I will like this? Is there a crappy genre fiction thread?

I didn't realize he was a werewolf at first. My nose isn't at its best when surrounded by axle grease and burnt oil -- and it's not like there are a lot of stray werewolves running around Eastern Washington. So when someone made a polite noise near my feet to get my attention I thought he was a customer.

That's enough for me.

Ann Leckie's Ancillary aka Imperial Radch trilogy: come for the space opera. stay for the novel of stifling manners and social mores. Or not - the first one was about 80-20 in favour of the SF, the second one flips that around and there's only so much tea and exquiste porcelain and "begging the fleet captain's indulgence" I can take, though it's impressive in a way how she's carved out this brand new (afaik) niche. Any hints on how the third compares?

Meanwhile because the key to the main door of our holiday flat in Morocco is little and the key to the flat itself is big I've started John Crowley's Little, Big.

I'm slowly picking off unread titles from this list -

https://www.worldswithoutend.com/lists_pringle_sf.asp

so I too have just finished Silverberg's Downward to the Earth, and agree w/ Shakey that it's very good. I guess the only criticism I would make is that the final revelation isn't anywhere near as surprising as Silverberg seems to think it is.

Have now moved on to another title from that list, M. John Harrison's The Centauri Device. This is a space opera romp a la The Stars My Destination, only full of casual sexism and casual rockism. Slips down easy enough, but hardly one of the 100 best ever.

Tbf even m john harrison doesn't think it's very good

"Any hints on how the third compares?"

the first is best by far but if you like that world/characters the 2nd and 3rd are entertaining enough.

But does anything happen in the third? Nothing does in the second!

yeah, stuff happens. more happens actually. it's more space opera-ish.

Discovering SF with LOTS of neologisms doesn't translate well to audiobook format: not being able to see the words on the page means you often have no idea what the funky made-up words even are, let alone what their derivation might be.

Just started reading The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016, so far really good. John Joseph Adams (who does the foreword) is the series editor, Karen Joy Fowler (intro) is guest editor:

Foreword ix
Introduction xvi
sofia samatar. Meet Me in Iram 1
from Meet Me in Iram/Those Are Pearls

kelly link. The Game of Smash and Recovery 10
from Strange Horizons

adam johnson. Interesting Facts 25
from Harper’s Magazine

catherynne m. valente. Planet Lion 46
from Uncanny Magazine

kij johnson. The Apartment Dweller’s Bestiary 63
from Clarkesworld Magazine

s. l. huang. By Degrees and Dilatory Time 75
from Strange Horizons

liz ziemska. The Mushroom Queen 87
from Tin House

dexter palmer. The Daydreamer by Proxy 101
from The Bestiary

rachel swirsky. Tea Time 107
from Lightspeed Magazine

julian mortimer smith. Headshot 122
from Terraform

salman rushdie. The Duniazát 127
from The New Yorker

nick wolven. No Placeholder for You, My Love 137
from Asimov’s Science Fiction

maria dahvana headley. The Thirteen Mercies 158
from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

dale bailey. Lightning Jack’s Last Ride 174
from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

will kaufman. Things You Can Buy for a Penny 196
from Lightspeed Magazine

charlie jane anders. Rat Catcher’s Yellows 207
from Press Start to Play

sam j. miller. The Heat of Us: Notes Toward an Oral History 219
from Uncanny Magazine

seth dickinson. Three Bodies at Mitanni 234
from Analog Science Fiction and Fact

vandana singh. Ambiguity Machines: An Examination 254
from Tor.com

ted chiang. The Great Silence 273
from e-flux journal

Contributors’ Notes 279
Notable Science Fiction and Notable Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories of 2015 291

Interesting. Have see that on the shelf at the library but so far resisted borrowing.

really dig *Up The Walls Of The World* by James Tiptree. it's a swirling crystal ship of a book. she leaves so much up to the imagination as far as the non-earth stuff goes and everyone who reads the book is going to have a completely different interpretation of what things might look like.

finished my second shakey recommendation and agree that 'downward to the earth' is very good and that the final revelation is indeed not a surprise (although maybe it was moreso when he wrote it?). naming that character kurtz is heavy-handed though.

liked this one better than my other shakey recommendation, 'jem'.

the silverberg is wonderfully written and helps salvage 1970 from the brutality of 'tau zero'

Tau zero is all-time fuiud

Fuiud? Is that good or bad?

I read that and, I think, Forever War, back to back and they were very similar.

Ted Chiang anthology currently 1.29 of your English pounds on Amazon UK btw

Have always avoided Poul Anderson because of his rightwingness

Wish there were more fans of him here so I could create a thread called Poll Anderson: the Poul Anderson Poll.

Heard he was pretty homophobic but he seems interesting because Moorcock was insistent that Broken Sword was like Lord Of The Rings but better and Anderson was said to have brought in some aspects of realism into fantasy (he complained that other writers treat horses as if they were motorbikes) and a lot of his fantasy books do sound cool.

Another right wing arsehole eh, oh well. I wasn't planning on reading anything else by him but tau zero is a great piece of bonkers hard sf *turned up to eleven*, when by the end (spoiler alert) they're just tooling around in null space at infinity kph waiting for the next universe to be born i wanted to smoke what he was smoking. Wondered if there was a slight nod to it at the end of ksr's aurora.

In other news, John Crowley's Little, Big: holy shit so outta here.

lol what does that mean?

I bumped the John Crowley thread with a less opaque post.

i didn't even know we had one. it's a wonderful book.