Science fiction great Brian Aldiss, 92, dies at his Oxford home

His name is one of those I remember when I think of all the SF greats I read when I was young. However, when I initially read of his death, thinking I should reread whichever ones stood out most in my memory I looked at his bibliography - and didn't recognise a single title!

I suspect I may not have read any of his books, after all, but more likely read some (many) of his short stories in anthologies. I don't recognise any of those titles, either, but there are more of them (and I read many anthologies, so I'm less likely to remember specific titles).

On the subject of Supertoys Last All Summer Long:

Aldiss said that he wasn't keen on the happyish ending that Spielberg tacked onto the film, but that was just his personal view. He said that the story of the unloved robot child David was inspired by his own difficult relationship with his severely depressed mother growing up.

I've only seen the film once, and (unaware of this view) I said much the same thing at the time - there's a point where I felt the film should have ended (in the sub - that should be enough of a reminder to those who have seen it, without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't). Everything after that ruined it.

If I ever watch it again, that's the point I will stop - especially now knowing Aldiss had a similar view.

Greg Egan

Not a writer for wild adventures or shoot-'em-ups, but very much a programmer's SF author. Strongly recommended. For instance, he was writing about the cloud 30 years ago.

And he doesn't just do recherche high-tech stuff - try "Zendegi".

Adam Roberts

I'll nominate Adam Roberts as a British author in the vein of authors like Aldiss. Jack Glass is a fantastic novel.

Whip Donovan Adventures

After I saw an article about this in the torygraph a few years ago, and put some money in, I kept hoping that it would made it's funding target

https://unbound.com/books/whip-donovan

Perhaps it will now, though not in the way that I'd hoped.

The author of "STAN"

I admit to have read few of his novels, but his collections of short stories published by NEL (New English Library) definitely started me on my love for Science Fiction. He was the master of the weird and scary and his stories often took a 90 degree turn to the left. I was particularly impressed with the way he populated his future worlds with invented jargon, something I do myself in my own writing. Who but Aldiss could write a novel about aliens who fly wooden spaceships and like to wallow in their own faeces? ("The Dark Light Years")

He was the third author I ever met. Sadly missed.

As an aside - he died on his 92nd birthday. Does that make him 91 or 92 when he died? Because it's possible only 91 years, 364 days and a few hours had passed since his birth...

There are good current authors!

Brian Aldiss was a great, no question. But there are many good and very interesting current Science Fiction writers, although it seems that one has to look much harder to find interesting stuff than in my youth when I began reading SF with E. E. Doc Smith.

Part of the challenge is that the "Future isn't what it was cracked up to be" which is to say that convincing extrapolation has been slow to emerge from our current starting point. Gibson was great for the 80's but seems somewhat distant from today's reality, much in the way that the great space opera's of the 50's now seem more like fantasy than SF. Gibson really influenced several generations of writers, game producers, and movie makers with his dystopic vision for the world, but a lot of the assumptions don't ring as true for me as they used to. For some stimulating present day extrapolations try David Brin, Greg Bear, Neal Stephenson, Cory Doctorow, or China Miéville.

New authors

For interesting current authors I'd add Dan Abnett - much of his work is set in 40K universe but it's all about people. If the setting puts you off try Embedded.

SF History

And of course Aldiss wrote some very good non fiction works on the history of SF, he was keen on studying the genre he (mainly) wrote.

A table of the greats

Didn't El Reg publish or build a list a while back of the best SF books that had never been made into films?

That might be a good place to start.

There is also the SF Masterworks editions that appear in book shops and libraries (if anyone remembers them).

Damn,

A great writer and a decent man, he said to me his favourite work was the Helliconia trilogy; I shall re-read it as a mark of remembrance.