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Kchama posted:It was impressive how the biggest scifi names back then were also all gigantic pieces of poo poo. I'm 52 myself, but I don't know much about the old fandom and the authors as people. I know Asimov was a serial groper on such a level that even by the standards of 60's/70's scifi conventions it aroused disapprobation. Do any of those big names from back then have a unsullied reputation as good people?
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Nov 22, 2023 10:38
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Deptfordx posted:I'm 52 myself, but I don't know much about the old fandom and the authors as people. Arthur C. Clarke was accused of being a pedophile, but he was a closeted gay man at a time when folks believed all gays were pedophiles. And he was investigated by the Sri Lankan authorities and cleared. On the other hand, he was wealthy and famous, so who knows how thorough the investigation really was? I've never heard anyone say anything bad about Alfred Bester, other than that his late novels suck.
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Nov 22, 2023 15:17
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Arsenic Lupin posted:. Before his books took off, I heard people in Charleston refer to Robert Jordan as "Harriet's kept man" because it was the eighties and she had a regular job and he didn't. As far as I know Jordan was 100% cool with that. Calenth fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Nov 22, 2023 |
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Nov 22, 2023 15:39
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Deptfordx posted:I'm 52 myself, but I don't know much about the old fandom and the authors as people. The exception, as with nearly all other questions about this era, is LeGuin
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Nov 22, 2023 15:49
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Calenth posted:Before his books took off, I heard people in Charleston refer to Robert Jordan as "Harriet's kept man" because it was the eighties and she had a regular job and he didn't. Considering all of the spanking stuff in WoT, he probably got off on it too
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Nov 22, 2023 16:36
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afaik Bradbury was fine, other than being a bit of a weird luddite and a milquetoast Republican later in life
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Nov 22, 2023 16:55
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Selachian posted:Arthur C. Clarke was accused of being a pedophile, but he was a closeted gay man at a time when folks believed all gays were pedophiles. And he was investigated by the Sri Lankan authorities and cleared. On the other hand, he was wealthy and famous, so who knows how thorough the investigation really was? basically I trust that seemingly-random guy, along with this patreon post, substantially more than the police investigating a rich famous knighted British man
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Nov 22, 2023 17:23
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buffalo all day posted:The exception, as with nearly all other questions about this era, is LeGuin James Tiptree Jr? (Who was a woman. Also arguably not that big of a name I guess.)
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Nov 22, 2023 17:40
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The Dragon's Path (Dagger and Coin #1) by Daniel Abraham - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0047Y16LC/ The Investigation by Stanislaw Lem - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008R2K8VO/
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Nov 22, 2023 17:46
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Lead out in cuffs posted:James Tiptree Jr? She was very cool and made great art. But then - [edited while I check my facts sorry] e: There has been some debate over whether the death of her disabled husband and herself was a death pact or caregiver murder. After googling around I guess it’s the kind of thing I’m not going to figure out well enough to have a clear opinion on. The cops did check in with her husband on the night of the deaths, but I have no idea what really happened one way or the other, and feel grotesque speculating. General Battuta fucked around with this message at 18:20 on Nov 22, 2023 |
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Nov 22, 2023 18:13
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Lead out in cuffs posted:James Tiptree Jr? Complicated. tw: domestic violence Her husband was very ill (84, blind, unspecified other stuff) and she killed him, then committed suicide. There is some debate as to whether this was entirely his idea. https://asylummagazine.org/2022/03/no-more-heroes-the-death-of-alice-b-sheldon-aka-james-tiptree-jr-by-meg-allen/
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Nov 22, 2023 18:34
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Think I’m going to dnf Amina al-Sirafi. It’s just kind of sloppy and disjointed on a whole bunch of levels. The narrative structure, the world-building, depth of characters, all of it. That and it’s just been loving boring for a book plugged as an adventure story about a middle-aged pirate queen. Stuff happens to the characters to shove them forward on the railroad of a plot, who cares. There’s also an element to the writing that’s very tell-not-show that comes across as the writer just repeating her favorite bits from whatever research she’s done to add in, like, “worldbuilding flair” or something that feels wooden and inauthentic. The writer’s background (grew up Catholic in New Jersey, converted to Muslim as a teen) doesn’t do much to help this. There’s some really good potential for a bunch of good, different stories in some of the ideas but the storytelling in the book just isn’t good.
