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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 16, 2017 11:50:13 GMT -5
I figured I'd drop this one here, as it's as an appropriate a place as any. Galaxy Magazine has found its way onto the Internet Archive. If you look at the first issue it is an absolute all-star line-up of Clifford Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, Fritz Leiber, Fredric Brown and Isaac Asimov. |
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Post by Jesse on Jul 16, 2017 13:56:43 GMT -5
A couple of years ago the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End was adapted into a 3 episode TV miniseries that aired on Syfy. Charles Dance played the main alien and actually wore a pretty cool looking special effects makeup for the part.
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Post by berkley on Jul 17, 2017 23:48:14 GMT -5
I mentioned this the other day as something I had coming form the library, but I got it in my hands this morning and have been flipping through it and have been blown away so far at how in depth and broad this book's survey of sci-fi is... The Sci-Fi Chronicles: A Visual History of the Glaxy's Greatest Science Fiction edited by Guy Haley, there is a look inside preview of this on Amazon for anyone who wants to preview it. The book is broken down into chapters by era-from Frankenstein in 1818 through things like Avatar and Hunger Games from this era. Lavishly illustrated with lots of timelines and infographs to put works in context of each other. There are entries form everything form the Batman and Superman universes for comics fan to things like Perry Rhadan, Verne, Wells, Lovecraft, big franchises like Doctor Who, Trek, Star Wars, PotA to writers like Alfred Bester or Robert Silverberg to publications like Astounding Stores and on and one. It is perhaps one of the most comprehensive all-in-one guides to the genre is all its myriad mediums that I've seen, and published in 2014, it includes a lot of contemporary stuff as well as the classics. I haven't read much of it in depth yet, just skimmed through it, but many of the suggestions here are covered in it and anyone looking fro a guide to sci-fi should check this out. -M I might get this, but I was disappointed to see that RA Lafferty wasn't listed in the index. I would have thought he was well-known enough to rate an entry in any SF overview, but maybe I'm overestimating his prominence within the field. I know they can't include everyone and everything if they're covering movies and other media in addition to literature. Still, it was enough of a surprise that I'm not sure I want to spring for it now. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 19, 2017 0:07:24 GMT -5
A couple of years ago the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End was adapted into a 3 episode TV miniseries that aired on Syfy. Charles Dance played the main alien and actually wore a pretty cool looking special effects makeup for the part. I'm curious but at the same time apprehensive, since the book is an old favourite and I'd hate to see it done poorly. I image-searched Dance as the alien and the make-up/SE didn't look bad, maybe a little flashier than I would have imagined, but still not bad. |
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Post by LovesGilKane on Jul 19, 2017 1:34:14 GMT -5
Although 'manga', Akira is good sci-fi. And thankfully the art is anti-Bagley/Allred, hah.
for 60's sci-fi films, excusing their limitations, 'Queen of Blood' is a wonderful passtime.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 19, 2017 9:16:19 GMT -5
Although 'manga', Akira is good sci-fi. I was really hooked on that series. I couldn't believe the amount of work Otomo put into each page. |
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Post by badwolf on Jul 19, 2017 10:10:43 GMT -5
There's a huge hardcover box set of Akira coming out in October.
I remember not really being into it when Marvel Epic published it here, but I love the film and I think I do want to give the manga another try.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 20, 2017 16:12:40 GMT -5
Slam Bradley's must read SF from the 1950s.
Different rules. No way I could cut this to ten works. I could triple the list below and every work would still be essential. And I can't keep it to one per author. Well I could...but I won't.
A Canticle For Leibowtitz - Walter Miller, Jr. Post-apocalyptic monks work to save scientific knowledge.
A Case of Conscience - James Blish. Jesuit's faith is shaken by aliens. Blish presages the New Wave.
Caves of Steel - Isaac Asimov. Asimov fuses mystery and SF in a great book.
Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clark. Alien invasion with a twist.
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham. I've heard this described as a "cozy" apocalypse. It does have British sensibilities. But it's a great read.
Demolished Man - Alfred Bester. I'm the guy who likes this better than The Stars My Destination. Bester wrote two of the best SF novels ever in the 50s.
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury. My all-time favorite book. Bradbury meditates on media saturation and censorship.
"Flowers For Algernon" - Daniel Keyes. The original short story is as beautiful and powerful as SF can be.
I Am Legend - Richard Matheson. For me, this is more about influence, because I only kind of like it. But the influence is enormous.
"The Lovers" - Philip Jose Farmer. The original short story was a decade ahead of its time.
Mission of Gravity - Hal Clement. The very hardest of hard SF. Not about the writing, but the science and world-building.
More Than Human - Theodore Sturgeon. The X-Men a decade before the X-Men.
Sirens of Titan - Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut started out as an SF writer. This is a serious look at issues of free will.
The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester. Bester's other masterpiece.
Starship Troopers - Robert Heinlein. I could put a half dozen Heinlein pieces on as essential 50s SF. But this is a milestone in military SF.
