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

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"

Anybody read Robert McCammon? Always wondered about him. Another ltd. ed. (with bonus story) from Subterrranean, but I'll go for the cheaper version, if I go at all/

http://subterraneanpress.com/uploads/The_River_of_Souls_by_Robert_McCammon2.jpg

Interview from S. Press newsletter:
We're shipping the Signed Limited Edition of Robert McCammon's The River of Souls, which includes the novel proper, illustrations not in the trade hardcover, and an 11,000 word bonus story that won't be available anywhere else for at least two years. The limited is 97% sold out, so don't hold back if you're interested in a copy.

In the meantime, here's an interview with Rick we've been holding back until the Limited Edition shipping started:

Kealan Patrick Burke: In The River of Souls, the fifth book in your Matthew Corbett series, when we meet Matthew, he is somewhat unmoored, lonely, lamenting the loss of love, an intentional sacrifice to keep those he cares about out of harm's way. And by the end of the novel, this caution is revealed not to be unfounded. Do you ever see him finding a way back to love despite the inherent and obvious danger?

Robert McCammon: Well, first of all there are five books yet to go in the series. I will say that I know what the series is about, I know how it will end and I know what the last line will be...but I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to get there and I don't want to be sure. I want the series to be a surprise to me. I have faith in my ability to guide it to a good conclusion, but I don't want to have every step mapped out. If you're asking if Matthew will have more romantic encounters, that is certainly true. And if Berry will come back into the series...certainly true again.

KPB: We are introduced in the novel to the memorable character, Magnus Muldoon, who though initially an antagonist, becomes for Matthew an invaluable ally. Given your penchant for revisiting some of the more memorable characters in Corbett's world, is it safe to say that we should expect to see more of this wonderful character in the future?

RM: As I stated above, I don't know. I have no idea who will show up in future books or who will die...this series just happens. Will Magnus return? Not sure, but you can be sure that there will be more characters equally as interesting as Magnus.

KPB: Given the period in which these books are set, it is no surprise that superstition plays a large role in the proceedings, perhaps never more so than in Speaks the Nightbird. How much of the swamp-lore and the vicious tribe who dwell there is based on real superstition, or did you develop it all yourself for the purposes of the book?

RM: Part of The River of Souls is based on the lore of the Bell Witch, from Tennessee, and also from local Alabama lore. The "creature" is based on stories told in a small town very near to my hometown. And a lot of it comes from my imagination, too. It just seems "right".

KPB: Speaking of superstition, and in particular the horrific incident midway through the book in which you employ a rather macabre sporting event, have you considered writing an outright horror novel featuring Matthew Corbett, or is the supernatural something you prefer to keep to your non-series novels?

RM: I think "creepy", "spooky" and "horrific" can be applied to the Corbett series but I'm not sure I want to go deeper into what we call the supernatural. I will say, though, that clues were planted in both The Queen of Bedlam and The Providence Rider that lead to a situation that might be called "supernatural". It involves a book. A book that shows up in both Bedlam and Providence Rider. There's a lot going on in this series that won't be fully clear until we get into the final phase.

KPB: The River of Souls is fairly different in structure to the other books, in that, rather than have the plot involve the decoding of an intricate and elaborate mystery, the villain is revealed rather early and the book focuses more on the hunt, the swamp as a character, and all the evils it hides. The book is also the shortest in the series thus far. Can you talk a little bit about the inspiration for The River of Souls, and whether it was a conscious choice to move away from the idea of the mystery being the propelling force behind the story?

RM: Actually I was going through a rough time in my personal life and I wanted to live some of that out through Matthew. He was my "sin-eater". Also my role-model. He can take whatever is thrown at him and keep going. Of course he's going to be changed in some way and that's what life is about, but Matthew is an ultimate survivor. So The River of Souls was more about endurance than mystery.

KPB: How much research do you typically do when preparing a Corbett novel to ensure that you authentically represent both the period and detail?

RM: I did reams of research for both Speaks the Nightbird and The Queen of Bedlam, so unless I have a specialized situation I can coast for a little while on my research. If something comes up that I need to find out about, I know where to look. I also have to say that I've embellished the times a little bit...cleaned them up some, because there was so much disease, pestilence and plague in that era there would be no time for handling anything else. My research on that era tells me there was no word for "joy" but many words for "sorrow". It was truly a very rough, heartbreaking and soul-wrenching time. I am in awe that this country and the cities in it exist, to be perfectly honest. How humans overcame the swamps, the primeval forest, the diseases and all the other hardships of that time...it's amazing and really incredible.

KPB: Much like the miasmic swamp, the pall of series antagonist Professor Fell looms large over The River of Souls, and by the book's end you set the stage for a reckoning. As the next book is a ways off yet, and without giving too much away, how much of that coming story do you already know, and can you tease us with an idea of what to expect?

RM: Again, clues have been already delivered that will come to fruition in the next book. I do know what the story will be and a lot of what will happen, but certainly not all of it. I do know we go to England in the next book, and the rest of the series will probably take place in Europe. And of course Professor Fell will be a large character in the next book...we may even find out who he really is and what he looks like. If indeed "he" is not really a woman who's been hiding behind the image of a man.

KPB: As with the other books in the series that Subterranean has published, The River of Souls features typically evocative cover art and illustrations by the wonderful Vincent Chong. Obviously, it's critical that the representations of your characters are accurate. How closely do you work with Mr. Chong to achieve the desired result?

RM: I don't really work with Vincent that closely but he always does a great job. I love the idea of using a "weapon" of some kind on the covers. I'm always pleased to see Vincent's work, it's excellent.

