Is the Uniparty running the WEF/Dravos or the other way around? And are they/it running the CCP and The Roosian Federation?
Are the libertarians part of the Uniparty too? If not why not? Are they immune from corruption and human failings?
Just a bit of needling to start the day. 🙂
Also O/T:
After the last 2 years confirming what was obvious to those of us not receiving our news and understanding as served up by CNN, etc. things aren’t as they are presented. Which is the principle reason I’m not on the bandwagon of “Russia, Russia, Russia…poor Ukraine”. Yes I pray for the innocent of Ukraine as I do for the innocent of Russia, China, and USA (me included, as I have been personally affected by the Oligarchy-ruled reality of Los Angeles and was even endangered by the threat of a muscular, homeless drug-addict who has appropriated our office property–parking lot and interior–with no help from the authorities as he is a black man). This has been going on for months, and the bad-players include the wealthy building owner who has done nothing to deal with this and apparently has rolled the dice and is OK with this escalating to an innocent victim being harmed or killed as has been happening in this city and across our country. Admittedly I am well-fitted with a tin foil hat at this point, milliner-crafted. I recently watched the 2016 and 2018 Ukraine documentaires by Oliver Stone. Nuland is featured prominently in them. When asked by a pro-Ukraine person who has relationship with Putin, but has disagreement about issues, why he was interested in Ukraine, he stated, “because I don’t want WWIII”. This in 2018. So, as I didn’t fall-in with the COVID hysteria that among other reasons resulted in our country being RINO–Republic in Name Only, I will not join in this. Come to the ungated areas of Los Angeles where our open border (violation of the Federal/State Constitutions) has resulted in the desecration of our city and tell me why I should be up in arms over the Ukraine border being violated by Putin. Oh, Ukraine is so important to our well-being, food supply, computer chip development? The same people that are responsible for outsourcing all of the necessary things to keep us a viable Republic are implicated in the corruption (money, money, money) that constitutes the Ukraine political scene–USA on steroids–and are promoting the current narrative. As my son, who served as a Marine 8 years, 4 of them in the State Department, said to me regarding this in a text the other day:
“Even if we we’re morally/legally obligated to support Ukraine, I have zero- confidence in the current military leadership. The Afghanistan withdrawal should make that clear to everyone, but we just switched one hysteria, covid, with another in Russia. We can’t manage our own country but somehow, we’re able to solve this eastern European dispute? Give me a break. It’s all theater and I’m disgusted with it all.”
Add a bit to what Sharon just stated. Many seem to have forgotten how close the Biden family is to the corruption in Ukraine. I have kept that in mind as I look at the administration’s response. I’m definitely not letting Putin off the hook; he’s risking starting WW3 and doesn’t seem to care. What a CF.
I’m all in on providing Ukraine with weaponry but definitely not in on any direct US involvement.
Also O/T:
And an exercise in free-association.
Would Brandon go to war over Hunter and a whore (laptop etc, wag the dog)?
physicsguy:
I’m not sure why you think anyone has forgotten Biden’s corruption.
It has certainly been a major topic on this blog, just not recently. But not forgotten at all. How it might factor into the current crisis is anyone’s guess, but much of that corruption is coming out anyway (even the Times has admitted the Hunter laptop is for real, for example).
One of many reasons that we should not elect corrupt and compromised people – and that the MSM shouldn’t cover up what they have done just because they like their politics – is that it makes them subject to blackmail. Ukraine may have the goods on Biden, and it certainly has the goods on Hunter, but some of this is in the public domain anyway. I would also bet that Russia has the goods on Hunter and Joe also, as does China.
After Joe Biden was no longer vice president Hunter’s salary from Burisma was cut in half and his term expired right before Zelenskyy took office. So at least during Zelenskyy’s administration there’s no evidence of the Biden’s being on the take anymore in Ukraine.
Kate, if true, it is reported that 150,000 restaurants closed during the travesty of the last 2 years. Not sure of the time-frame, but $15 billion tax-payer dollars provided to Ukraine, inclusive of these last 2 years, and presumably escalating. As a person with an open-vein to the system my entire adult life–criminal.
Sharon W:
Completely off topic, good to hear from you, and sorry to hear what you are having to deal with in LA.
“I’m not sure why you think anyone has forgotten Biden’s corruption.”
