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Science Fiction and Fantasy Books Only Thread
(https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=257566)
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Skippy is such an asshole.:D |
The Best Time Travel Stories of the Twentieth Century
Two best stories: Sailing to Byzantium by Robert Silverberg The Man Who Came Early by Poul Anderson |
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About to go HAM on some Dune stuff.
Butlerian Jihad, Machine Crusade, whatever the third book is called, and Paul of Dune. |
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I’m enjoying the Ember War series by Richard Fox. I’m in the middle of volume 3 so maybe it turns To shit later but so far I like it.
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I really like the military/scifi series Galaxy's Edge by Jason Anspach along with some of the spinoffs. Don't read the 3 book spinoff/backstory, Galaxy's Edge: Savage Wars, until you get through to about book 7 or 8 in the series.
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Don't know if this has been mentioned but
Armor - John Steakley Also I heard a rumor they are making a film about "Foundation" from Asimov |
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Scalzi himself not so much. |
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When is the movie officially out? edit-I see scheduled release date of Oct 2021. Hope they don't **** it up like last time. |
Dune is a great story poorly written. I remember reading it and then, years later, describing the plot to someone and thinking "This actually sounds awesome - why the heck didn't I love this?". So I reread it and remembered why.
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I'm trying to remember the name of a story I read or heard a few years ago. It was about a group of refugees from a war-torn and polluted Earth who escape to Mars only to find that Mars was also in ruins. The twist was that mankind is actually descended from Martians who had fled their home planet after wrecking their environment.
Ring any bells? It may have been an old radio program eepisode. |
More time travel stories:
"Try and Change the Past" by Fritz Leiber "Caveat Time Traveler by Gregory Benford “The Third Level” by Jack Finney “Such Interesting Neighbors” by Jack Finney “Time and Time Again” by H. Beam Piper "The Wind Over the World" by Steven Utley “Twilight” by John W. Campbell “Life-Line” by Robert Heinlein “By His Bootstraps” by Robert Heinlein “—All You Zombies—” by Robert Heinlein "Against the Current" by Robert Silverberg “Absolutely Inflexible“ by Robert Silverberg The Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson "Soldier" by Harlan Ellison “Time Wants a Skeleton” by Ross Rocklynne “As Never Was” by P. Schuyler Miller “Compound Interest” by Mack Reynolds “Let’s Go to Golgotha” by Gary Kilworth “Rotating Cylinders and the Possibility of Global Causality Violation” by Larry Niven “Who’s Cribbing?“ by Jack Lewis “A Statue for Father” by Isaac Asimov “The Hundred-Light-Year Diary“ by Greg Egan ”The Fox and the Forest” by Ray Bradbury “Night Meeting” by Ray Bradbury "The Very Slow Time Machine" by Ian Watson "In the Beginning, Nothing Lasts..." by Mike Strahan "After-Images" by Malcolm Edwards “Flight to Forever” by Poul Anderson Thoughts: 1- The stories dealing with paradoxes ("By His Bootstraps" "Let's Go to Golgotha!") are fun and often clever, but never seem to resolve in a satisfactory manner. 2 - Harlan Ellison is an asshole and it's preposterous that his story "Soldier" is given credit as an influence for Terminator. 3 - I give credit to "The Very Slow Time Machine" and "The 100 Light-Year-Diary" for trying something different but neither of them manages to stick the landing. Both are worth a read though. The best of this bunch was probably Poul Anderson's "Flight to Forever." Its concept was blatantly ripped off by one of the better latter day episodes of Futurama "The Late Philip J. Fry." It's about a time traveler with a time machine that really only works when going forward in time. He can only go backwards in short hops. So he's forced to go further and further in time in the hope that future generations will find a way to make backwards time travel possible. My only real complaint is that I wish Anderson had done a better job explaining why you can't travel far into the past. What's the difference between one long jump, and several small jumps? He says there is a difference, but I wish he had concocted a more concrete reason as to why it is so. I guess this is the end of my time travel story reading for a while. Mostly disappointing, but that 's true of everything I guess. The stories that I liked best:: "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells "My Object All Sublime" by Poul Anderson "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" by Alfred Bester "Twenty-one" by Michael Merriam "Sailing to Byzantium" by Robert Silverberg "The Man Who Came Early" by Poul Anderson "Flight to Forever" by Poul Anderson “The Lost Pilgrim” by Gene Wolfe “The Mouse Ran Down” by Adrian Tchaikovsky “Under Siege” by George R. R. Martin “Fire Watch” by Connie Willis “Vintage Season” by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore |
If you have room for one more time travel story, give Paradox Bound by Peter Clines a try.
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I'll add it to my "to read" list. Thanks!
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100 Great Science Fiction Short Stories. edited by Isaac Asimov
The stories are extremely short, as you might imagine, and several of them are flash fiction. Not a particularly strong anthology. The absence of Fredric Brown's "Answer" is notable, but considering who the editor is maybe not. Top three: "Dry Spell" by Bill Pronzini "Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" by Damon Knight "The Die-Hard" by Alfred Bester |
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- Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe - Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy - The Worst of All possible Worlds by Alex White Apparently he has written a total of five books, with three of them this trilogy. |
The Other Side of Tomorrow
This is a small anthology from the early 70s. It probably qualifies as YA. Dated but not terrible. The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. I'm about 85% of the way through with this one. Nothing I'd recommend so far. I used to think that there were a lot of great sci-fi short stories out there and that I'd find them if I just kept searching. I no longer believe that. Once you get past the genuine classics, the good to garbage ratio is probably less than 4 in 100. And you might find 1 really good story out of 150. Unless you can find a writer that you really like you might as well stick to pulp; at least that stuff isn't boring. |
I am (foolishly) determined to read all of the Hugo nominated short stories.
