BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 25 - 09:09 PM

My favorite Twilight Zone episode that applies today is 'The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street'.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 25 - 11:31 AM

The last most compelling sci-fi films to me were Annihilation about an intelligent cancer lifeform and Arrival about communication with a different time concept species.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 11 May 25 - 11:06 AM

It seems to me that Isaac Asimov was the most prolific sci-fi author.
He may not be done yet. An AI Asimov could appear. After all there is now an official Agatha Christie AI.

We don't believe AI/robots don't dream but they sure can hallucinate.
Perhaps they are short on sleep and need restful dream time to dream of electric sheep.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 11 May 25 - 01:19 AM

Thanks Rain Dog, I thought it was Callan because I remember seeing the scene a lot.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Rain Dog
Date: 11 May 25 - 12:32 AM

"Was the swinging lightbulb opening scene from Callan and not The Equalizer?"

It was Callan.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 10 May 25 - 07:46 PM

I looked up Edward Woodward on IMDB and Callan was in 1974.

Regarding TV shows, I left home to live in a shared student house in early 1974 and didn't have a TV until about 3 or more years later in a different shared house. We rented a black & white TV because two of us were desperate to watch Dr Who. (Is that a sad indictment on both of us or a badge of honour? LOL)

We couldn't afford to rent a colour TV so B&W was better than none.

I had been watching Dr Who since it started, when I lived at home. We had a TV from 1964 as I recall and my sis and I used to watch Dr Who starring William Hartnell after school.

Another B&W sci-fi TV show I used to watch back then was The Outer Limits and I have a vague recollection that there was a spin-off series with a different name but it wasn't The Twilight Zone because that wasn't on TV in our region back then.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 10 May 25 - 07:28 PM

MaJoC and SRS, I don't remember the Edward Woodward series The Equalizer but I do remember him in the brilliant series called Callan from way, way back in the mid '70's. Was the swinging lightbulb opening scene from Callan and not The Equalizer?

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 10 May 25 - 05:20 PM

Good grief: the original Equaliser series. To this day, a swinging lightbulb reminds me of the intro-credits sequence so forcibly that I find myself having to stop the bulb swinging (before it's shot). But that's all I remember about the series.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 May 25 - 07:04 PM

Some years back Tolkien fan/singer/songwriter/comedian Martin Pearson created a fantastic show - The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien is a lovingly irreverent re-telling of The Lord of the Rings, interspersed with songs. The story sections tend to switch among pointing out the logical inconsistencies and plot holes of the story, highlighting the differences between the book and the movie, and sometimes just careering off the rails, depending on what is funniest at the time.

The Unfinished Spelling Errors of Bolkien - listen here - My favourite of all the songs is The Loo Break Song which I started singing in my head sometime after I left a very hot venue early & was waiting for my friends to come out. When the doors opened, the stairs were packed & the lifts emptied disgorging more fans, all heading/racing to the loos.

sandra


I originally typed TOLKEIN a common version of the author's name!

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 25 - 04:38 PM

Helen, that Equalizer is a remake of a several of decades old program (I haven't watched either one.) The earlier one starred the British actor Edward Woodward.

A lot of the popular novels we've mentioned here have associated "Wikis" or online fan sites for sorting out the minutiae of the books and or the films that follow. (For example, Lord of the Rings). Wikipedia has a lot of synopses of novels and bibliographies for authors. The site I use when I'm trying to read a particular author's books in order is Fantastic Fiction. It also gives you the altered names from different printings or publishers in various countries. I just pulled up JRR Tolkien. Wow. That's a kettle of fish - it looks like the family has harvested a lot of his earliest writings to edit and publish.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 07 May 25 - 04:04 PM

sciencegeek, I agree about the UK shows with "cogent writing that is often witty and tongue in cheek".

Sorry to go off-topic here:

One of my favourite scenes ever is in Death in Paradise where a one-off character is played by one of the regular actors from the long-running TV show Spooks (aka MI5). I don't think it was Keeley Hawes, but it was a blonde female actor whose name escapes me.

In Death in P, they throw in a straight-faced one-liner with the detective saying something like "she would have to work for MI5 to make a shot in the dark like that". It's a UK in-joke about the actor's other work. How the detective kept a straight face saying that line is beyond me, but I'm guessing there were a lot of out-takes because the whole cast and crew would have cracked up laughing.

SRS, Ursula Le Guin's books are fairly short, but the plots and characters are so well thought out, and well written and there are good plot twists. They really are thought provoking but a good read.

One of the books I wrote the dissertation on was The Left Hand of Darkness, and the other one might have been The Dispossessed. (It was a lo-o-ong time ago.) I also loved the children's Earthsea trilogy beginning with The Wizard of Earthsea.

