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

C’mon skot, what kind of critical approach is that? Some of his stuff is bland and boring.

Which stuff?

Some of the stuff he wrote after Way Station. Although you called my bluff because I only started a couple of these and didn't make much headway and I can't remember which ones they were so maybe they are not bland and boring after all.

I used to say the same thing about Barrington Bayley and Bob Shaw before I saw the error of my ways.

i'm not critical i guess. i like almost everything i've read by him. i can't think of many people who wrote such cool stuff from the 30s to the 80s.

For example if somebody asked me which P.G. Wodehouse to read, I would tell them to steer clear of The Cat-Nappers aka Aunts Aren’t Gentleman. Which I actually read twice, once under each title.

i think i read that one, though as with all of the jeeves books, i don't know how i could confirm that

is it the one where the plot revolves around the theft of a cow-creamer, i once asked, to be told, well, that's actually more than one of them

"This is the one with the amusing misunderstanding."
"Oh, i've read that one then."

dow asked me to post the syllabus for the Fantasy lit course that I will be assisting with in the Winter term here, so here it is.

This isn't a genre I'm all that familiar with ('cept Harry Potter, really), so I'll likely be hanging out and posting here for the next few months.

kudos for doing lion, witch *before* magician's nephew

Just finished Pamela Sargent's first Women of Wonder anthology, after it was mentioned on this thread a little while ago. It includes an early (and pretty good) story by Marion Zimmer Bradley, 'The Wind People', which contains a strong incest theme - very uncomfortable reading in the light of subsequent revelations. Good stories too from Ursula K Le Guin, Joanna Russ and Vonda N McIntyre, while the nicely ironic/acerbic 'The Food Farm' by Kit Reed was the story I enjoyed most by an author who was new to me. I see from Wiki that Reed died earlier this year - would like to read more by her.

I asked you about that on What Did You Read In 2017, should have come here first as I usually do. Thanks for the syllabus, cryptosicko---the only one I've read (all in one volume, as originally intended, and apparently with a lot of typos corrected) is the Rings trilogy, and that is great, or really really good (the Villain is too murky up "close," but by his works ye shall know him, incl. his corrupted stooges).

This is the one with the amusing misunderstanding."
"Oh, i've read that one then."

― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Monday, December 18, 2017 3:56 AM (five days ago)

Adding a friend in Street Fighter V

Frightfully lazy of me, but does anyone have any reccs for best new stuff read in 2017? Been kind of out of the loop this year

We certainly don't tend to hop on flavor-of-the-nanosecond around here, but in 2017 I read and raved about Kelly Link's fuckin'-finally second collection, Get In Trouble (2015), Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2016 (guest edited by Karen Joy Fowler), and maybe that was when I grokked Naomi Novik's grabber Uprooted. Too lazy to c and p, but my takes are upthread.

Apr. 8-10: Eliezer Yudkowsky (Less Wrong), Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Chapters 1-10)

Ha, that's an interesting assigned reading.

(from cryptosicko's syllabus)

I haven't read it myself but I remember my Potter fan siblings talking about that story. Didn't know it was the Roko's Basilisk guy.

wtf this was the wrong thread xxxxp

reading The Martian - some chat about it upthread (2015, me seeing it in tescos, wondering). i realise it has turned into a big deal in the meantime. it's quite compelling. written as a journal, lots of problem solving. reminds me of a.c.clarke - rama or moondust or something, the science leading the story.

just finished The Affirmation, which is one of those SF Masterworks but reads more like iain (no-M) banks - writer writes a fictionalised account of his life. or does he?

any good? sounds intriguing but "the inverted world" wasn't quite good enough to make me rush out for more.

Not really.

If you not like inverted world, not sure i can cope

thought that might raise some hackles. i didn't think it was *bad*, it just didn't ever rise above its own high concept.

finished The Martian. all through the book he's been throwing worst case scenarios at the poor guy so i settled down this morning to read the last 25 pages fearing the worst. but 16 of those pages were 'read an excerpt from author's new book' (i do hate that) so it all got wrapped up pretty quickly in comparison. was fun in an xkcd / 'if a man needs 1400 calories a day and so much space to grow potatoes, how long until he starves?' maths problem kind of way.

next up, Ready player One.

