February's Febrile Focus For Finding Fulfilling Fiction

[Southern Geologist]

I almost commented on your rating of Last and First men on GR. I keep looking at that book intending to read it (as I would like to read all the SF Masterworks) but I keep thinking from the descriptions of it that it just doesn't appeal to me.

It could have been a great work--and the half I read does have some very interesting moments--but he takes a big, big picture approach and the result it that it ends up feeling like an intro level history text. Big picture of history (and future history in this case) but without any of the little details that make things interesting, and without any characters to grasp onto.

 

[J-Sun]

Those three are numbers 7, 8 & 9 in the SF Masterworks list and at that time I was sort of reading them in order (given up with the order now as I find myself jumping around the list all over the place). My guess is that LCW is also tending to read in that order. But yes a bit spooky!

Ah - that likely explains it - so, like you say, still odd but not quite as amazing as I thought at first.

 

[j d worthington]

It could have been a great work--and the half I read does have some very interesting moments--but he takes a big, big picture approach and the result it that it ends up feeling like an intro level history text. Big picture of history (and future history in this case) but without any of the little details that make things interesting, and without any characters to grasp onto.

I think that's why this, out of all Stapledon's novels, seems to polarize people most. He really does go for the big, big picture -- a sweeping cosmic picture, in fact -- which is one of the most impressive feats of imagination; comparable, in some ways, to Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time", and also (as Lovecraft) tending to minimize the importance of the "human" in the human character. For some (such as myself) this isn't a problem, but rather is very stirring to the imagination; others, however, find that lack of personal connection a definite roadblock....

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm a fan of Wolfe having collected his entire ouevre (in terms of his novels plus his early student book and chapbook in collaboration with Gaiman, I have most but not all of his short story collections, don't have his letters from the war in Korea) and I regard "Cerberus" as one of his better works but like all Wolfe texts it can be somewhat impenetrable, requiring a fair degree of work from the reader and inevitable rereads...so I can understand why people would wish to move on to other things. Definitely not everyone's cup of tea.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

Stayed up later than I should have and finished Flowers For Algernon, fantastic in all respects. I knew the novel was probably going to end the way it did but I found my self hoping (especially on the last 20 pages or so) that something would happen to turn it around. Still a great ending and I can see why this novel is as popular as it is.

Next I'll reading the second two novels from Cities In Flight.

 

[Vertigo]

LCW: Ah then now you'll really get into the actual cities in flight. As I recall the first book left me scratching my head on the series name, but the second is where the cities actually take flight.


JD: I think I will eventually read this but need to get my head into the right frame of mind; not really expecting a novel or a story but, as you say, a future history.


Gollum: I have put both Cerberus and The Stars My Destination on my to-reread list, as I felt I should have enjoyed both of them more than I did.

 

[Southern Geologist]

I think that's why this, out of all Stapledon's novels, seems to polarize people most. He really does go for the big, big picture -- a sweeping cosmic picture, in fact -- which is one of the most impressive feats of imagination; comparable, in some ways, to Lovecraft's "The Shadow Out of Time", and also (as Lovecraft) tending to minimize the importance of the "human" in the human character. For some (such as myself) this isn't a problem, but rather is very stirring to the imagination; others, however, find that lack of personal connection a definite roadblock....

Personally I wouldn't mind the long view/lack of personal connection so much if he tried to focus more on a smaller amount of periods spread throughout the future history and give more details on each. Like I said, it tends to come across to me like an intro history text, which always drove me nuts because of the lack of interesting details. That said, when he does get into the details there are some fascinating leaps of the imagination in there.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

About to start The Best of Amazing -- a paperback from 1967. Lots of really old stuff in it, like Murray Leinster's very first story, "The Runaway Skyscraper," from way back in 1919. (Amazing didn't even exist at the time, so that's a bit of a cheat; apparently they reprinted it at some point.)

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

LCW: Ah then now you'll really get into the actual cities in flight. As I recall the first book left me scratching my head on the series name, but the second is where the cities actually take flight.

Yeah I enjoyed the second one a lot more than the first one, I think it was you who said they improve as they go along so I'm looking forward to getting into these two.

 

[Vertigo]

Yeah I enjoyed the second one a lot more than the first one, I think it was you who said they improve as they go along so I'm looking forward to getting into these two.

Ah apologies I read your other post as you being about to read 2 & 3 but you've already read 2 and so you're already well in flight!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The SF masterworks version is a collection of 3 Novella's.

Perhaps better thought of as a novel consisting of three related novellas.