One of my recent discoveries on TV is a US action/crime series called The Equalizer starring Queen Latifah. Each episode is self-contained, the characters are well written and well played, the story lines are excellent and interesting, the actors and acting are excellent. It is on at midnight twice a week and I only discovered it by accident.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 25 - 11:53 AM

There are (or were) some witty American programs, but they're few and far between. As a kid I used to scour the fall TV Guide to see what was coming up in the new season, now I rarely watch live TV, it's usually just PBS for news and their programming. Several that ended a number of years ago include Elementary (there are some great one liners in there), on streaming Only Murders In the Building, and a few other mystery type programs. PBS just finished replaying the Sherlock series (Cumberbatch), and with the exception of the last agonizing episode, it was wonderful. I've read most of the Doyle Sherlock stories, but I didn't have any point of reference for that last episode. (Did anyone else?) Doyle is fiction but that episode seemed to stray into a fantasy realm.

I have yet to read any LeGuin, but I know she is very highly regarded. It's the old "there are only so many hours in the day" conundrum.

In 1970 there was a film made called Colossus: The Forbin Project. I heard about it, but back then there was no film on demand, no Blockbuster for VHS, etc., so I found the book Colossus by D.F. Jones. (From 1966; it was about an AI computer - see where this is going?) I did eventually see the film (a long time ago also, but I did order a copy I have here on DVD I need to watch again.) It's so long since I read the book I don't remember how it varied from the film, but both were excellent. And I see on GoodReads that there were three novels by Jones about Colossus and I've only read the first.

H.G. Wells War of the Worlds is a story told and retold many times. On the radio by Orson Wells with remarkable results; I haven't seen all of the versions but I particularly liked the Gene Barry version from 1953 (his sidekick was a librarian, and that actress could scream - that may be why she got the role.) And the more recent telling in Independence Day.   

One author you may not have thought of for fantasy, or at least dystopian fiction, is Louise Erdrich. She had one novel Future Home of the Living God that never said why the events were happening, but made the whole thing creepily plausible. That's a novel that stuck with me, I find myself considering aspects of it fairly often.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: sciencegeek
Date: 07 May 25 - 10:23 AM

LOL Helen... I'm addicted to Acorn and BBC because they some of the few places we can enjoy cogent writing that is often witty and tongue in cheek. It's been a decade since I've found worthwhile programing on American TV because I find car crashing gun wielding chase scenes boring and intolerable. Video games on steroids with sponsors selling crap I would never buy.

Getting bitchy at 74 I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 07 May 25 - 03:08 AM

SRS, I did read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? back in 1978 when I was studying Eng Lit and there was a sci-fi and fantasy subject unit. At that stage I hadn't seen the Bladerunner movie - which became one of my fave movies of all time.

I have tried a couple of times to re-read the book but it's difficult to keep it separated in my head from the movie, and the book moves very, very slowly through its plot, themes and character reveals. One day I might manage to read it again.

I used to read mostly sci-fi and fantasy back in the day, but then I drifted to other genres and now - very strangely for an ex-librarian/Eng Lit grad/book addict I tend to read very little and watch TV series a lot, mostly UK crime series. Very weird! Maybe I was abducted by aliens and I'm living on another planet and don't know it.

I was introduced to Ursula Le Guin's novels in the Eng Lit course too and she became one of my favourite authors. I wrote my Honours year final dissertation on two of her novels.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 07 May 25 - 12:04 AM

Last week I borrowed a classic from the Library - Robert Heinlein - The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. I just did a google search, the first result is a English language version of the book, the following 9 are foreign sites & versions??? I had expected to get Good Reads or similar English language sites, like Amazon, or Abe Books ... Tho there are 4 bookshop/online sponsored sites!

Now I know why - I missed this line - Tip: Show results in English. You can also learn more about filtering by language.

Well, I never, I didn't know one could filter - especially filter by language. Must be yet another example of AI, sigh, but maybe it's cos one of the main characters is a computer that develops consciousness, hmmm

It's a great book, published in 1966 & might have been mentioned in the past but I've not re-read the thread.

sandra

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: sciencegeek
Date: 06 May 25 - 08:50 PM

I grew up reading SF and never really quit, though I get bored with space opera and the fantasy series that read like the perils of Pauline rather than investigating interesting possibilities...

FYI Ray Bradbury worked on the screenplay for Moby Dick back ~ 1950 and it is still my favorite film version.

