SF/F Books: Chapter Two - What Are You Reading?

[Steve Roby]

Burroughs' A Princess of Mars. Not even halfway through and I'm loving it so far. It's just exactly the kind of mad, escapist fun I need a taste of right now.

I read that in my early teens, probably around 1976, when I'd read anything fantasy or SF-related that I could get my hands on, and it didn't do much for me at all. I seem to recall finding it a bit of a slog to get through, and I never read any other ERB. Could be I need to give it another shot.

So, now I seem to be on kind of a Conan kick. Currently making my way through The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian (holy alliteration, Batman!), the first in a three-volume set collecting Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories in the order that he wrote them. I'd actually purchased all three back when they first released, but never got around to them for some reason.

So far I've read The Phoenix on the Sword, The Frost-Giant's Daughter, and The God in the Bowl. Good stuff so far.

Now this I can get behind. Discovered Howard circa 1978 and devoured everything related I could find over the next few years, but then burned out on all of the post-REH Conan pastiches. But I've read Del Rey's Kull collection and the first two Conan books, and though I didn't race through the stories the way I did when I was younger, I was happy to find that there's still a lot of good stuff in there. And I'd really like the right writer to come along and do something more with Kull. There's a really different feel and atmosphere to the Kull stories; they're much more otherworldly and fantastic than the Conan stories. The bonus material in the books -- drafts, unfinished stories, etc -- is pretty cool, too, making the books worth buying even for someone who has the pure REH Conan collections edited by Karl Edward Wagner for Berkley books back in the 1970s.

Del Rey's also doing a great job with Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, including lots of rare and unusual supplementary material.

 

[S. Gomez]

^Well, I do love Conan, so maybe we can get on the same page with that one?

 

[Maestro]

So, I'm 50 pages in to The Ipcress File, and I think it's one of the best spy books I've read in a long time. Has the tone of the Bond books, but isn't so wildly "out of nowhere" like the LeCarre books. In fact, it even mocks some of these parts of the genre. Absolute win.

However, we're off to Borders this afternoon to pick up book 3 of Sandra McDonald's Outback Trilogy, The Stars Blue Yonder. Looking forward to it after Ipcress (and then I'm going to have to hunt down more of Deighton's spy books).

 

[Skywalker]

And I'd really like the right writer to come along and do something more with Kull. There's a really different feel and atmosphere to the Kull stories; they're much more otherworldly and fantastic than the Conan stories.

I just bought Kull: Exile of Atlantis earlier today because of this post, so it had better be good. I read that the character of Conan was actually initially inspired, at least partially, by Kull, whom Howard created first. And I've also seen a few references about Kull being a more "cerebral barbarian" than Conan, which sounds interesting. I like Conan a lot, but sometimes he can be a little too "slaughter first, ask questions later" for my liking.

And yeah, I completely agree with you about all the background and bonus material Del Rey has put together for these collections. They're almost like DVDs. Except, y'know, in book form.

 

[Demiurge]

Just finished Hamilton's Temporal Void - the Commonwealth Universe is fantastic, though the last book finished a bit weak.

 

[Steve Roby]

I just bought Kull: Exile of Atlantis earlier today because of this post, so it had better be good.

I hope you like it! Even in the Del Rey book there's some criticism of some of the Kull stories, but I like them anyway. They're relatively early works but they have an atmosphere and a strength of their own.

I read that the character of Conan was actually initially inspired, at least partially, by Kull, whom Howard created first. And I've also seen a few references about Kull being a more "cerebral barbarian" than Conan, which sounds interesting. I like Conan a lot, but sometimes he can be a little too "slaughter first, ask questions later" for my liking.

Kull came first, but he's much more of a broody kind of guy than Conan ever was. Imagine Conan becoming king of Aquilonia at a somewhat younger age. And imagine that, instead of thinly disguised versions of European, African, and Asian places, everything is set in a completely fantastic world, and one that gives the impression of being a smaller but much more mysterious place. There are dark secrets and strange magic everywhere, and Kull's grasp on his throne is more tenuous than Conan's, and he can't be sure who his allies are. If you like Moorcock's Elric stories, in some ways they're closer to the feel of the Kull stories than the Conan stories.

 

[SalvorHardin]

Just finished Hamilton's Temporal Void - the Commonwealth Universe is fantastic, though the last book finished a bit weak.

I can't wait to get my hands on this one !!

I loved The Dreaming Void and I generally am a Hamilton fan.

 

[Brian]

Continuing my current nostalgia tour, I have finished Splinter of the Mind's Eye and today will be starting Han Solo at Stars' End.

 

[BrotherBenny]

Currently reading Trudi Canavan's The Magician's Apprentice, a standalone novel set centuries before the events in her Black Magician's trilogy. So far, I'm about a third of the way through, it is an excellent read and even the minor characters are fully realised, both good and bad. I have liked all of Canavan's writings thus far and she doesn't disappoint. I'm actually looking forward to the Black Magician's trilogy sequel trilogy and some of the other projects she has lined up.

I'm also reading Voyager: The Escape, the first original Voyager novel, penned by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and it is just a cookie cutter novel so far, absolutely nothing to write home about. Will make a fuller report when I'm done.

When I finish Canavan's book, I'll be reading the lastest Jeffery Deaver offiering, Roadside Crosses, the second book solely featuring his new heroine, Kathryn Dance. After that, I have Brent Weeks' Night Angel trilogy, books 2 through 5 of Naomi Novik's Temeraire series and assorted others.

