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

The Theroux is one I was already thinking of checking out, recently tagged on ILE's search and destroy science fiction thread:
I read Marcel Theroux's 'Strange Bodies' and 'Far North' recently, one's a cool modern-day body-switching story (kinda, but I don't want to give anything away) and the other is straight post-apocalyptic survival in Siberia. His sentence-level writing is reaally good and he has that rarest of qualities, he's fucking good at endings.

― festival culture (Jordan), Monday, July 14, 2014 5:16 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Anyone read this site?
http://greatsfandf.com/
Pretty impressive stuff but I take note that he doesn't think much of Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft and CL Moore. But those lists are overwhelming.

Through that site I found this list that terrifies me too
http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2006/05/big-ass-fantasy-list.html

The articles on obscure writers on Weirdfictionreview are quite daunting too.

Any of you got favourite internet resources for this stuff?

(how is "Byatt, A.S., Possession" on that second list?)

I know the greatsfandf site, I like that guy. He's eloquent and knows how to tell you exactly what he likes about what he likes. And he gets it about Vance (happily, not such a rare thing anymore) and James Blaylock (still a very rare thing, and most people who rep Blaylock talk about the Victorian stuff -- mr greatsfandf understands that Blaylock's southern california magic realist novels are his legacy.)

I dislike some of his opinions but there is so much to admire there too.

I'll check it, but any reviewer who "doesn't think much of CL Moore" has a large blind spot.

thsoe lists are too overwhelming to me, i need someone to tell me 'read these 10 books' not 'read these 200' or i get option paralysis

What does the guy say about Moore?

Said this on his forum...
"Many of the old pulp writers are a kind of fun to read, but--at least to me--chiefly as an exercise in nostalgie, scarcely anything to bite into and chew. Again: that doesn't mean they can't be fun to read, at least for some. But if I'm running a web site on which I have announced to the world that skeptics about the merits of work done in speculative fiction can come here to be disabused of their prejudices, I can scarcely include Robert E. Howard (or C. L. Moore, or even Clark Ashton Smith), now can I? In fairness, can I?"

I don't quite understand his criteria yet. Surprisingly he's very fond of Pratchett, Tolkien and CS Lewis, all of whose merit is often disputed.
William Hope Hodgson is my favourite author (but keep in mind I've barely read many books at all, even though I have read fairly extensively about these genres, because I compulsively treasure hunt for anything that sounds interesting) but he regards The Night Land bizarrely high for someone so harsh on other authors.
For anyone who hasn't read The Night Land, it is notorious for being a WOEFULLY drawn out and repetitive book with utterly stunning moments littered across. Unlike most fans, who ridicule the romance(as in love stories) scenes, I found those parts immensely touching and sweet.

http://vanderworld.blogspot.com/2006/05/my-64-favorite-fictions.html
http://www.sfsite.com/10odd01.htm

Two shorter lists from the same sources.

Thought it was promising that he liked Cordwainer Smith and M. John Harrison better than Asimov and Heinlein, but then a lot of people do, and this guy seems to thing it is an original opinion of his. This other dismissal shows he is overplaying a rhetorical move that was tiresome long ago rather than an interesting aesthetic.

I mean Michael Moorcock has that seem initial preference and you don't see me running to him for reading lists, do you?

I really don't know enough about him to say if this is just for show (although I find it highly suspect when people regularly use the word "adolescent" as a dismissal). Dissing CASmith, calling "gothic beauty" an oxymoron and seeing his opinions on horror don't inspire much confidence, but I agree on enough other things to keep seeking his questionable wisdom.

I like ST Joshi a lot yet disagree with him often, same with Moorcock(but despite all his criticisms I never felt he cared that much if people liked Tolkien for whatever reasons, plenty of his buddies liked authors he disliked).
Somebody once reviewed Joshi saying "Trust Joshi on the books he praises, but look for yourself at those he dismisses or disdains"
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/horror-horror_757204.html?page=1

"Trust" might be too strong a word but I take joshi and this guy's praise more seriously than their dismissals.

Haven't gotten around to reading the new Clark Ashton Smith book I just bought but I look askance at someone dismissing him in order to class up the joint.

That "trust... look for yourself.." is kind of a general good rule of thumb for any arbiter of taste you like, cf Ye Old Weird American Rock Critics.

