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

The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume 1, Robert Silverberg ed.

per this thread

Pi

Sorry wrong thread. That was meant for NED RAGGETT

j/k it was a pocket post. More to say later.

I am reading Kingsley Amis (ed), THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION.

My favourite story is Frederik Pohl's 'the tunnel under the world'.

(from reading John Clute's twitter)

I had no idea Lucius Shepard had died. And i had NO idea he was the age he was. I always associated him with the Blaylock/Powers/Jeter/Robinson cadre but he was already writing in the fucking fifties!

Yeah, he was something of a prodigy---think he had some stories professionally published (in YA mags, maybe genre too) when he like 13 or something. People just eventually came across them, in some kind of pre-Web archives (what the ancient ones called "stacks," perhaps). Don't know that he ever commented on any of that.

But yeah, your generational association seems right, always did.

Never read anything by him. What's good?

Shakey, there is no acknowledgement of the silliness because he is not being silly or arch, he is serious. In lots of sf space travel is presented as an engineering problem - if and when the pointy-headed engineers get the cold equations right, all will be well. Here he showing the potential human cost and suffering: these guys, whether convicts or gentleman volunteers, have of necessity been surgically altered, literally cut off from the rest of humanity and their own humanity, and it may turn out it was all in vain. A haberman is called that after somebody named Haberman who invented the procedure but it's kind of a German pun, which isn't that hard to see in English, he is a halber Mann, "half man." If you can read into The Martian Chronicles an imaginative retelling of the colonization of North America, you can read into "Scanners" a retelling of the settlement of, um, Australia.

I don't find the storytelling and the language to be gobbledygook, I find them compelling and believe that he drew on earlier modes of narratives than were in standard use at the time- the Scanners litany invokes the the recitation of the law of the Beast Folk in The Island of Dr. Moreau, Martel's relationship with his is kind of a Beauty and the Beast situation, and I assume that there is plenty of stuff that came from the author's extensive knowledge of Chinese classics which I am completely unfamiliar with.

Hm, the concordance has a long explanation for the origin of the term Haberman, although mine is mentioned at the end as a "possible alternative or additional meaning."

Here is link to relevant essay to be read more thoroughly later, entitled 'Mythic Structures in Cordwainer Smith's "The Game of Rat and Dragon"' http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/12/wolfe12.htm

you can read into "Scanners" a retelling of the settlement of, um, Australia.

huh that is an interesting angle. it really is the language/prose more than the ideas that I find off-putting. I know he's being totally serious. will read the essay on my lunch break.

No love for recently deceased Michael Shea? I confess I've only read his famous "Autopsy" but I have a few books of his and have been wanting to get around to his Nifft stuff for a while.

Seems that the Clark Ashton Smith Penguin Classics edition is finally out. A lot of Smith fans are excited about this.

Anyone read the fantasy and SF guides by Rottensteiner? I was reading about him on 50Watts recently and he seems to have a knowledge of lots of foreign stuff that I always want to hear about. I always want a fresh take on fantasy.

I've been seeing quite a few Dedalus regional fantasy anthologies around and I'm immensely intrigued but I've not read much opinion on them from fantasy readers. Here is their anthology catalogue...http://www.dedalusbooks.com/our-books/index.php?pg=1&cat=13

The Dedalus Austrian Fantasy collection is _really_ good. The Finnish one has some good stuff, but too many novel extracts rather than stories, which always bugs me. I want the Dutch one, but haven't read it yet.

Seems that the Clark Ashton Smith Penguin Classics edition is finally out. A lot of Smith fans are excited about this.

From this book I learned that Smith's mother had the wonderful name Fanny Gaylord.

The Austrian was my first choice, but haven't found a listing with the contents yet---what's in it?

Is that edited by Rottensteiner? Does it overlap with The Black Mirror?

