What are you reading right now?

[Betonhaus]

I forgot how difficult a read Dream Dancer was. I didn't think language changed that much since the 80's. Not the techno speech, that was fine, but using obscure terminology like "bedizened" sprinkled throughout the book at key points, making it difficult to visualize what is happening in that scene

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Kuttner is vastly underrated, possibly because he died young without having any particularly famous single story. He also published under the name Lewis Padgett (for collaborations with his probably more famous wife C.L. Moore) and a number of others, which also might have kept him from being too famous. In other early deaths, Cordwainer Smith who was mentioned here was a real life badass (despite looking like a complete nerd).

Cordwainer Smith apparently wrote the foundational textbook on Psychological Warfare and I hear he also made catgirls in his sci-fi.

Speaking of early deaths in sci-fi, I've also got a copy of Space Merchants by Kornbluth and Pohl. I hear Kornbluth's also on the list of "died way too young" as well.

C.L. Moore , from what I hear, stopped writing sci-fi after Kuttner died. I'll try and see if I can't find Kuttner's "Fury" and "Mutant" somewhere.


Anyways on other news.

First Impressions and thoughts on the sci-fi/fantasy books I've read in the past 2 months or so.

• Zelazny- This Immortal
  • A fun read with excellent construction. However, the shifting perspectives from Conrad can make it hard to get through because they keep going into his past. I'm looking forward to Lord of Light and The Amber novels
  • 8/10.
• Vance- The Dying Earth
  • Beautifully written. Whimsical, but without being insulting or written solely for children. I look forward to going through the rest of the Vance books I've gotten; The Dying Earth series, The Demon Princes, and Empyrio.
  • 9/10
• Simak- Way Station
  • A very comfy book that was thoroughly enjoyable. It didn't make me lost in the premise and made me enjoy Enoch's character. I love Simak's pastoral writing on top of his. . . er. . . He depicts the CIA as fucking up and I love that. I look forward to finishing City, Werewolf Principle, Mastadonia, and All the Traps of Time.
  • 9/10
• Anderson- The High Crusade
  • A fucking hilarious book that's very Monty Python-esque. Medieval English village gets invaded by aliens. Aliens have forgotten how to deal with melee combat. Medieval people go beat them up and steal their ship. Hiliarity ensues and it's just a fun read as the alien empire is revealed to have forgotten a lot of military strategies. The Medieval English nobles and monks strategize and bluff their way to the top. I look forward to finishing the Poul Anderson Gateway Collection with Brain Wave, The Ship of a Million Years (I think that's the title?), and the collected Time Patrol novels.
  • 9/10 for fucking making me smile and feeling like a Monty Python premise.
• Moorcock- Elric of Melnibone
  • Enjoyable dark fantasy that doesn't waste time. Very clearly able to get Elric to be an interesting protagonist. I look forward to finishing the two volumes of the Elric Anthology by Saga Press that I picked up for cheap. (Lmao ex-library copies on charity thrift stores on ebay. fuckin' highway robbery). Maybe I'll pick up more Moorcock as time goes on.
  • 8.5/10, great start and feels pulpy. A little too short to make me want to knock it up a notch.
• Matheson- I am Legend
  • Titillating and efficiently written. It left me maybe wanting some more out of the world, but the ending was perfectly cheesy. I'll read The Shrinking Man this year.
  • 9/10
• Keyes- Flowers for Algernon
  • It's a very interesting book. I find that it's haunting and sticks in my mind. Charlie's newfound intellect couldn't erase the emotions he felt and he wasn't really capable of handling them that well. The decline towards the end and the tension he had with everyone while at his peak was genuinely interesting. There should 100% be a kiwi farms inspired take on this where we replace Charlie with Chris Chan or some other lolcow.
  • 9.5/10 for fucking sticking in my head.
• The Complete Solomon Kane- Howard
  • Howard's likely one of the best pulp writers ever. He makes this simple character premise work. However, I can see why there's people who don't particularly like Kane. I've got almost all of Howard's works aside from his westerns/boxing stories and Almuric.
  • 9/10 for being fun.

 

[AnOminous]

Cordwainer Smith apparently wrote the foundational textbook on Psychological Warfare and I hear he also made catgirls in his sci-fi.

He may have been the inventor of furries depending how you look at it. The whole Instrumentality of Mankind had various slave races of basically anthros.

Zelazny- This Immortal

• A fun read with excellent construction. However, the shifting perspectives from Conrad can make it hard to get through because they keep going into his past. I'm looking forward to Lord of Light and The Amber novels
• 8/10.

