Old Tea Leaf Reviews 2: 1982 Locus Poll Best First Novel
James Nicoll
I don't seem to have been reading the same books in 1982 as the people
that voted in the Locus Awards.
Best First Novel
1 Starship & Haiku S. P. Somtow
This is set after a particularly nasty nuclear war (the Moon itself
was visibly damaged). There are survivors (It would be a fairly dull
book without them) that have preserved a respectable level of technology
but all I really remember is that the Japanese turn out to be even more
special than they think they are.
We lost Somtow, then using his name in the form Somtow Sucharitkul,
first to horror and then to opera.
2 At the Eye of the Ocean Hilbert Schenck
I have absolutely no idea what this was about. I own a couple
of Schenck's books but they never clicked for me.
I believe that his fiction was critically acclaimed but that
he either stopped writing or stopped getting published at the end of
the 1980s.
One thing that I am noticing is how many of these books first
saw print as a Timescape book. In its day, Timescape was a reliably
great imprint.
3 Radix A. A. Attanasio
One of many books by Attanasio that I did not read. Happily,
readers like me have not kept him from having a long and one assumes
successful career, both under his real name and "Adam Lee."
4 The Breaking of Northwall Paul O. Williams
This is set about a thousand years after a calamity so complete
that it reduced to human population in North American to perhaps a thousand
people scattered in small groups across the continent. The populations
have rebounded enough to start coming into conflict and one young man
acts as the catalyst for some sweeping changes in local inter-tribe
relations.
My memory of Williams' career is that he had the seven books in
the Pelbar Cycle and then nothing until THE MAN FROM FAR CLOUD came
out in the early 21th century.
5 War Games Karl Hansen
A young man from an advanced but extremely decadent society
attempts to escape certain doom by joining the army so that he can be
transformed into a "combrid" for the interminable civil war on Titan.
He soon realizes that he has only made it more possible for his vision
of the future to come true and it takes him the longest time to spot
the classic flaw in prophetic visions.
There's a review at Amazon that is spot on: "It's about soldiers,"
he said. "They fight, then they have sex, then they do drugs, then they
fight some more." The book is lurid and more energetic than skillful
but it's still one of my comfort reads.
As far as I know, Hansen had some short work and two novels
published and that was it.
6 The Prince of Morning Bellsi Nancy Kress
I did not read this. Kress has had a long and successful career
in SF without the burden of having me as a fan of her work.
7 The Revolution from Rosinante Alexis Gilliland
After a space habitat bubble bursts, an engineer finds himself
in possession of a habitat and the target of a government vendetta. His
cunning technical innovations manage to destabilize the solar system's
balance of power and his determination not to be dragged off to Earth
and shot by religious crazies helps provide a continental civil war.
This was a fun little book and the whole trilogy is one of
my comfort reads.
Gilliland wrote this trilogy, a stand-alone SF novel and a
fantasy trilogy before his sales were deemed too poor to continue
publishing him. He blames his publisher, Del Rey, but has been
unable as far as I know to place his current MS.
Someone should reprint the ROSINANTE books. Heck, a Complete
Gilliland would fit into one large hard cover.
8 A Storm Upon Ulster Kenneth C. Flint
I did not read this but it seems to be a fantasty set in
mythical Ireland.
As far as I can tell, Flint published into the mid-1990s but
not since then, at least not under that name.
9 Under the City of Angels Jerry Earl Brown
I have neither read this book nor heard of the authorr. A little
light googling suggests that he had three books published, the last one
in 1990.
10 Slow Fall to Dawn Stephen Leigh
I did not read this. Leigh is still getting published, both under
his real name and as S.L. Farrell.
11 Tintagel Paul Cook
This appears to be a post-apocalytic novel where the apocalypse
was a bioweapon gone wrong. I did not read it. In fact, I think I only
ever read his DUENDE MEADOW and a few pages of THE ENGINES OF DAWN.
As far as I can tell, his career stretched from 1981 to 1999.
