rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

Only read Sundiver. Can't remember anything about the prose and the wikipedia summary makes it sound ridiculous, but the uplift and client/patron thing is a good idea imo, makes for a slightly different spin on the 'humanity in galactic peril' tale, subtler and deeper than the usual attack by aggressive hegemonising swarm.

― Touché Gödel (ledge), Tuesday, May 1, 2012 8:17 AM (2 days ago)

Brin's Uplift stories were always what I wanted Star Trek's Prime Directive-centered stories to be - messy and with the altruism executing at a tactical-level rather than strategic. The Wikipedia article mentions Tikkun Olam as a thematic influence, and I wouldn't disagree with that. Kiln People is a great golem story.

Come to think of it, I like Brin's non-Uplift books far more.

what do yall think of Clarke?

There's a thread: Arthur C Clarke RIP

I also wrote this and still stand by it: http://www.quartzcity.net/2008/03/20/the-enigma-of-arthur-c-clarke/

Since Clarke and Brin have been invoked, are there any other Kim Stanley Robinson fans out there?

I'm a big fan of the Mars Trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt. I bought the climate change trilogy, managed about 100 pages and gave up. Haven't read anything by him since.

Years Of Rice and Salt is amazing. Read Mars Trilogy, the first climate change one (not bad, nothing special though) and his Galileo book which was good, not great.

Still an author I look forward to, and I need to go back to the climate change novels and give them another go.

Oh, and the Orange County trilogy is fucking amazing! I think I'd recommend those above all his other books.

so i was at the hepcat record store a little while back to see some hep music and i bought a couple of old copies of Forced Exposure - appropriately enough old man coley was manning the cash register - and in one issue there was this loooooong interview - conducted by old man coley - with writer Rudy Rucker. who i had never heard of. apparently he's also a genius science writer as well as a beatnik sci-fi writer. really made me want to find some of his books. most of which are probably out of print? he cranked out a bunch of ace paperbacks. Rucker liked to call his stuff "transrealism" or "slipstream" as opposed to cyberpunk, though i guess the cyberpunk guys considered him one of them.

other authors i've never read mentioned in the Rucker interview:

Lewis Shiner
Lucius Shepard
Michael Blumlein
Marc Laidlaw
Richard Kadrey
Norman Spinrad
Robert Sheckley
Ian Watson

I have to go back to those OC books. Don't think I've even seen them in a store or library.

xpost

although now i think i must have read spinrad and sheckley in short story collections. their names look really familiar...

Meant to post this the other day: I just read Alfred Bester's The Demolished Man for the first time. I'm sure I read some Bester as a teen, but I was incredibly unimpressed with this one. Maybe it's aged poorly but I have no idea why this is such a classic.

There's a Spinrad story that has stuck with me -- all except the title, unfortunately -- about the US govt turning San Francisco into a big internment camp for people with HIV/AIDS. A cure is found and turns out to be sexually transmitted as well, and the main carrier of the cure is in the city so there are people trying to sneak in to where she lives, having sex with people all day every day to spread the cure. Govt troops killing anybody trying to get in as well as get out, iirc.

now i want to read kim stanley robinson after looking at his books on his wiki page...man, too much to read. i should have started earlier...

has anyone read peter watt's other books

Yes. His first 3 books are a trilogy of interesting ideas and pretty nihilistic attitudes--not as good as Blindsight, but still very good

He also has written a video game tie-in which is not good.

Rudy Rucker. who i had never heard of. apparently he's also a genius science writer as well as a beatnik sci-fi writer. really made me want to find some of his books. most of which are probably out of print? he cranked out a bunch of ace paperbacks.

I've read his 'Ware' trilogy--Hardware, Software and Wetware. They're interesting, but not brilliantly written. Like 1980s IT-aware version of 1950s magazine SF.

