BBC World Service: Is Science Fiction coming to Africa?

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

You suggest you have Saunders' collected S&S but I'm struggling to find such a collection. I can find 4 novels by him (three in the Imaro series), some anthologies including his work but no collection of just his work (looking on several bookseller sites and also on fantastic fiction).

Sorry I should have made things clearer. I am specifically referring to the Imaro series the first 2 of which I purchased from Nightshade Books. These are more like a collection of linked short stories than your traditional novel, hence my reference to having Saunder's collected S&S. The latter books in the Imaro 'series' are more like novels and available as 'print on demand'.

You're correct in that there is no single volume containing ALL of his S&S stories to date, you have to ferret around in various anthologies to achieve that. A number of the uncollected stories are Imaro stories to boot!

As the Imaro 'stories' from his central S&S ouevre my recommendation to you is to purchase the 2 Nightshade books Imaro and Imaro 2 which are easily purchased via e.g. Amazon. If you're totally hooked then you can try to source the remaining Imaro books through sellers or Lulu, the crowd who print on request including the later Imaro books.

EDIT: HE He..talk about serendipity. You edited likewise whilst I was posting this..so the above should give you a better idea of which Imaros to source first.

Late here. Night and good luck!

P.S. I'm confident you will like that first Dark Matters anthology...

[Vertigo]

Thanks Gollum, OK I have seen those and also the later print on demand ones (a bit pricy those at over £12 for a 200 page paperback!) and I have also taken a quick look at the opening pages of the first Imaro and, though obviously it was only a first look, I quite liked the writing style I saw. He is very honest in calling his books pulp adventure but the writing appears a fair bit tighter than most of what I have seen described as pulp.

Oh and have a good night! I was a little surprised to see you responding on here at this hour

Mind you as far as this thread goes I'm not sure he could really be called an African as he is very much born and bred American (and Canadian). As I'm sure Conn would agree. However that might make for an easier introduction to African SFF.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

Thanks Gollum, OK I have seen those and also the later print on demand ones (a bit pricy those at over £12 for a 200 page paperback!) and I have also taken a quick look at the opening pages of the first Imaro and, though obviously it was only a first look, I quite liked the writing style I saw. He is very honest in calling his books pulp adventure but the writing appears a fair bit tighter than most of what I have seen described as pulp.

Oh and have a good night! I was a little surprised to see you responding on here at this hour

Mind you as far as this thread goes I'm not sure he could really be called an African as he is very much born and bred American (and Canadian). As I'm sure Conn would agree. However that might make for an easier introduction to African SFF.

Np. Describing Saunders' prose as tightly crafted is I think a good call. As noted it is some while ago when I read these stories, so I'll definitely need to reread them before posting more analytical feedback on his style.

Saunders makes no secret of his emulation of the pulp writers but like REH he is clearly a cut above the average. He has written other Genre pieces including detective fiction but S&S, specifically Imaro, is his strong suit. Thus Imaro and Imaro 2 are the best way to experience Saunders' particular approach to S&S pulp fiction.

As far as what classifies 'African' as per my previous commentary with Conn on this thread, I seem to recall we are in fact including African writers living and working in Africa, of African descent e.g African American and expats living abroad in the US, UK etc, which I assume is as much for economic reasons as anything else as has already been alluded to.

Regarding staying up late, take it from me, sleep is waaay overrated, especially if it means being deprived of extra reading time....

Cheers.

[Vertigo]

Thanks for that Gollum. As I am in the process of reading REH's Conan stories it would seem appropriate to try something new (for me) in the heroic s&s vein. I shall maybe get those books, that is if I can find them at reasonable prices some of the second hand prices are not exactly cheap.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Vertigo

Thanks for that Gollum. As I am in the process of reading REH's Conan stories it would seem appropriate to try something new (for me) in the heroic s&s vein. I shall maybe get those books, that is if I can find them at reasonable prices some of the second hand prices are not exactly cheap.

Np. You can get the first Imaro published by Nightshade from Amazon for $15 Aus..which is reasonable...I would advise acting on that ASAP (esp. for UK site).

http://www.amazon.com/Imaro-Charles-...0324028&sr=1-3

OR UK

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Imaro-Charle...0324171&sr=8-1

The second is a bit more problematic...

http://www.amazon.com/Imaro-The-Ques...keywords=imaro

The UK prices are more expensive again.

As you are getting Dark Matters, getting the first IMARO as well, will I think give you a decent cross-section of African American SFF writers....biding yor time as it were until you can source an inexpensive copy of Imaro 2. Just a suggestion....

Cheers.

[Connavar]

Saunders being north American is not an issue because all his stories are based on historical African peoples and langues, myths. Imaro book used Somali words for shirt ! Dossouye his female warrior is based on tribe in Benin in 1700s that had female warriors army.