Oldies: Mack Reynolds "Status Quo" Clifford D. Simak "Desertion" Clifford D. Simak "Huddling Place" Orson Scott Card "The Lost Boys" (It's a ghost story) Gary Jennings "Myrrh" (a weak horror story) James Patrick Kelly "Itsy Bitsy Spider" Gene Wolfe "No Planets Strike" Robert J. Sawyer "The Hand You're Dealt" Karen Joy Fowler "Standing Room Only" Andy Duncan "Beluthahatchie" Michael Swanwick "The Very Pulse of the Machine" Bruce Sterling "Maneki Neko" Woke era shit: “As the Last I May Know”, by S.L. Huang “Do Not Look Back, My Lion”, by Alix E. Harrow “A Catalog of Storms”, by Fran Wilde “Ten Excerpts from an Annotated Bibliography on the Cannibal Women of Ratnabar Island”, by Nibedita Sen The Hand You're Dealt, Itsy Bitsy Spider and The Very Pulse of the Machine are probably my three favorites of the bunch. Nothing must-read or anything. I also re-read a couple of Hugo nominees that appeared in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthologies: The Moon Moth by Jack Vance. This one is ok but it needed two things: 1) a more plausible reason why the fugitive couldn't be identified and 2) a stronger closing sentence. The story reminds me of David D. Levine's Tk Tk Tk a little bit. A Rose for Ecclesiastes by Roger Zelazny. I like this one quite a bit. This level of quality is what I'm looking for (hoping for) when I pick up an anthology of "The Best" or "Award Winning" science fiction. https://i.imgur.com/CM1c4hM.jpg |
Blood is Another Name For Hunger by Rivers Solomon
And Now His Lordship is Laughing by Shiv Ramdas I will never read a another modern Hugo nominated story. Just an absolute joke of an award. Black God's Kiss by C.L. Moore (Good until the end) Stardock by Fritz Lieber The Bazaar of the Bizarre by Fritz Lieber The Sunken Land by Fritz Lieber The Unholy Grail by Fritz Lieber Three of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane stories: Red Shadows Skulls in the Stars The Right Hand of Doom The Tale of Hauk by Poul Anderson The Barrow Troll by David Drake (worth a read) The Year of the Three Monarchs by Michael Swanwick Last, and best: Dragon Moon by Henry Kuttner. It appeared in the January 1941 issue of Weird Tales which can be read for free at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/Weird_Ta...41-01/mode/2up |
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A few more Hugo nominees:
Michael Swanwick "The Dead" Robert Reed "Decency" John Crowley "Gone" Michael Swanwick "Radiant Doors" Robert Reed "Whiptail" Michael Swanwick "Walking Out" Poul Anderson "Marque and Reprisal" Pat Cadigan "Angel" Kim Stanley Robinson "Ridge Running" Steven Gould "Rory" Mike Resnick "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle" Some Sword & Sorcery short stories: Draco, Draco by Tanith Lee The Caravan of Forgotten Dreams by Michael Moorcock The Adventuress by Joanna Russ Thunder in the Dawn by Henry Kuttner Beyond the Phoenix by Henry Kuttner Gimmile’s Songs by Charles R. Saunders Undertow by Karl Edward Wagner The Stages of the God by Ramsey Campbell (writing as Montgomery Comfort) Epistle from Lebanoi by Michael Shea Imprint of Chaos by John Brunner Become a Warrior by Jane Yolen Beyond the Phoenix by Henry Kuttner The Red Guild by Rachel Pollack Six from Atlantis by Gene Wolfe The Howling Tower by Fritz Lieber The Cloud of Hate by Fritz Lieber The Sea Troll’s Daughter by Caitlín R. Kiernan The Sword of Welleran by Lord Dunsany The Coral Heart by Jeffrey Ford Path of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin The Spawn of Dagon by Henry Kuttner The Scarlet Citadel by Robert E. Howard The People of the Black Circle by Robert E. Howard The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard (reread) The Phoenix on the Sword by Robert E. Howard (reread) Beyond the Black River by Robert E. Howard (reread) The God in the Bowl by Robert E. Howard Rogues in the House by Robert E. Howard The Frost-Giant's Daughter by Robert E. Howard (reread) Cursed Be The City by Henry Kuttner The Citadel of Darkness by Henry Kuttner The Lesser Evil by Andrzej Sapkowski Wings in the Night by Robert E. Howard Black God's Shadow by C.L. Moore The House of Arabu by Robert E. Howard While the God's Laugh - Michael Moorcock Conan: https://i.imgur.com/vD2AtsY.jpg "The Scarlet Citadel" is the best Conan story I've read so far. "The People of the Black Circle" is also pretty good. They knock my previous favorite "The Tower of the Elephant" down to the number three slot. The serialized novel "The Hour of the Dragon" is supposed to incorporate a lot of story elements of "The Scarlet Citadel" so I'm very interested in reading that one to compare the two. Elak: I mentioned recently that I enjoyed Henry Kuttner's "Dragon Moon" so I was looking forward to reading his three other Elak of Atlantis stories. They weren't as good as Dragon Moon, but "The Spawn of Dagon" was worth a read at least. I think the characters of Elak and his sidekick, Lycon, had potential. Unfortunately, Kuttner dropped these characters for his last two S&S stories and replaced them with a bland character called Prince Raynor. The first Raynor tale is called "Cursed Be the City" and it's actually pretty good. I can't help but think it would have been better with Elak and Lycon though. It's nice to see a hero who isn't invincible, but Kuttner takes things too far occasionally. Both Elak and Raynor have a tendency to be too ineffectual in some of the weaker stories. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser Lieber does a fantastic job of coming up with cool monster concepts and none of the stories I've read have been bad. But none of them have really grabbed me either. It just feels like the heroes stumble into a random (awesome) conflict, stab the bad guys, and then move on. The stories are like candy - tasty but unsatisfying. Still, they have all been run reads. The House of Arabu: This is a Robert E. Howard story about a barbarian who is almost Conan but not quite. A pretty good story that seems to end abruptly at first, but kind of works due to the personality of the main character. The rest: "Draco, Draco" by Tanith Lee and "Gimmile’s Songs" by Charles R. Saunders are the only other non Howard/Lieber/Kuttner stories here that I think are worth reading. Both are just ok. |
Jirel Meets Magic by C.L. Moore
Hellsgarde by C.L. Moore Red Nails by Robert E. Howard (reread) Jewels of Gwahlur by Robert E. Howard Men of the Shadows by Robert E. Howard The Shadow Kingdom by Robert E. Howard Exile of Atlantis by Robert E. Howard The Slithering Shadow by Robert E. Howard The Pool of the Black One by Robert E. Howard The Devil in Iron by Robert E. Howard The Man-Eaters of Zamboula by Robert E. Howard The Valley of the Worm by Robert E. Howard A Witch Shall Be Born by Robert E. Howard (cool crucifixion scene and a bloodthirsty villainess but the action scenes get shortchanged) The Black Stranger by Robert E. Howard (would have been better as a non Conan, non fantasy pirate tale) Shadows in the Moonlight by Robert E. Howard Kings of the Night by Robert E. Howard (short on plot but lots of action. Features both Kull and Bran Mak Morn) The Gods of Bal-Sagoth by Robert E. Howard (this story was ok, but could have used some more fantastic/weird elements. I like the two main characters) Shadows in the Dark - Conan pastiche by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Pretty weak. Legions of the Dead - Conan pastiche by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. Could have been good, but the ending is a dud. The People of the Summit - Conan pastiche by Björn Nyberg and L. Sprague de Camp. Not good. The Ivory Goddess - Conan pastiche by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter I've read 4 of the 6 Jirel of Joiry stories. They have been fairly repetitive so far. The first one is about Jirel wandering through a lad of magic, the second is a follow-up where she returns to the same place, and the third story is about her wandering around a new magic land. Not a lot of physical action in any of these stories. The last one I read, Hellsgarde, is the best. It doesn't have a lot of action either, but there are some imaginative weird/horror elements that make up for it. Robert E. Howard: I'm getting a little burned out on his stuff. Three reasons: 1) "That's RACIST!" I'm not offended by the racial stuff so much as I am insanely bored by it. Howard is a broken record on the subject and manage to squeeze it into almost every story it seems. This man couldn't give you a recipe for sugar cookies without slipping in a half dozen references to "degenerate Toll House cookies, tainted by dark chocolate chips." 