Maybe not here in Neoville, but I haven’t seen ANY mention of it in any media since the war began.
physicsguy:
Media, schmedia.
Sharon W, I am with you on the criminality of the lockdowns. So many lives and livelihoods ruined, and for no good purpose. I have not seen my LA-area family since before COVID and don’t plan to go until Los Angeles is open (brother lives in Northridge). Plus, two family members are in the teachers’ unions. I am especially horrified by what has been done, and is being done, to young children.
Totally off topic, if there is one on an open thread: Go Tarheels!
om,
It appears to be a collaborative effort. Fellow travelers.
WEF would love for the CCP to get on board with the program. Not going to happen.
Russia isn’t buying what the WEF is selling, which is why Putin must be disposed and a more receptive leader secured.
The WEF condiders those of a libertarian persuasion to be persona non gratta. The libertarian POV is entirely antithetical to the Great Reset.
I freely acknowledge that needling is one of your most distinct characteristics.
“Sharon W, I am with you on the criminality of the lockdowns. So many lives and livelihoods ruined, and for no good purpose.” Kate
Eggs. Omelets. All for the greater good. 12 years to save the planet. For the children.
Geoffrey:
Hook line and sinker. Flopping on the deck. Your worldwiev is truly (but not Shirley) interesting.
So is Putin fighting against the dark forces of the WEF/Dravos (which are a thing) and not just another despot exploiting an opportunity to oppress more people and expand his tyrany? He’s not a baddie, nor is the CCP, after all? 🙂
I was not expecting a response.
When I lived in the Bay Area, I often went to used bookstores on the weekends to browse and sometime buy. I fell out of the habit, when I moved to Abq. Then Covid made it more difficult.
This week has had near-spring weather and masks are no longer required. I went to a couple used bookstores looking for 60s/70s science-fiction but found nothing. The bygone greats — Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Herbert, Simak, Ellison et al. — were almost entirely missing.
I figured the books were old and forgotten. However, I talked to one proprietor and she said she rarely received such books, but when she did, they were bought up immediately.
Interesting.
om,
Don’t call me ‘surely’, thems fightin words…
It happens all the time, one baddie fighting another baddie.
No doubt that baddie Putin is fighting the uber baddie WEF. Most of NATO’s political leadership is closely aligned with WEF, that’s a matter of record.
BTW, brutal as Putin is, he doesn’t want to meld your digital identity with your biological reality. Welcome to WEF’s Brave New World…
Huxley, et al.
Several years ago I went on a Dune book buying and reading binge.
I probably have a few gaps in the total series of prequels and sequels by Frank and his sons, but I may have at least 12 to 15 volumes.
Do you, or anyone else here, have a suggestion for an especially appreciative and deserving recipient to whom I can send them as a donation?
School, library, club, or ???
Anyone know? Is Herbert pronounced with a hard T, or silent as in French?
Geoffrey:
Oh Vlad he’s not the baddie
I make him out to be.
He just might want to
poison you
with Polonium-210 tea.
Or if you write
what he don’t like
you never will be found.
Or if you spy and choose
to fly to London
with your daughter.
He’ll send a man
with nerve to you
to send the message farther.
Now if you are his neighbor
and choose to look a’west
he’ll send his tanks a’rollin
because it’s for the best.
For Dravos and the WEF
are the uber baddies see
not Vlad who said
he’d nuke me
and all my kith and ken.
Shirley you jest.
Not my day job.
Do you, or anyone else here, have a suggestion for an especially appreciative and deserving recipient to whom I can send them as a donation?
R2L:
Dunno.
I would love to find the Ace first printing of “Dune” which I read in 1965. The cover hypnotized me and it was the hardest book I had read up to that point. However, a used copy runs about $100.
Dunno how to pronounce “Herbert” either. I assume with a hard-T at the end.
Herbert was an interesting character — a wild polymath-journalist. His books stretched me and fascinated me in so many ways. He really upped the ante in science-fiction when “Dune” hit the scene.
Some of his secondary books, “The Dosadi Experiment” and “The Santaroga Barrier,” impressed me much as well.
I’ve tried to reconnect with science-fiction several times. It was my first love when I started reading beyond the primer level. However, I’ve not had much success.
The field seems to have become a barren waste of franchises, second-raters or SJWs.
I admit I haven’t given the Sad Puppies / Sarah Hoyt world a shot yet.
