Old Tea Leaf Reviews 5: 1985 Locus Poll Best First Novel
James Nicoll
Best First Novel
1 The Wild Shore Kim Stanley Robinson
This is part one of the trilogy in which Robinson examines
three dissimilar futures for America. In this one, some unnamed agency
explodes atom-bombs at the center of about five thousand communities
in the US, notably hampering its economic development. The Soviets
are the dominant power and I believe the US has been embargoed for
some reason. To the young protagonist, the way the world is is
natural and the stories the geezers tell about the old days are
just folk tales.
I liked this book and bear it great ill-will for leading me to
read the Mars series.
Robinson is still a successful writer.
This was published as part of Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction
Specials series of the 1980s (The third such series but only the second
under Carr).
2 Neuromancer William Gibson
This is for many people the First Cyberpunk Novel. I remember
liking it at the time but all I remember about it now is the Rastafarian
space navy.
Gibson is still a successful writer but his fiction is arguably
no longer SF.
This was also an Ace Science Fiction Special.
3 Emergence David R. Palmer
This tells the story of a young superhuman girl and what she
did after the end of the world.
If I was writing this a year ago, I'd say that Palmer had this
book and a second, notably inferior book and then nothing. The sequel
to EMERGENCE is being published in ANALOG so he is not a two-book wonder.
4 Green Eyes Lucius Shepard
I don't recall anything about this except I think there were
zombies.
Shepard is still a successful writer.
This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
5 Them Bones Howard Waldrop
This is a rather melancholy book about an attempt alter to history
and prevent WWIII. I remember it as well written but not entirely successful.
Waldrop is still writing (although I believe he was recently
hospitalized) but at shorter lengths. This book and the extremely
atypical for Waldrop THE TEXAS/ISRAELI WAR are to my knowledge his
only novels to date.
This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
I believe this involved an AI of some sort but I don't
remember much about it.
Delaney didn't publish many novels (and all of them in the
1980s) but his short story career continued until he died.
Stiegler's career continued until at least the late 1990s but
I am unaware of any fiction by him after 1999.
7 The Riddle of the Wren Charles de Lint
If I read this, I then forget it.
Charles de Lint is a successful fantasy author.
8 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein
I did not read this.
I believe that he was writing short fiction at least until
the late 1990s but this was his only novel and the only other book-
length work that I am aware of was a collection.
9 Frontera Lewis Shiner
I know I read this but I am blanking on it.
Shiner is still a successful authors, although I think he
might be classified as "magical realism" these days.
10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
I think this is an alternate history in which Rome never fell
but I am not even sure that I read it.
Mitchell is still getting published but I am not sure what
genres he works in.
11 Palimpsests Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt
This is another book that I know I read whose details are
lost to me just now.
Scholz had another novel published in the early 21st
and has written a lot of short stories, the most recent as recently
as 2004.
This is the only thing that I can find from Harcourt.
This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
12 The Alchemists Geary Gravel
I don't know anything about this book.
Gravel seems to have been seduced by the seedy world of media
tie-in novels but I don't see anything by him after the late 1990s.
13 The Game Beyond Melissa Scott
I missed this. I really missed it: I thought her Silence Leigh
books were her first books.
Scott was reasonably prolific in the 1980s and 1990s but I am
unaware of anything later than 2001.
14 Divine Endurance Gwyneth Jones
I did not see this. I am pretty sure that she was getting
published in the 1970s in the UK so this poll must only be for US
publication.
Jones remains a successful author.
15 Elleander Morning Jerry Yulsman
This is an alternate history in which Hitler is murdered
long before his political career begins and as a result there is
no WWII.
I have never heard of this or the author before now. He wrote
at least two novels under his own name and a number of adult novels
under pen named but he seems to be best known as a photographer.
16 Winter's Daughter Charles Whitmore
I am drawing a blank.
17 Demon-4 David Mace
I did not see this.
As I recall, Mace has more than half a dozen SF novel but his SF
career hit a snag in the early 1990s (A snag that resembles parts of A
LIKELY STORY but without the mistresses [1]). He's still around, still
being published in various media (Includng scripting LIFE ON MARS)
and has a novel in the works.
1: I guess if you are a writer and you have to recapitulate a Westlake
novel, better A LIKELY STORY than THE HOOK.
