2 – I Am Legend – Richard Matheson

3 – Cities in Flight – James Blish

4 – Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Philip K. Dick

5 – The Stars My Destination – Alfred Bester

6 – Babel-17 – Samuel R. Delany

7 – Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny

8 – The Fifth Head of Cerberus – Gene Wolfe

9 – Gateway – Frederik Pohl

10 – The Rediscovery of Man – Cordwainer Smith

11 – Last and First Men – Olaf Stapledon

12 – Earth Abides – George R. Stewart

13 – Martian Time-Slip – Philip K. Dick

14 – The Demolished Man – Alfred Bester

15 – Stand on Zanzibar – John Brunner

16 – The Dispossessed – Ursula K. Le Guin

17 – The Drowned World – J. G. Ballard

18 – The Sirens of Titan – Kurt Vonnegut

19 – Emphyrio – Jack Vance

20 – A Scanner Darkly – Philip K. Dick

21 – Star Maker – Olaf Stapledon

22 – Behold the Man – Michael Moorcock

23 – The Book of Skulls – Robert Silverberg

24 – The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds – H. G. Wells

25 – Flowers for Algernon – Daniel Keyes

26 – Ubik – Philip K. Dick

27 – Timescape – Gregory Benford

28 – More Than Human – Theodore Sturgeon

29 – Man Plus – Frederik Pohl

30 – A Case of Conscience – James Blish

31 – The Centauri Device – M. John Harrison

32 – Dr. Bloodmoney – Philip K. Dick

33 – Non-Stop – Brian Aldiss

34 – The Fountains of Paradise – Arthur C. Clarke

35 – Pavane – Keith Roberts

36 – Now Wait for Last Year – Philip K. Dick

37 – Nova – Samuel R. Delany

38 – The First Men in the Moon – H. G. Wells

39 – The City and the Stars – Arthur C. Clarke

40 – Blood Music – Greg Bear

41 – Jem – Frederik Pohl

42 – Bring the Jubilee – Ward Moore

43 – VALIS – Philip K. Dick

44 – The Lathe of Heaven – Ursula K. Le Guin

45 – The Complete Roderick – John Sladek

46 – Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said – Philip K. Dick

47 – The Invisible Man – H. G. Wells

48 – Grass – Sheri S. Tepper

49 – A Fall of Moondust – Arthur C. Clarke

50 – Eon – Greg Bear

51 – The Shrinking Man – Richard Matheson

52 – The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch – Philip K. Dick

53 – The Dancers at the End of Time – Michael Moorcock

54 – The Space Merchants – Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth

55 – Time Out of Joint – Philip K. Dick

56 – Downward to the Earth – Robert Silverberg

57 – The Simulacra – Philip K. Dick

58 – The Penultimate Truth – Philip K. Dick

59 – Dying Inside – Robert Silverberg

60 – Ringworld – Larry Niven

61 – The Child Garden – Geoff Ryman

62 – Mission of Gravity – Hal Clement

63 – A Maze of Death – Philip K. Dick

64 – Tau Zero – Poul Anderson

65 – Rendezvous with Rama – Arthur C. Clarke

66 – Life During Wartime – Lucius Shepard

67 – Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang – Kate Wilhelm

68 – Roadside Picnic – Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

69 – Dark Benediction – Walter M. Miller, Jr.

70 – Mockingbird – Walter Tevis

71 – Dune – Frank Herbert

72 – The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress – Robert A. Heinlein

73 – The Man in the High Castle – Philip K. Dick

74 – Inverted World – Christopher Priest

75 – Kurt Vonnegut – Cat’s Cradle

76 – H.G. Wells – The Island of Dr. Moreau

77 – Arthur C. Clarke – Childhood’s End

78 – H.G. Wells – The Time Machine

79 – Samuel R. Delany – Dhalgren (July 2010)

80 – Brian Aldiss – Helliconia (August 2010)

81 – H.G. Wells – Food of the Gods (Sept. 2010)

82 – Jack Finney – The Body Snatchers (Oct. 2010)

83 – Joanna Russ – The Female Man (Nov. 2010)

84 – M.J. Engh – Arslan (Dec. 2010)

Available June 22, 2010
ECCO/Harper Collins
254 pages
$23.99

Larry Doyle is the author of I Love You Beth Cooper and a former writer on the team that weekly brings us The Simpsons. It should come as no surprise then that his latest novel – Go Mutants – is hilarious. Humorous even. Side-splittingly funny, to borrow a phrase older than LOL, which is fitting since most of the action takes place in an ersatz, alternate-reality fifties-esque reality.

Go Mutants is much more than a funny science fiction tale though. It is a glorious, messy, convoluted mish-mash and send up of:

Cold war America
Fifties and sixties era music
Teenaged angUFOology
Armageddon (almost)
Sexual repression in puritanical America
And fifties era B grade horror and science fiction films.

Every Single One of them.

Literally. I’ve got a pretty good head and memory for most of the classic films in those genres – not to mention a special place in my heart for the really cheesy ones – and although I’ve not yet sat down to catalog each and every reference, I know that Larry himself is currently doing so (the index will be appearing on his fabulous website for the novel – www.larrydoyle.com) and every challenge I’ve tossed in his direction has been met with a page number and a paragraph.

Half the fun of reading Go Mutants is finding out just how many of these cultural touchstones you can catch – from Gort (The Day the Earth Stood Still) who’s day job is not one you’d expect, all the way through to The Man From Planet X and The Creature From the Black Lagoon (soon to be appearing at drive-ins in your town!)

Doyle isn’t satisfied with riffing off of old films only; there’s a wealth of references to early rock-n-roll, television shows, political personalities and happenings, all woven together like the largest, tightest, knottiest ball of string you’ve ever seen.

All of this would be more than enough for any fan of genre classics, but Doyle’s encyclopedia of twisted history merely serves as the backdrop for a multi-layered tale of teen angst, coming of age, acceptance and redemption, sex, love, politics and sex. (Did I mention sex?)

Go Mutants takes place in the town of Manhattan and at Manhattan High, where J!m (not a typo) is wrestling with his identity, his place in the world, his personal relationships with girl friends, wannabe girl friends, friends and bullies.

J!m feels alienated like any teenager should. Especially when that teenager is an alien, complete with oily blue skin, random snaky appendages and a bulging, translucent cranium. J!m has decided that since he doesn’t fit in, he’s not going to bother even trying. He’ll just mark time until graduation, after which he hopes to go to film school where he’ll specialize in B Grade gore fests. (The novel could in fact be one of J!m’s scripts.)

Our alien hero’s problems are not entirely due to raging teen hormones, identity crises and agonizing self-examination though. J!m’s problems are complicated by the fact that his father really did try to destroy the Earth after delivering ye olde proclamation from orbit. At least that’s what the PLEX (Doyle’s annoying and advertising-laden standin for the internet) says.

We soon learn that J!m’s father was captured, or killed, or captured and then killed (history has a way of getting muddled in the PLEX) through the liberal use of ATOMIC WEAPONS!

And this is where the novel really begins to shine. Doyle takes America’s love-hate relationship with the bomb and turns it into a saccharine love-love relationship, positing a world in which nuclear armageddon has come and gone and left a wild beach party in its wake.

The book is also biting (fang and tentacle-driven biting) satire of our current society. Consider all of the definitions there are for ‘alien’, throw in a fifties world in which sexual repression simply does not exist (as if the world went straight from Ozzie and Harriet to Woodstock with no stops in between), throw in a dash or two of unabashed American Imperialism and you’ll get some idea of where Doyle is heading and what he has to say.

The pacing is fabulous: had I not been interrupted by mundane concerns, I’d have been able to finish this off in a single sitting (and I wanted to!). I also wanted to mention that Doyle has a fine way with puns (he hallmark of a really good SF comedy). One of them floored me with simultaneous laughter and groans.

Further details deponent sayeth not. Except to note that I was almost as thrilled with the typography, layout and cover art as I was with the story. It was meant to evoke late nite at the drive in double feature (B horror flicks naturally) and did an admirable job of conveying that feel.

Go Mutants is not only destined to be appearing at a (drive in) theater near you, I expect it’s going to be nominated for not a few awards along the way. Don’t miss this one, or Larry Doyle will melt your brain!

