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

"Instrumentality"

Nice find with the Galaxy! I just could not get into Cordwainer Smith from the one Instrumentality book I picked up. idg the appeal.

Also Man Plus

I seem to remember enjoying this until the almost literal deus ex machina conclusion (iirc?)

Have you read "Scanners Live In Vain," Shakey?

i loved Norstrilia.

I think it was Norstrilia that I started reading and didn't finish. Haven't read "Scanners Live in Vain" - there's kind of a hole in my sf reading when it comes to a lot of canonical short stories, I think. Mostly because the short pieces I've read have tended to be in individual author collections (PKD, Tiptree, Sturgeon, Silverberg, Pohl etc.) I have a great New Worlds anthology... but when it comes to anthologies in general I kind of don't know where to start or even look. Tons of stuff on Amazon doesn't list the individual stories included so I'm always hesitant that I'm gonna purchase something and find I already have a bunch of the stories included...

Best Story in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929–1964 (Unabridged Version)

aha! Yeah I feel like my knowledge of that golden age era has been really limited to novels, which is clearly not where a lot of the action is. then I read interviews with Malzberg where he rhapsodizes about what the best issue of Amazing was or whatever and I'm like jeez I really need to get on this

Note that the Britishes prefer another book, a Penguin anthology edited by Brian Aldiss.

This one, also mentioned upthread, I think: best story in the penguin science fiction omnibus, 1973

that thread makes it sound considerably worse

I think what they were trying to say is: no sf, please, we're British.

lol

i am kind of proud of that thread

So I figured.

'Scanners' is the canonical Smith choice, but I prefer some of the other - weirder - stories - things like 'On the Storm Planet' - so completely singular and weird

weird

Yeah Shakey we've talked about a bunch (several) anthologies on here, some of them bigass and uneven--big asses should not be so bumpy--yet sometimes described story by story, so you might feel like you've guessed which collections would be worthwhile overall. And you might be wrong, but still. Haven't gotten to Nostilia yet, but the Smith short stories I've read get very operatic, not like "space opera" in any usual sense, although I could see him as one of the inspirations for Battlestar Galactica's Millenial reboot.
I recently came across Lafferty's "Encased In Ancient Rind" in Quark/3, from 1971: A Quarterly of Speculative Fiction, edited by Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker. Thought I'd read this before, and that it was mostly terribly dated, but don't remember Lafferty at all, so I better check the whole thing, because Lafferty's tale seemed dated for a second, but quickly spun me through something lighthearted but not not lightheaded; too much commitment to deft detail; but not really lighthearted either (except he and his readers don't have to live through what his characters do, so hey!)(not yet anyway, so hey). Kind of an outlier inspiration to some New Wavers like Delany, according to this intriguing profile:
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lafferty_r_a

yeah I've been curious about Lafferty for awhile but his stuff seems a bit hard to get at the moment

There are a few Lafferty stories in some of those Orbit collections.

John Clute wrote all that about him? Man, that guy is indefatigable.

Speaking of Orbit, you know who else I like from those collections? Richard Mckenna, the Sand Pebbles guy.

Damn, they cover him too! Looks good, thanks for mentioning:
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/mckenna_richard_m

those orbits are the bomb. i always forget which ones i already own when i see them in stores. i should carry a list in my wallet.

i think the only one that wikipedia lists as 'late' that i never read was 'job'.

― j., Saturday, 21 April 2012 19:42 (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I tried reading this once, it was cripplingly tedious I think.

teenaged me was much smarter than 20-and-up me

There are a few Lafferty stories in some of those Orbit collections.

Lafferty In Orbit collects all of the Orbit stories, but even that one is hard to find these days. Love Lafferty a lot.

finished Empty Space: A Haunting. on to Starmaker...

re: Lafferty in Orbit

oh look only 60 dollars

I think in the past few years it seems like more Tanith Lee and Jack Vance books have been in bookstores. 3 years ago I rarely seen anything. Is it possible that those G RR Martin edited book tributes to Vance featuring Tanith Lee have made a big difference? I always wondered how much Stephen King benefited horror writers with Danse Macabre and all his blurbs and if the popularity of LotR and Harry Potter eventually got a number of people reading Lafferty?
Does anyone think they have seen these kind of effects on a genre happening in an obvious way?