--
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
http://www.cafepress.com/jdnicoll (For all your "The problem with
defending the English language [...]" T-shirt, cup and tote-bag needs)
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Nicoll) wrote:
> Robinson is still a successful writer.
>
> Gibson is still a successful writer but his fiction is arguably
>no longer SF.
>
> Shepard is still a successful writer.
>
> Charles de Lint is a successful fantasy author.
>
> Shiner is still a successful authors, although I think he
>might be classified as "magical realism" these days.
>
> Mitchell is still getting published but I am not sure what
>genres he works in.
>
> Jones remains a successful author.
How are you defining "successful"? Because some of these people, even
though they still get published, don't look sucessful to me.
> Waldrop is still writing (although I believe he was recently
>hospitalized) but at shorter lengths.
He was still in the hospital as of yesterday, but the surgery
reportedly went well.
> Gravel seems to have been seduced by the seedy world of media
>tie-in novels but I don't see anything by him after the late 1990s.
"Seedy"? Frankly, I suspect tie-ins were the only writing work he
could find that paid better than minimum wage -- which is not to fault
his writing in any way, it's just the reality of the publishing
marketplace.
--
My webpage is at http://www.watt-evans.com
The eighth issue of Helix is now at http://www.helixsf.com
news.iglou.com
news:g3bq14$nc7$1...@reader2.panix.com...
>
> Best First Novel
>
> 1 The Wild Shore Kim Stanley Robinson
>
> This is part one of the trilogy in which Robinson examines
> three dissimilar futures for America. In this one, some unnamed agency
> explodes atom-bombs at the center of about five thousand communities
> in the US, notably hampering its economic development. The Soviets
> are the dominant power and I believe the US has been embargoed for
> some reason. To the young protagonist, the way the world is is
> natural and the stories the geezers tell about the old days are
> just folk tales.
The US has been embargoed because it's a threat somehow.
Part of the embargo entails flying an immense orbiting laser system
which is tasked with destroying any bridges built in the US.
How the world economy is able to orbit anything, much less such a
complex system, with so much of it destroyed or crippled, is beyond me.
> 2 Neuromancer William Gibson
>
> This is for many people the First Cyberpunk Novel.
Made more of an impression on you than it did on me. Didn't it date
badly?
>
> 3 Emergence David R. Palmer
>
> This tells the story of a young superhuman girl and what she
> did after the end of the world.
A pretty good initial novella with a weak follow-up.
> 5 Them Bones Howard Waldrop
>
> This is a rather melancholy book about an attempt alter to history
> and prevent WWIII. I remember it as well written but not entirely
> successful.
The bit with the alternate past was interesting, and like a lot of
novels, Waldrop put too much into one book, and had to scant what might have
been interesting ideas.
> 6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
>
> I believe this involved an AI of some sort but I don't
> remember much about it.
The AI seemed remarkably high-powered for the amount of memory it
occupied; ISTR that at one point it moved into the memory of an automatic
floor-polisher.
> 10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
>
> I think this is an alternate history in which Rome never fell
> but I am not even sure that I read it.
A bizarre mixture of traditional Rome and advanced technology. And
other things. General Germanicus Julius is the lover of a Scandian colonel
in the Roman Army. A female colonel, who also happens to be a shamaness and
in communication with the Parthians. The army is issued with "pila" that
appear to be some sort of firearm. Yet they still have slaves.
> 15 Elleander Morning Jerry Yulsman
>
> This is an alternate history in which Hitler is murdered
> long before his political career begins and as a result there is
> no WWII.
The shooter (a time-traveller) goes to Vienna to shoot Hitler in 1913.
He was living in Munich by then.
(I'll pass over the fact that she managed to get herself executed when
she clearly had at least second-degree and perhaps NGI.)
A German publisher reprints a copy of a history of (our time-line) WWII
that is found after seventy years, and a soon wildly popular political party
springs up to do what Germany did in that war. "Ja, let's get bombed flat
again!"
And then the logic really goes to Hell . . .
Joseph T Major
Rich Horton
Nicoll) wrote:
>
>Best First Novel
>
>1 The Wild Shore Kim Stanley Robinson
>
> This is part one of the trilogy in which Robinson examines
>three dissimilar futures for America. In this one, some unnamed agency
>explodes atom-bombs at the center of about five thousand communities
>in the US, notably hampering its economic development. The Soviets
>are the dominant power and I believe the US has been embargoed for
>some reason. To the young protagonist, the way the world is is
>natural and the stories the geezers tell about the old days are
>just folk tales.