And don’t forget to visit Larry’s “world’s most needlessly elaborate book website”

Norm is one of my ‘new wave faves’ (anyone who can write the alt history/SF tale The Iron Dream as a stand-in for Hitler the SF author is doing something special); I’m still amazed that no one has put a political/interview show on TV arranged like the show in Bug Jack Barron!

Men in the Jungle, Riding the Torch, A World Between and his later works. Norman has a VIEW of things that is entirely different and amazing to be let in on through his writings.

I’m very glad to see that he has a positive prognosis and wish him a speedy recovery.

~~~

The Big Paintball Project is back in the negotiations phase and is closing in on being completed. Life-changing this will be, seriously, if it goes through. Been here before, so I’m tamping down on my expectations (which may be requiring more energy than actually working on the project). This phase does not require my active participation (except for emergency phone calls at any hour, lol), so I’m able to return here and devote a few minutes. Speaking of which:

IO9 (which I do read occasionally – hey, I’m not immune to train wrecks) has been running a series of pieces on ‘the best year of SF’. Presumably based on films released. Today they covered 1968 which included Planet of the Apes and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Serendipitously, Bob Eggleton (master artist of all things fantastical and who’s work I hope to own originals of some day) mentioned that one of his favorite flicks is the mid-seventies film Silent Running. (Which is linked to on the Class SF Channel btw).

The thread that connects both IO9 and Bob’s post on Facebook are the comments from what I believe to be the younger crowd. (Ankle biters, every one!), which are ye tired olde ‘it’s old! it’s dated! it’s slow! It’s CRAP!’

I currently lack the resources to conduct a survey of proper magnitude, but the back of my brain is itching with the theory that there really is something to the idea that post CGI/MTV aged audiences either:

lack the ability to inject their own imagination into a story
have been educated to passively receive
have been born into an era of such sensory overload that they actually experience sensory deprivation when watching older materials

or any combination thereof, which would be an explanation as to why there is such a seemingly sharp divide between fans on a generational basis (exceptions accepted).

Of course, I’m guessing at the ages of those who comment (though it’s pretty easy to guess that the commentor who identified 1968 as ‘the year we landed on the moon’ was not around when we did land on the moon in 1969) and it’s also pretty easy to guess that anyone who makes the statement that 2001: A Space Odyssey ‘wasted time on playing music while we watched a spaceship dock at a spacestation’ did not watch the movie when originally released.

Usually accompanying the negative comments is a dismissal out of hand, an entrenched ‘anything created before I was born is not worth wasting time on’, which is what pisses me off more than just about any other aspect of the whole thing. That attitude prevents real discussion and education from taking place.

The participant who complained about how slow 2001 was will never bother to do a little background checking, he/she won’t ever have a chance to learn that this was in theaters as the country was preparing for the greatest adventure that mankind had ever engaged in and that (among other things) Kubrick was showing us all where the Apollo program would be leading us – to wheeled space stations, Pan Am space shuttles and missions to Jupiter.

Failing to look this up, said participant will never be in a position to even begin to appreciate the historical context of the film and will continue to dismiss it – for all of the wrong reasons.

~~~

The other bone I have to pick with the pundits at IO9 this morning is that the piece tries to connect the films released in 1968 to the cultural events taking place at the same time.

1968 was a year of social upheaval — student protests and civil rights activists challenged the status quo around the globe. In the realm of science fiction, posthuman forces upended human hegemony. This is not to suggest that all these scifi works were cut from the same ideological cloth as the progressive movements, but it’s rather uncanny how the humanity of 1968’s speculative fiction — hobbled by its own hubris and technology — gave up the mantle of alpha species.

The films they list are: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes and Night of the Living Dead, Charly. Fiction listed is: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream and Ironman’s own book.

Hmm. Let’s see. “…After various false starts and twelve-hour talkathons, by early May 1964 Stanley agreed that “The Sentinel” would provide good story material” (Clarke from The Making of 2001).

The Sentinal was published in 1948. I don’t think any of the other stories used or considered were published after 1957 or so.

Planet of the Apes was published in 1963 and has a much more 50s sensibility about it than a 60s one.

Charly is based on the short story (made into a novel) Flowers For Algernon, which was written in 1958.

My first, overall and final comment is: I guess someone forgot that it takes time to make movies and that the year they are released is hardly ever the year that they were conceived.

I’m not surprised at the way the graph looks.  My off the cuff explanation of the general ‘U’ shape is that most of the contributors have been exposed (in one fashion or another) to a grounding in the classics and believe, as did their educators, that those early works are seminal and important.  Almost to an individual, each recommended at least one work from the early years.

The second peak comprising much later works represents what is current and immediate; each contributor also listed a contemporary work or two.

Here’s the graph:

All of the works (including the individual contents of anthologies, collections and fix-ups) are included below.

Fun stuff.

I discovered what may be a working formula for determining someone’s age based on the books they recommend.

Interestingly enough, it incorporates the “the golden age of science fiction is 12/16″ quip.

It does include a fudge factor, but a reasonable one I think.  Here’s how the formula works.

Ask someone to recommend the ten SF works that “ought to be on everyone’s bookshelf”

Look up their original publications dates.

Throw out any obvious “outliers” (like the one novel from 1818 or some such)

Average out the rest.

Subtract 12 or 16 from the result (I prefer 16 since that’s the version of the saying I first heard)

The resulting year will be pretty darned close to that person’s birthdate.

I did two “test cases” using Jim Freund’s and Jennifer Marie Brissett’s lists.  Jim I know, Jennifer, not at all.

Jim’s result was 1955.  Jennifer’s was 1985.

Jim was actually born just a couple of year’s earlier.  Jennifer’s b-day is not publicly available, but her background info mentions that she’s a graduate student, so there’s a good possibility that ‘85 is also within a couple of years.  (Only Jennifer knows for sure, lol).

Try it for yourselves and let me know how it works out.

Expanded SF Bookshelf Recommendations list

1800s Five

1818 Frankenstein – Shelley
1845 The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
1869 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Verne
1887 The Goophered Grapevine (Darkmatter – Chestnutt) – Thomas
1895 The Time Machine – Wells
1898 The War of the Worlds – Wells

1920s One

1920 The Comet (Darkmatter – Du Bois) – Thomas

1930s Ten

1931 Black No More (Darkmatter – Schuyler) – Thomas
1933 Shambleau (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1934 Black Thirst (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1934 The Bright Illusion (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1934 The Black God’s Kiss (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1936 Tryst in Time (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1937 Star Maker – Stapledon
1939 Misfit (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1939 Life-Line (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1939 Greater Than Gods (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore

1940s Fifty Six

1940 Robbie (I, Robot) – Asimov
1940 The Roads Must Roll (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1940 Requiem (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1940 If This Goes On (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1940 Coventry (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1940 Blowups Happen (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1940 Fruit of Knowledge (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1941 Reason (I, Robot) – Asimov
1941 Liar! (I, Robot) – Asimov
1941 Universe (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1941 Methuselah’s Children (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1941 Logic of Empire (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1941 – We Also Walk Dogs (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1942 The Encyclopedists (Foundation) – Asimov
1942 Bridle and Saddle (Foundation) – Asimov
1942 Runaround (I, Robot) – Asimov
1944 Catch That Rabbit (I, Robot) – Asimov
1944 The Wedge (Foundation) – Asimov
1944 The Big and the Little (Foundation) – Asimov
1944 No Woman Born (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1944 Census (City) – Simak
1944 Desertion (City) – Simak
1944 Huddling Place (City) – Simak
1945 Dead Hand (Foundation and Empire) – Asimov
1945 The Mule (Foundation and Empire) – Asimov
1945 Escape! (I, Robot) – Asimov
1945 The Watchers (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1946 Evidence (I, Robot) – Asimov
1946 The Million-Year Picnic (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1946 Daemon (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1946 Vintage Season (The Best of C. L. Moore) – C L Moore
1946 Hobbies (City) – Simak
1946 Paradise (City) – Simak
1947 Little Lost Robot (I, Robot) – Asimov
1947 Rocket Summer (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1947 Interim (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1947 Space Jockey (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1947 It’s Great To Be Back (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1947 The Green Hills of Earth (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1947 Aesop (City) – Simak
1948 Now You See It – (Second Foundation) – Asimov
1948 The Earthmen (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1948 Mars is Heaven (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1948 And the Moon Be Still As Bright (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1948 The Off Season (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1948 Dwellers in Silence (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1948 Ordeal in Space (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1948 The Long Watch (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1948 Gentlemen, Be Seated (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1948 The Black Pits of Luna (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1949 And Now You Don’t (Second Foundation) – Asimov
1949 The Summer Night (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1949 The Martian (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1949 The Silent Towns (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1949 Delilah and the Space Rigger (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1949 1984 – Orwell

