161–170 of 179 posts
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Not a fan of cheeky riddles based on dad jokes?
Zelazny was one of the earliest/best/most prolific authors that loved to use the boundary between sci-fi and fantasy as a jump rope.
> Whats red and green and goes around and around and around? A frog in a cuisinart.
I'd like to recommend one as well: The City & the City, by China Miéville. A delightful, unique experience! Fresh and original, “fantasy science fiction”. Not a big fan of detective stories and noir, but this is something else.
If you like these books -- early classics of the genres -- it's going to be well worth your time to check out Fantasy Masterworks collection ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks ). It's a set of reissued sci-fi and fantasy novels, chosen by the British publisher Millennium for their quality and influence on later writers. 3/5 of the books in the linked article are included. It's not perfect-- it's miss…
> "amazing" and "genuinely the best novels from sixty years of SF".
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What's truly infuriating is how awful the tagging on Audible is. "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is tagged sci-fi.
You would not believe how bad publisher data is. I run a book website, and Dune is often tagged nonfiction in the data we get from publishers. I don't think they know how to use the BISAC system the industry uses ( https://bisg.org/page/BISACEdition ). With Dune, they were marking it "AI," which is a nonfiction-only category. Just one small example...
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You would not believe how bad publisher data is. I run a book website, and Dune is often tagged nonfiction in the data we get from publishers. I don't think they know how to use the BISAC system the industry uses ( https://bisg.org/page/BISACEdition ). With Dune, they were marking it "AI," which is a nonfiction-only category. Just one small example...
Plus Dune, somewhat famously, doesn't have any AI in it.
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What annoys me with SF Masterworks is that they changed the style (and checking now, it seems they might have changed it again from last time I bought any). I don't see any point in continue buying the series as opposed to individual versions if they're not going to stick to a cohesive style anyway. I might just finish buying the original numbered style (up to number 74 or something) But anyway, they've "only" publis…
I think there are 2 different series. The "SF Masterworks" seeme to be fans-liked-it, while the "Fantasy Masterworks" is editor favorites.
I have books from both before and after. The original SF Masterworks series has black covers with a number clearly printed, while the new one has yellow covers.
According to Wikipedia, the yellow version is from a "relaunch" in 2010 onwards, with some of the original numbered books being republished with the new cover as well. Why they felt the need to do that, who knows.
To make it even more confusing, Gollancz appear to have marketed other series with the same name.
Here's a page that shows a bunch of them in both iterations, though without showing the spine:
https://bearalley.blogspot.com/2019/06/sf-masterworks-cover-...
Here's one showing yet another version (the other version of the "yellow" series has yellow spines as well):
https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/SF-Masterworks-Mas...
I quite like that one. What I don't like is starting to buy a series and then not being able to keep buying the same design... If it's going to keep changing, I'd rather just have them be individual.
Here's someone on Reddit that has two of the SF Masterworks variations (top left, and top right), and Fantasy Masterowkrs (most of the second row from the top)
https://www.reddit.com/r/sciencefiction/comments/q2eiwk/my_h...
From what I can tell they've done yet another variant at some point, but that's titled "The Best of the SF Masterworks" so I guess that can be forgiven for using a different design:
https://www.redlionbooks.co.uk/product/the-word-for-world-is...
(yes, I care more about this than I should; it's made me pretty much stop buying paper books and instead put other things on my shelves)
If you like these books -- early classics of the genres -- it's going to be well worth your time to check out Fantasy Masterworks collection ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks ). It's a set of reissued sci-fi and fantasy novels, chosen by the British publisher Millennium for their quality and influence on later writers. 3/5 of the books in the linked article are included. It's not perfect-- it's miss…
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They are different if you like sci-fi and dislike fantasy which OP apparently does as do I, on the grand scheme of things not a big deal but it does get in the way when specifically looking for new sci-fi to read.
To be fair, that's a subjective difference in opinion, not an objective difference in type. Many people like "hard" sci-fi but not "soft" sci-fi, but that doesn't make them fundamentally distinct genres. By the numbers, Star Wars is far more grounded as science fiction that Star Trek, but people will insist the former is at best merely "science fantasy." It's really all just vibes.
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There are definitely things that blur the line and cross genres, or things that may meet one person's definition but not another's. I do agree it would be impossible to provide an entirely objective division that everyone would go along with. Even so, I'd love it if all the "medieval dragon witch ghost magic spirit quest" stories could be placed on a different shelf of the bookshop to the "black hole generation ship…
The Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey feature noble warriors riding genetically-engineered telepathic fire-breathing dragons in a feudal society protecting an alien planet's human space colony from toxic spores. Which shelf do I put them on?