(Reposted from a previous blog.)
(Made up of items from 2004 and other items reconstructed from memory due to loss of original post!)
In 2004 I started to move from just posting titles and the occasional review to trying to review everything I read. I can't say that I'm there yet; sometimes I just don't feel like writing and review and sometimes life takes precedence (hence the backlog this year!). But, as you'll see from the number of links here, I did more book (and story!) reviews in 2004 than any year previous.
During this period I was working seven days a week. So I would have a lot of time to read. However, I had limited access to the computer, so would let the books pile up instead of jotting notes, composing reviews, etc. That led to a big crunch in December where I tried to review as much as possible. You'll see that when it came to short stories, there were a number of books that I read...but did not review individual stories in. Time ran out!
Ah well, I'll read them all again, someday. And then I'll fill in the blanks and write more reviews!
Best books that I read this year: Tied for first place were Revelation Space and Redemption Ark by Alastair Reynolds as well as Going for Infinity by Poul Anderson. Tied for second place were Newton's Wake by Ken MacLeod and Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson.
Book count: 122. See also the 2004 Short Story Project.
Poul Anderson: For Love and Glory. Going for Infinity.
Tom Swift, Jr. by "Victor Appleton, II": Tom Swift on the Phantom Satellite (Grosset & Dunlap, 1956). Tom Swift and His Ultrasonic Cycloplane (Grosset & Dunlap, 1957). Tom Swift and His Deep-Sea Hydrodome (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift in the Race to the Moon (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift and His Space Solartron (Grosset & Dunlap, 1958). Tom Swift and His Electronic Retroscope (Grosset & Dunlap, 1959).
Isaac Asimov: In Memory Yet Green. In Joy Still Felt. Foundation. Foundation and Empire. Second Foundation. The Complete Robot (Doubleday, 1982). Murder at the ABA (Doubleday, 1976).
Wayne Barlowe: The Alien Life of Wayne Barlowe and Barlowe's Guide to Extraterrestrials.
Stephen Baxter: Phase Space (HarperCollins, 2002).
Gregory Benford: In the Ocean of Night (WarnerAspect, 2004).
Ben Bova: Sam Gunn, Unlimited.
Ben Bova (editor): The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIA (Avon, 1974). The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIB (Avon, 1974).
Mark Bowden: Black Hawk Down (Atlantic Monthly Press, 1999).
Ray Bradbury: From the Dust Returned.
Michael Cabbage and William Harwood: Comm Check...The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia (Free Press, 2004).
Eleanor Cameron: The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (Little, Brown, 1954). Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet (Little Brown, 1956). Mr. Bass's Planetoid (Little, Brown, 1958).
John W. Campbell, Jr.: The Black Star Passes.
John W. Campbell, Jr. (editor): The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology (Simon & Schuster, 1952).
C.J. Cherryh: The Kif Strike Back. Chanur's Venture.
Tracy Chevalier: Girl With A Pearl Earring.
Arthur C. Clarke: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipdeds! Collected Essays 1934-1998. The View from Serendip. Prelude to Space. Sands of Mars. The City and The Stars. The Songs of Distant Earth.
Samuel R. Delany: The Jewels of Aptor. The Einstein Intersection. The Motion of Light in Water. Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories. Distant Stars.
Gardner Dozois (editor): The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998). The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St Martin's Griffin, 1999).
Freeman Dyson: Disturbing the Universe (Harper & Row, 1981).
Harlan Ellison: Vic & Blood (artwork by Richard Corben) (iBooks, 2003).
M.C. Escher: The World of M.C. Escher.
Matt Eversmann & Dan Schilling (editors): The Battle of Mogadishu: Firsthand Accounts from the Men of Task Force Ranger (Ballantine, 2004).
Timothy Ferris: Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth from Interplanetary Peril (Simon & Schuster, 2002).
Alan Dean Foster: Nor Crystal Tears (Del Rey, 1982). Phylogenesis (Del Rey, 1999).
Tommy Franks and Malcolm McConnell: American Soldier (Regan Books, 2004).
Neil Gaiman: Coraline.
James Gunn (editor): Astounding Stories: The 60th Anniversary Collection (three volumes).
Karen Haber: Meditations on Middle-Earth.
David M. Harland & John E. Catchpole: Creating the ISS (Springer-Praxis, 2002).
Robert A. Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land. Rocket Ship Galileo (Scribners, 1947). Space Cadet (Scribners, 1949). Between Planets (Scribners, 1951). Farmer in the Sky (Scribners, 1951). Starman Jones (Scribners, 1953).
Gene Kranz: Failure Is Not An Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond (Simon & Schuster, 1999).
Alan Lee: Tolkien's World—Paintings of Middle-Earth.
Fritz Leiber: Ill Met In Lankhmar (made up of Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death) (White Wolf Publishing, 1995). Lean Times in Lankhmar (made up of Swords in the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry) (White Wolf Publishing, 1996). Return to Lankhmar (made up of The Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magic) (White Wolf Publishing, 1997). Farewell to Lankhmar (made up of The Knight of Knaves and Swords) (White Wolf Publishing, 1998). Gather, Darkness! (Ballantine, 1975).