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Nov 22, 2023 19:14
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idiotsavant posted:Think I’m going to dnf Amina al-Sirafi. It’s just kind of sloppy and disjointed on a whole bunch of levels. The narrative structure, the world-building, depth of characters, all of it. That and it’s just been loving boring for a book plugged as an adventure story about a middle-aged pirate queen. Stuff happens to the characters to shove them forward on the railroad of a plot, who cares. honestly that's how I felt about the Daevabad books too, I think they're better on al these counts than it sounds like Amina is, but the problems were still there imo
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Nov 22, 2023 19:42
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Arsenic Lupin posted:Tiptree Checked Wikipedia and hmmm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree_Jr. posted:In 1952 she and her husband were invited to join the CIA, which she accepted. At the CIA, she worked as an intelligence officer, but she did not enjoy the work.[5] She resigned her position in 1955 and returned to college. So that’s credible, although of course nothing near proven, just based on that snippet. Plus I guess her solution to difficult situations being murder is pretty CIAish. One oddball twist is that I don’t know where I heard this except it was a LONG time ago, and my father received his experimental psychology PhD in the same timeframe, if not the same year she did. As a result it’s possible that I’m repeating academic rather than sci-fi nerd gossip. Or, given my father was both plus (pick some bad thing) possibly some ungodly bullshit fusion of the two with a lie thrown in.
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Nov 22, 2023 19:51
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MockingQuantum posted:honestly that's how I felt about the Daevabad books too, I think they're better on al these counts than it sounds like Amina is, but the problems were still there imo Agreed. I liked the first one, probably cause it was mainly a new angle but even then the last 3rd or so of the book was eh, and the follow-ups were not good.
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Nov 22, 2023 20:07
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Arsenic Lupin posted:e:f, b Yeah I think that article has a good nuanced take on it, especially about the complicated space in the disability advocacy world around right to die. I also don't feel like I want to judge anyone for their end-of-life decision making within a deeply connected relationship, whichever way that actually played out. And it is inarguable that she was a trailblazer and massively progressive for her time. Margaret Atwood before there was Margaret Atwood. (For that matter, Atwood might be another example of a big sci-fi name of the time who wasn't a terrible person.)
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Nov 22, 2023 20:17
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Lead out in cuffs posted:Yeah I think that article has a good nuanced take on it, especially about the complicated space in the disability advocacy world around right to die. Yeah, I appreciated that, too.
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Nov 22, 2023 20:23
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Calenth posted:Before his books took off, I heard people in Charleston refer to Robert Jordan as "Harriet's kept man" because it was the eighties and she had a regular job and he didn't. As far as I know, Robert Jordan was an okay guy, whatever you wanna say about his books.
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Nov 22, 2023 23:25
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I haven't heard anyone say anything about Zelazny other than that he was a nice quiet guy
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Nov 22, 2023 23:37
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Kchama posted:As far as I know, Robert Jordan was an okay guy, whatever you wanna say about his barely disguised fetishes.
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Nov 23, 2023 01:25
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That is what I was deciding not to say, yes. Along with a whole list of dislikes about them.
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Nov 23, 2023 01:27
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fez_machine posted:I haven't heard anyone say anything about Zelazny other than that he was a nice quiet guy Skinny guy, early 60’s maybe, with an unfashionable at the time goatee that I and nerdy friends called a “writers’ beard” because they all (that showed for Indianapolis cons) had one. I did not see him letching on female fans, even revisiting memories and finding some activities that in retrospect are terrible. *The Replacements at about this same time played a show lying down in protest at the unresponsive audience.
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Nov 23, 2023 01:59
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Remulak posted:When I was like 12-14 I saw him give a reading, and to enliven the typically unresponsive indianapolis audiences* he jumped on hotel tables and was pacing on them. A table broke and he fell, earning gasps and concern from the audience; he then dramatically jumped to another able and continued literally mid-sentence. This is magical. I listened to his audiobook reading of A Night in the Lonesome October over October this year, and am currently listening to Lord of Light, and now I can't stop imagining him delivering some of those lines while pacing across tables. Do you recall what he was giving a reading of?
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Nov 23, 2023 03:38
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Notes from Jo Walton's history of the Hugos: R.A. Lafferty and Avram Davidson show up a lot in the short story nominations, Fritz Leiber was a lot more prolific than I previously knew, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin sounds amazing, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity had a sequel where the aliens and humans visit a third planet.
FPyat fucked around with this message at 10:06 on Nov 23, 2023 |
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Nov 23, 2023 09:30
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FPyat posted:Notes from Jo Walton's history of the Hugos: R.A. Lafferty and Avram Davidson show up a lot in the short story nominations, Fritz Leiber was a lot more prolific than I previously knew, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin sounds amazing, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity had a sequel where the aliens and humans visit a third planet.
