"Out in2 the Real World" (Part 4)

...So, while I may have slowly drifted away from the science fiction magazines, I didn't stop reading SF, I just turned more toward novels & short-story collections.
I read Robert Silverberg's brilliant THE BOOK OF SKULLS right after surviving Air Force basic training. While spending my 1st 3 yrs in the AF in San Antonio, Texas, I found 1 particular bookstore that had LOTS of old SF anthologies, & at 1 time I hadda pretty complete collection of old "issues" of ORBIT, NEW DIMENSIONS, UNIVERSE & some others.
ORBIT was pretty spacey, fairly Xperimental & obscure, not always understandable 2 yr avg high-school-educated fairly-intelligent frustrated-wanna-B-writer like me -- but ORBIT also printed occasional outstanding stories like R.A. Lafferty's "Continued on Next Rock," Kate Wilhelm's "Baby You Were Great," & Richard Wilson's "Mother to the World," along w/ pretty-good near-misses like Norman Spinrad's "The Big Flash." But folks who thot there was 2 much arty messin around in the avg ORBIT story hadda point.
NEW DIMENSIONS opened its 1st issue w/ Gardner Dozois's brilliant "A Special Kind of Morning," but I never read another story as good in NE other ish. Editor Bob Silverberg got all the stars -- Ursula K. LeGuin's "Vaster Than Empires and More Slow" (if U've seen AVATAR U should read this story 4 comparison) & "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," sevral above-avg stories by James Tiptree Jr., + Felix C. Gottschalk's best story "The Examination," Michael Swanwick's 1st story "The Feast of St. Janis," Barry N. Malzberg's "On the Air," Daniel P. Dern's "Yes Sir, That's My," & more. But there was never NEthing else w/ quite the awesome effect of that Dozois novella that set the series off.
Terry Carr's UNIVERSE was another Xample of his editing skill -- he started off editing Ace's "Specials" SF novel line in the late '60s. Carr found lotsa good stuff, including Lucius Shepherd's "Journey South from Thousand Willows," Harlan Ellison's "The Wine Has Been Left Open Too Long and the Memory Has Gone Flat," Howard Waldrop's silly "The Ugly Chickens," & lots more. I thot Carr was a lot more "playful" an editor than Silverberg or ORBIT's Damon Knight, but he could also make some really dark choices -- C if U can track down Carter Scholz's "In Reticulum."
Lou Aronica's later FULL SPECTRUM anthologies had greats like Norman Spinrad's "Journals of the Plague Years," Michael Blumlein's "The Thing Itself," Michael Swanwick's "The Edge of the World," & Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Part of Us That Loves," among other good stuff. But FS never had Carr & Silverberg's style of chatty author intros, & I missed that approach.
When not trying 2 collect anthologies, I was still grabbing novels that looked or sounded good -- Roger Zelazny's CREATURES OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS (1 of my faves Dspite a rough start & finish); James Tiptree Jr.'s BRIGHTNESS FALLS FROM THE AIR (really 2 Cute, but pretty moving); William Gibson's NEUROMANCER; John Brunner's THE SHEEP LOOK UP, an Nd-of-the-world/pollution novel which I read in clean, healthy San Antonio -- I shoulda read it in Ankara, Turkey, where I spent 2 yrs ('90-'91) & each smoggy winter I thot I was seeing a preview of the Real Nd of the world....
I read Silverberg's Xcellent THE MAN IN THE MAZE in 1991 while waiting 4 my daughter 2 B born in Adana, Turkey. In fact, I read more in Turkey than perhaps the whole rest of my life, cos there wasn't much else 2 do w/ my off-time, there was no American TV, & we were advised not 2 travel cos of the 1st Gulf War.
EVERYBODY on base hit the Stars and Stripes Bookstore 2 grab a newspaper or C what kinda new novels had made it over 2 us. & the bookstore was REALLY well-stocked 4 Bing 10,000 miles away from Home. We might not always have had electricity or running water or fresh milk, but we always had something good 2 read....