Murray Leinster: The Wailing Asteroid (Ace, 1960).
Ken MacLeod: Newton's Wake (Tor, 2004).
Tim McElyes: A Vision of Future Space Transportation: A Visual Guide to Future Spacecraft Concepts (Apogee Books, 2003).
Alan E. Nourse: Scavengers in Space.
William R. Pogue: How Do You Go To the Bathroom in Space? (TOR, 1999)
Mark Pendergrast: Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World (Basic Books, 1999).
Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (Ace, 2001). Redemption Ark (Ace, 2003).
Rudy Rucker: Seek!.
Carl Sagan: The Cosmic Connection. Other Worlds (Bantam, 1975).
K.H. Scheer & Walter Ernsting: Perry Rhodan: Enterprise Stardust/The Third Power.
Frank Seitzen, Jr. & Keith L. Cowing: New Moon Rising: The Making of America's New Space Vision and the Remaking of NASA (Apogee Books, 2004).
Charles Sheffield: Summertide (Book One of the Heritage Universe, one half of Convergence, Baen Books, 1998).
Robert Silverberg (editor): The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I.
E.E. "Doc" Smith: Gray Lensman (Old Earth Books, 1998).
Allen E. Steele: Sex and Violence in Zero-G (Meisha Merlin, 1999).
Neal Stephenson: Quicksilver.
Scott P. Sullivan: Virtual Apollo (Apogee Books, 2002) and Virtual LM (Apogee Books, 2004).
Travis S. Taylor: Warp Speed.
Lewis Thomas: The Lives of a Cell.
J.R.R. Tolkien: Bilbo's Last Song (Knopf, 2002). The Hobbit. The Fellowship of the Ring (Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
Harry S. Truman (edited by Ralph Keyes): The Wit & Wisdom of Harry Truman (Gramercy Books, 1999).
United States Marine Corps: A Book on Books.
John Varley: The Persistence of Vision (Dell, 1979). The Barbie Murders (Berkley, 1980). Blue Champagne (Berkley, 1986). The John Varley Reader (Ace, 2004). Red Thunder (Ace, 2003).
T.K.F. Weisskopf (editor): Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System (Baen, 2004).
Mark Whittington: Children of Apollo.
Winston SF (click on the link for some details): The World at Bay (Paul Capon) (1954). Islands in the Sky (Arthur C. Clarke) (1952). Attack from Atlantis (Lester Del Rey) (1958). Step to the Stars (Lester Del Rey) (1954). Mission to the Moon (Lester Del Rey) (1956). Trouble on Titan (Alan E. Nourse) (1954). Missing Men of Saturn (Philip Latham) (1953).
Makoto Yukimura: Planetes #01 (Tokyopop, 2003). Planetes #02 (Tokyopop, 2003). Planetes #03 (Tokyopop, 2004). Planetes #04a (Tokyopop, 2004). Planetes #04b (Tokyopop, 2004).
Robert Zubrin: Mars on Earth: The Adventures of Space Pioneers in the High Arctic (Penguin, 2003).
Friday, December 31, 2004
2004: The Year in Shorts
(Reposted from a previous blog.)
This was my first attempt to read a story a day. I more than exceeded the goal, even though I didn't start the project until about halfway through the year.
Count for the year (through December 31, 2004): 543 entries (final count, as far as I know!).
Poul Anderson: Going for Infinity (18 entries, collection complete).
Stephen Baxter: Phase Space (HarperCollins, 2002) (25 entries, collection completed).
Gregory Benford: In the Ocean of Night (WarnerAspect, 2004) (8 entries, collection—a "fixup" novel—completed).
Ben Bova: Sam Gunn, Unlimited (9 entries, collection completed).
Ben Bova (editor): The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIA (Avon, 1974) (12 entries, collection completed). The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIB (Avon, 1974) (12 entries, collection completed).
Ray Bradbury: From the Dust Returned (25 entries, collection completed).
John W. Campbell, Jr.: The Black Star Passes (3 entries, collection completed).
John W. Campbell, Jr. (editor): The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology (Simon & Schuster, 1952) (24 entries, collection completed).
Arthur C. Clarke: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (59 entries, collection completed). The View from Serendip (25 entries, collection completed).
Samuel R. Delany: Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories and Distant Stars (counts as 18 entries between the two, both collections completed).
Gardner Dozois (editor): The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998) (17 entries, collection completed). The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St Martin's Griffin, 1999) (18 entries, collection completed).
Harlan Ellison: Vic & Blood (artwork by Richard Corben) (iBooks, 2003) (4 entries, collection completed).
James Gunn (editor): Astounding Stories (60th Anniversary Edition, three volumes) (21 stories, collection completed).
Karen Haber (editor): Meditations on Middle-Earth (17 entries, collection completed).
Fritz Leiber: Ill Met in Lankhmar (Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death) (White Wolf Publishing, 1995) (15 entries, collection complete). Contains: Induction; The Snow Women; The Unholy Grail; Ill Met in Lankhmar; The Circle Curse; The Jewels in the Forest; Thieves' House; The Bleak Shore; The Howling Tower; The Sunken Land; The Seven Black Priests; The Claws from the Night; The Price of Pain-Ease; Bazaar of the Bizarre.