1950s Fifty

1950 And Now You Don’t (Second Foundation) – Asimov
1950 The Evitable Conflict (I, Robot) – Asimov
1950 The Taxpayer (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 Ylla (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Settlers (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Green Morning (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 Night Meeting (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Locusts (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Shore (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Musicians (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 Way in the Middle of the Air (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Naming of Names (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 Usher II (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Old Ones (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Luggage Store (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 There Will Come Soft Rains (The Martian Chronicles) – Bradbury
1950 The Martian Chronicles (Collection) – Bradbury
1940 The Man Who Sold the Moon (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1950 Report on the Barnhouse Effect (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1950 Epicac (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1951 Foundation (Collected The Foundation Series) – Asimov******
1951 The Foster Portfolio (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1951 All the King’s Horses (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1951 More Stately Mansions (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1951 The Euphio Question (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1951 The Day of the Triffids – Wyndham
1952 Foundation and Empire (Collected The Foundation Series) – Asimov
1952 The Trouble with Ants (City) – Simak
1952 City (collected works & new material) – Simak
1953 Second Foundation (Collected The Foundation Series) Asimov
1953 Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury
1953 The Sword of Rhiannon – Brackett
1953 Childhood’s End – Clarke
1953 Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1953 D.P. (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1955 Next Door (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1955 Deer in the Works (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1955 The Kid Nobody Could Handle (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1954 The Caves of Steel – Asimov
1954 Adam (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1954 Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1956 The Stars My Destination – Bester
1956 Miss Temptation (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1957 The Menace From Earth (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1958 Needle – Clement
1958 Have Spacesuit, Will Travel – Heinlein
1958 The Manned Missiles (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1959 Starship Troopers – Heinlein
1959 Flowers For Algernon (short) – Keyes
1959 A Canticle for Leibowitz – Miller

1960s Thirty Five

1960 Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
1960 Long Walk to Forever (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1961 Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein
1961 Harrison Bergeron (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1961 Who Am I This Time? (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1962 A Clockwork Orange – Burgess
1962 The Man in the High Castle – Dick
1962 Ubik – Dick
1962 Searchlight (The Past Through Tomorrow) – Heinlein
1962 A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle
1962 They Walked Like Men – Simak
1962 Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1962 The Lie (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1963 Way Station – Simak
1964 Where I Live (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1965 The Maker of Universes (World of Tiers) – Farmer******
1965 Dune – Herbert
1966 The Gates of Creation (World of Tiers) – Farmer
1966 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Heinlein
1966 Flowers For Algernon (novel) – Keyes
1966 New Dictionary (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1967 Aye, And Gomorrah (Darkmatter – Delaney) – Thomas
1967 The Past Through Tomorrow (collection) – Heinlein*
1967 Weyr Search (Dragonflight) – McCaffrey
1967 Dragonflight (Dragonflight) – McCaffrey
1967 Lord of Light – Zelazny
1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Dick
1968 A Private Cosmos (World of Tiers) – Farmer
1968 Dragonflight (fix-up collected in Dragonriders of Pern) – McCaffrey
1968 Pavane – Roberts
1968 Welcome to the Monkey House (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1968 Welcome to the Monkey House (collection) – Vonnegut
1968 The Hyannis Port Story (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1968 Unready to Wear (Welcome to the Monkey House) – Vonnegut
1969 The Left Hand of Darkness – Le Guin

1970s Twenty

1970 Behind the Walls of Terra (World of Tiers) – Farmer
1970 Dragonquest (Dragonriders of Pern) – McCaffrey
1973 Epilog (City) – Simak
1973 The Death of Doctor Island (The Locus Awards – Wolfe) – Brown/Strahan
1974 Dhalgren – Delaney
1974 The Forever War – Haldeman
1975 The Day Before the Revolution (The Locus Awards – Le Guin) – Brown/Strahan
1974 Ark of Bones (Darkmatter – Dumas) – Thomas
1974 The Dispossessed – Le Guin
1974 The Cyberiad – Lem
1976 Mindbridge – Haldeman
1977 Jefty is Five (The Locus Awards – Ellison) – Brown/Strahan
1977 The Lavalite World (World of Tiers) – Farmer
1977 The Best of C L Moore – Moore*
1978 Cassandra (Women of Wonder – Cherryh) – Sargent
1978 White Dragon (Dragonriders of Pern) – McCaffrey
1978 The Persistence of Vision (The Locus Awards – Varley) – Brown/Strahan
1979 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Adams
1979 The Way of Cross and Dragon (The Locus Awards – Martin) – Brown/Strahan
1979 The Thaw (Women of Wonder – Lee) – Sargent

1980s Thirty Five

1980 Abominable (Women of Wonder – Emshwiller) – Sargent
1980 Scorched Supper on New Niger (Women of Wonder – Charnas) – Sargent
1980 Riddley Walker – Hoban
1981 Valis – Dick
1981 Bluewater Dreams (Women of Wonder – Van Scyock) – Sargent
1982 The Complete Robot – Asimov*
1982 Souls (The Locus Awards – Russ) – Brown/Strahan
1982 The Cabinet of Edgar Allen Poe (Women of Wonder – Carter) – Sargent
1982 Future Christmas (Darkmatter – Reed) – Thomas
1983 The Harvest of Wolves (Women of Wonder – Gentle) – Sargent
1984 Bloodchild (Women of Wonder – Butler) – Sargent & (The Locus Awards – Varley) – Brown/Strahan
1984 The Final Reflection – Ford**
1984 Neuromancer – Gibson
1984 Fears (Women of Wonder – Sargent) – Sargent
1984 Gimmile’s Son (Darkmatter – Saunders) – Thomas
1985 Ender’s Game – Card****
1985 Webrider (Women of Wonder – Carr) – Sargent
1985 The Only Neat Thing To Do (The Locus Awards – Tiptree) – Brown/Strahan
1986 Shards of Honor (Miles Vorkosigan saga) – Bujold
1986 Ethan of Athos (Miles Vorkosigan saga) – Bujold
1986 The Warrior’s Apprentice (Miles Vorkosigan saga) – Bujold
1986 Reichs Peace (Women of Wonder – Finch) – Sargent
1986 Alexia and Graham Bell (Women of Wonder – Love) – Sargent
1986 The Dragonriders of Pern (omnibus) – McCaffrey
1986 Soldier of the Mist – Wolfe
1987 The Evening and the Morning and the Night (Darkmatter – Butler) – Thomas
1987 Rachel in Love (Women of Wonder – Cadigan) – Sargent & (The Locus Awards – Varley) – Brown/Strahan
1987 Angel (Women of Wonder – Cadigan) – Sargent
1988 The Scalehunter’s Beautiful Daughter (The Locus Awards – Shepard ) – Brown/Strahan
1989 Game Night at the Fox and Goose (Women of Wonder – Fowler) – Sargent
1989 Tiny Tango (Women of Wonder – Moffett) – Sargent
1989 Grass – Tepper
1989 At The Rialto (Women of Wonder – Willis) – Sargent

