#sf masterworks
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I read the majority of The Word for World is Forest by Ursula K. Le Guin under the shifting shade of the Portola redwoods. The Athsheans' world is under fierce attack by yumens, who want to mine their planet for lumber and enslave the natives who live there. But Selver dreams a world in which they can reclaim their planet, before it's too late.
This novella is pure perfection. Through showing viewpoints of the brutal, ugly Davidson, and his determination to wipe the planet clean, and of anthropologist Lyubov, who does his best but is himself a product of the colonialist mindset, Le Guin perfectly vivisects the corruption of imperialism, the way that violence spreads to be an intrinsic part of every piece of it. For ultimately, Selver and the Athsheans can only reclaim their planet by using the yumens' tools against them.
It is a superb novella, and I won't say more for fear of ruining it. It's one I'll return to thinking about again and again, and every time I think of it, I'll think of sitting beneath a 1,000+ year old tree, and of wondering what it has seen, and what it might see from us next.
Content warnings for colonization, racism, misogyny, violence, rape/sexual assault.
#ursula k. le guin#the word for world is forest#sf masterworks#classic sci fi#book recommendation#my book reviews
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The covers to our new Best of the Masterworks editions turned out so good you guys.
Credit to thelostlibrary on Instagram for the glamour shot.
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The Fifth Head of Cerberus Examined | Gene Wolfe's Cautionary Tale (Book Review/Essay)
The Short of It
The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a complex and challenging text addressing a distinct tension about the consequences of human cloning, while also touching on postcolonial and postmodern issues. One is three and three is one, and five is not as you might think it is.
The Long of It
Gene Wolfe creates a complex mosaic whose decryption is at least in part subject to the reader’s…
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#essay#fiction#Gene Wolfe#literature#postcolonialism#Postmodernism#Sci-Fi#Science Fiction#sf masterworks#The Fifth Head of Cerberus#Writing
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Robert A. Heinlein: The Door Into Summer (1957)
#robert heinlein#sf masterworks#science fiction#stephen baxter#suspended animation#engineering#grooming#time travel#automation
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dune, frank herbert
boy oh boy, lets get into this.
this was such a great novel, where do i even begin on this one. though it did take me well over a month to finish this, due to the fact it was overly confusing and also there is a lot of language which is only found throughout dune. though so unbelievably well written, especially for its time of when it was published.
we are met with paul and jessica, mother and son who are contradicting all means of the bene gesserit law (well, in this sense their female only religion which isn't very friendly). then leaving on a task, which paul is left in charge of [which in reality is some sort of test for him to be able to get his freemans name of usal] - sEE what i mean when this book is just so confusing there is so much to keeee[ up with. but really worth it and worth my time in the end! so I'm so glad that i did take the time to read the whole thing.
if you have the patients as well as have a love for science fiction novels, like me, i would highly recommend this novel! its not easy, but once you're able to grasp whats going on and follow on with the story line its super interesting! which in the end made it ha for me to put down!
so for me, id given this a 4.25 on my storygraph ♡ [and a solid 4 on GR]
#books#books and reading#novels#fiction#science fiction#science fiction novels#science fiction reading#sf masterworks#book rev#bookish#book collector#bok collecting#bookblogger#book reccomendation#readers#readers aus#aussie readers#fiction books#books of 2022
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2. Synchronicity Can Happen at Almost Any Time
A few years ago, a few years after the first publication in America of The Word For World Is Forest, I had the great pleasure of meeting Dr Charles Tart, a psychologist well known for his researches into and his book on Altered States of Consciousness. He asked me if I had modelled the Athsheans of the story upon the Senoi people of Malaysia. The who? said I, so he told me about them. The Senoi are, or were, a people whose culture includes and is indeed substantially based upon a deliberate training in and use of the dream. Dr Tart's book includes a brief article on them by Kilton Steward.
Breakfast in the Senoi house is like a dream clinic, with the father and older brothers listening to and analysing the dreams of the children...
When the Senoi child reports a falling dream, the adult answers with enthusiasm, 'That is a wonderful dream, one of the best dreams a man can have. Where did you fall to, and what did you discover?'
The Senoi dream is meaningful, active, and creative. Adults deliberately go into their dreams to solve problems of interpersonal and intercultural conflict. They come out of their dreams with a new song, tool, dance, idea. The waking and the dreaming states are equally valid, each acting upon the other in complementary fashion.
The article implies, by omission rather than by direct statement, that the men are the 'great dreamers' among the Senoi; whether this means that the women are socially inferior, or that their role (as among the Athsheans) is equal and compensatory, is not clear. Nor is there any mention of the Senoi conception of divinity, the numinous, etc.; it is merely stated that they do not practice magic, though they are perfectly willing to let neighbouring peoples think they do, as this discourages invasion.
They have built a system of inter-personal relations which, in the field of psychology, is perhaps on a level with our attainments in such areas as television and nuclear physics.
