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Post by berkley on Oct 13, 2014 16:57:12 GMT -5
Huh. And I've never even heard of these Ryre stories. I never heard of them either until I skimmed through the wiki article the other day when Campbell's name came up here in the thread. Iǜe seent hat William Tenn collection Ish posted in a used bookstore around here. Never picked it up because I don't know much about Tenn, but now, after reading Ish's review, I wish I'd bought it. Wonder if it's still there... Those NESFA books look good. Very tempted to order one or two from their website, but trying to hold out for now.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 13, 2014 17:02:40 GMT -5
Huh. And I've never even heard of these Ryre stories. I never heard of them either until I skimmed through the wiki article the other day when Campbell's name came up here in the thread. Iǜe seent hat William Tenn collection Ish posted in a used bookstore around here. Never picked it up because I don't know much about Tenn, but now, after reading Ish's review, I wish I'd bought it. Wonder if it's still there... Those NESFA books look good. Very tempted to order one or two from their website, but trying to hold out for now. A lot of the NESFA books are available on Amazon Marketplace for a pretty decent price.
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Post by berkley on Oct 14, 2014 14:47:43 GMT -5
I never heard of them either until I skimmed through the wiki article the other day when Campbell's name came up here in the thread. Iǜe seent hat William Tenn collection Ish posted in a used bookstore around here. Never picked it up because I don't know much about Tenn, but now, after reading Ish's review, I wish I'd bought it. Wonder if it's still there... Those NESFA books look good. Very tempted to order one or two from their website, but trying to hold out for now. A lot of the NESFA books are available on Amazon Marketplace for a pretty decent price. Ah, thanks. Good to know. About half-way through Heavy Weather, one of PG Wodehouse's Blandings Castle books. These things are so much fun.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 18:05:41 GMT -5
Offhand, I think the only NESFA collection I've come across (courtesy of the North Little Rock public library back in the late '80s) was by Fredric Brown -- And the Gods Laughed.
Except that apparently that was done by Phantasia Press instead.
Oops.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 18:12:07 GMT -5
It's no secret that I read very few sf writers from basically 1980-on, but apparently one exception is going to be a guy named Daryl Gregory. Got in 2 novels & a short-story collection from him via AbeBooks & Amazon Marketplace just a couple of weeks ago. Looking forward to dipping into them -- especially The Devil's Alphabet, of which I've read the first 20 pages or so -- though of course various library books that I've got out right now (including Ramsey Campbell's aforementioned The Grin of the Dark) take precedence. I've read the first 15 pages or so of one of them, The Devil's Alphabet.
Can't remember if I've mentioned him before, but his first novel, Pandemonium, impressed me deeply back in 2008, not least because one of the characters is PKD, or PKD as Valis, or maybe Valis as PKD, or ... something like that.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 14, 2014 18:20:26 GMT -5
Speaking of library books, I've been meaning to ask if anyone here has ever encountered an author named Megan Abbott, who apparently started out in 2005 writing noir-styled novels with female leads. Her last 3 works have marked a drastic departure into, for lack of a better description, edgy YA territory. Since they're the only things of hers on the local library shelves, I read all 3 -- The End of Everything, Dare Me &, released this year, The Fever -- over the last month or so & was quite impressed.
Got in used copies a just a couple of weeks ago of 2 of her 4 noirs, having pulled that trigger because these in particular are based on a couple of true-crime cases I find intriguing -- the unsolved 1949 murder of a would-be Hollywood starlet named Jean Spangler (Kurt Douglas, with whom I think she'd appeared in a movie, though her role was very minor, was a possible suspect), & also the 1931 Winnie Ruth Judd "trunk murder" case in Phoenix.
I'd completely forgotten about the Spangler case till I read a synopsis of Abbott's novel, Bury Me Deep, on Wikipedia; I'm not even certain I'd heard of it before, but surely I came across some references to it in the couple of books on the vaguely comparable Black Dahlia case I've read in recent years.
The Judd case I remember my mother mentioning to me decades ago, & back in the late '90s I read a library book on it by a former reporter for the New Times in Phoenix, the underground-paper-turned-alternative-weekly I wrote a history of for a class at ASU & wound up winning a few hundred bucks for as best paper of the year in the history department. (The fact that, IIRC, it was also the only entry in that competition probably had something to do with that.)
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 14, 2014 22:34:18 GMT -5
I've note heard of Megan Abbott, but it sounds intriguing, I'll have to ask my 14 year old about her, she and her buddies are experts on semi-edgy YA fiction
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 15, 2014 22:11:05 GMT -5
Speaking of YA fiction, I read the last Percy Jackson book today 'Heroes of Olympus'..of which my daughter is a big fan.