Any recommendations?
om,
Threats are a message, some serious, some empty boasting. What leads you to imagine that Putin is suicidal? An upfront enemy is far, far to be preferred to an enemy that operates from the shadows.
Or do you imagine that the WEF is kidding about its announced plans to eliminate private ownership of property and weld humanity’s emerging digital identities with our biological identies?
Bill Gates has set aside one of those implantable chips just for you.
huxley et al,
I strongly recommend David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I consider it equal to anything Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein wrote.
Geoffrey:
You have been the one shouting at clouds about NATO being as exestential threat of Russia so don’t play dumb,
For someone who has been fixted on the 13 minutes of folly it is now interesting that you downplay nuclear war for a WEF/Dravos SciFi wish list.
Which is it? How may divisions does the Pope have, or WEF/Dravos.for that matter?
Focus Geofrey focus.
I strongly recommend David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I consider it equal to anything Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein wrote.
Geoffrey Britain:
That’s a bold claim!
I’ll check out Mr. Weber.
The last new SF writer I liked was John Varley, but he’s old news today.
@ huxley > “I figured the books were old and forgotten. However, I talked to one proprietor and she said she rarely received such books, but when she did, they were bought up immediately.”
My favorite used bookstore keeps a good stock of vintage science fiction, but like yours, it doesn’t stay around long. Turns out people like action stories, imaginative extrapolations of science (the real kind, not the Fauci-principle ersatz variety), and don’t like having ideology be the star of the show. Especially not-very-interesting ideologies.
Most booksellers today are on the web. https://rosemarysbabybookstore.com/
I admit that I started shopping there because of the name, but the proprietor (Rosemary, of course) is nice, and I like her stock.
The sixties book by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby”) and movie scared the heck out of me in high school. One of my English teachers put it on a reading list, after I’d already read it, and my mom checked with me and then called teach to ask if she realllllly wanted that on the list – I think she took it off, but can’t remember now; she said she had pulled it off a bookseller list because it sounded interesting and hadn’t read it herself. However, I think she would have liked it.
“The field seems to have become a barren waste of franchises, second-raters or SJWs.”
You got that right. I read very little new stuff.
Our family liked Lois Bujold’s “Vorkosigan” series back in the nineties. She was “liberal” but not “progressive” IYKWIM and would certainly not be considered PC by today’s left.
AesopSpouse likes Sarah Hoyt’s work, but I’ve only read one novel – too much other stuff on my shelf right now.
Timothy Zahn is good.
Brandon Sanderson is great (skip his conclusion of Robert Jordan’s saga unless you are already a Wheel of Time fan).
I’ll try and send some more ideas later – gotta go now.
AesopFan:
Thanks for the recommendations!
I know I can find most of the old SF I might like to read again, in their original printings even, if I trawl the web and am willing to pay a premium price plus shipping.
However, there is the fisherman’s pleasure of hooking a good fish in a local pond that I miss.
Sharon W,
Praying that the situation with your office property will be resolved.
@ huxley > “there is the fisherman’s pleasure of hooking a good fish in a local pond that I miss.”
Indeed.
And most of the really good stuff, I found in the stacks while looking for something else!
More sf authors of the “Golden (or at least silver) age” that I have enjoyed (not mega-novels in the contemporary fashion). You know the Big Names, and these may be a bit more obscure (reaching down into the forties and fifties for some of them).
Lloyd Biggle, James Blish (his stand-alones are sometimes philosophical, his Star Trek Original Series adaptations are pretty good in their own right), Fredric Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Esther Friesner, Randall Garrett (I am very fond of the Lord Darcy mysteries, set in an alternative time-line), R. A. Lafferty, Barry Longyear’s “Circus World” (for fun), Patricia McKillip (also writes fantasy & contemporary YA), James H. Schmitz (reissued recently by Eric Flint), Clifford Simak, Norman Spinrad (mostly short stories), William Tenn (mostly short stories), Stanley G. Weinbaum (mostly short stories).
Getting into newer, thicker books and/or long series:
C. S. Friedman, David Gemmell (more sword & sorcery than science, but some nods to future tech), Connie Willis (she has a twisted sense of humor that appeals to me, but her later books are more SJW than I like).