1990s Thirty

1990 Use of Weapons – Banks
1990 Bears Discover Fire (The Locus Awards – Bisson) – Brown/Strahan
1990 Midnight News (Women of Wonder – Goldstein) – Sargent
1991 Immaculate (Women of Wonder – Constantine) – Sargent
1991 Buffalo (The Locus Awards – Kessel) – Brown/Strahan
1991 And While For To Hold (Women of Wonder – Kress) – Sargent
1991 A Fire Upon the Deep – Vinge
1992 The Space Traders (Darkmatter – Bell) – Thomas
1992 China Mountain Zhang – McHugh
1992 Red Mars – Robinson
1992 Even the Queen (The Locus Awards – Willis) – Brown/Strahan
1993 More Than Fire (World of Tiers) – Farmer
1993 Farming in Virginia (Women of Wonder – Ore) – Sargent
1994 Yet Do I Wonder (Darkmatter – Miller) – Thomas
1995 The Monophonic Response (Darkmatter – Butler) – Thomas
1995 Women of Wonder (anthology) – Sargent
1995 Diamond Age – Stephenson
1996 Rhythm Travel (Darkmatter – Baraka) – Thomas
1996 Gone (The Locus Awards – Crowley) – Brown/Strahan
1996 The Stone Canal – MacLeod
1996 Buddy Bolden (Darkmatter – Salaam) – Thomas
1996 Bellwether – Willis
1997 To Say Nothing of the Dog – Willis
1998 Racism and Science Fiction (Darkmatter – Delaney) – Thomas (non-fiction)
1998 Maneki Neko (The Locus Awards – Sterling) – Brown/Strahan
1998 Six Moon Dance – Tepper
1998 Dark Matter – Thomas*
1999 Border Guards (The Locus Awards – Egan) – Brown/Strahan
1999 Black to the Future (Darkmatter – Mosley) – Thomas (non-fiction)
1999 Starfish – Watts

2000s Thirty Nine

2000 Twice, at Once, Separated (Darkmatter – Addison) – Thomas
2000 The Woman in the Wall (Darkmatter – Barnes) – Thomas
2000 Lilith’s Brood – Butler******
2000 Parable of the Sower – Butler
2000 Like Daughter (Darkmatter – Due) – Thomas
2000 The Astral Visitor Delta Blues (Darkmatter – Feming) – Thomas
2000 Chicago 1927 (Darkmatter – Gomez) – Thomas
2000 The Becoming (Darkmatter – Hope) – Thomas
2000 Greedy Choke Puppy (Darkmatter – Hopkinson) – Thomas
2000 Ganger (Ball Lightning) (Darkmatter – Hopkinson) – Thomas
2000 The African Origins of UFOs (Darkmatter – Joseph) – Thomas
2000 Butta’s Backyard Barbecue (Darkmatter – Medina) – Thomas
2000 Hussy Strutt (Darkmatter – Patterson) – Thomas
2000 The Pretended (Darkmatter – Smith) – Thomas
2000 Sister Lilith (Darkmatter – Jeffers) – Thomas
2000 Tasting Songs (Darkmatter – Ross) – Thomas
2000 At Life’s Limits (Darkmatter – Salaam) – Thomas
2000 Can You Wear My Eyes (Darkmatter – Salaam) – Thomas
2000 Calculating God – Sawyer
2000 At the Huts of Ajala (Darkmatter – Shawl) – Thomas
2000 separation anxiety (Darkmatter – Shockley) – Thomas
2001 Hell Is the Absence of God (The Locus Awards – Chiang) – Brown/Strahan
2001 A Woman’s Liberation – Willis/Williams*
2002 The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Adams*****
2002 The Skinner – Asher
2002 Stories of Your Life and Others – Chiang
2002 October in the Chair (The Locus Awards – Gaiman) – Brown/Strahan
2002 Stone – Roberts
2003 Oryx & Crake – Atwood***
2003 Cosmos Latinos – Bell/Molina-Gavilan*
2004 The Locus Awards – Brown/Strahan(2)*
2004 Market Forces – Morgan
2005 Accelerando – Stross
2006 The Android’s Dream – Scalzi
2006 Blindsight – Watts(2)
2008 The Gabble and Other Stories – Asher*
2008 The Automatic Detective – Martinez
2008 Implied Spaces – Williams
2009 Finch – VanderMeer

As I’d hoped and expected, SFSignal picked up yesterday’s post (number crunching of the two parter Mind Mild recommendations) and that has naturally led to many others picking it up as well (thank you).

Personal update aside: I’m in a lull right now on the Big Project (which is the worst circumstance – waiting for others to do something critical, after having done everything you can do. Nails were bitten down to the quick weeks ago, the hair is grayer than ever (though it does give me a natural three-tone coloring) and teeth have been gnashed and ground about as much as they can be. Not fun. Kinda fun was the conference call with three high-powered attorneys, each of whom was very eager to impart legal wisdom while simultaneously demonstrating their mastery of legal jargon (and not just normal and customary legal jargon. No. We’re talking specialized and esoteric legal jargon here. When does a word not mean what it means? When it has a legal definition and usage. Oy. On the other hand, I probably had the equivalent of law school year three crammed into my head in the space of about 90 minutes and I’m still recovering.

Anyways. The point being that for right now and an unspecified follow-on, I have a little more time and a little more energy to devote to the blog. Which could (hopefully) change any second.

So, back to the topic at hand. I’ve now gone on and read the various critiques of the Mind Meld and the critiques of the critiques and offer the following analysis:

folks on the web who are concerned with genre (and SF in particular) seem to be inhabiting three camps. One camp is, in my opinion, ridiculously hung up on making sure that everyone knows that NOTHING SF published prior to, oh 2000 has any relevance or value. The response to exceptions raised is to dismiss them as exceptions (the list has grown to the point of making the rule) and the date is probably based on the appearance of a fave author who has single-handedly transformed the genre (without anyone else knowing about it). The screeds from this camp are almost fetishistic, almost always predictable (especially when certain old school authors are mentioned) and sometimes have the appearance of a political campaign.

This camp can be dismissed (though the rants can still be enjoyed), as there is absolutely no logic behind denigrating works of fiction based on their publication date, the era they wrote in or the medium used to publish their works. Similarly, one can not make a sustainable and supportable argument that there is absolutely no value in older works – one need only look at homages written by current authors (about their influences) to recognize this.

Another camp is ridiculously mired in the old school. Nothing after, say, 1985 is worth looking at, the new authors are all trying to be literary hacks as opposed to SF authors, character has now become more important than the Big Idea, playing with words and sentence structure more important than world building (not to mention all of the unseemly miscegenation going on that has led to the birth of bastard genres like SF Romance or Urban Fantasy. The highest accolade this camp can pay to a work published after 1985 is that it reminds them of the works of an old master.

Tongue in cheek, I inhabit this camp. Taking the position that everything sucks simply because you are older than whatever the thing in question is offers tremendous opportunities for humor, as well as self-denigration (the root of all Jewish humor).

The kernal of truth in my position (a camp unto itself) is that I do really believe that the genre deliberately builds on past works, there is a huge value in the historical contribution, there ARE quite a few authors and works from the old school that remain completely relevant, well-written and engaging to this day and – a little retro world view never hurt anyone. (If you can’t read past the spaceship computer running on punched tape, you have a seriously under developed sense of wonder: steampunk thrives, magical realizm thrives, but we throw a book against the wall because it fails to imagine cell phones? There is something absolutely wrong with that dichotomy.)

The middle camp reads whatever it wants to read, comments where it wants to comment, enjoys what it wants to enjoy and probably has an SF library that spans the generations. It doesn’t bother them to like both Heinlein and Stross, Bradbury and VanderMeer. They don’t think that the SF world is crumbling and their criticisms of a particular work are based on their own personal reactions, usually not filtered through some literary-political agenda.

The arguments against the appropriateness of the Mind Meld list seem to be primarily based on two positions: inclusion/exclusion of particular deserving works and ‘too much old stuff in there’. With follow-ons that imply that the authors who made those recommendations are somehow damaging their craft by admitting that they were influenced by – horror of horrors – the BIG THREE and their court. I read that argument to be – if that’s what those folks like, their works must be as crappy as the old stuff is (non-literary, cardboard characters, bad dialogue, poor writing).

The first argument (my fave was not on the list) is entirely subjective and not worth wasting time on. The answer to that argument is – make your own list.

The second though is problematic, as it indicates that we have moved away from criticism based on merit to criticism based on association (a crime I am guilty of as well in specific instances, but of course those instances are exceptions to the rule and perfectly justified. Yours may not be.)

The authors in question recommended the works they did because those works had a profound influence on them. It is inappropriate to discuss whether that influence was justified. The contributors have acknowledged that the influence occurred. No one can argue that it didn’t. Furthermore, telling someone that a work that influenced them shouldn’t have influenced them because it was a bad work may be fun in the abstract but will not change the facts on the ground. Finally, the fact that a work in question did not have a profound influence on YOU does not affect the validity of its influence on someone else. This is not a zero sum game, it is a multi-sum game.