Fritz Leiber: Lean Times in Lankhmar (Swords in the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry) (White Wolf Publishing, 1996) (10 entries, collection complete). Contains: The Cloud of Hate; Lean Times in Lankhmar; Their Mistress, The Sea; When the Sea-King's Away; The Wrong Branch; Adept's Gambit; In the Witch's Tent; Stardock; The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar; The Lords of Quarmall.
Fritz Leiber: Return to Lankhmar (The Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magic) (White Wolf Publishing, 1997) (9 entries, collection complete). Contains: The Swords of Lankhmar (novel); The Sadness of the Executioner; Beauty and the Beasts; Trapped in the Shadowland; The Bait; Under the Thumbs of the Gods; Trapped in the Sea of Stars; The Frost Monstreme; Rime Isle.
Rudy Rucker: Seek! (32 entries, collection complete).
Carl Sagan: The Cosmic Connection (43 entries, collection completed).
Robert Silverberg (editor): The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I (25 entries, collection completed).
Allen E. Steele: Sex and Violence in Zero-G (Meisha Merlin, 1999) (19 entries, collection complete).
Lewis Thomas: The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (29 entries, collection completed).
John Varley: The Persistence of Vision (Dell, 1979) (3 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). The Barbie Murders (Berkley, 1980) (6 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). Blue Champagne (Berkley, 1986) (3 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). The John Varley Reader (Ace, 2004) (20 entries, collection complete).
T.K.F. Weisskopf (editor): Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System (Baen, 2004) (14 entries, collection completed).
This was my first attempt to read a story a day. I more than exceeded the goal, even though I didn't start the project until about halfway through the year.
Count for the year (through December 31, 2004): 543 entries (final count, as far as I know!).
Poul Anderson: Going for Infinity (18 entries, collection complete).
Stephen Baxter: Phase Space (HarperCollins, 2002) (25 entries, collection completed).
Gregory Benford: In the Ocean of Night (WarnerAspect, 2004) (8 entries, collection—a "fixup" novel—completed).
Ben Bova: Sam Gunn, Unlimited (9 entries, collection completed).
Ben Bova (editor): The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIA (Avon, 1974) (12 entries, collection completed). The SF Hall of Fame, Volume IIB (Avon, 1974) (12 entries, collection completed).
Ray Bradbury: From the Dust Returned (25 entries, collection completed).
John W. Campbell, Jr.: The Black Star Passes (3 entries, collection completed).
John W. Campbell, Jr. (editor): The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology (Simon & Schuster, 1952) (24 entries, collection completed).
Arthur C. Clarke: Greetings, Carbon-Based Bipeds! (59 entries, collection completed). The View from Serendip (25 entries, collection completed).
Samuel R. Delany: Aye, and Gomorrah and Other Stories and Distant Stars (counts as 18 entries between the two, both collections completed).
Gardner Dozois (editor): The Good Old Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St. Martin's Griffin, 1998) (17 entries, collection completed). The Good New Stuff: Adventure SF in the Grand Tradition (St Martin's Griffin, 1999) (18 entries, collection completed).
Harlan Ellison: Vic & Blood (artwork by Richard Corben) (iBooks, 2003) (4 entries, collection completed).
James Gunn (editor): Astounding Stories (60th Anniversary Edition, three volumes) (21 stories, collection completed).
Karen Haber (editor): Meditations on Middle-Earth (17 entries, collection completed).
Fritz Leiber: Ill Met in Lankhmar (Swords and Deviltry and Swords Against Death) (White Wolf Publishing, 1995) (15 entries, collection complete). Contains: Induction; The Snow Women; The Unholy Grail; Ill Met in Lankhmar; The Circle Curse; The Jewels in the Forest; Thieves' House; The Bleak Shore; The Howling Tower; The Sunken Land; The Seven Black Priests; The Claws from the Night; The Price of Pain-Ease; Bazaar of the Bizarre.
Fritz Leiber: Lean Times in Lankhmar (Swords in the Mist and Swords Against Wizardry) (White Wolf Publishing, 1996) (10 entries, collection complete). Contains: The Cloud of Hate; Lean Times in Lankhmar; Their Mistress, The Sea; When the Sea-King's Away; The Wrong Branch; Adept's Gambit; In the Witch's Tent; Stardock; The Two Best Thieves in Lankhmar; The Lords of Quarmall.
Fritz Leiber: Return to Lankhmar (The Swords of Lankhmar and Swords and Ice Magic) (White Wolf Publishing, 1997) (9 entries, collection complete). Contains: The Swords of Lankhmar (novel); The Sadness of the Executioner; Beauty and the Beasts; Trapped in the Shadowland; The Bait; Under the Thumbs of the Gods; Trapped in the Sea of Stars; The Frost Monstreme; Rime Isle.
Rudy Rucker: Seek! (32 entries, collection complete).
Carl Sagan: The Cosmic Connection (43 entries, collection completed).
Robert Silverberg (editor): The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume I (25 entries, collection completed).
Allen E. Steele: Sex and Violence in Zero-G (Meisha Merlin, 1999) (19 entries, collection complete).