Sharon,
I too, hope your situation will be resolved soon. Like as not the homeless man will move on, and hopefully before any trouble breaks out. It seems like no one is in charge in LA right now. I’m so glad my kids have graduated and left town but my sister and nieces are in Silverlake, and I worry about them. Having said that – Hawaii – which has always been a non violent and safe place seems to have become more like the mainland lately, with weekly shootings – mostly drug related.
Now, for all you vintage SF fans digging around in used bookstores. Have you never heard of Kindle?
Now, for all you vintage SF fans digging around in used bookstores. Have you never heard of Kindle?
Molly Brown:
Yes, we’ve heard of Kindle.
I’d also throw a big call-out to the Internet Archive which allows one to download a fair number of old SF magazines and paperbacks as PDFs or to “borrow” them for short periods of time.
However, for those of us who enjoy the romance of 3-D reality bookstores and books composed of paper and ink, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.
AesopFan:
I’m currently rereading a lovely copy of Clifford Simak’s “Time is the Simplest Thing” (1961) which I found several years ago for a song in a used bookstore.
It was the first modern adult SF novel I read, or tried to read, when I was 12. I was on fire from seeing “The Time Machine” movie and trying so hard to understand Time.
I can’t say Simak’s book helped in that regard, but it was a ride. It had a great cheesy surrealist/abstract cover with the blurb:
______________________________
His strange telepathic powers had trapped the secrets of a distant world.
______________________________
Whatever the hell that means.
Simak wasn’t quite on the level of Heinlein, Asimov, etc., but he was coming in from the outside with a weird, yet commonsensical midwestern POV I just loved.
He wrote “They Walked Like Men” about an alien race which looked like bowling balls and they were trying to take over the Earth by buying up real estate!
Then there was “City” about a future in which humanity had vanished and the dogs took over then told stories about their old masters.
I so hope some people are still reading “City.”
Ted Gioia, a poet and critic, who took a lot of flak for asking the serious question “Does Poetry Matter?”, is also a science fiction fan. He wrote a touching review of Simak’s “City”:
____________________________
Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes is a representative example of the
genre, a classic account of homo sapiens finding themselves losers in
the Darwinian struggle for superiority. Boulle’s experiences as a
prisoner of war in World War II no doubt contribute to the ethos of this
work. (And it may be worth noting that this author’s other famous book,
The Bridge Over the River Kwai, is one of the great POW stories of all
time.)
But Clifford Simak takes this familiar theme, and turns it on its head.
The world of City is run by dogs. But instead of depicting them as vile
usurprers—as we have come to expect in books of this sort—Simak
makes them into nostalgic, tender-hearted creatures who miss the
“good old days” when a dog was man’s best friend. Simak plays on all
the positive canine traits of loyalty, dependability, protectiveness and
affection in creating his kennel of characters.
And the smell! No, make that the “aroma”! (The “bouquet”?….)
…and the feel, as well.
No, pixels and plastic just don’t do it. (Sorry….)
OTOH, I imagine that it’s only a matter of time before Amazon, Apple, Samsung, etc., create a “dog-eared” (physical) mode for their hand-held devices. Heck they might even add “virtual perfume”…. (Though if that ever happens, I think we’ve reached the end of the line as far as civilization is concerned. (Why not just imprint the book on the “reader’s” cortex…)
“I’ve not had much success.”
Two words: William Gibson…(?)
I read the cyberpunk guys back in the 80s. They were OK. Almost 40 years ago.
Also read David Brin and liked his Uplift books, but he turned out to be a classic Democrat hater nutcase. Brr.
I started reading science fiction in the early 60s, kept up through the 70s and tapered off in the 80s as my career took off.
The 60s/70s were amazing. One could sense the excitement as old masters upped their game and blazing new talents blazed forth.
It was a wonderful, weird world. Adults, especially English teachers, had no clue about it beyond Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and “Brave New World.” But I knew something important was happening. Beneath the pulpy fun and games, we SF readers were learning things not to be found in Henry James nor Henry Miller.
Well, that’s old news today. A shame that, for now and like many art forms, SF is in decline.
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So many unknown, fundamental questions.
The more we learn, the deeper our realization of how much vaster is that, which we have yet to learn.
Perhaps the journey… is the destination.
Off topic but of rather more immediate concern, a tidbit for consideration for those still hesitant to accept the reality of the UniParty.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOLT_rhXoAYbv6Q?format=jpg&name=900×900
Is the Uniparty running the WEF/Dravos or the other way around? And are they/it running the CCP and The Roosian Federation?