It appears that the Senoi have not had a war, or a murder, for several hundred years.
There they are, twelve thousand of them, farming, hunting, fishing, and dreaming, in the rain forests of the mountains of Malaysia. Or there they were, in 1935 - perhaps. Kilton Stewart's report on them has had no professional sequels that I know of. Were they ever there, and if so, are they still there? In the waking time, I mean, in what we so fantastically call 'the real world'. In the dream time, of course, they are there, and here.
I thought I was inventing my own lot of imaginary aliens, and I was only describing the Senoi. It is not only the Captain Davidsons who can be found in the unconscious, if one looks. The quiet people who do not kill each other are there, too. It seems that a great deal is there, the things that we most fear (and therefore deny), the things that we most need (and therefore deny). I wonder, couldn't we start listening to our dreams, and our children's dreams?
'Where did you fall to, and what did you discover?'
(Portland, 1976.)
Ursula K. Le Guin, from the foreword to The Word For World Is Forest, Gollancz SF Masterworks paperback edition 2022.
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Ursula K. Le Guin e SF Masterworks. Dificilmente se encontra uma melhor combinação.
(e com uma Great Horned Owl na capa!)
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Some of the books I’ve enjoyed this year. Not doing bad for a dyslexic aphasic. SF Masterworks do a pretty good job with their selection. I’ve only found a few that are a real drudge or just plain unpleasant. GA Masterworks seem to be picking up the scraps, but they do have a lot of Clarke I hadn’t previously read. Been reading a lot of short stories too, trying to build up my attention span from effectively zero.
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i'm getting ready to spend another friday night on wlur from 8pm until midnight. swing by or catch up with last week's show below!
no love for ned on wlur – may 12th, 2023 from 8-10pm
artist // track // album // label
jale // ali // so wound // sub pop
urusei yatsura // plastic ashtray // we are urusei yatsura // rocket girl
hole // violet // live through this // dgc
mhaol // asking for it // attachment styles // tulle
mousey // the bench // my friends // winegum
cheekface // popular two // it's sorted // (self-released)
kate davis // monster mash // fish bowl // anti-
the long blondes // once and never again // someone to drive you home // rough trade
pale lips // get up and go // if you gotta go-go, go-go now- a tribute to the go-go's // sympathy for the record industry
the courettes // night time (the boy of mine) // back in mono // damaged goods
vera ellen // homewrecker // ideal home noise // flying nun
calvin johnson // good and crazy // gallows wine // k
hannah everingham // go on // between bodies // (self-released)
hayden featuring feist // on a beach // are we good // arts and crafts
sweeney // home song // stay for the sorrow // observable universe
golden brown // busted crystal // weird choices cassette // inner islands
center // the empty gesture // over the stations // bruit direct disques
abdul wadud and leroy jenkins // straight ahead (excerpt) // straight ahead // red
kahil el'zabar and ethnic heritage ensemble featuring dwight trible and david ornette cherry // don cherry // spirit gatherer- a tribute to don cherry // spiritmuse
cvartetul de jazz paul weiner // colinda p // spirale // electrecord
drew gardner featuring marco eneidi, roberto de haven and vytas nagisetty // the human abstract // the return cassette // astral spirits
john carroll kirby // jubilee horns // septet // stones throw
theo croker featuring ego ella may and d’leau // theo says // by the way ep // masterworks
planet giza featuring saba // wyd // ready when you are // quiet note
aj suede and televangel // rosicrucian rolls royce // parthian shots // fake four
yaeji featuring k wata // ready or not // with a hammer // xl
heather woods broderick // i want to go // labyrinth // western vinyl
waterbaby // airforce blue // foam ep // sub pop
evening pines // take a few steps back // it will take a long time // both worlds
the lost days // half the time // in the store // speakeasy studios sf
kid loco featuring katrina mitchell // love me sweet // a grand love story // yellow productions
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Finished reading Gene Wolfe’s The Fifth Head of Cerberus today, which reminded me of one of my great frustrations with a particular strand of publishing.
My copy (from the SF Masterworks imprint) has an introduction that says, at the bottom of the first page, “The themes of this book are memory; subjectivity and identity; and Wolfe believes - rightly - that the best way to articulate these themes is not in a linear, exteriorized, straightforward way; because (and it is really a very simple point) they are not linear, exteriorized, straightforward things.” It goes on to unpack and expound on the structure, content and interpretation of the book, before a reader who’s reading the foreword has had a change to experience the said material in a manner that is not linear, exteriorised or straightforward.
I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such an action.
#sometimes the only way to express myself is to misquote Babbage#anyway yeah I bailed on the introduction#read the book#went back to it#and decided the introduction-writer's read on one important part of the book is less interesting than mine anyway
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Why are the newer SF Masterworks covers like that
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Nominations for the 2023 Hugo Awards!
Nominations are still open for everyone's favourite phallic* SFF award! If you are able to nominate, why not consider some of our great books?