12 Lanark: A Life in 4 Books Alasdair Gray
Another entry in the list of books that I did not read in
1982.
Gray's career is still on-going.
13 Pilgrimage Drew Mendelson
I did not read this. I am a little surprised at how few of
these I did read.
As far as I can tell, Mendelson's career was limited to this
novel and three short stories.
14 Daystar and Shadow James B. Johnson
I did not read this.
Johnson appears to have published about half a dozen books between
1981 and 1990.
15 The Former King Adam Corby
Another author I never encountered (and this was Timescape
so I would have considered it if I had seen it).
As far as I can tell, Corby's publishing career was limited to
this book and a sequel.
15 The Tularemia Gambit Steve Perry
I never saw this.
Perry is a prolific and successful author.
--
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)
David Harmon
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote,
>9 Under the City of Angels Jerry Earl Brown
>
> I have neither read this book nor heard of the authorr. A little
>light googling suggests that he had three books published, the last one
>in 1990.
I have it. I remember that I liked it, but that was a long time ago
and I don't remember much more. Title refers to Los Angeles CA.
Lawrence Watt-Evans
Nicoll) wrote:
> Someone should reprint the ROSINANTE books. Heck, a Complete
>Gilliland would fit into one large hard cover.
Not if you include his cartoons.
>13 Pilgrimage Drew Mendelson
>
> I did not read this. I am a little surprised at how few of
>these I did read.
I didn't do any better.
--
My webpage is at http://www.watt-evans.com
The eighth issue of Helix is now at http://www.helixsf.com
David DeLaney
>3 Radix A. A. Attanasio
>
> One of many books by Attanasio that I did not read. Happily,
>readers like me have not kept him from having a long and one assumes
>successful career, both under his real name and "Adam Lee."
I have it, and have read it at least twice, but did not recall its subject
matter at all. Wiki sez "Radix is the story of a young man's odyssey of
self-discovery, from dangerous adolescent to warrior, from outcast to
near-godhood, in a far-future Earth dramatically changed from the one we know."
and I know I like Attanasio's stuff in that area, so I believe I liked it.
Dave "I also do not remember the vast majority of these books for this year"
DeLaney
--
\/David DeLaney posting from d...@vic.com "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
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Gene
news:slrng5g27...@gatekeeper.vic.com:
> I have it, and have read it at least twice, but did not recall its subject
> matter at all.
It was on the weird side, which may be why. Recall the Sugerrat?
David DeLaney
>d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote in
>> matter at all.
>
>It was on the weird side, which may be why. Recall the Sugerrat?
Nnnno. I'll get to it again at some point, but my Attanasio is currently
in an unreachable position for me (both hardback and paperback) without
extensive exercise.
Dave
lal_truckee
>
>
> I don't seem to have been reading the same books in 1982 as the people
> that voted in the Locus Awards.
I don't even recognize the names.
The 1981 list I read some nominated books and recognized several more
authors from future output. Interesting. Bring on 1983 - maybe it
alternates.
Rich Horton
Nicoll) wrote:
>Best First Novel
>
>2 At the Eye of the Ocean Hilbert Schenck
>
>
> I have absolutely no idea what this was about. I own a couple
>of Schenck's books but they never clicked for me.
>
> I believe that his fiction was critically acclaimed but that
>he either stopped writing or stopped getting published at the end of
>the 1980s.
>
I didn't read this book but I found his short stories quite enjoyable.
He hasn't published anything since 1993 according to the ISFDB, but he
seems to still be alive. He's 82, however.
His first story was in F&SF in 1953 -- in one of a random selection of
early 50s issues I bought back when I was first getting heavily into
old SF magazines. It's called "Tomorrow's Weather" and if memory
serves it's about the weather report after a nuclear war. It was IIRC
the token "Nuclear war" story that issue -- as far as I can tell, in
that time frame there was a law requiring all science fiction
magazines to include at least one story about nuclear war or its
aftermath per issue.
