Only have read Kate Wilhelm's "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang", which was pretty cool (clones, evolution, nuclear war, nice writing). Her page on the SF Encyclopedia lists a bunch of other interesting-looking stuff. (http://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/wilhelm_kate)
― seven league bootie (James Morrison), Thursday, 12 April 2012 00:50 (twelve years ago) link
read some more!
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 01:03 (twelve years ago) link
ironic that i am still reading after doomsday - which is about people on spaceships fleeing the enemy after the destruction of their planet and how they are the last survivors of their species - cuz i keep putting it down to watch battlestar galactica on netflix. covers through time and space:
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61Q4GOQZdWL._AA300_.jpg
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3089/2865131306_bc9b3b74d3.jpg
http://www.sfreviews.com/graphics/Poul%20Anderson_1961_After%20Doomsday.jpg
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1233199833l/1348341.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2bn8bIau7Z4/Ty11fcCD72I/AAAAAAAAIfI/6g8Or7uPqDk/s1600/19.jpg
http://c2.bibtopia.com/h/236/990/286990236.0.m.jpg
http://www.sf-leihbuch.de/covers/Anderson_DerUntergangDerErde.jpg
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_iSmK7dfnS6c/S_kJWDiU8mI/AAAAAAAAA6c/2P8CSD2CjCc/s1600/hanno+distrutto.jpg
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 01:12 (twelve years ago) link
Ah, Dominic Flandry and the Polesotechnic League
― Number None, Thursday, 12 April 2012 03:05 (twelve years ago) link
Anybody read Thomas Burnett Swann? Today I saw this, it passed the random skim test, but I haven't bought it yet. Should I? http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1236018124l/6116806.jpg
― dow, Thursday, 12 April 2012 03:45 (twelve years ago) link
He grooves w the prehumans, pagans and poets, I got that much.
― dow, Thursday, 12 April 2012 03:46 (twelve years ago) link
lol scott it was definitely necessary to show us every edition of 'after doomsday'
i just read a poul anderson story for the first time - for some reason in my head he's down as a triple-decker sword/sorcery guy - but he has the last story in the sf argosy - it's alright but a bit DO YOU SEE
― thomp, Thursday, 12 April 2012 07:35 (twelve years ago) link
think anderson's work splits between classical fantasy/s+s and 'hard' sf w/ a right-wing/libertarian edge - never really had much time for him, personally, but he sure was prolific!
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 12 April 2012 07:55 (twelve years ago) link
yeah got a little carried away with the covers. sorry. i should actuallty start a sci-fi cover variation thread. it says a lot about how the future treated old future books!
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 13:07 (twelve years ago) link
talking of cover variations, this was one of the v first sf paperbacks i ever owned, bought because of the groovy cover - the contents kinda flew way over my tiny mind, i remember the prose style being p 'hip'?
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5160ZfNhOXL._SL500_AA300_.jpg
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 12 April 2012 13:12 (twelve years ago) link
ted was way hip. and way more rewarding when all is said and done then uh i dunno jack kerouac or someone dreary like that.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 13:26 (twelve years ago) link
its funny how you get received ideas abt certain authors - like, all i know abt simak is that he's the 'pastoral' sf writer, wld that be fair/accurate?
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 12 April 2012 13:46 (twelve years ago) link
Tell me about it. I received the idea that Barrington Bayley and Bob Shaw were stodgy stalwarts swept away by the New Wave but apparently that was unfair characterization. They deserve another chance
― zing left unguarded, the j/k palace in flames (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 14:22 (twelve years ago) link
that would be fair and accurate, ward. if you are a fan of the state of Wisconsin you shoulc check him out. but he had all kinds of neat/weird ideas about time and time travel and metaphysics. there is still a TON i haven't read by him. but i just find him so soothing and enjoyable. maybe "soothing" isn't a great recomendation, i dunno. he wrote a lot. worth reading i think.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 14:33 (twelve years ago) link
ty scott, iirc 'city' is meant to be a good'un, will check it out
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 12 April 2012 14:46 (twelve years ago) link
Poul Anderson's Tau Zero was his most respected, by my science/math-savvy friends anyway, never read it myself. Scott's cover sequence is awesome!