Everyone with memberships to either Chicon 8 or the 2023 Chengdu Worldcon that was purchased before February 1, 2023 is eligible to nominate up to five items in each of the 17 Hugo and 2 other award categories.
Some of the things you might consider nominating us for are under the cut!
*I don't wanna invoke the stalactite post but, like, come on
BEST NOVEL
Anything that came out in 2022 is eligible! And we had some bangers.
BEST SERIES
The Graceling Realm series by Kristin Cashore
The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock
The Last War trilogy by Mike Shackle
The Hussite Trilogy by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Legacy of the Mercenary King trilogy by Nick Martell
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
The Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson
The Great God's War trilogy by Stephen Donaldson
THE ASTOUNDING AWARD FOR BEST NEW WRITER
Rebecca Zahabi, The Collarbound
Kelly Andrew, The Whispering Dark
BEST EDITOR - LONG FORM
Gillian Redfearn
Maybe we’re biased, but Gillian’s the best. She’s been at Gollancz nearly 20 years, and is the editor for Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, Alastair Reynolds, Aliette de Bodard, Joanne Harris, Garth Nix, Elizabeth Bear, Patrick Rothfuss, Miles Cameron, Chris Wooding, Sarah Pinborough, Charlaine Harris… the list goes on! She is so involved in the SFF community, attending cons worldwide and she is staggeringly great at what she does. The only UK-based editor to be shortlisted for a Hugo award, she’s also genuinely one of the nicest people you will ever meet. Shortly after I first met her, she said something nice to me in the pub and I cried. On the plus side I set the bar for our future relationship very achievably low.
Marcus Gipps
Marcus has been in the biz for decades, starting as a bookseller and had a review Livejournal (yes, that's right, one of us) that helped him build respect with so many people in the industry. Any of the legendary, big names of SFF? He probably edits them. Michael Moorcock, Christopher Priest, Paul McAuley, Pat Cadigan, Stephen Baxter... He led the acquisition of THE LAST UNICORN once Peter S. Beagle got his rights back, he heads our WITCHER publishing, and his knowlege of SFF history is encyclopedic. He also leads our SF Gateway and Masterworks projects, archiving out of print SFF and saving them to keep in circulation. Marcus may be the most unflappable many on the planet, which is good because I'm extremely flappable so we balance out nicely.
Brendan Durkin
Do you like CHONKY books? So does Brendan. If you want a book to use as an offensive weapon, Brendan will have likely commissioned it. Brendan finds the books that are going to be the classics of the future. He works with J. T. Greathouse, Christopher Buehlman, Mike Shackle, SJ Morden, Chris Wooding, as well as being the lead for the Ursula K. Le Guin estate, the Terry Pratchett estate AND the Frank Herbert estate! Oh, and our beautiful D2C editions? All from his crazy genius mastermind brain. Also if you need somewhere to eat in central London? Go to him for a recommendation. I impressed him with my lunch choice the other day and felt like I'd Made It.
#Gollancz Blogging#Hugo Awards#Worldcon#Award Nominations#SFF Awards#Please nominate us!!#Maybe if any of our stuff gets shortlisted I can make a case for getting some Very Important Checkmarks
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As a start to old SciFi I'd start with picking what sounds good from the sf masterworks series. Two I've recently read are cities in flight by james blish and Gateway by frederik pohl. Both really enjoyable. Any of Athur C Clarke (who you've already read some of and I swear had a time machine with the shit he predicted) or ursula le guin would be a good bet as well.
nice nice i will add these to my list thank you !!
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Dan Simmons: The Fall of Hyperion (1990)
#dan simmons#hyperion#science fiction#sf masterworks#john keats#shrike#space opera#interstellar#ai#pain
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sf masterworks - Antic Exlibris
https://www.anticexlibris.ro/produse/categorie?cid=-1&q=sf+masterworks
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Captain Raj Lyubov had a headache. It began softly in the muscles of his right shoulder, and mounted crescendo to a smashing drumbeat over his right ear. The speech centres are in the left cerebral cortex, he thought, but he couldn't have said it; couldn't speak, or read, or sleep, or think. Cortex, vortex. Migraine headache, margarine breadache, ow, ow, ow. Of course he had been cured of migraine once at college and again during his obligatory Army Prophylactic Psychotherapy Sessions, but he had brought along some ergotamine pills when he left Earth, just in case. He had taken two, and a superhyperduper-analgesic, and a tranquilliser, and a digestive pill to counteract the caffeine which counteracted the ergotamine, but the awl still bored out from within, just over his right ear, to the beat of a big bass drum. Awl, drill, ill, pill, oh God. Lord deliver us. Liver sausage. What would the Athsheans do for a migraine? They wouldn't have one, they would have daydreamed the tensions away a week before they got them.
The Word For World Is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gollancz SF Masterworks paperback edition 2022, p.34.
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