I really like seeing second hand editions of 70s Moorcock books and other writers of the era, but I'm scared to buy them because a lot of these old books are notorious for errors and pesky editors mixing things up without authors persmission, so I do tend to stick with the newest, most comprehensive editions.
Moorcock has been known to revise things a lot. I've heard some amazon reviewers say he spoiled his own Elric books with too much revision. Does anyone have any opinions/experience with Moorcock revisions? I read about the Gloriana alteration at the suggestion of Andrea Dworkin.

huh I've never heard that before, except about the Elric stuff (which I've never been a huge fan of). The vast majority of Moorcock stuff I've got are original paperback editions, partly just because the designs are so much better and the books themselves are smaller.

but I haven't sat down and compared Jerry Cornelius reprints against originals, I'm not that fastidious

a lot of these old books are notorious for errors

Speaking of Lafferty, I have had to track down two obscure books to read two chapters that were left out of The Devil Is Dead.

I just could not get into Cordwainer Smith from the one Instrumentality book I picked up. idg the appeal.

No fan, but "A Planet Named Sheol" spooked me hard when I was a kid.

Anybody read any of Mike Ashley's histories? The one on 1970s magazines looks interesting.

Shayol

Danse Macabre led me to a lot of good stuff. Is this St. Jerome's satyr? Say hello.http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-07-22-satyr-salt-man_N.htm

Oops, meant to end with this:http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-07-22-satyr-salt-man_N.htm

Dipping into Cosmos Latinos, enjoyed "A Chord Made of Nylon and Gold," by Alvaro Menen Desleal, had kind of Ballardian feel to it, taking Space Age material as a kind of found object and modifying for his own purposes. Tried to get a hold of some other stuff by him but it is impossible, he is the R A. Lafferty of Latin America- out of print and either completely unavailable or at least a benjamin for a used copy. My local library supposedly had a copy of one of his books but I couldn't find it on the shelves so I put it on hold, got the email that it was in but it is still not actually on the hold shelf, so I am afraid it was intercepted.

Refresh my memory on the plot of that one...? I am curious if you'll have luck tracking down translations of other stuff, I gave up.

Astronaut on some kind of Gemini mission cuts the cord during an EVA. Ends up not dying, instead ...

Translation, what translation? Copy of book that library thief is no doubt enjoying right now was in Spanish.

OK, "Stuntmind" was as good as you said it was.

Interview with the author here:
http://frombartobar.wordpress.com/2011/07/18/from-bar-to-bar-interviews-braulio-tavares/

Also, dig this cover:
http://zonabranca.blog.uol.com.br/images/paginas_do_futuro.jpg

"A Chord Made of Nylon and Gold"
Of course this should be "A Cord Made of Nylon and Gold"

Wow love the cover

Keep looking to see if there is a Busby Berkeley Carmen Miranda floating in there somewhere.

Busby Berkeley Baiana

Very appealing, and several books I didn't know about http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/In-the-Margin/A-Tribute-to-Frederik-Pohl/ba-p/11275

hmm yeah for some reason Age of Pussyfoot has escaped my attentions

I found another Lafferty: "Narrow Valley", in Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder, compiled by D. G.G. Hartwell, with some assistance from Kathryn Cramer. Haven't encountered any Masterpieces yet, but doesn't seem as erratic as other H-K compilations (yet). This one is def more open air than xpost "Encased In Rind", and the topographical capers around weightier matters (incl. munchies for turf, Injuns vs. Homesteaders, but in 1966) seem like they might've influenced/encouraged young Rudy Rucker. It's sandwiched between a good shadowy no-nonsense buffalo ballet presented by L. Frank Baum (also way out West, not Oz) and Tiptree's "Beyond the Dead Reef", which is eco-gothic in the Tropics (and private parts)--somewhat Conradian structurally, also unmistakably late-period Tiptree. More well-behaved than, say, xpost "The Man Who Wouldn't Do Horrible Things To Rats", but nasty where, when and how it counts.

D.G. doesn't deserve that extra G.(yet).

things I did not expect to see today: a new jeter, sequel to infernal devices no less

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0765374021/

Ha I do not begrudge jeter and blaylock accepting the godfathers of steampunk mantle at this point. Though with blaylock I would rather have him do more of his SoCal mag realism.