(Cyrus' favourite book, i see.

the ebook has a generic cover with just the name on the front. does nobody check these things?)

Dear god, koogs, Andy Weir has given you Stockholm syndrome, don't go on with the Cline!

Ha! Was wondering when someone was going to make a comment along those lines and how they would word it. Full marks

40 pages in and i see what you mean. i'm hoping when the plot gets going the writing won't bother me as much as it currently does.

'Rebecca Serle of The Huffington Post described the book as "the grown-up's Harry Potter"'

maybe i'll wait for the film...

Ready Player One is a deeply satisfying hateread.

It's the 80s reference that get me, the clumsy way they are name-dropped in, often 5 at a time. And the little, unnecessary, explanatory comments after each one. Reminds me of Moby Dick in a way, half novel, half Wikipedia.

Don't know about "grown up's Harry Potter", is more like Neuromancer but, y'know, for kids.

"grown up's Harry Potter" = "i have read 5 genre novels"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZ2d00D7Gzg

Temple To Ancient Roman Cult Resurrected Beneath London

groovy pictures too:

http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/12/europe/london-temple-of-mithras/index.html

iirc there was some mithraism in mary stewart's arthur/merlin series

Fredric Jameson on Aldiss's Non-Stop, https://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/2/jameson2art.htm,
in which he compares it to Heinlein's Orphan's of the Sky and Aldiss's own Hothouse.

Aarfh, Orphans not *Orphan’s*

Aargh, aargh not aarfh

LOVE YOU FOREVER, URSULA! one of a kind. so great. so wise.

https://s.hdnux.com/photos/70/75/13/14930636/3/1024x1024.jpg

Oh no! RIP. The best. (Almost wrote 'in her field' but nah, no need.)

From Rolling Reissues 2018:

http://igetrvng.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/FTS009_DIGITAL_COVER_500px.jpg

Ursula K. Le Guin & Todd Barton – Music and Poetry Of The Kesh

Music and Poetry of the Kesh is the documentation of an invented Pacific Coast peoples from a far distant time, and the soundtrack of famed science fiction author, Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home. In the novel, the story of Stone Telling, a young woman of the Kesh, is woven within a larger anthropological folklore and fantasy.

The ways of the Kesh were originally presented in 1985 as a five hundred plus page book accompanied with illustrations of instruments and tools, maps, a glossary of terms, recipes, poems, an alphabet (Le Guin’s conlang, so she could write non-English lyrics), and with early editions, a cassette of “field recordings” and indigenous song. Le Guin wanted to hear the people she’d imagined; she embarked on an elaborate process with her friend Todd Barton to invoke their spirit and tradition.

For Music and Poetry of the Kesh, the words and lyrics are attributed to Le Guin as composed by Barton, an Oregon-based musician, composer and Buchla synthesist (the two worked together previously on public radio projects). But the cassette notes credit the sounds and voices to the world of the Kesh, making origins ambiguous. For instance, “The River Song” description reads, “The prominent rhythm instrument is the doubure binga, a set of nine brass bowls struck with cloth-covered wooden mallets, here played by Ready.”

According to writer and long-time friend of LeGuin, Moe Bowstern (who pens the liners for the Freedom To Spend edition of Kesh), Barton built and then taught himself to play several instruments of Le Guin’s design, among them “the seven-foot horn known to the Kesh as the Houmbúta and the Wéosai Medoud Teyahi bone flute.” Barton’s crafting of original instruments lends an other-worldly texture to the recordings of the Kesh, not unlike fellow builders Bobby Brown and Lonnie Holley. Bowstern notes, “Other musician / makers have crafted their own Kesh instruments after encountering the earlier cassette recordings that accompanied some editions of the book.”