>
> I liked this book and bear it great ill-will for leading me to
>read the Mars series.
>
> Robinson is still a successful writer.
>
> This was published as part of Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction
>Specials series of the 1980s (The third such series but only the second
>under Carr).
>
The secret to KSR I believe is that he is a great writer of novellas.
Up until a point his novels tended to be collections of novellas --
usually quite overtly so, as with ICEHENGE and the Kilimanjaro book
and even the Mars books -- or novels of which the best part is a
novella, as with THE WILD SHORE.
Now apparently he says he has lost the touch for writing short
fiction, which is a damn shame. But a man's got to pay the bills, I
suppose.
>
>5 Them Bones Howard Waldrop
>
> This is a rather melancholy book about an attempt alter to history
>and prevent WWIII. I remember it as well written but not entirely successful.
>
> Waldrop is still writing (although I believe he was recently
>hospitalized)
He had a quintuple bypass earlier this week, as far as I have heard a
successful one.
>
>10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
>
> I think this is an alternate history in which Rome never fell
>but I am not even sure that I read it.
Yes, that's what it is and it's not bad.
>
>14 Divine Endurance Gwyneth Jones
>
> I did not see this. I am pretty sure that she was getting
>published in the 1970s in the UK so this poll must only be for US
>publication.
>
> Jones remains a successful author.
>
I like a lot of Jones' work, especially the shorter stuff, and some of
her stuff I absolutely love, but I found DIVINE ENDURANCE very close
to unreadable.
>17 Demon-4 David Mace
>
> I did not see this.
>
> As I recall, Mace has more than half a dozen SF novel but his SF
>career hit a snag in the early 1990s (A snag that resembles parts of A
>LIKELY STORY but without the mistresses [1]). He's still around, still
>being published in various media (Includng scripting LIFE ON MARS)
>and has a novel in the works.
Mace has published a couple of very nice shorter pieces in the last
couple of years in INTERZONE.
Dimensional Traveler
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:09:08 +0000 (UTC), jdni...@panix.com (James
> Nicoll) wrote:
>
>>
>> 10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
>>
>> I think this is an alternate history in which Rome never fell
>> but I am not even sure that I read it.
>
> Yes, that's what it is and it's not bad.
>
recall, as alt-history the whole series stinks; as "Cool! Romans with steam
engines!" its not bad.
--
History Channel is showing 'Ice Road Truckers' as part of their
"American Originals" brand of shows.
Too bad they're Canadian truckers.
Joseph Nebus
>6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
> I believe this involved an AI of some sort but I don't
>remember much about it.
I read this, I think, when I was sixteen and that was about
the right age to read it. Couple computer guys doing tinkering on
their computer put together a personality, Valentina, and there's a
variety of antics involved with getting Valentina to be free from
whatever perils this involves.
If it wasn't a fixup of short stories/novellas from Analog
then it should have been.
What mostly stands out to me through the years is that one
of the protagonists early on concludes that Valentina should form a
corporation, so as to deflect or at least confuse the question of
whether she's a person. I'm sure many authors have used the gimmick
of having an artificial intelligence be surrounded by the legal
mechanism of a corporation (they have, haven't they?), but it was the
first time I encountered that and it seemed clever to me then.
Second, there was a bit where the programmers get their
brains uploaded into the computer, and then downloaded back into
alternate bodies. Mostly what stands out from that is they take
time from whatever crisis required them to swap bodies in order to
observe that they don't perceive colors as the same things.
--
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wayne Throop
: What mostly stands out to me through the years is that one
: corporation, so as to deflect or at least confuse the question of
: whether she's a person. I'm sure many authors have used the gimmick
: of having an artificial intelligence be surrounded by the legal
: mechanism of a corporation (they have, haven't they?),
Gilliland's "Rosinante" trilogy had "Corporate Skakash (sp?)"
and "Corporate Susan Brown", two AIs that emigrate to Rosinante to
avoid persecution of various kinds. They had used the "make a corporation"
gimmick, iirc. Though they were also "corporate" in that they had a
specific bit of hardware they were tied to (again, iirc).
