Top Ten Classic Bizarro Sci-fi novel #5 is a Green Anarchist bio-regional history of the future...

Over the summer I did a ten week countdown of my favorite horror novels of all time. I had fun doing it and it seems based on the numbers that a lot of people were reading them. I enjoyed the discussions and so I decided to do another top down. So here are some rules, one book by each author because in this list it runs the risk of becoming the Philip K.Dick list. The second rule is nothing published in the 21st century. There are great gonzo sci-fi novels released in the last thirteen years for sure, The Skinner by Neal Asher and Dr. Identity by D.Harlan Wilson are great examples. They are great but we are talking old school now. The more weird the better, they can be serious or totally funny, the most important thing is that they are bizarro and awesome.

10.Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

9. Transmaniacon By John Shirley

8.Void Captain’s tale By Norman Spinrad

7. Beyond Apollo by Barry Malzberg

6. Software by Rudy Rucker

Number 5 is :

Released: 1985

The plot:

Ok that is tough because this book is less of a story, but more a oral history of a made up anarchist bioregional culture of a far future post current civilization set in Napa Valley. The main Character ‘Stone-Telling’ does have a story but it is broken up by music, poems, fables, language lesions and the like. In many ways this is more of a fantasy novel than a Science Fiction novel, but it is both and neither. It is like no other book. Honestly I can think of nothing that matches its scope or audacity. It might be the most intense example of world-building I have ever read.

The weirdest aspect:

Where to start? This is the most fully realized culture I have ever read in a novel. Almost to a fault, because at times it seems like Leguin has lost track of the story. The story is not the point. This book is 1/3 story and 2/3 anthropology text book of this fake future.

It depends which edition you get but one edition comes with a cassette that includes Music, language lesions and such based on the Kesh culture.

What does it say about our world?

Leguin is not the only Anarchist Science Fiction writer (See Norman Spinrad # 8 on this list) but you would think she was. So much has been said about her late 60’s anarchist novel the Dispossessed, but Always Coming Home is her true Anarchist masterpiece. This book was first suggested to me by Matthew T.(One of the founders of Boxcar Books) when he told me “The Dispossessed is Anarchism 101 but Always Coming Home is a 400 class.”

You have 500 pages of statements about how society, government and people function.

Bottom line is it good?

That’s tough. It is a work of pure genius but it is not exactly a fun to read novel. Not by any stretch of the imagination. I attempted to read it twice. It took me six months reading off and on. I was glad I read it in the end. It is similar in that sense to Tolkein’s The Silmarillion, Which is as dry as over cooked toast, it’s the other middle earth book that people think they want to read, but it is a slog. This book is not for everyone. Infact it is not for many people, but if you are up to the Challenge it is a neat book. You WILL use the Glossary. Yes it has a Glossary.

Last year I read Starhawk’s Fifth Sacred Thing. I enjoyed that novel but I was constantly thinking about how it was a less imaginative attempt at the same thing UKL did in Always Coming Home. Fifth Sacred Thing convinced me I was reading about a better world, but I closed the book wondering if it could work. ACH was the most convinced I ever felt reading a work about anarchism. I mean this happened:

The Author:

Ursula K. Leguin is from here in Portland and has been writing smart and challenging Science Fiction and fantasy since the 60’s. Her most famous novels include “The left Hand of Darkness” and the Earth Sea series. Pretty much everything she does is pure genius. I picked Always Coming Home for this list because it is weird as hell but if I was just suggesting that you start reading UKL I would read Left Hand of Darkness and The Dispossessed first. Unless you are looking for weird, then start with Always Coming Home.

Honorable mention of the week: Stranger in a strange land By Robert Heinlein

David Agranoff is the author of two published novels the Wuxia Pan style horror fantasy crossover "Hunting The Moon Tribe," and the satire "The Vegan Revolution With Zombies. He is also the author of the Wonderland award short story collection "Screams From a Dying World." His next novel Boot Boys of the Wolf-Reich is due to be released soon by Deadite press.