Lewis Thomas: The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher (29 entries, collection completed).
John Varley: The Persistence of Vision (Dell, 1979) (3 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). The Barbie Murders (Berkley, 1980) (6 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). Blue Champagne (Berkley, 1986) (3 stories not found in other Varley collections, collection completed). The John Varley Reader (Ace, 2004) (20 entries, collection complete).
T.K.F. Weisskopf (editor): Cosmic Tales: Adventures in Sol System (Baen, 2004) (14 entries, collection completed).
Two Short Novels by Samuel R. Delany
Ah, the 70's. The Nebula Awards collections found in the library. The piles of books from the Science Fiction Book Club that my parent's would buy me. Writers like Robert Silverberg writing about sex and drugs. New authors such as Gene Wolfe and Samuel R. Delany.
I first encountered Delany as an author of short stories. Tales such as Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones and Driftglass appeared in a few collections that I read (such as the Nebula Awards collections).
During high school I encountered Delany as a novelist, in two books (Nova and Dhalgren). Nova was a space opera, a wonderfully baroque space opera. Dhalgren was...well...even now it's hard to explain. It was certainly the novel that moved Delany from the likes of Ace Books (where his first book, The Jewels of Aptor, was published) into even more prominence than the winning of the Nebula for various works, e.g., Babel-17, Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones) seemed to have done. I even had a chance to meet Delany briefly at a convention in New York City; he was very nice, much less snobbish than some of the other authors at that convention.
(I plan to re-read Nova, Dhalgren and other works in 2005, so maybe I'll have something more detailed to say.)
In 2004, I read two collections of short works, two short novels and a long autobiographical work by Delany. The autobiographical work came close to being considered one of the best books I read in 2004 (there was a lot of tough competition for that slot!). Here are my reviews of the two short novels.
Weaker than the short stories were the two short novels that I read, The Jewels of Aptor (originally published by Ace Books in 1967, my copy is a Gollancz edition from 2000) and The Einstein Intersection (also from Ace Books in 1967, my copy is from the Wesleyan University Press and was published in 1998).
The Jewels of Aptor is a post-atomic holocaust novel with elements of fantasy. It's a quest novel (the main characters are ordered to search for a item of power, one of the jewels of the title) that contains many of the elements Delany would use again and again (for example, the character of The Kid). As a post-atomic holocaust novel, it is so-so. Others, such as Walter M. Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, are much better example of that science fiction sub-genre. But you can see things here that Delany later expanded upon in Dhalgren and other later works, and as I read this in parallel with his autobiographical work (see below), it was interesting to see elements of his life worked into the novel.
The Einstein Intersection (not Delany's title, that was A Fabulous, Formless Darkness) is also a post-atomic holocaust novel with elements of fantasy. The fantasy elements are stronger here, and I was reminded of one of Delany's shorter works (not, alas, in one of the single-author collections I read, so the title naturally slips my mind!). To be honest, I had difficulty reading this one and rushed through it. It did not make much of an impression; so I intend on tackling it again to see if it works the second time through.
The Motion of Light in Water
(You all are detecting a pattern to these Delany postings by now, aren't you?)
Ah, the 70's. The Nebula Awards collections found in the library. The piles of books from the Science Fiction Book Club that my parent's would buy me. Writers like Robert Silverberg writing about sex and drugs. New authors such as Gene Wolfe and Samuel R. Delany.
I first encountered Delany as an author of short stories. Tales such as Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones and Driftglass appeared in a few collections that I read (such as the Nebula Awards collections).
During high school I encountered Delany as a novelist, in two books (Nova and Dhalgren). Nova was a space opera, a wonderfully baroque space opera. Dhalgren was...well...even now it's hard to explain. It was certainly the novel that moved Delany from the likes of Ace Books (where his first book, The Jewels of Aptor, was published) into even more prominence than the winning of the Nebula for various works, e.g., Babel-17, Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones) seemed to have done. I even had a chance to meet Delany briefly at a convention in New York City; he was very nice, much less snobbish than some of the other authors at that convention.
(I plan to re-read Nova, Dhalgren and other works in 2005, so maybe I'll have something more detailed to say.)
In 2004, I read two collections of short works, two short novels and a long autobiographical work by Delany. The autobiographical work came close to being considered one of the best books I read in 2004 (there was a lot of tough competition for that slot!). Here is my review of the autobiographical work.
The best of the the books by Samuel R. Delany that I read in 2004 was The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village (University of Minnesota Press, 2004, greatly expanded from an earlier edition).
This was a bizarre book. And a wonderful book. I read it in two very long sittings, at work. It's an autobiographical work, covering Delany's childhood up until the time when he had published works such as The Jewels of Aptor and several short works. There's a lot going on in this work. In some parts, Delany plays with perception (such as the beginning, where he gives two different accounts of an incident involving his father). In others, he talks about the problems of memory (where, for example, he discusses the early days of his marriage to poet Marilyn Hacker).
There's a bit about Delany and the process of writing, but not as much as I had hoped. For this, I suspect I'll have to track down various collections of essays, especially the (sadly) out-of-print The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Essays on Science Fiction (2019 update: now back in print since this was first written in 2004!). Sure, there are descriptions of his struggles to write, his habit of keeping a notebook with him, etc., but not the detail I wanted. And, as the book ends before such works as Nova and Dhalgren, it doesn't discuss some of the works that I like to learn more about.
