TOP TEN 1980s SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS (USA MALES)  

Yes, there are some nice ones in this video! Always want to be worthy of your time as an audience, Rose, you rock!

I had a great time in the 80s, there were downs as well, of course, but mostly ups. My most difficult decade was 2010 to....well, now really!

@@outlawbookselleroriginal having been through the crucible I feel you. Hang in there. What you're doing is precious.

Thanks! More like this coming.

Same here!

It's in my '100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels' and I'm reacquiring it soon, so it's a Yes.

More of SF/Music crossover to come. Let me know how you get on with 'Frontera'.

'Frontera' is great, I think you'll love it- get hold of 'Dr Adder' by K W Jeter as well, predates the Gibson by a decade but not issued until the same year. Gibson's first novel still stands up for me and the style is what kills all the competition. There are so many great lines, get another copy...

The Ace 'Wild Shore' is the world first. It's fairly uncommon, don't know how many were printed, probably quite a few thousand. Of course, most collectors do not regard a paperback as important and tend to want first hardcovers, but hang onto it. Bet I can find more 70s gems for you, give me time....

I now spend more time making videos about books than reading them- good to hear you have 'Frontera' aside! Good to hear from you.

Shine and Shep- you'll love them, mate!

Yes, I must say I enjoyed digging a lot of those beauties out! The 'Eon' is of course as you divine the true UK first, though the World First was of course the US one. Cheers Jon!

I have 'Implied Spaces' on my enormous TBR currently. I've read 'Blood Music' three times- maybe four- always enjoyed it. 'Eon' is less me though, I never get on with Big Dumb Object novels...

Clute is THE MAN. I don't always agree with him, but his work is what critics should aim for. Peter Nicholls, his collab on he first two editions was great too- these are the guys I admire deeply and they taught me a lot. That's Steven with a V, you mean, he is best known for collaborations with Niven and Pournelle- black writer- otherwise neglected, you don't see his stuff much, especially in the UK. NESFA do a book of his stuff. I'm always looking out for work by him but never see it over here.

That's the thing- he often has great ideas, but the telling....

Cheers Matthew!

Why, thanks! Appreciated! Let me know how you get on with the Shiner!

Thanks for that, glad you liked it. Yeah, I read those guys a lot then too of course, but then I was so immersed in SF throughout the eighties, which was an amazing time for the genre. Good to hear from you, hope you are doing well! Always a pleasure to see you comment, your channel is still shooting great bullets as well, my friend!

Yes, Hemingway had a big impact, you have to have read the writers before him to really get it, as he encouraged people to strip things down in a good way. For me, balance between style and economy is the thing, most of the time. Aldiss said of Robinson that his early work appeared to be literature, but actually only looked like it. I feel this way about much of the 90s US SF I've read, where there's a veneer of sophistication and scope but a lack of voice- and Bradbury, Gibson and Shepard have voice.

Those are early Bishops, very florid and ornate and spiky and not representative of his 80s work, but very enjoyable nonetheless. 'Involution' is a romp, but an ever-entertaining and irreverent one. Shepard is horribly neglected now and seems to have no equivalents emerging in the last twenty years-back in the 80s he had lots of literary competition in the States, but now....

Hi Stephen, I happened to find a Tanith Lee book called Silver Metal Lover. Plan to read soon but wondered if you had an opinion?

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Thanks for the info. And thanks for the videos. First, I seem to find books by authors you mention the next day. Found my first Bob Shaw after you mentioned him awhile ago, and today I found Bishop's Transfigurations and No Enemy But Time. Second, you definitely helped reignited my love of science fiction, making me realize there's still a lot of great books I've missed out on. And reminding me of why I loved the genre in the first place. So thank you again.

Same here!

As I said, I find it a manipulative book. I wouldn't say I like it, but it is clever- but not as clever as people think it is. The social media aspect of it is impressively prescient though- it seemed very unlikely at the time, but now....

There will be at least 3 Wolfe videos but not for some time, probably only one before 2024, I need to reread a lot of his work.

Yes, had I been more subjective Jeter and Effinger would have been there, but as I say another couple of 80s USA lineups will come...

For me all three " Sun books " are equally magnificent. I think I get why some people ( & yourself it seems ) think less of Long Sun ... Wolfe does something special with Long Sun . I just finished ( two days ago ) re-reading it for a third time & enjoyed it immensely. Anyways, question about Short Sun : Are you in the camp that Blue is Urth/ Ushas & Green is the Moon ? Or other way around... ? ( Because some dudes on Urth Mailing List years ago claimed that old ruined city with canal on Green is actually Nessus ) Case for Blue being Urth is Seawrack's " Mother " , the giant being living in the deep of the ocean...Abaia, Erebus or some of their kind ?

It's unlikely I'll cover the Sun books in any depth for some time. I'll be looking at other books I feel are more neglected first, as I feel there are things to say that are less likely to have been said elswhere.

So many great works have been neglected. I'd much rather learn about those I've missed than those I've been privileged to read! Thanks.@@outlawbookselleroriginal

I've been emaning to re-read 'Speaker for the Dead' for ages- I wasn't fussed on it at the time, but I suspect in these internet days I may find it interesting again. There was so much good stuff from the States in those years.