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
James Nicoll
Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:09:08 +0000 (UTC), jdni...@panix.com (James
>Nicoll) wrote:
>
>> Robinson is still a successful writer.
>>
>> Gibson is still a successful writer but his fiction is arguably
>>no longer SF.
>>
>> Shepard is still a successful writer.
>>
>> Charles de Lint is a successful fantasy author.
>>
>> Shiner is still a successful authors, although I think he
>>might be classified as "magical realism" these days.
>>
>> Mitchell is still getting published but I am not sure what
>>genres he works in.
>>
>> Jones remains a successful author.
>
>How are you defining "successful"? Because some of these people, even
>though they still get published, don't look sucessful to me.
Well, my model of publishing is one where an author's
first book appears to some level of praise, then the next few
either upset the readers by not being the first book or for
various other reasons what the author writes stops being what
publishers or major chains want, then they fade away into
"whatever happened to X?" discussions and the odd meeting of
the Embittered Former Writers of America meeting. Barry Hugart's
career arc is what I expect, not Poul Anderson's.
Surviving more than a decade is success.
James Nicoll
>Nicoll) wrote:
>
>
>> Gravel seems to have been seduced by the seedy world of media
>>tie-in novels but I don't see anything by him after the late 1990s.
>
>"Seedy"?
Is "tempting" better? All I know is that a number of authors
I thought were interesting committed tie-ins and either emerged less
interesting or didn't emerge at all.
Mystery is just as bad. It tempts SF's authors with readers
and paychecks and most of the time when authors make the jump we never
see them again.
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Nicoll) wrote:
>In article <80si549cjtjrqamth...@news.rcn.com>,
>Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>>On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:09:08 +0000 (UTC), jdni...@panix.com (James
>>Nicoll) wrote:
>>
>>> Gravel seems to have been seduced by the seedy world of media
>>>tie-in novels but I don't see anything by him after the late 1990s.
>>
>>"Seedy"?
>
> Is "tempting" better? All I know is that a number of authors
>I thought were interesting committed tie-ins and either emerged less
>interesting or didn't emerge at all.
Tie-ins are fast, easy money -- but they're also limiting, in that
there's a definite ceiling on the money, and there are people in a
position to tell you, "You can't do that," and make it stick.
This may mean that writers of a certain temperament -- i.e., they like
to eat regularly better than they like playing the publishing lottery
-- who get into tie-ins will stay there.
Emerging less interesting I can't explain.
> Mystery is just as bad. It tempts SF's authors with readers
>and paychecks and most of the time when authors make the jump we never
>see them again.
According to one author I've heard on the subject, the big appeal of
mystery for her is that the editors aren't sexist jerks and don't hit
on her. The money's about the same.
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Nicoll) wrote:
>In article <80si549cjtjrqamth...@news.rcn.com>,
>Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>>
>>How are you defining "successful"? Because some of these people, even
>>though they still get published, don't look sucessful to me.
>
> Well, my model of publishing is one where an author's
>first book appears to some level of praise, then the next few
>either upset the readers by not being the first book or for
>various other reasons what the author writes stops being what
>publishers or major chains want, then they fade away into
>"whatever happened to X?" discussions and the odd meeting of
>the Embittered Former Writers of America meeting. Barry Hugart's
>career arc is what I expect, not Poul Anderson's.
>
> Surviving more than a decade is success.
Oh. Okay, that's a lower bar than mine.
John M. Gamble
>
> This was published as part of Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction
>Specials series of the 1980s (The third such series but only the second
>under Carr).
>
>
>2 Neuromancer William Gibson
>
> This was also an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>
>
>4 Green Eyes Lucius Shepard
>
> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>
>
>5 Them Bones Howard Waldrop
>
> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>
>
>11 Palimpsests Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt
>
> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>
These represent all of the 1984 entries in the Ace Science Fiction
Specials (see:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Science_Fiction_Specials>).
According to Howard Waldrop, his book was going to be the first
one released, but his well-known disability to meet deadlines
interfered with that plan.
--
-john
February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.
James Nicoll
Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>On Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:04:48 +0000 (UTC), jdni...@panix.com (James
>Nicoll) wrote:
>
>>In article <80si549cjtjrqamth...@news.rcn.com>,
>>Lawrence Watt-Evans <l...@sff.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>How are you defining "successful"? Because some of these people, even
>>>though they still get published, don't look sucessful to me.