So what in the book fascinated me that most? Oddly enough, the sex and the relationships. Taking a look back into the "scene" in the 1960's from the perspective of 2004 (tossing in AIDS, various other sexual diseases, various moral outrages raised by people of various moral stripes, etc.) and I found the sections where Delany talks about his relationship with Marilyn Hacker, the various long- and short-term relationship he had, and the (ahem) orgies that occurred in the Village at that time...and you see the depiction of a society that feels more like science fiction than most science fiction. It's utterly bizarre, utterly foreign, but Delany does such a good job of writing about it that its utterly fascinating. Good stuff.
A few quotes from the book...
Ah, the 70's. The Nebula Awards collections found in the library. The piles of books from the Science Fiction Book Club that my parent's would buy me. Writers like Robert Silverberg writing about sex and drugs. New authors such as Gene Wolfe and Samuel R. Delany.
I first encountered Delany as an author of short stories. Tales such as Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones and Driftglass appeared in a few collections that I read (such as the Nebula Awards collections).
During high school I encountered Delany as a novelist, in two books (Nova and Dhalgren). Nova was a space opera, a wonderfully baroque space opera. Dhalgren was...well...even now it's hard to explain. It was certainly the novel that moved Delany from the likes of Ace Books (where his first book, The Jewels of Aptor, was published) into even more prominence than the winning of the Nebula for various works, e.g., Babel-17, Aye, and Gomorrah..., Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones) seemed to have done. I even had a chance to meet Delany briefly at a convention in New York City; he was very nice, much less snobbish than some of the other authors at that convention.
(I plan to re-read Nova, Dhalgren and other works in 2005, so maybe I'll have something more detailed to say.)
In 2004, I read two collections of short works, two short novels and a long autobiographical work by Delany. The autobiographical work came close to being considered one of the best books I read in 2004 (there was a lot of tough competition for that slot!). Here is my review of the autobiographical work.
The best of the the books by Samuel R. Delany that I read in 2004 was The Motion of Light in Water: Sex and Science Fiction Writing in the East Village (University of Minnesota Press, 2004, greatly expanded from an earlier edition).
This was a bizarre book. And a wonderful book. I read it in two very long sittings, at work. It's an autobiographical work, covering Delany's childhood up until the time when he had published works such as The Jewels of Aptor and several short works. There's a lot going on in this work. In some parts, Delany plays with perception (such as the beginning, where he gives two different accounts of an incident involving his father). In others, he talks about the problems of memory (where, for example, he discusses the early days of his marriage to poet Marilyn Hacker).
There's a bit about Delany and the process of writing, but not as much as I had hoped. For this, I suspect I'll have to track down various collections of essays, especially the (sadly) out-of-print The Jewel-Hinged Jaw: Essays on Science Fiction (2019 update: now back in print since this was first written in 2004!). Sure, there are descriptions of his struggles to write, his habit of keeping a notebook with him, etc., but not the detail I wanted. And, as the book ends before such works as Nova and Dhalgren, it doesn't discuss some of the works that I like to learn more about.
So what in the book fascinated me that most? Oddly enough, the sex and the relationships. Taking a look back into the "scene" in the 1960's from the perspective of 2004 (tossing in AIDS, various other sexual diseases, various moral outrages raised by people of various moral stripes, etc.) and I found the sections where Delany talks about his relationship with Marilyn Hacker, the various long- and short-term relationship he had, and the (ahem) orgies that occurred in the Village at that time...and you see the depiction of a society that feels more like science fiction than most science fiction. It's utterly bizarre, utterly foreign, but Delany does such a good job of writing about it that its utterly fascinating. Good stuff.
A few quotes from the book...
Every once in a while I would get up to wander into the kitchen to stir the skillet full of spaghetti sauce I'd done up from a recipe on the back of the small white-and-green cardboard box of oregano leaves, the counter still flaked with bits of onion and three fugitive pieces of tomato. Or I'd wander into the front bedroom—just as another arc from the hydrant below broke between the black fire escape slats to sing across the glass, and five hundred purple crescents would gem and drool across the pane, while I stood watching the motion of light in water. (Page 122)
***
One was simply the graduate student problem. The titles she picked up from our living room bookshelves to read, or purchased from the selves of the Village bookstores farther west, came from an ideal list of Great Literary Works. These were the works you were supposed to read. Finishing all the books on that list was a lifetime chore. And the general perception was, I think, that there just wasn't time to read anything that had not, somehow, gotten into that strangely and mysteriously maintained canon.