I read him for he gives African history in fantasy setting and he is a seminal figure in sword and sorcery. He loved REH but he wanted that great subgrenre written from his minority black perspective. I want to read from that POV too. I have grown in western country from minority position like him, I didn't grow up in old homeland were everyone is black like you

I wrote him my admiration for his greatness in the field and for he gave stories I could relate to me more. He was glad to hear that from me. I have only written to jack Vance nr.1 author only before.


Also no matter African fantasy or not he is the best in the field today for Howard style. And took elsewhere.

[Vertigo]

Cheers for that Gollum. Those were basically the links I had already tracked down. However I can pick up the first two for around £5 each secondhand from Amazon or Abe Books and I think I'll probably go down that route. Hate having to watch the pennies like that but c'est la vie.

Conn - I think that's why I am so interested. I have read some thrillers and such like set in Africa (names like Wilbur Smith and EV Thompson come to mind) but nothing at all from the black perspective and that is what has caught my interest with all this.

[Ökuþórr]

Is this the anthology being spoken of?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Griots-Sword...A3TVV12T0I6NSM

[GOLLUM]

Good to hear Vertigo. Conn is spot on. Saunders is very much seen as one of the keys in the sub Genre of S&S along with the likes of REH and Fritz Leiber to name but two. Others would inlcude C L Moore, Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner (I have the 2 collector volumes of Kane published by Nightshade, very hard to get now), some fiction by Clark Ashton Smith, Burroughs etc. and Gemmel is an obvious contemporary nomination although I'm not as big a fan of his work as most of his predecessors. If once could stretch things, Steven Erikson and his EPIC Malazan series then he would shoot to almost No. 1 position for me. Not that I would ever wish to extend your TBR pile too much further...

Signing off to watch some 'footy' (Aussie rules football).

Night.

[GOLLUM]

Originally Posted by Ökuþórr

Is this the anthology being spoken of?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Griots-Sword...A3TVV12T0I6NSM

Don't think so. The one I/we have mainly been chatting about is Dark Waters (featuring African American SFF writes) but this looks quite good too...

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by Ökuþórr

Is this the anthology being spoken of?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Griots-Sword...A3TVV12T0I6NSM

As Gollum says. I also noticed the Griots book when I was digging around. I'm not sure if Saunders has any work in that book either. He is one of the editors so may or may not have has own work in there. But as I say I have noticed that collection too but I'll see how I get on with the Dark Matter anthologies first, seeing as I have them on order.

Gollum I do have some of those authors on my TBR pile but to be honest I am very tentative; I have had so many disappointing reads on new fantasy authors in the last few years. One of my reasons for looking for something different like this is precisely because I seem to struggle to find fantasy authors that are really doing anything different.

[GOLLUM]

Sneaks back in for moment...

Weell..if you are after contemporary authors doing 'different/experimental' SFF work then you should be reading Neil Gaiman, Michael Swanwick, Kelly Link, Jeff Vandermeer. M John Harrison, Angela Carter (posthumous), Christopher Priest, Adam Roberts, Gene Wolfe etc..

Will post again over the weekend.

Ciao.

[Nerds_feather]

never heard of saunders until now (*embarrassed to say*) but that just gives me another set of interesting books to read (*WIN for me*).

[Vertigo]

Originally Posted by GOLLUM

Sneaks back in for moment...

Weell..if you are after contemporary authors doing 'different/experimental' SFF work then you should be reading Neil Gaiman, Michael Swanwick, Kelly Link, Jeff Vandermeer. M John Harrison, Angela Carter (posthumous), Christopher Priest, Adam Roberts, Gene Wolfe etc..

Will post again over the weekend.

Ciao.

Some of those I have tried already. Neil Gaiman and Gene Wolfe will probably get a second shot; I was rather disappointed with the Fifth Head of Cerberus. I'm not saying it was a bad book, it just didn't suit me very well (had a similar problem with Samuel Delany). The others are all on my TBR already. Argh! Adam Roberts is one that I keep seeming to pass over and I have absolutely no idea why.

This is my current list of authors (in no particular order) that I've not tried yet but have been recommended:

Gail Martin
Robert Reed
Adam Roberts
Jeff Vandermeer
Nancy Kress
Laura E. Reeve
Neil Gaiman
Tim Powers
Glen Cook
William Gibson
Paul Kearney
Ted Chiang
Kelly Link
Angela Carter
Michael Swanwick
Vernor Vinge
Christopher Priest
Steph Swainston
M John Harrison
Maria Doria Russell
Algis Budrys
Vladimir Sorokin
Guy Gavriel Kay
Hannu Rajaniemi

Both embarrassing and scary isn't it? Still I don't think I'm going to run out of books to read anytime soon.

[Nerds_feather]

i think the wizard/knight duology is a good intro to gene wolfe. a lot of fun.