Hugo & Nebula Awards: Best Novels discussion

The Computer Connection no spoilers thread

Starting today, sight read. I've had a 1975 SF Book Club edition on my shelf for several years, it'll be good to send it off to a new home. If the first few pages are any indication, it's a freaky New Wave story, which I guess is why it's a Dreaded choice.

I got an AI-generated audiobook, gonna check how it compares with real narrators

I started this today. 23 pages in I’m finding it entertainingly written, though dated.

A few pages further along I’m feeling there were good grounds to dread this one. But I’ll persevere.

Done. Fun!

I've started it. My edition has a preface by Harlan Ellison, where he praises the author

Halfway through. Struggling a bit with it, it reminds me of reading Dick's VALIS trilogy. However, it does strike me as amazing that Bester could not write a novel for 20 years, then turn up with a book that fits perfectly into the SF New Wave.

In reading his Wiki page, I discovered that he worked for DC Comics as a young man in the 1940's, on popular comics Green Lantern ("In brightest day, in blackest night..." was his), the Phantom & Mandrake the Magician.

I liked it much better than I thought I would

It is interesting, with an attempt to shock the reader. To some extent, the future reminds me of The Marching Morons: Cyril M. Kornbluth's View of the Future: The Little Black Bag, The Marching Morons Search the Sky. However, behind the shocking exterior, I'm not sure yet, is there anything of value?

I am only about a third of the way through. I think it is clever and well written, but I can’t say I’m enthusiastic about it, to this point. I’ll see how I feel when I finish.

As I wrote earlier, I got an AI-generated audiobook from Audible. It does a-ok job, even with mixed languages, but the details are hard to follow. Like in Ch.1, when describing their team, "A writer—D. H. Lawrence, I think—smelled the truth when he met Jacy in 1900 and turned it into a fantastic story about how Jacy might have lived a normal life if he’d only balled a bod." Even Google doesn't help with what "balling a bod" means. is it short for a body? So, I started eye-reading it

I understand the phrase now, he uses to ball in the meaning to f*ck. Is in an existing slang or book's invention?

Oleksandr wrote: "I understand the phrase now, he uses to ball in the meaning to f*ck. Is in an existing slang or book's invention?"

Existing slang I believe, though I don’t remember it being used around me in my limited experience. I think I saw it in print in places like Rolling Stone magazine when I was a kid.

Oleksandr wrote: "I understand the phrase now, he uses to ball in the meaning to f*ck. Is in an existing slang or book's invention?"

I believe that slang meaning originated in African-American culture going back at least to the 1950's. I first heard it in the Little Richard song from 1958, "Good Golly Miss Molly" (the first line is "Good golly, Miss Molly, sure like to ball") . The reference was clearly not understood by white American DJ's and censors, which I've always wondered at, because it's pretty clear in the song what they're talking about.

Allan wrote: "I first heard it in the Little Richard song from 1958, .."

I know the song and now I recall multiple mentions of this noun and verb, but I always assumed that it meant 'to go to a ball' or 'to dance'. I am aware that to dance can be an ephemism for the same... I have a CD collection of songs from the 1990s Risqué Rhythm∶ Nasty 50s R&B - this one https://www.discogs.com/release/21839... and yes, there was a lot of double-meaning in those days as you can see even from the titles

Looking at the CD, I'm betting my husband would love it. I forwarded it on to him.

Oleksandr wrote: " I have a CD collection of songs..."

lol, clearly curated for the most risque songs. But you can see that it was clearly common to push the censors to the limit. I'm sure none of those made it to common airplay, although a cover of "Big Ten Inch Record" was on Aerosmith's hugely popular 1975 album, Toys in the Attic. By that time, the censors had loosened up a bit.