The Apolyton Science Fiction Book Club: May Nominations

[DAVOUT]

Originally posted by Jon Miller


it was ok (read last summer) but not as strong as the Doomsday Book

Jon Miller

I really like both. There are many extremely funny pages in the style of Jerome K Jerome.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by laurentius
The Hyperion Saga, by Dan Simmons

This brings us up to a point of discussion: should we, in our discussions, assume that we are going to talk about the specific book only, or the entire series?

This is a very important question, for it involves spoilers and increases the reading requirements for full participation in the threads. I prefer for us to go along the way that we've started, i.e. the emphasis is on the first book, but the sequels can be discussed in spoiler boxes. But I'm welcome to any suggestions!

Anyway, until we discuss and decide laurentius, I'm going to assume just the first book in the series, "Hyperion." (Actually, in this case we can break the series up into two discussions involving 2 books each - "Hyperion Cantos" and "the Saga of Endymion.")

[loinburger]

Sirens of Titan by Vonnegut.

Amazon's book description is pretty short and doesn't really do it justice, but for y'all who've read Vonnegut in the past, it ought to suffice. Just think Slaughterhouse Five only with a sci-fi flare and a bit more depressing.

The richest and most depraved man on Earth takes a wild space journey to distant worlds, learning about the purpose of human life along the way.

[Tuberski]

Armor by John Steakley.

ACK!

[molly bloom]

I should like to nominate 'Babel-17' by Samuel R. Delany:

'The Alliance has been at war with the Invaders for decades. Now a series of damaging sabotages are occurring, each accompanied by a burst of communication in a new uncrackable code, Babel-17. General Forester calls in Rydra Wong, poet, ex-cryptographer and linguist extrordinaire, to help out. She quickly realises Babel-17 is not a code, but a remarkably expressive and powerful new language, and sets out to unravel it and track it down.

I had thought I was slowing down. Back in the 70s I could read three SF books in a day; today I have trouble reading one. But, after reading Babel-17 I realise it's not just me slowing down -- it's also the books getting longer. Without necessarily getting better. Delany crams as many ideas and images into 200 pages here as would fill a modern trilogy -- or worse. The port scenes, the discorporates and the use of Basque, the marvellous chaotic banquet, the aliens with their temperature-based language, the short half chapter with "I" and "you" interchanged -- are just some of the beautifully-crafted jewels in here.

But the main theme of the book is language. True, Babel-17 may be based on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, that language determines the way we think, which is currently discredited in its strong form used here. Yet much old SF is based on now-outmoded scientific theories or engineering limitations. What makes good old SF is when this doesn't fact matter, because those (wrong) ideas are nevertheless used in an interesting and consistent way, and the story is still worth telling. As here.'

http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~susan/sf/books/d/delany.htm

[St Leo]

Anvil of Stars by Greg Bear

The Ship of Law was made of the fragments of Earth's corpse, a world in itself, cruising massively close to the speed of light, hundreds of years from the dust and rubble of home...

And aboard were 82 mortal exiles sworn to find and punish the Killers who murdered our world.

http://www.twbookmark.com/books/75/0446364037/

http://sfbook.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=135

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0446364037/qid=1047347826/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-2973343-4802538?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/item.asp?Catalog=Books&Section=Books&Cat=&Lang=en&Item=978044636403&mscssid=1NAVMJAC7TH98G66CM1SUUBS8UA7AP7C&WSID=20032200E40910D94786A9218FC0E3A7E4855810

I couldn't get into the original at all, but I loved this sequel.

[Rex Little]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
The cat trough the wall, by Heinlein, i believe.

That's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. And there must be two dozen Heinlein books better than that one.

[JohnT]

Originally posted by Tattila the Hun
The cat trough the wall, by Heinlein, i believe.

Actually, a Heinlein book has already been nominated. Would you mind selecting another? Thanks!

[JohnT]

Bumping up again.

[Clear Skies]

Empyrion by Stephen Lawhead. I'll find blurb or write one myself tomorrow - bed calls!

[Wraith]

Well, I'm half tempted to renominate Aristoi from last time, but considering that I know who exactly voted for it (both of us) I'm guessing there's not a point.

I am still going to continue my campaign to get some of the lesser-name-but-still-good books involved here.

So I nominate:

In Conquest Born
by C. S. Friedman.