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Post by berkley on Jul 21, 2017 23:03:57 GMT -5
I loved the mini-series Ascension on Netflix. Its 1950s vibe is uncommon nowadays and the plot really keeps you guessing. Re-reading the first dozen Perry Rhodan books a few years back was a guilty but very real pleasure. It's mindless space opera not pretending to be anything else than pure escapism, but it is full of ideas and has a very brisk pace. The movie Ex machina (also on Netflix) has to be seen if you haven't already. Real SF instead of space fantasy! Comic-book wise, I would try Twilight if you haven't already, by Chaykin and Garcia Lopez. A reinterpretation of DC comics' old SF heroes, in an iconoclastic Chaykin vein. I've probably asked you this before, but did you read those in French? And if so, are they easy to find nowadays? I used to see the English Perry Rhodan paperbacks around all the time back in the 70s but rarely come across them now. |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 22, 2017 6:34:24 GMT -5
I loved the mini-series Ascension on Netflix. Its 1950s vibe is uncommon nowadays and the plot really keeps you guessing. Re-reading the first dozen Perry Rhodan books a few years back was a guilty but very real pleasure. It's mindless space opera not pretending to be anything else than pure escapism, but it is full of ideas and has a very brisk pace. The movie Ex machina (also on Netflix) has to be seen if you haven't already. Real SF instead of space fantasy! Comic-book wise, I would try Twilight if you haven't already, by Chaykin and Garcia Lopez. A reinterpretation of DC comics' old SF heroes, in an iconoclastic Chaykin vein. I've probably asked you this before, but did you read those in French? And if so, are they easy to find nowadays? I used to see the English Perry Rhodan paperbacks around all the time back in the 70s but rarely come across them now. Mostly in French, some in German (they're kept in print in German). The French editions seem to have become collector's items over the year, just like comics. We can usually find several of them at ant second-hand bookstores for a dollar or so, but online they can reach ridiculous prices. I admit I'm surprised. It's like finding Star Trek novels going for twenty bucks. |
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Post by berkley on Jul 22, 2017 8:18:14 GMT -5
I've probably asked you this before, but did you read those in French? And if so, are they easy to find nowadays? I used to see the English Perry Rhodan paperbacks around all the time back in the 70s but rarely come across them now. Mostly in French, some in German (they're kept in print in German). The French editions seem to have become collector's items over the year, just like comics. We can usually find several of them at ant second-hand bookstores for a dollar or so, but online they can reach ridiculous prices. I admit I'm surprised. It's like finding Star Trek novels going for twenty bucks. Yes, when I see the English books at a second-hand bookstore they are cheap but I don't see them very often. Haven't tried looking online yet. And I think you recommended reading them in order, did you not? Or is it OK to jump around? |
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Post by Luis H. Reina on Jul 22, 2017 8:26:31 GMT -5
For a very interesting take on humanity's distant future and our relationship with AIs, I highly recommend John C. Wright's The Golden Oecumene trilogy, which includes: -The Golden Age -The Phoenix Exultant -The Golden Transcendence Very original ideas, an engaging plot and well developed characters. He keeps away from most stereotypes and delivers a truly enjoyable read.  |
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Jul 22, 2017 8:46:22 GMT -5
Mostly in French, some in German (they're kept in print in German). The French editions seem to have become collector's items over the year, just like comics. We can usually find several of them at ant second-hand bookstores for a dollar or so, but online they can reach ridiculous prices. I admit I'm surprised. It's like finding Star Trek novels going for twenty bucks. Yes, when I see the English books at a second-hand bookstore they are cheap but I don't see them very often. Haven't tried looking online yet. And I think you recommended reading them in order, did you not? Or is it OK to jump around? The series is divided in arcs, and although one can start with any of these arcs, I'd really read each of them in order... at "jumping on points", as they say for comic-books. The very first arc remains my favourite. It's unapologetically all over the place, but with a wonderful enthusiasm for the classic tropes of space opera. In just the first eight books, we have the first moon landing, the encounter on our satellite of a marooned alien ship, the use of alien technology to create on Earth a new, non-aligned nation meant to unite the hostile factions(the US, China and Russia) against a "common enemy", the first aborted nuclear war, the creation of a mutant militia meant to protect the world, an attempted invasion by mind-controling space insects, the first interstellar voyage by humans (on an alien scout ship, but still), a first conflict with a lizard-like species in the Vega system, the capture of an alien space cruiser, the quest for an alien being supposedly able to grant immortality, and the development of Earth as a fledgling space nation. Whew! There's a tremendous sense of fun about these books, even if they're clearly not by Heinlein, Clark, Asimov or Herbert. They're all about pulpy adventure. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jul 22, 2017 10:08:06 GMT -5
Mostly in French, some in German (they're kept in print in German). The French editions seem to have become collector's items over the year, just like comics. We can usually find several of them at ant second-hand bookstores for a dollar or so, but online they can reach ridiculous prices. I admit I'm surprised. It's like finding Star Trek novels going for twenty bucks. Yes, when I see the English books at a second-hand bookstore they are cheap but I don't see them very often. Haven't tried looking online yet. And I think you recommended reading them in order, did you not? Or is it OK to jump around? Interesting. I've never looked for them or even read any of them. But I remember shelves of them at the used bookstores when I used to haunt them. I never bought any, but I noted them. I was busy looking for Doc Savage books. |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 22, 2017 17:47:21 GMT -5
I watched the documentary Jodorowsky's Dune this afternoon, detailing his failed attempt to make a Dune film in the early/mid-70s. Most of the principals appear in the documentary (Jodo, Giger, Foss, etc. except for Moebius, who had passed before the doc was made. O'Bannon's appearance was an audio interview done before he passed about Dune but was not done specifically for this documentary). The behind the curtain glimpse is interesting, the design and art work is amazing, the cast would have been amazing...Orson Welles as Baron Harkonnen, Dali as the Emperor!...but Jodo took a lot of liberties with the story, radically changing it (and not necessarily for the better from what I could tell). Still, I would love to own one of those giant tomes that contained all the storyboards by Moebius and design work by Foss, Giger and others.
If you like behind the scenes looks at the creative process, like Dune or Meobius or Giger or any of the principals involved, it is well worth checking out.
-M
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