2) He writes with "panther like quickness"! If you read pulp stuff or old western novels you will see a lot of hack writers describe their characters as moving with "cat like quickness" or of having "the grace of a panther." It's one of the laziest, most unimaginative ways to describe a character, imo. Well, when Robert Howard was a kid his See and Say toy must have been stuck on 'Kitty' because the only ****ing similes and metaphors he can come up with to describe Conan are feline related. Over and over again - sometimes twice within the same paragraph. I know that sounds like a silly thing to complain about but imagine reading the Master and Commander books if the only way Patrick O'Brian could describe the ocean was as a "wine dark sea." 3) Civilization vs Barbarism This is a theme that he returns to often but he never really writes a story that actually explores the topic. Shit, 90% of the characters in these stories are barbarians and the other 10% are giant snakes so it's kind of hard to understand the point he's trying to make. Either write a story to do the topic justice or drop the constant references to Conan being awesome because of his "pure elemental barbarism." I'm gonna take a little break from the Conan stuff and then come back to read "Hour of the Dragon." I think I've probably just read too many of Howard's stories back to back and his faults have become too noticeable. Next I read: https://i.imgur.com/vBrLRov.jpg This was a recommendation from my local bookstore owner. It's a ten part series and I can't tell for sure yet how I'm going to like it but book one was ok. My favorite part was the battle on the staircase. Book 2: https://i.imgur.com/K7aDiO8.jpg Still pretty good. It ends in a way that makes me eager to check out book 3. Book 3: https://i.imgur.com/igsFe5O.jpg The mystery deepens. And deepens. And then deepens some more. A lot of twist and turns and borders on getting a little too confusing but it still holds together. Maybe a little too talky but still interesting. |
https://i.imgur.com/QpBNVun.jpg
And this is where they lost me. You know how at the end of old detective books and movies the investigator will get all of the suspects into a room and then lay out, in exacting detail, what really happened? Well, this entire book feels like one of those scenes. For every part of the story that contains action there are three parts that explain what is happening and how it fits in with the previous three books. Problems with the series: 1) Everything is a mystery. This is a problem with a lot of Fantasy fiction. Writers just do not know when to stop compounding mystery on top of mystery. Not every character has to have a mysterious background. It doesn't make sense for every character to hide useful information from the protagonist, only to reveal it after it could do him the most good. 2) "What just happened?" Various fantastic and mysterious things happen without an immediate explanation. Which is fine. The problem is that when (if) you do get an explanation (much) later on it really doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. The origin of Benedict's mechanical arm is a good example of this. 3) The protagonist is conveniently dumb and uninquisitive. Every character in the book is a master schemer and conniver; they will read 50 different motivations into their rivals smallest actions and examine all the possibilities. The protagonist is one of the best at playing these games but he doesn't notice extremely odd behavior from certain characters simply because the story won't work if he stays in character. He knows or suspects that 2 or 3 characters who are presumed dead and who could be of great help to him are actually alive or at least could be and yet he doesn't do anything about it for some half-assed reason. Another example would be the protagonist hiding an all-powerful magical gem in a compost heap in the back yard of his suburban home on Earth. Oh, and he also tells his lawyer buddy to put the home up for sale. And then he just forgets about it until he finds out someone is going to steal it and then has to frantically go in search of it. 4) Major plot line forgotten. The whole point of the second book was getting weapons that can function in Amber. After the battle at the end of that book those weapons are forgotten about it seems. Which is kind of a big deal because they would seem to eliminate the mortal threat posed by the bad guys in books 3,4, and 5. 5) Convoluted schemes. Hey, the book is about immortal master planners and backstabbers so I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt. The problem is that Oberon's scheme doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. 6) "On second thought, King Torturekill is a decent chap." Too many characters who seem to be villains turn out to be otherwise. Almost every family member goes through this transformation. Often times this happens in one of those "Actually, this is what really happened" scenes. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (Dara) but in either case it is overused. All of this stuff together makes the story feel like a giant ever evolving retcon. Maybe it was all planned out in the beginning, but the constant explanations of past events, implausible character motivations and overly convoluted schemes make me think of someone hammering the wrong pieces into a jigsaw puzzle. I read the first few chapters of book five, The Courts of Chaos, but I'm not going to finish it. ................................. Next up was The Dark Land by C.L. Moore. This is yet another story in which Jirel of Joiry is swept into a medical land. This is the fourth of the five Jirel stories that I've read that had this same basic plot. More Robert E. Howard: The Lion of Tiberias (Historical fiction) The Grey God Passes Delcardes' Cat The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune The Hour of the Dragon This is a book length Conan tale. It isn't bad, but it isn't one of the best Conan stories either. It was written as a serial and it is very episodic. The opening chapter is very good; there is a nice battle scene and the introduction of the story's primary antagonist is very well done. Unfortunately, the rest of the story's episodes fail to live up to this one. What follows is a series of decent, but unmemorable, adventurous vignettes. |
I'm going to have to put this thread on ignore for fear I'll buy two dozen books and never have the time to finish them, lol.