Lord of Light is probably his masterpiece although Damnation Alley is magnificent trash (avoid the movie though which is non-magnificent trash). As for Amber, the first trilogy is great, but it drops off in quality really badly in later episodes. You can tell they're potboilers.

Unicorn Variations is a really nice short story collection, too.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

He may have been the inventor of furries depending how you look at it. The whole Instrumentality of Mankind had various slave races of basically anthros.

Yeah I'm fishing for a copy of The Best of Cordwainer Smith. The NESFA collection's nice, but I don't feel like paying 30 bucks. If I like the short stories then I'll look out for Norstillia.

But, the idea that the CIA nigger that wrote the foundational text for psychological warfare also invented furries. Christ, that's the setup for a niche joke. Hopefully he didn't write about yiffing.

Lord of Light is probably his masterpiece although Damnation Alley is magnificent trash (avoid the movie though which is non-magnificent trash). As for Amber, the first trilogy is great, but it drops off in quality really badly in later episodes. You can tell they're potboilers.

Unicorn Variations is a really nice short story collection, too.

I'll look around used lots for a good deal on more Zelazny books in the future. I've got Lord of Light and the '70s Sci-Fi Book Club collections of the Corwin Cycle of Amber books. I hear the Merlin ones aren't as good on top of Zelazny dying before he could finish that bunch. (I shouldn't need to buy the Merlin cycle, from what I've heard.)

I'm finding the "Best of" sci-fi collections from the '70s to be fairly easy to get for good prices (in hardcover). I think the only one that's gonna be ass to get is the Best of John W. Campbell which runs around 50 bucks. Everything else is like 7-10-12 bucks at most.

idk I'm used to old ass books. It's a shame that all we do in modern humanities/english academia is wank critical theory on anything that can be percieved as feminist/race-based/"queer"/etc.

 

[ScurvyRat]

I finished reading through the Eclipse section of Berserk Golden Age.

My condolences. I'd say it gets better, but....

I am nearing the last 30% of Oathbringer, the third book in the Storm Light Archive.

My favorite book in my favorite series. Book 5 is allegedly coming out this year. Honestly I feel like the next one, Rhythm of war, is just not as good. Check out the wider Cosmere if you haven't. Improves the experience significantly

Personally, I just finished up Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie and man, what a fucking RIDE that one was. As I stated previously in this thread, I saw some of the twists and turns coming but others, I did not.

Spoiler: Best served cold spoilers

I think the scene that will stay with me the longest is Shivers getting his fucking eye burned out and the scenes of his recovery. Holy. Fucking. Shit. I would have killed Manza, way WAY before Shivers actually tried to. "It should have been you" gives me shivers

 

[liam dees]

My condolences. I'd say it gets better, but....

I knew what Berserk would be like before going in. It is infamous for a reason. But there is a difference between hearing a summary of what will happen and then actually experiencing the story as the writer intended and paced out. Miura is a master, bar none. I already have Berserk as one of my favourites even though I only started reading on and off two months ago.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

Man, I've found that the family kindle library has a fuckton of these megapacks for Lester del Rey, H. Beam Piper, Fredric Brown, Robert Bloch, and so on.

Read a bit of Lester del Rey. Pursuit is written very engagingly. I'm growing to really appreciate these guys. Gonna try to get a del rey collection volume if I can find it cheaply.

Bloch also seems fun. Downloaded some Seabury Quinn audiobooks from the seas. I'll give Jules de Grandin a try while doing chores and job apps.


@AnOminous

I looked through the Henry Kuttner bibliography and it seems the 2000s saw some pulp reprints by Paizo under "planet stories". Turns out a bunch of Kuttner's stuff got reprinted by them. I'll keep an eye out for Kuttner and Moore along with the other golden age of sci-fi married couple (Leigh brackett and edmond hamilton.).

Seems Kuttner wrote in a lot of genres and I've been told by a fan of his work that it felt like he was on the brink of giving a truly "big" work right before he died. IDK where that statement comes from, but ah well.

picked up Pohl's Gateway in a beautiful old book club edition for 3 bucks. Also got Man Plus, Jem, and The Early Pohl. It seems the local library bookstore just had a small stack of his greatest hits. (already own space merchants.) What am I in for? Pohl seems to be one of the guys that specifically worked solely in sci-fi and I've never heard of him before I started delving into vintage sci-fi. He seems to be incredibly well-respected.

 

[AnOminous]

But, the idea that the CIA nigger that wrote the foundational text for psychological warfare also invented furries.

The funny thing is this is actually true. If you want to explore it more, read "The Game of Rat and Dragon." It's strangely relevant to this very issue. The literal dude who arguably invented psychological warfare (as Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger) also wrote science fiction (as Cordwainer Smith) on that very subject, which somehow involved catgirls.