>>
>> Well, my model of publishing is one where an author's
>>first book appears to some level of praise, then the next few
>>either upset the readers by not being the first book or for
>>various other reasons what the author writes stops being what
>>publishers or major chains want, then they fade away into
>>"whatever happened to X?" discussions and the odd meeting of
>>the Embittered Former Writers of America meeting. Barry Hugart's
>>career arc is what I expect, not Poul Anderson's.
>>
>> Surviving more than a decade is success.
>
>Oh. Okay, that's a lower bar than mine.
By adopting a cynical and harshly darwinian model of publishing,
I hope to harden myself against that inevitable day when I am shown the
door from my marginal and peripheral position.
James Nicoll
John M. Gamble <jga...@ripco.com> wrote:
>In article <g3bq14$nc7$1...@reader2.panix.com>,
>James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>Best First Novel
>>
>>1 The Wild Shore Kim Stanley Robinson
>>
>[snipped down to details I want to point out, as are the other entries.]
>
>>
>> This was published as part of Terry Carr's Ace Science Fiction
>>Specials series of the 1980s (The third such series but only the second
>>under Carr).
>>
>>
>>2 Neuromancer William Gibson
>>
>> This was also an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>>
>>
>>4 Green Eyes Lucius Shepard
>>
>> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>>
>>
>>5 Them Bones Howard Waldrop
>>
>> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>>
>>
>>11 Palimpsests Carter Scholz and Glenn Harcourt
>>
>> This was an Ace Science Fiction Special.
>>
>
>These represent all of the 1984 entries in the Ace Science Fiction
>Specials (see:
><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Science_Fiction_Specials>).
>
Terry Carr was a god, although one without that handy
resurrection ability. The two greatest tragedies in SF are that
he died so young and that he never had his own imprint like DAW,
del Rey and Baen.
ronincats
regularly, so I am finding that as the decade wears on, I have more
and more of the books. This year, I have the 6 below.
> 2 Neuromancer William Gibson
>
> This is for many people the First Cyberpunk Novel. I remember
> liking it at the time but all I remember about it now is the Rastafarian
> space navy.
>
> 3 Emergence David R. Palmer
>
> This tells the story of a young superhuman girl and what she
> did after the end of the world.
>
And it was enjoyable at the time. I'm trying to decide whether to get
the new sequel.
> 7 The Riddle of the Wren Charles de Lint
>
> If I read this, I then forget it.
>
> Charles de Lint is a successful fantasy author.
> 12 The Alchemists Geary Gravel
>
> I don't know anything about this book.
>
I have this and the sequel. Scholar Emrys is on the Empire team to
judge whether a newly found planet of aliens will be safe from human
colonization, and the team is out to jinx the system. I remember
liking it mildly at the time.
>
> 13 The Game Beyond Melissa Scott
>
> I missed this. I really missed it: I thought her Silence Leigh
> books were her first books.
>
> Scott was reasonably prolific in the 1980s and 1990s but I am
> unaware of anything later than 2001.
>
I have 11 of her books, but none later than 1994.
> 14 Divine Endurance Gwyneth Jones
>
> I did not see this. I am pretty sure that she was getting
> published in the 1970s in the UK so this poll must only be for US
> publication.
>
This is the only Jones I have. I don't remember it at all. If I had
time, rereading these in the sequential order would be interesting.
Rhonda
David Cook
> On Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:09:08 +0000 (UTC), jdni...@panix.com (James
> Nicoll) wrote:
>>14 Divine Endurance Gwyneth Jones
>>
>> I did not see this. I am pretty sure that she was getting
>>published in the 1970s in the UK so this poll must only be for US
>>publication.
>>
>> Jones remains a successful author.
>>
>
> I like a lot of Jones' work, especially the shorter stuff, and some of
> her stuff I absolutely love, but I found DIVINE ENDURANCE very close
> to unreadable.
It's written in a deliberately oblique style (think Gene Wolfe) which is at
best haunting and memorable; and at worst simply annoying.
Dave Cook
David Cook
Wow, a great year. As someone else mentioned, Neuromancer doesn't really
hold up, but it's huge influence can't be denied. _Emergence_ struck me as
a novel length fan wank.
> 10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
>
> I think this is an alternate history in which Rome never fell
> but I am not even sure that I read it.