I've spoken about this a lot in earlier videos where I've talked about how SF is Modernist genre, how Modernism is over and that current SF is Contemporary, not Modern. I was thinking today about how obvious it is that Culture has slowed down in the last 35 years while tech has speeded up. I saw a young woman in her early 20s wearing a Nirvana T-Shirt - fine it itself, but it made me think that if I'd worn a T-Shirt referring to a band from 30 plus years ago when I was the lady's age, it would have related to a band from before rock and roll was born. It was a cardinal example of how so little has happened culturally since the late 1980s when Postmodernism became a thing big time.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Nirvana is one of those bands I peg as a parody of themselves. Smells like Teen Spirit is like a parody of punk rock. It signified the end to me in which the rebellion is now a commodity at a shopping mall like some cologne spray (I guess the Who did it 30 years earlier with the song Substitute or the Stones with Satisfaction). Whereas you take the Stranglers, they seemed undefinable constantly evolving their sound - their sound seemed wide open. I still hear the chorus to "Life Shows No Mercy" every time I get frustrated with one thing or another. That came out in the 80s. Yes 80s music compressed the sound, synthesized it and people parodied that as well. I think of YMO or Kraftwerk - were self-parodying in a way as well - Kraftwerk performing as robots - showing how we are all becoming robots. Rick Beato, the music producer and teacher, goes on a lot about the death of music. It does feel like we are searching for our soul past the takeover of our technology. We are becoming stripped of what we define as being human. Before I discovered you I was reading Bobiverse books recommended by a reddit group. The story was ok but it is basically about Human consciousness transmigrating into machine parts. I don't even know why anyone would even bother. I think the AI will just dispose of us completely - why do we need any humanity at all let alone put us into a can opener. Anyways, I am just ranting here. I hope I am doing an ok job trying to absorb all of your years of insight into the art of speculative inquiry. We will make it to our promised land some day. In the meanwhile, I have a lot of catching up to do in reading - I just purchased your 2 books, 100 Must Read Science Fiction Novels and 100 Must Read Books For Men. Your Fantasy book is out of print over here ( I read them on kindle - the only version available is a hardback for over $100). I am hoping that someday I will be a real SF buff of the modernist kind - to hopefully discover someday what happened to the spirit of creativity, exploration, and wonder and see how to bring it back from the dead.

@@spiraldaddy Agree re Nirvana. The Bobiverse things are self-published, dead giveaway. David Bunch did that whole thing much more effectively in the 1960s. Modernism was a moment that sadly was doomed to die as the mass media conditioned us into an endless desire for novelty and creativity that was bound to run out- before the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (photography, film, mass print) not even the richest despots could discover all the world's art. Now, we get through it in less than a lifetime and are left trackless. This is the challenge facing all the arts since the end of the 1980s.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal What a predicament! All we can do is accept the challenge and keep moving forward into that trackless expanse.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal I bought that Manzanera Album Diamond Head in the early 90s - I love that album! I listened to all the Eno albums as well - they were the spirit! You haven't heard you talk about King Crimson yet - though you threw out some YES references. Old Genesis too - Talking Heads - incredible! This was the music that fueled me through the 90s when I couldn't consume the parody music.

Exactly, it may be tackling real world issues - the whole water thing etc (and I grew up in an area where this was a huge problem, so it was relatable to me, but still very dull!)- but it lacked drama, I felt.

I don't understand why people can't separate the author from the work. I really try to understand but I fail miserably! I know people who've thrown out entire collections they built up of Harry Potter simply because JK Rowling has a different opinion to them. It really is bizarre!

@@GypsyRoSesx I don't know how to respond to that. If you have an actual question then I'm more than happy to answer it. If you wish to just make a statement or to attack my comment then please do so, I will read it and consider it.

@@GypsyRoSesx Well I ask the question because I'm trying to learn that's the first of it. Secondly I can separate the art from the artist because I'm only interested in the story. I don't get emotionally involved in their private life or their political views. I am a straight white man, I don't think I'd ever watch a modern movie if I wasn't able to overlook some of the current political views held in Hollywood and just enjoy the story that they're telling. I do tend to dislike movies set in an historical context with unrealistic diversity, but that's because I find it distracting more than anything else. Although I do read copious amounts of history books so I'm not easily pleased with that type of movie anyway because they change the story too much.

@@GypsyRoSesx The last I heard from him on that subject was that he was consumed by jealousy because they do things for their own community that he feels his people fail to do. I don't think he is as hateful as he made himself sound, but he should've been more careful as a famous person who has great influence over young people. I don't listen to his music either, I was always more of a rocker. I like to hear the guitar and the drums.

​@@GypsyRoSesxI've read them, I didn't see them straight away because I've just had to go out and I left my phone behind. I don't tend to delete comments I just leave them, but thanks for the conversation. Enjoy the rest of your evening.

I like 'Memory' too, best of all the early stuff.

Yeah, I was trawling my memory spontaneously for the correct term, but being a man devoted to analogue synths since the 70s, it had drifted into the ether. I think I can cope with not getting that far into the Wiggin Kids series...LOL.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal Most of my synthesisers are digital. Even my OSCar sports DCOs (in place of VCOs, obviously}. I do like my Yamaha CS01, though. Concerning the Ender saga, indeed it becomes increasingly disinteresting (the term is intended as a verb, here).

Many, many thanks, Greg!

'Frontera' is fierce.

Watch my videos on Hauntology and Psychogeography in SF to discover why: 'Why you like the science fiction books with the old covers' and 'Why the modern science fiction you're reading isn't modern'. Fave WG? 'Neuomancer', the short stories, 'Count Zero', Blue Ant Trilogy. Read everything, of course.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal ive seen the first but cant remember bout the second. will watch/re-watch both read neuromancer and currently reading burning chrome. ordering pattern recognition soon

@@forinthemorning0400 These are good moves.

@@outlawbookselleroriginal had seen both but glad i re-watched. 2 of ur best

@@forinthemorning0400 Just posted a new video, looking at Neuromancer as a mood piece, with numerous cultural references.