Try some Mack Reynold, Hal Clement, Clifford D Simak and Ted Sturgeon who did some great stuff ... I haunted old thrift book stores to track down affordable paperbacks

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 May 25 - 02:48 PM

Have you ever read any Ray Bradbury?

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 06 May 25 - 01:26 PM

Science Fiction: I see a man going for an intergalactive cruise inside his own head by reading of a man going for an intergalactic cruise in his office.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Apr 25 - 11:53 AM

I could never get through Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. It may simply have been the wrong book at the wrong time.

Looking back through this thread, and will note that if you're only going to meet one SF writer, Donuel, Douglas Adams was a good one!

I picked up a couple of Octavia Butler books but haven't started any of them yet. Last year I reread Good Omens; there's always new stuff in it with each reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Apr 25 - 08:19 AM

In chapter 2, the President appoints the most primitive people to all the agencies and then deliberately crashes his richest country into inevitable third world status.

Fiction is fiction, but this isn't believable sci-fi.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 22 Apr 25 - 08:07 AM

I am reading about the richest man in the world being appointed by the US President to cut off all funding to the poorest, most desperate, starving children around the world while planning to go to Mars.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Rain Dog
Date: 22 Apr 25 - 12:21 AM

BBC Radio 4 Extra has the following series on this week

Changing Climates

"The meteorologist John Hammond explores how science fiction has long served as a barometer for our curiosity, awe, and growing anxiety about the changing climate. With expert insight from Sarah Dillon, Professor of Literature and the Public Humanities, and Professor of Human Geography Mike Hulme, we trace how fiction has captured - and sometimes predicted - the shifting relationship between people and the planet.

From E.M. Forster's chilling 'The Machine Stops' to J.G. Ballard's dystopic 'The Drowned World,' we also reside in the near-future realism of Patricia Cumper's 'Biomass.' These stories help us understand how writers imagined - and sometimes eerily anticipated - a world reshaped by climate."

It appears that each episode will be available for 30 days

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Aug 24 - 03:44 PM

And the following was posted after being performed at one of the 'filk' circles:

The Music of the Force
(To the tune of Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Music of the Night")

Slowly, gently,
stretch out with your feelings.
Close your visor,
eyes can be deceiving.
Let your instincts guide you,
the knowledge is inside you.
No longer are you bound by nature's laws,
for you have sensed the presence of the Force.

Though you're learning,
progress could be faster.
Seek out Yoda,
he will be your Master.
Don't judge by his size,
for you'll find he's very wise,
though it's vital that you do complete his course
of training in the usage of the Force.

For the Dark Side will tempt you in the coming days,
and you may learn some things that cause you pain.
For though all that I've said to you is true,
it depends on A Certain Point of View...

Jedi Knighthood takes complete devotion,
you must sever all ties of emotion;
friendships that you've had,
and the man who was your Dad,
and the Sister whom you kissed are now a source
of weakness in your mast'ry of the Force.

For the Emp'ror will use them to provoke your hate,
and your anger will bend you to his will.
To defeat him your mind must be at peace,
only then will his reign of terror cease.

Light Side, Dark Side,
Balanced now and equal.
Total victory - no need for a sequel!
Pass on what you've learned
and enjoy this peace you've earned.
Guard the galaxy from tyranny and wars.
And listen to the Music of the Force.

----------------

Please do feel free to share & perform. I'm not familiar with Filk traditions - this is my first WorldCon, so thank you all for being so welcoming!

Brian Cohen

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 11 Aug 24 - 03:43 PM

Worldcon Glasgow.
Last night was 'masquerade' (no, I didn't dress up).
Some photos are Here (on flickr)

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 11 Aug 24 - 07:33 AM

I don't know about gamers and fantasy-fiction afficionados, keb, but it sounds plausible. Many in certain parts of the programming trade have noted the high incidence of science-fiction fans in our ranks; after all, if you're building a new world inside the computer (which is essentially what creative programming can be), you'll be drawn to others' new worlds as well.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Aug 24 - 04:38 PM

The world of video games is a closed book to me, I don't play.
But I know some people who do;
and one of them confided to me that
gamers are often passionate about fantasy fiction.

Are there video game players here at Mudcat,
and is the above statement true, regarding fantasy fiction?

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Aug 24 - 06:18 PM

Amerigin.. I never knew of that. Is it fact or allegation?

Okay..I did a search and evidently it is mostly true. The scandal didn't break until 2014, and she died in 1999.
That she was lesbian doesn't surprise me after the many stories featuring women, but since most of my reading of her stuff was before 2014, I never heard of the scandal.

In my head I have to separate my enjoyment of the Darkover series from her personal life... but it sure is a shock.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Amergin
Date: 07 Aug 24 - 04:33 PM

Bill D, I don't think it would have been published as it is.