― dow, Thursday, 12 April 2012 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
That's the one where they go faster and faster thereby experiencing greater and greater relativistic effects. When I read it in high school found it a hard sf bore
― zing left unguarded, the j/k palace in flames (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:19 (twelve years ago) link
But I thought the same of Mission of Gravity so you might not trust me.
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:25 (twelve years ago) link
mission of gravity is like watching someone work something out on the back of an envelope for 200 pages
― thomp, Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:56 (twelve years ago) link
bob shaw was a stodgy stalwart swept away by the new wave, except that the new wave didn't really sweep anything away
bayley was a mate of moorcock's so he went on publishing and anthologising him whatever, insofar aict
― thomp, Thursday, 12 April 2012 17:57 (twelve years ago) link
You know who loved MoG, of all people? Tom Disch
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:11 (twelve years ago) link
early poul anderson is pretty straightforward. in a good way. i've always thought.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:31 (twelve years ago) link
i don't think i've even read any of his 80's stuff. like a lot of the old timers he wrote SOOOOOOOOO much. just an endless amount really.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
wasn't it you who said something about sf writers and graphomania?
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:39 (twelve years ago) link
Oh yeah, here it is ᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥ THE ILX ALL-TIME SPECULATIVE FICTION POLL - NOMINATIONS & DISCUSSION THREAD ᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥᴥᴕᴥ
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
is there any genre that can compare with sf as far as output goes? mystery/crime would be the closest and i don't think its even that close.
― scott seward, Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:44 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, mystery writers seem to proceed in a more orderly fashion, and the most prolific writers, like A Lawrence Block or even Joyce Carol Oates, if you want to count her, are not a patch on the pants of an Isaac Asimov, production-wise.
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:53 (twelve years ago) link
Oh, I forgot, Asimov wrote mysteries too.
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 18:54 (twelve years ago) link
He also had all this stuff like Asimov's Guide to Shakesspeare, and many other subjects. In his Asimov's Magazine column, he mentioned a "colleague" at MIT, where he sometimes went to his office, watching him copy stuff out of another reference book. "Why, you're just plagiarizing!" The Good Doctor patiently explained to him why this was not the case. But for most people, SF really didn't pay so well, so they had to make up for it in VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME, like in the old TV commercial. Seems like I read re the 50s and maybe later, a "paperback original" novel-ish length might get just a flat fee, a couple thousand bucks, no royalities. A couple thou in the 50s wasn't necessarirly anything to sneeze at, but considering urban/urban sprawl cost of living in New York or Southern Cail, still you'd have to keep pounding the keys, esp if got a family. When ownership might revert to author, I dunno. I doubt there are many full-time SF writers who don't have to grind out these days, most of 'em prob teach etc.
― dow, Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
And I suppose even Asimov might've felt it actually necessary to turn out so many books.
― dow, Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
VOLUME VOLUME VOLUME, like in the old TV commercial.
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Thursday, 12 April 2012 20:12 (twelve years ago) link
Sadface time--I really liked Mission of Gravity and Tau Zero! If you want "someone work(ing) something out on the back of an envelope for 200 pages", try recent Greg Egan (only make it 400 pages, and not an envelope but some quantum computer thingy). It's sad--Egan used to do great mind-blowing SF, now he does near characterless theses.
― seven league bootie (James Morrison), Friday, 13 April 2012 01:58 (twelve years ago) link
i haven't read those. maybe someday! finally finished After Doomsday. it is just comfort food sci-fi but like i said that's my kind of thing. and 50+ years later people are STILL writing books like it. dude was one of the template makers.
still looking for something to really get sucked into for a while. i loved that ben bova exiles trilogy. i want something like that right about now. though next up is simak's Ring Around The Sun. i will report back!
― scott seward, Friday, 13 April 2012 02:38 (twelve years ago) link
math and physics types are huge fans of egan's recent stuff as far as i know. to folks with sufficient background, apparently, that sort of really hard stuff is very compelling.
― s.clover, Friday, 13 April 2012 02:58 (twelve years ago) link
James, I think it was a men's clothing store or brand, sold so very affordably: "How do they do it? VOLUMR VOLUME VOLUME" Needs to be put out to pasture now though. re bottom-rate economics of xpost paperback originals and pb re-prints of magazine fiction, just bought flea market copy of John W. Campbell's The Moon Is Hell, from 1951, which by-the-by incl "bonus novel" The Elder Gods, from 1939. And this twofer was published in 1973, so they were still doing that ol' pulponomics at least that recently.
