ᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥ THE ILX ALL-TIME SPECULATIVE FICTION POLL - NOMINATIONS & DISCUSSION THREAD ᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥ

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I've only nominated two things so here ya go sleeve:

Marge Piercy - Woman on the Edge of Time

(obv. that KJA/LRH abomination was a joke but... all Scientology shit aside there are a few L. Ron works that are pretty good reads -- Fear being the one that comes to the top of my head... don't think it deserves a nom though...)

no pop, no style -- all simply (Viceroy), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:14 (thirteen years ago) link

thank you!

sleeve, Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:16 (thirteen years ago) link

Apuleius - The Golden Ass

this is an amazing book but I don't really see how it qualifies. unless we're gonna include the Iliad and the Odyssey and Satyricon and god knows how many others

Brain Aldiss - Report On Probability A

I was kinda disappointed with this. although I did almost nominate Barefoot in the Head.

William Burroughs - The Naked Lunch

was torn about this, went for his final trilogy instead, which is on the whole a more coherent work imho

never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:27 (thirteen years ago) link

I think Report on Probability A is kind of amazing. Although when I first read it I wasn't aware of its inspiration, Last Year at Marienbad, which I still have yet to see.

ledge, Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:38 (thirteen years ago) link

haha okay lol I hadn't heard that before

never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:38 (thirteen years ago) link

(although I haven't seen Last Year at Marienbad either. seems like the kind of thing I would have trouble convincing my wife to sit through)

never meant to heart anyone (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:38 (thirteen years ago) link

hah jeez what hasn't been influenced by Last Year at Marienbad? I still haven't seen it either... def. a big mark i need to check off...

no pop, no style -- all simply (Viceroy), Wednesday, 16 February 2011 23:53 (thirteen years ago) link

Oh, fuck, yeah--
Adolfo Bioy Cesares: The Invention of Morel (which was the inspiration for Last Year at Marienbad)
and Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor
are 2 literary sci-fis I would love for someone else to nominate, since I long used up all mine. The first one is about virtual reality/holograms/3D projections; the second about parallel worlds

the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:02 (thirteen years ago) link

Isaac Asimov – Foundation

is this being used to mean "foundation trilogy"? because the first one doesn't hold up that well on its own without the other two (which are awesome).

def hope it doesn't mean "foundation series," as those 800-page sequels asimov wrote in the '80s are unreadably awful.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:04 (thirteen years ago) link

the fourth one was okay iirc, but yeah def stop there

invention of morel otm

mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:11 (thirteen years ago) link

consider those two both nominated james, i've pretty much run out anyway.

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:15 (thirteen years ago) link

Think his names is Casares not Cesares

Lullaby of Boradland (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:43 (thirteen years ago) link

that will cost you a nomination

mookieproof, Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:44 (thirteen years ago) link

Fine with me. I think I have a few left. Was considering nominating some unmentioned M. John Harrison and Christopher Priest books but didn't want to dilute the vote further

Lullaby of Boradland (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 00:52 (thirteen years ago) link

Apuleius - The Golden Ass

this is an amazing book but I don't really see how it qualifies. unless we're gonna include the Iliad and the Odyssey and Satyricon and god knows how many others

imo the basis for its inclusion is b/c it is an actual novel & not an epic poem. If the basic ground rule is that something needs to be a work of prose & not verse, TGA would qualify whereas Homer, Chaucer, Dante etc. would not.

Myers and the Obese Olympics triceratops climbing event (Pillbox), Thursday, 17 February 2011 01:53 (thirteen years ago) link

whereas Homer, Chaucer, Dante etc. would not.

And indeed Shakespeare!

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Thursday, 17 February 2011 02:54 (thirteen years ago) link

Something Wicked This Way Comes?

Poll Man River: The Jerome Kern Poll (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 03:00 (thirteen years ago) link

Oh wait

Poll Man River: The Jerome Kern Poll (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 03:03 (thirteen years ago) link

I've only just seen this, and it is awsome and exciting. When do the nominations end (although most of mine are there already)?

Citizen Smith (Jamie T Smith), Thursday, 17 February 2011 10:51 (thirteen years ago) link

NOMINATIONS close on friday

ledge, Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:00 (thirteen years ago) link

Ta

Citizen Smith (Jamie T Smith), Thursday, 17 February 2011 11:23 (thirteen years ago) link

william mayne, earthfasts
joan aiken, the wolves of willoughby chase series

thomp, Thursday, 17 February 2011 14:00 (thirteen years ago) link

Yeah, adored those Aiken books as a kid.

I just bought Star Maker and Forever War at Forbidden Planet, two I've meaning to get round to for years.

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Thursday, 17 February 2011 15:06 (thirteen years ago) link

Whole poll is driving me into into a '14 used from £0.01' buying frenzy from Amazon. 334, Reproductive System, Report on Probability A…

portrait of velleity (woof), Thursday, 17 February 2011 15:11 (thirteen years ago) link

it's driving me into a 'i should look for some of these in that box at my parent's house next time i am there' frenzy. it's not much of a frenzy.

thomp, Thursday, 17 February 2011 16:30 (thirteen years ago) link

more of a tizzy really

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Thursday, 17 February 2011 16:33 (thirteen years ago) link

if you find 900 Grandmothers in that box, you will be sitting pretty

Poll Man River: The Jerome Kern Poll (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 17 February 2011 16:35 (thirteen years ago) link

My list is basically covered. I have a soft spot for these:

Richard Cowper - Piper At the Gates of Dawn
Vonda McIntyre - Dreamsnake
Storm Constantine - Hermetech

Having children's and YA in makes this very wide, as most of it's speculative or fantastic in some way, but here are a couple of old favourites not yet mentioned:

Margaret Mahy - The Changeover
Philippa Pearce - Tom's Midnight Garden

Also unknown as Zora (Surfing At Work), Thursday, 17 February 2011 19:55 (thirteen years ago) link

can someone nominate some andre norton books so i know which ones to buy. she wrote about 400 novels, i think.

