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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 11:39:40 GMT -5
I started reading SF books in the late 60s.By 1980 or so I decided to start collecting them as avidly as I had comics. So I started doing lots of research to come up with a want list.I read books on the history of SF,read literary critiques on SF authors,read tons of best-of-year anthologies,all the while taking notes of recommended authors or titles. Bought a huge amount of books in the various bookstores of Manhattan,went to a few paperback and sf conventions,bought many books via mail-order dealers. By the mid 90s I stopped but there still were quite a few items I had never been able to track down. Now with the internet it would be easier but I no longer have the desire since I have enough to read to last me my lifetime
However here is the list of books I was never able to find. Some are novels and collections.I'm curious if any of you have them,read them,familiar with them or any other comments.Some are well known authors and I have many of their other works,some are obscure. But they are all on the list for a purpose usually because of being significantly praised by an esteemed source.
Aldiss,Brian-New Arrivals,Old Encounters
Amis,Kingsley-Alteration
Ballard,J.G.-Atrocity Exhibition/Bilennium/Day of Forever
Bayley,Barrington-Knights of the Lmits/Seeds of Evil
Beaumont,Charles-Yonder/Hunger
Bennett,Margo-Long Way Back
Bloch,Robert-Chamber of Horrors
Blumlein,Michael-Movement of Mountains
Brown,Eric-Time Lapsed Man
Brunner,John-No Future In It
Coney,Michael-Brontomek/Hello Summer Goodbye
Cowper,Richard-Custodian & other stories/Tithonian Factor
Crowley,John-Novelty
Davidson,Avram-What Strange Seas and Shores
Disch,Thomas-1 Dozen H Bombs/White Fang Goes Dingo/Under Compulsion AKA Fun With Your Head
Effinger,George-Dirty Tricks/Irrational Numbers/Mixed Feelings/Nick of Time
Gold,H.L.-Old Die Rich
Goulart,Ron-Nutzenbolts & More Troubles With Machines
Hamilton,Edmond-Whats It Like Out There
Harrison,M.J.-Committed Men/Machine in Shaft 10
Jeter-K.W.-Death Arms
Jones,Raymond-Toymaker
Knight,Damon-Far Out/World Without Children
More later
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 11:40:15 GMT -5
And the rest:
Lafferty,R.A.-Does anyone Else Have Something To Add/Serpent's Egg
Laidlaw,Marc-Dad's Nuke
Matheson,Richard-Stir of Echoes/What Dreams May Come
McLean,Kathrine-Cosmic Checkmate/Trouble With Treaties/Trouble With You Earth People
Merrill,Judith-Shadow on the Heath
Nelson,Ray-Short Stories Of/Timequest
Neville,Kris-Betty Anne
Oliver,Chad-Edge Of Forever
Reed,Kit-Killer Mice/Revenge of the Senior Citizens
Rinehart,Luke-Long Voyage Home
Robinson,Spider-Antimony
Rucker,Rudy-57th Franz Kafka/Spacetime Donuts/White Light
Russell,Eric Frank-Far Stars
Shaw,Bob-Light of Other Days
Shepard,Lucius-Jaguar Hunter
Silverberg,Robert-Capricorn Games
Sladek,John-Alien Accounts/Bugs/Keep The Giraffe Burning/Lunatics Of Terra/Steam Driven Boy
Stapleford,Brian-Empire of Fear
Vance,Jack-Augmented Agents,Darkside of the Moon
Watson,Ian-Evil Water/God's World/Slow Birds/Sunstroke/Very Slow Time Machine
Willis,Connie-Firewatch
Wolfe,Gene-Book of Days
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 11:41:30 GMT -5
Finished The Best Of Harry Harrison.A solid,entertaining read.Not a bad story in the bunch and a few that were great. 20 short stories from 1962-1974. Intro by Barry Malzberg and each story gets an intro by the author.Some highlites include
Streets of Ashkelon-a missionary arrives on a planet to teach the natives the Bible
I Always Do What Teddy Says-Teddy Bears teach all children how to behave with one exception
Not Me Not Amos Cabot-When your old and its time to die you get an automatic subscription to Hereafter Magazine
A Criminal Act-Assassins assigned to kill the parent with more than 2 children
Waiting Place-A new type of prison
Brave Newer World-How should scientists decide which genes remain in the human population
Roommates-Life in an overpopulated city
Harry Harrison deserves his Grandmaster status 8 of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 11:42:41 GMT -5