I was a big fan of Terry Carr's 3rd series of Ace SF Specials -- there was a lot of talent bubbling up from seemingly nowhere in 84-85. I came to them at a weird angle: I was a big fan of Carter Scholz' criticism in The Comics Journal and he cowrote one of the Ace novels, so I followed up with others in the imprint, which is how I discovered William Gibson, K.S. Robinson, Shepard, Swanwick, Kadrey, etc.

Jesus, where to start with Rucker?

His writing style is OK at best, but Great Cthulhu his stories are completely off-the-channel insane. There's nothing out there to compare them to except a theoretical mashup of Syd Barrett, Mondo 2000 Magazine, and Douglas Hofstadter. Consensual reality is at best slippery and probably just a product of mathematics anyway, so let's just go out to where things go asymtotic and see what happens. The four *ware books (Software, Wetware, etc.) are the most well-known/canonical, but the high bonkers level is pretty consistent throughout all of his work. White Light is my favorite, even if it does read like a couple of existential stoner mathematicians trying to out-weird each other. Spacetime Donuts is seriously my favorite book title ever. Hegel is Rucker's great-great-great grandfather and, well, it shows.

Scott - have you read <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storming_the_Reality_Studio";>Storming The Reality Studio</a>? It's a post-modern SF anthology that functions as an ersatz cyberpunk Dangerous Visions and includes many of the authors you mentioned.

There's a Spinrad story that has stuck with me -- all except the title, unfortunately -- about the US govt turning San Francisco into a big internment camp for people with HIV/AIDS.

That would be Journals Of The Plague Years.

Lewis Shiner

I heart his stuff a lot (Slam is the best skate-punk crypto-anarchist novel about Texas ever) and recommend everything, though I haven't been keeping up with the short stories. All of his work is downloadable for free at http://www.fictionliberationfront.net/

Lucius Shepard

Magical-realist. Never got into his stuff all that much except for his film crit essays, which I don't believe he's doing anymore. Might still be online.

Marc Laidlaw

I went to elementary school with him, but he was a couple years ahead of me. Only read Dad's Nuke (which is great, worth tracking down), but AFAIK he works in games now. I think he's the main guy behind Half-Life.

Fuck, I can't work and post to ILX at the same time. Can't switch between HTML and BBCode reliably enough.

ha, i just ordered a copy of dad's nuke after flicking through the half-life 2 production book

Yeah, Terry Carr was a good editor, also picked Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness for the Ace series. the Universe anthology series is worth checking out too. He wrote some fiction, but don't think I've read it. Robinson's The Wild Shore is post climate/civilization change, influenced by Twain and maybe Dickens (resourceful/vulnerable waifs), which is prtty hard to do right, but I got into it, lots of windswept etc. I completely concur w Elvis re Rudy Rucker. The math part of my brane got kicked in by a mule, but no prob at all tripping on RR's extrapolations (which are very low key or underplayed flamboyance, somehow--veteran teacher Rucker's congenially deadpan presentation, so as not to gild the lily--a crucial aspect of PKD's best stuff as well). One of his best non 'ware novels, is The Hollow Earth, about a young mountaineer who traipses downstream to Baltimore and gets recruited by Poe for an expedition into the Earth (Congress actually authorized funding of such, though not for Poe's use, far as I know)

And I know several people who aren't genre fans overall, but really enjoy Rucker in particular
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173324972l/274051.jpg

about 3/4 of the way through hellstrom's hive, trying to imagine the spy stuff as bourne identity instead of super clunky x-files precursor - that one amish alien orgy episode clearly ripped from the peruge subplot

this would make a good hollywood film, could be like a cross between bourne identity and thx 1138, maybe get some sort of visual look like i robot except w tons of heaving nude bodies and lots of dripping water

also these dudes are clearly the inspiration for the bene tleilax in general and the security dudes are a lot like mentats, there's a lot of ways in which janvert mirrors miles teg (all that clunky "think, miles think! what is going on here?" expository inner dialogue) and fancy mirrors the honored matres, swarming vs scattering vs jihad, vats vs stills, hive life and sietch life

it's fun to see the same obsessions that would pop up all throughout dune rendered in deadpan philip k dick

procreative stumps vs tleilaxu vats

a sympathetic hellstrom could be one of the great sci-fi film not-villians of all time

speaking of Lewis Shiner, I thought "Jeff Beck" should def be in a rock x sf anthology--maybe it is? Must be at least one such collection. It's in Shiner's own collection, which I haven't read, also posted xpost and sev other places.
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1235134277l/257355.jpg