> Mitchell is still getting published but I am not sure what
> genres he works in.
There were at least two sequalae to _Procurator_, _The New Barbarians_ and
_Cry Republic_, both very entertaining, if slight. He's written mostly
mysteries (there's an ongoing "ANNA TURNIPSEED" series), which given how
much I enjoy his writing, I should try.
Dave Cook
Rich Horton
Nicoll) wrote:
>Mystery is just as bad. It tempts SF's authors with readers
>and paychecks and most of the time when authors make the jump we never
>see them again.
Though Mary Rosenblum seems to have returned.
Robert A. Woodward
nebusj-@-rpi-.edu (Joseph Nebus) wrote:
> jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) writes:
>
> >6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
>
> > I believe this involved an AI of some sort but I don't
> >remember much about it.
>
> I read this, I think, when I was sixteen and that was about
> the right age to read it. Couple computer guys doing tinkering on
> their computer put together a personality, Valentina, and there's a
> variety of antics involved with getting Valentina to be free from
> whatever perils this involves.
>
Er, not a couple of computer guys. ONE female programmer created
Valentina. Then Valentina had adventures (and gathered several
computer guys as allies).
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw>
David Goldfarb
Joseph Nebus <nebusj-@-rpi-.edu> wrote:
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) writes:
>>6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
>
>then it should have been.
In fact it was.
--
David Goldfarb |"Any questions?"
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | "Yeah. Who, what, where, and when; whither,
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | whether, whence, and wherefore; and a big
| side order of *why*." -- Hitchhiker's Guide
Andrew Wheeler
My own time in the SF salt mines started after Carr died, but my
impression is that the big difference between Carr and the set of
Wollheim, the del Reys, and Baen is that all of the latter were good at
picking and championing books that would sell really well, while Carr's
titles were likelier to be critical darlings but not as economically
successful.
--
Andrew Wheeler
John Schilling
Nicoll) wrote:
>2 Neuromancer William Gibson
> This is for many people the First Cyberpunk Novel. I remember
>liking it at the time but all I remember about it now is the Rastafarian
>space navy.
And the sky the color of a television tuned to a dead channel, of course.
There's quite a bit about this one that I half-remember, but mostly on
account of it being drafted into the Cyberpunk Archetype Legion (each
and every one of us anti-conformist in one of the standard approved
ways!), so I'm not sure how much is genuine memory of "Neuromancer"
proper.
>6 Valentina: Soul in Sapphire Joseph H. Delaney and Marc Stiegler
> I believe this involved an AI of some sort but I don't
>remember much about it.
It's a fix-up of various short works, according to the title page
all published in Analog. And all about what you'd expect from a
series of Analog novellas about the trials of a plucky AI just
trying to make her way in the modern world.
I remember it being pretty good, better than the usual emergent-AI
story, but I assume it would come across as horribly dated now.
>9 Frontera Lewis Shiner
> I know I read this but I am blanking on it.
When Penny-Pinching NASA bureacrats shut down the space program, a
band of Plucky Space Heroes refuse to abandon the Mars Colony.
Twenty years later, Evil Corporate Mercenaries from Earth come
to Mars in search of a MacGuffin I can't recall. I think you
can work out the rest.
It's the kind of story I'd have liked if the characters and the
plot weren't quite so one-dimensional as I just made them out
to be. Ah, well.
> Shiner is still a successful authors, although I think he
>might be classified as "magical realism" these days.
I think I might recall a bit of that in Frontera, even. And a bit
of cyberpunk, but since that's mostly dead these days I'm not at
all surprised that Shiner is in the MR crowd.
>17 Demon-4 David Mace
> I did not see this.
> As I recall, Mace has more than half a dozen SF novel but his SF
>career hit a snag in the early 1990s (A snag that resembles parts of A
>LIKELY STORY but without the mistresses [1]). He's still around, still
>being published in various media (Includng scripting LIFE ON MARS)
My recollection is that Mace only wrote one SF novel. A sophisticated
warcraft is on a very important mission. Seperated by distance and the
fog of war from high command, the crew have to make their own decisions
about how to proceed. Unfortunately, the crew includes HAL-9000's twin
brother, this time armed with nuclear weapons and with standing orders
to use them as he sees necessary. He has the greatest confidence and
enthusiasm in the mission...