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I liked it. I'd probably have loved it if I had read it in my teens. I'm probably going to read some more stuff by this author. Next: Conan vs. Thicc Medusa! https://i.imgur.com/x3euqRR.jpg This is a collection of somewhat obscure sword and sorcery tales. Next: Quest of the Starstone This is the last Jirel of Joiry story that I hadn't previously read. It's a combo of Sword and Sorcery and Sword and Science featuring another of C.L. Moore's characters Northwest Smith. These stories just aren't very good. Hyperpilosity by L. Sprague de Camp. A retro-Hugo nominee. It's a humor piece that is short on laughs. |
The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett
https://i.imgur.com/B4fZz7g.jpg Pretty good sword and science story. I also picked up The Best of Leigh Brackett, but I haven't started it yet. Starship Troopers. The book starts with an exciting action scene, but after that the book bogs down. The entire first half of the story is devoted to recounting the protagonist's experiences in bootcamp. It's a sci-fi story about soldiers who are being trained to fight various aliens in outer space, but there isn't a lot of sci-fi content. With a few tweaks it would be indistinguishable from an ordinary real world army story. I also really wish there had been more space devoted to wordbuilding. You get hints about what Earth society is like but that's all. You don't have to go down to the microscopic level, but I don't think I really got the "feel" of what future Earth was really like. Maybe I just don't get (grok?) Heinlein. This is the fourth of his books that i've read, but I haven't really enjoyed any of them. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers. I'm not really enjoying it so I'm probably not going to finish it. Conan and the Emerald Lotus by John C. Hocking. Novel length Conan pastiche. It's not as good as Howard's very best stuff but I liked it more than most of the original Conan tales. Hocking may not throw as many touchdowns as Howard, but he doesn't throw near as many ridiculous INTs either. Definitely worth a read if you are a fan of the Cimmerian. Conan: The Road of Kings by Karl Edward Wagner It's not bad, but it's missing something. It's just not as exciting as it should be. Kind of forgettable, honestly. Conan the Valorous by John Maddox Roberts Positives: We get to learn a bit about Cimmerian culture and there are a lot of Lovercraft type monsters. Negatives: 1) There is a side plot that has no bearing on the rest of the story. It wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it takes up 25% of the book! It feels like a novellette that has been inserted into the main story to pad out the length. It really interrupts the flow of the main plot. It would have been better to have kept the two stories separate, imo. Have the first 3/4 of the book be the main story and then have a "bonus" Conan tale after the main adventure. 2) The ending wraps up too fast. The story was building up to an epic battle featuring multiple evil wizards, Cthulhu-esque monsters, Viking mercenaries, and the entire Cimmerian nation - and it all gets wrapped up in a single chapter. Overall it's not a bad book. I'd rank it higher then The Road of Kings but not as high as The Emerald Lotus. Chapters 4 and 5 are completely skippable. .................................... I've read all of the Robert E. Howard material I'm going to for now so I'll mention some of my favorites. Favorite story overall: Worms of the Earth (Bran Mak Morn) Top 4 Howard penned Conan stories: The Scarlet Citadel The People of the Black Circle The Tower of the Elephant Beyond the Black River Favorite Lesser Known S & S Story: The House Of Arabu Favorite Horror Story: The Black Stone I haven't read a ton of his horror stories so he may have better stuff out there. .............. |
Peak Heilein is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Starship Troopers is OK, and Stranger in a Strange Land. No others I read of his can I recommend. I read several hoping for another as good as Moon. It was the first one of his I read. |
Where are you finding some of these old Conan books?