Top Ten Best classic Bizarro Sci-Fi novels: Your meat suit is disgusting in #6

Over the summer I did a ten week countdown of my favorite horror novels of all time. I had fun doing it and seems based on the numbers that a lot of people were reading them. I enjoyed the discussions and so I decided to do another top down. So here are some rules, one book by each author because in this list it runs the risk of becoming the Philip K.Dick list. The second rule is nothing published in the 21st century. There are great gonzo sci-fi novels released in the last thirteen years for sure, The Skinner by Neal Asher and Dr. Identity by D.Harlan Wilson are great examples. They are great but we are talking old school now. The more weird the better, they can be serious or totally funny, the most important thing is that they are bizarro and awesome.

10.Shockwave Rider By John Brunner

9. Transmaniacon By John Shirley

8.Void Captain’s tale By Norman Spinrad

7. Beyond Apollo by Barry Malzberg

And 6 is

Released: 1982 (Winner of the Phillip K. Dick Award)

The Plot: The story of an aging hippie Cobb Anderson a anarchist revolutionary who is dying in 2020 Florida, to poor to afford a new heart he is saved by his creations. Boppers are robots, that evolved to have artificial intelligence thanks to upgrades designed by Cobb. He wanted to create a revolutinary type of robots that resisted being slaves to human. The renegade Boppers live on the moon intend to give Cobb immortality, in the body of a robot.

The Weirdest Aspect: One of my favorite parts is when one human character watches the process of another human's body being taken apart and being mechanical. Rucker does a great job in the scene of making Organic life as we know seem totally disgusting. The level of intelligent bizarro inventiveness in a Rucker novel is pretty much unmatched else in fction.

What does it say about our world? Software explores the idea that our organic bodies could become outdated altogether. The questions of what is reality? What does life really mean? They are all here is the first book of four in Rucker’s most popular series. Software does dip its toes in the trans real water, as Cobb’s major contribution to the robot revolution is teaching one of his 12 original boppers to overwrite Asimov’s laws. In a sense that in the most important thing cyberpunk and Rucker are doing here is breaking Asimov’s laws, which are often enforced throughout science fiction.

Although released in the early 80’s this novel doesn’t feel as dated as other work from the era. Rucker seems to have a better grasp of where things are heading.

Bottom line is it good? Software is closer to traditional Science fiction or cyberpunk than some of Rucker’s other books like White light, Space Time Donuts, Mathaticians in Love or my personal favorite Jim and the Flims. They exist in Rucker’s own invented sub-genre of Transrealism. Rucker brings a tongue in cheek sense of humor to his work, while software is not quite as knee slapping as others it is a great work of Sci-fi. Still this book is very funny.

The Author: Rudy Rucker is a mathematician, computer scientist, and then he is science fiction author. He edits a fantastic webzine called Flurb. Rucker’s work is far from traditional Science Fiction or even Cyberpunk a subgenre he is considered a founder of. Rucker’s book have a funny sarcastic tone and often get their humor from the characters. Rucker has referred to his work as Transrealism which is most on display in Saucer Wisdom which is a thought experiment (Novel?) that explores where Rucker thinks the future will go. I’m a huge fan.

Honorable mention of the week:

Songs of a Distant Earth Arthur C. Clarke

David Agranoff is the author of two published novels the Wuxia Pan style horror fantasy crossover "Hunting The Moon Tribe," and the satire "The Vegan Revolution With Zombies. He is also the author of the Wonderland award short story collection "Screams From a Dying World." His next novel Boot Boys of the Wolf-Reich is due to be released soon by Deadite press.

Book Review: Lesser Creatures by Peter Giglo

Lesser Creatures by Peter Giglio

E-book edition/Paperback/ Limited hardcover Dark Fuse Publishing

Lesser Creatures is a dystopia with a lower case d set 15 years after the dead started returning to life. not even close to a traditional zombie novel the returned dead share some traits with Romero zombies, mostly brain dead and slowly decaying but mostly they just hang around. They are not hungry from brains or flesh. This not a zombie apocalypse, more of a new zombie reality.

These people become known as second-lifers, they are gathered in group home environments that reminded me of the housing our society currently makes for the mentally Ill. There are second life rights advocates and people who hate them. Our main characters are a pastor from the Glory's children church who sees a divine purpose in the second lifers and Eric cooper whose Ex-girlfriend is walking dead after trying to kill him.