The successful impact (successful!) that those works had is evidenced quite clearly by the success of the contributors; the vast majority are published SF authors and/or editors in the field (success measured, at the very least, by the fact that they sell their fiction and edit it professionally).

The (new) authors working now are, for the most part, in their twenties to forties. The editors working now are in their forties to sixties. Assuming that they started reading in earnest at the age of 5 or 6, they obtained their early influences anywhere from 1956 to 1996. It should come as no surprise then that the works they recommend come from those eras. You can look at this as an upside down pyramid, with older authors at the wider top portion. They have had more years to get more books out, more years for wider distribution and exposure, a larger and growing fan base which recommends them, etc., etc. Just compare the circumstances. A new author with one best seller on the market (well received and highly hyped) only has ONE book on the market. A past grand master has – awards, fan web sites, convention appearances as a revered guest, multiple titles on the shelves and hundreds of thousands of copies of those works in circulation.

For the list of recommendations to shift significantly to works being published now will require the passing of a generation. We will have to wait until the readers of now become the authors and editors who are tapped by the SFSignal of 2035.

~~~

One thing that I didn’t do yesterday was offer my own critique of the recommendations, my own list of ten, nor did I mention which of the recommended works I’ve read. I will now remedy those omissions:

Italicized titles indicate that I’ve read a particular work. My comments follow each work.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Adams Too derivative of better SF humorists for me to really get into it.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Adams (only in the sense that I’ve read book one and tried to read a couple of the others. Same reaction.)
The Gabble and Other Stories – Asher
The Skinner – Asher
Oryx & Crake – Atwood (won’t give this woman a DIME!)
The Caves of Steel – Asimov. Set the stage for SF mysteries. Seminal, historical and fun.
The Complete Robot – Asimov. Have read all of the stories/novels. Recommend them, if only as an example of how an SF author can develop a set of rules, stay within their constraints and still produce interesting stories.
The Foundation Series – Asimov. Just finished my re-read. Again, seminal. Takes hits for lack of characterization (which doesn’t bother me. In fact, I’m working on a discourse on the fact that such criticisms of older works are unjustified as I believe that it may have been deliberate – perhaps a cultural deliberation – that mitigated against well developed characters in favor of the greater picture being painted.
I, Robot – Asimov Excellent, and nothing like the movie.  Same comment as for The Complete Robot
Use of Weapons – Banks
Cosmos Latinos – Bell/Molina-Gavilan
Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury Again, seminal.  This is one of the more approachable Bradbury works, and more science fictiony than most.
The Martian Chronicles – Bradbury Loved it
The Sword of Rhiannon – Brackett How can you not like a work that is credited with creating an entire sub-branch, the planetary romance?
The Stars My Destination – Bester Historical, seminal, a fantastic novel.
The Locus Awards – Brown/Strahan As important as Silverberg’s SF Hall of Fame.
Shards of Honor – Bujold
Vorkosigan Saga – Bujold Couldn’t really get into it, but finished it and I like some of her other works.
A Clockwork Orange – Burgess What can I say?  I AM Alex….
Lilith’s Brood – Butler
Parable of the Sewer – Butler
Ender’s Game – Card read the novelette.  Threw up in my mouth several years later.  I could go all day on this particular subject, but won’t.
Stories of Your Life and Others – Chiang
Childhood’s End – Clarke Wonderful.  The first time you read it, it is truly an awe-inspiring experience.
Needle – Clement Hal is way overlooked.  Needle and Mission of Gravity are amongst my faves.
Dhalgren – Delaney Read it not once but three times (all the way through!) Truly worthy of its praise.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Dick Great.
The Man in the High Castle – Dick Tremendously great.
Ubik – Dick See above
Valis – Dick see above
The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas Had to for class, but still liked it.
World of Tiers – Farmer Re-read once every decade, though I put Riverworld series, Flesh and Venus on the Half Shell ahead of it
The Final Reflection – Ford**
Neuromancer – Gibson seminal, historical and exciting.
The Forever War – Haldeman Can’t remember whether I’ve read this or Starship Troopers more times.  It revitalized military SF.
Mindbridge – Haldeman pretty good, but not as good as TFW
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel – Heinlein You must read it before you die
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Heinlein probably one of the best SF novels of all time.
The Past Through Tomorrow – Heinlein I’ve worn out two copies
Starship Troopers – Heinlein I’ve worn out THREE copies
Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein Important and historical, but after reading it, oh, about 30 times, I’ve lost interest in it
Dune – Herbert One of the best, forget the rest.
Riddley Walker – Hoban
Flowers For Algernon – Keyes read the short first, then read the novel
A Wrinkle in Time – L’Engle You can read it in an hour or so and it is truly wonderful and magical
The Dispossessed – Le Guin Ursula.  More need not be said
The Left Hand of Darkness – Le Guin See above
The Cyberiad – Lem A revelation, as are all of his other works
The Stone Canal – MacLeod
The Automatic Detective – Martinez
Dragonflight – McCaffrey Never got into the pern thing
The Dragonriders of Pern – McCaffrey see above
China Mountain Zhang – McHugh
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Miller Read at least a dozen time.  One of the best post apocalyptic tales ever (far better than The Road)
The Best of C L Moore – Moore Want to write short stories.  Read EVERYTHING by Moore
Market Forces – Morgan
1984 – Orwell Seminal, historical and still has lessons to teach
Pavane – Roberts liked it
Stone – Roberts
Red Mars – Robinson excellent
Women of Wonder – Sargent haven’t gotten to this one by Pamela does excellent anthology work
Calculating God – Sawyer one of my new faves
The Android’s Dream – Scalzi one of my new faves
Frankenstein – Shelley a must read – especially if all you’ve ever seen are the movies
City – Simak a must
They Walked Like Men – Simak see above
Way Station – Simak see above
Star Maker – Stapledon – one of those on the list of read before dying
Diamond Age – Stephenson
Accelerando – Stross part way through, have liked other works
Grass – Tepper agreed, should be on the list
Six Moon Dance – Tepper
Dark Matter – Thomas ok, but a lot of ‘modern’ shorts leave me scratching my head
Finch – VanderMeer destined to be on the must read list
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Verne
A Fire Upon the Deep – Vinge
Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House – Vonnegut*
Blindsight – Watts(2)
Starfish – Watts
The Time Machine – Wells
The War of the Worlds – Wells
Implied Spaces – Williams
Bellwether – Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog – Willis
A Woman’s Intuition – Willis/Williams
Soldier of the Mist – Wolfe
The Day of the Triffids – Wyndham
Lord of Light – Zelazny

I am, as I have admitted previously, still playing catch-up on post 1985 science fiction.  I suspect that, like the newer works in the list that I have read, the ones I haven’t will prove to have been worthy.

My own top ten must haves?

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress

Omnibus The Foundation Series

Omnibus A. Bertram Chandler rim worlds series

Something by Farmer

Something by Piper

Something by Harrison

Something by Clarke

Something by Russell

Something by Aldiss

Something by Hoyt

And when you’re done with those, stop on by and I’ll give you another ten.

The original image (it’s huge!) was obtained from the Bad Astronomy blog and can be seen here.

In looking at this amazing picture, two thoughts keep popping into my head. The first is illustrated by my mashup, the second is the Star Trek episode in which we get to see the Enterprise flying through Earth’s skies like a UFO.

SF Signals’ Mind Meld feature is a popular and regular feature that I’ve participated in on several occasions. The conceit is that the Signal uses its prominence and contacts to pose a question and gather up a bunch of informed answers from experts in the field. (Now all I need is one of Lester Del Ray’s business cards with his name crossed out.)

Recently the Signal posed the question of what ten novels should be on everyone’s bookshelves. Despite a seemingly simple question, the ways in which it has been answered has raised no small degree of controversy – everything from ‘what do you mean by book?’ to ‘what do you mean by ‘up to’ ten?’

Considering that we’re dealing with genre personalities – editors, writers, artists and such – it comes as no small surprise that the rules have been bent. Indeed, I often think that flouting the rules is an inherited genetic trait of fans (and those fans who go on to become pros).

Regardless, the list of respondents grew so long that Signal had to break them up into a two-parter, the second of which went public today. Part 1 Part 2