Have you read any of Michael Moorcock? |
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Only a few Elric short stories. They were ok. Honestly, outside of LOTR. I'm not a big fantasy reader. After having a run of bad luck finding new things to read I just jumped into these Fantasy books as a change of pace. I had just failed a (fourth!) attempt to make it past the fifth chapter of Daphne du Maurier's "Rebecca" when I decided I needed to go in a totally opposite direction. What better way than with Conan the barbarian? Additionally, my local bookstore owner is a huge fan of the fantasy genre and I never like to leave his store empty handed so I let him pick out a few books for me. Edited to add: It's important to note two things: 1) I hate 99% of the things I read and watch 2) I have terrible taste, so you should feel pride in liking things that I say suck Next: Knights of Dark Renown by David Gemmel https://i.imgur.com/Yrf4rJb.jpg It's ok. Fantasy fans seem to love it as nearly every review is glowing. It's not bad but there are some issues with it. While the first Gemmel book I read "Legend" may have overly melodramatic at times it was hard not to get swept up in the story. I was never bored while reading Knights but it never really grabbed me. I think the biggest issue is the number of characters involved in the story; I didn't dislike any of them (in fact nearly every character in the book had the potential to be very interesting) but there were so many of them that none of them had enough of the spotlight for me to get attached to them. I think it would have helped to have one or two central characters and maybe to have merged some of the characters that filled similar roles. I think the "too many characters" problem contributes to the second problem I had: the pacing is a little off. Many of the characters evolve very quickly. Too quickly in some cases. The story's climax feels a little bit rushed, but I think part of that is that a lot of the dramatic moments are undercut by the fact that I wasn't emotionally connected to the characters. The one page epilog was also a misstep, imo. Having said all that, it's still a decent book. Fantasy fans should enjoy it. I just think it would have worked better as a duology as there just wasn't enough time to flesh out all of the (potentially) interesting characters. Now: https://i.imgur.com/yJgTkW3.jpg If you aren't familiar with Conan or Dashiell Hammett this is a fairly entertaining book. The plot(s) are blatant ripoffs of The Maltese Falcon and Red Harvest. Maybe you can chalk it up as some sort of homage, but I'm not sure that is an acceptable excuse. |
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the Conan stories have been compiled and published over and over again. But the short story collections were always edited and re-worked by L. Sprague De Camp. He butchered those REH short stories. he removed whole sections out of a few of the stories. LSD also wrote some pastiches on Conan. those are underwhelming. LSD passed in 2000. in 2003 the original REH stories on Conan and Kull were compiled/published in their original form. these had not been available since the 30's unless you owned the pulp fiction magazines. https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....14yEQH3EZL.jpg https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Conan-...0634437&sr=8-3 the same publisher used to put out all those cheap paperbacks https://comicbookbrain.com/_imagery/...-ace-books.jpg I have most of these books too but I like them for the Frazetta paintings on the cover. the stories aren't that great. I never felt compelled to finish them.i recommend the newer books over the old ones, from that publisher (Del Ray) at least. my first exposure to Conan was the comic/magazine called The Savage Sword of Conan. they were first published by Marvel Comics but they were magazines for adults. they were taller and wider than marvel comics and they don't adhere to the Comics Code Authority which forbade blood, gore and T'n'A. Darkhorse comics started publishing those as whole volumes in the early 2000s. https://d2lzb5v10mb0lj.cloudfront.ne...0/17/17168.jpg these are really great value for the modest cost. even if you pay full retail price of $20 per volume, you get 500 to 600 pages of content from Marvels best editor and artists. individual issues of this magazine cost $2 each back in the early 80's. so... the phone book sized volumes are a better price even before you consider 25-40 years worth of inflation. https://zokpow.files.wordpress.com/2...ssoc1_page.jpg there was a movie made about Robert E Howard BITD. it looks really bad. comical <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/F0F7Y2wFIis" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe> |
https://images.penguinrandomhouse.co.../9781101562901
anyone ever read these? this series has very high reviews. it makes me wonder if the ratings on Amazon have been astroturfed |
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I've only read a couple of things by C.J. Cherryh. One was the first of the "Cyteen" books which I remember as being pretty boring. The second was a Hugo award winning short story called "Cassandra" that I thought was pretty good. Are the reviews at Amazon astroturfed? Probably. On the other hand, I've decided that it is almost impossible to find good quality reviews that match my taste in literature. Sturgeon's Law says that 90% of everything is crap. The problem is no one can seem to agree on what the good 10% actually is. I also think that the average reader is no more discriminating than the average tv viewer. Some of the most popular authors churn out mediocre garbage year after year and millions of people eat it up. Rating systems don't work when you have 1) Astroturfing 2) People viewing everything they read from a political angle 3) Mega fans of a particular genre or of a big name author who can't be impartial 4) Snobs infected with Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome who automatically say something is brilliant because they are afraid to admit that they don't understand it. 5) Idiots. On top of all that, a lot of people have random irrational quirks that make or break a book or movie in their eyes. My dad hates movies that contain flashbacks for instance. I have a friend who hates movies that are snowy and/or darkly lit. Me? I hate stories that are full of squalor like Angela's Ashes or A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The bottom line is: it's hard to find good things to read. My addendum to Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crap. 99.99% of critics are full of crap. Next up: https://i.imgur.com/95L91Dk.jpg It's not very good. This is the third Gemmel book that I've read and all three of them have featured the ancient trope where a man and woman hate each other at first sight only to fall madly in love soon after. This is also the third example of a major character having a past he is not too proud of going on a request to redeem himself. One of the things that I liked about the first book in the series that I read, Legend, was that it had a little bit of a mythical feel to it. This book is earthier; it's more violent and rape-y. The author also really overdoes the cynicism of the main character. We get it. There's no need for every sentence that comes out of his mouth to be something about how cold and dark the world is. Next: https://i.imgur.com/GBR97by.jpg Meh. Worms of the Earth really didn't need a sequel. Bran Mak Morn is written as kind of a putz which doesn't help matters. Next: https://i.imgur.com/59o0cCH.jpg |
Mennonite -
Have you checked out any of the Malazan stuff? Based on your standards, I think you might find that it fits and is worthwhile. Adrian Tchaicjovsky (spelling may be off) is someone I’ve found recently. I’m currently reading his Children of Time. Found him with One Day this will all be Yours, which is an excellent novella. K.J. Parker’s 16 Ways to defend a Walled City is also pretty excellent. One of the better things I’ve found the past few years. |
Both books by Tchaikovsky, Children of TIme, and Children of Ruin are great reads. He has a new one out that I haven't made time to read yet.
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I really liked Children of Time, but I wasn't crazy about Children of Ruin. It wasn't bad, but it seemed like he was treading on some of the stuff he had already covered in the first book.
