ThReads Must Roll: the new, improved rolling fantasy, science fiction, speculative fiction &c. thread

I'm reading Hyperion, lol wtf.

B-b-but I thought you...

What - had read it already? Unconditionally loved all space opera?

I don’t think anyone will convince me to read Hyperion again. Yes I was only 20 at the time and might not have had the right goggles but... not happening.

I'm 1/4 of the way in, nearly gave up and read a synopsis last night. Seems very much in the 'author should really be writing fantasy' mould, as discussed above with Paul McAuley's War of the Maps. Also going to put it on the list in my head of 'CATHOLICS IN SPAAAAACE!' along with The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, A Canticle for Liebowitz (not in space but you get the idea), and Grass by Sherri S. Tepper (which at least gives them some considerable side-eye).

What - had read it already? Unconditionally loved all space opera?

That might be Peter F Hamilton.

Oh right, exactly, sorry.

This Dan Simmons is a real piece of work. In the first part of Hyperion he invents a punishment worse than crucifixion, in the second part one worse than pretty much anything, and in the third a fate for parents worse than the death of their children. Sometimes I just want a bit of escapism ya know?

lol

What did you expect?

idk, less brutal punishment? there are other ways of writing high stakes drama. seems to be a bit of a thing in space opera though, banks often toyed with it - even had a book partially set in 'hell'; can't remember any specific instances in reynolds but wouldn't be surprised if he went there. Simmons really goes all in though.

to be fair though i thought the third part was actually really good, emotionally hard hitting but not needlessly barbaric.

you used to complain about torture and revenge in reynolds all the time. most specifically the guy welded into the suit of armour in iirc Absolution Gap.

lol i must have blocked that memory, can't recall it even now!

(for anyone familiar with Hyperion, when I wrote 'third part' above i meant the fourth.)

i recall having liked the hyperions a lot, but it was 25 years ago. third and fourth books are somewhat different, but also good iirc ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the scrimshaw suit *was* in absolution gap, but now i recollect you having not finished the trilogy, having read one of the others instead, not liking the torture / revenge aspects and me warning you off the third because of said suit.

I've lost track of his recent books, not helped by him renaming one of them and the way he keeps making up universes, setting two books in them and moving on again.

The Endymion books were more popcorn that the two Hyperion ones but pretty good despite the obvious Terminator rip-off xp

third and fourth books are somewhat different, but also good iirc ¯\_(ツ)_/

You mean... it's the first in a series? *a great cry like the death howl of a billion interlinked supertemporal ultrasentient quantum AIs rang out through the space-time continuum*

Does a Baen shit in the woods? Right-leaning publisher turns out to be harbouring fascist nutjobs on its forums, quelle surprise. Great investigative work by Sanford as ever.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/baen-books-forum-47582408

Follow-up:
http://file770.com/weisskopf-announces-hiatus-for-baens-bar/

Just started Solaris on Audible. Great so far! The voice over is above average for an audiobook too

Thanks, Matt. I dipped my toe into the Baen thing and thought, if not for the politics, hate speech, & domestic terrorism threats, I love the idea of a little corner of the internet existing more or less secretly for 20+ years.

the way he keeps making up universes, setting two books in them and moving on again

To be fair, I wish more writers would do this--or even just one book--rather than keeping on with the interminable series.

the web site has clarified things for me, a bit. the rename confused me, as did writing a sequel 12 years later, in the middle of another trilogy. Web site does talk about books to be published in 2020 though, so there's probably been a couple more since then.

I'm can't remember whether I've read the 2nd book of the current trilogy or whether i enjoyed the 1st. reviews are very mixed.

and it appears this year's book, out August, goes all the way back to the Revelation Space universe from 2000

Locus on upcoming---can't tell much from v brief summaries, but this seems possibly promising, despite/incl. dumbo description of merging:

Rosson, Keith: Folk Songs for Trauma Surgeons

(Meerkat Press 978-1-946154-52-1, $16.95, 206pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, Feb 23, 2021)

Collection of 15 stories, one new, delving into notions of family, identity, indebtedness, loss, and hope, while merging literary fiction and magical realism.
Also:
Womack, Marian: The Swimmers

(Titan Books US 978-1789094213, $15.95, 352pp, formats: trade paperback, ebook, Feb 23, 2021)

Dystopian reimagining of Wide Sargasso Sea set in Andalusia. After the ravages of the Green Winter, Earth is a place of deep jungles and monstrous animals. The last of the human race is divided into surface dwellers and the people who live in the Upper Settlement, a ring perched at the edge of the Earth’s atmosphere.
https://locusmag.com/2021/02/new-books-23-february-2021/

https://dorisvsutherland.com/2021/02/22/maga-2020-beyond-part-8-the-end-at-last/
Earlier parts are linked within

From the Wormwoodiana blog:

Coven Poetry is a new free online literature and art journal edited by E.P Jenkins ‘that seeks to give space to the innovative and experimental with a particular interest in work that is ecologically aware, that explores process as ritual, and mythology, and crafts.’