The second problem was probably an outgrowth of the first. The possibility that she might actually find one of these noncanonical works as entertaining, if not as intelligent, as she clearly found her confrontations with classical writers (and Sue, Marilyn, and I talked about writers and novels constantly and entertainingly) would itself threaten all the unexpressed and unanalyzed notions that made the idea of a canon valid. (Page 280
***
When we met at the office, he gave me the single fan letter Captives of the Flame had managed to elicit: the writer explained that he had figured out that "Samuel R. Delany" had to be a pseudonym of A.E. van Vogt. If you took the first and last letters from Samuel and followed them by the fourth and fifth letters in "Delany," it spelled Slan, the title of van Vogt's most famous SF novel. And, besides, the writer went on, he'd never heard of an SF writer named "Samuel R. Delany" before and he knew all the SF writers there were.(Page 306-307)
***
Science fiction has always been attractive to young writers. It offers a possibility of writing for a living rather more quickly than certain other practices of writing, literary or paraliterary. But to the extent that young writers take their work seriously, it opens them to great internal strife for very meager rewards. And it's arguable that the nil-reward situation that greets most young literary writers is finally healthier, because it does not hold out the initial illusion of economic stability, which becomes hopelessly muddled with the thrill of seeing your work in print—in embarrassingly ugly packages! (Page 410)
***
In Asimov's Foundation stories from the forties, or even in Bester's The Stars My Destination from the mid-fifties, no matter how festooned with scientific gewgaws and technological gadgets, the "spaceports" in these tales were not modeled on any contemporary airport, but rather on some ancient train station, or even a set of boat docks such as the ones I'd just been working at. (Page 538)
***
I began a short book (really a long story) called Empire Star soon after I received Ron's second letter. There were at least three motivations behind it, and at this distance I can't honestly say which was the strongest. More money for the trip was one of them. Also, the final strain of the affair with Bob had left Marilyn and myself both exhausted with, and distanced from, one another. In an emotionally drained state myself, I felt I had to take on some new project that I could complete and feel some satisfaction in, if only to bolster my own shaky sense of well-being. Never a fast writer nor, by my own estimation, a very disciplined one, I wanted to do a thoroughly planned-out work.
More important, I wanted to write to a rigorous schedule, just to see if I could. The long story (which I'd initially thought would appear on the back of Babel-17 in an Ace Double format) was written as a kind of endurance test, writing in the morning, writing in the afternoon. The third reason was that there was still much from Marilyn's and my time with Bob (including the trip to Texas) that would not settle until at least some of it had become art.
It had been true of Babel-17.
It was true of Empire Star.
And it was true of The Star Pit, the story whose first two thirds I completed right afterwards.
Empire Star's thirty thousand words were finished in eleven days. (Page 550-551)
***
Suited, tied, and "imperially slim," as E.A. Robinson has written of someone else, (James) Gunn was leaning against the icebox after having had perhaps a drink or so more than he might have. "And what does this young man do?" he asked.
"Well, he writes SF," Hans explained.
"Have you published anything?" Gunn asked.
"Oh," I said, "three or four SF novels," I thought that was a modest way to say five.
"And what's your name—again?"
"Chip Delany," I said. "Eh...Samuel R. Delany."
"That's amazing. I've never seen any of them. I really thought I kept up with the field." Then he turned and announced over his glass, "Now, you see, these are the people whom we should be paying attention to. This is where the future of the field lies. Right here, in people like this." (Page 568)
Thursday, December 30, 2004
Going for Infinity
(Reposted from a previous blog.)
Going for Infinity; Poul Anderson (Tor Books, cover art by Vincent Di Fate).
This is a combination of a collection of short stories and excerpts from some novels plus autobiographical passages that precede each story. You get a gem of a collection plus some wonderful stories in the autobiographical sections (learn, for example, how Poul Anderson, Jack Vance and Frank Herbert all built a houseboat together, how they had some wonderful times on the boat, and how that boat ultimately sank).
Counts as 18 stories for the 2004 Short Story Project.
The collection is made up of The Saturn Game, Gypsy, Sam Hall, Death and the Knight, Journey’s End, The Horn of Time the Hunter, The Master Key, The Problem of Pain, Quest, Windmill, Three Hearts and Three Lions (excerpt of the novel of the same name), Epilogue, Dead Phone, Goat Song, Kyrie, A Midsummer Tempest (excerpt of the novel of the same name), The Shrine for Lost Children, The Queen of Air and Darkness.
Saturn Game dates from 1981 and was well received at the time (and still holds up nicely). It was inspired by roleplaying games and the fear that people would become more and more trapped in a fantasy world (you all probably remember some of the urban legends and far-right lore that was springing up back then). While the paper roleplaying games that inspired the story are fading (somewhat), the tale that Anderson tells could just as easily be inspired by the various aspects of virtual reality that are rearing their heads these days (videogames, the internet, etc.). Good story, and a strong start to the book.
Gypsy carries some themes that Anderson excelled at: yearning, loss, sadness. I don't know if it was his Norse background, his love of the sea, or what, but even a relatively minor or unknown tale such as this leaves you thinking.
Sam Hall explores another common Anderson them: fighting against repression (see, for example the novel Harvest of Stars). Inspired (he says) by Clifford Simak, it feels a lot like something that John W. Campbell, Jr. (writing as Don A. Stuart) or Robert A. Heinlein would have produced.
Death and the Knight is probably the least effective story in the collection. I think that is due to the fact that it was a story that appeared in a shared universe anthology (in this case, tales of the Knights Templer as created by Katherine Kurtz).
