I Just Bought ... SF Remix Volume 2

[suciul]

I read Recurrsion and Capacity and probably will read Divergence at some point, and I think that their main problem is not the ideas or intended audience, but the tone and characters which are flat to flatter. Still interesting enough for me to read, but not a priority.

[intensityxx]

Thanks Archren and suciul!

[FicusFan]

Intensity,

I have only read the first one, Recursion, back in 2004. It was his first book, so I gave him some slack. I got it from the UK because he wasn't published here. There were many good SF books from the UK and I was hoping this was one of them. I don't remember a lot about the book, but I didn't hate it.

The last 2 have been published here, so I picked them up.

I like to finish a series once I start, and there wasn't any reason not to.

[FicusFan]

My latest SF books:


Pushing Ice, by Alastair Reynolds, PB
The Secret City, by Carol Emshwiller, TP

[ArthurFrayn]

Considering how suhhloooowly I've been reading lately, God only knows when I'll get around to reading these, but:


SpacePaw/The Pritcher Mass/Wolfling/Alien Art/Time To Teleport-Delusion World/The R-Master/Sleepwalker's World/Time Storm/Naked To The Stars-The Alien Way -Gordon R Dickson After reading Wolf and Iron I had an attack of CCAS-compulsive completist acquisition syndrome
The Sinister Researches of C.P.Ranson-H.Nearing Jr.
The Collapsium -Wil McCarthy
Celestial Matters -Richardd Garfinkle
The Ordinary -Jim Grimsley
Godbody -Theodore Sturgeon
The Year of the Quiet Sun -Wilson Tucker
Journey Beyond Tomorrow -Robert Sheckly

[Randy M.]

Considering how suhhloooowly I've been reading lately, God only knows when I'll get around to reading these, but:


SpacePaw/The Pritcher Mass/Wolfling/Alien Art/Time To Teleport-Delusion World/The R-Master/Sleepwalker's World/Time Storm/Naked To The Stars-The Alien Way -Gordon R Dickson After reading Wolf and Iron I had an attack of CCAS-compulsive completist acquisition syndrome
The Sinister Researches of C.P.Ranson-H.Nearing Jr.
The Collapsium -Wil McCarthy
Celestial Matters -Richardd Garfinkle
The Ordinary -Jim Grimsley
Godbody -Theodore Sturgeon
The Year of the Quiet Sun -Wilson Tucker
Journey Beyond Tomorrow -Robert Sheckly

I liked Godbody quite a bit when I read it shortly after it was published, but my liking was more for what it could have been than for what it was. Sturgeon never developed it or finished it to his liking, as I understand, and so the first couple of chapters are good and promising, but the middle is sketchy and the ending more effective in theory than in actuality -- I mean, the ending could have been powerful if the story had been completely developed.

Randy M.

[ArthurFrayn]

I liked Godbody quite a bit when I read it shortly after it was published, but my liking was more for what it could have been than for what it was. Sturgeon never developed it or finished it to his liking, as I understand, and so the first couple of chapters are good and promising, but the middle is sketchy and the ending more effective in theory than in actuality -- I mean, the ending could have been powerful if the story had been completely developed.

I had read he worked on it quite a bit; I hadn't considered that the reason would be that some of the parts were unresolved. Thank's for the heads up -I'll go in with a lower expectation.

And here's a couple I forgot:

Infoquake -David Louis Edelman
Knight of Delusions -Keith Laumer
The Dark Beyond the Stars -Frank M. Robinson
Earthlight-Arthur C Clarke

Again, don't know when I'll get to them...

[FicusFan]

The Ordinary -Jim Grimsley

Just to let you know there is a sequel to The Ordinary. It is called The Last Green Tree. It came out in HC in November of 2006 in the US. I am waiting for it to go into paper.

[suciul]

Just to let you know there is a sequel to The Ordinary. It is called The Last Green Tree. It came out in HC in November of 2006 in the US. I am waiting for it to go into paper.

Actually there is an Asimov's ss The 120 Hours of Sodom, 02/05, in between, so if you plan reading The Last Green Tree (I liked it a lot as I did The Ordinary), it's a good idea to check that story out.

Also the ss Into Greenwood (Asimov's 09/01) has a lot of relevance since there you see the sentient trees for the first time, while in the more recent story you see some of the characters from the novel.

[ArthurFrayn]

Just to let you know there is a sequel to The Ordinary. It is called The Last Green Tree. It came out in HC in November of 2006 in the US. I am waiting for it to go into paper.

Thanks. Actually I had seen that as Amazon always has relevant links to purchases.

Actually there is an Asimov's ss The 120 Hours of Sodom, 02/05, in between, so if you plan reading The Last Green Tree (I liked it a lot as I did The Ordinary), it's a good idea to check that story out.

What with that title, I thought you were pulling my leg for a few, but upon checking I see 'tis not the case. Thanks for the heads up.

[suciul]

What with that title, I thought you were pulling my leg for a few, but upon checking I see 'tis not the case. Thanks for the heads up.

As it happens, 120 Hours of Sodom has as a main character one Sade a relatively well off member of the Hormling civilization (the high tech one from The Ordinary), name taken after the original, who tries to ingratiate even more with one of the most powerful Hormling called Figg (this last one is a character in The Last Green Tree) by offering a special 300th birthday party for Figg figuring a special licensed suicide at the end of 120 hours of crazy partying...

Before I read this story, I have not read anything by Mr. Grimsley, but after that I tracked down pretty much all his sf and I really loved his 2 novels The Ordinary and The Last Green Tree and most of his short stories, though 120 Hours is still my favourite overall.

[FicusFan]

Actually there is an Asimov's ss The 120 Hours of Sodom, 02/05, in between, so if you plan reading The Last Green Tree (I liked it a lot as I did The Ordinary), it's a good idea to check that story out.

Also the ss Into Greenwood (Asimov's 09/01) has a lot of relevance since there you see the sentient trees for the first time, while in the more recent story you see some of the characters from the novel.

Thanks for the info. I don't read short stories much, and don't have a subscription to Asimov's. Can you get them on-line ?

[Archren]

BayCon 2007 was much too nice to me. It had an easy public-transport route up to Borderlands Books, plus a very nice used-book dealer in the dealer room. The only consolation was that I was able to stick to my resolution to only buy books that are more than 20 years old. Here's the damage:

The Space Merchants Pohl & Kornbluth
Inherit the Stars Hogan
Trillion Year Spree Aldiss
on Wings of Song Disch
Dhalgren Delany
The Einstein Intersection Delany
Again, Dangerous Visions Ellison, ed.
City Simak
The Futurians Knight
Odd John and Sirius Stapledon
Last and First Men and Star Maker Stapledon
Bug Jack Barron Spinrad
The Last Unicorn Beagle (forgive the fantasy intrusion)
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever Tiptree (OK, the collection is more recent, but all the *stories* are more than 20 years old!)

[north]

Gifts and Voices by Le Guin
The Last Colony, Agent to the Stars, The Sagan Diary by John Scalzi

[ArthurFrayn]

I subscribed to Asimov's for a couple of years. I confess I'm a lousy magazine fiction reader, so I haven't read a lot of them. But I do have a couple of piles of them. That shouldn't suprise anybody here. But I picked one up, and opened it up purely at random the other day, and what story am I looking at? 120 Hours of Sodom.

So before I look into The Ordinary, I guess I'll read that story.