Things that make you go hmm.

 

[ADN_VIII]

Legacy of Ash by Matt Ward. Yes, *that* Matt Ward from Games Workshop.

It took a bit to get going, since it starts a bit in medias res and takes a little bit to properly introduce the characters from the beginning but I genuinely was absorbed enough in it to get through all 800 some odd pages without feeling the need to take a break.

I got into 40k at the tail end of 5th and start of 6th Edition, so I wasn't there for all of the Matt Ward hate but I would say that he's a pretty solid writer when he's allowed to do his own things.

 

[LargeChoonger]

I'm waiting on my copy of Splinter Cell trilogy and some of the books to arrive. Should also start on the copy of Casino Royale I got

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

I'm reading the history of China by John Keay, about 200 pages in, at the romance of the 3 kingdoms part and I have only praise to say for this book. It is a pleasant, easy read of a very complex topic, especially after Pavel Milyukovs history of Russia, which was a unpleasant and long slog.
I'm also reading Illium by Dan Simmons and am greatly enjoying it. Simmons is a excellent writer of fiction and while Illium hasn't caught me to the same level as Hyperion, I find it a great book.
And finally, I'm reading the Silver spike, the 4th book in the Black company series. Some very nice fiction-slop to ease everything up between the two above books.

 

[glass_houses]

I'm also reading Illium by Dan Simmons and am greatly enjoying it. Simmons is a excellent writer of fiction and while Illium hasn't caught me to the same level as Hyperion, I find it a great book.

I've just started Hyperion . The ideas behind it are interesting, but the prose is very clumsy in places. His world building is interesting, but his descriptions often fall shy of what he's trying to convey, and it's clearly not deliberate ambiguity on his part. I'll keep at it; hopefully he'll hit his stride soon.

 

[LordOfZhbagva]

I've just started Hyperion . The ideas behind it are interesting, but the prose is very clumsy in places. His world building is interesting, but his descriptions often fall shy of what he's trying to convey, and it's clearly not deliberate ambiguity on his part. I'll keep at it; hopefully he'll hit his stride soon.

Keep at it. The prose had a few repetitive moments, but I really enjoyed the 4 books and the worldbuilding is one of the rare cases of fiction worldbuilding I actually liked (read-loved). Hyperion clicks together very well at the end and the Fall of Hyperion wrapped the whole story up very well. And while Endymion and Rise of Endymion are unnecessary, the two books together make a solid story, one of the best fiction ones I've read.
I won't spoil it, but the ambassador really puts everything together.

 

[General Emílio Médici]

I finished reading Unsong today. It was quite a trip, and really creative one at that. It's a webserial, now finished and it's avalible for free.

The genre is a bit hard to describe. It's sort of a young adult fiction of a guy finding out he has a power and going on a adventure to save the world. Except the setting and the power are really well done. The best way to describe the setting would be "Jewish Mysticism Eschatology", the main protagonist is a failed Kabbalist graduate. The setting is the real world up to December 24th 1968 when everything changes, as Apollo VIII crashes into the crystal sphere that surrounds Earth and build by the angel Uriel to keep things working.

Honestly fascinating. Deep jew lore as well.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

My copies of Rogue Moon and Lest Darkness Fall came today. Got a pair of SFBC hardcovers for a pretty damn good price.

I'm re-reading a bit of Mark Twain's Connecticut Yankee. Fun stuff.

 

[Judex Meus]

Culture of Critique. Dense but very informative.

 

[Candlelight Desolation]

Dmitri Volkogonov's Lenin biography. Volkogonov was a Soviet general who got access to a lot of private papers about Lenin once the USSR fell, and I'm at the part in Lenin's life where he continues to consolidate power and survives an assassination attempt. Book is dense and slow to get through even reading it an hour a day. I'm going to be reading Nigel Jones's book on the Freikorps after I'm done with this one.

 

[Alexander Thaut]

think of all the vintage SF-F I've read so far, Jack Vance, Clifford Simak, Van Vogt, Leiber, Kuttner/Moore, Fredric Brown, and Harry Harrison have made it to my "definitely buy if you see in the wild" list just from the sampling I've read so far. Poul Anderson is a maybe. I"m guessing Ensign Flandry and The Broken Sword are the next 2 big ones to look out for in the wild. (I have the Gollancz SF Gateway Omnibus for Anderson along with Tau Zero.) Pohl's another one I keep seeing in the wild, but I know next to nothing about his works so I only bought the hardcovers of Jem/Early Pohl/Gateway/Man Plus due to recognizing them from some youtuber.

