The Evolution of Science Fiction discussion

As i'm always looking for recommendations, I though i'd start a thread to ask about specific books.

I was reading the article below about The Power by Naomi Alderman which is nominated for one of the book prizes in the UK. As it's quite rare for a sci-fi book to be nominated for a main stream prize I was wondering if anybody has read it.

Sorry. No help here. I'm not familiar with it.

I'm not familiar with it, either. I keep seeing the title & thinking of an old SF book that I really liked, The Power by Frank M. Robinson. It's tough to find in a search. Seems practically unknown, but I remember it fondly. I still have it in hardback, but don't think I've read it in 20 years.

I've never read anything else by Robinson, but it looks as if he was publishing into the 1970s. Has anyone else read this or anything by him?

I don't know Alderman, I do have a copy (translation) of The Power by Frank Robinson but haven't read it yet.

I'll be interested in what you think of Robinson's book when you get around to it, Leo. IIRC, it was very well done about paranormal mind control. Nothing flashy, but fairly horrifying, especially at the end.

Sounds good enough Jim. I'll try to locate it in a few days and put it next on my list.
Still doesn't help Jo though.

No, it doesn't. Sorry, Jo. Didn't mean to hijack the thread. I hope someone has read the other The Power & can give you some guidance.

I gave in and bought it so when I have finished my current books I will start reading it.

Think this might work well for a thread as I asked about one book and now there are two books with the same name worth reading :-)

I think these little conversations are a great way for finding interesting books.
I found my copy of Robinson's Power, a 1969 translation. On the back is written that it was being filmed in 1968. Indeed I found the movie 'The Power' came out in 1968 and although it doesn't have a high rating overall, I read some very enthousiastic reviews by SF-fans on imdb.

Rotten Tomatoes gave it a B+. Given that it stars George Hamilton & Suzanne Pleschette, I'm not surprised. Both good actors & the story line is creepy. Wouldn't need much in the way of special effects, either. I'm fairly sure I watched at least part of it. The trailer on YouTube has some familiar parts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvCz9...

I'm sure the book was better. Apparently I have the first edition by Lippincott Press. No jacket & it's been fairly well read. I set it out to read again after I finish my current book.

I do have a copy of "The Power" - and out to get to it soon. However, my sister - also an avid reader, gave me a hardcover copy of Frank M Robinson's 1991 novel, "The Dark Beyond the Stars", claiming it was the best science fiction novel she had ever read.

I finished The Power by Frank Robinson. Allthough one star less enthousiastic as Jim I found it a fun read indeed. I also saw some fragments of the movie, but that's not for me. For some reason I can really like old books, but get bored easily by most older movies.
I'm also going to check out The Dark Beyond the Stars.

I just received an email from Tor with "Who Are the Forgotten Greats of Science Fiction?" in it.
https://www.tor.com/2018/09/04/who-ar...

It's a neat idea & has some authors I'd like to explore more. What really caught my eye was Frank M. Robinson. I mentioned really liking one of his books The Power. I hadn't known that "...his political activities won him a spot in the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame...". (I didn't know there was a Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame, either.)

Cool. This list - and the Chicago Gay and Lesbian Hall of Fame of course. Pangborn and Lafferty I know are not for me. But quite some names that I haven 't read but know are in my collection, worth looking them up (Stapledon, Kuttner, Galouye, Brown, Smith...). Still have to read The dark beyond the stars.

Leo wrote: "Cool..."

Yeah, that is a really cool list!

I also was interested by the first commentor:
"I nominate Jack L. Chalker. The SF Author who did much to make LGBT issues visible in the SFF community."

Loved the comment "If you’ve annoyed me recently, then by all means track down They'd Rather Be Right".

The Al Gore Rhythms of GoodReads had, for unknown reasons, suggested I might like Cordwainer Smith and R.A. Lafferty, so I was already investigating them. Lafferty is, um, interesting.

I recently accidentally discovered Clark Ashton Smith by browsing for a book by Cordwainer Smith, so it is interesting that CAS appears on a list named after CS. (I did not like the CAS that I read, but even the forward and afterword of that book Red World of Polaris say it isn't great.)

Stanley G. Weinbaum and Katherine Anne MacLean look interesting.

Am I the only person, who have read They'd Rather Be Right and found it okay? Yes, it can use editing and be cut in half, but geez, there are a lot of good pieces, especially at the start.

As for Jack L. Chalker, I've read only his The Four Lords of the Diamond [some assume his best], and yeas, there are sex changes [due to the nature of planets] but his heroes are definitely heterosexual [all books have romantic line]

I really liked the "Four Lords of the Diamond" books, too. If anyone else is interested in reading them, get all 4 books together & read them in order back to back. When they first came out, I could only get the 1st & 3d. The first by itself was satisfying & stood alone. After that, you just have to read them all in order or it makes no sense & leaves too many threads hanging. Drove me nuts for a few years until I could buy them all.

There was another series Chalker wrote about Nathan Brazil, I think (Well World). I liked the first one, but the next book or two didn't do much for me so I dropped it. He's really into body morphing.

Jim wrote: "I really liked the "Four Lords of the Diamond" books, too. If anyone else is interested in reading them, get all 4 books together & read them in order back to back. "

I've read the first two in Russian translation but I was unable to get the last two. So I thought hard to decide what were the special rules on the remaining planets and, I have to say, I was very close. I've read the whole series last year.

I'm just glad to see one of my favorites, Fredric Brown, on the list.