Journeys End I had read once years ago in an otherwise forgotten anthology. I had totally forgotten the story, or the fact that it was by Anderson. All I remembered was the overall idea (telepathy) and the ending of the story (if you had total access to another person’s mind, could you find "true love"...or even tolerance?). Another one that leaves you thinking long after you've completed it.
The Horn of Time the Hunter is set in the same fictional universe as Anderson's novel Starfarers (written late in his career, and itself is an expansion of a story called Ghetto). Anderson notes that he originally was going to incorporate Horn into Starfarers, but was convinced not to by his wife as if was "too dark". It is a pretty dark tale. Star travel, genetic isolation, and a meeting again of two branches of the family tree.
The Master Key is one of two tales in the book that is set in what is probably Anderson's most famous work: the Technic series that includes independent stories, stories of Master Trader Nicholas van Rijn and stories of the (eventual) Terran Empire's agent Dominic Flandry. The Master Key is a tale in which van Rijn appears, but is not central, it is a tale told by one of his agents of what happened on a planet that van Rijn's company was trying to open up for trade. The second tale set in that overall series is The Problem of Pain, and deals with humans trying to understand the psychology and religion of their alien allies. Anderson excelled at creating aliens that were more than just humans in funny suits.
Quest is set in the same universe as one of Anderson's funniest works, The High Crusade. It is set after the events of that book. Knights with swords that really sing (thanks to tapes), atomic bombs and starships. Oh my!
Windmill is set in the same overall arc as Anderson’s tales of the Maurai, found also in the story The Sky People and the novel Orion Shall Rise. There was always one quote that seemed to appear on his books (naturally, except for this one!) about reading his stories and getting a shock that you realize you have been cheering for the wrong side. This story fits that bill.
Three Hearts and Three Lions is an excerpt from the novel of the same name. I was surprised to realize that I had never read the novel (well, that just gives me something else new to read!). This was probably the weakest entry (next to the Knights Templer tale) in the book, as it is an excerpt. But, strong enough for me to order the book for the complete read!
In Epilogue, Anderson seems to have foreseen one possible result of the Vernor Vinge's Singularity. The story was inspired by an article by John von Neumann on what has become known as von Neumann machines, machines that can replicate themselves (reminds you of anybody you know?). Explorers return to Earth after a very long voyage and find things changed a bit more than they expected.
Dead Phone is going to set me on another quest. In the introduction, Anderson states that the main character of the tale, Trygve Yamamura (a private detective of Japanese-American and Norwegian ancestry) starred in three novels and several short stories. Argh! What novels...what stories? Another quest to find things by Anderson that I seem to have missed. Dead Phone is a fairly straight forward detective story with a few fantasy/horror elements.
I recall first reading Goat Song in one of the anthologies that I received as a gift in the early 1970's. One of the oddest things about the tale was learning (in Anderson's introduction to the story in this collection) that the genesis of the tale arose from the same writing workshop that brought us Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream! Both deal with (in a general sense) downloading personalities into a computer, but you couldn't have ended up with two more different ways of exploring that theme.
Kyrie is a relatively brief tale with a nice punch. It uses one of Anderson’s more common themes, trying to bridge the gulf between human and alien.
A Midsummer Tempest is another excerpt of a novel. Imagine if everything that William Shakespeare was true. Fun stuff, and I recommend you seek out the novel if you’ve never read it.
The Shrine for Lost Children grew out of a conference that Anderson and his wife attended in Japan. Is it science fiction (telepathy)? Is it horror or fantasy (ghosts)? A powerful psychological tale.
The Queen of Air and Darkness is Anderson at his best. It’s a wonderful mix of hard SF, mythology, fantasy. Anderson wrote it for "his" issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1971). It won several awards and has been anthologized a number of times and has lost none of its charm even today.
There we have it, one of the best books I read in 2004, tied for first place. Anderson's loss leaves a big hole in the field; I hope that publishers do not do the usual and let his books go out of print. It would be an absolute shame if people starting out in the field of science fiction did not have the Trading Team, Ensign Flandry, Nicholas van Rijn, and all the other countless wonderful Anderson characters and the dozens of wonderful Anderson planets and Anderson plots to entertain them!
Going for Infinity; Poul Anderson (Tor Books, cover art by Vincent Di Fate).
This is a combination of a collection of short stories and excerpts from some novels plus autobiographical passages that precede each story. You get a gem of a collection plus some wonderful stories in the autobiographical sections (learn, for example, how Poul Anderson, Jack Vance and Frank Herbert all built a houseboat together, how they had some wonderful times on the boat, and how that boat ultimately sank).
Counts as 18 stories for the 2004 Short Story Project.
The collection is made up of The Saturn Game, Gypsy, Sam Hall, Death and the Knight, Journey’s End, The Horn of Time the Hunter, The Master Key, The Problem of Pain, Quest, Windmill, Three Hearts and Three Lions (excerpt of the novel of the same name), Epilogue, Dead Phone, Goat Song, Kyrie, A Midsummer Tempest (excerpt of the novel of the same name), The Shrine for Lost Children, The Queen of Air and Darkness.