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I've only read the first four Malazan books. Deadhouse Gates was definitely my favorite of the four. I really liked the Chain of Dogs stuff. One Day All This Will Be Yours is actually a follow-up to a short story called “The Mouse Ran Down." It's completely different in tone but you might want to give it a read. I've never heard of "16 Ways to Defend a Walled City." I'll add it to the list. |
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I’ll check out Mouse ran down. KJ Parker is pretty interesting. He kind of has a loose universe setting that he slightly reboots for each series he uses it in. Malazan is worth circling back to. He gets better as it goes on. Midnight Tides is the last one where he adds a lot of new stuff, IMO. If you enjoyed the Chain of Dogs, I think you’ll like the Bonehunters and Adjunct Tavore. |
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My local bookstore guy says they are "the best books that I never recommend to anyone" because of how dense they are. He's read through the series multiple times over the years. |
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Last year I listened to the whole series on audio book and picked up things I missed while reading. Definitely a dense series and well worth the time investment. |
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Bow down: I am the Emperor of Dreams and the Necromancer of Language I've just finished up a 6 volume collection of CAS stories and I have some thoughts. It seems that whenever anyone talks about Clark Ashton Smith they first have to offer a disclaimer about his overuse of purple prose. Well, who am I to buck tradition? At his best, Smith's magniloquence and use of archaisms can create prose poems that are simultaneously beautiful and grotesque: The sand of the desert of Yondo is not as the sand of other deserts; for Yondo lies nearest of all to the world's rim; and strange winds, blowing from a pit no astronomer may hope to fathom, have sown its ruinous fields with the gray dust of corroding planets, the black ashes of extinguished suns. The dark, orblike mountains which rise from its wrinkled and pitted plain are not all its own, for some are fallen asteroids half-buried in that abysmal sand. Things have crept in from nether space, whose incursion is forbid by the gods of all proper and well-ordered lands; but there are no such gods in Yondo, where live the hoary genii of stars abolished and decrepit demons left homeless by the destruction of antiquated hells. At his worst, you will find yourself stopping to pick up a dictionary three or four times per page to look up the meaning of some abstruse word. Invariably, those listings will be prefaced with words like Archaic, Formal, Literary, and Obsolete. The issue, for me, isn't that I don't know the meanings of the words (I don't), it's that, imo, he often makes poor word choices. A few examples: "Crepuscular" = "Twilight" "Coadjutation" = "Help" "Ramifications" = "Branching" "Inenarrable" = "Indescribable "Comestible" = "Food" "Lepidopter" = "Butterfly" "Cephaloid" = "Head-like" "Archean gneiss" = "Rocks" .... I think. Instead of adding to the tone of the story you end up being distracted by the silliness of outlandish synonyms being used for commonplace words. "The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter - it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." https://i.imgur.com/yTrWqsu.jpg Volume one is pretty weak. These are Smith's earliest stories, and while some of them have inventive ideas, the stories themselves just aren't very good. I will make note of a couple of interesting things though. One is the fact that Smith featured miscegenation in a few of these stories, which I think is pretty bold for pulp stories written in 1929 and 1930. "The Venus of Azombeii" is one such story which centers around a doomed romance between a white man and an African woman of mixed heritage. Another is "The Monster of the Prophecy" which ends with a human man falling in love with a very alien woman. It ends with this paragraph: When it became known in Lompior that Alvor was the lover of Ambiala, no surprise or censure was expressed by any one. Doubtless the people, especially the male Alphads who had vainly wooed the empress, thought that her tastes were queer, not to say eccentric. But anyway, no comment was made: it was her own amour after all, and no one else could carry it on for her. It would seem, from this, that the people of Omanorion had mastered the ultra-civilized art of minding their own business. A surprising sentiment from someone who was a frequent correspondent of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard. I would also like to note the "scientifiction" story "The Metamorphosis of the World." Smith was a fantasist but he had to make a living so he wrote a few sci-fi stories for the pulps that were basically fantasy stories with a few token science elements tossed in, sometimes satirically. Funnily enough, Smith (who loathed technology) actually wrote some interesting stuff here that includes solar power, a form of television, and most intriguing, the concept of alien invasion via global terraforming. Ironically, his story was rejected for being too scientific! Tier one (Good): None Tier Two (Decent): The Last Incantation (dark fantasy) Tier Three (worth reading once): The Venus of Azombeii (Horror, Romance) The Tale of Satampra Zeiros (humorous Dunsanian S & S with a dash of Lovecraftian horror) ................................................ https://i.imgur.com/yESsjoU.jpg Tier one (Good): None Tier Two (Decent): The Return of the Sorcerer (horror) Tier Three (worth reading once): The City of the Singing Flame (weird tale) The Testament of Athammaus (sequel to Satampra Zeiros) ................................................ https://i.imgur.com/InORNkn.jpg The story of a Druidic ancestor of Edgar Allan Poe and his attempts to return a book to his next door neighbor, an Easter egg painted like an ancient Greek Squidward. Tier one (Good): The Seed From the Sepulcher (horror) The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (sci-fi, horror) Tier Two (Decent): The Empire of Necromancers (dark fantasy) The Double Shadow (dark fantasy) The Colossus of Ylourgne (dark fantasy) Tier Three (worth reading once): The Maker of Gargoyles (horror) The Nameless Offspring (horror) Ubbo-Sathla (Lovecraftian horror) A Vintage From Atlantis ....................................... https://i.ibb.co/jkdMVKx/81-Yqx7tv-Dj-L.jpg Tier one (Good): None Tier Two (Decent): The Dark Eidolon (Dark fantasy. Very imaginative) Tier Three (worth reading once): The Ice-Demon (S & S. Not bad but nothing groundbreaking) The Isle of the Torturers (Dark Fantasy. Similar but slightly inferior to two other CAS stories) Genius Loci (horror) The Dweller in the Gulf (Sci-Fi, horror. Similar but inferior to Yoh-Vombis) The Beast of Averoigne (Dark fantasy, horror) The Disinterment of Venus (Horror, touch of humor) The Charnel God (Dark Fantasy) ............................... https://i.imgur.com/D5diHBU.jpg Tier one (Good): The Chain of Aforgomon (Fantasy, horror) Tier Two (Decent): Necromancy in Naat (dark fantasy) The Garden of Adompha (horror, dark fanasy) Mother of Toads (horror) The Death of Malygris (sequel to The