Ok afaik I've only read one Lewis Shiner story, 'Sticks', about a session drummer who falls for some young hip new rock chick. Had passages like

Stan himself liked to keep it simple. He was wearing a new pair of Lee Riders and a long-sleeved white shirt. The shirt set off the dark skin and straight black hair he'd inherited from his half-breed Comanche father. He had two new pairs of Regal Tip 5Bs in his back pocket and Converse All-Stars on his feet, the better to grip the pedals.

and although it was in an SF collection there was absolutely zero SF about it. So, meh.

stan sounds hawt

amazon is trying to sell me something called 'the mongoliad'

"the genesis of the project was in Stephenson's dissatisfaction with the authenticity of the medieval sword fighting scenes he had written into his Baroque cycle of novels"

what i really want is authenticity in my sword fighting scenes

"Jeff Beck" was be-careful-what-you-wish-for, no "You're a malted," but still pretty good of its kind.
what the hell, turn it up yall
credit: Perihelio
http://static.flickr.com/67/193228466_587a24c090_o.jpg

amazon is trying to sell me something called 'the mongoliad'

haha me too. i was nonplussed

BTW, this is a decent interview/reading podcast that's featured several of the names mentioned in the thread: http://trashotron.com/agony/index.html

Thanks Elvis. Yeah, so far, seems like a good place to start might be here, leading to readings/interviews of Rucker, K.W. Jeter, Jay Lake--haven't checked Lake yet, but Jeter's version of The Red Shoes is true steampunk. Mind the blood on the gears, Guv'nor
http://trashotron.com/agony/news/2012/03-19-12-podcast.htm#podcast032112

The Rucker reading (from his autobio) and interview are pleasant, but don't get me tripping like his fiction or that Forced Exposure interview. Several interviews are linked from Rucker's site, don't think that's one of 'em (hopefully available somewhere short of eBay, or maybe at your local thrift store).

Heading out, no time to read this Robert Guffney story now with excellent illustrations by Rucker--mostly photos, but also this painting
c 2010 by Rudy Rucker
http://www.flurb.net/9/57_theabduction.jpg

oops here's the link for the text x pix
http://www.flurb.net/9/9guffey.htm

Oh oh, still haven't read the Guffey yarn, partly cos been away from Computerland (yes, this can still happen, depending on the mission), but also I have to make myself post about (brace yourself for this title) Down These Strange Streets All-New Stories of Urban Fantasy edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois.
Yeah noir meets vampires and friends, with familiar elements, incl many relatvely happy endings, but the authors and characters mostly earn 'em, after much trouble 'n' strife. A number of page-long resumes, most of these ghost-toasy overacheivers are still capable of fresh touches. Charlaine Harris is a notable exception, and considering this coarefully perused blah turn and some other which haven't rewarded lazy skims, seems like True Blood's worthy if strenuous Seasons 1 & 2 (need a nap before checking 3) are the result of rocket fuel transfusions via Alan Ball's team (you think?)
My faves are the few that screw with the tendency of genre fiction to explain every damn thing, no matter how ingeniously and overall impressively. These would be the well-named "The Difference Between a Puzzle and a Mystery," by the relatively new and less pattern-bound M.L.N. Hanover, and, to an extent--making me fugure out some stuff--"The Curious Affair of the Deodand," by Lisa Tuttle, Martin's collaborator on Windhaven, which should be worth checking (wish he'd enlist her for some Game Of Thrones screenplays). She's done a lot of other stuff too. Diana Gabaldon's "Lord John and the Plague of Zombies" may turn me into a series junkie yet--lives up to its title and then some, yet w balance of realness--mental/emotional realness of its characters, enough to care about 'em. A common denominator in this collection.
Big but not over-extended finale" "The Avakian Eagle," co-starring 50-year-old Corporal Dashiell Hammett, tubercular, chainsmoking editor of base paper in the Aleutians, ca. WWII. Speaking of overachievers, he's just a bit of a deus ex machina,but by dam. Once again, earners keepers. By Bradley Denton, author of Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, think that's the title. Around this pile or the other, I better read it too.

