View RSS Feed

Hobbit

Nothing dates so fast as the future...

Rate this Entry
3 Comments
by
Hobbit
, March 2nd, 2012 at 04:19 PM (436 Views)
As much as I love 'new stuff' at SFFWorld, I think its important to read 'old stuff'. Not only because they're fun (and I love discovering/rediscovering authors) but because I don't think you get a full understanding of what's happening now without it.

Of course, it helps if you have access to the old stuff. I try and read (or in many cases reread after a number of years) the Gollancz SF Masterworks as they appear, which is where a lot of my recent reviews have been from.

I am also very lucky to also have a pretty much complete set of The Magazine of Fantasy and SF from 1948-2000 and a slightly less completeAstounding/Analog from 1948-2002 (there's a couple missing), a full set of Nebulas, quite a lot of Galaxy's and the first five years or so of Isaac Asimov's Sf Magazine.

So I love having a good delve and following authors through the magazines.

At the moment, three authors I'm loving: Leigh Brackett (though not really through the magazines but through the Haffner Press collections); Edmond Hamilton (ditto) and James H Schmitz (through Analog.)

Good solid SF. Recommended and these days often forgotten.

Mark

Submit "Nothing dates so fast as the future..." to Digg Submit "Nothing dates so fast as the future..." to del.icio.us Submit "Nothing dates so fast as the future..." to StumbleUpon Submit "Nothing dates so fast as the future..." to Google Submit "Nothing dates so fast as the future..." to Facebook

Tags: None Add / Edit Tags
Categories
Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Queen Pandora's Avatar
    Have to agree. Some of the best writers were writing a century ago or more. One of my favourites is Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, which was later adapted to Apocalypse Now. For sheer beauty of prose I've never read anything like it. As for SF, I can't go past the living legend Ben Bova: a terrible stylist, but a great storyteller.
  2. Hobbit's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Queen Pandora
    Have to agree. Some of the best writers were writing a century ago or more. One of my favourites is Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, which was later adapted to Apocalypse Now. For sheer beauty of prose I've never read anything like it.
    Thanks for the input, QP. I read Heart of Darkness after seeing Apocalypse Now in the 1980's. Edmond Hamilton is definitely not a lyrical stylist like Conrad, but his writing has an energy and an innocence I like. There's a lot of good stuff barely recognised these days. Lets add Malcolm Jameson and Randall Garrett to that list...

    As for SF, I can't go past the living legend Ben Bova: a terrible stylist, but a great storyteller.
    Not the only author in Sf to be accused of that: Arthur C. Clarke, one of my favourites, has had similar mention. And yet I still love reading it.

    Mark
  3. Queen Pandora's Avatar
    So true, 2001 is still one of my favourite books of all time.