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

[Max More]

Damien wrote:

>Mostly good choices. DARWINIA is interesting, but look for SPIN as well;
>it's brilliant.

I've moved it up my "to read" list. Darwinia took a while to get 
into, but then I started enjoying it a lot. I found the ending a 
little disappointing but, in general, liked Wilson's style of writing.

>Peter Watts's BLINDSIGHT is perhaps the best book of the
>last decade.

Thanks for the recommendation. Now own a copy and have moved it up to 
reading position #6.

>Swanwick's JACK FAUST. The TITAN trilogy is worth
>perservering with, although it has its long dull stretches. Have you
>tried Stan Robinson's RED, GREEN, BLUE MARS trilogy? (You might find the
>political ethos disagreeable.)

No, I haven't. I remember considering that some time ago, but was put 
off by reviews.

>Charlie's MERCHANT PRINCES series is lots
>of fun, although it loses focus as it goes on.

I might get to that series after catching up with some of his others, 
starting with Iron Sunrise and then Accelerando and Glasshouse.

>  Alas, sf has been mostly
>replaced by vast fatasies (sic), which are mostly not nearly as
>interesting as Stross's faux-fantasies-sf-in-disguise.

Ha! Did you just coin that? A quick google didn't reveal previous use 
in that sense. It's not just fatasies that I avoid, I mostly avoid 
excessively long SF of any kind. That's why I have yet to read (no 
doubt good or excellent) novels by Neal Stephenson (Cryptonomicon -- 
1168 pages, argh!; Anathem -- 1008).

To Stefano (I think): Yes, I also read a few Poul Anderson books. 
Wasn't one of my top authors though. Way back then, in addition to 
the authors I think I already mentioned, I did read a lot of Isaac 
Asimov (though mostly only particularly enjoyed his robot stories), 
and a fair bit of Clifford D. Simak, and... lots of others.

QUESTION (to Damien, especially, but to other long-time SF readers): 
Mentioning Asimov reminds me of a parody essay(?)/story(?) that I'm 
pretty sure was written by John Sladek, in which various well know SF 
authors names are amusingly skewed, so that, for instance, Isaac 
Asimov becomes (something like) I Click As I Move. Can anyone tell me 
what book/article/collection I'm thinking of?

Max