Thread of Wonder, the next 5000 posts: science fiction, fantasy, speculative fiction 2021 and beyond

Although I lurked on I Love Music for a long time, I didn't look beyond that sub and only recently joined ilxor.

I look forward to reading this thread, as well as those that preceded it.

Although it has been many years since I read Armor, I am surprised that a search of this website for John Steakley turned up zero results, as I enjoyed the book back then.

What was I missing?

never heard of it/him, but i am confident that james redd can weigh in

Thanks for the quick response!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armor_(novel)

I will try to weigh in on other favourites as well...

never heard of it/him, but i am confident that james redd can weigh in

Although I have never read it, as I am not a vampire fan, Steakley's other novel "Vampire$" was adapted into a movie starring James Woods...

Currently (re)reading the Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay. I'm in the middle of The Wandering Fire, which is the second book.

Although I had previously read Kay's Tigana and thoroughly enjoyed it, I was always more of a SciFi fan, and despite being Canadian, I was originally offput by the first novel being set in 1980s Toronto.
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That said, this trilogy is a nice mix of Arthurian legend, high fantasy and "modern" day (80s) fiction.

A solid 8/10 for me.

i like the fionavar series a lot; there are Consequences

wouldn't say the first one is set in toronto any more than the first narnia book is set in england

Recently read my first K.W. Jeter, Mantis: rude, speedy hyperfocus of ov narrator who has just discovered the joy of typing on his first 1980s computer (green words on black screen, whirling away as he shuts it down, coming back when he does), hovering anxiously over the latest nightly escapes of his schizoid brain child (also has a daylight sperm-egg child and ex-wife who still cares about him, and vice-versa). These last provide welcome change, also the narrator has a downstairs neighbor somewhat like Jeter's buddy PKD, but mainly this mines a narrow vein among nerves, if w/o that 80s "splatter" horror effect---planty stanky though, in cold sweat way. Violence against certain women, the ones who supposedly seek it out. However, there's a twist at the end (with another implied).
Ugh, but it's usually not that hard to read, at least for (old male) me. Would like to see Jeter's talent and skill applied otherwise. May read his one Star Wars bounty hunter books that the local library still has

"books" got in there because was thinking of Jeter's Star Wars bounty hunter trilogy---may have been more, but that's what the library used to have (think he's also written at least one Star Trek tie-in)(and SF Encyclopedia says that he seems to have been the first to use "steampunk" in print, re what he and Blaylock etc. were doing).

Sharon Green died two years ago but her obituary only appeared recently in Locus because she must have been distant from the SFF scene

recently been looking at SF anthologies over the last 40 years -- mostly gardner dozois, but a few others as well

dozois took it upon himself, in the intros, to opine on the State of SF each year. i haven't fully read them -- they're extremely lengthy -- but based on the introductory paragraphs i'd break them down as such:

55% THIS WAS A TERRIBLE YEAR AND SCIENCE FICTION IS DOOMED
25% THIS WAS AN OKAY YEAR, BUT THERE ARE STORMS ON THE HORIZON
20% SCIENCE FICTION RULES AND ANYONE WHO DOUBTS ITS STAYING POWER IS A CLOWN

tbf he apparently felt that his core audience was SF Magazine Publishers, and they really were ultimately doomed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSwfpVRVWlo

HE=AM!

This doesn't go into her speculative fiction much but it's a good article (Rachel Pollack makes an appearance too)
https://xtramagazine.com/power/activism/roz-kaveney-writer-activist-260077

just finished Feersum Endjinn and in still not sure what was going on, some people coming together to do something, others trying to stop them. it apparently worked but not really sure what or how.

if you've read it you'll know every 4th chapter is in dialect - eventyooly we came 2 a bit whare thi tunil wideind out & thi floar turnd from stoan 2 wood - which is enough of a struggle without the additional ocr errors the e-book introduces - 1nce, for instance was rendered as lnce and Ince in places

I thought the enjinn of the title enabled them to shift the orbit of earth but wp says it shifts the whole solar system.

much as I love the culture, in my memory this and against a dark background are the most intriguing and worthy of a re-read.

yeh need to revisit Endjinn, I remember it being good but hard work. Excession is my fav tho.

> 1nce, for instance was rendered as lnce and Ince in places

ha, that's small-L-nce and big-i-nce rather than digit-1-nce. depending on the font it's indistinguishable, BUT my original hardback uses a serif font so this shouldn't happen.