blissblogger
Well-known member
k-punk said:
schism in the post-CCRU ranks?!
Sci-Fi novels
- Thread starter satanmcnugget
- Start date
schism in the post-CCRU ranks?!
k-punk
Spectres of Mark
oliver craner said:
I thought it had longeurs, but didn't find it cringe-inducing, no... Mind you, I would read Invisible Cities before I dismissed Calvino, honestly...
Couldn't get through Foucault's Pendulum, although Dan Brown obviously learned a thing or two.... I recall rather enjoying The Name of the Rose, however. I like Robbe-Grillet, naturally.
I've not read either of these so I couldn't comment.
carlos said:
I'm totally with you there.
carlos said:
I haven't read that one yet but will one day. My mate raves about the Viriconium books.
I read his last novel Light which was pretty good - esp. if read as a comment on the Hard SF genre - but for my tastes it was probably a bit too dark, nihilistic etc. towards the end.
k-punk said:
...and near the end the last of the "1st chapters", the NOTHING APOCALYPSE happening....
Gibson best for me is not Neuromancer, which is anyway it's best novel by far, but all the brief stories collected in "Burning Chrome", that's a masterpiece, that sadly Gibson and his generation never equaled or bettered
sufi
lala
i was thinking to mention 2000ADsapstra said:
pure inky brit sci-fi, did cover almost every conceivable connotation of post-HGW sci-fi storyline one way or another,
many many have turned up on the glittering silver screen having metamorphosed from tharg's future shock or alan moore's twisted tale to vapid hollywood blockbuster - transforming 3 pages (inc ads) of black n white post-punk cynicism to an hour & a half of "explosive SF square jawed action"... (please provide examples, anyone?)
i dunno whether everybody can accept comix on the lit thread but for me 2thou along with stuff like warrior & starblazer provided me with a thorough grounding in SF... & saved me many valuable hours that might otherwise have been wasted digesting words with no pictures
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k-punk said:
Joining this rather late, but seconding you on Octavia Butler, tho I actually prefer the xenogenesis trilogy.
I also would heartily recommend Liz Williams, especially Empire of Bones. Amazing.
Sherri Tepper, especially her book Grass, is good, in a pulpier kind of way.
kennel_district
Active member
some authors no-one' mentioned.
alistair reynolds - hard sf with banks' breadth of vision, and an amazing gothic sensibility (start with revelation space)
charles stross - iron sunrise, and singularity sky
ken mcleod marxist post-singularity visionary (the stone canal, the cassini division, the star fraction, the sky road, are the best, engines of light series is a little too referential, but fun for the sci-fi buff).
A lot of the best recent science fiction seems to deal with the consequence of what they call the singularity, a predicted future event when technological progress and societal change accelerate due to the advent of superhuman intelligence (like a complicated version of what happens with skynet in the terminator films).
what do people think of stephen baxter? Have read 'raft' and 'timelike infinity' and they leave me strangely cold.
alistair reynolds - hard sf with banks' breadth of vision, and an amazing gothic sensibility (start with revelation space)
charles stross - iron sunrise, and singularity sky
ken mcleod marxist post-singularity visionary (the stone canal, the cassini division, the star fraction, the sky road, are the best, engines of light series is a little too referential, but fun for the sci-fi buff).
A lot of the best recent science fiction seems to deal with the consequence of what they call the singularity, a predicted future event when technological progress and societal change accelerate due to the advent of superhuman intelligence (like a complicated version of what happens with skynet in the terminator films).
what do people think of stephen baxter? Have read 'raft' and 'timelike infinity' and they leave me strangely cold.
Ah yes, I am ashamed to say despite many recommendations I have yet to read any Banks... I'll put it on the list for this summer.
The comics do count IMO. I love Moebius' stuff but he doesn't seem to be doing much these days (anyone know?) and I used to read those Heavy Metal and Epic mags in high school - some great imagery and ideas. I've been meaning to go back but I'm not sure where (+ I'm chronically skint). I loved those 200AD mags too. I found in these 3 magazines slightly disturbing when I was a kid - maybe the best SF should always be a little unsettling somehow.
I realise these days that a lot of those Marvel and DC superhero comics were SF in tights.
The comics do count IMO. I love Moebius' stuff but he doesn't seem to be doing much these days (anyone know?) and I used to read those Heavy Metal and Epic mags in high school - some great imagery and ideas. I've been meaning to go back but I'm not sure where (+ I'm chronically skint). I loved those 200AD mags too. I found in these 3 magazines slightly disturbing when I was a kid - maybe the best SF should always be a little unsettling somehow.
I realise these days that a lot of those Marvel and DC superhero comics were SF in tights.
Grievous Angel
Beast of Burden
For me it was all about Robert Heinlein. He's the don as far as I'm concerned. There was an excellent article about him in Rapid Eye. Cat Who Walks Through Walls was good.
Canticle for Liebovitz was a fave, as was Zelzany's pulpier but engrossing Damnation Alley.
I like Eco a lot. Read Foucault's Pendulum three times without being able to read the last five pages. Just stoped, didn't want or need to know the end.
However, I just don't read fiction now, haven't done for years other than the odd bit of fun, which I won't reveal for fear of offending Dissensians' delicate sensibilities.
Canticle for Liebovitz was a fave, as was Zelzany's pulpier but engrossing Damnation Alley.
I like Eco a lot. Read Foucault's Pendulum three times without being able to read the last five pages. Just stoped, didn't want or need to know the end.
However, I just don't read fiction now, haven't done for years other than the odd bit of fun, which I won't reveal for fear of offending Dissensians' delicate sensibilities.
my favourite thing not mentioned yet is this-
which is an amazing czech modernist disaster novel from the late 30s- highly intelligent newts are discovered, farmed and then try to take over....its written in various styles in ulysses fashion- newspaper articles, a business meeting, a thriller...it's also hysterically funny which helps. anyway capek needs to be on here also for 'R.U.R' which coined the term 'Robot' after all...
on the cyberpunk tip i have this book called 'storming the reality studio- a casebook of cyberpunk and postmodernism'...i must admit to being massively unimpressed by the fiction (stuff like pat cadigan, bruce sterling) for the most part, verrry 80s and po-faced, though it makes some interesting connections between Burroughs and french theory boys.
which is an amazing czech modernist disaster novel from the late 30s- highly intelligent newts are discovered, farmed and then try to take over....its written in various styles in ulysses fashion- newspaper articles, a business meeting, a thriller...it's also hysterically funny which helps. anyway capek needs to be on here also for 'R.U.R' which coined the term 'Robot' after all...
on the cyberpunk tip i have this book called 'storming the reality studio- a casebook of cyberpunk and postmodernism'...i must admit to being massively unimpressed by the fiction (stuff like pat cadigan, bruce sterling) for the most part, verrry 80s and po-faced, though it makes some interesting connections between Burroughs and french theory boys.
Owen, you just reminded me of the best sci fi short story I ever read, in collection of Russian (or maybe Soviet-era) sci fi. Can't remember the name right now, but it was about an alien hiding out in Russia, who was a sentient plant, masquerading as a dwarf. His description of "the sadism of breakfast" is awesome. one of the funniest things I've read.
got to go find it again!
got to go find it again!