Another interesting review of Joshi's Unutterable Horror.
http://lareviewofbooks.org/review/beyond-canonization-on-s-t-joshis-unutterable-horror/

What makes that GreatSFandFantasyWorks guy attractive to me is his championing guys like Dunsany, Eddison, Hodgson, Lafferty, Vance and Cabell, as well as old fairy tale authors. Intriguing choices.

I like ST Joshi a lot yet disagree with him often, same with Moorcock
In his defense at least Joshi didn't muddy the waters by writing a ton of crappy novels of his own.

I never read any of his fiction but I was surprised he did a novel about weird fictions writers meeting each other, it seems oddly fannish for him.

Oh crap, I thought you meant you disliked Joshi's novels, because he has done a few.

Now that I have that CL Moore gateway omnibus, I checked if my other collections were redundant but my Planet Stories version of Northwest Of Earth has "Quest Of The Starstone" but the omnibus does not.

I am going to read STORE OF THE WORLDS: THE STORIES OF ROBERT SHECKLEY.

I admit I may have announced this before.

Been reading these utterly bizarre blog writings saying that atheist writers like Lovecraft were unintentionally glorifying the "truth" of Christianity. As if any beautiful works of fantasy is God speaking though the atheist writers who are deep down trying to find Christian heaven.

The wishful thinking knows no bounds. Apparently childhood trauma causes atheism too.

Any human eye, goggled by a car’s windshield, can graft such fantasies onto the great Mojave.
Yes indeed. "The Bad Graft," cool scary story by Karen Russell, from the limited-time-only unlock of the whole New Yorker site, so like the lady says, "Get it while you can."
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/09/the-bad-graft

The Retro Hugo Ballot 1939 finalists (Hugos suspended in the original '39?). The ballots listed are the totes votes received in each category. Awards to be presented Aug 14; see the Loncon3 site:

BEST NOVEL (208 ballots)

Carson of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Argosy, February 1938)
Galactic Patrol by E. E. Smith (Astounding Stories, February 1938)
The Legion of Time by Jack Williamson (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)
Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis (The Bodley Head)
The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White (Collins)

BEST NOVELLA (125 ballots)

Anthem by Ayn Rand (Cassell)
“A Matter of Form” by H. L. Gold (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
“Sleepers of Mars” by John Beynon [John Wyndham] (Tales of Wonder, March 1938)
“The Time Trap” by Henry Kuttner (Marvel Science Stories, November 1938)
“Who Goes There?” by Don A Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Science-Fiction, August 1938)

BEST NOVELETTE (80 ballots)

“Dead Knowledge” by Don A. Stuart [John W. Campbell] (Astounding Stories, January 1938)
“Hollywood on the Moon” by Henry Kuttner (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1938)
“Pigeons From Hell” by Robert E. Howard (Weird Tales, May 1938)
“Rule 18” by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1938)
“Werewoman” by C. L. Moore (Leaves #2, Winter 1938)

BEST SHORT STORY (108 ballots)

“The Faithful” by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)
“Helen O’Loy” by Lester del Rey (Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938)
“Hollerbochen’s Dilemma” by Ray Bradbury (Imagination!, January 1938)
“How We Went to Mars” by Arthur C. Clarke (Amateur Science Stories, March 1938)
“Hyperpilosity” by L. Sprague de Camp (Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM) (137 ballots)

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne. Written & directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Written & directed by Orson Welles (The Campbell Playhouse, CBS)
Dracula by Bram Stoker. Written by Orson Welles and John Houseman, directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)
R. U. R. by Karel Čapek. Produced by Jan Bussell (BBC)
The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Written by Howard Koch & Anne Froelick, directed by Orson Welles (The Mercury Theater on the Air, CBS)

BEST EDITOR - SHORT FORM (99 ballots)

John W. Campbell
Walter H. Gillings
Raymond A. Palmer
Mort Weisinger
Farnsworth Wright

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (86 ballots)

Margaret Brundage
Virgil Finlay
Frank R. Paul
Alex Schomburg
H. W. Wesso

BEST FANZINE (42 ballots)

Fantascience Digest edited by Robert A. Madle
Fantasy News edited by James V. Taurasi
Imagination! edited by Forrest J Ackerman, Morojo, and T. Bruce Yerke
Novae Terrae edited by Maurice K. Hanson
Tomorrow edited by Douglas W. F. Mayer

BEST FAN WRITER (50 ballots)

Forrest J Ackerman
Ray Bradbury
Arthur Wilson “Bob” Tucker
Harry Warner, Jr.
Donald A. Wollheim

