[ExI] What SF do you plan to read next?

[Max More]

John Grigg wrote:

>"American Gods" swept me away as I listened to it in audiobook 
>form.  The main character's wife reminded me so much of someone I 
>once dated.  I saw just the other day "Mirror Mask."  And despite 
>some bad reviews I had read of it, considered the film visually 
>stunning and emotionally touching.

I became a Neil Gaiman enthusiastic immediately upon reading his 
Sandman graphic novels. Although I have several of his books queued 
up to read, so far I've only read American Gods. Beautifully written 
and compelling. His Anansi Boys is now third on my list, after 
Swanwick's Vacuum Flowers and Damien's Dreaming Dragons.


>Michael Swanwick is one of my favorite authors and "Stations of the 
>Tide" was the second of his works that I had read.

Good to know, since I have a couple of his novels at hand and not yet 
read. In my reading of cyberpunky SF years ago, I managed to somehow 
completely miss his work.

>I have a copy of "Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future" and also 
>need to read that. lol  Max, how good was the anthology?  Any 
>stories in particular that you would really recommend?

I was thinking of reviewing that book (which I finished last month), 
but for now... the stories I enjoyed most were (not in any order):

"Slow Tuesday Night" by R.A. Lafferty (amusing)
"Understand" by Ted Chiang (excellent)
"None So Blind" by Joe Haldeman (quite good)
"Mortimer Gray's History of Death" by Brian Stableford (very good)
"Toast: A Con Report" by Charles Stross (good)
"Fossil Games" by Tom Purdom (good)
"The Wedding Album" by David Marusek (excellent)
"Steps Along the Way" by Eric Brown (good)
"Border Guards" by Greg Egan (very good)

I hated "Spook" by Bruce Sterling, although I didn't mention that to 
him when I saw him a couple of weeks ago at the 20th anniversary of 
the raid on Steve Jackson Games...

Overall, I recommend the collection.

It's too bad that I finished the John Varley Reader, since that would 
be perfect for the long flights in April to and from England. I do 
strongly recommend that collection to everyone who likes SF. It's not 
*especially* transhumanist, but Varley writes highly engaging short 
stories. (Of his novels, so far I've only read Steel Beach, which I 
remember being enjoyable.)

Max