The first issue includes four images by me in my series of found art from old books: Gypsy Queen Dream Book; Secret Egypt; The White Knights; and Brood 2.

Other contributions explore witchcraft, tarot, paganism, grimoires, zombies, moon worship, Egyptian deities, spells and incantations and much more in a rich alchemical melding of ancient magic with modernist and avant-garde style.

If Austin Osman Spare, William Burroughs, Mary Butts and Kathy Acker got together for a séance, the transcript could well look like this. https://covenpoetry.wordpress.com/blog/

(Mark Valentine)
Some other links in here worth checking, as usual:
http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.com/2021/03/coven-new-journal.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Wormwoodiana+%28Wormwoodiana%29

Interview with writer and publisher (Rosarium) Bill Campbell. What interested me the most was his comment that people straight up ignore the most controversial art so it doesn't get any attention. Have to admit I'd be nervous about ordering Koontown Killing Kaper, but I'm glad his face is on the back cover (I think Tade Thompson said he read it on the train), he said he was blacklisted from lots of places for it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yyptg1GiKrE

Who Is R. A. Lafferty? And Is He the Best Sci-Fi Writer Ever?

Is that a new article?

03.03.2021 08:00 AM

So should we then say that Rafferty is baconing?

Like Barkis is willin'

Lafferty is baconing, sorry

Tbh thought we reached peak Lafferty a few years back.

Yes when Gaiman was touting him

That’s exactly what I meant, thanks.

Some SNL guys and stand-up comedians too, iirc.

I don’t understand why it’s necessary to overstate Lafferty’s obscurity so hard (as that latest article does)

That’s why I asked when it was written, thought maybe it was an older article that popped again showing yesterday’s date.

Art book here

Lee Brown Coye - Pulp Macabre

This focuses on the last years of Coye's life (late 60s to early 80s), reprinting the complete illustrations of many of the books of that era by writers/editors like Hugh B Cave, Manly Wade Wellman and Les Daniels. The writing is largely about people like Robert Weinberg, Les Daniels, Karl Edward Wagner and Stuart David Schiff trying to keep alive and sometimes bring back the contributors to Weird Tales magazine who weren't being published by August Derleth/Arkham House. Derleth had utilized Coye before he died and Coye needed these people for the kind of work he wanted to do and found a larger and maybe more sympathetic audience than he had when he was drawing for Weird Tales.

I appreciated the short biographies because I knew very little about Weinberg and Daniels. I found some of the claims a bit exaggerated (I wouldn't consider Schiff that well known in the recent past and although Coye is very morbid, a lot of the writing seems to describe something even darker than he is) but I do agree that Coye might have been the greatest artist to come out the pulps and his vision was a great deal stronger than even a lot of the most celebrated horror artists.

What I appreciate most is the very late scratchy drawings, I don't think I had seen any of these and several of them are previously unpublished. I think it might be among his best work and I'm not sure how much this was a chosen direction for him and how much it was him struggling with his ill health, it is said he needed to relearn how to draw. 75 isn't so bad an age to die but I wish he got longer to explore this scratchy look.

This is a nice addition to Arts Unknown, most of us will never find or afford A Retrospective.

Seriously considering shelling out pretty good money for all 13 volumes of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Has anyone gotten any of these? I have a bad completism bug -- if I get one, I'll have FOMO if I don't get all of them.

Ha, that's one thing I don't quite have, I know I won't read all that, it's a disincentive.

I have heard that some of the earliest volumes are a bit rougher. I do have a similar bug but I'm more wary now because I am making my way through a few complete works collections and it's often a drag unless they have a small body of work or they have a reputation for always being interesting. I tend to find that even a lot of the greats are disappointing 2/3 of the time.

Yes, I think somebody even had a rule to that effect, can’t quite remember who.

lol

Microcosmic lol.

Anyway came here to say that as the Great Threadroller I am well aware that this thread is on ILB and concerns the written word but wanted to mention that I have recently been binge watching Babylon 5 which is really hitting the spot, lots of multi-year multi-season arcs that really pay off, really good writing and characters, but as far as I can tell only two other ILX0rs are fans and one of them just went into a borad beef-induced space-time anomaly. The thread is here Babylon 5, barely running along like a poorly crewed generation spaceship, and contains some super spoilers so don’t click on the hidden text!

i saw it and enjoyed it at the time and have all the dvds (although i can only see 1, 2, 3 on the shelves). and a lot of the daytime stuff that's been keeping me going has finished now, so i might have some capacity.

I watched it at the time, not religiously but enough to remember g'kar and londo, and to notice andreas katsulas when he popped up on st:tng. Don't have the dvds or hbo access or much time to spare.