Re: Nebula Finalists 1985

Ted Nolan <tednolan> wrote:

In article <19p5O.2751$1tf.1794@fx38.iad>,
Scott Lurndal <slp53@pacbell.net> wrote:

"Michael F. Stemper" <michael.stemper@gmail.com> writes:

On 27/05/2024 09.04, James Nicoll wrote:

In article <v323cl$2c0t$1@dont-email.me>,
Michael F. Stemper <michael.stemper@gmail.com> wrote:

On 27/05/2024 07.59, James Nicoll wrote:

This week's Nebula finalists reaches the finalists of 1985! 1985 was
a golden age of Wham! songs, the Coen Brothers' first film debuted,
and a plucky David Miller transformed Ontario government. What of
1985's science fiction?
>
Which 1985 Nebula Finalist Novels Have You Read?
>
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Frontera by Lewis Shiner
Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert A. Heinlein
The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
The Man Who Melted by Jack Dann
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson

>
By cosmic coincidence, I read both _Neuromancer_ and _Job_ in May
of 1993. Gibson no longer darkens my shelves, but I've reread the
Heinlein and may do so again.

>
What's wrong with Gibson?

>
For me, he's all but unreadable. I struggled through _Neuromancer_ in
1993. Feeling that I should give such a significant author another chance,
the following year I survived _Mona Lisa Overdrive_.

>
I also found Gibson mostly unreadable.  Wasn't a fan of Brunner, either,
except for _Polymath_.
>

 My favorite as well.

With two solid votes for it I may have to try a reread.
The novel did give me one good moment though.  One of those annoying SF-belittling types saw my copy and tried to make fun of an SF book featuring a made-up kind of mathematics.
I explained to him that to appreciate SF it helps to know what various words mean.
William Hyde
  I was hoping some of his other books in the same

setting would be as good, but I didn't feel they were.  Then he kind of
went all 70s.  (Props for _Shockwave Rider_ though).