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

Iiiii just started Ilium and it is INTRIGUING!!!!

About to reread Ilium and Olympos as I've only read them the once (and really enjoyed them) whereas I probably reread all the Hyperion/Endymion books every couple of years.

In my memory (it's been 22 years) I hate Hyperion and its sequel. But I intend to give Simmons a whirl in his new life as a horror novelist.

He wrote horror and mysteries along his Sci Fi since the beginning. They're hit and miss, as is all his stuff. I liked Ilium and Olympos despite some serious problems, but I think The Terror is the best thing of his I've read.

Yeah that's the one I'm gonna check.

It gets dodgy near the end, but until then it's a cracker.

I keep seeing Drood on the shelf and ignoring it. Is that a mistake? I don't really like horror anything though. I am enjoying Ilium/Olympus although starting to kinda wonder where it's all going.

I didn't finish Drood. How big of a Dicken's fan are you? I'm not, and that meant I didn't care for the basic conceit.

All horror gets dodgy at the end. Well, 98% of it. I am very forgiving in this respect; after all, human beings get pretty dodgy at the end too.

I'm also getting hella annoyed with sci-fi without women. Or without believable women who are not just men speaking. It's starting to take the enjoyment out of books, a LOT of books.

I've never read any Dickens tbh--I am a disgusting savage.

aieee!
"We know very little about dark energy but one of our ideas is that it is a property of space itself - when you have more space, you have more energy," explained Dr Matthew Pieri, a BOSS team-member.
"So, dark energy is something that increases with time. As the Universe expands, it gives us more space and therefore more energy, and at some point dark energy takes over from gravity to end the deceleration and drive an acceleration," the Portsmouth University, UK, researcher told BBC News.
The discovery that everything in the cosmos is now moving apart at a faster and faster rate was one of the major breakthroughs of the 20th Century. But scientists have found themselves grasping for new physics to try to explain this extraordinary phenomenon.
A number of techniques are being deployed to try to get some insight. One concerns so-called baryon acoustic oscillations.
These refer to the pressure-driven waves that passed through the post-Big-Bang Universe and which subsequently became frozen into the distribution of matter once it had cooled to a sufficient level.
Today, those oscillations show themselves as a "preferred scale" in the spread of galaxies - a slight excess in the numbers of such objects with separations of 500 million light-years.
It is an observation that can be used as a kind of standard ruler to measure the geometry of the cosmos.

so i'm trying to read Red Mars again; first time was around 15 years ago when i was in high school. interesting colonization ideas but the characters and dialogue are seriously lacking. is maya supposed to be a sociopath? is nadia trying to get someone to draw someone out of her shell by asking her about the science of rocks intended to be funny?

Dunno, I'll get back to you when I read it, got some other Kim Stanley Robinson worldgrooming up first. Meanwhile, more newly revealed Science Fact w Science Fiction appeal: "Super-Earths">"Squishy Worlds"--eeeuuuuuwww
http://news.discovery.com/space/exoplanet-super-earth-pressure-heat-metal-121122.html

i've got a big stack of KSRobinson books thanks to you guys but i haven't read any of them yet. they all LOOK really cool.

i'm still reading this and its okay and entertaining but its taking me too long to read it so i must not love it. it shouldn't really take more than a day or two. early simak. and you get the silly early 50's stuff like a world 6000 years in the future where everyone still talks like its the early 50s and acts like they are in a noir novel of the 50's. and the history of everything is so vague. but, like i said, entertaining enough.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8435/7823994658_1db376c709.jpg

i like that later farting cover.

any recommendations from this list:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Astounding_Stories_%28Bookshelf%29

Personally would seek anything with "time" in the title, destroy anything called "Brigands of the Moon" or "The Pirate Planet". Guessing the garbage quotient is pretty high though.

1930s...

there are other journals on there, with some vonnegut and dick, but i think i need to cherrypick by author rather than just downloading any old tosh. ereader already has 10 years of reading on it and is only 1/4 full...

yeah, Williamson, Leinster, Hamilton, Cave should be worth checking, though it's their earlier stuff and for the pulp as fuh market.

yee gods! Anybody seen the documentary?
http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/real-benjamin-buttons-brothers-matthew-michael-clark-aging-193400085.html

so what was good this year ilb spec crew?

i need some books to read not by grandmasters or half-forgotten pulp authors.

I'm still working on 2010 & 11 books. I have no clue.

ha yeah i can never keep up. i think i finally read most of the Hot Books of 2006 in like 2010.

I'm liking Jim Munroe currently: Everyone in Silico and Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask. Both are old though.

I did get the new Sandman Slim book from Audible. first 20 minutes of listening were fun.