Collision Course aka Collision With Chronus- 1973- Barrington J. Bayley- Daw Books First time reading anything from this author and couldn't even find a picture of the book I own on the internet.An English author,collaborator with Michael Moorcock and frequent contributor to New Worlds magazine.Classified as a New Wave author,he passed away in 2008 The book is written in the John Campbell style-Big SF ideas,big SF problem with characterization at a minimum.There are two themes in this novel. The first deals with race relations. In the far future,The Titans rule Earth, They are blond haired,blue eyed believers of racial purity not unlike the nazi point of view. Other races are either on reservations or had left earth a long time in the past The main theme is about the essence of time itself which Barrington writes clearly (no headaches for me Wildfire) and has some interesting ideas. First he posits that "now" is the only moment that has consciousness or,in essence,life.If you go into the past you would only find the empty husks of past beings going thru the motions.You can't change the past. Going to the future would only find complete emptiness-a placeholder until its time comes. "Nows" are local.In other parts of the universe it could reside a day in the future and therefore you would never notice it. "Nows" could also exist in the far future. In the novel,it is discovered that a future "Now' is hundreds of years ahead of ours and is travelling backwards. The Collision Course of the title is the two "nows" meeting and the end of all existence for earth Can this Collision Couse be avoided? Will the Titans and their repressive,racist government maintain its position? I enjoyed reading this book,it didn't bog down,Barrington threw some twists and turns to keep things interesting.Its drawback was the lack of characterization.7 out of 10 stars
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 11:44:09 GMT -5
The book I'm currently reading  I didn't mean to read another PDK book so soon but I found this treasure in one of my boxes. Its a 1957 paperback (love the 35 cent price) and has 5 novelettes- The Variable Man.Minority Report,Second Variety,Autofac and A World Of Talent. Cover by Emsh aka Ed Emshwiller who had drawn numerous magazine and paperback cover illustrations. According to the preface, this is the 1st collection of stories by PDK to be published in the US (an earlier short story collection was published in the UK). This book came out in the 5th year of Dick's writing career and he was already extremely prolific with 5 novels already published and, as the introduction notes, in his 2nd year he had 28 stories published within 17 different magazines The Variable Man takes place 100 years from now, Earth is ready to go to war with an old,fading Centaurean empire. Earth's super-computer finally claims the Earth would be the odds-on favorite to win. But an accident causes a man from 1913 to jump forward to this time period and now the computers refuse to calculate if Earth will win its war.Find Thomas Cole,the time displaced Variable Man,and do ....something |
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Post by Jesse on May 2, 2014 17:55:46 GMT -5
 One of my favorite short story collections is They Came From Outer Space: 12 Classic Science Fiction Tales That Became Major Motion Pictures which has an introduction by Ray Bradbury. I highly recommend this if you're a science fiction fan. Bradbury's intro titled "The Turkey That Attacked New York" describes how his short "The Fog Horn" was turned into the movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953), a film which he personally was not too happy with. A few other short stories included are "Who Goes There" by John W. Campbell, Jr. which was turned into The Thing from Another World (1951), remade into John Carpenter's The Thing (1982) and more recently The Thing (2011). Harry Bates' "Farewell to the Master" which was adapted into The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), I actually prefer this short story to either film versions. "The Alien Machine" by Raymond F. Jones filmed as This Island Earth (1955) and "A Boy And His Dog" by Harlan Ellison are also featured. A cool feature to this book is that is shows behind the scenes pictures from movie sets like The Fly (1958) with Vincent Price and Death Race 2000 (1975) with Sylvester Stallone. My favorite picture features a candid moment between one of my favorite science fiction authors and one of my favorite directors. Arthur C. Clarke's "The Sentinel" was eventually developed into 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).  |
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Post by coke & comics on May 2, 2014 18:14:57 GMT -5
The Essential Ellison has a bit too much for me, but it includes all his short stories. And many are such great classics. "Repent Harlequin Cried the Tick Tock Man" and all that.
The Past Through Tomorrow is my favorite collection of Heinlein stories which together present a vision of the future. The Man Who Sold the Moon is in that collection and one of my favorite sci/fi stories ever.