Most likely, it would have been self published...as would most of his works.

Hell, most of what we consider as classic science fiction and fantasy, would have a hard time finding publishers.

And some would be canceled and hopefully imprisoned for their crimes...like Marion Zimmer Bradley, who not only enabled her paedo husband, but took part.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Bill D
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 03:48 PM

As as a side remark, I discovered and am re-reading, in a pile of Sc-Fi as I was packing to move, an old copy of "Stranger in a Strange Land" by Heinlein. It was a cult classic back in the 60s, along with "The Harrad Experiment" by Robert Rimmer.. (NOT sci-fi)
   I must say, I see much more in it now, not all positive. Heinlein has always been a problem with many women, who considered him sexist.
It was certainly controversial and while I kinda like him poking holes in 'organized religion', but some plot devices are just for Heinlein, using Jubal Harshaw as his alter ego, to promote his ideas about society and culture. The plot suffers as he tries to justify the various divergent episodes.
   I can't begin to list and analyze all my concerns in a few paragraphs.. and I'm not sure what exactly I (<-u> think about some parts.
   I'm curious how it would be treated if published today.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Rain Dog
Date: 06 Aug 24 - 08:42 AM

Have a good time at Worldcon, Nigel.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 04 Aug 24 - 05:03 PM

DANGER: I used to quote HitchHiker by the quarter-hour, as Herself will attest. These days I've graduated to Discworld, but one of my favourite real-life incidents was:

When I was at Uni, my father sent me a cutting from the Grauniad, announcing that HHGthG was out in paperback. So I went to the bookshop on campus ....

Me: Do you have a copy of the HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy?
Assistant: I'm sorry, we don't sell travel books.

I was five yards out of the door before the penny dropped.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Neil D
Date: 03 Aug 24 - 08:14 AM

I thought there would be more mention of Douglas Adams. He's definitely the most amusing of all Sci-Fi writers. Perhaps he isn't taken seriously because of the humor, but let's not forget that Twain was a humorist AND the greatest American novelist. Most of us are familiar with Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series but his novels featuring Dirk Gently, Holistic Detective are equally great and feature my all-time favorite title for a book: "Long Dark Teatime of the Soul". How can you see that title and not want to pick it up and read it? He also did some writing for Dr. Who and hung out with the Monty Pythons. A real shame he died so young.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Ebbie
Date: 27 Jul 24 - 06:50 PM

Amergin 13 May 22 - 06:16 PM

The Road is one of only a few books that I won't lend out- I'm too afraid of never having it returned.

As you said, Amergin, McCarthy's writing is amazing and the situation he created is unforgettable.

A lesser writer at the end of the book would have inserted a single blade of green grass poking out of the ashy duff...

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 25 Jul 24 - 10:15 AM

And . . .
We're just a fortnight out from this year's Worldcon (World Science Fiction Convention). This year being held at the SECC in Glasgow
Glasgow 2024

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jul 24 - 09:36 PM

Update to my post of 1 January 2022:

the grand conclusion has been published to the
Janny Wurts series The Wars of Light and Shadow.

It is titled Song of the Mysteries.
It is the last of eleven books,
each of them as thick as a one-volume dictionary.

I was very happy with the conclusion to the series.
The five-hundred-year curse is finally broken;
the villains are either routed or driven to repent and change their ways;
the dragons are put in their place (no mean feat as they are big troublemakers);
the other magical creatures, like the centaurs, make a triumphant comeback;
and the sorely-put-upon humans get their happy ending.

You have to like reading long books one after the other to like this series,
but I recommend it to those who do.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 05:32 AM

robomatic> technobabble

Strictly speaking, if they were real engineers, what they would have been talking would have been hackish. Technobabble is spoken (loudly) by those who don't know what they're talking about, eg middle management. Technobabble is also the title of a book mentioned in the bibliography of The New Hacker's Dictionary, along with Stan Kelly-Bootle's book (now retitled The Computer Contradictionary).

And looping back to music, I didn't realise till much later that Stan K-B was one of the founding fathers of Cambridge's folk scene, as well as working in what we now call Computer Science, so he was fully entitled to write computer filk. But that's perhaps the subject of a separate thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 03:13 AM

My niece Emily is a language expert (she speaks several languages, including Japanese for some reason!)
Not long ago she announced that she now speaks Klingon. My sister and her are Startrek mad, the pair of them. My sister is madly in love with Mr Spock. (Isn't he the Vulcan one with the pointy ears?)