I regularly wind up in thrift shops due to family errands and they're all over the place where I'm at. I saw a massive stack of Baen hardcovers for David Weber and John Ringo that I passed on because I'd never heard of them. Found out they're apparently military sci fi writers with a following? I've been on the lookout for anything by Jack Williamson and Roger Zelazny too. I just wish physical bookstores didn't die out, but here we are. I'll probably wind up getting Day of the Triffids and Body Snatchers read on an e-reader unless I fucking luck out.

I had some shekels and used some thriftbooks.com program thing to get more thriftbooks points and a slight discount. I wound up grabbing every one of those doubleday hardcover "Best of" sci fi books I could for a reasonable price on the cheap . . aside from the Campbell one because I wasn't about to shill 40 bucks for a copy. (I'd sold a stack of Bobbessey Twins books I'd had growing up to fund this. There's just a lot of quality sci-fi/fantasy that I kinda never got into reading.) Hell, I haven't even gotten to Robert Sheckley yet. Or Douglas Adams.


I'm just looking out for all the recommended classic golden-new age-80s SF/F authors and the list is massive. I've touched Octavia Butler for classes and didn't like her. Same with Margaret Atwood. Andre Norton and the woman who did the "People" stories have shown up in the wild to me, but I didn't pick them up since I only vaguely remembered their names. Hell, Piers Anthony, Marion Zimmer Bradley, CJ Cherryh, and the like are names I see all over the place for 50 cents to a dollar but I have never thought about picking up a book. Dunno why. The more I look up what I've noted down, the more I realize that I kinda don't vibe with certain ones. It's all intriguing to me because I keep seeing tons of these books out there and I wish there were more places on the internet to read reviews on more classic SF/F. Goodreads is. . . kinda a crapshoot at best. I can reliably get reviews for the more well-known books, but then I look up something more on the obscure side on Goodreads and get some redditor-type prefacing trigger warnings.

If a book is one I'm adding to the collection permanently, I'll clean it and toss a nice mylar jacket protector onto it. Did it for my copy of Demolished Man and The Adventures of the Stainless Steel Rat. (Seriously, I'm just having fun with this. I kinda wanna see if I can find the book Soylent Green is based on in the wild. Harrison feels like a genuinely fun writer.)


I'm just enjoying thumbing through Dangerous Visions right now. The Farmer story took a while to read. It got better after I re-read it and parsed it slowly. I'm beginning to think Ellison may be someone I'd like to read way more of, so I'll probably try to snag that new Ellison collection someday. Along with. . . Deathbird? Or w/e it's called. I like the wide variety of authors and how Ellison introduces each one. It makes it feel like they really did have a neat community before it all got hijacked and rotted out. I'll probably go read the James Bond books after I'm done with this SF/F cycling. Maybe I'll get around to re-reading Ashenden too. . .


Anyways, kiwis.

Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein are what I've been told are the 4 biggest sci-fi writers. I've got Foundation Trilogy and Farenheit 451. What are the other absolutely essential books by these guys to watch out for while thrifting? I do plan to stash them to read someday.

 

[Jewthulhu]

Asimov, Bradbury, Clarke, and Heinlein are what I've been told are the 4 biggest sci-fi writers. I've got Foundation Trilogy and Farenheit 451. What are the other absolutely essential books by these guys to watch out for while thrifting? I do plan to stash them to read someday.

For stuff I've read and can say are good:
2001 by Clarke
I, Robot by Asimov
If you can find a collection of Bradbury's short stories grab it.

I'd also be on the look out for anything from Phillip K. Dick, Larry Niven, and Jerry Pournelle. 3 other great scifi authors you didn't mention.
Look out for:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Dick
Minority Report by Dick
Ringworld by Niven
The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle
Lucifer's Hammer by Niven and Pournelle

 

[cold comfort]

Really liked The Holocaust Industry by Norman Finkelstein. Here he is calling Destiny a moron, making Benny Morris laugh. Heartwarming. So in this book from 2003 he argues that after WWII the American Jewish elites kept mostly quiet about the holocaust in order to ingratiate themselves with US ruling elites, as Germany became a crucial US ally against the Soviet Union. It was only after 1967, when Israel demonstrated its military prowess and became a US strategic asset, that they began to exploit the holocaust - a distorted and weaponised version of it - as a political expedient. Furthermore, in the nineties, they used it to extort the Swiss for reparations to the tune of $1.25 billion, almost none of which went to actual concentration camp survivors. Norm is a really engaging writer. His case is well-argued, he’s absolutely scathing to the lawyers and leaders of organisations that got rich off this endeavour, and he gets some sardonic zingers in.

The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman

Also read this. Definitely the most challenging book I've read this year. Very philosophical with loads of references. There's no way I'm picking up on everything she's doing here.