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Post by Jesse on May 2, 2014 18:31:28 GMT -5
 Recently finished reading the Roger Zelazny anthology The Last Defender Of Camelot which I really enjoyed. This collection includes both science fiction and fantasy stories. Zelazny gives a brief introduction to each short story and there are some great ones including The Stainless Steel Leech, The Engine at Heartspring's Center, Is There a Demon Lover in the House? and The Game Of Blood and Dust among others. My favorite story is the novelette For A Breath I Tarry. It's set in a future after the extinction of human beings where after contemplating the differences between Man and Machine one of the sentient machines decides he wants to actually become a man. This is an incredible story with a great ending and could make an equally good CGI film. The novelette Damnation Alley features an ex biker who must go on a cross country ride through radioactive post apocalypse America to deliver a plague cure from California to Boston. Zelazny mentions that he had written this after reading Hunter S. Thompson's Hell's Angels. He also mentions it was later adapted into a book which was adapted into a film. This is one of the best action adventure stories I've read in awhile. Another of the novelettes featured that I find interesting He Who Shapes about a future where the protagonist, Charles Render, a neuroparticipant therapist has the ability to go into people's consciousness using a machine. It reminded me of Christopher Nolan's Inception. Of course this story was written in the 1960s, 30 years before the film was made. The short story the collection is named after The Last Defender of Camelot is about Lancelot who has lived for 200 years after the fall of Camelot. After helping to awaken a half mad Merlin he must stop the wizard to save the world. This is a really entertaining story and the reason I picked up this collection in the first place. In the short A Thing of Terrible Beauty an alien parasite has a conversation with his human host as the world is about to be destroyed. The man walks over to his record collection pulls out Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain, starts to play the song Saeta and says "I've always maintained that it is music for the last hour of Earth. If Gabriel doesn't show up, this will do." |
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Post by thecolortechnic on May 2, 2014 19:14:20 GMT -5
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Post by Jasoomian on May 2, 2014 19:22:40 GMT -5
I thought this was going to be about short comic-book stories.
Maybe this should be merged with the "novel" thread for one SF prose thread?
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Post by Jesse on May 2, 2014 19:49:59 GMT -5
 I'm not a big fan of magic but this one caught my eye because Isaac Asimov's name is real big on the cover. This collection is called Witches: Isaac Asimov's Magical Worlds of Fantasy #2. I recommend picking it up just for the Poul Anderson story Operation Salamander. It's a very fun story set in a world where magic is basically science and a fire elemental terrorizes a town. There is also a very good Robert Bloch story called Sweets to the Sweet which is super creepy. It also contains stories by A. E. van Vogt, Andre Norton, and one of my particular favoritess by Rufus King called Malice in Wonderland. Definitely check this collection out if you are a fan of magic or Asimov. I thought this was going to be about short comic-book stories. Maybe this should be merged with the "novel" thread for one SF prose thread? I actually plan to talk about a lot of short stories that aren't science fiction (maybe I should have started with one). Currently I'm half way through reading the collection Charles Dickens' Best Stories for example. |
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Post by Ish Kabbible on May 2, 2014 20:14:23 GMT -5
Yeah,the SF and fantasy short story collections should be merged with the other SF thread.You see,when Wildfire created the SF novel thread awhile back he was upfront in acknowledging his aversion to the short story format. He might be slowly coming around but regardless, the SF discussion dosn't have to be broken between the two
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Post by Jesse on May 2, 2014 20:53:45 GMT -5
 Is anyone familiar with the western short stories by Robert E. Howard? I am having trouble finding the other stories that feature the main character from the short story Meet Cap'n Kidd. It appears in the collection Swordsmen and Supermen along with stories by Jean D'Esme, Darrel Crombie and Arthur D. Howden Smith. My favorite is the last story called How Sargoth Lay Siege to Zaremm by Lin Carter. Yeah,the SF and fantasy short story collections should be merged with the other SF thread.You see,when Wildfire created the SF novel thread awhile back he was upfront in acknowledging his aversion to the short story format. He might be slowly coming around but regardless, the SF discussion dosn't have to be broken between the two If there are no objections I'm okay with merging the threads as long as I can post about stories that aren't science fiction / fantasy like westerns, horror, slice of life, etc. Maybe change the name to be more all encompassing, books, reviews, notes what ever you're reading kind of thing. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on May 2, 2014 21:10:38 GMT -5
Yeah,the SF and fantasy short story collections should be merged with the other SF thread.You see,when Wildfire created the SF novel thread awhile back he was upfront in acknowledging his aversion to the short story format. He might be slowly coming around but regardless, the SF discussion dosn't have to be broken between the two I have indeed some around a bit.  I've got no problem posting this stuff in there, or keeping in separate, as you like. I'm not big on protocol, if you want to post westerns, go for it. I like Westerns Most Horror can be loosely called sci fi anyway  |
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Post by benday-dot on May 2, 2014 21:52:27 GMT -5
If you can include non-genre works, and at the risk of appearing a snob, my favourite short story writers are Alice Munro, Borges, Raymond Carver, James Salter and E.L. Doctorow.
Of course I also love the pulps (Lovecraft and REH) and guys like Machen, Poe, Dunsany and Blackwood.
I must say I'm really not a fan of sci-fi literature, short or novel length.
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