I drifted a bit from the SF while I was there, tho the bookstore hadda well-stocked SF section. After discovering her in the SF magazines, I grabbed a copy of Kathe Koja's stunning 1st horror novel THE CIPHER & knew I'd B a fan 4 life -- & a few yrs later she came out w/ an even better novel called SKIN, 4 me 1 of the best novels ever.
4 awhile I Bcame a big horror fan -- I'd had my moments B4, reading 6 Stephen King novels in a row while in San Ant, then tackling his epic THE STAND while in Turkey, & later the stunning IT while living in Wyoming. But I hadta give up on Uncle Steve after THE DARK HALF & NEEDFUL THINGS, Bcos somehow I just couldn't get in2 him NEmore. But there were other folks out there....
Read Thomas Harris's THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS while in Turkey (just days B4 the Jeffrey Dahmer case broke), then followed it up w/ Harris's RED DRAGON. Harris, Koja & Jack Ketchum (more about him later) pretty-much ruined my attn-span. 4 yrs my fave trick was 2 give up on a novel if it couldn't grab me in the 1st 50 2 100 pgs. RED DRAGON grabs U by the throat on Pg 1. Koja & Ketchum don't waste NE time either.
Peter Straub grabbed me w/ KOKO, THE THROAT & IF YOU COULD SEE ME NOW -- a book that Cms 2 get better, more Dtailed, more vivid every time I re-read it. It also Cms 2 ... change somehow....
Tripped over Gael Baudino's glorious GOSSAMER AXE while in Turkey -- it's a marvelous rock&roll fantasy. I've bn a sucker 4 rock novels ever since. Later there was Lewis Shiner's wondrous GLIMPSES, Nick Hornby's JULIET NAKED & Bruce Sterling's ZEITGEIST....
4 awhile I couldn't get thru an SF novel. Both Neal Stephenson's SNOW CRASH & Ian McDonald's DESOLATION ROAD required long breaks B4 I could get thru them -- & both were worth the trip. SNOW CRASH had everything I ever wanted from an SF novel Xcept 4 a good Nding....
I got thru Gene Wolfe's THE SHADOW OF THE TORTURER on 2nd reading but I couldn't get in2 THE CLAW OF THE CONCILIATOR, & I've given up ever reading the rest of Wolfe's BOOK OF THE NEW SUN series -- I'm afraid I might B about 20 yrs 2 old 2 B able 2 focus 4 that long. After reading J.R.R. Tolkien & Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant series (not 2 mention much of King's work), I'm not really looking 4 NE more Ndless novels 2 eat up 3 mo's of my life. So I'm awaiting (much) more NRG B4 I try 2 get thru Kim Stanley Robinson's MARS TRILOGY....
...I like low-rent action-adventure/thriller Ntertainment as well, I've just never found that much. Edward Lee's COVEN (also read in Turkey) was good cheap, tacky over-the-top Ntertainment. Lotsa Jack Ketchum's work has Xcellent impact & drive, & U won't B kept up late pondering the Deep Inner Meaning of it -- I've Njoyed him since finding his chiller OFF SEASON 4 25 cents atta yard sale. U should also try Ketchum's HIDE AND SEEK, SHE WAKES, THE GIRL NEXT DOOR, JOYRIDE, THE LOST....
James Ellroy can also B very brutal & direct -- I've read his L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, THE BLACK DAHLIA & THE BIG NOWHERE multiple times & can guarantee they'll please detective/cop-thriller fans as well as horror fans....
I sometimes hava lotta fun w/ novels that Rn't Xactly masterpieces, 2. Edmund Cooper's SEED OF LIGHT (1 of the 1st SF novels I read way back in early 1974) is an Xcellent outline 4 an epic space novel some1 could write someday -- it's kinda sketchy, but there's just enuf in it 2 make it Njoyable. Mary Staton's FROM THE LEGEND OF BIEL never quite lives up 2 its cover or set-up, but if U like alien culture stories, it's pretty neat.
There's LOTS more -- it's a good thing I'm not doing a List. But I've 4gotten mosta the bad 1's....
...So I'm still reading this stuff. (Just finished Ian McDonald's Xcellent CHAGA last wk.) & still looking 4 more great stuff I mighta overlooked in my travels. NEthing great U'd like 2 recommend....?