Been reading around in his anthology Views From Another Shore, some good stuff in there. Believe he was Lem's agent in Germany at some point, if not in Europe or all of the West, but they had a falling out.

The Rottensteiner austrian book is SF, but the Dedalus is fantasy. Dedalus site only tells you a few authors but on amazon you can see the contents using "look inside".

Lem sounds a bit odd, I heard he went on a tirade against American SF writers but praised PK Dick but Dick wasn't flattered because he had paranoid fantasies about Lem. I've heard that Dick was also scared of Jeter or Kotzwinkle. Can't recall.

I listened to a few podcasts on Agony Column last night and there were some tantalizing sounding books coming up. Edward Gauvin said Tartarus will be compiling his translations of obscure writers and Jeff Vandermeer said he will probably be bringing out more of those huge fantasy anthologies with his wife Ann.

I was going to say Rottensteiner, like Lem, had and continues to have little use for US sf. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if this actually ended up contributing to their bust-up. The narcissism of small differences gets us all in the end.

Just read Frederik Pohl's The Tunnel Under the World, recommended by teh pinefox on another thread. It is of a piece with The Space Merchants and in the intro Malzberg says it "could be seen as the exemplary work for Galaxy"

http://50watts.com/filter/rottensteiner/View-From-Another-Shore-An-Interview-with-Franz-Rottensteiner

This is where I discovered Rottensteiner. He mentions quite a few American authors he likes. I want his fantasy guide before anything else.

My copy of Norstrilia has this amazing / terrible cover, wtf happened to sf paperback artwork in the 80s?

http://www.fourth-millennium.net/cordwainer-vr/norstrilia-cover2sm.JPG

Thanks. Read that before. See that he mentions Kornbluth along with Henry Kuttner, A.E. van Vogt, Clifford Simak. Think it is some of the bigger US authors he has no use for. Also am reminded he was Lem's agent everywhere in the West but Germany.

Lots of good Cordwainer stuff way upthread, incl some better Norstrilia (and other CS)-related art, if not removed.

Some of his pre-Cordwainer novels are around: first two chapters of Ria gradually/steadily getting a little too mind-meld for the moment---must---resume---later---
http://www.cordwainer-smith.com/ria.htm

Thought about reading Atomsk recently.

It's on Kindle. Meanwhile, SFE's John Clute is tripping on new screen version of Under The Skin I should read the book too, apparently. Not for spoiler-wusses, but pretty sure the movie experience is as much the how as the what: http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/under_the_skin

My man M. John Harrison put the book on his short list a while back so I've been curious, haven't seen the film yet.

almost done with the Best Sci Fi Vol 1 (only the Zelazny left to go). so far feel like the big discovery for me in all this is Damon Knight, who I'd never read before. Any recommendations re: Knight short story collections (seems like his novels are not held in as high esteem?)

(seems like his novels are not held in as high esteem?)

It's been many years since I read it, but I really really loved The Man in the Tree.

I really enjoyed Under the Skin, haven't seen the movie yet.

Same here, Shakey: I'd always known Knight as the editor of stand-alones--A Century of Science Fiction blew my middle school mind--and the Orbit series, where he was pretty tough about requiring even the biggest of names to meet his distinctive standards. I, too, am just starting to check out his fiction. Rule Golden is a collection of novelettes or novellas. The title story comes first, somewhat misleadingly, since it begins with yet more 50s cynicism about the System, okay but no big deal---then the characters aget restless and start kicking up the slick/grubby pulp surface (oops think I talked about this book way up thread). Anyway, the main characters and their relationships develops more and differently than I expected. The other stories start better and go further, just as unexpectedly, in their own ways. I've got one of his novels, the fairly late Why Do Birds , which kind of blew reviewer Spinrad's mind in Asimov's Magazine; still gotta read that and a bunch more.

/(seems like his novels are not held in as high esteem?)/

It's been many years since I read it, but I really really loved/ The Man in the Tree/.