Both Barton and Le Guin are sensitive to the sovereignty of indigenous Californians and were careful not to trample the traditions of the Tolowa people who lived in the valley long before the Kesh. “You research deeply, and then you bring your own voice to the table,” said Barton. Within the Kesh culture, the numbers four and five shape the lives, society and rituals. Barton composed loosely around these numbers, patiently listening to the land of Napa Valley for signs and audio signals from the natural elements. Todd incorporated ambient sounds of the creek by Le Guin’s house and a campfire they built together.

The songs of Kesh are joyful, soothing and meditative, while the instrumental works drift far past the imaginary lands. “Heron Dance” is an uplifting first track, featuring a Wéosai Medoud Teyahi (made from a deer or lamb thigh bone with a cattail reed) and the great Houmbúta (used for theatre and ceremony). “A Music of the Eighth House” sends gossamer waves of the faintest sounds to “float on the wind.” Like the languages invented in the vocal work of Anna Homler, Meredith Monk, and Elizabeth Fraser, the Kesh songs and poems play with the shape of voice.

The Music and Poetry of the Kesh cassette was meant to accompany and enhance the experience of reading Always Coming Home. Presented in this edition as a long-playing album, where only traces of the book linger (the jacket offers some of Le Guin’s illustration, and a letterpressed bookmark featuring the the narrative modes of western civilization and the Kesh valley is included), the music alone breaking the silence of what might be. It can transport—offering a landscape for imagining a future homecoming. One in which we are balanced, peaceful, and tend to the earth and its creatures.

A line from “Sun Dance Poem” reminds us, “We are nothing much without one another.” Freedom To Spend gives new life to the recordings of the Kesh people in the first ever vinyl edition of Music and Poetry of the Kesh also availably on digital formats on March 23, 2018. The LP will include a spot printed jacket with Ursula’s illustrations from Always Coming Home, a facsimile of the original lyric sheet, liner notes by Moe Bowstern, a multi-format digital download code and a bookmark letter pressed by Stumptown Printers in Portland, OR.

First edition limited to 1,000 copies.

https://igetrvng.com/shop/fts009/

― by the light of the burning Citroën, Friday, February 2, 2018 8:42 AM

Why didn't I ever buy the orig. book + cassette??
(Norman Spinrad, otherwise a fairly acerbic reviewer for Asimov's, just went off and off and off on this, the hippie-dippie test and "amateurish" tape---maybe he was right to some extent, dunno, but hard to believe that there weren't some redeeming qualities.)

New Bujold, keep meaning to check her out, mainly the Miles Whatisname stories are what she's known for, it seems---is she good? Didn't know she did fantasy too.

From Subterranean Press newsletter:

https://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/p/e/penrics_fox_by_lois_mcmaster_bujold.jpg

We're due to start shipping Lois McMaster Bujold's latest novella, Penric's Fox, early next week. Given the trade reviews it's received, we expect to be overrun with orders, so why not beat the rush and get yours in?
Limited: 450 signed numbered leatherbound copies: $45
Trade: Fully cloth-bound hardcover edition: $25
From Publishers Weekly:
"Bujold adds mystery to the wry humor that runs through her Penric and Desdemona fantasy series with this entertaining novella... Their unique relationship is full of good-natured banter, all within one physical body. Intriguing secondary characters round out the cast and enliven this unusual fantasy whodunit."
From Booklist:
"Penric and Desdemona are back with friends last encountered in Penric's Mission... Bujold's fans will be delighted with this latest adventure featuring Penric and his resident demon".
From Library Journal:
"With each novella adventure, Bujold continues to expand her 'Five Gods' world, reviving familiar faces along the way. The fascinating relationship between Penric and Desdemona is especially fun."
While we have you, don't forget that we're also accepting orders for Lois' next novella, Mira's Last Dance.

also from SP--mainly incl. cos I like the cover art better than the Bujold's:

https://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/b/l/bloods_a_rover_by_harlan_ellison.jp

Harlan Ellison and his editor, Jason Davis, have painstakingly assembled the whole story of Vic and Blood and Spike from the author’s files, using revised-and-expanded versions of the novella and short stories, interstitial material developed for Richard Corben’s graphic adaptation, and—for the first time—never-before-published material from the aborted 1977 NBC television series Blood’s a Rover to tell the complete story of A Boy and His Dog, and a Girl who is tougher than the other two combined.

