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

Wikipedia says he first came up with the idea for the story while working for Marvel Comics, but did not pitch it to Stan.

Stan Lee Presents A Flower for Algernon

Hey Alg, It's Cerebratin' Time!

That report has been reverted, btw.

more popular than 1984 or brave new world? or the war of the worlds? but yeah definitely high school english class popular. at least in the u.s. it's great too. deserves every accolade.

more popular than 1984 or brave new world?

in some ways I want to disqualify such sci-fi works by non-scifi authors, but yeah these are pretty commonly taught too. but Flowers for Algernon is simpler and easier to teach, without the messy political baggage

true, they are ringers. and yet i never actually thought of flowers as a sci-fi book when i was a kid.

me neither tbh but then Keyes was not famous for anything else the way Huxley and Orwell were - because he was toiling in obscurity in sci-fi mag ghetto.

anyone got opinions on Budrys? I've never read him but he keeps popping up in this Malzberg book.

Canticle not a big thing this side of the pond but 1984 and BNW were the kind of thing you read at school (i did 1984 for my o-levels in, yep, 1984. failed, abysmally)

Shakey, you gotsa read Rogue Moon

Gotsta

i've bored people about budrys before. try Rogue Moon and Who? the short story collection Blood And Burning is quite good too, the 1/4 of it that i've read so far.

Did you like Michaelmas, koogs? They say he predicted the internet with that one

y'know, i've read it but a quick look at a synopsis tells me i need to re-read it as i can't remember the first thing about it.

Tried to reread it a few months ago, couldn't get into it.

'rogue moon' suffered when i read it because i kept picturing rusty venture and brock samson

who? is kind of sillier though

I've only read a few Budrys, as I came across them in big old anthologies, but they were captivating, amazingly different from the pissy voice of his ancient book review columns. Which might be unfair, since I skimmed those in high school, but doing so put me off checking his fiction for quite a while.

I'm remembering exactly that dichotomy now that you mention it

Keyes passing official now.

From Subterranean Press newsletter--think I might latch up on the next time truck run and look for a big ol' used, thus relatively affordable trade paperback of this in '16 or '17:

The Top of the Volcano is the collection we hoped would come along eventually, twenty-three of Harlan's very best stories, award-winners every one, brought together in a single volume at last. There's the unforgettable power of "'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman," "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" and "Mefisto in Onyx," the heart-rending pathos of "Jeffty Is Five" and "Paladin of the Lost Hour", the chilling terror of "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream," the ingenuity and startling intimacy of "Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans..."

These stories are full of the light and life of someone with things worth saying and the skills to do it, presented in the book we had to have-not just a Best-of (though given what's on offer it may just fall out that way) but in one easy-to-grab volume perfect for newbies, long-time fans and seasoned professionals alike to remind them just how it can be done.

Lettered: 52 signed copies, bound in leather, housed in a custom traycase: $275
Limited: 250 signed numbered copies, housed in a custom slipcase: $125
Trade: Fully cloth bound hardcover edition: $45

Table of Contents:

'Repent, Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heart of the World
A Boy and His Dog
The Region Between
Basilisk
The Deathbird
The Whimper of Whipped Dogs
Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W 225
Croatoan
Jeffty is Five
Count the Clock That Tells the Time
Djinn, No Chaser
Paladin of the Lost Hour
With Virgil Oddum at the East Pole
Soft Monkey
Eidolons
The Function of Dream Sleep
The Man Who Rowed Christopher Columbus Ashore
Mefisto in Onyx
Chatting with Anubis
The Human Operators with A.E. Van Vogt
How Interesting: A Tiny Man
(Anbody read all of 'em?)

Edward Bulwer-Lytton "The Haunters And The Haunted" or "The House And The Brain"

This was one of the first ghost stories I ever read, it was a decade ago and I'm amazed how different I recall it, almost a different story.
It's about a haunted house and powerful telepathy. It isn't all that convincing, the explanatory conversations are a bit too long winded but it's still pretty good.

Scared me way more the first time but I found there was still one or two creepy bits; I'm really worried barely anything will scare me in the future because the promise of terror is a very large part of what attracts me to supernatural stories but many fans and writers say nothing has scared them since a young age. That better not happen to me.

So this news just broke over the past couple of days and I'm so shocked that I have nothing to say except that I quietly and discreetly put the couple of books I have by her into the bag to take to Goodwill.