> One thing that I am noticing is how many of these books first
>saw print as a Timescape book. In its day, Timescape was a reliably
>great imprint.
>
Absolutely.
>
>5 War Games Karl Hansen
>
> A young man from an advanced but extremely decadent society
>attempts to escape certain doom by joining the army so that he can be
>transformed into a "combrid" for the interminable civil war on Titan.
>He soon realizes that he has only made it more possible for his vision
>of the future to come true and it takes him the longest time to spot
>the classic flaw in prophetic visions.
>
> There's a review at Amazon that is spot on: "It's about soldiers,"
>he said. "They fight, then they have sex, then they do drugs, then they
>fight some more." The book is lurid and more energetic than skillful
>but it's still one of my comfort reads.
>
> As far as I know, Hansen had some short work and two novels
>published and that was it.
>
I liked this novel but I don't think he had anything else worthwhile
in him.
>
>6 The Prince of Morning Bellsi Nancy Kress
>
> I did not read this. Kress has had a long and successful career
>in SF without the burden of having me as a fan of her work.
>
I believe this to be rather atypical of Kress, who is very good at her
best (which is generally her shorter work).
>12 Lanark: A Life in 4 Books Alasdair Gray
>
> Another entry in the list of books that I did not read in
>1982.
>
> Gray's career is still on-going.
>
>
Gray is a Scottish writer who publishes in the mainstream -- a
significant influence on Iain Banks (less so perhaps on Iain M.
Banks).
news.iglou.com
news:g38mka$slk$1...@reader2.panix.com...
>
>
> I don't seem to have been reading the same books in 1982 as the people
> that voted in the Locus Awards.
Me neither. But 1982 was one of my years of poverty.
>
> 7 The Revolution from Rosinante Alexis Gilliland
>
> After a space habitat bubble bursts, an engineer finds himself
ISTR it was the financing what burst.
> Someone should reprint the ROSINANTE books. Heck, a Complete
> Gilliland would fit into one large hard cover.
He is trying to get them put up on line.
>
> 14 Daystar and Shadow James B. Johnson
>
> I did not read this.
>
> Johnson appears to have published about half a dozen books between
> 1981 and 1990.
How many fantasy adventure novels were there that had titles of the
format "<Hero> and <Sidekick>"? It was almost as bad as the "Conan the
<Noun>" novels that marked his transformation into Generic Musclebound
Fantasy Hero.
>
> 15 The Tularemia Gambit Steve Perry
The title makes me ill. Har har har.
Joseph T Major
Robert A. Woodward
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:
>
>
> I don't seem to have been reading the same books in 1982 as the people
> that voted in the Locus Awards.
>
>
> Best First Novel
<SNIP>
>
> 4 The Breaking of Northwall Paul O. Williams
>
> This is set about a thousand years after a calamity so complete
> that it reduced to human population in North American to perhaps a thousand
> people scattered in small groups across the continent. The populations
> have rebounded enough to start coming into conflict and one young man
> acts as the catalyst for some sweeping changes in local inter-tribe
> relations.
>
And his "reward" for this was that he didn't appear in that many of
the sequels. The main character in the 2nd book appeared more often
(to my dismay, because I liked that young man better).
> My memory of Williams' career is that he had the seven books in
> the Pelbar Cycle and then nothing until THE MAN FROM FAR CLOUD came
> out in the early 21th century.
>
There was another book from Del Rey, _The Gifts of the Gorboduc
Vandal_ (1989).
<SNIP>
>
>
> 14 Daystar and Shadow James B. Johnson
>
> I did not read this.
>
I have. Post-apocalypse (I can't remember the cause) and, IIRC,
some of the action takes place in Carlsbad Caverns and Cheyenne
Mountain. Autism appears as well.
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw>
William December Starr
Gene <ge...@chewbacca.org> said:
> d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) wrote in
> news:slrng5g27...@gatekeeper.vic.com:
[ re RADIX ]
>> I have it, and have read it at least twice, but did not recall
>> its subject matter at all.
