Digging into the Weirdest Sci-Fi & Fantasy Paperbacks I Could Find

334 by Thomas Disch I actually read about that much of and then DNF'd and I intend to go back to it cuz this is a very important new wave work of dystopian near future fiction. It's really dark as a lot of Thomas Disch is, but it is sophisticated writing. I think I bounced off of it because Disch, for all of his virtues, does, it must be confessed, I feel have a tendency towards edge lordiness.

He's very hit or miss in so far as he had one hit, City, with me and the rest of it has been pretty boring.

some of his stuff like in Man in the High Castle or Androids Do Androids Dream, some of the most impressive stuff, especially of like canonical science fiction works that are commonly still read. Some of the better stuff.

I reviewed Star Rider, which is her second novel. I liked it a lot. I compared it to Cordwainer Smith.

I think The Dream Master is his best book. it's the first one that I ever read from him. Has stuck with me.

I read this and reviewed this recently on the Patreon and I had mixed opinions of it, but it kind of cemented Piserchia in my mind as someone who is especially strange even among strange pulp science fiction writers. I don't regret picking it up. I don't regret reading it.

Anyway, the book is compared frequently to The Game Players of Titan, which I didn't particularly care for.

I like this book. I just talked about this on the previous video, so I won't linger on it too long. If you haven't read it, very recommended. I think that it deserves its place in the Wells canon.

I love this book, The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. I haven't read it in like 5 years. Out of all of the canonical literature that I've read in my life, I think this might be my favorite book.

I read The Last Unicorn. I had pretty strong mixed reactions, both positive and negative, to that book, but he is clearly a very talented writer and the premise here definitely is interesting to me.

some of his stuff like in Man in the High Castle or Androids Do Androids Dream, some of the most impressive stuff, especially of like canonical science fiction works that are commonly still read. Some of the better stuff.

War Against the Rull by A.E. van Vogt. I'm really liking it so far. If you want just straight down the middle pulp science fiction that is competently executed, has a little bit more character and political sophistication in it than you would expect from pulp material. I can recommend it.

I found the copy of Day After Judgment at a Salvation Army one time, knowing nothing about Blish, just seeing the Wayne Barlow cover, and seeing that big 1980s Terminator ass font on the front. I picked it up knowing nothing about it, and it kicked exactly as much ass as the cover made it seem it would, and forevermore I have been very partial to those Avon Blishes.

There was a fascinating essay in Engines of the Night by Molsberg, which I'm in the process of reading, talking about why post-1958 the novel was kind of a weaker part of science fiction than the short story.