One of These 5 Sci-Fi Authors STUNNED Me

[@mondostrat]

my favorite Dangerous Visions stories: "Aye, and Gomorrah" by Samuel R. Delany "If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" by Theodore Sturgeon and "Riders of the Purple Wage" by Philip José Farmer

[@WordsinTime]

@@mondostrat Those are great authors so I’m looking forward to those stories too.

[@kid5Media]

You picked three of the very best in the collection. The Farmer is my favorite. The Dick is also very memorable.

[@smaug18]

Just read Dangerous Visions too. I enjoyed both Ellison's forewords and the afterwords from the individual authors. Kind of like a time capsule this way. Looking forward to More Dangerous Visions and the eventual release The Last Dangerous Visions.

[@WordsinTime]

@@smaug18 Glad you enjoyed it!

[@chmood]

@@smaug18 I’ve been hearing about Last Dangerous Visions for *decades*, but have never seen hide nor hair - I’ll read it - if I can find it I’m not a huge fan of Harlan’s fiction at large, but his commentaries, critiques, analyses & think-pieces, are - with his editorial work - where he was most brilliant. Never met him not at all sure I’d’ve liked him, but dammit, I admired the hell out of him He used to run a TV commentary column in the LA Free Press(?) that was some of the best writing, the best evidence of a mind at work. Probably old-fashioned 1& stupid now, but he’s not famous for being famous.

[@lisagulick4144]

@@chmood I think that column was called "The Glass Teat." Ellison published two collections of those essays, _The Glass Teat_ and _The Other Glass Teat._ (He was pretty famous for hating TV, even though he wrote for it; that whole mess with _The Starlost_ really soured him on TV writing for quite a while [See an essay titled "Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto" for all the gory details.].)

[@seaminer5894]

​@@chmoodJ M Straczynzky is handling the HE state , because even Susan Ellison, his wife died in 2020 , with only 60 years. The good news is that Straczynzky published The Last Dangerous Visions ,so the book is available this October 2nd.

[@epiphoney]

Norman Spinrad also wrote the classic "The Doomsday Machine" episode of the original Star Trek, sort of a riff on Moby Dick.

[@WordsinTime]

@@epiphoney That’s cool!

[@epiphoney]

@@WordsinTime Robert Bloch and Theodore Sturgeon had Star Trek episodes too and are also in Dangerous Visions.

[@Yesica1993]

Ok, it's wild that I am seeing this comment. I recently conquered Moby Dick. (After defeat upon defeat!) No I'm obsessed with any related material and I see this. I'm not even a ST fan. (Oh, it seems to be online! I'll have to see if these links work.)

[@chmood]

@@epiphoney I’m…ambivalent about star trek episodes written by writers I enjoy/admire/respect Kinda wish they hadn’t been made, but that’s because I was mainlining books long before TV was good enough, and…no-one had the attention span for real stories in sciffy-TV back then, mostly (OG Outer Limits pulled the weight 10 years before)

[@ericneff9908]

One of your best videos. A great idea to expose yourself (and us) to new authors. Thanks!

[@WordsinTime]

@@ericneff9908 Thanks Eric, I’m glad you enjoyed this one!

[@keithdixon6595]

Interesting choices! Spinrad is still around and is notoriously prickly on Facebook. I have a feeling he's still writing and publishing, too.

[@WordsinTime]

@@keithdixon6595 He seems like a character haha

[@paulcooper3611]

Y'know, back in the 80s, I met the woman who picked up Norman Spinrad. She was quite lovely, striking, even, and athletic. All the guys looked up to her. She was 6' 2" tall. At another convention, so, the story goes, she was wanting to go through a door but Norman Spinrad was blocking her, hitting on her. Norman Spinrad is not a large man. She reached out, grabbed his arms under his elbows, lifted him turned, set him down and blithely walked through the door, sealing her place in legend as the woman who picked up Norman Spinrad.