Andre Norton The Beast Master
Andre Norton Judgment on Janus

I read loads of Andre Norton as a kid, but those stick in the mind. There was also a brilliant one about cat people, but I can't remember the title.

On stuff I liked as a kid, I think I should nominate this, which is excellent

Nicholas Fisk Time Trap

and this, which maybe isn't, but is one of the first books I ever read by myself, and started me on sci-fi in the first place

Brian Earnshaw Dragonfall 5 and the Empty Planet

Then some other stuff

Margaret Atwood Oryx and Crake
AA Attanasio Radix
Bruce Sterling 20 Evocations (this is in Schismatrix Plus, which has been nominated, but I want to vote for it on its own; its my single favourite bit of cyberpunk)
Bruce Sterling Holy Fire
Can I add Isaac Asimov Caves of Steel/Naked Sun as one thing, or put the whole Robot series together?
William Gibson Virtual Light (the first books of his trilogies are always the best)
Fritz Leiber Ill Met in Lankhmar (I actually have the First Book of Lankhmar, which is a bigger compilation, but the second two books have been nominated in Lean Times in Lankhmar already)

Citizen Smith (Jamie T Smith), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:03 (thirteen years ago) link

Michael Moorcock City in the Autumn Stars (or whole Von Bek sequence if that counts)
Arthur C Clarke The Nine Billion Names of God

I'm sure I read some crazy hallucinatory inner space stuff in my 20s that was great, but I am having a total memory failure.

Citizen Smith (Jamie T Smith), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:19 (thirteen years ago) link

Just occurred to me that Illuminatus! has not been nominated. Don't know how it holds up, but that trilogy had an almost physical effect on me when I was 16, haunted my dreams for weeks. And me with no noms left, ah well.

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:23 (thirteen years ago) link

I'll get that for you (might make my ballot)

The Illuminatus! Trilogy - Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

portrait of velleity (woof), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:26 (thirteen years ago) link

Thanks!

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:27 (thirteen years ago) link

And sorry for the completely unsubtle hint.

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:28 (thirteen years ago) link

ha no probs, had forgotten about it reckon it should be in the big list.

Plenty of literary stuff, but no Angela Carter. Has she fallen so far?

portrait of velleity (woof), Friday, 18 February 2011 13:38 (thirteen years ago) link

Also, no Harry Potter!

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Friday, 18 February 2011 14:00 (thirteen years ago) link

hp is on there

ciderpress, Friday, 18 February 2011 14:03 (thirteen years ago) link

Oh yeah, wasn't looking at the latest list.

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Friday, 18 February 2011 14:12 (thirteen years ago) link

Never retained any important details of any Andre Norton I read besides a vague recollection of the word "Darkover" and the entirety of THE BEASTMASTER, which I think was a bit out of her norm but I liked it very much.

go peddle your bullshit somewhere else sister (Laurel), Friday, 18 February 2011 14:29 (thirteen years ago) link

There was a sequel to THE BEASTMASTER, but I don't remember it being as good, or maybe I was just less impressionable by that time.

go peddle your bullshit somewhere else sister (Laurel), Friday, 18 February 2011 14:30 (thirteen years ago) link

Lucius Shepard- The Jaguar Hunter, The Ends of the Earth, Life During Wartime
Kim Stanley Robinson- The Wild Shore
Howard Waldrop- All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past
Connie Willis- Impossible Things

President Keyes, Saturday, 19 February 2011 02:56 (thirteen years ago) link

I nominated The Wild Shore as part of the "Three Californias" trilogy, so you get one more.

old man yells at poop first thing in the morning (pixel farmer), Saturday, 19 February 2011 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link

Here is a list from M. John Harrison: http://ambientehotel.wordpress.com/2009/05/02/some-interesting-science-fiction/

Matching Poll: The Soft Machine Mole (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 19 February 2011 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link

am i too late to use up some of my remaining nominations on the duncton chronicles and the book of silence (each a trilogy) by william horwood?

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Monday, 21 February 2011 14:28 (thirteen years ago) link

Always meant to read some of those Horwoods. Hard to come across in U.S. used aisles though. I'm an old Wind-in-the-Willows head and latterday Watership Down zealot...

sewing wild OTTs (Jon Lewis), Monday, 21 February 2011 18:03 (thirteen years ago) link

then i dont hesitate to recommend tho they're significantly darker

Achillean Heel (darraghmac), Monday, 21 February 2011 19:27 (thirteen years ago) link

Plenty of literary stuff, but no Angela Carter. Has she fallen so far?

Just read her 'Heroes and Villains', the postapocalyptic one, and actually really liked it. But I've already use up all my noms and a fistful of other people's, and that's way more books already than I'll be able to vote for, and I'm already uncertain about which of the precious darlings is going to be abandoned

the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Monday, 21 February 2011 22:59 (thirteen years ago) link

In my limited Angela Carter experience it seems like her short stories own her novels.

sewing wild OTTs (Jon Lewis), Monday, 21 February 2011 23:37 (thirteen years ago) link

^^^
Completely the case in my experience too.

Inevitable stupid dubstep mix (chap), Tuesday, 22 February 2011 02:00 (thirteen years ago) link


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