Oh yeah, and the 2014 Hugo Finalists:

BEST NOVEL (1595 ballots)

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Orbit US / Orbit UK)
Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross (Ace / Orbit UK)
Parasite by Mira Grant (Orbit US / Orbit UK)
Warbound, Book III of the Grimnoir Chronicles by Larry Correia (Baen Books)
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (Tor Books / Orbit UK)

BEST NOVELLA (847 ballots)

The Butcher of Khardov by Dan Wells (Privateer Press)
“The Chaplain's Legacy” by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jul-Aug 2013)
“Equoid” by Charles Stross (Tor.com, 09-2013)
Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente (Subterranean Press)
“Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages (Tor.com, 10-2013)

BEST NOVELETTE (728 ballots)

“The Exchange Officers” by Brad Torgersen (Analog, Jan-Feb 2013)
“The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal (maryrobinettekowal.com / Tor.com, 09-2013)
“Opera Vita Aeterna” by Vox Day (The Last Witchking, Marcher Lord Hinterlands)
“The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling” by Ted Chiang (Subterranean, Fall 2013)
“The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard (The Other Half of the Sky, Candlemark & Gleam)

BEST SHORT STORY (865 ballots)

“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky (Apex Magazine, Mar-2013)
“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (Tor.com, 04-2013)
“Selkie Stories Are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar (Strange Horizons, Jan-2013)
“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu (Tor.com, 02-2013)

Note: category has 4 nominees due to a 5% requirement under Section 3.8.5 of the WSFS constitution.

BEST RELATED WORK (752 ballots)

Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It Edited by Sigrid Ellis & Michael Damian Thomas (Mad Norwegian Press)
Speculative Fiction 2012: The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary by Justin Landon & Jared Shurin (Jurassic London)
“We Have Always Fought: Challenging the Women, Cattle and Slaves Narrative” by Kameron Hurley (A Dribble of Ink)
Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction by Jeff VanderMeer, with Jeremy Zerfoss (Abrams Image)
Writing Excuses Season 8 by Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Jordan Sanderson

BEST GRAPHIC STORY (552 ballots)

Girl Genius, Volume 13: Agatha Heterodyne & The Sleeping City written by Phil and Kaja Foglio; art by Phil Foglio; colors by Cheyenne Wright (Airship Entertainment)
"The Girl Who Loved Doctor Who" written by Paul Cornell, illustrated by Jimmy Broxton (Doctor Who Special 2013, IDW)
The Meathouse Man adapted from the story by George R.R. Martin and illustrated by Raya Golden (Jet City Comics)
Saga, Volume 2 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples (Image Comics )
“Time” by Randall Munroe (XKCD)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (LONG FORM) (995 ballots)

Frozen screenplay by Jennifer Lee, directed by Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee (Walt Disney Studios)
Gravity written by Alfonso Cuarón & Jonás Cuarón, directed by Alfonso Cuarón (Esperanto Filmoj; Heyday Films; Warner Bros.)
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire screenplay by Simon Beaufoy & Michael Arndt, directed by Francis Lawrence (Color Force; Lionsgate)
Iron Man 3 screenplay by Drew Pearce & Shane Black, directed by Shane Black (Marvel Studios; DMG Entertainment; Paramount Pictures)
Pacific Rim screenplay by Travis Beacham & Guillermo del Toro, directed by Guillermo del Toro (Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros., Disney Double Dare You)

BEST DRAMATIC PRESENTATION (SHORT FORM) (760 ballots)

An Adventure in Space and Time written by Mark Gatiss, directed by Terry McDonough (BBC Television)
Doctor Who: “The Day of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Nick Hurran (BBC Television)
Doctor Who: “The Name of the Doctor” written by Steven Moffat, directed by Saul Metzstein (BBC Televison)
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot written & directed by Peter Davison (BBC Television)
Game of Thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” written by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, directed by David Nutter (HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead; Television 360; Startling Television and Generator Productions)
Orphan Black: “Variations under Domestication” written by Will Pascoe, directed by John Fawcett (Temple Street Productions; Space / BBC America)

Note: category has 6 nominees due to a tie for 5th place.

