Bobby’s Comments (group member since Mar 15, 2013)

Bobby’s comments from the Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy group.

I enjoyed it until The Foundation Trilogy beat out Dune. And I had some heartbreaks before that, but that one really hurt my heart.

Man, that was waaaay tough. Heart breaking matchups. I know a bunch of my faves are going to go down. Dune against 2001: A Space Odyssey? Ouch. And it's really tough because whereas, I think Dune is better than 2001, I think 2001 is better than Dune Messiah, Children of Dune or God Emperor of Dune and the rest of the Dune series I'm not even going to bother with.

Yeah, I had the same generational question. Glad to see The Martian Chronicles make the cut, but like you, sorry to see A Wrinkle in Time not make it, though Stefan, I couldn't help but wonder if you substantially crippled its name recognition by using the name of the series. I've never even read the other three and I love that first one. There is an entire generation of children profoundly affected by that book -- but we're all getting older now.

In the future I expect Watchmen and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Warand graphic novels in general to do much better. Though, the one that shocked me was China Mieville's The City and the City getting whipped by...The Wonderful Wizard of Oz??? Maybe that's my generationalism showing.

And I was glad that the The Elric Saga Part I beat out The Silmarillion but shocked by how close it was. Tolkien's going to be hard, if not impossible to beat if even that book is carrying that much weight because, interesting as it in terms of fleshing out the world and history of Middle Earth -- it's not even finished and it's certainly not easy to get through.

Of course it's an impossible question but it is also a fun one.

I should just say Dune because it blew me away. Buuut...

I'm going to keep this in science fiction and fantasy since you asked this in this discussion group and I'm going to toss out Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Thought provoking, extremely well written, a great, great hero, and Zelazny turns the whole notion of good and evil upside down. And yes, I liked it more than Lord of the Rings.

World War Z is a SIXTEEN seed???

Gene wrote: "On the subject of belief: FWIW Joseph Campbell has raised some doubts-- in my mind, at least-- as to whether primitive man held absolute belief in his gods and demons. They surely believed that it ..."

Yeah. What he said.

Spooky1947 wrote: "OK, i got a tuff one for you folks...Greek and Roman mythology can be argued to be early Fantasy and SF...so two questions...do YOU think they qualify as such? What are your favourite translations/..."

Sure. In fact, I would argue that they even performed some of the same functions. Science fiction and fantasy still serve as the lucid dreams of the culture. We don't see them as religion, but we do use them to explore the human condition, ask and answer questions, and see into the future. And don't think that myths weren't designed to entertain, they most certainly were. Ever read Greek myths? Everybody is the "most beautiful" and the bravest in all the world. It's crazy. But beauty, magic, mystery, violence didn't only happen in these myths because people were trying to explain a world they didn't understand. All that stuff makes for a better yarn!
That fantasy and science fiction routinely utilize these ancient myths is a fact not to be discarded. The past is still talking to us, still living through us and that's why these elements keep resurfacing in our art. Our culture, if not more sophisticated is certainly more complicated and we don't have to believe that these myths are the so-called "facts" of how the world works for them to still have relevance.

G33z3r wrote: "Murray wrote: "As I think on it, the late 1940's and into the 50's is when SF&F really started to cook. The turgid majesty of the Classics finally collided and merged with the sloppy excitement of ..."

What he said.

T. wrote: "All of the above, and I for one don't see anything wrong with that. Not many seem to do it, though (and even he has used different names). There seems to be alot of conservatism around the idea of ..."

Yeah, I don't know if he could write historical fiction simply because, by his own lights, I don't know that he's wired that way. I think it was in Danse Macabre (but it might have been something else) where he said that he and Louis Lamour can be out in nature looking at the same lake and Louis sees a cowboy watering his horse at the lake and King himself sees something dark and terrible rising out of the lake. And that's just the way his mind works. But "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption", "The Body", "The Last Rung on the Ladder" and the entire Dark Tower series prove that King can pretty much go wherever he wants to -- as long as he wants to -- and succeed.

Jim wrote: "Bobby, there were 2 of them; "A Toy for Juliette" & "Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World". They're in Partners in Wonder."

On my way!!!

Jim wrote: "I tend to prefer the stories to the books too & agree with "The Sound of Thunder". In a short story, one aspect of time travel can really be exploited. Too many of the books wash out the fantasti..."

What was the Harlan Ellison Jack the Ripper story???

Michael Moorcock's The Nomad of Time which is actually like, three novellas. And if I had to choose one of those it would be The Land Leviathan.

Though the subject heading said novels but you asked stories and if I was to go that way, I would choose, "The Sound of Thunder" by Ray Bradbury.

Brenda wrote: "Because he was a creative, imaginative man."

BAM!

Wendell wrote: "My first scifi book was Splinter of the Mind's Eye by Alan Dean Foster. I was a Star Wars fan back in the late 70s and 80s and could not pass up that cover. Later I read The Hobbit and fell in lo..."

I remember loving that title! But I hadn't been to fired up by the Star Wars novel so I never got around to reading it.

D. All of the above.

Brenda wrote: "If you are very very famous or very very lucrative, then sure -- you can get a no-edit clause into your contract, and everybody will say, "Yessir, Mr. King, sure, anything you want." But if you are..."

Huh, I thought the exact same thing about Stephen King, who is one of my favorites. I always think it's interesting, Carrie, which is an excellent book, is only one hundred and eighty pages or so. But that was Stephen King's first book. Now, everything he puts out is at least six hundred pages long. No one can say to him, "Hey Steve, cut to the chase." I think it was The Tommyknockers where he spent a hundred plus pages on a tea party or something that happened before the narrative even started -- it was back story for one character. Had no bearing on the plot whatsoever. I threw in the towel.

Does he, in fact, have a no edit clause? Woah.

James wrote: "I say, kick 'em. Kick 'em all, right on the shin. Hard. LOL"

Also money advice.

Brenda wrote: "What I am saying is, you only get one shot at a reader. If you sock what is essentially a first draft onto a paying reader, do you really expect her to go back and pay again for your rewrite? I cer..."

That's money advice. I learned that the hard way.

Kevin wrote: "WOW!
I dont even know if I remember the very first sf/fantasy book I read.

I remember reading "The Hobbit" at a young age, but I also read "Elric of Melnibone", right at around the same time."

I didn't discover Elric until I was like fifteen or so. Great book.

Brian wrote: "Enders Game 11 years old. NOT looking forward to the butchering of the book by Hollywood. BUT will probably still be first in line."

Isn't that the curse? It's almost impossible not to go? Depends though. Stuart Little the movie had nothing for me...though, when I think about it, I was an adult when it came out. If I had been a child I might have read the book and then seen the movie anyway. Yeah, like the Grinch movie as well, had no hold on me. I did go see Dune though, (I was a teen-ager) but didn't like it. No Country for Old Men and man, I must be the only person in the world who didn't like it. I just think you have to read Cormac McCarthy. Same with Milan Kundera. There's no faking the funk.