I was quite struck by the huge number of oldy, moldy, dusty and crusty works that were recommended and, as is my wont, I decided that it would be fun to compile a comprehensive list of all of the suggestions, an uber list from those working in the field of what you all ought to be reading.

Considering the offerings, I’d suggest that fans who have a problem with “the classics”, stories by those characterless, big idea afflicted, pulpy hacks, might want to curtail their criticisms when in the presence of their current new-gen faves, cause it looks like just about everyone of them likes, recommends and perhaps are even trying to emulate those very works.

So here is the list, in alphabetical order by title. The contributors are linked at the end. Where works have been recommended more than once the total is noted in parenthesis after the author’s name.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy- Adams(3)
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Adams*****
The Gabble and Other Stories – Asher*
The Skinner – Asher
Oryx & Crake – Atwood***
The Caves of Steel – Asimov
The Complete Robot – Asimov*
The Foundation Series – Asimov******
I, Robot – Asimov(3)
Use of Weapons – Banks
Cosmos Latinos – Bell/Molina-Gavilan*
Fahrenheit 451 – Bradbury(2)
The Martian Chronicles – Bradbury(2)
The Sword of Rhiannon – Brackett
The Stars My Destination – Bester(2)
The Locus Awards – Brown/Strahan(2)*
Shards of Honor – Bujold
Vorkosigan Saga – Bujold*****
A Clockwork Orange – Burgess
Lilith’s Brood – Butler******
Parable of the Sewer – Butler
Ender’s Game – Card****
Stories of Your Life and Others – Chiang
Childhood’s End – Clarke(2)
Needle – Clement
Dhalgren – Delaney
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? – Dick(2)
The Man in the High Castle – Dick
Ubik – Dick(2)
Valis – Dick
The Count of Monte Cristo – Dumas
World of Tiers – Farmer******
The Final Reflection – Ford**
Neuromancer – Gibson(3)
The Forever War – Haldeman(2)
Mindbridge – Haldeman
Have Spacesuit, Will Travel – Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress – Heinlein(3)
The Past Through Tomorrow – Heinlein*
Starship Troopers – Heinlein
Stranger in a Strange Land – Heinlein
Dune – Herbert(6)
Riddley Walker – Hoban
Flowers For Algernon – Keyes
A Wringle in Time – L’Engle
The Dispossessed – Le Guin(3)
The Left Hand of Darkness – Le Guin(6)
The Cyberiad – Lem
The Stone Canal – MacLeod
The Automatic Detective – Martinez
Dragonflight – McCaffrey
The Dragonriders of Pern – McCaffrey
China Mountain Zhang – McHugh
A Cabticle for Leibowitz – Miller(3)
The Best of C L Moore – Moore*
Market Forces – Morgan
1984 – Orwell
Pavane – Roberts
Stone – Roberts
Red Mars – Robinson(2)
Women of Wonder – Sargent
Calculating God – Sawyer
The Android’s Dream – Scalzi
Frankenstein – Shelley(3)
City – Simak
They Walked Like Men – Simak
Way Station – Simak
Star Maker – Stapledon
Diamond Age – Stephenson
Accelerando – Stross
Grass – Tepper
Six Moon Dance – Tepper
Dark Matter – Thomas*
Finch – VanderMeer
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – Verne
A Fire Upon the Deep – Vinge
Cat’s Cradle – Vonnegut
Welcome to the Monkey House – Vonnegut*
Blindsight – Watts(2)
Starfish – Watts
The Time Machine – Wells(2)
The War of the Worlds – Wells
Implied Spaces – Williams
Bellwether – Willis
To Say Nothing of the Dog – Willis
A Woman’s Intuition – Willis/Williams*
Soldier of the Mist – Wolfe
The Day of the Triffids – Wyndham
Lord of Light – Zelazny(3)

Contributors:
Jim Freund
Jennifer Marie Brissett
Alan Beatts
Minister Faust
Mary Turzillo
Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Cat Sparks
John Klima
Laura Anne Gilman
Michael A. Burstein
Ken MacLeod
Aliette de Bodard
Gavin C. Pugh
Mari Ness
Sarah A. Hoyt
Edward Willett

* – not a novel – collection or anthology
** – written in a shared universe
*** – shouldn’t be included because the author says it isn’t SF
**** – shouldn’t be included because the author is an asshat
***** – omnibus edition
****** – series

And now, the analysis:

89 individual works (with some overlap)
65 different authors
(1.37 works per author)

Biggest surprise – only one entry for Arthur C Clarke.
Another surprise – Alexander Dumas

The really biggest surprise: 36 of the 65 authors are ‘old school’ 55%. Another goodly amount would be from what I would consider to be the ‘middle school’ period – late 80s to mid 90s. The entire list is heavily tilted towards the older works/authors.

Faves:

Works recommended by more than one contributor (in descending order):

6 x Dune
6 x The Left Hand of Darkness
4 x The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
3 x I, Robot
3 x Neuromancer
3 x The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
3 x The Dispossessed
3 x A Canticle for Leibowitz
3 x Frankenstein
3 x Lord of Light
2 x Fahrenheit 451
2 x The Martian Chronicles
2 x The Stars My Destination
2 x The Locus Awards
2 x Childhood’s End
2 x Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
2 x Ubik
2 x The Forever War
2 x Red Mars
2 x Blindsight
2 x The Time Machine

21 works recommended more than once

Most works by a single author:

5 by Heinlein
4 by Asimov
4 by Dick
3 by Willis
2 by Bradbury
2 by Bujold
2 by Butler
2 by Haldeman
2 by Le Guin
2 by McCaffrey
2 by Roberts
2 by Tepper
2 by Vonnegut
2 by Wells

and

broadest representation (most works recommended the most times)

Heinlein – 5 works recommended 7 times (35)
Asimov – 4 works recommended 6 times (24)
Dick – 4 works recommended 6 times (24)
Le Guin – 2 works recommended 9 times (18)
Bradbury – 2 works recommended 4 times (8)
Haldeman – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)
Watts – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)
Wells – 2 works recommended 3 times (6)

Very, very interesting. Of course, time has a way of spreading a work out over a much wider audience, which may contribute to the old masters appearing so frequently here, but I prefer to look at things a different way:

No matter how much literary analysis and criticism you want to heap on the pulp & golden age SF authors and works, they are and will always remain important, exciting and influential, because an SF story is not based on style or technique alone. An author who can successfully engender that sensawunda can overcome clumsy writing, poor characterization and even out-dated concepts and technologies, because no matter how much you want to shout at the world from an ivory tower to the contrary, SF is all about the BIG IDEA.

One of the things I’ve been missing from my science fiction reading, of late, has been that good ol’ sensawunda. Like many who grew up on and have been steeping in what has now become known as classic SF (the old stuff that many find creaky, outdated yada yada yada) I’ve been wondering where my genre has gone.

I don’t want the preceding to give the impression that nothing I’ve read over the past several years has been up to my standards (read the reviews here and you’ll find that a lot of it has been). Rather, I suspect, the change has occurred in me (somewhere, sometime, perhaps so gradually that the change has not been noticed). I think perhaps that the best illustration of my condition is what happens when I go to the book store.

In years long gone by, every trip to the bookstore was a momentous occasion. No matter how much money I had with me, it was never enough. No matter how many books there were stacked up on the SF designated shelves, there were too many that I wanted. I’d not yet read everything by Asimov or Clarke, or Pohl or Brunner or Harrison. The latest novel by Heinlein wasn’t out yet. I’d either already the month’s mags (Amazing, Galaxy, F&SF, Weird Tales, Analog, IF), or it was new issues all around and the magazine budget was conflicting with the book budget.

New authors of note were few and far between – ballyhooed well in advance, with plenty of reliable recommendations from well-known and trusted sources.

Rare was the book purchased that didn’t turn out to be worthy of its price.

These days, the money usually stays in the wallet. The names on the shelves are mostly foreign to me (as are the names of those recommending it on the back or inside flap); the cover art rarely speaks to me. The thought of starting a series that has already amassed multiple doorstop volumes is anathema and at this point I have read all of Clarke and Asimov… and every extant from Harrison and Pohl. There will never be a new Heinlein again.

Which is probably why I was so very, very pleased to crack open the pages of the ARC for With Great Power, the new super hero anthology edited by Lou Anders and due out this July.

I have, for quite some time, (tho not in any scientific or even regularized way) been trying to define what the difference is between modern SF and old school SF. In reading many of the short stories in With Great Power, I believe that I have caught a glimmer of a suggestion of what that difference may be.

I think the word that sums things up is ‘earnest’. Back in the day, I think many SF authors got wicked cool ideas and then wrote them up because they were fun. The stories were sans deliberate message. Oh sure, a message may have crept in there almost accidentally, but the point of the exercise was exploration on the part of the author and entertainment value on the part of the reader.

These days, I suspect many SF authors start their day by deciding what message they’re going to deliver and work backwards from there. Or they’ve become overly concerned with THE WRITING, as if the medium itself were more important than THE IDEA. (The current emphasis on literary skill is, I believe, mere affectation, a part of the SF end of the publishing industry trying to buy itself unneeded respect from a wider literary world.)