Maureen McHugh's 'After the Apocalypse' short story collection was this year, I think: that was great

Reading a new collection edited by Jonathan Strahan, 'The Edge of Infinity', which seems excellent so far: near-future hard SF confined to our solar system, is the basic brief

so what was good this year ilb spec crew?

i cant think of any fantasy novels that were outstanding. ian tergillis' alternate earth fantasy-spy novel 'the coldest war' was the sort of deliriously stupid book that i finished in a single day and then felt vaguely guilty for having enjoyed so much and joe abercrombie's newest is good while kinda proving hes running out of ways to revisit the same ground. 'the winds of khalakovo' was probably one of the best high fantasy novels i read this year but i think how much you like it depends on your ability to read the title 'the winds of khalakovo' w/o rolling your eyes

harkaway's 'angelmaker' is another speculative fiction meets spy novel (which was a thing this year, i guess) thats more self-consciously literary than 'the coldest war' and probably objectively better but grated my nerves p badly. it def deserves a mention in eoy lists but its too much an amalgamation of reddit upvotes and av club style pop culture discernment, like the fever of dream of some bored marketing analyst who spends too much work time making animated gifs of network sitcoms and complaining about hipsters on his facebook.

i havent read '2312' or 'in the mouth of the whale' but both are trad sci-fi novels that have been getting good reviews

and while i havent read much horror this year peter bell's 'strange epiphanies' is really excellent classic horror.

The Coldest War: details please!

I have to rave about the new(?) KJ Parker, Sharps. I started to write a big thing but I won't. Just read it.

Parker's books are so good at being relentlessly about politics without sacrificing the texture or appeal of the characters in the middle. This one has all of that, doubled...and swords. Lots of swords.

Tried reading "the other log of Phileas Fog" by Phillip Jose Farmer - it's a clever idea, but quite boring really.

Just got the 1967 ed of Dangerous Visions - good Christmas reading.

I keep thinking back on Parker's Engineer Trilogy, and have recommended it to a bunch of people who all enjoyed it - thanks much for that, Laurel! Even though I complained, those books have stuck with me - and I just bought Sharps.

i would actually love some lists of "essential" 90's and beyond SF from you guys. cuz i'm still stuck in the era of bellbottoms and earlier. not complaining, enjoy the old stuff a ton and its that stuff that has gotten me so excited about the genre, but for later it would be nice to know what to check out. i mean, i have to read snow crash, right? or do i? there are good suggestions on that other scifi thread i started a million years ago on ilb. will look there too. would like to think that i will get to some of the banks culture books. and i have a small shelf of kim stanley robinson now thanks to this thread.

heck, i haven't read ender's game yet and that's the 80's. everyone loves that one, i think...

For my money you can skip KSR but that's just me. The others you named are all required reading.

Scott:

THE IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER, Michael Swanwick, pls read it.

but people love KSR here! now what do i do? his books look interesting. we shall see.

okay, swanwick, got it. well, i don't have it, but i'll remember it.

i like KSR. I get a little bit of vertigo while reading him when I think about how much research he must have done. Have not read anything since the Mars books though.

All I can remember about the Mars books is that there are a lot of Russians in future space.

The Years of Rice and Salt is by far my favorite KSR.

Another 90s SF recommendation: Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire.

xpost that's the one I intend to (eventually) read next.

O mang, we've talked about tons of 80s-90s on here--anyway, to me, Snow Crash is very exuberant and inventive, but Diamond Age is where his deeeper talents, informed intuition and sharpening skills rassle with his dated cyber-libertarian tropes--which actually keeps things more exciting than Snow Crash, far as I'm concerned. I'd start with Gibson's early short story collection, Burning Chrome, before trying Neuromancer. Also James Tiptree Jr., Robert Reed, Maureen McHugh, Ted Chiang (maybe didn't publish til 00s? Anyway he's great), Swanwick when you're stoned (better w times of short attention span; The Iron Dragon's Daughter might provide plenty snap crackle pop) Nancy Kress (at least the early stuff, like novel Brainrose and short stories). Dozois' and Hartwell's competitive/complimentary annual best-ofs are unevern, but both series have led me to tons of great stuff (til Dozois' judgement got wildly erractic a few years ago, and scared me off more recent volumes, but 80s and 90s are pretty good).

no yeah 90's and beyond is what i was looking for. strongo reminded me that i wanted to ask about more recent stuff. the local store here had the chiang collection and i went back and it was gone. i just see newer stuff and i have no idea if its any good or not. cuz the authors are unknown to me. i do have a bunch of 90's year-end best-ofs and they are good for figuring out if i like new names.

and yeah there is probably lots of stuff on this thread to look up. i'm just lazy. and i have plenty to read. i don't want anyone to hurt themselves. i'm gonna keep my eye out for the swanwick book that jon mentioned.

i need some books to read not by grandmasters or half-forgotten pulp authors.
This reminds of something I really liked on m john harrison's blog recently, but I feel like he is persona non grata around here so I will let you look for it yourself.

Why is he persona non grata? I've never read a word, but that's because I know his name but nothing else about him or his work.