― dow, Friday, 13 April 2012 03:12 (twelve years ago) link
although the bonus novel did get its stand-alone edition, with a better cover than my twoferhttp://arthursbookshelf.com/sci-fi/campbell/covers/elder2.jpg
― dow, Friday, 13 April 2012 03:16 (twelve years ago) link
In some ways I'm more interested in the backstories such as the one about New Worlds than I am in actually reading the stuff these days, which is why I am looking forward to Becoming Ray Bradbury.
― Thunderword ESQ (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 13 April 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
Review here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/jonathan-r-ellers-becoming-ray-bradbury-reviewed-by-michael-dirda/2011/08/15/gIQAuTgzLJ_story.html
Sutin's bio of PDK is pretty good, though of course the Maestro talked about himself quite a bit from the 70s on. Pretty good entry on crusty John W. Campbell Jr. here http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/
― dow, Friday, 13 April 2012 21:45 (twelve years ago) link
Here's the exact link, lest anyone start at the beginning and never come back to us http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/campbell_john_w_jr
― dow, Friday, 13 April 2012 21:48 (twelve years ago) link
Ahmed Khaled Towfik: Utopia--Egyptian dystopian SF. Really bad, gave up at p50
― seven league bootie (James Morrison), Saturday, 14 April 2012 03:20 (twelve years ago) link
Enjoyed the Bradbury xpost thanks. Think he mentioned Poe as an early inspiration. Intriguing about Christopher Morley, never read him. Anybody read that James Tiptree Jr. bio?
― dow, Saturday, 14 April 2012 03:34 (twelve years ago) link
I own it and flipped through it but, as is so often the case, haven't sat down and actually read it yet. Seems really good though.
― i just believe in memes (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 14 April 2012 03:55 (twelve years ago) link
hey scott you said you mostly read female authors, is that true for sf too? any recommendations? i <3 <3 <3 le guin and have lessing & butler on my to-do list.
― Touché Gödel (ledge), Monday, 16 April 2012 11:19 (twelve years ago) link
you know, that isn't really true of SF. though i'm always looking for someone i like as much as le guin and wilhelm. i did finally read some andre norton last year and enjoyed what i read. but, as written above, the sheer AMOUNT of what she wrote can make it a flip of the coin as far as WHAT to read. i need more butler in my life! i think there is a thread for her. i'm a relative newby to SF. only really started reading in earnest in the last 5 or 6 years. and there is a ton of stuff i still need to get to. which is why this thread is good.
oh and you can't go wrong with james tiptree. she was the coolest. i'm always trying to track down novels of hers. i mostly read her stories in old anthologies.
― scott seward, Monday, 16 April 2012 12:37 (twelve years ago) link
i've got a copy of The Female Man by Joanna Russ on my to-read-pile, meant to be THE seminal seventies feminist SF nov
― Ward Fowler, Monday, 16 April 2012 12:56 (twelve years ago) link
Other female sf auths, tho admittedly not on the level of LeGuin and Butler, but then, who is?
Connie WillisNicola Griffith
I'll think of more.
― how did I get here? why am I in the whiskey aisle? this is all so (Laurel), Monday, 16 April 2012 13:56 (twelve years ago) link
Margaret Atw...nah
― Number None, Monday, 16 April 2012 14:00 (twelve years ago) link
nah.
Just tried a Connie Willis, Doomsday. I did like the middle ages part but her future oxford was extremely lacking in prescience, and the most of characters were identikit self-centred monomaniacs, in the service of some kind of 'confederacy of dunces' style farce that really doesn't appeal to me unfortunately.
― Touché Gödel (ledge), Monday, 16 April 2012 14:00 (twelve years ago) link
Like I mentioned xpost, based on a couple of Year's Best stories, would like to check Vandana Singh's collection, The Woman Who Thought She Was A Planet. This ain't the cover, it's a Hubble pic from the author's sitehttp://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2007/16/images/h/formats/web.jpg
― dow, Monday, 16 April 2012 17:33 (twelve years ago) link