 

[Connavar]

Finished The Stars My Destination, probably the best book I've ever read. Everything about it was phenomenal but the last fifty pages was some of the best writing I've ever read.

[/B]

It is easily one of the best SF books i have read. One of the early SF books i read that made me decide SF genre books is for me.

I always like seeing people who still enjoy it today and that isnt seen as overrated just because it has big reputation.

 

[Southern Geologist]

Now working on Second Foundation.

 

[AE35Unit]

It is easily one of the best SF books i have read. One of the early SF books i read that made me decide SF genre books is for me.

I always like seeing people who still enjoy it today and that isnt seen as overrated just because it has big reputation.

I need to find a copy and re read it. Im not sure I fully 'got it' last time.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

Started reading Earthman, Come Home, third book in Cities In Flight. Gave up after 100 pages or so. It was obviously a fix up of various short stories which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I thought Van Vogt's Voyage Of The Space Beagle was phenomenal) but it just didn't seem to flow well at all. Also I found their were a lot of great ideas and interesting story lines let down heavily by Blish's writing. I can understand Cities In Flight being influential in it's ideas but I really don't understand why it's on the masterworks list.

 

[Lord Captain Woden]

It is easily one of the best SF books i have read. One of the early SF books i read that made me decide SF genre books is for me.

I always like seeing people who still enjoy it today and that isnt seen as overrated just because it has big reputation.

I went into it expecting it to be good and it turned out better than I ever thought it would be. If I hadn't known already that it was written in the 50's I would never have guessed.

 

[Fried Egg]

Started reading Earthman, Come Home, third book in Cities In Flight. Gave up after 100 pages or so. It was obviously a fix up of various short stories which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I thought Van Vogt's Voyage Of The Space Beagle was phenomenal) but it just didn't seem to flow well at all. Also I found their were a lot of great ideas and interesting story lines let down heavily by Blish's writing. I can understand Cities In Flight being influential in it's ideas but I really don't understand why it's on the masterworks list.

It might possibly be worth skipping part three and going onto part 4; at least I found it was an improvement.

 

[Vertigo]

Started reading Earthman, Come Home, third book in Cities In Flight. Gave up after 100 pages or so. It was obviously a fix up of various short stories which isn't necessarily a bad thing (I thought Van Vogt's Voyage Of The Space Beagle was phenomenal) but it just didn't seem to flow well at all. Also I found their were a lot of great ideas and interesting story lines let down heavily by Blish's writing. I can understand Cities In Flight being influential in it's ideas but I really don't understand why it's on the masterworks list.

I agree with FE, I found 4 a distinct improvement and the best of the four and would also recommend reading it even though you didn't finish 3. It is interesting to note that the approximate writing order was 3, 1, 4, 2.

 

[Southern Geologist]

Finished Second Foundation. I'm now halfway through Sales' Adrift on the Sea of Rains and starting on Before the Golden Age.

 

[j d worthington]

Finished Second Foundation. I'm now halfway through Sales' Adrift on the Sea of Rains and starting on Before the Golden Age.

Despite my fondness for that last -- and the fact it really is an excellent look into the world of sf at that time -- the earlier stories often (though not always) tend to be a bit crude and simplistic. I didn't find this particularly troublesome, but I know some do. Just a bit of a warning. On the other hand, I hope you, too, prove to be one for whom this is not a problem, and that you enjoy these odd and wonderful little bits of sff's past....

I've finished the Heinlein biography... with a few questions and a bit of uneasiness concerning some of the styff about Leslyn... or, rather, Patterson's handling of that subject. For my part, while I tend to agree with the general conclusions, I don't think he made much of a case defending Heinlein here, and this raises questions about whether there was some truth to the claims or not. Now, it may simply be that there isn't enough documentation (something hinted at in the notes, but given the amount of material by others concerning her, that degree of nonexistence seems unlikely), but in that case, there should be more corroborating evidence in support of his view of Heinlein himself in this matter, etc.

That aside, I was fairly impressed with this as a biography, and look forward to reading the second volume when it is available. Incidentally, I'd love to have the Virginia edition of Heinlein's works, but... $1500 is just a tad more than I can afford, I'm afraid! I hope, though, that the critical texts begin to be used in other, affordable editions, with all the proper t's crossed and i's dotted, for the sake of ethics....

Am now reading Ballard's The Drought. It's odd, but for some reason, I've never been able to "connect" with that one before (even though I did read it many years back). This time, though, I'm finding myself quite absorbed in it, and expect it to go rather smoothly....