BROTHERS@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU@caip.RUTGERS.EDU (02/05/86)
From: Laurence Brothers <BROTHERS@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU> Well, Wolfe is obviously a great novelist, and the New Sun is undoubtedly the apex of his work so far (Free Live Free was fun, but not great), but I don't think that he is "hands-down" the best sf novelist. The New Sun supernovel had some flaws (though the work is so intricate it is very hard to tell whether something is a bug or a feature), and I didn't think all that much of The Island of Dr. Death and Other Stories and Other Stories (admittedly because I didn't understand much of it). Basically, I don't think that Wolfe has produced enough to make him the Best of the Best--The Book of the New Sun is a tour-de-force until he produces more novels of the same stature. -Laurence (back on the net after 9 months...) -------
sbs@valid.UUCP (Steven Brian McKechnie Sargent) (03/01/86)
> From: Laurence Brothers <BROTHERS@CS.COLUMBIA.EDU> > ... > ... [The Book] > of the New Sun is a tour-de-force until he produces more novels of the same > stature. > > -Laurence *** REPLACE THIS LINE WITH YOUR MESSAGE *** Peace. Just as good, and shorter. The fifth head of Ceberus. Science fiction whose science is anthropology. He has a new one out, too, but I haven't gotten to it. I'd like to ask this newsgroup for recommendations. Since I started reading Gene Wolfe, most of my old favorites have started resembling "Speed racer" cartoons by comparison. Philip Dick is also wonderful, but he's not writing much these days :-) and I also enjoy U.K. LeGuin. Are there other authors, who I haven't heard of, who are working in this vein (very literate, very imaginative, very good storytellers, very high snob appeal)? Most of the articles I see are discussing "Volume 7 in the Dog rapists of X'a'_uquua series." (One of my favorite small things about all the authors mentioned above is that they don't feel a need to barrage their readers with unpron- ounceable names for characters and places; they have far less stagey ways of conveying alienness.) S.
crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) (03/05/86)
>.... Philip Dick is also wonderful, but he's not writing >much these days.... How do you know? Just because he's not getting much published doesn't mean he's not writing (as I know to my regret.) Maybe the mail service is not very efffective from where he is? >.... (One of my favorite small things about all the authors mentioned >above is that they don't feel a need to barrage their readers with unpron- >ounceable names for characters and places; they have far less stagey ways of >conveying alienness.) On the other hand, expecting alien races with alien physiologies to have nice easily-pronouncable names is pretty blatantly species-chauvinistic. -- Charlie Martin (...mcnc!duke!crm)