Re: WAY OFF TOPIC: recommendations for great science fictionwritten in the last 10 years?

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

Agh!  This one's kind of hard, considering I sort of stopped reading 
fiction a decade or two ago.  Before that, I was a pretty voracious 
SF reader.  Maybe I can hit a thing or two you've missed, though....

At 3:47 AM -0700 5/24/09, looppool@cruzio.com wrote:
>
>Robinson's   "Red Mars"  series was wonderful

If you're a fan of KSR, then you might enjoy his first collection of 
short stories: "The Planet on the Table".  It features two of his 
most well-known, "The Lucky Strike" and "Venice Drowned".  The former 
of those I still consider one of the best SF stories written in the 
past couple decades.

Per mentioned Ellison, who is another one of my favorites.  "Stalking 
the Nightmare" is especially good, IMNSHO.

As you can tell, I've obviously got a soft spot for short stories 
when I travel.  I've usually got an even shorter attention span than 
normal (so there's no way I'm going to finish a novel, considering 
all the interruptions/distractions during normal travelling).  They 
also point me to new authors I might want to pursue further work from.

In that same spirit, I might also suggest one of the compilations of 
"The Year's Best Science Fiction" from the past few years.  Similar 
compilations exist for the Hugo Award and Nebula Award nominees from 
every year as well.

>John Varley's novellette   "Millenium"  (turned into a horrid movie)

Also, Millenium was expanded into a full-sized novel, and it's not 
really any better.  I agree: stick with the novelette.

Varley's novelette, "Press Enter", is similarly brilliant.

>I went on to be a big fan of Varley's whole output............even the
>fantasy trilogy he wrote "Titan" "Wizard" "Demon"  (and I am decidedly
>NOT a fan of fantasy literature).

Agree.  I started with "Titan" then went on to become a voracious 
Varley reader.

In a similar vein/writing style, you might also take a look at Joe 
Haldeman's early stuff.  He's only been writing war novels for the 
past few years, I believe, but early works like "The Forever War" and 
"All My Sins Remembered" are brilliant.

>He [Varley] is, imho,  the best genderless writer in all of Sci Fi 
>for my money.
>My wife says his female characters are absolutely spot on and convincing,
>which can be a big problem in male oriented Science Fiction.

Uhm, IIRC, isn't John Varley actually a woman writing under a male 
pen name?  I believe that's how Varley is able to write such 
believable female characters.

Good luck!

        --m.

-- 
_____
"I want to keep you alive so there is always the possibility of 
murder... later"