Science Fiction Recommendations

[Karnos]

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon

Supposedly Harlan Ellison had a Frank Herbert novel manuscript on hand for the never-published The Last Dangerous Visions (the anthology was projected to be so huge that it could contain a full-length novel along with dozens of stories). I have sometimes wondered about this. Is there really an unpublished novel-length manuscript by Herbert in a dusty box somewhere among Ellison's effects? It's hard for me to believe such a manuscript exists, because it would potentially be worth millions to Herbert's heirs, and they surely would have retrieved the publication rights from Ellison long ago.

That's interesting, and now with Harlan Ellison gone, there will never be any way to know. Not that he had showed any interest in the last twenty years to get it published, or whatever.

The book's wikipedia entry (not the best fo sources, but what are we going to do about that?) states that the collection was going to be published on three volumes, with the third one including a story by Frank Herbert, called The Accidental Ferosslk, which was latter published as The Daddy Box in 2014, long after Herbert's death, in The Collected Stories of Frank Herbert

Not much of a book, but as a rumor it's a nice one.

[gveranon]

Quote Originally Posted by Karnos

Quote Originally Posted by gveranon Supposedly Harlan Ellison had a Frank Herbert novel manuscript on hand for the never-published The Last Dangerous Visions (the anthology was projected to be so huge that it could contain a full-length novel along with dozens of stories). I have sometimes wondered about this. Is there really an unpublished novel-length manuscript by Herbert in a dusty box somewhere among Ellison's effects? It's hard for me to believe such a manuscript exists, because it would potentially be worth millions to Herbert's heirs, and they surely would have retrieved the publication rights from Ellison long ago. That's interesting, and now with Harlan Ellison gone, there will never be any way to know. Not that he had showed any interest in the last twenty years to get it published, or whatever. The book's wikipedia entry (not the best fo sources, but what are we going to do about that?) states that the collection was going to be published on three volumes, with the third one including a story by Frank Herbert, called The Accidental Ferosslk, which was latter published as The Daddy Box in 2014, long after Herbert's death, in The Collected Stories of Frank Herbert Not much of a book, but as a rumor it's a nice one.

Was that just a confabulation of my memory? There was no doubt in my mind that decades ago Ellison repeatedly said there would be a full novel by Frank Herbert in TLDV, but I can't find any source for that now. Very strange. I think I'll lie down for a while.

[miguel1984]

The other Frank Herbert book I read is The Santaroga Barrier and I highly recommend it.

Regarding The Last Dangerous Visions: The story by Herbert is called The Accidental Ferosslk and it was published under the title The Daddy Box in the 2014 collection The Collected Stories of Frank Herbert.

[miguel1984]

I forgot about Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. Just don't bother with the rest of them.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I'm researching quite a lot of authors known for long serial novels that I had previously avoided because I often assumed they were probably commercial fluff.
I've got mixed feelings about doing this because I know that by investigating them, I probably will be reading more bad stuff than I would normally be but I hope some good discoveries will compensate for that.

[miguel1984]

Quote Originally Posted by Robert Adam Gilmour

I'm researching quite a lot of authors known for long serial novels that I had previously avoided because I often assumed they were probably commercial fluff. I've got mixed feelings about doing this because I know that by investigating them, I probably will be reading more bad stuff than I would normally be but I hope some good discoveries will compensate for that.

I understand how you feel. I have avoided reading long sagas, like Malazan Book of the Fallen or The Black Company, for example, for that same reason. I also hate it when they stretch the story just to keep putting out product like an assembly line.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

I got an omnibus of Black Company recently at a charity shop.
With people in my usual circles there's very little information about a lot of these authors, so I try to expand my goodreads reviewer pool to know more about stuff that readers like myself and critics/canon makers miss.
There's some revaluation of authors like Andre Norton I found interesting, I've heard good stuff about early Piers Anthony and a bunch of other authors I had previously dismissed.
We need more genre guides written by a variety of people with experience in different areas. James Davis Nicoll champions a ton of stuff that most people never talk about but some of which might have been commercially successful at one time.

Most people I follow on goodreads are generally positive on Harry Potter, I didn't expect that at all but I probably wont go there for a long time.

[miguel1984]

I read the first Harry Potter book ages ago and that was enough. I enjoyed the movies, though.

[Robert Adam Gilmour]

Kinda annoys me how every writer I thought I could dismiss completely has some intelligent defenders. Like Dean Koontz and Shaun Hutson, but I probably wont read either of them.
Christopher Paolini (Eragon) is one writer I've heard absolutely nothing good about.

So many series writers completely polarize people into opposite camps. GRR Martin included.

[Metaphysical Mutant]

I recently read the first Harry Potter book, and it was kind of a nostalgic experience, not because I'd read it before but because it reminded me of the kind of thing I was reading back when I was watching Nickelodeon. I can see how a younger audience would like it since it combines the experience of going to school that they know with magic and adventure, and Rowling does comes up with some original stuff in her magical world, but it didn't hook me enough to continue with the other books.