In fact, based solely on a single reading of With Great Power, I’m tempted to remove the sensuwunda crown from SF and place it squarely on the head of super hero fiction. The stories are just cool, if they have messages to deliver those messages are secondary to the fun and most of the writing is more than acceptable while failing (thank god) to approach any hint of literary la-de-dah.

In fact, out of fifteen entries I found only two to not be my cuppa. I won’t mention which two.

The anthology begins with a powerhouse tale that immediately sucked me into the whole enterprise – Cleansed and Set in Gold by Matthew Sturgis.

I’ve got a fairly decent background with comic books too (natural for any SF fan, I believe) and considering that our super heroes are nearly a century old and have run the gamut from alien invaders, to atomic mutants to regular joes with too much scientific knowledge on their hands, I found it hard to imagine that there was anything new under the super hero sun.

Sturgis’ tale shows us a whole new kind of (reluctant) super hero, and his is just the opening salvo!

Ander’s anthology is stuffed to the gills with new takes on this theme – new reasons for being, new justifications for what it is that they do, new worlds created whole through the introduction of a new kind of caped crusader.

Notable tales (for me) were The Non-Event by Mike Carey, Vacuum Lad by Stephen Baxter, Downfall by Joseph Mallozzi and Call Her Savage by Marjoirie M. Liu, though the remainder of the stories (with the exception of the two I just couldn’t get through) all come very close to being completely satisfying reads.

I realize that there’s a paucity of detail here, but half of the fun is discovering just exactly what kind of twist the authors are going to put on what is, in essence, a tale that has its roots in Gilgamesh, and I don’t want to spoil them fun.

Ander’s offers up an introduction that reviews the history of the super hero, discusses the renaissance (brought about by movies, television and treatment of the subject by highly respected authors) and then suggests that the Golden Age of Comic is now upon us.

“There has never been a more exciting time to don spandex and a cape, and exploring this phenomenon in prose is a no-brainer that even the worst supervillian couldn’t begrudge us.”

After reading With Great Power, I think Lou is right!

WITH GREAT POWER
384 Pages
Gallery Books
July 2010

###

ZombieMan Zero was brought to my attention by a viral video featuring Zombieman Zero and nemesis Gearhead from Xomix Comix:

After looking into it a bit I discovered that the author – Ted Seko – is really into the whole post-apocalyptic zeitgeist (he cites Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green and The Omega Man as amongst his favorite films and I couldn’t agree more) and I figured that anyone who can actually name all of those post-the bomb! Heston movies ought to have something interesting going on.

Ted sent me off a copy of ZmZ (the inaugural, origin-tale issue), along with some freebies.

Considering that this was actually the first new comic I’ve cracked in at least two decades, and considering the subject of the earlier review, I figured it kind of belonged here.

One statement about the work is sufficient: if you think survival after the apocalypse is cool, then Zombieman Zero is your guy.

Zombieman rises from the camps where humans are being raised for food; he doesn’t know why or how or anything else other than a burning need to seek revenge and right whatever is wrong. There’s no nuance here – aliens eating people is wrong, therefore they must pay. People working for the aliens to keep their hide intact a little longer is wrong, therefore they must pay.

What’s really cool about Zombieman is that he is truly a babe in the woods; he’s been ‘grown’ in isolation, has no education, no nothing. So, while keeping himself alive and away from recapture, he’s going to be learning – about everything.

The comic itself is relatively short (not uncommon with indies I suppose) and, with the exception of the cover, is a B&W rendering – which is perfect for the style displayed by Seko in this offering. All of the art is very ’storyboard’ like, seemingly quick sketches, relatively detail-less renderings – but this works and works very well, because I think one of the main themes of this effort is returning the reader to a simpler and more profound experience, one where they have to provide the detail, fill in the color and the background from their own imagination..

Which is what I’ve been looking for.

Episode 11 is entitled First Woman on the Moon, and features Mrs. Renza Hale, the wife of one of the moon base astronauts.

We know this because instead of having just her name stenciled on her space helmet, Renza’s has Mrs Hale stenciled on hers.

But boy oh boy is that absolutely not the best of the fifties masculine chic on display.

I’ll let the show’s narrator speak for himself:

“Day fifty: Renza Hale shows signs of irritation. Contributing factors – isolation, no telephone, no shops, no female companionship.”

In a fit of pique, Renza decides to don her space suit and do some exploring of her own:

Renza Hale skipping on the moon

The narration continues:

“Renza’s personal exploration of the moon was purely feminine and not at all scientific. Fascinated by the moon’s one-sixth gravity, she found that a slight move enabled her to leap as if she were weightless.”

This broad was obviously too dim to realize that the light gravity inside moon base would be exactly the same as out on the surface!

Women! Always messin up a guy’s fun. She’s going back home on the very next ship! How else do you expect the guys to get any, ummm – work – done?

(The dressing down delivered by her husband, who conveniently has HALE stenciled on his helmet, actually includes the line “are you a child!?” !)

No wonder it took us until the 80s to put a woman in space!

History of women in space here

I probably regret this more than any of my readers, as I was starting to do pretty darned good on the traffic and the connections & etc; links were building and I was even starting to get contacted by advertising companies requesting some time and space on the blog.

Unfortunately, I had to go off and work on the BIG PROJECT over on the paintball side of things and that has not only taken up a lot of time, it’s exhausted me, mentally, physically and emotionally.

That project is now very close to completion and, if that completion is successful, it will mean that I’ll be spending even more time and energy on the paintball stuff.

Once things finalize and I can mention it publicly (other than in cryptograms), I’ll offer full disclosure here and will write up what it means for my involvement in fandom & etc.

In the meantime:

I recently finished Cormac McCarthy’s THE ROAD, a highly praised and award-winning novel that was made into a film that spent all of maybe two hours in theaters.

It is also a novel that was appropriated by SF fandom as either “yet another SF novel not marketed as SF because publishers are afraid of the label” or “yet another mainstream author who just doesn’t get it trying to write science fiction”.

My personal conclusion is – The Road is neither.

Perhaps an analogy will help explain.

Whedon’s beloved Firefly series is essentially “cowboys in space”, even though it is really space opera with homage to horse opera when you really get down to it.  The show is recognizably science fiction, pushes all of the buttons, gives props to what has gone before in a suitably respectful manner (the C-57D nod, for example).

Space Cowboys is an almost-endearing film that kind of attempts to do the same dress-up as Firefly – put the kids in astronaut outfits while they play high plains drifter.  The title of the film evokes exactly what Firefly is, while entirely failing to get it as a movie.

If The Road is bad science fiction by a mainstream literary author, it is Space Cowboys and not Firefly.

But it isn’t bad science fiction by a mainstream literary author.  It is, in fact, a very simple tale told in harrowing detail and without any real point.

The theme can be summed up as follows:

Parents die. Their children have to go on into the future without them. Advice and training, caring, emotion, love, none of this really matters in the long run because the kids will be on their own once you’re gone. Their future might be horrible, but there’s nothing you can do to help them get through it because you’ll be gone.

Why not just kill them and then yourself? At least that way you won’t have to agonize over something you have no control over.  Why not indeed?

It could also be summed up as a tale of a father trying to pass on good culture to his son, despite trying to survive in a horrible nightmare of a world.  Or a tale of good vs evil against impossible odds. Or that it is the nature of humanity to try and survive even when there is no hope.

And all of those might be accurate, except that in the end we learn that no one survives, humanity has vanished from the planet and everything in the story that went before was entirely pointless.  Pointless AND hopeless.

Cormac spent an entire novel playing god of the old testament, picking out his Job and relentlessly torturing him, seemingly just because he could.

Perhaps the critics were wowed by a novel that has absolutely no hope, that goes against the grain of the happy ending. Me, I thought it sucked.