Lesser Creatures is a truly odd novel, one thing I loved is it shared no tropes or any common structure with any other horror novels or the zombie subgenre. This is a very original feeling novel. In that respect someone looking for a paint by the numbers zombie novel is going to be bummed. Anyone looking for a challenging weird exploration of loss and love will be stoked.

Having just finished reading the book ten minutes ago I am struggling with the many themes that Giglo explored and I think the best thing I can say about this novel is that I think I might need to read it again someday. These are not Romero rules and in many ways this novel defies just a horror label.

I have said alot of nice things, is there anything I didn't like? The novel is marketed as being Phillip K.Dick like, and the author dedicates the work to him. I can see the similarity in the odd nature of the second lifers that reminds me of things like the talking beds and android animals in Do Androids Dream Electric Sheep for example. Not that Lesser Creatures goes that far into satire. While Giglo nails the weird concept feeling of PKD it lacks the broken paranoid insanity of PKD. Of course that is hard to do.

In the end I thought this was a fantastic novel, I am really excited to explore more of Giglo's work after reading this.

Audio Book Review: Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Doctor Sleep by Stephen King

Audio Book read by Will Patton 22 hours (531 pages)

To me The Shining is King's horror masterpiece. Is it is best novel? Not sure about that but when you talk about King as a master of horror the Torrance family tragedy is his finest moment. The news that King was writing a sequel was met with excitement as he doesn't do sequels, but the idea of what Dan Torrance did after surviving the events at the overlook hotel was too exciting to miss.

I had to wait months for the library to get me a hardcover of Dr. Sleep, but the audio I could have right away, as a fan of audio books I jumped on this. The audio book is read by actor Will Patton (Ironically I was watching the second season of Falling Skies at the same time – He plays Captain Weaver on that show) and he does a great job reading. He is clearly from New England. He also sounds like King reading at times. Perfect casting.

Like many King fans I think he did his best work in the early days, I am not a huge fan of some of his more recent novels such as Duma Key and Lisisy's story which I found to be unreadable. That being said I don't think the 21st century King is all bad. I liked the end of the Dark tower, and unlike many I thought Cell was a great horror novel. I enjoyed his collection Just After Sunset quite a bit. In my opinion Dr. Sleep is his best novel since Bag of Bones, although not as overwritten as that so perhaps it is his most solid work since Gerald's Game.

King had misdirected his serious fans when he said this was more a Dan Torrance story than a Shining sequel. It was much more of a Shining sequel than I expected. It is the story of an adult Danny who works in hospice, his shine gives him a knack for helping those who are dying. They call him Doctor sleep and teamed up with the hospice cat they help the dying.

Dan had to struggle to beat alcohol, and for the most part he has, not that we are not treated to some disturbing moments, that remind us of his father. The Shine is always there and it seems to be directing Dan putting in place to be ready for something important. That comes with the birth of Abra Stone (a shine talented young girl) who communicates telepathically with Dan long before they actually meet.

Abra and Dan discover a nasty bunch, a tribe who call themselves the True Knot, psychic vampires who murder and steal what they call steam, the essence of Shine talented people. It is strongest in children and Abra is their big ticket to live forever. The True Knot are pretty solid horror villians and Dan has to help Abra defeat them.

I like how King matured the character of Dan Torrance, making him his father's son in some aspects and not in others. That felt true to me as a long time fan of the novel. It felt real also that Wendy Torrance survivor of the overlook would be killed not by her husband but her cigerettes. The other good aspects are Dan's story, beating alcohol. Living with the shine into adulthood and working the hospice. If you have any serious interest in reading the novel I suggest going in as blind as possible.

The audio book is well done, I'll probably go back and read the novel with my eyes at some point but I was very glad I read. King did a worthy sequel and his most creepy novel in years.

Book Review: Midnight Mass by F.Paul Wilson

Midnight Mass By F.Paul Wilson

416 pages Paperback Tor

When I was young there were three authors I could also count on, that I considered my three favorite authors whose books I enjoyed over every one else. Those three were Clive Barker, Richard Matheson and Stephen King. As an adult my tastes have changed, the amount of authors I have read have expanded and within the last year I put F.Paul Wilson into my current top three(Today he is with John Shirley and Robert McCammon).