(preorder—to be published in June)

Dust jacket illustration by Richard Corben

Edited by Jason Davis

Important Note: There is a limit of one lettered edition per person/household.

Harlan Ellison introduced you to Vic and Blood in 1969’s Nebula Award-winning novella, “A Boy and His Dog.” You thrilled to their on-screen adventures in the 1975 Hugo Award-winning feature film adaptation billed as “a kinky tale of survival.” 1977 and 1980 brought brief reunions in “Eggsucker” and “Run, Spot, Run,” and the promise of another story—and a third solo, Spike, to make the Dystopian Duo a Tribulation Trio—but only audiobooks and comics followed, revisiting the same tales.

Now, nearly fifty years after they first set off across the blasted wasteland, Vic and Blood are back.

Trade: 1500 cloth bound hardcover copies, unsigned

Lettered: 26 signed specially bound copies, housed in a custom traycase*

*Please note that the signature pages for the lettered edition have been repurposed from another project.

Table of Contents:

Editor's Note
Eggsucker
A Boy and His Dog
Run, Spot, Run
Blood's a Rover (teleplay)
more info--brace yerself for the price: https://subterraneanpress.com/bloods-a-rover

Well you'll just have to go there to see Corben's cover, turns out---maybe you can see this one here:

https://subterraneanpress.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/e/n/endymion_by_dan_simmons_1.jpg

Somehow, the product page for Dan Simmons' Endymion disappeared from our site for the better part of a year. It's been restored now, and to welcome it back, today only we're offering copies of this sf epic for only $100, a full $50 off the regular price.
About the Book:
Set hundreds of years after the events recounted in The Fall of Hyperion, Endymion inaugurates a grand new narrative arc, one that explores the themes of The Hyperion Cantos in even greater depth and carries the story forward into a surprising-and thoroughly developed-future.
Endymion takes its title from John Keats's poem about the love of a mortal man for an immortal goddess. By the time the novel begins, the Hegemony of Man has come to a spectacular end, the still dominant TechnoCore has disappeared from public view, and the once moribund Catholic Church has become the principle political power in the now scattered web of inhabited worlds. Against this backdrop, Simmons introduces two vitally important characters: Raul Endymion, convicted murderer and native of the planet Hyperion, and a twelve-year-old girl named Aenea, who is about to step through the Time Tombs and embark on a messianic destiny. Raul's role is to protect her from the forces massed against her and to shepherd her toward her ultimate moment of apotheosis.
Endymion, together with its sequel, The Rise of Endymion, is a colorful, hugely ambitious narrative that also offers a revisionist view of earlier events-events we only thought we understood. Familiar characters-Father Lenar Hoyt, the poet Martin Silenus, the enigmatic and terrifying Shrike-appear in new and unexpected roles. Together with a host of vivid supporting characters and a vast array of brilliantly realized settings, they help set the stage for a memorable and visionary conclusion, while casting a new and sometimes startling light on all that has gone before.
Our edition of Endymion will be an oversize volume, printed on 80# Finch, with a dust jacket and full-color endsheets by John Picacio.
Limited: 474 signed numbered copies: $100

New Bujold, keep meaning to check her out, mainly the Miles Whatisname stories are what she's known for, it seems---is she good? Didn't know she did fantasy too.

Really like the Vorkosigan books - all space opera but varied in that some are mysteries, some military, some political. Some people suggest they can be read as standalone novels but I would recommend reading the series in order as the characters have long story arcs.

Not read any of her fantasy ones but keep meaning to.

People I always get mixed up: Dan Simmons, Peter F Hamilton. Is the former as bad as the latter?

Not usually.

The Hyperion/Endymion books are some of my favourite sci-fi and I've enjoyed lots of his other books (Flashback was absolutely horrible though).

hyperion/endymion is great imo