 

[Sabataage]

Joe Haldeman's Forever War. Its an interesting book. It starts in the late-Nineties from the author's viewpoint in the late-Sixties/early-Seventies and spans through several different futures. Because of time dilation-- something most sci-fi stories initrinsically ignore, the hero watches the planet, its civilisations, technologies and (as the title would suggest) warfare change over the course of hundreds of years.

 

[S. Gomez]

I'm trying to find some of the short story collections by R.A. Lafferty, but not getting anywhere. Same goes for Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if you can believe it.

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

 

[Stevil2001]

I can't think of any single-author anthologies off the top of my head, but for an absolute standout collection of classic sf, pick up Volume One of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which collects the best stories of the pre-Nebula years. It starts a little shakily, but quickly progresses to moving from strength to strength, absolutely living up to its subtitle.

ETA: Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman is an odd but very good collection of dark fantasy/magical realism stories.

 

[Rulius]

Midnight Falcon by David Gemmel... good read

 

[Steve Roby]

I'm trying to find some of the short story collections by R.A. Lafferty, but not getting anywhere. Same goes for Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if you can believe it.

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

Have you read Cordwainer Smith or Avram Davidson? Ellison was a fan of Smith's, as I recall, and Davidson ought to appeal to someone interested in Lafferty and Ellison.

 

[S. Gomez]

I can't think of any single-author anthologies off the top of my head, but for an absolute standout collection of classic sf, pick up Volume One of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which collects the best stories of the pre-Nebula years. It starts a little shakily, but quickly progresses to moving from strength to strength, absolutely living up to its subtitle.

ETA: Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman is an odd but very good collection of dark fantasy/magical realism stories.

I've read parts of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and I was going to pull it out of the library again, yeah. Tiny Deaths is going on the Check It Out list. Thanks.

I'm trying to find some of the short story collections by R.A. Lafferty, but not getting anywhere. Same goes for Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if you can believe it.

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

Have you read Cordwainer Smith or Avram Davidson? Ellison was a fan of Smith's, as I recall, and Davidson ought to appeal to someone interested in Lafferty and Ellison.

I've never read either of them, no, though I have heard Cordwainer Smith's name. Mind you, I've never read Ellison or Lafferty either. The Rediscovery of Man. I like the title already.

 

[Mistral]

I can't think of any single-author anthologies off the top of my head, but for an absolute standout collection of classic sf, pick up Volume One of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, which collects the best stories of the pre-Nebula years. It starts a little shakily, but quickly progresses to moving from strength to strength, absolutely living up to its subtitle.

ETA: Tiny Deaths by Robert Shearman is an odd but very good collection of dark fantasy/magical realism stories.

I've read parts of The Science Fiction Hall of Fame and I was going to pull it out of the library again, yeah. Tiny Deaths is going on the Check It Out list. Thanks.

I'm trying to find some of the short story collections by R.A. Lafferty, but not getting anywhere. Same goes for Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if you can believe it.

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

Have you read Cordwainer Smith or Avram Davidson? Ellison was a fan of Smith's, as I recall, and Davidson ought to appeal to someone interested in Lafferty and Ellison.

I've never read either of them, no, though I have heard Cordwainer Smith's name. Mind you, I've never read Ellison or Lafferty either. The Rediscovery of Man. I like the title already.

Get The Past Through Tomorrow by Heinlein-it includes Green Hills, as well as the rest of his Future History. And you might look into Jack Williamson as well.

Try this link:

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/ to search for books and this link:

http://www.sfwa.org/fiction/db.asp?a=W#menu

to sample Williamson online.

 

[S. Gomez]

Get The Past Through Tomorrow by Heinlein-it includes Green Hills, as well as the rest of his Future History. And you might look into Jack Williamson as well.

Tried already, and failed. Neither Amazon.ca or .com has it in stock (and actually I just spent all the money I had for books at the moment, so the library is going to be key for the next little while). Thanks for the links, though, as well as the name Jack Williamson.

 

[stj]

I'm trying to find some of the short story collections by R.A. Lafferty, but not getting anywhere. Same goes for Harlan Ellison's Deathbird Stories, if you can believe it.

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

Second the motion for Cordwainer Smith. Science fiction has several short story writers who excelled in the form and were not terribly productive as novelist. From way back, Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (a husband/wife team,) either as separately or as Lewis Padgett had a number of wonderful short stories or novellas. In modern times, John Varley was really at his best in short story form. Theodore Sturgeon is a science fiction classic unfairly overlooked because he was more of a short story writer, but not anthologized the way Bradbury is. And Robert Sheckley is yet another.

My own science fiction/fantasy reading lately has included a couple of fantsies, Vellum and The Steel Remains, some short stories Heinlein's Expanded Universe and Clarke's Nine Billion Names of God, and some Ian M. Banks, Inversions and Against a Dark Background.

 

[Hober Mallow]

Just read "Bread Overhead" by Fritz Lieber. Lieber was unintentionally prophetic when he wrote a line about one android who "Twittered a greeting" to another android.

 

[Hober Mallow]

I'm starting to like short story collections more and more, especially science fiction. Neil Gaiman, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov are my favourites. Would anyone care to recommend any collections by other authors? (Heinlein's The Green Hills of Earth is already on the list)

I very much recommend a collection of 20th Century SF stories edited by Orson Scott Card. Probably the best collection I've ever read, the best of the best. It's got "The Nine Billion Names of God," by Clarke, "A Saucer of Loneliness," by Sturgeon, "A Work of Art" by James Blish, "All You Zombies" by Heinlein, "The Tunnel Under the World," by Frederick Pohl, "Sandkings" by George R. R. Martin, "Repent Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman" by Ellison... great group of stories.