Malzberg holds him in particularly high esteem, which counts for a lot imo, he's a reliable judge of quality prose

Yeah, in his Galaxy Project intros he seems to say Knight never wrote a bad story.

Thanks James, but I've got way too many books to get through now. Here's a Knight mentioned upthread: Skimming through all his linked stories on wikipedia, the only one I recall reading is The Country of the Kind, which I rated as a youth but now strikes me as a bit douchey.

This one on the other hand - wow. Just wow.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shall_the_Dust_Praise_Thee%3F

― God arrives for the apocalypse, having been traveling at the speed of (ledge), Saturday, 31 March 2012 21:54 (2 years ago) Permalink

Finally went back to and finished Damon Knight's Rule Golden and Other Stories. As prev mentioned, the title story comes first: boondocks newspaper editor, too smart for his own good, finds himself drafted to study an alien captive, his job during what may be his own prison term. The alien manipulates him into faciltating their escape, and during their time on the run across the world--could be a pre-Le Carre thriller, mainly about the stress of adaptation and paradigm shift.For the alien also:he's here to keep Earthlings to venture into Galaxy w freakishly violent drives intact--but such a rare dilemma and new solution, who knows what results will accrue. Easy enough to pick up on this, despite the genre patterns. Also in "Double Meaning," which moves a bit beyond didactic demonstration of didactism's tight-assed limations. The uptight protagonist, threatened by having to consult with an uncouth postcolonial, as they search for an alien impersonating a subject of Earth's Galactic Empire, is also plotting his own rise from the lower classes by manipulating a neurotic aristocrat into marrying him. He (hope he's)wearing down her resistence in various, plausibly projected ways (this was 50s pulp for middle school geeks??) Again, easily picked up implications (he can't go into Les Liasons D-etail), and invitations to speculate, like about what happens after the genre-typical happy-ish ending. "The Earth Quarter" is post-Imperial, postcolonial, except now the freakishly violent-tending Earthlings are in galactic ghettos, still somehow dependent on exports from supposedly ruined Earth, and trying to cope with mental and physical exile. "The Dying Man" is not dystopian, but again, slowly grokking the still-human nature of Earthopian life. I better end this, but the collection, the de facto series, gets better as it goes along, too.

― dow, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 3:23 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"from venturing into galaxy w freakishly violent drives intact," that is. "Could be a pre-Le Carre thriller, mainly (kinda something else)" not meant to imply Knight doesn't have his own knack for moving sometimes bloody-minded tacticians around the 4-D chessboard.

― dow, Tuesday, May 15, 2012 3:28 PM (1 year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the only one I recall reading is The Country of the Kind, which I rated as a youth but now strikes me as a bit douchey.

this is the one I just read, I thought it was great. not sure what's douchey about it

(should've used the space bar more often in re-posting). Dunno; ledge wrote it.

Wazzabout his A For Anything?

Anyway, came to say I just recently got off an airplane and can barely hear anything so I feel a bit like a Scanner, if not a Haberman.

Finally got into Sales' Apollo Quartet. Digging the writing a lot - was worried because I've been bummed out by alt.histories that get caught up in their concept.

finished Tau Zero. found the sexual aspects quite odd, like it was science fiction with added wife swapping. (local bookshop used to stock the sci-fi next to the erotica, which i thought was astute of them). also, it read a scandinavian approximation of english at times.

also bought The Forever War in a 2 for £5 deal from fopp. not sure whether to start that next.

PK Dick, 'King of the Elves' (1953)

is this a parody of Tolkien?

if I recall correctly, it's about some guy who discovers there are little elves living in his backyard and he becomes their king

There was supposed to be Disney animated feature based on this at some point. Whatever happened to that?

It's still coming out according to wikipedia.

Yes I have read the story. What seems esp Tolkienesque is the detail with which the epic battle between elves and trolls is described.

Where does all the film adaptation money for PK Dick go? Does he have a family?