[@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd]

Using a different device now so my earlier comment might not have gotten thru but Ellison really helped bring attention to some good new writers. Spinrad was one of the first modern sci-fi writers I read although like Ellison he was a little controversial in his own way.⚛️

[@WordsinTime]

@@FrankOdonnell-ej3hd Yes, it seems they were both unique personalities haha

[@seaminer5894]

My favorite short stories are Riders Of The Purple Wage ( Man ! That story is amazing and crazy , some Joyce vibe ) , The Prowler Of The Edge Of The World by Harlan Ellison is in my top. Some curious story I loved was written by Miriam Allen DeFord , in her 80's !!!! The Malley System; about a technology that made the criminals reviving in a loop their crimes , as a therapy to rehab them ( casually, some scientists are trying to make something similar...

[@WordsinTime]

@@seaminer5894 Interesting! I’m looking forward to reading more.

[@tiffanycorsello1886]

Great Powell's hat! I used to live in the Northwest- I've been to Powell's many times. It's AMAZING, right?! And this was interesting- I love short stories. They're a really good way to get introduced to an author. Going to check out this collection...

[@WordsinTime]

@@tiffanycorsello1886 Powell’s is awesome! If you’re in the mood for it, this collection has a very New Wave 1960s feel to it.

[@クローマーアックスエリク]

What is your opinion on Gardner Dozois "The Year's Best Science Fiction" anthologies? Heard some Revelation Space short stories are collected in these.

[@WordsinTime]

@@クローマーアックスエリク I don’t own any of them but I was looking at purchasing the 35 year best of the best anthology.

[@BookishChas]

Thanks for giving me some new authors to check out. I’ve never heard of any of these.

[@WordsinTime]

@@BookishChas They were new to me, so I’m looking forward to trying their books!

[@shobhitkaul8076]

Cool cap. Good book analysis.

[@WordsinTime]

@@shobhitkaul8076 Thanks!

[@rhoadsy]

How weird, I literally just picked up Again, Dangerous Visions, also edited by Ellison, at my local shop yesterday. My phone must be listening!

[@WordsinTime]

@@rhoadsy Haha great minds!

[@PeterKerans-h6z]

ADV has a Kurt Vonnegut story.

[@hakonsoreide]

There are some quite interesting writers and stories in Dangerous Visions. I am still working my way through it, currently on volume two in my three-volume paperback set from Sphere Publishing's 1974 edition. One interesting thing to note, however, is that none of them would have liked being called _sci-fi_ authors. Some would even have got deeply offended by it as it was - and for many still is - a pejorative term. At the time of this anthology being published, there was a well-established and important genre distinction between sci-fi and SF, and these are all most definitely SF writers and SF stories. You will notice Harlan Ellison consistently refers to the genre as SF throughout.

[@WordsinTime]

@@hakonsoreide Hope you enjoy! I have noticed some people aren’t a fan of the term sci-fi. I think people should be able to use whatever genre term they like without it being considered a pejorative.

[@paulcooper3611]

@@WordsinTime At the time, science fiction was was looked down up as cheap hack writing by the literary crowd but it was starting to become respectable with serious attention from critics and academics. "Sci-fi" was an attempt to equate science fiction with high-fidelity radio (hi-fi) and was thought to bring the field back down again. A lot of us would contemptuously pronounce it "skiffy" like it was spelled. Of course, that was 40 years ago and tempers on both sides have eased a bit since then.

[@hakonsoreide]

@@WordsinTime I agree. As far as most people are concerned, when they say "sci-fi", they mean any kind of science fiction, and are indeed most likely to refer to whatever kind of sub-genre they love the most, and so it's a term of endearment if anything. "Sci-fi" also rolls so trippingly off the tongue, too, making it the most euphonic term. And, because of the way languages work, when only a small minority of people using a word has a distinction of meaning between two words that are used interchangeably by practically everyone else, that distinction is no longer meaningful. Interestingly, most people who use the SF/sci-fi distinction most likely only use the word "sci-fi" to point out the difference, since they would otherwise be too busy talking about "SF" to need the word. 🤷 So, a term distinction that grew out of snobbery, when you think about it, is probably one that there is no reason to use - unless you want to display your snobbery.