He published that story at least three times that I know of, doing a
global search-and-replace of "warcraft" with, e.g., "surface ship",
"submarine", and "spaceship". I don't recall which one, if any,
"Demon-4" was.
If the producers are letting him anywhere near "Life on Mars", I have
to assume he's expanded his repertoire.
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William December Starr
"news.iglou.com" <jtm...@iglou.com> said:
>> 1 The Wild Shore Kim Stanley Robinson
>
> The US has been embargoed because it's a threat somehow.
>
> Part of the embargo entails flying an immense orbiting laser
> system which is tasked with destroying any bridges built in the
> US.
>
> How the world economy is able to orbit anything, much less such a
> complex system, with so much of it destroyed or crippled, is
> beyond me.
I don't recall that we saw or heard much of anything about the world
economy.
>> 10 Procurator Kirk Mitchell
>
> A bizarre mixture of traditional Rome and advanced technology.
> And other things. General Germanicus Julius is the lover of a
> Scandian colonel in the Roman Army. A female colonel, who also
> happens to be a shamaness and in communication with the Parthians.
> The army is issued with "pila" that appear to be some sort of
> firearm. Yet they still have slaves.
"Yet?"
>> 15 Elleander Morning Jerry Yulsman
>
> The shooter (a time-traveller) goes to Vienna to shoot Hitler in
> 1913.
>
> He was living in Munich by then.
>
> (I'll pass over the fact that she managed to get herself executed
> when she clearly had at least second-degree and perhaps NGI.)
Not guilty by reason of insanity, perhaps (modulo whatever Austrian
jurisprudence circa 1913 was like on the topic), but as I recall the
killing was clearly premeditated and cold-blooded, i.e., if she
_wasn't_ found to be insane then a capital-murder conviction seems
a quite reasonable outcome to me.
--
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
William December Starr
David Cook <dave...@nowhere.net> said:
> On 2008-06-19, Rich Horton <rrho...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>
>> I like a lot of [Gwyneth] Jones' work, especially the shorter
>> stuff, and some of her stuff I absolutely love, but I found
>> DIVINE ENDURANCE very close to unreadable.
>
> It's written in a deliberately oblique style (think Gene Wolfe)
> which is at best haunting and memorable; and at worst simply
> annoying.
And as I recall, in this book Jones hit both ends of that spectrum,
medium-hard.
William December Starr
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) said:
> 4 Green Eyes Lucius Shepard
>
> I don't recall anything about this except I think there were
> zombies.
A person would die, and then his eyes would turn green and he'd come
back to life -- full life, not a mentally and/or physically disabled
zombie state -- displaying a completely different identity,
personality, etc., for couple of days, and then that person would
die too and this time the body would just be dead. I can't remember
whether this condition was deliberately induced as part of some
experiment, or was a virus out in the wild, or what, but the book
mostly was about a female researcher working on it and her
relationship to (iirc) both a co-worker and one of the "zombie"
people over the course of a few days. Or something; it was a
"people" story and I didn't find it very interesting back in 1985.
> 14 Divine Endurance Gwyneth Jones
A cat (the title character) and a six-year-old girl wander from
China to India in an Earth that's suffered some sort of collapse,
probably a big war, except they're both really artificial life forms
-- very physically tough and resilient ones -- that were created as
playthings just before it all fell apart. The cat has human-level
intelligence; I can't remember what the girl's mental status was.
And David Cook nailed it when he said here that "It's written in a
deliberately oblique style (think Gene Wolfe) which is at best
haunting and memorable; and at worst simply annoying."
--
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
Richard Todd
> Gilliland's "Rosinante" trilogy had "Corporate Skakash (sp?)"
"Skaskash", IIRC.
> and "Corporate Susan Brown", two AIs that emigrate to Rosinante to
> avoid persecution of various kinds. They had used the "make a corporation"
> gimmick, iirc. Though they were also "corporate" in that they had a
> specific bit of hardware they were tied to (again, iirc).
Yeah. It was my impression that that was the standard practice in their
world for dealing with the AI issue, i.e., it wasn't just something done
by those two AIs in order to evade persecution. There are other AIs mentioned
in the series, and they're *all* Corporate so-and-so.
(And yes, you're right that the AIs all seemed tied to particular pieces of
hardware, and there was never discussion of uploading/copying the AI from
one box to another.)