Midnight Mass is prime example of why Wilson is on my top three list. Compared to a lyrical artist like Barker - Wilson's no frills stripped down prose is perfect for me. Wilson is focused on the important stuff, story and characters. No one plots a novel or epic tale like Wilson, while this stand alone novel doesn't entirely showcase that strength as well as the Secret History of the World stories, this novel is perfectly plotted.

The greatest strength of Midnight Mass is the excellent characters and anyone who has read a Wilson novel knows none of those characters are safe. Wilson has knack for plot misdirection, often he will convince you a character is protagonist who you are prepared to join on this journey when they up a die, leaving you shocked 1/3 of the way through the book. That happened to me reading Midnight Mass, when a character I assumed was the hero gave up his life to save a friend. Wilson is tough on characters, and rarely is anyone safe. It adds tension to his books for sure.

Midnight Mass is a vampire apocalypse story, Wilson's long awaited take on the creatures (he tricked us in the Keep, making that novel seem like a vampire novel when it was something much darker) and it was worth the wait. This is not a rehash of I Am Legend but the water comes from the same well. In this novel Vampires have taken over Europe, India and the middle east. China and the U.S. Are fighting the rising tide. The east coast is under vampire control at night, human blood farms are growing along with a human resistance.

The two main characters are a disgraced priest who was falsely accused of child molestation just before the end times, a nun who secretly loved him and his best friend a rabbi. Add in the priest's militant vegan feminist niece and it sounds like you have a set up for a joke. No punch line here, just fantastic and interesting characters. Wilson develops them well, and tests their various faiths as the world ends around them.

This is far from my favorite Wilson novel, but that has more to do with the strength of his various other works. It is a great well thought out take on the Vampire mythos and a must read for fans of serious vampire novels.

Top Ten classic Bizarro Sci-fi novels #7 is the most unreliable narrator ever...

Over the summer I did a ten week countdown of my favorite horror novels of all time. I had fun doing it and seems based on the numbers that a lot of people were reading them. I enjoyed the discussions and so I decided to do another top down. So here are some rules, one book by each author because in this list it runs the risk of becoming the Philip K.Dick list. The second rule is nothing published in the 21st century. There are great gonzo sci-fi novels released in the last thirteen years for sure, The Skinner by Neal Asher and Dr. Identity by D.Harlan Wilson are great examples. They are great but we are talking old school now. The more weird the better, they can be serious or totally funny, the most important thing is that they are bizarro and awesome.

10.Shockwave Rider by John Brunner

9. Transmaniacon by John Shirley

8.Void Captain’s tale by Norman Spinrad

Number #7 is:

Release: 1972

The plot: Harry Evans might be the most unreliable narrator in science fiction. The only survivor of the first manned mission to Venus. He tries to tell his story but as you read this novel you begin suspect his paranoid delusions have made his story impossible to make sense of. The story goes from scary to to absurd and back again. By the end it seems clear that Evans murdered his crew or did he?

The Weirdest Aspect: The unreliable narrator is turned up to 11 in this novel and it times the story is so off the wall it is hard to keep straight what is happening. It would be easy to think of this short novel as a confused mess but if you stick with the novel it all comes to together. In many ways it is similar to the crazed crew member story-line in the recent Danny Boyle sci-fi movie Sunshine. The sex and violence is pretty intense for a novel of the era.

What does it say about our world? OK, I could be totally wrong but I got the impression that Malzberg was trying to make a statement about the insanity and dangers of human beings going into space.

Bottom line is it good? This novel greatly divided the Sci-fi community despite winning the John W. Campbell award for best Science Fiction novel many critics thought Campbell would have hated the novel. Harlan Ellison famously defended the novel saying it “put him out of commission for three days.

Me? I admit I almost quit reading this one. The first half is crazy disjointed. Once you figure out that is on purpose and kinda ride with it it gets better. If you stick with it you'll be glad you did because it pays off in the end.