BEST EDITOR - SHORT FORM (656 ballots)

John Joseph Adams
Neil Clarke
Ellen Datlow
Jonathan Strahan
Sheila Williams

BEST EDITOR - LONG FORM (632 ballots)

Ginjer Buchanan
Sheila Gilbert
Liz Gorinsky
Lee Harris
Toni Weisskopf

BEST PROFESSIONAL ARTIST (624 ballots)

Galen Dara
Julie Dillon
Daniel Dos Santos
John Harris
John Picacio
Fiona Staples

Note: category has 6 nominees due to a tie for 5th place.

BEST SEMIPROZINE (411 ballots)

Apex Magazine edited by Lynne M. Thomas, Jason Sizemore, and Michael Damian Thomas
Beneath Ceaseless Skies edited by Scott H. Andrews
Interzone edited by Andy Cox
Lightspeed Magazine edited by John Joseph Adams, Rich Horton, and Stefan Rudnicki
Strange Horizons edited by Niall Harrison, Brit Mandelo, An Owomoyela, Julia Rios, Sonya Taaffe, Abigail Nussbaum, Rebecca Cross, Anaea Lay, and Shane Gavin

BEST FANZINE (478 ballots)

The Book Smugglers edited by Ana Grilo and Thea James
A Dribble of Ink edited by Aidan Moher
Elitist Book Reviews edited by Steven Diamond
Journey Planet edited by James Bacon, Christopher J. Garcia, Lynda E. Rucker, Pete Young, Colin Harris, and Helen J. Montgomery
Pornokitsch edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin

BEST FANCAST (396 ballots)

The Coode Street Podcast Jonathan Strahan and Gary K. Wolfe
Galactic Suburbia Podcast Alisa Krasnostein, Alexandra Pierce, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Presenters) and Andrew Finch (Producer)
SF Signal Podcast Patrick Hester
The Skiffy and Fanty Show Shaun Duke, Jen Zink, Julia Rios, Paul Weimer, David Annandale, Mike Underwood, and Stina Leicht
Tea and Jeopardy Emma Newman and Peter Newman
Verity! Deborah Stanish, Erika Ensign, Katrina Griffiths, L.M. Myles, Lynne M. Thomas, and Tansy Rayner Roberts
The Writer and the Critic Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond

Note: category has 7 nominees due to a tie for 5th place.

BEST FAN WRITER (521 ballots)

Liz Bourke
Kameron Hurley
Foz Meadows
Abigail Nussbaum
Mark Oshiro

BEST FAN ARTIST (316 ballots)

Brad W. Foster
Mandie Manzano
Spring Schoenhuth
Steve Stiles
Sarah Webb

JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER (767 ballots)

Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2012 or 2013, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award).

Wesley Chu
Max Gladstone *
Ramez Naam *
Sofia Samatar *
Benjanun Sriduangkaew

*Finalists in their 2nd year of eligibility.

Thanks. Did Hugos exist before 1940? Wasn't The Time Trap somewhat scandalous at the time?

have we talked about Pelevin here before because damn, this guy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.N.U.F.F.

possibly my favorite living+working writer

that one's not in English yet unfortunately

B-b-but what about Michael Moorcock?

Awesome obviously but age has slowed him. I did enjoy modem times.

Some of you might be interested in ebook of Elizabeth Hand's "Waking The Moon" for $1.99 at Amazon today.

From Toronto Comic-Com: Lego Batman lookin satisfied with the fare (plenty back-bacon and Molson's in The Great White North)

http://images.thezooom.com/uploads/2014/04/Lego-Batman-Costume-at-Toronto-Comic-Con-2014.jpg

But still on duty!

So I read that Vandermeer Time Traveller's Almanac. Pretty disappointing, didn't have the same stamp of class or quality that their Weird anthology did. I daresay that's partly because it's a much more limiting genre - certainly reading 65 such stories in a row underlined the ridiculousness of the whole concept - but really it seemed as though their selection actually went out of its way to confirm Sturgeon's law. So many mundane stories of using time travel to rescue a relationship. A handful of stories with at best an extremely oblique link to time travel, e.g. The Gernsback Continuum (it's great, it's not time travel) and a Douglas Adams story with a one line reference to TT and a really lame punchline. What rankled most of all was the inclusion of two 50+ page stories by Harry Turtledove, a diptych of the same idiotic and boring story told from two points of view (the narrator travelled back into his own past - to fix his relationship! by trying to pass as his 20 year younger self and sleep with his old girlfriend now ex wife! - so we got the traveller's version and his younger self's). Once was bad enough, when I realised the whole story was basically getting repeated I nearly ate my ereader. I have to quote some of its facepalming attempts to get into the mind of a 90s college student:

“What’s the story, morning glory?” Justin said – Megan was wild for Oasis. He liked British pop, too, though he preferred Pulp, as someone of his parents’ generation might have liked the Stones more than the Beatles.