Not in a writerly, authorily, wordy usage way (there are some masterful passages: one in particular really struck me. When Papa is defending himself from an attacker, McCarthy drops into usage of many single syllable words and a sentence structure without breaks that marvelously conveys the breathless, staccato rhythm of a fight scene) but in a results way. Cormac’s message to the world is – there really is no hope, all of your efforts at survival are doomed to failure in the long run, the only reason we go on is because we’re too lily-livered to face up to facts and do the right thing. Humanity is weak, which is why it will not survive, and it is weak, which is why it will continue to suffer. Unnecessarily.  In other words, as a species, we lack the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing and off ourselves in a clean and orderly manner.

Instead we’re doomed to disease and injury; our future is populated with endless cannibalism and rape, though not necessarily in that order.

I love post apocalyptic tales. Anything from A Canticle for Liebowtz (Pound pastrami, can kraut, six bagels–bring home for Emma.) to I Am Legend, even Corman films vaguely based on Heinlein’s Farnham’s Freehold. A Boy and His Dog and The Omega Man are particular favorites.  I love the grit.  I love the whole world goes through a paradigm shift aspects.  Not to mention the McGuyver talents required (like figuring out how to open up a can of stewed prunes without a can opener).

In fact, I often think of the world after the apocalypse as my personal ideal environment: I’ll head on over to the NY Library or down to the Library of Congress, cans and opener in tow (trusty cut-off 30.06 hanging by my side), all kinds of previously useless trivia (now survival info) stuck in my head and spend the rest of my life touring the stacks and muttering “mine, mine mine!” as I go happily mad.

Presuming I survive the initial whatever – which I have to presume since otherwise there’s no story.

Jetsie DeVries offered up his vision of an anthology oriented towards ‘positive’ futures (Shine), which generated a lot of discussion and debate.  The general consensus was that far too much SF was about or took place in bleak futures.

I protested this conclusion based on the premise that ANY future means there’s hope.  McCarthy’s The Road is, if anything, the definition of the kind of science fiction that Devries was campaigning against.

I find hope in A Boy and His Dog (at least the original short if not the movie). Vic and Blood know how to get along in their environment and may go on to do wonderful things – or at least have interesting adventures.

I find hope in The Omega Man. Sure Heston dies, but the serum is preserved.  There’s a colony that will survive now and who knows, maybe the world they build will be different (better?) than this one.

I find hope in Soylent Green. Sure, Heston dies, but the word is out.  There’s going to be a lot of unrest, a lot of death, but the old order is going to be overthrown. The tree of liberty will again find the sun.

Science Fiction apocalyptic tales are inherently hopeful: some people have survived the whatever and the race gets to start all over again. The nifty, peachy-keen parts of the story are: what is/was the ‘whatever’, who has survived and why, what kind of landscape do they inhabit now, how do the survivors deal with that environment and what does the future hold.

That last question is the key.  What does the future hold?  In good and bad science fiction, what the future holds is more often than not one of the main themes of the tale.  The journey to that future (if the story is well written) is filled with all kinds of things that we don’t get to see elsewhere. Humanity’s capacity for survival and innovative tool-use are on full display, which is probably what I find so intriguing about these kinds of tales. How long can you run the lights on scavenged gasoline?  They cobbled together a generator from what? Huh, yeah, fallout shelters can be found underneath a lot of old time radio station…and so forth.

Not to mention the license to create new societies from whole cloth that the setting provides to any author.

The Road, while it contains many of these same elements, does not share an SF tales strictures.  We’re never given any clues as to what kind of holocaust befell mankind.  (Ash falling from the air, the weather constantly getting colder are not, as they may at first seem, clues.  The ever-present ash and the cold and the rain are symbols, and nothing more.)

So much for the how.

Who has survived and why?  A few references to communes (closed communities) a few references to wandering bands of cannibals. Who has survived?  We don’t know.  By rough count, we run into perhaps twenty people other than the protagonists. Most are dead or starving to death, almost every single one is intent on eliminating Papa and the boy, or at least stealing their hoarded survival gear.

We never encounter one of the communes.  If there are attempts at rebuilding and crafting new societies out of the ruins, their story is left out of the narrative.

And the same can almost be said for the wit and creativity that informs so many other rebuilding from the ashes tales.  No one hops up onto a bicycle generator to recharge the bank of car batteries; no one has built a still.  No one has hitched the horses up to a cadillac.

In other PA tales (Alas Babylon, Starman’s Son come to mind at this point), when a journey is involved, it may be the Hero’s Journey writ small, but it is also designed to act as a tour of the new world for the reader.  (Imagine Quest For Fire the movie as if the ending revealed a half-buried statue of liberty. How many different tribes and different cultures are encountered?  More than enough to provide the viewer with a good cross-sectional view of the world as it is known then.)

In The Road, there is no tour. There are no nascent societies.  There are only dangerous houses, dangerous barns and burnt out remains.  No place that any reader would find appeal or comfort in.  And so we trudge on.

Even in other science fiction tales in which humanity has passed (Twilight), the reader is given somewhere to go.  Something to look at and marvel over (or recoil in disgust from).

What about the innate survival skills that now have a chance to shine?  There are none.  I suppose Cormac’s Papa is supposed to represent ‘any man’, the average schmoe on the street.  Unfortunately, this is where the novel really fell down for me.

It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you have shelter, food and water in a relatively secure place (and for the first time in a long time), that your best move is to hole up, improve your circumstances and then sally forth from there.

You don’t abandon it.  Even if you’re sick and mentally confused and concerned for the future survival of your son.

It also doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you are “carrying the fire”, you’re not the kind of person to abandon a basement full of naked human food on the hoof.  When they beg you to help them, you’re supposed to have enough humanity left to do so.  Or at least try.

But back to the finding food and stupidly abandoning it part.

The scene is: Papa and the Boy have been without food for nearly a week and are on their last legs. Papa almost accidentally discovers an underground shelter that is fully stocked with canned goods, flashlights, blankets, beds, a chemical toilet and all manner of other good things.  The supplies are more than enough to keep the two going for weeks, if not months.

Papa determines that they will stay for several days, eat as much as they can, pack as much as they can and then get back on the road.

Heading for they know not what.

Papa is concerned for the security of the shelter (and rightly so), but a hole in the ground that can be covered by a mattress and other scattered debris is a hell of a lot more secure than any place else the two have sheltered up to that point.  A little common sense and a little bit of care (like not approaching from the same direction all the time, staying in during the day, etc.) would greatly enhance their chances of survival.

Up to this point (if I remember correctly), the two have been robbed or nearly robbed of all of their stuff several times. The shelter gives them the means to secure against that to the nth degree.

The shelter could be used as a base from which they could: find something better than a shopping cart to transport their gear, make forays towards the coast (walk a day, come back the next) to chart out the terrain.  They could even create stashes and sheltered camps.  They could spy out other survivors and perhaps obtain some allies.  Even one more trustworthy adult would increase their chances and security a thousand fold.

But no – they have to keep on walking, and they end up in a place that is pretty stripped and pretty exposed.

I have a great deal of difficulty in accepting a character who’s survived long enough to get to the opening of the novel, yet can’t see the sense in hanging on to a good thing when they find it.

I also have difficulty accepting the fact that they couldn’t find something better than a shopping cart to push their crap around in.  Maybe it’s supposed to be symbolic of our lost consumerism or something.

Based on the foregoing, there’s just no way I can fit The Road in the canon of apocalyptic SF tales.  And I’m now kind of glad that it wasn’t marketed as science fiction, because with it’s notoriety, anyone reading this thinking that it was SF is likely to never read another SF apocalyptic take again.