Valis is really deeply weird.
SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?
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Valis is really deeply weird.
I've heard that a number of times - which is one of the things that makes me really curious
.I started reading today but didn't get too far (too tired, really). It definitely seems weird and interesting. I'm really looking forward to reading the whole thing.
The weirdest thing about VALIS is that a lot of it was autobiographical. I don't think I knew when I read it that it was partly an attempt by Dick to come to terms with some visions he'd had a few years earlier, and that he really believed he'd been contacted by God and/or aliens, though. Might have made it a little more comprehensible early on.
Is that the Elizabethan novel? Locus gave it a good review, but that's all I know.
I heard/read that it was (at least partly) autobiographical as well. In a way I suppose every work of art is autobiographical in a sense, but here it's probably taken to greater lengths from what I've heard.
Since it's one of Dick's last (or is it in fact the last?) creations, I initially considered holding off reading this until I'd read some of his earlier novels and short stories first. I was thinking of developing an understanding of where he had been in the past and where he'd come to over time or via his 'experience'.
However, I thought I'd just dive in anyway. Plus I'd just read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep which should provide some contrast, as an example of his earlier works.
Yeah, that's the one. Amazon.com has quite a few positive ratings as well. It's going on my ever-growing list.
Taking a break from Star Trek reading (David Mack's Destiny trilogy: wow!). I read the recent Del Rey collection of Robert E. Howard's Kull stories. I read most of this book thirty years ago, in the Bantam Kull collection, but there's some new stuff (including some good commentary on the stories).
The Kull stories were written before the Conan stories, but they're not a rough draft of Conan. The Kull stories have a very different tone and feel. Conan's world, with its countries and cultures inspired by real world countries but changed somewhat, is a more instantly familiar world, one in which you get the feeling that many of the people can live full lives as farmers, soldiers, tavern keepers, or blacksmiths without ever encountering wizards or monsters. Kull's is more of a world of pure fantasy, with magic and strangeness to be found everywhere. Kull himself is different from Conan; though he's a barbarian who's seized a throne in a civilized land, he's much more philosophically inclined than Conan, who would never risk losing himself pondering the nature of reality while gazing into the mirrors of Tuzun Thune. Though few of the stories were published in Howard's life, and some exist only as incomplete fragments, I enjoyed them in 1978 and again now. One thing that surprised me: the evil Thulsa Doom only makes a brief appearance in a single story. I remembered him as Kull's nemesis, but that must have been more from the comics than the original stories.
And now I'm reading To Rescue Tanelorn, the second in Del Rey's series collecting Michael Moorcock's Elric stories. I discovered Moorcock through reading Howard and enjoyed both authors' takes on sword and sorcery (Howard pretty much invented it, and Moorcock modernized it). This book seems to have a lot of material I hadn't already read, and Elric doesn't even appear in every story. Moorcock or his editor(s) is/are casting a wide net, including some thematically relevant Erekose and Jerry Cornelius material, among other things. The whole multiverse aspect of Moorcock's fiction, with dozens of novels and short stories being linked through the concepts of the Eternal Champion and the struggle between Law and Chaos, was always one of the selling points of Moorcock's work for me, knowing that seemingly unconnected books might feature some surprising common element, like the city of Tanelorn. So it makes sense that the books aren't being limited to strictly Elric material... but too inclusive an approach would require dozens of volumes. Anyway, I'm enjoying this one so far and will definitely keep up with the series, despite having read so much of it years ago.
The Howard and Moorcock Del Rey books are useful because it's not the same as just going back and rereading the books I bought in the 1970s; there's new material, and commentary, and in Moorcock's case the different context provided by publishing most of the stories in the order they were written or published rather than according to the series' own chronology. It's a good way to revisit some old favourites.
The Kull stories were written before the Conan stories, but they're not a rough draft of Conan. The Kull stories have a very different tone and feel. Conan's world, with its countries and cultures inspired by real world countries but changed somewhat, is a more instantly familiar world, one in which you get the feeling that many of the people can live full lives as farmers, soldiers, tavern keepers, or blacksmiths without ever encountering wizards or monsters. Kull's is more of a world of pure fantasy, with magic and strangeness to be found everywhere. Kull himself is different from Conan; though he's a barbarian who's seized a throne in a civilized land, he's much more philosophically inclined than Conan, who would never risk losing himself pondering the nature of reality while gazing into the mirrors of Tuzun Thune. Though few of the stories were published in Howard's life, and some exist only as incomplete fragments, I enjoyed them in 1978 and again now. One thing that surprised me: the evil Thulsa Doom only makes a brief appearance in a single story. I remembered him as Kull's nemesis, but that must have been more from the comics than the original stories.
And now I'm reading To Rescue Tanelorn, the second in Del Rey's series collecting Michael Moorcock's Elric stories. I discovered Moorcock through reading Howard and enjoyed both authors' takes on sword and sorcery (Howard pretty much invented it, and Moorcock modernized it). This book seems to have a lot of material I hadn't already read, and Elric doesn't even appear in every story. Moorcock or his editor(s) is/are casting a wide net, including some thematically relevant Erekose and Jerry Cornelius material, among other things. The whole multiverse aspect of Moorcock's fiction, with dozens of novels and short stories being linked through the concepts of the Eternal Champion and the struggle between Law and Chaos, was always one of the selling points of Moorcock's work for me, knowing that seemingly unconnected books might feature some surprising common element, like the city of Tanelorn. So it makes sense that the books aren't being limited to strictly Elric material... but too inclusive an approach would require dozens of volumes. Anyway, I'm enjoying this one so far and will definitely keep up with the series, despite having read so much of it years ago.
The Howard and Moorcock Del Rey books are useful because it's not the same as just going back and rereading the books I bought in the 1970s; there's new material, and commentary, and in Moorcock's case the different context provided by publishing most of the stories in the order they were written or published rather than according to the series' own chronology. It's a good way to revisit some old favourites.
I just finished the third Felix Castor book, Dead Man Boots. I had to import it from Canada since the second book just come out in Hardback in the US. It is hardcore urban fantasy, not the chic vampire lit. It does put me in a quandary... do I import book 4 when it comes out in October or wait?
Currently reading 2010 again
I just finished Rollback by Robert Sawyer and all I have to say about it is that it was, "SKYTOP!"
It makes a great companion piece to At Rainbow's End and Old Man's War.
Although all written by different authors, they all convey a similar sense about the near future.
It makes a great companion piece to At Rainbow's End and Old Man's War.
Although all written by different authors, they all convey a similar sense about the near future.
I became a big fan of Robert Sawyer. I started with Mindscan and then moved on to Rollback, Terminal Experiment, and Calculating God. I read two books of his trilogy, The Neanderthal Parallax. He is a great hard science fiction writer. Some of his books even include a list of references from his research in the topics he discusses.
Stephen King - Needful Things
I just finished Arthur C. Clarke's Imperial Earth, which is more a World Of The Future travelogue than a novel. I was both pleased and disappointed when a plot finally manifested itself in the last fifty pages.
Haven't read that one, but I've read Lilith and The Princess and the Goblin. I don't know how much of an influence MacDonald had on Tolkien, but C.S. Lewis owed a hell of a lot to him.
I've only read Dies the Fire, but I'm still kind of interested in that series, particularly the second trilogy. Is there any real need to read the two books after Dies the Fire, or can I skip ahead to The Sunrise Lands without much of a problem?
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