Last Incantation) Schizoid Creator (Light horror. humor. Reminds me of a couple of Robert Sheckley stories) Tier Three (worth reading once): The Black Abbot of Puthuum (S & S. Not bad but nothing groundbreaking) The Last Hieroglyph (fantasy. Interesting idea. Needed more plot/character motivation) Xeethra (dark fantasy. Needed a stronger ending) https://i.imgur.com/m78ijwh.jpg Unless you are a hardcore fan this volume is skippable. This is a collection of stories that Smith wrote as a teenager and some other oddities like a short play and an early draft of his most famous poem The Hashish Eater. How I'd rank the stories: 01 The Seed From the Sepulcher 02 The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis 03 The Chain of Aforgomon 04 The Dark Eidolon 05 The Last Incantation 06 Necromancy in Naat 07 The Colossus of Ylourgne 08 The Empire of Necromancers 09 The Double Shadow 10 The Return of the Sorcerer 11 The Death of Malygris (sequel to The Last Incantation) 12 The Garden of Adompha 13 Mother of Toads 14 The Dweller in the Gulf 15 Schizoid Creator 16 Ubbo-Sathla 17 The City of the Singing Flame 18 The Beast of Averoigne 19 A Vintage From Atlantis 20 The Maker of Gargoyles 21 The Disinterment of Venus 22 The Venus of Azombeii 23 The Charnel God 24 The Black Abbot of Puthuum |
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A few short stories by Edmond Hamilton: The Monster-God of Mamurth (An A. Merritt homage) The Man Who Evolved (inspired the crappy Outer Limits episode "The Sixth Finger") Fessenden's Worlds He That Hath Wings In the World's Dusk (A Clark Ashton Smith homage) What's It Like Out There? All of these had the potential to be very good, the basic ideas are very interesting, but the writing ain't that hot. Next: City of the Living Dead by Fletcher Pratt & Laurence Manning The earliest story that involves a form of virtual reality? It's an ok story, but there are some completely random racist things shoe-horned into it that are just bizarre. Just totally out of the blue and with nothing to do with the story. Very weird. Next, more crappy Hugo nominated short stories: Still Life by David S. Garnett Dinner in Audoghast by Bruce Sterling The Dragon Masters by Jack Vance Hong's Bluff by William F. Wu Buffalo by John Kessel Press Ann by Terry Bisson Dog's Life by Martha Soukup Little Dog Gone by Robert F. Young The Good Pup by Bridget McKenna The Wedge by Isaac Asimov Once a Cop by Rick Raphael Rat Race by Raymond F. Jones Also: The Coon Suit by Terry Bisson |
Next were a few H.P. Lovecraft stories:
The Curse of Yig The Man of Stone The Outsider (Feels like CAS) The Horror at Martin's Beach (cool idea) The Festival I think I've read or listened to all of Lovecraft's stuff. His writings were (obviously) incredibly influential and he also did a lot to encourage a lot of young authors like Robert Bloch in their own early efforts, and I give him all the credit in the world for that. The thing is a good chunk of his output just isn't very good. He's probably got 8 to 12 stories that have memorable elements but he only managed to turn those interesting pieces into cohesive and satisfying stories a handful of times, imo. What really frustrates me is that some of his best stories have terribly weak endings. Take The Call of Cthulhu for instance. Everybody loves Cthulhu, right? But in the end of this story the omnipotent undying elder god gets his ass ran the **** over by a Norwegian schooner and then disappears. Similarly disappointing is the sorcerer Watley getting taken out by a dog in The Dunwich Horror. Even worse than that Lovecraft wrapped up two (maybe three) stories by having a bolt of lightning come out of the blue and kill the bad guy. Doing that once is inexcusable, doing it multiple times is, well, I'm not sure what adjective to use to describe how bad that is. My top three Lovecraft stories: The Shadow over Innsmouth The Rats in the Walls The Thing on the Doorstep All three of those are very good, imo. Tier two: The Case of Charles Dexter Ward The Dunwich Horror The Colour Out of Space I also kind of like Polaris and The Outsider. I'm not sure I'd recommend them, but they appeal to me for some reason. Next: Soldier, Ask Not by Gordon R. Dickson Where Is the Bird of Fire? by Thomas Burnett Swann Death Sentence by Isaac Asimov I, Rocket by Ray Bradbury Far Centaurus by A. E. van Vogt |
I've finally reached the end of my long trek through all of the Hugo nominated short stories. Well, almost. There are three stories that I haven't been able to find online:
Ray Bradbury "Hollerbochen's Dilemma" John C. Wright "An Unimaginable Light" Martha Soukup "The Story So Far" None of them look very promising, but if anyone knows of a place to read any of them online for free I'd be grateful. FWIW, of the 300 plus stories that I read, these are my favorites: (chronological order) Tier one: Jerome Bixby "It's a Good Life" Theodore Sturgeon "A Saucer of Loneliness" Arthur C. Clarke "The Star" Daniel Keyes "Flowers for Algernon" Theodore Sturgeon "The Man Who Lost the Sea" Roger Zelazny "A Rose for Ecclesiastes" Bob Shaw "Light of Other Days" Harlan Ellison "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" C. J. Cherryh "Cassandra" Elizabeth Bear "Tideline" Tier two: Alfred Bester "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" Larry Niven "Not Long Before the End" David D. Levine "Tk'tk'tk" Tim Pratt "Impossible Dreams" This isn't necessarily my final list. I've got about a half-dozen stories I'm going to give a second read. |
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Theodore Sturgeon wrote a lot of crappy stories. Here are ten of them. He's written a handful of stories that I really like, but the vast majority of his stories feel like a combination of a hacky 1940s sci-fi writer who doesn't know much about science and the writings of a middle aged dude desperately trying to fit in to late 1960s youth culture. Which I guess is what he was. A good chunk of his middle and late period stories just feel like sub par attempts at writing sophisticated "adult" stories for New Yorker type magazines. And truthfully, after reading 11 volumes of his collected works as well as reading some of his correspondence Sturgeon seems like a flake and a bit of a creep. Ted's the kind of guy who'd write you a nice letter about the nature of love chock full of words like "gestalt" and "syzergy" and at the end you'd realize that he's telling you he's banging your sister. Next: https://i.imgur.com/ipdiDdX.jpg This is part one of a trilogy of stories designed to cap off the novel-verse continuity that is no longer compatible with the modern Trek shows. It's probably going to suck for three reasons: 1) Modern Trek is rubbish 2) The current novel continuity was pretty good during the reign of the previous editor Marco Palmieri but have been on a steady decline since his departure several years ago. 3) This novels author, Dayton Ward, while occasionally writing something good has a tendency to pad his books with pointless, sometimes totally unrelated, recaps of previous Trek novels and episodes. But since I've read hundred of Trek books leading up to this I might as well finish it off. |
Pretty good list of SciFi books. Lots of essential classics on here. Not as sure about some of the newer content listed as I haven't read most of it.
