Science Fiction Aficionados discussion

Hello everyone and welcome to our newest series read: the Helliconia Trilogy by science fiction cult favorite, Brian W. Aldiss. The first book, Helliconia Spring, was published in 1982.

Here are some relevant links

Helliconia: How and Why
https://web.archive.org/web/200709280...

The Physics of Helliconia
https://web.archive.org/web/200703300...

audiotape interview with Brian Aldiss (featuring the hilariously haughty but still quite sweet I.F. Clarke asking the questions)
http://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-a...

Great links, Mark! I am anxiously awaiting my book's arrival!

I remember not enjoying this one so much, but that was way back in college. I think I will be giving it another try later this month, especially since I've come to love many other New Wave authors.

mark wrote: "Hello everyone and welcome to our newest series read: the Helliconia Trilogy by science fiction cult favorite, Brian W. Aldiss. The first book, Helliconia Spring, was published in 1982.

Here are s..."
I read the series many years ago shortly after it was published. I remember liking it but felt it was a little slow. I kept wanting things to move a little quicker. but it was still interesting enough to keep plodding along and to read the sequels.

The link "Helliconia: How and Why" was a little annoying with Aldiss' opinionated complaints about the state of SF in the 80's. I definitely don't agree with his statement concerning the changing SF market: "The opportunity extended to famous writers of an older generation, such as Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein, to turn out poor imitations of earlier work and he overpaid for it is also demoralising." I don't consider Foundation's Edge, The Robots of Dawn or Robots and Empire poor imitations. The same goes for Clarke's and Heinlein's work in the 80's and later.

But I do agree with his lament about fantasy replacing SF as the dominant form of speculative fiction. I remember going to book stores in the 80's and later and seeing more and more fantasy in what was still being labelled the SF section. I do enjoy some fantasy fiction but I think the trend towards endless sequels to be a cop out. Very few writers can successfully continue a series in either SF or fantasy beyond a trilogy.
and

I can't speak to Asimov's later works, but I did find Heinlein's Number of the Beast to be enervating and Clarke's retread Rama II to be dispiriting.

My response was mainly concerning Aldiss' dismissal of the later works of Asimov, Clarke and Heinlein. I was a big fan of Asimov and thought he did a great job of coming back after many years to finish up the Robot and foundation series. I was never that big a fan of Heinlein or Clarke but didn't see that that by the 80's they were "doing poor imitations" of their earlier work. I always found Clarke's writing, like Aldiss', to be rather slow paced but I thought the ideas he expressed to be fresh although the Rama series did drop off in quality after the first entry. I found later works by Heinlein to be all over the map in ideas and style but never "poor imitations" of his previous work,

ah! I see your points.

so I started this the other day, and it is definitely growing on me!
I can see that this is NOT going to be character driven at all....lol

Starting this today, had hoped to start it earlier in the month but work has been super busy. I'm excited, I've been wanting to read this series for a while and today I've actually got time to just sit and read for a while :D

I’ll start today or tomorrow. Just trying to finish Forever War first.

3% in. "Every now and again, one would shoot out his white milt, curving it up the slot of his powerful nostrils, to remove plaguing midges."
Am I the only one that had no idea what milt was? I’m damn near forty and still learning new words for semen. Also, that’s a hell of a way to get rid of flies.

I am almost halfway through and liking it more and more all the time!

27% in.

Helliconia Time
100s = 1 minute
40 minute = 1 hour
25 hours = 1 day
483 days = 1 year

So there are 48,300,000 seconds in a Helliconia year and 31,536,000 in an Earth year making a Helliconia year about 1.5 Earth Years.

As they are old by twenty those are very short lifespans but likely in keeping with their level of technology.

Speaking of technology - the satellite threw me. The Prime Directive?

38% in. This will not be finished today and though I am committed to finishing it I won’t be joining in reading the sequel. March is full.

I finished! and I enjoyed it a lot.

Finally finished!
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I cant imagine listening to this on Audio! It took a bit to get going. I liked it in the end, but the whole waiting for enough warmth to get things done was very slow going, but definitely part of the world-building!

I did relax into it by the end but that first part... I didn’t see how I could make it. Now I’m considering the rest of the series, at a slow pace.

well Summer is a LOT faster paced---goes with the hot territory I guess!