Are the libertarians part of the Uniparty too? If not why not? Are they immune from corruption and human failings?
Just a bit of needling to start the day. 🙂
Also O/T:
After the last 2 years confirming what was obvious to those of us not receiving our news and understanding as served up by CNN, etc. things aren’t as they are presented. Which is the principle reason I’m not on the bandwagon of “Russia, Russia, Russia…poor Ukraine”. Yes I pray for the innocent of Ukraine as I do for the innocent of Russia, China, and USA (me included, as I have been personally affected by the Oligarchy-ruled reality of Los Angeles and was even endangered by the threat of a muscular, homeless drug-addict who has appropriated our office property–parking lot and interior–with no help from the authorities as he is a black man). This has been going on for months, and the bad-players include the wealthy building owner who has done nothing to deal with this and apparently has rolled the dice and is OK with this escalating to an innocent victim being harmed or killed as has been happening in this city and across our country. Admittedly I am well-fitted with a tin foil hat at this point, milliner-crafted. I recently watched the 2016 and 2018 Ukraine documentaires by Oliver Stone. Nuland is featured prominently in them. When asked by a pro-Ukraine person who has relationship with Putin, but has disagreement about issues, why he was interested in Ukraine, he stated, “because I don’t want WWIII”. This in 2018. So, as I didn’t fall-in with the COVID hysteria that among other reasons resulted in our country being RINO–Republic in Name Only, I will not join in this. Come to the ungated areas of Los Angeles where our open border (violation of the Federal/State Constitutions) has resulted in the desecration of our city and tell me why I should be up in arms over the Ukraine border being violated by Putin. Oh, Ukraine is so important to our well-being, food supply, computer chip development? The same people that are responsible for outsourcing all of the necessary things to keep us a viable Republic are implicated in the corruption (money, money, money) that constitutes the Ukraine political scene–USA on steroids–and are promoting the current narrative. As my son, who served as a Marine 8 years, 4 of them in the State Department, said to me regarding this in a text the other day:
“Even if we we’re morally/legally obligated to support Ukraine, I have zero- confidence in the current military leadership. The Afghanistan withdrawal should make that clear to everyone, but we just switched one hysteria, covid, with another in Russia. We can’t manage our own country but somehow, we’re able to solve this eastern European dispute? Give me a break. It’s all theater and I’m disgusted with it all.”
Add a bit to what Sharon just stated. Many seem to have forgotten how close the Biden family is to the corruption in Ukraine. I have kept that in mind as I look at the administration’s response. I’m definitely not letting Putin off the hook; he’s risking starting WW3 and doesn’t seem to care. What a CF.
I’m all in on providing Ukraine with weaponry but definitely not in on any direct US involvement.
Also O/T:
And an exercise in free-association.
Would Brandon go to war over Hunter and a whore (laptop etc, wag the dog)?
physicsguy:
I’m not sure why you think anyone has forgotten Biden’s corruption.
It has certainly been a major topic on this blog, just not recently. But not forgotten at all. How it might factor into the current crisis is anyone’s guess, but much of that corruption is coming out anyway (even the Times has admitted the Hunter laptop is for real, for example).
One of many reasons that we should not elect corrupt and compromised people – and that the MSM shouldn’t cover up what they have done just because they like their politics – is that it makes them subject to blackmail. Ukraine may have the goods on Biden, and it certainly has the goods on Hunter, but some of this is in the public domain anyway. I would also bet that Russia has the goods on Hunter and Joe also, as does China.
After Joe Biden was no longer vice president Hunter’s salary from Burisma was cut in half and his term expired right before Zelenskyy took office. So at least during Zelenskyy’s administration there’s no evidence of the Biden’s being on the take anymore in Ukraine.
Kate, if true, it is reported that 150,000 restaurants closed during the travesty of the last 2 years. Not sure of the time-frame, but $15 billion tax-payer dollars provided to Ukraine, inclusive of these last 2 years, and presumably escalating. As a person with an open-vein to the system my entire adult life–criminal.
Sharon W:
Completely off topic, good to hear from you, and sorry to hear what you are having to deal with in LA.
“I’m not sure why you think anyone has forgotten Biden’s corruption.”
Maybe not here in Neoville, but I haven’t seen ANY mention of it in any media since the war began.
physicsguy:
Media, schmedia.