[@chmood]

@@hakonsoreide he was pulling for “SPECULATIVE fiction” to replace “science fiction”: DV is an homage to the fact that at that moment in time, the ‘science’ was drawing from more than the hard physical sciences of John Campbell’s day (…but then, who uses bus-bars the size of busses anymore?), to include human behavior, root psychology, ethnnopharmacology, sociology, history, and anthropology - and the displayed evidence of 1000s of years It took years, a lot of years of “science-fiction stupidity” full of robots & aliens & manifest destiny, pew-pew & rayguns, but eventually, the crowd said ‘miss me w/ that, ‘k?’ So, ‘SF’ And, “scientific-method-based fiction” is just awkward as hell

[@chmood]

@@hakonsoreide what you describe is often called “erasure”…’cause if you’re lost in the noise you’re just effed

[@kid5Media]

Nine Hundred Grandmothers is a must have.

[@WordsinTime]

@@kid5Media Nice!

[@chmood]

Dangerous Visions is a challenging tome to work with - each of the authors & stories is intentionally confrontational & subversive & OUT of mainstream expectations (it hit the community like a *bomb* on release). Whatever one thinks of its value, it is an important milestone: the *whole* has a significance of its own, as do each of the stories I’d love to know how you were unmoved by Sand Kings, Lord Randy My Son, & Shambleau …even though I’ve read the volume several times, none of the 6 you picked have stayed with me over the years - unlike the 3 I mention You inspire me to find a new copy & re-read it all. It’s been one of my lifetime favorites & I should return to it while I still have eyes. It occurs to me that the transgressive themes of Ellison’s invitation may have been rendered uninteresting by social & cultural shifts over the decades…if true, it would be a genuine shame if the brilliance of these stories was obscured by the grime of time With respect to all the authors represented in DV - some of whom have been friends as well as favorites - Norman Spinrad is a fucking GENIUS. Bug Jack Barron may be dated, but never overshadowed, an appreciation of it is crucial to understanding the development of SF from DV on. That book is STILL radical. Songs From the Stars is an engrossing post-apocalyptic cultural creation worthy of LeGuin, and A World Between is simply a set of prophecies of where we are now - chief among them, the internet & our current political divide (minus the cascading scandals). He’s still alive, still working, still brilliant - one of the very few writers I actually follow Speaking of, I highly recommend the Gateway books by Fred Pohl…in which he describes *exactly* the of AI software ‘agents’ we are in the throes of developing. I forget the name of the work in which Pohl accurately envisioned & described the smartphone, but it’s worth looking for, Fred is much better than his ‘success’ suggests Glad you made this, glad I saw it - thanks

[@WordsinTime]

@@chmood I haven’t read Sand Kings, Lord Randy My Son, or Shambleau yet. I only read the 6 that I selected as I didn’t want to get burned out reading so many short stories in a row and just wanted to try some new authors. I will keep making my way through the anthology and will look forward to the three you mentioned.

[@chmood]

@@WordsinTime I kinda went off, I guess - it was my first contact w/ your channel, & DV has been near & dear to my heart since release (those were the days of my fandom), so consider me a fannish burbler…I haven’t been in a conversation about SF in quite a while. Notes about those stories: Sand Kings was an earliest work by George RR Martin; Lord Randy My Son’s author, Randall Garrett, has written the best magic-based mystery novels (books are packed up & can’t call titles to mind); Shambleau IIRC is by CM Kornbluth, much-unappreciated from the late-golden age, worth uncovering; this story stuck with me far longer than some I like better It may not have sounded like it, but I really enjoyed your video & engaged in proportion thereto - and I appreciate your comment. Still new here, I’ll get the feel for it

[@lisagulick4144]

It's actually in the _Again, Dangerous Visions_ collection, but one of my all-time favorites is "The Milk of Paradise" by James Tiptree, Jr. (the _nom de plume_ of Alice Sheldon). It's a tough story to pigeonhole, but I'll avoid spoilers by saying that how you view the ending will indicate how you feel about what makes a family.

[@WordsinTime]

@@lisagulick4144 I’ve heard good things about Tiptree!

[@chmood]

@@lisagulick4144 “Tiptree” is well worth reading

[@lisagulick4144]

@@WordsinTime My favorite Tiptree story is a lesser-known one called "Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!" And _that_ is a story I have to leave entirely to you to read, because there is literally nothing I can say about it that isn't a spoiler!