KPB: Included in the limited edition of The River of Souls is "The Scorpion's Eye", a fun novelette featuring another series character, the roguish master-thief, Minx Cutter. The story has an adventurous, almost pulp-fiction feel to it. Have you considered writing more of these standalone tales, perhaps featuring other characters from the series?

RM: I was planning on doing next a book of short stories and novelettes about other cases Hudson and Matthew have handled. I've dropped mention of other cases they've been on in the books, such as "The House At The End Of The World", "Night Ride" and the complications of a romance between a colonist and an Indian maiden that would be titled "Love Is A Walk Through Fire". I was going to do this as the sixth book in the series, but I don't think I can let readers hang so long with Matthew in his current predicament. So...that has to be for later, if ever.

KPB: It also takes a dramatic and unexpected turn into horror, perhaps even science fiction territory midway through. Is there any chance that we might see more of the accursed "object", or other treasures from Xavier Dreadson's macabre collection?

RM: Ha! Good idea. Who knows what else Dreadson had in that house, and who's got hold of those things now. I may play with that one. Other "objects" may show up in the possession of...well, we'll see.

KPB: Now that she has been incorporated into the Herrald Agency, how big a role will Minx Cutter play in the next Matthew Corbett book?

RM: That I don't know yet. For sure, Minx is a very interesting character. But be assured there will be plenty more, and a lot yet to come. And when we get to the end and people realize what Professor Fell is searching for, and why...I think the destination will definitely be worth the journey.

I'm intrigued. I have never read RM before; it sounds like the kind of thing that, for me, will live or die by the quality of the prose.

I've heard he's quite similar to King. I think Swan Song is supposed to be his classic. I've heard good things about Boy's Life too.

Just read a Graham Masterton interview in which he briefly talked about his more extreme stories (including a razor wire enema, ouch). I was intrigued by his saying that "Eric The Pie" got a horror magazine banned from some shops. Need to read that someday.
The only Masterton I've read was a short called "Pigs Dinner" which was really crazy and gory; there was some completely impossible stuff where characters could move around well enough despite whole areas of their bodies being destroyed.

I'm actually not a gore fan (I can take or leave it) but I have a soft spot for it being mixed with crazy humour.

I've been intrigued by Swan Song, as an apocalypse addict, but mu suspicions that it's going to be all supernatural nonsense have put me off. But then, i never read The Stand for similar reasons (plus the fact that King can't end a book properly for shit), so what do I know?

Swan Song will absolutely disappoint you. The Stand is far better and the only King book I've ever gone back to read again.

well, that's a relief - thanks!

non-kindle owners in uk might like to know that ancillary justice (as recommended by tracer hand) is currently £2

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/ancillary-justice
http://www.sainsburysebooks.co.uk/book/Ancillary-Justice-Ann-Leckie/7654176

as is alastair reynolds' revelation space
http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/revelation-space

(the adobe drm works on kobos and nooks and androids and ipads and various other bits, but NOT kindles)

ha, actually, both are also on offer for same price for kindles at amazon.

Finally read A Wrinkle In Time: taut plot, lucid speculation (matter and energy the same thing, so time [numbers/kairos, over wristwatch/chronos]is material; pinch a wrinkle in it and step over, having squared this space-time to the 5th dimension: a tesseract, and ho-hum for your rambly old faster-than-light drives). Not that everybody is sold on the desirability of this, not that everybody who is, knows exactly how to do it. Which is one more source of anxiety for the child and early teen travelers, already too smart and otherly-gifted for their own good (in some ways). Also, the limitations of even the most awesome adults, angels and demons all increasingly come to light and dark, in strategic emotional spillage and more wrinkles than originally mentioned.
Can see, as SF Encyclopedia says, how L'Engle won immeidiate acclaim, the Newbery Medal and credit for helping to shape what's now called Young Adult lit. But I don't currently feel the urge to read anymore in this series, although apparently SFE indicates the characters continue to become more "emotionally complex," because I'm a bit put off by the very upfront religious element, which, here, seems more reductive/hyping than heightening, justifying some awfully author-convenient devices. Of course, I'm not the target audience now, and suppose I might've been smitten when I was 12 (but if I were 12 now, this book would have a lot of strong YA competition). Does at times remind me of some of the best this-century eps of Dr. Who (though I still prefer the older ones).
Her SFE entry is kind of intriguing: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/lengle_madeleine

(a maths pedant writes: tesseracts are specifically 4d, hypercube is the generic name for > 3 dimensions)

iirc i liked the second & third ones better as a kid

Bought the CL Moore, Kuttner and Sturgeon omnibus books, more expensive than I though they were. Also Moorcock's Travelling To Utopia collection.
The new Moorcock reissues are 28 books in total. I don't don't think it is his complete output though, the short story collections are "best of"s.

I questioned the Gollancz website and they said they are working on the Masterworks lists and might add a Gateway Omnibus list.

Moorcock didnt really do a ton of short fiction afaik. P sure he has more than 28 books tho (some of which are terrible). P confident I have all the good stuff already.

Black Corridor def the most interesting of the novellas in TTU

I think I remember reading that Moorcock had written over 100 novels...?

I notice a few things missing, most notably the Oswald Bastable books (which are some of my favorites). Site is kinda weird to navigate though, maybe I'm just not seeing it. Dont see the Mars books either.

or is his book about Hawkwind (lol) or the Pyat books (which are probably my favorite)

they did include a bunch of his crappier early novels for some reason (no one needs to read the Chinese Agent)

I don't mean he's only ever did 28 books, but there are are that many in his newest reissue series, most of which contain 3 or 4 of his old books.