All Systems Red by Martha Wells, and the rest of the Murderbot series is damn good though. I liked it enough that after I read it all on ebook, I bought hard copies to display in my library. https://bookriot.com/the-most-influe...=pocket-newtab |
The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
Pretty good. It's so old the "science" consists of vivisection and hypnosis instead of genetic engineering and internal shock collars, but it's still worth a read. The Dark Brotherhood by August Derleth Bad The Lonesome Place by August Derleth (horror) Not bad. Old Nathan by David Drake If you like Manly Wade Wellman's John the Balladeer tales you will probably enjoy these stories. Case and the Dreamer by Theodore Sturgeon I've read 12 of the 13 volumes of the collected short works of Theodore Sturgeon. This is probably the worst one yet. |
seveneves by neal stephenson
I'm six hours into a 30+ hour audiobook and I'm bored shitless. |
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It was a total letdown after the fantastic Cryptonomicon. |
The entire six hours I listened to could have been condensed into less than half an hour. The world is ending and there isn't an ounce of drama. The moon exploding is covered in the first 5 minutes and then it goes into "bad Michael Crichton" mode where every minor character gets an uninteresting biography and every piece of science gets explained in excruciating detail. Hard science is fine, but it needs to be interesting and you shouldn't stop the story every other page to explain how morse code works in space or the best way to wipe your ass in space.
Part of the problem is that I have a hard time listening to full length audiobooks. They nearly always seem to drag. |
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Also, if you like Alanson's Expeditionary Force Series, you might try the three books in the Ascension series. It's fantasy, not sci-fi, but I particularly liked the audiobooks. |
For any Brandon Sanderson fans out there, this is simultaneously sad, hilarious, and fascinating.
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Sanderson is such a nerdy nerd.
I really, really enjoy his writing, and he really engages my want to punch impulse. |
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He’s so prolific. The anti-George R. R. Martin. |
Other than his WoT work I haven't read any of his stuff. I put Warbreaker on hold at my library yesterday so this will be my first foray into his original material.
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Warbreaker is solid and has some tie-ins with the Stormlight Archive that are interesting. I also recommend Mistborn for people getting into his style, though it's borderline young adult. |
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C.S. Lewis's The Space Trilogy
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Haha, poor Rothfuss. Book 3 better be amazing at this point.
I've been a big King fan for a long time, but it's been a while since he's put out truly great stuff. It's been pretty much mediocre work for 10+ years. |
Sisters of Glass by DW St John (sci-fi) - absolutely recommend
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Sanderson is amazing.
Even other writers will talk about what a freak he is. They're amazed at his prolific nature. Just a gift. I love Patrick Rothfuss. Some of my favorite passages in fiction are from his desk (The opening scene setting that describes Kvothe at his bar, re: the parts of silence, is quite possibly the best opening chapter I've ever read). I also feel for him. He hit a rut and just can't get out of it. That's tough. The Waystone Inn lay in silence, and it was a silence of three parts. The most obvious part was a hollow, echoing quiet, made by things that were lacking. If there had been a wind it would have sighed through the trees, set the inn’s sign creaking on its hooks, and brushed the silence down the road like trailing autumn leaves. If there had been a crowd, even a handful of men inside the inn, they would have filled the silence with conversation and laughter, the clatter and clamor one expects from a drinking house during the dark hours of the night. If there had been music…but no, of course there was no music. In fact there were none of these things, and so the silence remained. Inside the Waystone a pair of men huddled at one corner of the bar. They drank with quiet determination, avoiding serious discussions of troubling news. In doing these they added a small, sullen silence to the lager, hollow one. It made an alloy of sorts, a counterpoint. The third silence was not an easy thing to notice. If you listened for an hour, you might begin to feel it in the wooden floor underfoot and in the rough, splintering barrels behind the bar. It was in the weight of the black stone hearth that held the heat of a long-dead fire. It was in the slow back and forth of a white linen cloth rubbing along the grain of the bar. And it was in the hands of the man who stood there, polishing a stretch of mahogany that already gleamed in the lamplight. The man had true-red hair, red as flame. His eyes were dark and distant, and he moved with the subtle certainty that comes from knowing many things. The Waystone was his, just as the third silence was his. This was appropriate, as it was the greatest silence of the three, wrapping the others inside itself. It was deep and wide as autumn’s ending. It was heavy as a great river-smooth stone. It was the patient, cut-flower sound of a man who is waiting to die. |
Finished Erikson's new Malazan Book, the god is not willing.
https://steven-erikson.org/the-god-is-not-willing/ That was a damn good book. If you have read any of the Malazan book of the fallen, you need to read this book. My god. Absolutely nails it. |
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I’m going to re-read once I finish Wheel of Time. I really enjoyed it. I think I
Spoiler!
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I wish Erickson was writing the next book in this trilogy next instead of the Kharkanos third book. |
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