The author: This is the only author on the list who I have not read other works. In 2006 Cari and I were in Victoria B.C. On my way to see The Fountain in the theater when we found Dark horse books. This was bookstore that had political books and science fiction. Not only did I love the bookstore but I made friend's with the owner Robert who suggested this book to me when I told him the type of things I was into. I had never heard of Malzberg.

After that I begun to notice his books and stories all over the place. Hear is what I know he was a violinist and accomplished editor. He was a lit agent and ran the SFWA for a time.

Honorable mention of the week:

Dhalgren By Samuel Delany.

David Agranoff is the author of two published novels the Wuxia Pan style horror fantasy crossover "Hunting The Moon Tribe," and the satire "The Vegan Revolution With Zombies. He is also the author of the Wonderland award short story collection "Screams From a Dying World." His next novel Boot Boys of the Wolf-Reich is due to be released soon by Deadite press.

Top Ten Bizarro Classic Sci-fi novels #8 features the orgasm drive

Over the summer I did a ten week countdown of my favorite horror novels of all time. I had fun doing it and seems based on the numbers that a lot of people were were reading them. I enjoyed the discussions and so I decided to do another top down. So here are some rules, one book by each author because in this list it runs the risk of becoming the Philip K.Dick list. The second rule is nothing published in the 21st century. There are great gonzo sci-fi novels released in the last thirteen years for sure, The Skinner by Neal Asher and Dr. Identity by D.Harlan Wilson are great examples. They are great but we are talking old school now. The more weird the better, they can be serious or totally funny, the most important thing is that they are bizarro and awesome.

10.Shockwave Rider By John Brunner

9. Transmaniacon by John Shirley

Number 8 is :

Released: 1982 (year)

The plot: The Void Captain's Tale is a strangely erotic anarchist tinged Science Fiction novel that is like no other far future novel you are likely to read. It takes place during a second space faring age of humanity very far into our future. Humans travel the void by means that are less technology as they are uh...sensual. Space drives are a mystery run by symbioticly linked to women pilots. This interface is dangerous and shortens the life of the void pilots. This moment of transition in the void takes the pilot out of space time and is a very, very satisfying feeling. The orgasmic feeling is so intense that it drives the pilots insane.

The Weirdest Aspect: This is a very weird Sci-fi novel that takes itself seriously. I could explain the deep space drive on the ships as an orgasm drive and it wouldn't be far off. It makes sense and works in the context of the novel. This book is so detailed in the cultural stuff it is quite amazing, Language in the book jumps mid phrase from a future mishmash of English, Japanese, Spanish German and French.

What does it say about our world? This book is in many ways a statement on freedom in a cultural and sexual sense.

Bottom line is it good? The Void Capitan's Tale is set in the same universe as Spinrad's novel Child of Fortune. I enjoyed this novel but less adventurous Sci-fi readers might have a problems with this very strange setting. The Void-pilots are like a horny 14 year-old's twist on the spice navigators in Dune. Spinrad is a genius and an amazing Sci-fi writer but I have a feeling he was giggling a lot when he outlined this idea. The biggest weakness is how Hetero-normative this universe is when the culture of this future is supposed to be totally free-love. I would chalk that up to the times but this was eight years after Samuel Delany's Dhalgren and certainly both Leguin and Delany had lots of non-Hetro cultures in sci-fi.

The Author:

Again this is not Spinrad's best just his best-most weirdest novel if you get my thinking as for why it's on the list. I considered his second novel Men in the Jungle (a Veitnam allegory, my first Spinrad recommended to me by Cody Goodfellow) was written the same year Star Trek premiered and had a villain who ate babies. Spinrad has many excellent novels some highlights include Barron Bug Jack, Iron Dream and Greenhouse Summer. His novella Street Meat in his novella collection Other Americas is also a personal favorite of mine. He also wrote an episode the the OG Star Trek the classic episode Doomsday Machine.

Honorable mention of the week: Songs of the Distant Earth by Arthur C. Clarke

David Agranoff is the author of two published novels the Wuxia Pan style horror fantasy crossover "Hunting The Moon Tribe," and the satire "The Vegan Revolution With Zombies. He is also the author of the Wonderland award short story collection "Screams From a Dying World." His next novel Boot Boys of the Wolf-Reich is due to be released soon by Deadite press.