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Nov 23, 2023 11:51
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I really like some of his works and the Doctor Eszterhazy stories are among my favorite fiction ever. That being said, he's both an acquired taste and a great example of the Zelazny syndrome where you can really tell what books he wanted to write and what he wrote to pay the bills.
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Nov 23, 2023 13:34
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FPyat posted:Notes from Jo Walton's history of the Hugos: R.A. Lafferty and Avram Davidson show up a lot in the short story nominations, Fritz Leiber was a lot more prolific than I previously knew, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin sounds amazing, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity had a sequel where the aliens and humans visit a third planet. I love Davidson. His stories and novels are intensely idiosyncratic which makes them an acquired taste. The Investigations of Avram Davidson is a very accessible collection, but Treasury is a good place to start as well. The Limekiller stories are very eerie, largely because everything happens just outside the protagonist's awareness. I wouldn't say he's like Zelazny as his most commercial work is early on and it just gets more experimental and individual as he ages. Adventures in Unhistory is a key book if you want to read his historical novels.
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Nov 23, 2023 13:59
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FPyat posted:Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin sounds amazing Rereading it was worthwhile, I’ll probably do so again this week. The book is very much a 60s artifact; the 14-olds having sex sure made sense to me as a 14-year-old, and indeed marks the entrance to adulthood. The protagonists disagreeing with, but not stopping or being repulsed by adults’ “tough men making tough choices” genocide at the end is also sadly of the era. It’s not the ending a modern novel would have, but it’s distressingly realistic, and one I think about while struggling with my own complicity in some of my government’s actions. Kestral posted:Do you recall what he was giving a reading of?
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Nov 23, 2023 17:17
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Children of Time (#1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07DN8BQMD/ Elantris by Brandon Sanderson - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003G93YLY/ Vicious (Villains #1) by VE Schwab - $2.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CQY7WBI/
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Nov 23, 2023 17:56
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FPyat posted:Notes from Jo Walton's history of the Hugos: R.A. Lafferty and Avram Davidson show up a lot in the short story nominations, Fritz Leiber was a lot more prolific than I previously knew, Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin sounds amazing, Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity had a sequel where the aliens and humans visit a third planet. oh, i read this a few times! can't remember anything apart from the heroine starts the book by nailing a penalty kick and strolling off feeling badass lol e: ok read a synopsis and it came back. it's a good yarn
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Nov 23, 2023 21:06
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DACK FAYDEN posted:second essay here (Peter Troyer) is about it Weirdly I'm reading Terry Pratchett's biography and it just mentioned that as a young man he once met Arthur C Clarke in a toilet at a sf convention
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Nov 23, 2023 22:37
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There's this new Humble Bundle with a load of John Scalzi books in it https://www.humblebundle.com/books/john-scalzis-interdependency-old-mans-war-and-more-tor-books Are his books worth getting into?
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Nov 24, 2023 00:06
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bovis posted:There's this new Humble Bundle with a load of John Scalzi books in it I like Old Man's War and Redshirts. I think I also read the second OMW book, and heard Lockdown was also a good take on the zombie genre. But I've also heard that his later work declines, but haven't read any of it.
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Nov 24, 2023 00:19
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Great! I'll probably pick it up then, thanks for your thoughts 
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Nov 24, 2023 00:43
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The one about Godzillas was nauseously memey, don’t read that one.
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Nov 24, 2023 01:22
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In 1972, Asimov accidentally announced that Wolfe's "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" had won Best Short Story, though in fact no winner had been chosen for that year.Gardner Dozois posted:There’s no “supposedly” about it, Rich. I was there, sitting at Gene Wolfe’s table, in fact. He’d actually stood up, and was starting to walk toward the podium, when Isaac was told about his mistake. Gene shrugged and sat down quietly, like the gentleman he is, while Isaac stammered an explanation of what had happened. It was the one time I ever saw Isaac totally flustered, and, in fact, he felt guilty about the incident to the end of his days.
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Nov 24, 2023 02:36
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Wolfe should've won for it. The Hero as Werewolf and The Doctor of Death Island are all timers.
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Nov 24, 2023 02:57
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FPyat posted:In 1972, Asimov accidentally announced that Wolfe's "The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" had won Best Short Story, though in fact no winner had been chosen for that year. That's the Nebula awards in 1971. It wasn't even nominated at the Hugos.
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Nov 24, 2023 03:06
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Oops, the book does tell the story in the 1971 chapter. She's covering all the major awards alongside the Hugos, sharing recollections with Gardner Dozois and other commenters.
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Nov 24, 2023 03:33
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pradmer posted:Children of Time (#1) by Adrian Tchaikovsky - $2.99 Ok at that price i had to buy it, considering all the raves. Next on my list after finishing Malayan (on book 3).
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