Sci-fi must-reads and must-views

CHAOTROPIC

CHAOTROPIC

on account
droid said:
That would be Dick then surely? Hes the worst combination of great ideas/abysmal writing ever. Ever tried reading 'maze of death'?
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I haven't ... loved Valis though. In ideas, he definitely blows Asimov's pedestrian predictions out of the water, for sure. Actually you're probably right. It's not fair to compare Dylan's herky jerky eccentric style to Asimov's bland characterlessness.

But I stand by my Jack Vance / Pixies connection :cool:
 
D

droid

Guest
Yeah - Asimov is more like Weezer!

Exegesis Dick has much more engaging prose. Early Dick short stories have brilliant ideas and the bad writing doesnt have time to grind you down. The stuff in the middle is a slog though - specially if youve already been hit by the good ideas in the short stories.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
droid said:
And oddly compulsive. I find myself reading him more for the state of mind his prose evokes rather than anything else...

Of course, his earlier stuff is a slightly different story. I have to say my favourite works of his are the short stories. Like Dick (who based most of his novels on earlier short stories), he seems to have had an amazing spurt of creativity at the start of his career which he then elaborated on and dissected for the remainder of it...
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From my limited knowledge of Ballard, he seems to gradually move from pop-psychology to pop-sociology. I like him a lot more in psycological mode, tbh. It feels a lot more - not exactly believable, but at least compellingly unbelievable.

It doesn't help that I recently read the first chapter of a book by the noted radical experimentalist John Buchan which basically recapitulated the central idea of Cocaine Nights in a single conversation...
 
R

ripley

Well-known member
Alien - the first one is a great film about labor (both kinds) technology, trust, slobbery toothy things, the second (Aliens) is a great action flick

like luka said, we have a pretty good thread on scifi but some of the classics
Ursula LeGuin _the Dispossesed_ (as mentioned) and _The Left Hand of Darkness_
Octavia Butler the Xenogenesis trilogy, starting with _Dawn_
Tricia Sullivan _Double Vision_ and _Maul_ (which starts out pretty raw but it bonkers in a mostly good way)
Molly Gloss _The Dazzle of Day_ (quakers in space! no it's cool, really)
Maureen McHugh _China Mountain Zhang_
Sherri Tepper _Grass_
 
J

jd_

Well-known member
Dunninger said:
Yes, Roadside Picnic. The basic setting is the same, with the zone and all that, but the focus is different. Which is a good thing, in my opinion. I like both the book and the film.
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Also worth adding to this is the Stalker game which is shockingly well done. Stands up to the film and the book! It's more like the book I think in that it's about the experience of multiple Stalkers, but feels more like the movie (it's actually slower than the film). It relates to the novel in the same way to it that the film does. You learn more about the experience of these Stalkers and the Zone but it doesn't directly deal with any of the characters (at least that I remember). It holds it's own anyway.

While I'm throwing out ideas nobody will back me on, I prefer Dick to Ballard as a writer - ideas aside. Dick at his most crap is enjoyable (Maze Of Death is totally cheap, but kind of awesome for a lot of it) where Ballard even at his best can kind of be a chore. I certianly prefer Dick's characters, I think he's unfairly accused of being terrible at developing them where I feel a lot of sympathy for them and their shitty lots in life. Ballard's I find almost all impossible to relate to although they can be quite interesting for that reason.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
I have problems with PKD...mostly unable to finish his novels...fail to see the 'genius'. What I like about Ballard is his genteel surrealism...that suburban alternative reality mindset.

Anyone read Delaney?
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
I don't think I'll be tracking him down on the basis of that comment. It's just that I've seen him namechecked a few times by those who promote alternatives to the alternative.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
no, i dont reccomend it really. self-consciously experimental prose whcih doesn't come off. 8 out of 10 for effort though.
 
slim jenkins

slim jenkins

El Hombre Invisible
Now I'm interested again...sci-fi prose is rarely as experimental as I'd like it to be, all those New Wave shorts aside, I haven't come across many who've attempted it across a novel...'Barefoot In The Head'?
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
No, seriously, I wouldn't have thought of it as sci fi. And I am an incredible snob also - I really quite detest the genre.
 
D

droid

Guest
I was talking about your deleted post. ;)

COTRN - Id call it sci-fi, Its got freaky time travel madness, mutants, an apocalyptic virus... been a while since I read it, but heres what I said in a previous thread:

...its more about the imagery and demented atmosphere... I think i described it on some other thread as some kind of fractured hyper-manga narrative ala Neon Genisis Evangelion or Akira (with added seediness) - though thinking about it, a closer analog might be Moebius's 'The Long Tomorrow', which has elements of politics/sex/sci-fi, but all wrapped up in a kind of pointless and chaotic intensity... loads of stuff happens, but it never 'climaxes' (or it climaxes in a way you didn't notice/expect).

There were loads of other ideas in this book that struck me as being obscenely ahead of their time... I really have to go and read it again.
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Still haven't read it again though.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I was talking about your deleted post.

Ah, yes, well, I was being a dick - hence the deletion.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I thought it was a yarn about pirates and sexually transmitted diseases - but, as you can probably tell, I haven't read it for over 10 years either, so I'm not the best judge.
 
D

droid

Guest
If thats your criteria for deletion you've got a busy day ahead of you! :D:D
 
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