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I've got Kraken queued up for when I finish the books on the previous page.

But I'm very out of the loop when it comes to science fiction, to be honest. Much more into horror & fantasy as far as that spectrum of the pulp fiction literary universe is concerned.

D.o.S. wrote:I've got Kraken queued up for when I finish the books on the previous page.

But I'm very out of the loop when it comes to science fiction, to be honest. Much more into horror & fantasy as far as that spectrum of the pulp fiction literary universe is concerned.

Who do you like for horror? Or do you just read US news?

I'm reading the Books of Blood properly (never read more than 1 or 2 back in the day), and obviously Clive Barker is great. Same with Stephen King but I'm birthplace-obligated to say that. Dennis Wheatley got me into the occult when I was, like, 12, 'cause my parents had some of his horror lying around. Lovecraft, obviously again. I'm feeling like pretty basic now that I list the first names that come to mind.

Speaking of HP...

ILFer Sam Zadgan wrote this fun collection of Lovecrafty short stories which are pretty Wheatley-ian and you can read for free on Kindle. (full disclosure I edited some version of these stories prior to print):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Larwock-Sam-Za ... 0648067408

Sci fi was pretty much the lion's share of what I read for a while there, but it's dropped off a bit as of late. I think my absolute favorite kind of writing of all is sort of absurdist/magical realist style that dips some toes into sci fi—Murakami is probably the best example I can think of, but also of course Vonnegut at times and plenty others. As I mentioned a few posts back, I'm currently reading George Saunders' CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, and it's a fantastic example of that kind of style.

I still absolutely love what I think of as more pure sci fi though, nerdy warts and all. Recently read NK Jemisin's Hundred Thousand Kingdoms and loved it, wanna read more. She's won like... all the awards lately, it seems. Def recommended.

dubkitty wrote:i'm gonna be that old guy and point out that Asimov, Clarke, and McGuin in particular were excellent on a literary level. i kind of wandered off from sci-fi when it went off into five-volume series that really weren't much different to fantasy.

I don't agree about Asimov in literary merit, but he still had some great ideas. There's still a lot of good sci-fi out there that isn't giant epic series. I read mostly sci-fi because I love the ideas so much but I can sometimes get ground down by not fantastic writing. But there is a lot of good quality writing out there.

D.o.S. wrote:I've got Kraken queued up for when I finish the books on the previous page.

But I'm very out of the loop when it comes to science fiction, to be honest. Much more into horror & fantasy as far as that spectrum of the pulp fiction literary universe is concerned.

I'll be interested to see what you make of Kraken. I really like it, but not all of the fans of Mieville's work agree

I'm happy to offer suggestions for sci-fi writers both old and new, should you want them, though as with Kraken, my views may not be those of the majority.

I liked the Southern Reach trilogy, which I finished quite recently (I'd read the first book a couple of years ago but not the others), and I liked it on the whole.

A favourite for similar reasons is the Empty Space/Kefahuchi Tract Trilogy by M John Harrison - which I have read through a couple of times now with great enjoyment but very little idea what on earth it's all about. In this case I find that a very satisfying thing.

Another couple of very good trilogies (I say this despite preferring stand alone books to ones where you might finish the first one knowing full well you have only been told part of a story, which can be very annoying) are Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries' of Empire books and Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean Le Flambeur series.

Thanks D.o.S.!

Paul_C wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:I've got Kraken queued up for when I finish the books on the previous page.

But I'm very out of the loop when it comes to science fiction, to be honest. Much more into horror & fantasy as far as that spectrum of the pulp fiction literary universe is concerned.

I'll be interested to see what you make of Kraken. I really like it, but not all of the fans of Mieville's work agree

I'm happy to offer suggestions for sci-fi writers both old and new, should you want them, though as with Kraken, my views may not be those of the majority.

I loved Kraken! I'm a big fan of Mieville in general but it might even be one of my favourites. Didn't realise there were people who weren't fans.

I really wish he'd write another Bas-Lag novel. Looking at his Wiki, seems like it's been a while since he wrote a novel at all? Railsea in 2012 I guess?

Yeah I'd like that.

