Fantastika

“Oddly passionless as well, and I don’t think this is entirely because this is a Canadian show”

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James Nicoll reviews legendary bad sci-fi tv series Starlost.

Ben Bova famously wrote a fictional treatment of the disaster that was this series, Starcrossed, which I keep seeing in local secondhand bookstores. The series itself was based on a Harlan Ellison treatment, but in the end he was so infuriated with the way his ideas were treated, he took his name of it. Here’s what he wrote for Starcrossed‘s cover blurb:

It has been pointed out to me that Ben Bova’s vaguely hilarious novel is roughly patterned on events and characters involved in the short but loathsome existence of a TV series I had the misfortune to create, “The Starlost.” Nonsense! Just because my series had a studio executive as rapacious as a weasel, a producer who was a certified brain damage case, actors who should have been ditch-diggers and money grubbers who should have taken up residence at Dachau … and Bova’s novel has the same … is just lousy coincidence. Clearly it isn’t one-for-one: the writer in Bova’s book, Ron Gabriel, isn’t one-millionth as terrific and sexy as me! You’ll hear from my attorneys in the morning.

Should I get this novel?

Philip José Farmer 1918-2009

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Dammit.

Philip José Farmer was a writer who to me always promised slightly more than he delivered, the ideas around which he built his stories more interesting in conception than realisation. He started writing science fiction at a time when it was very much still a straightlaced pulp genre and immediately injected a proper dirty, perverse sexuality in it when other writers were still proud of describing a tomcat as a “ballbearing mousetrap”. Thoroughout his career his writing was oscillating between his fascination for pulp and his fascination with sex and perversity, often combining the two, as in A Feast Unknown, starring Doc Savage and Tarzan as two sexual deviants only able to get it on after they’ve killed.

His biggest commercial succes was probably the Riverworld series, starring Sir Richard Burton as he goes in search of the sources of the river alongside which he wakes up after his death, millions of years into the future, along with everybody else who ever lived. A great concept, portrayed with much verve and passion, but which unfortunately petered out a bit in the sequels.

My own personal favourites instead was his World of Tiers series, the first novel of which, The Maker of Universes was one of the first novels I ever bought in English. It starts with Robert Wolff, an almost retired professor of Greek, trapped in a somewhat loveless marriage, hearing a trumpet call out in the basement storage room of the newly built house he is thinking of buying. An impossibility obviously, as the closet is as bare as it could be, yet when he slides the door open again, he sees a portral to another world, where a bronzed youg man was holding a weirdly shaped trumpet in his hand and fighting of half a dozen of nightmarish, gorrila like creatures. Spying Wolff, the man tosses the horn to him and tells Wolff to look him, Kickaha up. Then the portal closes and Wolff is left with the horn…

An almost perfect adventure story, and the sequels kept up the high standard set, each one exploring a new, more bizarre world. Perfect fodder for a fourteen year but not one that prepared him for his more …mature… novels.

Farmer was a great writer who helped science fiction grow up, yet who kept an apprecation for its more immature, more innocent side. If he was right, he’ll be waking up somewhere right about now, stark naked next to an endless river, looking for material to make a pen, ink and paper out of…

Murray Leinster honoured in Virginia

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June 27 2009 will be Will F. Jenkins Day in Virginia:

WHEREAS, as Murray Leinster, he was one of the founders of American science fiction with his story “The Runaway Skyscraper,” which was published on February 22, 1919, in Argosy magazine; and he was one of the few pioneers of the genre who continued to publish regularly when the nature of science fiction changed after World War II; and

WHEREAS, “First Contact,” written by Murray Leinster in 1945, is one of the most anthologized stories in the history of science fiction, and “A Logic Named Joe,” written in 1946 by Will F. Jenkins, was the first science fiction story to envision a computer network similar to the Internet; and

WHEREAS, Murray Leinster won the Hugo Award for Best Novelette for “Exploration Team” in 1956; was the guest of honor at the 21st Worldcon in 1963; and was awarded a Retro Hugo Award posthumously in 1996 for Best Novelette for “First Contact,” which was the first science fiction story to present the dramatic scenario of the first meeting between earthlings and aliens; and

[…]

RESOLVED by the House of Delegates, the Senate concurring, That the General Assembly designate June 27, 2009, as Will F. Jenkins Day in Virginia in recognition of the author’s creative genius and his numerous literary achievements; and, be it

RESOLVED FURTHER, That the Clerk of the House of Delegates post the designation of this day on the General Assembly’s website.

As will be clear from the above, Will F. Jenkins was equally well known, if not more so as Murray Leinster. He was writing science fiction before there was a genre called that and kept on writing well into the 1960ties. Much of his writing seems to be out of print these days, but the 1978 Del Rey edition of The Best of Murray Leinster should be easily found secondhand. It contains most of the stories name checked in this resolution.

Found via James Nicoll.

