Songfighters of Gor - fantasy, sci-fi and horror must-reads

Because some of us can read.
NeilThrun
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Post by NeilThrun »

j$ wrote:*resists urge to point out that you can't punctuate*

Your argument is flawed "You can exactly throw a 400 page novel in a 30 page leaflet." Assuming you mean 'can't' here, Lovecraft never wrote anything longer than a novella. For the most part he wrote short stories, so it really makes no difference whether his stories appeared in magazines or collections of short stories.

He also wrote many of his stories years berfore they saw publication so you can't even claim he was rushed.

There are plenty of good American writers; Lovecraft wasn't one of them. He did, however, have a great imagination (when he wasn't ripping off Poe and Lord Dunsay, amongst others)

j$
I have to disagree with your view of Lovecraft. He mastered the emotion he wanted to get to his readers. Lovecraft's era was one of transition. The last parts of the unknown world were being mapped out, and Realativity was just being proposed. Lovecraft pefectly depicts that sense of dread, that there is no battle of good and evil. That nothing is actively working against man and that the universe has no desire to destroy man. In fact the universe has no desire at all, it is completely indifferent to man, not caring whether or not we live or die. Lovecraft took the man vs. nature conflict and changed it. Man against The Universe. Its a one way struggle, it is not The Universe against Man. There are no Heroes in Lovecraft's work and very few repeating protaginists. People never won, they got by and coped with what happened or they lost.

Yeah, so I like Lovecraft. Thats just my take on it though. I'm sure plenty of other people will see it otherways.
Reggie Dallas
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Post by Reggie Dallas »

I don't know a damn thing about Lovecraft, but I do know how to craft some love if you can hear what it is I'm talking about!
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NeilThrun
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Post by NeilThrun »

Reggie Dallas wrote:I don't know a damn thing about Lovecraft, but I do know how to craft some love if you can hear what it is I'm talking about!
No I really don't understand. Please ellaborate.
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blue
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Post by blue »

Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and "The Handmaid's Tale" are must-reads in the tradition of "1984."
No Horse Town
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Post by No Horse Town »

Personally, I think the Dune series just gets better with each book, at least as far as I've gotten (recently finished God Emperor). The first one was mostly just action and battles and setting the scene. As for the books his son's been writing with the uber-hack, I haven't read them but I checked out the website and they have this whole section where they address the inconsistencies.. and besides making lame excuses for most of it (supposedly Piter deVries in Dune is actually a Ghola, becuz they say so), they actually blame some of the problems on old man Frank, saying HE had it wrong! Of course, the last two books (supposed to be one, but hey, more money) are supposedly based on "notes" of Frank Herbert's which no one has ever seen... and which sonny didn't claim to "find" until after they had already written the prequels (which conveniently provide an ultimate robo-badguy straight outta The Matrix, to bring in for the end of Frank's saga). I just hope Brian Herbert has some weird master plan, trying to ruin the whole thing in order to motivate others... kinda like what Leto II does in God Emperor. Argh! Well, anyway, yeah, I really like Frank Herbert.

Dark Tower was disappointing for me... I thought The Gunslinger was pretty cool, but the second one really blew. Except the Lobstrocities, anything called a Lobstrocity has got my approval. I kept at it through the fourth one, though. When I heard about that aforementioned cardinal writer-sin at the end of the cycle, though... yeah, that's pretty bad.

I couldn't get into Tolkien either. The man's strength is his description of the countryside... the "holy white warrior with sparkling sword held aloft who never does any wrong" shit really kinda bugged me. Everything is pure good or pure evil. It pissed me off that he gave the orcs their own dialogue sections in Two Towers, effectively partially humanizing them, and then pretended like they were just absolute evil scum again. How does a whole race of creatures which is just evil and violent all the damn time develop language beyond barking/grunting/snarling at each other? Where did they get the time or inclination, if all they care about is killing/other bad stuff. And let's not forget the "evil men" that work for Sauron, and how Tolkien talks about how dark-skinned they all are, as compared to all the good guys being white this/pale that/holy corona of shining blonde glory... if I'm gonna read some Anglophilic vaguely racist author, I'd have to go with Lovecraft. Yeah, I dig that nameless indescribable terror stuff, for sure.

Elves ain't believable, either. They live for hundreds of years, and they just get more and more holy and noble? Come on.
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bz£
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Post by bz£ »

No Horse Town wrote:How does a whole race of creatures which is just evil and violent all the damn time develop language beyond barking/grunting/snarling at each other?
Humans managed it just fine.
No Horse Town
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Post by No Horse Town »

ah, touche! Yeah, I guess maybe I'm talking out of my ass just a little bit...

I also realized just now that the last post before mine was like 2 years ago... so I do feel kinda stupid for bringing it all back with a bunch of shit-talking. I guess I'm no elf, huh?
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anti-m
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Post by anti-m »

Holy hey! Check THIS thread out!

Y'all have covered most of the greats, I have to say. (Has anyone read the newest Gibson, by the by? I have my eye on it.)

Here's some genre-straddlers for you:
Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World -- Murakami
Cloud Atlas -- David Mitchell
Unconquered Contries -- Geoff Ryman
Labrynths -- Borges


And, of course, young adult fiction! There's more to life than Harry Potter. -- Two great authors of the young adult set:

Diana Wynne Jones (Check out "Witch Week!")
William Sleator (House of Stairs, Boy who reversed himself, Green Futures of Tycho...holy crap, just read his stuff!)

I also liked that first Phillip Pullman book in the series... but I haven't read the others.
HeuristicsInc
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Post by HeuristicsInc »

Yeah, Golden Compass... I finished that recently. Liked it a lot, the world is very interesting. They have a movie for it... not out yet, I think?

Also I think great in the YA theme is John Christopher's Tripods series. The White Mountains etc. Really enjoyed them as a kid, recently went back to them and still enjoyed them. Also, for anyone in the same boat as me, there is more recently a book that covers the actual Tripod invasion which filled some very interesting holes.
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spinlock
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Post by spinlock »

For clicky books you can actually read, or download and print nothing beats the baen free library and webscriptions.

I just got started on Christopher Anvil who reminds me a little of the foundation series.
Previously I have been addicted to Eric Flint's 1632 series. Which contains a helluva lot of science but is set in the past.

The Grantville Gazette, and Rats Bats and Vats have been responsible for me not finishing two songfight entries.

I thought pyramid scheme was good too.


No-one seems to have mentioned John Wyndham! The trouble with lichen is an amazing sci-fi satire.
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