This Census Taker may be my favourite of what I've read though, so more different styles is also good.

coldbrightsunlight wrote:

dubkitty wrote:i'm gonna be that old guy and point out that Asimov, Clarke, and McGuin in particular were excellent on a literary level. i kind of wandered off from sci-fi when it went off into five-volume series that really weren't much different to fantasy.

I don't agree about Asimov in literary merit, but he still had some great ideas. There's still a lot of good sci-fi out there that isn't giant epic series. I read mostly sci-fi because I love the ideas so much but I can sometimes get ground down by not fantastic writing. But there is a lot of good quality writing out there.

I feel the same way about Rudy Rudker, though his autobiography was great

TraceItalian wrote:

MrNovember wrote:

popvulture wrote:That said, I usually find that most of the heart of sci fi is much more in the whole storytelling / world-building sides of things, and in that sense I thought Annihilation stood out.

This is definitely what I liked about the book. The world building was amazing and definitely stood out.

And I actually really liked the fact that he didn't really use the book when writing the movie. It made it feel completely different and kind of fit in with the mutations theme. That said, I would have loved to see the Crawler and the Tower in the movie.

You ever read Harrison? He was specifically mentioned in Elmore Leonard's rules of writing for his ability at description

Forgot to answer this! Nope, I haven't but I've long wanted to check his stuff out. What would you recommend to start?

popvulture wrote:

TraceItalian wrote:

MrNovember wrote:

popvulture wrote:That said, I usually find that most of the heart of sci fi is much more in the whole storytelling / world-building sides of things, and in that sense I thought Annihilation stood out.

This is definitely what I liked about the book. The world building was amazing and definitely stood out.

And I actually really liked the fact that he didn't really use the book when writing the movie. It made it feel completely different and kind of fit in with the mutations theme. That said, I would have loved to see the Crawler and the Tower in the movie.

You ever read Harrison? He was specifically mentioned in Elmore Leonard's rules of writing for his ability at description

Forgot to answer this! Nope, I haven't but I've long wanted to check his stuff out. What would you recommend to start?

Well my personal favorite is his Brown Dog novellas, which were compiled in a book simply called Brown Dog, which is about the life and travels of about a guy named Brown Dog, so sex, running from the law after protesting a Indian burial ground excavation, getting his knee crushed logging, fishing, and taking care of two foster children. But my little brother's favorite is Dalva, which is about the life of a single woman who runs a property and her family. My ex who got me into him, her favorite is Returning to Earth, which is about a man dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease trying to dictate his life, trying to die with dignity, and his family trying to learn how to cope. Honestly, all 3 are a good start.

Edit: Also, he wrote a great book about traveling and eating that I'm struggling to remember right now, but him and Anthony Bourdain rolled together, plus he looks like a dock fisherman

Yeah the first time I ever learned of him was via that Bourdain episode. He was a super grizzled guy, haha. Pretty awesome.

Paul_C wrote:

D.o.S. wrote:I've got Kraken queued up for when I finish the books on the previous page.

But I'm very out of the loop when it comes to science fiction, to be honest. Much more into horror & fantasy as far as that spectrum of the pulp fiction literary universe is concerned.

I'll be interested to see what you make of Kraken. I really like it, but not all of the fans of Mieville's work agree

I'm happy to offer suggestions for sci-fi writers both old and new, should you want them, though as with Kraken, my views may not be those of the majority.

I liked the Southern Reach trilogy, which I finished quite recently (I'd read the first book a couple of years ago but not the others), and I liked it on the whole.

A favourite for similar reasons is the Empty Space/Kefahuchi Tract Trilogy by M John Harrison - which I have read through a couple of times now with great enjoyment but very little idea what on earth it's all about. In this case I find that a very satisfying thing.

Another couple of very good trilogies (I say this despite preferring stand alone books to ones where you might finish the first one knowing full well you have only been told part of a story, which can be very annoying) are Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries' of Empire books and Hannu Rajaniemi's Jean Le Flambeur series.

I highly highly highly recommend "only forward" by michael marshall smith.
I don't want to give too much away but, yeah, holy shit, blew my mind.