Sharon W, I am with you on the criminality of the lockdowns. So many lives and livelihoods ruined, and for no good purpose. I have not seen my LA-area family since before COVID and don’t plan to go until Los Angeles is open (brother lives in Northridge). Plus, two family members are in the teachers’ unions. I am especially horrified by what has been done, and is being done, to young children.
Totally off topic, if there is one on an open thread: Go Tarheels!
om,
It appears to be a collaborative effort. Fellow travelers.
WEF would love for the CCP to get on board with the program. Not going to happen.
Russia isn’t buying what the WEF is selling, which is why Putin must be disposed and a more receptive leader secured.
The WEF condiders those of a libertarian persuasion to be persona non gratta. The libertarian POV is entirely antithetical to the Great Reset.
I freely acknowledge that needling is one of your most distinct characteristics.
“Sharon W, I am with you on the criminality of the lockdowns. So many lives and livelihoods ruined, and for no good purpose.” Kate
Eggs. Omelets. All for the greater good. 12 years to save the planet. For the children.
Geoffrey:
Hook line and sinker. Flopping on the deck. Your worldwiev is truly (but not Shirley) interesting.
So is Putin fighting against the dark forces of the WEF/Dravos (which are a thing) and not just another despot exploiting an opportunity to oppress more people and expand his tyrany? He’s not a baddie, nor is the CCP, after all? 🙂
I was not expecting a response.
When I lived in the Bay Area, I often went to used bookstores on the weekends to browse and sometime buy. I fell out of the habit, when I moved to Abq. Then Covid made it more difficult.
This week has had near-spring weather and masks are no longer required. I went to a couple used bookstores looking for 60s/70s science-fiction but found nothing. The bygone greats — Heinlein, Asimov, Clarke, Dick, Herbert, Simak, Ellison et al. — were almost entirely missing.
I figured the books were old and forgotten. However, I talked to one proprietor and she said she rarely received such books, but when she did, they were bought up immediately.
Interesting.
om,
Don’t call me ‘surely’, thems fightin words…
It happens all the time, one baddie fighting another baddie.
No doubt that baddie Putin is fighting the uber baddie WEF. Most of NATO’s political leadership is closely aligned with WEF, that’s a matter of record.
BTW, brutal as Putin is, he doesn’t want to meld your digital identity with your biological reality. Welcome to WEF’s Brave New World…
Huxley, et al.
Several years ago I went on a Dune book buying and reading binge.
I probably have a few gaps in the total series of prequels and sequels by Frank and his sons, but I may have at least 12 to 15 volumes.
Do you, or anyone else here, have a suggestion for an especially appreciative and deserving recipient to whom I can send them as a donation?
School, library, club, or ???
Anyone know? Is Herbert pronounced with a hard T, or silent as in French?
Geoffrey:
Oh Vlad he’s not the baddie
I make him out to be.
He just might want to
poison you
with Polonium-210 tea.
Or if you write
what he don’t like
you never will be found.
Or if you spy and choose
to fly to London
with your daughter.
He’ll send a man
with nerve to you
to send the message farther.
Now if you are his neighbor
and choose to look a’west
he’ll send his tanks a’rollin
because it’s for the best.
For Dravos and the WEF
are the uber baddies see
not Vlad who said
he’d nuke me
and all my kith and ken.
Shirley you jest.
Not my day job.
Do you, or anyone else here, have a suggestion for an especially appreciative and deserving recipient to whom I can send them as a donation?
R2L:
Dunno.
I would love to find the Ace first printing of “Dune” which I read in 1965. The cover hypnotized me and it was the hardest book I had read up to that point. However, a used copy runs about $100.
Dunno how to pronounce “Herbert” either. I assume with a hard-T at the end.
Herbert was an interesting character — a wild polymath-journalist. His books stretched me and fascinated me in so many ways. He really upped the ante in science-fiction when “Dune” hit the scene.
Some of his secondary books, “The Dosadi Experiment” and “The Santaroga Barrier,” impressed me much as well.
I’ve tried to reconnect with science-fiction several times. It was my first love when I started reading beyond the primer level. However, I’ve not had much success.
The field seems to have become a barren waste of franchises, second-raters or SJWs.
I admit I haven’t given the Sad Puppies / Sarah Hoyt world a shot yet.