[@chmood]

@@lisagulick4144 tiptree should never be explained, her tales are paths that must be walked, and they are dazzling

[@thekeywitness]

The entire Moderan book by David Bunch is available as a reprint from NYRB and it’s a great read.

[@WordsinTime]

@@thekeywitness I just ordered it!

[@rolanchristofferson9363]

Eon... two thumbs up!

[@WordsinTime]

@@rolanchristofferson9363 Looking forward to it! 👍

[@MuleFace100]

I recently acquired a copy of Eon (and a bunch of sci-fi) at an estate sale. Eager to hear what you think of it.

[@WordsinTime]

@@MuleFace100 Nice! Looking forward to it!

[@douglasdea637]

I tried a new author (for me) this summer by reading his short story collection: The Best of Cordwainer Smith. Then went on to read his "cult classic" Norstrillia. In short: didn't like him. He has some good ideas and characters but has trouble putting them into interesting and plausible stories. As for Eon, that's a middling book at best. It should have been the second in a series, not the first. The first third is mostly exposition: "Let me show you this, and this... and this over here." Lots of potential, not done very well. I'll give it 2.5/5 stars.

[@WordsinTime]

@@douglasdea637 I have Norstrilia and Eon on my schedule for September so hopefully I like them more than you did haha

[@kid5Media]

You should read all of these authors. Take it from me. I read them all in real time.

[@WordsinTime]

@@kid5Media Looking forward to reading them!

[@Talking_Story]

Eon winner winner chicken dinner!

[@WordsinTime]

@@Talking_Story Haha looking forward to it!

[@Calcprof]

Laferty is awesome. I really don't care what he writes about, his writing is so good.

[@WordsinTime]

@@Calcprof He has an interesting style! What’s your favourite novel of his?

[@Calcprof]

@@WordsinTime Past Masters maybe. Fourth Mansions is more bizarre

[@paulcooper3611]

I don't know that I would use Dangerous Visions as a place to get a view of an author's normal writing style. The whole point of the anthology was to break free of normal SF. I mean, this is where you have Theodore Sturgeon lauding the glories of incest and arch-conservative Poul Anderson advocating for cultural support, nay insistence, for homosexuality. About the only one I remember being typical of his normal work was the one by R.A. Lafferty, but, then, he was probably the second best SF short story writer of the 20th century, (Howard Waldrop was the first.) Don't bother with his novels. He couldn't keep up the pace of his short stories with a longer work. You might try his collection Nine Hundred Grandmothers to really get a taste of his writing.

[@WordsinTime]

@@paulcooper3611 Thanks for the info!

[@joebrooks4448]

Yeah, I felt Ellison was practicing "Shock Jock" tactics here. He did that frequently, but wrote some very good SF and was certainly never a promoter of monolithic SF writing or thought. The Laumer was the only entry I felt that had some thought provoking value. Laumer and Ellison collaborated on the "Five Fates" collection of stories with a common plot, by different authors. Ellison produced "The Region Between", an absolutely genre and mind expanding experience! One of my favorites, but may have been too much for the SFWA at the time.

[@chmood]

@@joebrooks4448 the original call was for stories that had been rejected for subject matter, approach, or themes, or which had never been submitted due to expected rejection for those reasons (close as I can remember). Larry Niven’s ‘Man of Steel, Woman of Kleen-Ex’ would’ve been a natural

[@callmeal4183]

Tik-Tok is hilarious

[@WordsinTime]

@@callmeal4183 It sounds fun!

[@callmeal4183]

@@WordsinTime It's also a short read. My Goodreads review - 'Nature or nurture? Embarking on a killing spree a mild-mannered robot completely disregards Asimov’s First Law of Robotics in this brutal satire of American life. Written with absurdist elan in the 1980s its cynical perspective is undeniably still relevant today, even more so perhaps. Marvellous stuff.'

[@BAMCIS2841]

Evensong was the best one for me. The thing that is most memorable about Dangerous Visions is there is waaaaaaaaaay too much Ellison.

[@WordsinTime]

@@BAMCIS2841 Haha he definitely made himself part of the book

[@dennismoore1116]

There can never be too much Ellison. Sacrilege.