SF Bookshelf Travelling for Insane Times (xi)
Posted in Eric Brown, Memes, Science Fiction at 20:30 on 29 November 2020
A meme as started by Judith and now collated by Katrina.
Since these are SF paperbacks mostly published several decades ago they are on the shelves housed in my garage. The photos are zooms in on the ones of the whole bookcases and so are a bit fuzzy.
On view are books by the excellent Michael Bishop, several by my friend Eric Brown, three by Algis Budrys, five (or seven since one is an omnibus of a trilogy) by C J Cherryh, but most of the books shown here were written by John Brunner. I remember fondly Stand on Zanzibar, The Dramaturges of Yan, Telepathist and The Squares of the City, in which the characters are in effect avatars of chess pieces whose moves were taken from a real game.
Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider (in which he more or less predicted computer viruses but due to the storage medium of computers at the time he called them tapeworms,) The Sheep Look Up and The Jagged Orbit are shelved in another bookcase in the garage for arcane reasons.
His Timescoop is on my hardback shelves.
Tags: Algis Budrys, Bookshelf Travelling, Bookshelf Travelling For Insane Times, C J Cherryh, Eric Brown, John Brunner, Michael Bishop, Science Fiction, SF, Stand on Zanzibar, Telepathist, The Dramaturges of Yan, The Jagged Orbit, The Sheep Look Up, The Shockwave Rider, The Squares of the City, Timescoop
Constance
30 November 2020 at 00:42
I haven’t read any of these authors but years ago, as a sales rep, I used to present C J Cherryh’s books to the bookstores and always admired how prolific she was and how she was never at loss for a new plot. Also, I remember her editors added an H to her name, Cherry, so no one would think she was a romance writer. Instead, people were puzzled how to pronounce it.
jackdeighton
30 November 2020 at 20:03
Constance,
I had wondered where that ‘H’ came from.
All the authors I mentiond are worth a read.
tracybham
2 December 2020 at 21:13
I have read two by John Brunner (the Sheep Look Up and Stand on Zanzibar), which makes sense because they were published in 1968 and 1972, when I was dating or just married to my first husband, and that was when I read a good bit of science fiction. I really do need to try more of his books.
I have heard of C J Cherryh, but not read any of her books. Maybe I will someday.
jackdeighton
4 December 2020 at 19:20
tracybham,
Brunner’s works might be a bit dated now, but still worth looking at I’d say. Any of the ones I mentioned would be a good place to start.
I’m just about to start reading a recently published British Library reprint of his “Society of Time” stories (originally collected together in the late 1960s as “Times Without Number.”) The new book has two extra tales thrown in.