Hammett was indeed a 50 year-old etc

"The Adakian Eagle," sorry.

started reading Psycho Shop an unfinished Alfred Bester novel that Roger Zelazny finished after Bester's death. couldn't do it. too silly or something. the zazzy hepcat talk was bugging me.

so, went for *Destiny Doll* by Simak. reading now. so far so weird. i dig it.

You might like Simak's City too. I've also got his Way Station, haven't read it yet. I'm strung out on short stories, one a day. Haven't found a Simak collection yet--anybody?

Finally went back to and finished Damon Knight's Rule Golden and Other Stories. As prev mentioned, the title story comes first: boondocks newspaper editor, too smart for his own good, finds himself drafted to study an alien captive, his job during what may be his own prison term. The alien manipulates him into faciltating their escape, and during their time on the run across the world--could be a pre-Le Carre thriller, mainly about the stress of adaptation and paradigm shift.For the alien also:he's here to keep Earthlings to venture into Galaxy w freakishly violent drives intact--but such a rare dilemma and new solution, who knows what results will accrue. Easy enough to pick up on this, despite the genre patterns. Also in "Double Meaning," which moves a bit beyond didactic demonstration of didactism's tight-assed limations. The uptight protagonist, threatened by having to consult with an uncouth postcolonial, as they search for an alien impersonating a subject of Earth's Galactic Empire, is also plotting his own rise from the lower classes by manipulating a neurotic aristocrat into marrying him. He (hope he's)wearing down her resistence in various, plausibly projected ways (this was 50s pulp for middle school geeks??) Again, easily picked up implications (he can't go into Les Liasons D-etail), and invivations to speculate, like about what happens after the genre-typical happy-ish ending. "The Earth Quarter" is post-Imperial, postcolonial, except now the freakishly violent-tending Earthlings are in galactic ghettos, still somehow dependent on exports from supposedly ruined Earth, and trying to cope with mental and physical exile. "The Dying Man" is not dystopian, but again, slowly grokking the still-human nature of Earthopian life. I better end this, but the collection, the de facto series, gets better as it goes along, too.

"from venturing into galaxy w freakishly violent drives intact," that is. "Could be a pre-Le Carre thriller, mainly (kinda something else)" not meant to imply Knight doesn't have his own knack for moving sometimes bloody-minded tacticians around the 4-D chessboard.

anybody read Tatyana Tolstaya's "The Slynx"?

i have and it was good

today at the thrift store i bought: the best of c.m. kornbluth paperback and a hardcover of greg bear's slant.

thinking of this thread i went to the used store around the corner and bought:

kim stanley robinson: antarctica (hardcover), green mars, blue mars, icehenge

rudy rucker: the hacker and the ants, freeware

(and a frederik pohl twofer paperback with drunkard's walk and the age of the pussyfoot)

i have read those pohls. they are both pretty okay. i remember almost nothing about the first one, except learning what a drunkard's walk was.

speaking of Kornbluth & Pohl (their Merchants would prob approve Amis's inflated blurb)
http://www.sffaudio.com/images11/SFMASTERWORKSTheSpaceMerchants565.jpg

wtf @ blade runner rip-off cover