From http://www.teleread.com/writing/marion-zimmer-bradley-child-abuser-says-daughter/

Well, for those who argue that the biography or rap sheet doesn’t matter, and that literature is indifferent to the actions and morality of the creator, here’s a test for you. Marion Zimmer Bradley, celebrated science fiction and fantasy author, recipient of the, cofounder of the Society for Creative Anachronism, posthumous recipient of the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement, has just been revealed by her own daughter Moira Greyland as a repeat child molester, who not only countenanced her sometime husband Walter Breen‘s relationship with an underage boy, but also violated her own daughter, and other children, of both sexes, repeatedly, over many years.

More at:
http://www.adistantsoil.com/2014/06/20/why-i-burned-marion-zimmer-bradleys-books/ - lots more links and documentation via Google.

whoah

yeah

I've been working my way through the web of links throughout the day. Super vomitous.

was always repulsed by those books but not because I was getting this kind of vibe from them

I hated Mists of Avalon anyway. my college gf made me read it.

what's really fucking me up here is apparently everyone knew about this and it's been a matter of public record forever and yet it's somehow *just now* breaking. wtf wtf wtf.

I know!!! I think it's one of those "this is the first time it re-broke after the internet" situations. But yeah like this is solid, court depositions, arrests made stuff.

I was wondering that too. I'd really hate to think the wider sf/fantasy community was involved or turned a blind eye. I don't like the idea of more writers and editors being revealed as child abusers.

Considering how furious people of the community were when Harlan Ellison groped Connie Willis, I wouldn't think so.

I never heard that one but it does little to change my blanket "fuck Harlan Ellison" policy

This is presented as an entirely satisfying stand-alone fantasy (back and forth across various kinds of borderlines, incl. subgenre: "crosshatching," as Science Fiction Encyclopedia might say), certainly rare enough if true, with appealing descriptions and excerpts: http://www.openlettersmonthly.com/coral-waxwork-classic/

Been really enjoying Damon Night's short stories this past couple weeks.

Which?

Actually novellas, more accurately: Rule Golden, Natural State, and The Dying Man. Need to seek out more but v. impressed. Kind of knew he'd be great by the amount Gene Wolfe mentions him in various writings and interviews.

Well it is well known that DK grew up GW like a bean.

Call The Cops, some good talk about Knight upthread. The novellas you like are in one of my fave science fiction collections by anybody, The Golden Man, along with "Double Meaning" and "The Earth Quarter," yay.

reading bruce sterling's "schismatrix" - laughably bad!

but it has great reviews on amazon ... maybe i'm reading wrong

I was impressed with it when I re-read it a few years ago. What's yr problem with it.

Cheers Dow, I'll hunt out those two next. These three were in the same PB.

Amazon usually has some cheapo copies of Rule Golden with all five, but make sure; think some editions are shorter. Abebooks usually has what I can't find on Amazon.

A big fat collection of his short fiction comes out in the UK in August:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/P/0575111216%3FSubscriptionId%3D19W23ZDBHQSV3SCGJE82%26tag%3Dbookie0a-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D0575111216.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

I couldn't do it. I got half-way through VanderMeer's Annihilation and said out loud - "I'd rather read that book about Nixon." Don't know if it's his writing style in this (haven't read any other VanderMeer), but it feels congested and ultimately distancing.

Can anyone comment on the selections for the SF Gateway Omnibus series? Mostly classics or leftovers?

I kinda wanted the Catherine L Moore omnibus but I already have complete Jirel and Northwest Smith books.
I did buy the Jack Vance one.

Does anyone feel that Jack Vance and Tanith Lee's book titles sound like way more run of the mill fantasy than they really are?
Vance: Demon Princes, Star King, Big Planet, Blue World, Planet Of Adventure, Monsters In Orbit, Space Opera, Green Magic, Dragon Masters.
Lee: Lionwolf, Piratica, Wolf Wing, Prince On A White Horse, Storm Lord, Animal Castle.

There are some good titles too but I don't think most do justice to their styles.

Steered clear of Jack Vance for a long time for that very reason. Bought the Omnibus but haven't made a dent in it.

Yeah that's a quirk of Vance. This man who spun perhaps the most distinctive prose in all of SFF had the most bland book titles imaginable.

Still haven't tried Tanith, any recommendations? Silver Metal Lover?

Still waiting for a Jack Vance fan to tell me what the fourth word of this sentence means "And beyond the roqual hedge the trees of the forest made a tall wall of mystery."