This thread made me finally start The Dark Beyond the Stars. It's actually quite good (25% in). About a generation ship, which I always find fascinating but an unrealistic idea. Of course when you are the xth generation aboard, you don't have a choice, but I can't imagine people would want to start travelling that way, knowing you and your children and children's children will spend your complete life in a metal shell in space.

Leo wrote: "This thread made me finally start The Dark Beyond the Stars. It's actually quite good (25% in). About a generation ship, which I always find fascinating but an unrealistic idea. Of co..."

3 of my friends have read it & 2 gave it 4 stars while 1 gave it 3, so it does seem worthwhile.

Leo wrote: "This thread made me finally start The Dark Beyond the Stars. It's actually quite good (25% in). About a generation ship, which I always find fascinating but an unrealistic idea. Of co..."

It's been many (many!) years since I read it, but Dark Beyond the Stars really made an impact on me. Robinson delved into the societal adjustments that people would need to make on a generation ship. (His ideas regarding sexual relationships and population control were interesting to say the least.) I think this book was the first to show me that good SF is more about people than technology.

I read it years ago and gave it four stars. I might have to reread it.

I just found Worlds in Collision in a little free library. Has anyone read this? Seems to be sort of an alternative theory about the origin of our planets, the universe and all that, linked to biblical and other ancient stories. Could be interesting but also a great waste of time.

Pretty much a waste of time. Carl Sagan debunked all the ideas in that book in his Cosmos series.

I could consider it science fiction then.

Why do we never see JG Ballard on these lists? The Drowned World, Crash, High Rise, etc.

There is some Ballard discussion here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Thanks, great thread!

Has anyone read Consider Phlebas? Or any the his culture series?

Chad wrote: "Has anyone read Consider Phlebas? Or any the his culture series?"

I read The Player of Games. I thought it was good but it took a while to get going. I'm going to get back to that series hopefully soon. Trying to wrap up some other series first since the Culture books can all be read as stand-alones.

Chad wrote: "Has anyone read Consider Phlebas? Or any the his culture series?"

I did, and for me Culture books are interesting but not great kind of series - I enjoy reading them, but not rush to read all of them right now

Chad wrote: "Has anyone read Consider Phlebas? Or any the his culture series?"

This group read Player of Gamers some years back. In that month I read Consider Phlebas instead because that's the first book in the Culture series. I liked it a lot, there are lots of things happening in a grim atmosphere. I want to read the whole series but these are no books you rush through on a summer evening. I mean that as a compliment.

Chad wrote: "Has anyone read Consider Phlebas? Or any the his culture series?"

I've read all of the series bar The State of the Art and am a fan. It's a fascinating world politically; I'm not sure the idea of a galactic-level empire based on socialist anarchist principles has been seriously explored elsewhere, but Banks gives it a thoughtful treatment. Plus the ship names and personalities are wonderful.

Thanks guys! Sounds like it’s worth a try. I appreciate the responses.

I’ve read the first three of the Culture series, Consider Phlebas, Use of Weapons & The Player of Games. All three were excellent. The only reason I haven’t gone further is too many books & I haven’t located a copy of the next one (I avoid buying if I can help it).

Leo wrote: "I could consider it science fiction then."

Is it fiction if the author doesn't intend it as such? I suppose it's similar to reading the teachings of Scientology out of curiosity.

Chad wrote: "Thanks guys! Sounds like it’s worth a try. I appreciate the responses."

It might swing you in the wrong direction, but I enjoyed reading Banks' essay "A few notes on the culture" after I'd read one or two of the books. It might count as a decent introduction to some of the ideas in the series.

Link:
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/...

Sabri wrote: "It might swing you in the wrong direction, but I enjoyed reading Banks' essay "A few notes on the culture" after I'd read one or two of the books. It might count as a decent introduction to some of the ideas in the series.
"
http://www.vavatch.co.uk/books/banks/...
I liked this when I read it years ago. Not sure why it would put someone off. Banks was explicit (ims) that he wasn't writing Old American-style space opera, but rather a sort-of European Social Democrat version. But he's not in-your-face in the novels, and in fact almost all the action takes place outside the Culture worlds. Since Utopias make dull reading (per Banks).

I wonder if anyone has had a go at a GOOD utopian SF novel? Speaking as one who likes optimism in SF. And, indeed, most efforts at that sort of thing I've seen are deadly dull.... 😒 🤨

Peter wrote: "I wonder if anyone has had a go at a GOOD utopian SF novel? "

At least quite interesting is Soviet 60s Noon: 22nd Century, collection of short stories set in an utopian communist future

Peter wrote: "Not sure why it would put someone off"

I can imagine that if you're mostly into hard sci fi, or of an opposing political/cultural bent to the Culture, you might dislike the tone of the essay. In that case you'll probably dislike the novels as well(!). I was supposing there might exist people who enjoy the novels but dislike the worldview advocated therein.

Peter wrote: "I wonder if anyone has had a go at a GOOD utopian SF novel?"

Tricky as they tend to either deal with interactions with non-utopian aspects/societies (thus not properly utopian) or be little more than a collection of ideas (thus not properly a novel).

Possibly Walden Two? I also intend to read Island at some point. These probably fall quite far into the "collection of ideas" category!

For Utopias, I agree with Octavia Butler: “I don't like most Utopia stories because I don't believe them for a moment. It seems inevitable that my Utopia would be someone else's hell.”

Islandia (1942) by Austin Tappan Wright might qualify as a decent Utopia novel. I read it long ago, and have it recorded as 3-stars. OMG, 1000+ pages! I certainly have no plans to re-read it. Gets quite a high rating here, almost 4.3 stars, far better than most books.
Here's the review to read, though the reviewer liked it far more than I did: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I don't recall if I finished it. I'm guessing not.