>
> It was on the weird side,
Are there A.A. Attanasio books to which that phrase does not apply?
--
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
William December Starr
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) said:
> We lost Somtow, then using his name in the form Somtow
> Sucharitkul, first to horror and then to opera.
"But I repeat myself..."
> 5 War Games Karl Hansen
>
> A young man from an advanced but extremely decadent society
> attempts to escape certain doom by joining the army so that he can
> be transformed into a "combrid" for the interminable civil war on
> Titan. He soon realizes that he has only made it more possible
> for his vision of the future to come true and it takes him the
> longest time to spot the classic flaw in prophetic visions.
Which is?
William December Starr
d...@gatekeeper.vic.com (David DeLaney) said:
>> 3 Radix A. A. Attanasio
>
> I have it, and have read it at least twice, but did not recall its
> subject matter at all. Wiki sez "Radix is the story of a young
> man's odyssey of self-discovery, from dangerous adolescent to
> warrior, from outcast to near-godhood, in a far-future Earth
> dramatically changed from the one we know." and I know I like
> Attanasio's stuff in that area, so I believe I liked it.
Oh, I think that's the other Attanasio (in addition to THE LAST
LEGENDS OF EARTH) that I've read, but I'd totally forgotten the
title. I liked the source/cause of the dramatically changed Earth:
the Solar system had moved through the path of information that was
being emitted from a naked singularity. (The singularity _was_
properly nested inside a black hole, but it was rod-shaped and long
enough that its ends protruded out of the hole's event horizon. If
either end of it was pointed at you, well, big trouble ahead.) Also
the Earth's magnetic field had flipped, which iirc was evident only
in the sketchy maps in the book, but that was a minor concern
compared to general weirdness afoot.
Konrad Gaertner
Prophecies come true solely because of attempts to prevent them
(see Oedipus).
--
Konrad Gaertner - - - - - - - - - - - - email: kgae...@tx.rr.com
http://kgbooklog.livejournal.com/
"I don't mind hidden depths but I insist that there be a surface."
-- James Nicoll
James Nicoll
seeing.
David Goldfarb
Konrad Gaertner <kgae...@tx.rr.com> wrote:
>Prophecies come true solely because of attempts to prevent them
>(see Oedipus).
I can think of plenty of prophecies of which no attempt was made
to prevent them, but which came true anyway. (There's tons of
Trojan War fanfic in which a prophet tells the Greeks "You cannot
attain victory until you do..." what the original story had them
doing anyway.)
I recently encountered an instance of a prophecy that was in fact
averted. It was prophesied that Skamandrios, called Astyanax,
the son of Hektor, would grow up to destroy Greece in revenge
for the Trojan War. Agamemnon failed to realize that proper form
in these matters to have the infant exposed -- instead, he just had
the child thrown from the top of the city walls. This was effective.
--
David Goldfarb |"Neckties are Satanic symbols. They represent
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu |Judas's noose. Those who wear neckties signify
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu |their identification with the man who betrayed
|Our Lord." -- IHCOYC XPICTOC on alt.gothic
Joy Beeson
Nicoll) wrote:
> 6 The Prince of Morning Bellsi Nancy Kress
>
> I did not read this. Kress has had a long and successful career
> in SF without the burden of having me as a fan of her work.
It is a serious send-up of the quest novel. For example, when the
hero begins her adventure, she realizes on her very first day that
velvet was not a suitable fabric for her traveling costume. She
loses other adolescent ideas along the way, including a really big one
at the end, but after all these years all I can remember is <spoiler>.
And that I liked the book very much. <checks> My local library has
ten of her novels and four of her short works. Not one of which I've
heard of. (Well, I don't know which shorts.) (And on second glance,
"Beggars in Spain" sounds familiar.)
Joy Beeson
--
joy beeson at comcast dot net
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