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: robomatic
Date: 05 Jun 22 - 06:18 PM

I experienced a sort of sci-fi/ technobabble/ fantasy repetitive experience for several yers in the early 80s. Whenever I was in a Chinese restaurant with others at the table, there was always a table within earshot with four engineers talking about computers. This went on for a few years, and resolved itself for good when I found myself AT THAT TABLE.

Meanwhile Mrrzy in honor of Lehrer and Von Braun:

"You too can be a big hero
Once you've learned to count down to zero
'In German or English, I know how to count down-
And I'm learning Chinese!'
Says Werner Von Braun"

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jun 22 - 07:29 PM

Author Janny Wurts,
who collaborates with Raymond Feist on occasion,
has just announced to her readers at her webpages
the completion of the final book in her series,
The Wars of Light and Shadow.
It's book number eleven, if I recall right.

Fantasy to the max, with dragons, unicorns, necromancers, oh, my.
People who don't like Janny Wurts's writing REALLY don't like her.
I believe that she is a bit of a frustrated attorney.
One of the things that takes so much ink and paper in her writing
is how she makes a case for this character or that situation,
arguing their cause ... and then turns the whole thing on its ear.

Her fascination with the subtle vibrations in music interests me.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 May 22 - 11:47 AM

There was also a Star Trek NG episode where the translation machines worked perfectly, but understanding was impossible: the aliens* spoke totally in metaphors, and there was no mutual cultural traction. You can see the same effect in real life when nerds talk in jargon in a non-technical context, something which it's taken taking me a lifetime to stop doing.

* PS: I mistyped that as "apians", but realised that's us. Oook.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 May 22 - 11:06 AM

Larry Niven was all over that issue.

The scene with the Trinoc (I thought you were a gambler. / I gambled that you could only see out of the front of your head.) comes to mind.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 28 May 22 - 03:13 AM

Donuel, 11th May:

> Which authors have avoided the absurd assumptions that would allow
> for the possibility of communication with aliens of a different
> evolution.

I'd have replied to that earlier, but I've been busy rereading Vernor Vinge's A Deepness In The Sky, which includes a portrayal in depth of some of the most alien aliens I've ever encountered; much of the plot turns on the problems of communication, and the (very alien but oh-so-human) way the humans overcome them. Good classic-style hard SF, with the necessary strong moral compass, and not a telepath in sight. (It also includes an all-but-direct reference to my favourite computer operating system, but that's one for the nerds.)

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 May 22 - 09:57 PM

Excellent!
I was hoping that somebody besides me would remember
E. M. Forster's "The Machine Stops."

the late Doris Lessing made a rather noisy foray into
fantasy fiction, I remember reading some of it.
Of course she is an eminent writer and had something to say,
but her arrogance made me uneasy:
she was composing myths, and she KNEW IT. A bit much.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 May 22 - 10:42 AM

"Some have harsh words
For this man of renown
But some say our attitude
Should be one of gratitude
Like the widows and cripples
In old London town
Who owe their large pensions
To Werner von Braun."

Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Stanron
Date: 21 May 22 - 09:06 PM

Anyone remember E E Doc Smith? I once nearly missed my bus stop because I didn't want to stop reading.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Donuel
Date: 21 May 22 - 07:30 PM

While I like the easy flow of Niven I enjoy realism in the mix of new technologies that may or may not be neutral since science is definetly effected by ideology. No one knows if the intrinsic good in people will outweigh the bad. Werner von Braun comes to mind. We have recovered some V2's from the water and the hand made engines were like a work of art made by slave labor. Nazi science invented things like the electron microscope and unspeakable horrors in biological experiments against people's will.

Societies ideology knows what has killed hundreds of millions of people while nuclesr weapons and production has probably only killed an undocumented 10's of millions. Tobbacco has killed hundreds of millions.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 May 22 - 05:33 PM

Some of the most memorable sf was written by people who were not sf authors, such as Rudyard Kipling ("Easy as ABC" -- a Tory Anarchist utopia) and E. M. Forster ("The Machine Stops" -- anticipates the Internet).

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 May 22 - 02:07 PM

Larry Niven characters sang great songs, too

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Helen
Date: 17 May 22 - 06:11 PM

Dave the Gnome, Alan Garner is one of my favourite authors. I have a few of his books.

Tonight on TV in Oz the movie A Scanner Darkly will be aired. It's an animated version based on a story by Philip K. Dick. I think that might be the story that I tried to read but the drugs theme put me off, so I'll watch the movie and then read the story properly.

Subject: RE: BS: Sci-Fi and/or fantasy authors
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 May 22 - 12:08 PM

I just read "Treacle Walker" by Alan Garner and it was a treat. Short but very enjoyable. Highly recommended.