The Apolyton Science Fiction Book Club: April nominations

[JohnT]

They only have a chance if they're nominated.

[Buck Birdseed]

Go on then.

[JohnT]

I've already nominated a book. I think it's your turn.

[Buck Birdseed]

British-American inconsistency? I meant go on then, let's do what you suggested.

[Wraith]

--"Wraith, Aristoi, Jon Walter Williams"

That's Walter Jon Williams...

It should be fairly easy to find in the used stores. I think it's still in print, too.

As far as some of the old favorites go, Sturgeon and Leiber have both been reprinted lately. Shouldn't be too hard to find them.

Wraith
"It would all be happy as a group sing at the court of King Oedipus, with Jocasta keeping time, swinging by the neck from the roofbeams."
-- Walter Jon Williams ("Elegy for Angels and Dogs")

[redbaron]

I'll nominate Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" (aka Tiger! Tiger!)

Amazon link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...096337-3886855

[loinburger]

David Drake, All the Way to the Gallows.

Edit: Damn browser...

Anyhoo, the book's a collection of short stories that are all full of what Drake calls Gallows Humor. Drake mostly writes gritty military science fiction, and occasionally he'll (usually accidentally) write something funny, but the grittiness of his writing is always reflected in his humor, e.g. "If I cut my finger then it's tragedy, and if you fall down an open manhole and die then it's comedy."

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Wraith
--"Wraith, Aristoi, Jon Walter Williams"

That's Walter Jon Williams...

It should be fairly easy to find in the used stores. I think it's still in print, too.

As far as some of the old favorites go, Sturgeon and Leiber have both been reprinted lately. Shouldn't be too hard to find them.

Wraith

Thanks! I made the proper changes.

The one Sturgeon I read (More Than Human) I couldn't stand, but that might be an aberration.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by JohnT

The one Sturgeon I read (More Than Human) I couldn't stand, but that might be an aberration.

More Than Human has a very weak third part, IMO. The middle section was originally publish as "Baby is Three" and is a truly classic piece of sci-fi.

I think his short stories are better than his novels. FYI, Sturgeon is the basis for Kurt Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout character. You either love him or hate him.

[JohnT]

"The middle section was originally publish as "Baby is Three" and is a truly classic piece of sci-fi."

Interesting, because I also thought it was the last third of the book where it all fell apart. I also thought the entire idea was scientifically implausible, but that's just me: I'm kinda picky about such things.

[molly bloom]

Let's get 'Dispossessed.'

I second that emulsion.

[JohnT]

Bumping up for the Saturday night crowd...

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by redbaron
I'll nominate Alfred Bester's "The Stars My Destination" (aka Tiger! Tiger!)

This is the guy after whom Babylon 5's Bester was named.

[Static Universe]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara


This is the guy after whom Babylon 5's Bester was named.

Bester's book The Demolished Man is probably one of the best science fiction novels I ever read. A true original, and something people previously said couldn't be done: the science fiction detective novel.

A shame he left sci-fi for 30 years to write and edit a travel magazine.