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Post by lemming13 on Mar 1, 2011 10:26:58 GMT
Any more fans of Smith's brand of lush, fantastical pulps? I have to say, Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons and The Game of Rat and Dragon are my favourite science fiction stories bar none; images from those live on in my memory when the most acclaimed material by Asimov, Wyndham, Heinlein or Bradbury is faded. And who could resist an author who was the godson of Sun Yat-sen and an expert in psychological warfare?
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Post by Johnlprobert on Mar 1, 2011 11:35:50 GMT
Oh yes! I have his collection The Rediscovery of Man in the SF Masterworks series and his novel Norstrilia in that horrible yellow series Golllancz did a while back (the yellow colour was horrible, not the books), both of which I enjoyed immensely.
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Post by lemming13 on Mar 2, 2011 10:56:43 GMT
I actually read Norstrilia under the title The Boy Who Bought Earth (I think that was it); back when libraries had lots of books in them, our librarian was the kind of wonderful example of humanity who trawled every bookshop for new material for the place, and he found it somewhere. Marvellous reading. Now there's an idea; a Wordsworth series of Science Fiction and Fantasy releases. I know Smith is not public domain, but there is so much stuff that is - Jules Verne, Wells, and of course that other Smith, EE Doc, is in there now; silly as they are I always enjoyed the Skylark of Space stories.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Mar 2, 2011 11:04:54 GMT
Now there's an idea; a Wordsworth series of Science Fiction and Fantasy releases.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Mar 2, 2011 16:10:37 GMT
I actually read Norstrilia under the title The Boy Who Bought Earth (I think that was it); back when libraries had lots of books in them, our librarian was the kind of wonderful example of humanity who trawled every bookshop for new material for the place, and he found it somewhere. Marvellous reading. Now there's an idea; a Wordsworth series of Science Fiction and Fantasy releases. I know Smith is not public domain, but there is so much stuff that is - Jules Verne, Wells, and of course that other Smith, EE Doc, is in there now; silly as they are I always enjoyed the Skylark of Space stories. Me too. Using this as an opportunity to sneak past Dem...
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junkmonkey
Crab On The Rampage
Shhhhh! I'm Hiding....
Posts: 98
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Post by junkmonkey on Sept 27, 2011 19:11:23 GMT
Cordwainer Smith is one of my all-time favourites as are Philip K Dick and AE van Vogt. I often come away from one of their books utterly bewildered and no wiser about anything at all - especially with van Vogt who's later books are so fruit-loopy they defy any logical analysis - but thoroughly entertained and with the idea that there were concepts and ideas floating about in the book just out of my grasp. I like being bewildered. But Smith is closest to my heart for having written so damn beautifully. And for writing the object of my first fictional crush. I've been half in love with C'Mell for 30 odd years now.
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Sept 28, 2011 10:30:36 GMT
P. K Dick remains one of the great minds of SF. He has directly inspired many films some fifty years after he introduced the concepts. 'Bladerunner' was written in 1968 for example. 'Screamers' 1953. Indirectly he's influenced most of the SF films you see where questions or reality and to some extent time travel are introduced. For example The Terminator film was almost a complete ripoff of a specific short story and is based on a number of stories where machines or androids began to proliferate and sadly it is not credited to Dick. I still think UBIK - which introduced the idea of 'half-life' people who are technically dead but cyrogenically stored so that their dying brain can be contacted by relatives - would make a fantastic horror film and should be compulsory reading. Here are the direct inspirations for films: Blade Runner (1982) Based on "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Screamers (1995) Based on "Second Variety" Total Recall (1990) Based on "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" Confessions d'un Barjo (French, 1992) Based on "Confessions of a Crap Artist" Impostor (2001) Based on "Impostor." Minority Report (2002) Based on "The Minority Report." Paycheck (December 25, 2003) Based on "Paycheck." A Scanner Darkly (July 7, 2006) Based on "A Scanner Darkly" Next (April 27, 2007) Based on "The Golden Man" Films in Production The Adjustment Bureau (coming 2010) Based on "The Adjustment Team" King of the Elves (coming 2012) Based on "King of the Elves"
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