Saturn Game dates from 1981 and was well received at the time (and still holds up nicely). It was inspired by roleplaying games and the fear that people would become more and more trapped in a fantasy world (you all probably remember some of the urban legends and far-right lore that was springing up back then). While the paper roleplaying games that inspired the story are fading (somewhat), the tale that Anderson tells could just as easily be inspired by the various aspects of virtual reality that are rearing their heads these days (videogames, the internet, etc.). Good story, and a strong start to the book.
Gypsy carries some themes that Anderson excelled at: yearning, loss, sadness. I don't know if it was his Norse background, his love of the sea, or what, but even a relatively minor or unknown tale such as this leaves you thinking.
Sam Hall explores another common Anderson them: fighting against repression (see, for example the novel Harvest of Stars). Inspired (he says) by Clifford Simak, it feels a lot like something that John W. Campbell, Jr. (writing as Don A. Stuart) or Robert A. Heinlein would have produced.
Death and the Knight is probably the least effective story in the collection. I think that is due to the fact that it was a story that appeared in a shared universe anthology (in this case, tales of the Knights Templer as created by Katherine Kurtz).
Journeys End I had read once years ago in an otherwise forgotten anthology. I had totally forgotten the story, or the fact that it was by Anderson. All I remembered was the overall idea (telepathy) and the ending of the story (if you had total access to another person’s mind, could you find "true love"...or even tolerance?). Another one that leaves you thinking long after you've completed it.
The Horn of Time the Hunter is set in the same fictional universe as Anderson's novel Starfarers (written late in his career, and itself is an expansion of a story called Ghetto). Anderson notes that he originally was going to incorporate Horn into Starfarers, but was convinced not to by his wife as if was "too dark". It is a pretty dark tale. Star travel, genetic isolation, and a meeting again of two branches of the family tree.
The Master Key is one of two tales in the book that is set in what is probably Anderson's most famous work: the Technic series that includes independent stories, stories of Master Trader Nicholas van Rijn and stories of the (eventual) Terran Empire's agent Dominic Flandry. The Master Key is a tale in which van Rijn appears, but is not central, it is a tale told by one of his agents of what happened on a planet that van Rijn's company was trying to open up for trade. The second tale set in that overall series is The Problem of Pain, and deals with humans trying to understand the psychology and religion of their alien allies. Anderson excelled at creating aliens that were more than just humans in funny suits.
Quest is set in the same universe as one of Anderson's funniest works, The High Crusade. It is set after the events of that book. Knights with swords that really sing (thanks to tapes), atomic bombs and starships. Oh my!
Windmill is set in the same overall arc as Anderson’s tales of the Maurai, found also in the story The Sky People and the novel Orion Shall Rise. There was always one quote that seemed to appear on his books (naturally, except for this one!) about reading his stories and getting a shock that you realize you have been cheering for the wrong side. This story fits that bill.
Three Hearts and Three Lions is an excerpt from the novel of the same name. I was surprised to realize that I had never read the novel (well, that just gives me something else new to read!). This was probably the weakest entry (next to the Knights Templer tale) in the book, as it is an excerpt. But, strong enough for me to order the book for the complete read!
In Epilogue, Anderson seems to have foreseen one possible result of the Vernor Vinge's Singularity. The story was inspired by an article by John von Neumann on what has become known as von Neumann machines, machines that can replicate themselves (reminds you of anybody you know?). Explorers return to Earth after a very long voyage and find things changed a bit more than they expected.
Dead Phone is going to set me on another quest. In the introduction, Anderson states that the main character of the tale, Trygve Yamamura (a private detective of Japanese-American and Norwegian ancestry) starred in three novels and several short stories. Argh! What novels...what stories? Another quest to find things by Anderson that I seem to have missed. Dead Phone is a fairly straight forward detective story with a few fantasy/horror elements.
I recall first reading Goat Song in one of the anthologies that I received as a gift in the early 1970's. One of the oddest things about the tale was learning (in Anderson's introduction to the story in this collection) that the genesis of the tale arose from the same writing workshop that brought us Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream! Both deal with (in a general sense) downloading personalities into a computer, but you couldn't have ended up with two more different ways of exploring that theme.
Kyrie is a relatively brief tale with a nice punch. It uses one of Anderson’s more common themes, trying to bridge the gulf between human and alien.
A Midsummer Tempest is another excerpt of a novel. Imagine if everything that William Shakespeare was true. Fun stuff, and I recommend you seek out the novel if you’ve never read it.
The Shrine for Lost Children grew out of a conference that Anderson and his wife attended in Japan. Is it science fiction (telepathy)? Is it horror or fantasy (ghosts)? A powerful psychological tale.
The Queen of Air and Darkness is Anderson at his best. It’s a wonderful mix of hard SF, mythology, fantasy. Anderson wrote it for "his" issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1971). It won several awards and has been anthologized a number of times and has lost none of its charm even today.
There we have it, one of the best books I read in 2004, tied for first place. Anderson's loss leaves a big hole in the field; I hope that publishers do not do the usual and let his books go out of print. It would be an absolute shame if people starting out in the field of science fiction did not have the Trading Team, Ensign Flandry, Nicholas van Rijn, and all the other countless wonderful Anderson characters and the dozens of wonderful Anderson planets and Anderson plots to entertain them!
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