They both eyed the deejay’s booth, which was as yet uninhabited. “Who’s it supposed to be tonight?” Megan asked. Before Justin could answer, she went on, “I hope it’s Helen. She plays the best mix of anybody, and she’s not afraid to spin things you don’t hear every day.”
“I dunno,” Justin said. “I like Douglas better, I think. He won’t scramble tempos the way Helen does sometimes. You can really dance when he’s playing things. [...] She and Justin analyzed and second-guessed deejays the way football fans played Monday-morning quarterback. Their arguments got just as abstruse and sometimes just as heated, too. Megan didn’t drop it cold here: she said, “As long as it’s not Michael.”

100 pages wasted that could have been filled with The Merchant and The Alchemist's Gate or The Great Work of Time, to name but two.

It wasn't all bad, there were maybe four great stories including a classic Le Guin, and a handful of others I would save from the flames. The rest can burn.

“What’s the story, morning glory?” Justin said – Megan was wild for Oasis. He liked British pop, too, though he preferred Pulp, as someone of his parents’ generation might have liked the Stones more than the Beatles.

hahahaha this sentence

Harry Turtledove is 65 so he's basically writing that sentence for his own benefit.

I prefer "She plays the best mix of anybody, and she’s not afraid to spin things you don’t hear every day." though.

My sympathies, definitely. Haven't read that one, but same experience with other anths. Re Chaing and Crowley, you might also like Vandana Singh's "Infinities":
http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/singh_02_14_reprint/

*Chiang*, that is! Respect!

Good call. Just finished DFW's Everything and More, that was a nice & pertinent little palate cleanser.

finished Malzberg's Breakfast in the Ruins (def a must-read critical overview of the genre), moving through R.A. Lafferty's "Strange Doings" which is pretty high quality. He's got a very unusual authorial voice, it strikes me as very Twilight Zone-ish, there seems to be a lot of nudging-and-winking going on about human follies and foibles; also some very strangely bleak and nasty undertones. "World Abounding" is the most overtly sci-fi entry so far.

After that I have a Damon Knight collection coming to me from the library. Also started to try hunting down some specific short fiction Malzberg rhapsodizes about in BitR - Silverberg, Kuttners, Kornbluth (I've never read any Kornbluth apart from his Pohl collabs)

“What’s the story, morning glory?” Justin said – Megan was wild for Oasis. He liked British pop, too, though he preferred Pulp, as someone of his parents’ generation might have liked the Stones more than the Beatles.

oh man this reminds me of the one iain banks novel i read

B-b-but that Almanac has our favorite story, "Vintage Season"! At least the favorite of some of us. But yeah, other selections looked lackluster, glad I passed on it.

Well my top four by some distance are another story or a fisherman of the inland sea - ursula le guin; palimpsest - charlie stross; under siege - george rr martin; and the lost pilgrim - gene wolfe. (The gernsback continuum disqualified on a technicality.) I'd save seven or eight others including vintage season.

Recent time travel story I enjoyed was "The King and The Dollmaker" by Wolfgang Jeschke, which can be found in David G. Hartwell's Science Fiction Century, a gaslight melodrama featuring secretive scientists, a regal succession struggle and eighteenth century automata. Rave reviews from Franz Rottensteiner. Not much of the guy's stuff is translated into English, may check out The Cusanus Game.

I prefer /"She plays the best mix of anybody, and she’s not afraid to spin things you don’t hear every day."/ though.

The Best Time Travel Stories of The 20th Century, edit by um, Harry Turtledove with Martin H. Greenberg has got some good things in it but not sure if the collection lives up to its title.

Οὖτις,you might find various upthread discussions of Knight and Lafferty useful. The Grail is Lafferty In Orbit, collecting his stories from Knight's standard-setting series (DK also writes the intro). It's also in the same price range as the Grail (Lafferty's stuff is all or mostly out of print and usually expensive).

I've been cherry-picking Lafferty stories from some anthologies, will report back later on where they can be found.

As stated upthread, big fan of Kuttner and Kornbluth as well the Silverberg/Malzberg -and Delany for that matter - curation/narration of a Golden Age SF history. Silverberg famously realized something was amiss in 1958 when both Kuttner and Kornbluth "died of writing science fiction."