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

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."

Wait, somebody tried to answer on this thread: words that you only ever read in science fiction

well, there's a variant of croquet called roque, so maybe the hedge is the boundary of the roque court?

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

I love the Flat Earth stories. Perhaps start with those?

Yep. Robert, you shouldn't miss xpost C.L. Moore's "Vintage Season, " discussed upthread (as are things she wrote with Kuttner, under their joint pen names, such as Lewis Padgett). Dust of Far Suns is a good Vance title for a collection of good stories, so far as I've read (not as far as suns, but pretty far).

Does that book have "Vintage Season" in it? Can't tell

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

As far as I can tell, they're mostly good things that for probable-low-sales reasons aren't making it into the SF or Fantasy Masterworks series.

Lots of 'em are in click-through ads on Science Fiction Encyclopedia.

I've got a few of them as ebooks but haven't made a dent yet- guess I should call it the epile.

Yeah, I've bought a bunch of Gateway ebooks when they were really cheap. Only read a couple, but they were good: Kate Wilhelm's The Infinity Box and D.G. Compton's The Silent Multitude

James M otm in prior post. Feel like the SF Gateway is definitely about the quality, that they are putting out the good stuff, the best stuff if they can. I think you can safely assume you won't be tricked by a "false positive." They are also about the inclusiveness so there is simply a lot of it.

Cover of that Omnibus says "Shambleau" but the writeup says "Jirel of Joiry." In any case it doesn't seem to contain The Best of C L Moore. Think you should go ahead and get the Kuttner omnibus instead.

I've only read Tanith Lee's "Three Days" but I was so impressed by it that I could easily see her being one of my favourites.
I'm led to believe that Secret Books Of Paradys is her major work, or at least one of them.

I vastly prefer horror and fantasy with lush florid visuals, so I tend to seek out people like Vance, Tanith Lee, Clark Ashton Smith, Lord Dunsany, Abraham Merritt and the like.

I just read Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter", some of it is so so beautifully written, Beatrice is such a sweetie. I don't know why the main character had so much trouble imagining a person with scary mutant powers could be a lovely person.

Yeah, "Rappachini's" is in xpost Masterpieces of Fantasy and Wonder, discussed upthread: stories from several eras, but a number of 'em have the kind of ripeness you're looking for, I think. Ditto much of Down These Strange Streets, the contemporary urban fantasy anthology commissioned and edited by George RR Martin and Garden Dozois (caveat: you'll soon bump into a fairly ho-hum whodunnit by Charlaine Harris, from her True Blood-related line, which she's since aanounced she's ending. But most of the rest is pretty sweet). Def check Moore's "Vintage Season," visited by time travelers of wealth and taste, oh, so much taste.

The Time Traveler's Almanac, an anthology from the VanderMeers, has "Vintage Season," "The Sound of Thunder," a certain novel by H. G. Wells and a bunch of other stuff most of which I'm not familiar with. Reviewed here: http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/The-Speculator/The-Time-Traveler-s-Almanac/ba-p/12618

I think it's just an extract from a certain novel by H. G. Wells, sadly -- weird, since the book's short enough that they could have put in the whole thing

CL Moore's Judgement Night is expensive by itself so I think the omnibus might be a good idea.

Speaking of Judgement Night, read the first few pages of Doomsday Morning and was intrigued

Also finally reading "No Woman Born" in this anthology called Science Fiction 101: Exploring the Craft of Science Fiction aka Robert Silverberg's Worlds of Wonder. Lots of the the stories have been anthologized a lot, Silverberg's comments are insightful and otm.

You could also read it in a cheap ebook called The Mammoth Book of Golden Age SF, again alongside other frequently anthologized stories, with a short intro by Asimov mostly about- guess who- John Campbell.

I loved it when Ellison described Campbell as "crazier than a thousand battlefields".

Looking up Japanese amazon for their cover art to English language authors. Searching Moorcock, first result is "Horse Dildo Surprise: The Dildo Diaries #3 Jenni Moorcock"