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Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters
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Administrator
Posted 2011-11-21 2:13 PM (#2791)
Subject: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: Dallas, Texas

In case you missed it we added a new page to the site last week that we think you'll find interesting:

Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award

This award is for lifetime achievement to SF/F that covers an author's whole body of work rather than just a single title like our other awards.  These are the giants of the genre and I've read 17 of the 27 authors on this list so far so I'm not doing too bad.  I've got books from 4 more on my reading list already.  Looking at this list I'm amazed that after all these years reading SF/F I never got around to reading Van Voght, Andre Norton or Harry Harrison to name just a few!

How many have you read off this list?  Who's on your list to read?  This is a great place to find a new author to try.  Well, new to you perhaps - these authors have been around for many years.

By the way. we'll be adding color coding to the list shortly so you'll be able to see at a glance who you've read and who you haven't just like we do with the awards listings.  Stand by for that.

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dustydigger
Posted 2012-05-31 3:14 PM (#3276 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: UK		I have read;
Clarke
Heinlein
Asimov
Bradbury
Pohl
Van Vogt
Clement
Aldiss
Le Guin
McCaffrey
Harrison these eleven for sure

However I am sure I read lots of these others,but its nearly 50 years ago.Many of them I have read in short story anthologies,
Simak
Knight
Anderson
Ellison
Del Rey
Norton- thats another six

.But totally unread by me;
Alfred Bester
Robert Silverberg
Le Sprague de Camp
Haldeman
Gunn
Willis
Williamson
Leiber
Moorcock
Vance
Farmer


Edited by dustydigger 2012-05-31 3:30 PM
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Administrator
Posted 2012-05-31 4:31 PM (#3277 - in reply to #3276)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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dustydigger - 2012-05-31 3:14 PM ...totally unread by me; Alfred Bester...

 The Stars My DestinationThe Demolished Man

Go now and read these.  We'll wait for you.  If you can't get your hands on a copy of these I'll mail you mine. (seriously)  Some of my all-time favorites!

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Emil
Posted 2012-06-01 1:50 AM (#3278 - in reply to #3277)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: Grootfontein, Namibia		You can't go wrong with those two Bester's, @DD! They are essential reading for any SF fan. I read them quite recently and would not have done so if I didn't find WWEnd.
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-06-01 4:40 AM (#3280 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: UK		Its so annoying,Emil,I had the Alfred Bester Omnibus which I got for pennies from the library,a few years ago.It comprised Tiger Tiger (US tThe Stars My Destination),The Demolished Man,and The Dark Side of Earth.I was swamped with books to read at that time,so I lent it to someone,and I never saw the book or the person again! No Besters in the library or in the local thrift shops,and I nearly collapsed when I saw the price on Abebooks today -90 ,about $130..I have ordered Tiger Tiger from Amazon,and will get to Demolished Man later.But now I dont lend out my books,I never seem to get them back!.
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-06-01 3:55 PM (#3292 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: UK		Waiting for Tiger Tiger,but apart from that the only Grandmastesr lined up for June are Fritz Leiber's The Wanderer.and Joe Haldane's The Forever War.

Edited by dustydigger 2012-06-01 4:10 PM
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dustydigger
Posted 2012-06-05 10:00 AM (#3306 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: UK		Well,Tiger! Tiger! arrived and have have done nothing but read it at every spare minute.I have never read reviews etc of this book,so I came to it totally without preconceptions.Or maybe I did have some preconceptions,you know,the word classic can summon up the idea of worthy but rather heavy books,so I was bracing for slow thoughtful reading...Hah! At times the plot was so dizzyingly warp speed I felt like the pinball in an arcade machine,bouncing from one scene,one wonder,one hair-raising event to another.I just found it completely impossible to slow down even to reread something odd or wonderful.It was rather like being on a white water raft,just hang on and go with the flow!Obviously at least one reread,probably more is going to be needed to absorb everything, from the implications of jaunting to what is going to happen beyond the book's end.Certainly this was an unexpected rip-roaring adventure,and the speed did,I think,make me skate over weaknesses-such as Gully's sudden ''love'' for Olivia,and his just as sudden remorse and reversal of aims.Perhaps not quite credible enough.But never mind,the white water raft whisked us away before we had time to think about it.Also the ending perhaps tailed off a little. But as long as you have an intriguing world,plenty of action,and, towering over the book, the cruel,obsessive,vile yet charismatic character of Gully Foyle,much will be forgiven.Tell you what though,I would find reviewing this book very daunting.Great fun-and not a bit of slow,''worthy'' polemics anywhere!

Edited by dustydigger 2012-06-05 10:03 AM
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Administrator
Posted 2012-06-06 12:23 AM (#3316 - in reply to #3306)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



Admin

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Location: Dallas, Texas

dustydigger - 2012-06-05 10:00 AM Well,Tiger! Tiger! arrived and have have done nothing but read it at every spare minute.  ...I felt like the pinball in an arcade machine,bouncing from one scene,one wonder,one hair-raising event to another.

Wonderful!  So glad you liked that one.  I usually keep a few spare copies on hand to give out when people ask me what they should read.  I've never had anybody tell me they didn't like it though they don't all love it like I do.  I was hooked right from the opening lines of the prologue:

THIS WAS A GOLDEN AGE, a time of high adventure, rich living and hard dying... but nobody thought so. This was a future of fortune and theft, pillage and rapine, culture and vice... but nobody admitted it. This was an age of extremes, a fascinating century of freaks... but nobody loved it.

I may have to read this again, now!

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dustydigger
Posted 2012-06-06 1:58 AM (#3323 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: UK		i just read a review-yes now I am reading reviews after reading the book, now they can give useful insights for a rereading,rather than biasing me beforehand. One review said the book had dated badly.I didnt think that was so.Naturally the whole PyrE thing as a metaphor for the nuclear bomb dominates the book.After all,this was THE motif dominating our lives at the timeThat mushroom cloud in 1945 was overshadowing the whole world more and more as time went on.But the way it was represented as fire helped to cover the anxieties a little.On the whole I think Bester's world was so different that he is still ahead of us! lol.
One endearing little point which charmed me though was during the raid at the freak factory. Foyle and Jiz escaped through an old coal chute! Endearing to think that up till recently in the 25th century they were using coal for their boilers! ;0)
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Emil
Posted 2012-06-06 5:10 AM (#3329 - in reply to #3323)
Subject: Re: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: Grootfontein, Namibia		@Dusty, if you add all the little tidbits together from your various comments about the book, you have a review
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Fantasybear
Posted 2012-08-30 11:48 AM (#4068 - in reply to #2791)
Subject: RE: Damon Knight Memorial Grand Masters



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Location: near Skegness, Lincolnshire, UK.		I`ve read something by all these authors(just don`t ask me to name every last novel/short story, etc.!) Some, like Ursula le Guin, Brian Aldiss, and Arthur C. Clarke, extensively.
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