Only real blurb I found for it is:

They were the ultimate enemies, two super-races fighting an endless campaign over a long forgotten cause. And now the final phase of their war is approaching, where they will use every power of the mind and body to claim the vengeance of total conquest.

However, this blurb does very little to set the book up as it deserves. One of the best of the Space Opera style, yet still enough hard-core science-fiction and political intrigue to appeal to others.

And I'll leave off with a short passage from the book:

The Emperor is aghast.

'What did they say?'

Patiently, the messenger repeats himself. 'Braxin forces have taken the Azean colony on Lees,' he recites slowly. 'This constitutes open defiance of the' (he consults his notes) 'nine-hundred and eighty-fifth Comprehensive Peace treaty between Braxi and Azea.'

'Yes, yes, I know all that. What were their grounds - tell me that again.'

The messenger reads it verbatim. 'Kaim'era Vinir, son of Lanat and Kir'la, wishes to give his son the public name of Zatar. Therefore the Kaim'erate considers the current peace treaty invalid and without binding force.'

Slowly the Emperor leans back in his throne. 'Yes. That's what I thought you said.'

Wraith
"An uninspired ruler works to develop those relationships which will be most to his advantage. A great ruler determines the most desirable relationships and assumes them in to being."
-- Harkur ("In Conquest Born")

[JohnT]

Sounds good Wraith.

"I am still going to continue my campaign to get some of the lesser-name-but-still-good books involved here."

It still depends upon the voters. While I'm glad we started with two quality standards (Foundation and Ender's Game), I'm looking forward to when we go with books that aren't "books that everybody has read."

But that might be a while. See, what I think happens (because I do it myself) is a lot of people first vote for their books, then vote for two books that they've read and liked... and, well, most everybody has read Foundation... and Ender's Game... which is why they get a lot of votes and the lesser read books get lost in the dust.

Jon Miller and GP (is he on one of his self-imposed exiles?) have a good idea to combat this - when voting, other than your book vote only for books you haven't read yet. And if it so happens to be a well-worn classic, that's fine.

Anyway, here's why I think why we need to do the Clement: it's a personal thing. I go into detail more here*, but I want to do it because everybody else whom I know that has read this book has entirely missed the freakin' point, and that includes all those people on Amazon's review.

[throws down gauntlet] In short, I want to see if y'all are as perceptive as y'all think y'all are. [/throws down gauntlet]

*This is a rant against my current sci-fi group in Knoxville, particularly against one guy who was particularly foul.

[JohnT]

Here are the books that are nominated so far:

1. Half-Life, Hal Clement, nominated by JohnT
2. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, Robert Heinlein, nominated by Slowwhand
3. The Man in the High Castle, Philip K ****, nominated by Static23
4. DownBelow Station, C. J. Cherryh, nominated by jon miller (You didn't definitively state that you wanted to change your vote, jon. Let me know before the other thread comes up.)
5. To Say Nothing of the Dog, Connie Willis, nominated by Ramo
6. The Postman, David Brin, nominated by korn469
7. Hyperion, Dan Simmons, nominated by laurentius
8. Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut, nominated by loinburger
9. Armor, John Steakley, nominated by Tuberski
10. Babel-17, Samuel R. Delaney, nominated by molly bloom
11. Anvil of Stars, Greg Bear, nominated by St Leo
12. Empyrion, Stephen Lawhead, nominated by Clear Skies*
13. In Conquest Born, C. S. Friedman, nominated by Wraith
14. Red Mars, Kim Stanley Robinson, nominated by Chegitz Guevara
15. Neuromancer, William Gibson, nominated by Carolus Rex
16. The Uplift War, David Brin, nominated by GePap

I'd really appreciate it if Tattila would nominate another book, as to not take away votes from the other Heinlein book. If I don't hear from Tattila, I'll go ahead and run the nomination (which gives us 17!)

So far, I see one other book that I would like winning almost as much as Half Life, a large number of other books jockeying for my third book, a couple of books that, well, just don't (or weren't) that interesting, and one book that makes me wish we could cast negative votes.

*Here's a blurb and a link: "In this first book of the Empyrion series, Treet and his oddly-assorted friends try to unscramble the complexities of a new world."

Edit: Added Che's nomination.

[chequita guevara]

I'm renominating Red Mars.

[Carolus Rex]

Neuromancer by William Gibson.

Carolus