It was a decent ending, though a bit disappointing in the ease in which the good guys won, and that they all lived happily ever after, but that's often YA fiction for you. I do appreciate the series for bringing classic mythology to the next generation, at least, and it defintely had it's moments.
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Post by berkley on Oct 16, 2014 2:00:05 GMT -5
Speaking of YA fiction, I read the last Percy Jackson book today 'Heroes of Olympus'..of which my daughter is a big fan. It was a decent ending, though a bit disappointing in the ease in which the good guys won, and that they all lived happily ever after, but that's often YA fiction for you. I do appreciate the series for bringing classic mythology to the next generation, at least, and it defintely had it's moments. My interest is always attracted to anything related to mythology in general and Greek mythology in particular, as, like most people of western culture, it's the one that I encountered earliest, apart from the Judaeo-Christian - which of course isn't presented to us as myth. So I've had a look at the Percy Jackson series - basically read a few reviews online and skimmed a few pages in the bookstore. That was enough to persuade me that it wasn't for me, though it's always possible I haven't given it enough of a chance. Your daughter might be interested in another Greek-myth-derived YA series that I just heard about today in a promotional email from Goodreads: The Goddess War series by one Kendare Blake. From what I can tell after looking at the Goodreads page, this one doesn't appear to be any more to my taste than the Percy Jackson, but then of course, I'm not the part of the audience it's meant for.
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 16, 2014 7:27:36 GMT -5
I'll have to check that out... thanks. The Percy Jackson books are definitely clearly written for the 10-16 crowd, so if you can't get into (or overlook) that, you probably won't enjoy them. I found them good for what they were, and good for daddy-daughter bonding... the parade of Hunger Games rip offs (which, of course, itself is a rip off of Battle Royale), I just can't get through
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 16, 2014 20:16:04 GMT -5
Lots of reading time today... back to Dick Francis with Whip Hand one of the books with his (AFAIK) only recurring character, Sid Malley. It seemed a little TOO much was piled on the good guys in this one, but a fun read with a surprising (to me) twist at the end that made total sense.
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Post by MDG on Oct 17, 2014 11:17:26 GMT -5
I've note heard of Megan Abbott, but it sounds intriguing, I'll have to ask my 14 year old about her, she and her buddies are experts on semi-edgy YA fiction I saw Megan Abbott at Eastman House a couple of times introducing films, and, based on that, read a couple of her mysteries.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2014 16:17:30 GMT -5
I'm presuming the films were noirs, MDG?
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Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 17, 2014 22:00:25 GMT -5
Snow White and the Giants Avon (1968).. from a serialized story (1966-1967) JT McIntosh I'm still trying to figure out if I liked this book or not. It definitely is thought provoking. Val Mather is an insurance big wig in a sleepy old English town, when a strikingly beautiful woman and her retinue of nearly perfect men visit for reasons unknown. It's quickly revealed they are time travellers, and they've come from the 'present' to alter their world. There's ALOT to take in here.. the book starts out with the main character as pretty throughly unlikeable, and his friend moreso, but as the story goes on it turns out he's a pretty good guy, they just lay on the 60s manly ideal a little too heavy. The time travel here REALLY makes my head hurt.. the people from the future have little reset buttons that let them go back a couple minutes if something bad happens, which they can use to stop bad things (even death) from happening, though they still remember it happened. There's alot of talk about what would effect things alot, or a little, and changes happen during the story that effect the characters, though they know things changed somehow, shouldn't they not? The ending was the best one I've read in quite a few books, both surprising and interesting, while leaving room for more (though I don't think that happened).
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Post by Jesse on Oct 19, 2014 16:15:49 GMT -5
Ultimate Worldby Hugo Gernsback One of his few novels and while it's not his best work by any means, it may be worth checking out for those interested in his writings. Ultimate World depicts an alien invasion and the consequences it has on the human race. The aliens, who the humans name Xenos, are so advanced that the human race is utterly helpless against them however the Xenos are not hostile. Gernback remains strangely optimistic when it becomes clear the invaders are a scientific research expedition and their presence may be beneficial to the human race. The main characters, Dr. Dubious and his wife who we first experience the alien phenomenon with, lack any real characterization. They are merely the eyes from which we first see events unfold. Included are a plethora of fantastic inventions many of which exist is some form today. A trait the writing of Gernback is well known for. Another notable attribute common in his writing is sex, or the study of, which is also featured here including descriptions of sex in zero gravity. The Xenos begin abducting couples and force breeding them, using their genetic material to create an evolved race of super genius children who are vehemently anti war. The story climaxes when the Xenos are met by a rival and hostile alien race. Here's a better look the Frank R. Paul wrap around cover artwork depicting the 10-Balls and the rival Spike-balls.
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