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

Just started The Execution Channel by Ken MacLeod. Never read any of his books before, but it was an old wish-list leftover. Hyperbolic Doctorow review here.

does that cover have ANYTHING to do w babel-17 ?!?

The funny thing is that my local library had filmstrips that you could check out and watch (this was 1978) and one of the filmstrip series was a (probably very good in retrospect) history of science fiction that covered the new wave in some detail. That Babel-17 cover with the Farrah-haired Modesty Blaise & alien in space was featured in the Delany discussion and I rightly concluded that the book must be brilliant.

what is a pak protector doing on that cover

hahaha, ^^^ exactly what I thought when I saw that

I have the one the late great posted, and also this one --
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51q2dh0PmHL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg

heh

was looking at this cover the other day online and thought that it could probably be improved upon.

http://www.noinputbooks.com/3/Equinox.jpg

I love that bit in Babel-17 where 2 characters are talking about the alien race who reconstructed a vast power plant, down to the correct shade of white paint etc, after a 9 or 10 word description of the place from one of their compatriots who'd been shown round it. Not even very long words either. SF should have more linguistics in it.

I also love that Equinox cover.

it would be better if instead of samuel r DELANY it said samuel l BRONKOWITZ

i don't know, the early known space stuff isn't as bad

That's true--Ringworld was lots of fun

Ok so in my search for more sf by women I came across a new aspect of the genre I hadn't heard of before - romantic sf! I guess I shouldn't be surprised, and I'm not gonna mock, but how's this for a story teaser?

As Aral Sea enters the Alcheringa -- the alien-constructed space warp that allows giant settler-ships to travel between worlds, away from all help or hope -- Jodenny comes face to face something powerful enough to dwarf even the unknown force that destroyed her last ship and left her with missing memories and bloody nightmares. Lieutenant Jodenny Scott is about to be introduced to love.

-sigh- I started subscribing to Locus to read the reviews and see what was good in new SF, and the torrent of SF romance/supernatural romance is unbelievable. Each month they list hundreds and hundreds of new SF/F books, and the number that AREN'T romance, "urban fantasy" or part 7 of a series is depressingly small.

the unknown force that destroyed her last ship and left her with missing memories and bloody nightmares

ah yes, love

oh man, if romantic SF is your bag, can I introduce you to Anne McCaffery's Crystal Singer trilogy?

if romantic sf is your bag, can i introduce you to "the pear shaped man" by george r.r. martin

http://www.pdfdocspace.com/docs/71866/george-r-r-martin---the-pear-shaped-man.html

-sigh- I started subscribing to Locus to read the reviews and see what was good in new SF, and the torrent of SF romance/supernatural romance is unbelievable. Each month they list hundreds and hundreds of new SF/F books, and the number that AREN'T romance, "urban fantasy" or part 7 of a series is depressingly small.

ha ha, fortunately not!

Just started Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith!

great book!

Somewhere I bought a copy of this and it's breaking me a little bit? The stories are weird and good and HEAVY, and each of them has to achieve its punch in so few pages, that I can barely keep up with what's happening, what world is being reconceived and hidden from me by the story right now until that key paragraph where you find out what they do with the babies or where the aliens are going, or why there are no men in this version of Earth or whatever.

I am a tireder and sadder Laurel after reading.

good lord I am so behind on this thread I give up

when i am looking for something of this variety to read i click show all messages and scroll to a random point until something catches my eye. great resource.

seeing this image brings me back to the hours spent in aisles of late 70s suburban NJ mall waldenbooks or b dalton booksellers... can't remember a damn thing about the book tho I know I read it.

apparently I was a big fan of foster's work cuz I went on to read his novelizations of alien, the black hole, clash of the titans, outland, starman, and, bizarrely enough, pale rider. hi my name is edward and I am a nerd

http://images.wikia.com/starwars/images/1/1a/SOTME_Cover.jpg

"•Morality Meat - (1985) novelette by James Tiptree, Jr. [as by Raccoona Sheldon ]"

did not know this was a tiptree pseud! i've seen that name in collections i have and i always think its the coolest name.

Then you must not have read "The Screwfly Solution"

guess not! so much to read...

A LOT of the stories are about conception, and who gets to control it and the mechanics of it. They knew that would be the next battle--pitching it in the key of "science fiction" was substantially over-shooting the mark.

Either I've read The Screwfly Solution or I'm confusing it with a Sheri Tepper plot about...widespread infertility?

Just read Liz jenkins's new one, 'The Uninvited': rather good [looming apocalypse/contagious lethal violence in children/causality being fucked up]yarn

And by Liz Jenkins I actually mean Liz Jensen

i started the "demolished man" but it was late at night and i had a hard time w/ the cyberpunk language and multiple story lines

What? Start over. It's a pretty straightforward procedural. My mom read it and liked it. You'll like it too.

Surely you must be joking, mister the late great.

I have had a weird notion to read a few of those AD Foster late 70s-early 80s movie novelizations lately. Partly because they are in among a huge trove of dodgily OCRd SF I DLd while ago. Splinter, Krull, mebbe Black Hole.

Right now I am finally following through on long standing desire to read a few random Simak novels. First up, Shakespeare's Planet. A dude, a wolfman, a robot and Shakespeare walk into a bar uninhabited planet... loving it.

simak is the best. this is what i have discovered.

Also, the PKD poll inspired me to read some Dick for the first time in almost 20 years (having realized some of the best-regarded ones are among those I've never read). Ubik-- awesome and unexpectedly poignant. A Scanner Darkly-- as good as it says on the label. Even if you cut everything but the tweaker back-and-forth routines you'd have pure gold.

Scott tell me about you and Simak. He's kind of comforting! And gets to the fucking point!

oh i've just been reading him this year and really enjoying him a bunch. i like his ideas and i do like the comfort factor. he's one of those people who could have just as easily been a well regarded realist short fiction writer if he'd wanted to be. but i'm glad he decided to be one of the revered masters of sci-fi instead.

i haven't read anything that i haven't enjoyed yet. i keep buying more too. they are stacking up. but as noted above i am briefly off the SF.

I'm saving Way Station and City for later, ramping up to them as it were. I think after Shakespeare's Planet I might read A Choice of Gods. Or the Werewolf whatsamacallit.

wait! i lied! i'm actually reading this right now:

http://www.lwcurrey.com/pictures/129708.jpg

albert einstein?

They don't make covers like that anymore.

i couldn't really find a better cover for that book online. that was the most interesting one.

its about a secret world of romans living underneath england.

from an amazon review:

Land Under England was first published in 1935, when
totalitarian governments were on the rise, and is an
allegory of the first order.
This is the tale of a son who goes underground in
search of his missing father, who is obsessed with
the Roman Wall and the glory that was Rome. The father
has found a way to get under the ancient wall to look
for a lost Roman civilization. What the son finds when
he searches for his father is a nightmare world filled
with horrible beasts and even more horrible humans, who
have had their minds and souls murdered in the service
of the State.

more here:

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/reviews_pages/r41.htm#a41

A.E. was George W. Russell

it gets reissued from time to time so its not totally forgotten. james on here might have mentioned that he read it? i thought someone did when i mentioned a while back that i bought it?

That looks amazing!!!

has anybody read kingsley amis' "green man"?

opinions?