Any recommendations?
om,
Threats are a message, some serious, some empty boasting. What leads you to imagine that Putin is suicidal? An upfront enemy is far, far to be preferred to an enemy that operates from the shadows.
Or do you imagine that the WEF is kidding about its announced plans to eliminate private ownership of property and weld humanity’s emerging digital identities with our biological identies?
Bill Gates has set aside one of those implantable chips just for you.
huxley et al,
I strongly recommend David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I consider it equal to anything Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein wrote.
Geoffrey:
You have been the one shouting at clouds about NATO being as exestential threat of Russia so don’t play dumb,
For someone who has been fixted on the 13 minutes of folly it is now interesting that you downplay nuclear war for a WEF/Dravos SciFi wish list.
Which is it? How may divisions does the Pope have, or WEF/Dravos.for that matter?
Focus Geofrey focus.
I strongly recommend David Weber’s “Safehold” series. I consider it equal to anything Asimov, Clarke or Heinlein wrote.
Geoffrey Britain:
That’s a bold claim!
I’ll check out Mr. Weber.
The last new SF writer I liked was John Varley, but he’s old news today.
@ huxley > “I figured the books were old and forgotten. However, I talked to one proprietor and she said she rarely received such books, but when she did, they were bought up immediately.”
My favorite used bookstore keeps a good stock of vintage science fiction, but like yours, it doesn’t stay around long. Turns out people like action stories, imaginative extrapolations of science (the real kind, not the Fauci-principle ersatz variety), and don’t like having ideology be the star of the show. Especially not-very-interesting ideologies.
Most booksellers today are on the web.
https://rosemarysbabybookstore.com/
I admit that I started shopping there because of the name, but the proprietor (Rosemary, of course) is nice, and I like her stock.
The sixties book by Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby”) and movie scared the heck out of me in high school. One of my English teachers put it on a reading list, after I’d already read it, and my mom checked with me and then called teach to ask if she realllllly wanted that on the list – I think she took it off, but can’t remember now; she said she had pulled it off a bookseller list because it sounded interesting and hadn’t read it herself. However, I think she would have liked it.
Try Colorado Used Bookstore in metro Denver for a much bigger selection.
https://www.coloradosusedbookstore.com/
“The field seems to have become a barren waste of franchises, second-raters or SJWs.”
You got that right. I read very little new stuff.
Our family liked Lois Bujold’s “Vorkosigan” series back in the nineties. She was “liberal” but not “progressive” IYKWIM and would certainly not be considered PC by today’s left.
AesopSpouse likes Sarah Hoyt’s work, but I’ve only read one novel – too much other stuff on my shelf right now.
Timothy Zahn is good.
Brandon Sanderson is great (skip his conclusion of Robert Jordan’s saga unless you are already a Wheel of Time fan).
I’ll try and send some more ideas later – gotta go now.
AesopFan:
Thanks for the recommendations!
I know I can find most of the old SF I might like to read again, in their original printings even, if I trawl the web and am willing to pay a premium price plus shipping.
However, there is the fisherman’s pleasure of hooking a good fish in a local pond that I miss.
Sharon W,
Praying that the situation with your office property will be resolved.
@ huxley > “there is the fisherman’s pleasure of hooking a good fish in a local pond that I miss.”
Indeed.
And most of the really good stuff, I found in the stacks while looking for something else!
More sf authors of the “Golden (or at least silver) age” that I have enjoyed (not mega-novels in the contemporary fashion). You know the Big Names, and these may be a bit more obscure (reaching down into the forties and fifties for some of them).
Lloyd Biggle, James Blish (his stand-alones are sometimes philosophical, his Star Trek Original Series adaptations are pretty good in their own right), Fredric Brown, Gordon R. Dickson, Esther Friesner, Randall Garrett (I am very fond of the Lord Darcy mysteries, set in an alternative time-line), R. A. Lafferty, Barry Longyear’s “Circus World” (for fun), Patricia McKillip (also writes fantasy & contemporary YA), James H. Schmitz (reissued recently by Eric Flint), Clifford Simak, Norman Spinrad (mostly short stories), William Tenn (mostly short stories), Stanley G. Weinbaum (mostly short stories).
Getting into newer, thicker books and/or long series:
C. S. Friedman, David Gemmell (more sword & sorcery than science, but some nods to future tech), Connie Willis (she has a twisted sense of humor that appeals to me, but her later books are more SJW than I like).