Getting back into science fiction

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Reader Chris Y, in comments to this post asks:

Gloriana is not Moorcock at his best, but Riddley Walker (1982) is an all time classic, and Heliconia Spring (1983) is well worth reading. I more or less gave up on SF about that time, with the decline of the New Wave and the resurgence of boring old hardcore. Who should I read to get back into it? I’ve tried Charlie Stross, who seems OK; anybody else?

So we’re looking for recommendations for somebody who likes New Wave science fiction and Charlie Stross, but is less keen on hardcore science fiction. What I immediately think of is the socalled New Weird, a self-conscious literary movement of a few years ago that sort of coalesced around China Miéville and the generation of up and coming authors that got compared to him. Other New Weird authors include Steph Swainson, M. John Harrison and on the more space opera side of things, Alastair Reynolds. Tachyon Publications has put out an Ann and Jeff Vandermeer edited anthology of New Weird stories that looks to be a good starter. Another author that might be of interest is Adam Roberts, whose work I don’t actually like all that much but I do admire, if that makes any sense.

On the Strossian side of things, there’s Ken MacLeod, not to mention Iain M. Banks and Ian McDonald. Two underrated authors I only discovered myself last year are Nicola Griffith, writing feminist science fiction in the best sense of the word, as well as Paul Cornell.

Any other recommendations?

Award lists considered harmful

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Via James Nicoll, the list of winners of the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (but not the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer). In bold are those I’ve read, while the ones I read but thought filled a much needed gap in literature are struck through:

  • 1973 – Beyond Apollo, Barry N. Malzberg
  • 1974 (tie) – Rendezvous with Rama, Arthur C. Clarke; Malevil, Robert Merle
  • 1975 – Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, Philip K. Dick
  • 1976 – The Year of the Quiet Sun, Wilson Tucker (special retroactive award for a novel from 1970)
  • 1977 – The Alteration, Kingsley Amis
  • 1978 – Gateway, Frederik Pohl
  • 1979 – Gloriana, Michael Moorcock
  • 1980 – On Wings of Song, Thomas M. Disch
  • 1981 – Timescape, Gregory Benford
  • 1982 – Riddley Walker, Russell Hoban
  • 1983 – Helliconia Spring, Brian W. Aldiss
  • 1984 – The Citadel of the Autarch, Gene Wolfe
  • 1985 – The Years of the City, Frederik Pohl
  • 1986 – The Postman, David Brin
  • 1987 – A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski
  • 1988 – Lincoln’s Dreams, Connie Willis
  • 1989 – Islands in the Net, Bruce Sterling
  • 1990 – The Child Garden, Geoff Ryman
  • 1991 – Pacific Edge, Kim Stanley Robinson
  • 1992 – Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, Bradley Denton
  • 1993 – Brother to Dragons, Charles Sheffield
  • 1994 – No award
  • 1995 – Permutation City, Greg Egan
  • 1996 – The Time Ships, Stephen Baxter
  • 1997 – Fairyland, Paul J. McAuley
  • 1998 – Forever Peace, Joe Haldeman
  • 1999 – Brute Orbits, George Zebrowski
  • 2000 – A Deepness in the Sky, Vernor Vinge
  • 2001 – Genesis, Poul Anderson
  • 2002 (tie) – Terraforming Earth, Jack Williamson; The Chronoliths, Robert Charles Wilson
  • 2003 – Probability Space, Nancy Kress
  • 2004 – Omega, Jack McDevitt
  • 2005 – Market Forces, Richard Morgan
  • 2006 – Mindscan, Robert J. Sawyer
  • 2007 – Titan, Ben Bova
  • 2008 – In War Times, Kathleen Ann Goonan

Not a great score, though several of the books I haven’t read yet are on my bookshelves (e.g. Gloriana). Others though, especially post-1990, just don’t appeal at all. McDevitt, Sawyer and Baxter for example are all writers who are at best mediocre (though Baxter surprised me recently). Which brings me to the question of whether anybody ever uses these award lists as a reading guide? If you’re already familiar with science fiction and fantasy seeing who’s nominated for a Hugo might be interesting, but what if you’re new to the genre? Personally I doubt these lists will give you a good overview of the field.

Take the two biggest awards. The Hugo is voted on by a dwindling number of science fiction fans who take the trouble of registering for this year’s Worldcon and whose taste tends towards the conservative and middle of the road. The Nebula on the other hand is determined by the Science Fiction Writers of America members, which sounds better than it is, as there’s a lot of politics involved in determining the winners and again the members tend to be more conservative than the actual readers. With both there have been long stretches in which the award was consistently given to mediocre books. So if you’re a new reader or trying to assemble a reading list for somebody to get acquainted with science fiction, just following the award lists would lead to reading a lot of godawful dull books.

When I started reading science fiction I did it through the local library, then later discovered fanzines (Holland SF) which pointed me in the direction of good books; these days there are of course plenty of blogs talking about sf as well. That would be my advice: try books out from the library and look for reviewers you trust, rather than award lists.