melannen | FMK #37: New-To-Me Authors

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FMK #37: New-To-Me Authors

So I read the one you voted on last week, and I'm almost finished another one! And I even did the canon review for the exchange fic that y'all decided to make me be responsible about (and even wrote the fic already, whooo.) At this rate, I may make up the backlog before we're finished with voting.

This week: I Have Never Read Anything By This Person, Not Even A Social Media Post

How FMK works, short version: I am trying to clear out my unreads. So there is a poll, in which you get to pick F, M, or K. F means I should spend a night of wild passion with the book ASAP, and then decide whether to keep it or not. M means I should continue to commit to a long-term relationship of sharing my bedroom with it. K means it should go away immediately. Anyone can vote, you don't have to actually know anything about the books.

I pick a winner on Friday night (although won't actually close the poll, people can still vote,) and report results/post the new poll on the following Tuesday, and write a response to the F winner sometime in the next week.

Link to long version of explanation (on first poll)

Poll #19532 FMK #37: New-to-me Authors

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

View Respondents

Across the Sea of Suns by Gregory Benford (1984)

F
5 (41.7%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
7 (58.3%)

Pilgrimage to Earth by Robert Sheckley (1978)

F
6 (60.0%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
4 (40.0%)

Earth Ship & Star Song by Ethan Shedley (1979)

F
3 (33.3%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
6 (66.7%)

Sight of Proteus by Charles Sheffield (1978)

F
3 (37.5%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
5 (62.5%)

All the Traps of Earth by Clifford D. Simak (1979)

F
7 (46.7%)

M
3 (20.0%)

K
5 (33.3%)

The Third Ear by Curt Siodmak (1971)

F
5 (41.7%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
7 (58.3%)

A World Between by Norman Spinrad (1986)

F
7 (58.3%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
5 (41.7%)

Castaways of Tanagar by Brian M. Stableford (1981)

F
3 (27.3%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
8 (72.7%)

A King of Infinite Space by Allen M. Steele (1997)

F
4 (36.4%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
7 (63.6%)

Necessary Ill by Deb Taber (2013)

F
5 (62.5%)

M
2 (25.0%)

K
1 (12.5%)

The Seedbearers by Peter Valentine Timlett (1974)

F
2 (28.6%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
5 (71.4%)

The Starry Rift by James Tiptree (1986)

F
14 (63.6%)

M
8 (36.4%)

K
0 (0.0%)

Mammoth by John Varley (2006)

F
10 (83.3%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
2 (16.7%)

Station Gehenna by Andrew Weiner (1987)

F
2 (22.2%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
7 (77.8%)

Beyond the Gates by Catherine Wells (1999)

F
7 (77.8%)

M
1 (11.1%)

K
1 (11.1%)

Empire of Bones by Liz Williams (2002)

F
10 (71.4%)

M
3 (21.4%)

K
1 (7.1%)

The Pandora Effect by Jack Williamson (1969)

F
7 (53.8%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
6 (46.2%)

The Flaxen Femme Fatale by John Zakour (2008)

F
3 (27.3%)

M
0 (0.0%)

K
8 (72.7%)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I originally voted K on John Varley, but I've changed over to F because I think I read his trilogy Titan, Wizard, Demon years ago, back when I was a middle-school reader left (unwisely) unsupervised in the sci fi section of the used bookstore. I don't remember much about them except that they were Fucking Weird, so now I'm very curious about the one you've got.

Well, Sholio seems to also be putting in a vote for Fucking Weird, so you may be right!

I read that trilogy too, at about the same age! Fucking Weird is definitely how I remember them, too, although in a somewhat different way from the above. (Actually I remember the trilogy existing on a sliding scale from Fucking Weird to Really Fucking Weird to What the Actual Fuck is Even Happening Here.)

Come to think of it, he also wrote Millennium, which had a cool high-concept premise - time travelers body-snatch victims of plane crashes and other disasters right before impact, to repopulate Earth in the future without messing with the timeline too much - but the execution was also Fucking Weird. I'm noticing a pattern here.

Ha! Good to see that his talent for Fucking Weird did not leave him as the years passed. Now I really want

melannen to read Mammoth so that I can judge whether I should attempt to find the trilogy again.

Ohh, I just attempted to describe it above. I accidentally made it sound WAY less weird than it actually is.

Millennium started out as a short story which was pretty great because it was limited to just the concept. The book expansion was kind of a giant mess, IIRC. I think he's way better at short stories.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only