Sharon,
I too, hope your situation will be resolved soon. Like as not the homeless man will move on, and hopefully before any trouble breaks out. It seems like no one is in charge in LA right now. I’m so glad my kids have graduated and left town but my sister and nieces are in Silverlake, and I worry about them. Having said that – Hawaii – which has always been a non violent and safe place seems to have become more like the mainland lately, with weekly shootings – mostly drug related.
Now, for all you vintage SF fans digging around in used bookstores. Have you never heard of Kindle?
Now, for all you vintage SF fans digging around in used bookstores. Have you never heard of Kindle?
Molly Brown:
Yes, we’ve heard of Kindle.
I’d also throw a big call-out to the Internet Archive which allows one to download a fair number of old SF magazines and paperbacks as PDFs or to “borrow” them for short periods of time.
https://web.archive.org/
However, for those of us who enjoy the romance of 3-D reality bookstores and books composed of paper and ink, that’s a whole ‘nother thing.
AesopFan:
I’m currently rereading a lovely copy of Clifford Simak’s “Time is the Simplest Thing” (1961) which I found several years ago for a song in a used bookstore.
It was the first modern adult SF novel I read, or tried to read, when I was 12. I was on fire from seeing “The Time Machine” movie and trying so hard to understand Time.
I can’t say Simak’s book helped in that regard, but it was a ride. It had a great cheesy surrealist/abstract cover with the blurb:
______________________________
His strange telepathic powers had trapped the secrets of a distant world.
______________________________
Whatever the hell that means.
Simak wasn’t quite on the level of Heinlein, Asimov, etc., but he was coming in from the outside with a weird, yet commonsensical midwestern POV I just loved.
He wrote “They Walked Like Men” about an alien race which looked like bowling balls and they were trying to take over the Earth by buying up real estate!
Then there was “City” about a future in which humanity had vanished and the dogs took over then told stories about their old masters.
I so hope some people are still reading “City.”
Ted Gioia, a poet and critic, who took a lot of flak for asking the serious question “Does Poetry Matter?”, is also a science fiction fan. He wrote a touching review of Simak’s “City”:
____________________________
Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes is a representative example of the
genre, a classic account of homo sapiens finding themselves losers in
the Darwinian struggle for superiority. Boulle’s experiences as a
prisoner of war in World War II no doubt contribute to the ethos of this
work. (And it may be worth noting that this author’s other famous book,
The Bridge Over the River Kwai, is one of the great POW stories of all
time.)
But Clifford Simak takes this familiar theme, and turns it on its head.
The world of City is run by dogs. But instead of depicting them as vile
usurprers—as we have come to expect in books of this sort—Simak
makes them into nostalgic, tender-hearted creatures who miss the
“good old days” when a dog was man’s best friend. Simak plays on all
the positive canine traits of loyalty, dependability, protectiveness and
affection in creating his kennel of characters.
–Ted Gioia
http://www.conceptualfiction.com/city.html
“…paper and ink…”
And the smell! No, make that the “aroma”! (The “bouquet”?….)
…and the feel, as well.
No, pixels and plastic just don’t do it. (Sorry….)
OTOH, I imagine that it’s only a matter of time before Amazon, Apple, Samsung, etc., create a “dog-eared” (physical) mode for their hand-held devices. Heck they might even add “virtual perfume”…. (Though if that ever happens, I think we’ve reached the end of the line as far as civilization is concerned. (Why not just imprint the book on the “reader’s” cortex…)
“I’ve not had much success.”
Two words: William Gibson…(?)
I read the cyberpunk guys back in the 80s. They were OK. Almost 40 years ago.
Also read David Brin and liked his Uplift books, but he turned out to be a classic Democrat hater nutcase. Brr.
I started reading science fiction in the early 60s, kept up through the 70s and tapered off in the 80s as my career took off.
The 60s/70s were amazing. One could sense the excitement as old masters upped their game and blazing new talents blazed forth.
It was a wonderful, weird world. Adults, especially English teachers, had no clue about it beyond Jules Verne, H.G. Wells and “Brave New World.” But I knew something important was happening. Beneath the pulpy fun and games, we SF readers were learning things not to be found in Henry James nor Henry Miller.
Well, that’s old news today. A shame that, for now and like many art forms, SF is in decline.