FS survey on new sci-fi titles

I just got a survey on proposed sci-fi titles. They are:

($60-100 CAD proposed prices)

- A Canticle for Leibowitz(!!!) - Walter Miller Jr.
- Neuromancer - William Gibson
- A Voyage to Arcturus - David Lindsay
- Roadside Picnic - Strugasky Brothers
- The Stars My Destination - Alfred Bester
- The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells

($150-200 CAD proposed prices)

- Dune Messiah and Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
- The Cosmic Trilogy - C. S. Lewis
- Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert A. Heinlein
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and A Scanner Darkly - Philip K. Dick

Apparently once FS has completed the survey they will 'share the results in the next few weeks'.

Some repeats from previous surveys, though if I recall they were not targeted to Science Fiction.

Gratifying though no real surprise to see the Dune volumes there, but I'm particularly happy at the prospect of William Gibson and Philip K Dick.

Hoping for more Folio Dune!

Disappointed that there is no mention of God Emperor of Dune. But I'd prefer that go to Centipede Press in any case. It'd be the perfect project for David Ho (illustrator). But doubt it would ever happen.

What I'd really like to see from Folio is the LE treatment for
sci-fi, mystery, whatever... Doesn't mean I'd buy it, but it'd be nice to demolish all these literary ghetto(s) and acknowledge that "genre" literature is just literature.

>3 JustinTChan:

Have they done an LE for something even remotely contemporary? I agree with demolishing borders, but do it with something truly great like Oryx and Crake (if we're aiming for "genre").

Genre literature is an interesting topic. A lot of everything is trash, of course, but I have often found that well-regarded genre isn't actually very well written. For good genre stuff, I tend to go after great writers willing to venture into the territory. Ishiguro or Atwood, for instance. I dipped into the supposed classic A Wizard of Earthsea recently, and found it utterly pedestrian.

I'm beyond excited for the possibility of seeing Roadside Picnic published and I hope Folio would fix continuity errors that apparently crept into the English translation (see wiki). Whenever I'm familiar with the language, I don't see a need to own translated books, but I would be beyond ecstatic to get anything by Strugatsky Brothers in a Folio Treatment. The Russian editions of their books are beyond the pale.

And of course, Philip K. Dick! I hope that most of these proposed books would see the light of day, be it sooner or later.

Yes yes yes give me Canticle and Neuromancer.

>5 Bond_Girl:

I've not yet read Roadside Picnic but it's on my wishlist precisely from reading about it here on LT.

>8 wochniat:

I read only the first Earthsea book, but found nothing in it to appeal to the adult. No character development. Very episodic and entirely plot driven.

At my wife's prodding, I read Harry Potter. The first three or four books in the series are often badly written, but the last two or so are quite nicely done, I think. She was clearly learning as she went.

Genre literature is a little bit more than a ploy. It tends to follow a formula, for instance. Of course, plenty of what gets put into genre diverges from the formula, but that can make it hard to weed through. The worst part for me is the way reviews for "genre" lit focus on things I have no interest in and often do not address at all the actual quality of the writing. Makes it very hard to find the good stuff.

Hmm, I've received a similar email which also refers to an LE under consideration!

"Helliconia, Brian Aldiss

We are also considering a three-volume set of this science-fiction epic by one of the great pioneers of the genre. It will be bound in leather and we are in discussion with Alan Lee, a leading illustrator in the fantasy genre and one of the lead concept artists on Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy with regards to the illustrations. The edition would be complemented by specially composed music by Steve Buick, available on CD or download. 100 copies of the book will be signed by the author.

Suggested price: £495"

I doubt any of these titles are for me, though I may look at one or two and see if they stir any enthusiasm at all.

>7 elenchus: Picnic has these quintessentially Russian characters and themes common to the Russian lit classics (soul-searching; the treatment of cynicism and idealism in people; etc.), and a rather different angle on the first alien contact. It was quite formative to me as a young reader. I hope it gets chosen, so more people can discover it.

The survey also had a slot at the end for other ideas; bit of a red rag, that...

(1) One or more of Olaf Stapledon's novels: Star Maker, Last and First Men, Last Men in London (how about these two in a single volume?), Odd John, and Sirius.
(2) Ditto Charles Williams' — preferable to and more interesting than the over-exposed CS Lewis (to be honest, I am not inspired by any in the second list).
(3) Ditto Theodore Sturgeon — most likely More Than Human.
(4) Ditto Clifford Simak — how about Way Station?
(5) The only reason I ranked The War of the Worlds at #6 in the first list was because I have it in the previous box set, along with The Time Machine, The Island of Dr Moreau and The Invisible Man. Better I would have thought include an HG Wells SF that FS hasn't published before (or at least recently)... there are plenty of them. The First Men in the Moon is the obvious one; When the Sleeper Awakes or The World Set Free perhaps less obvious.

A couple of other points:

• Great to see the unique A Voyage to Arcturus in the first list, but it would also make a wonderful LE, illustrated by the incomparable Peter Suart.

• Back to HG Wells — a real contribution to Wellsiana would be an LE facsimile of the first US edition of The Time Machine, which predated by a few weeks and differs from the familiar UK first edition (http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2256). If you published this together with a companion volume that included the familiar text, a commentary, and maybe even The Chronic Argonauts, it would be an irresistible package, and a real contribution to literary archaeology (cf your Toilers of the Sea with Hugo's paintings, the complete Dukes Children and the coloured Sound and the Fury).

>13 wochniat:

Add more illustrations to a Graphic novel? :)

DC Comics are doing just fine publishing high quality editions of comics, no reason for Folio to go there (as much as I like them, it defeats the purpose of Folio). Other from that - yes, please - more genre is never bad. :)

Canticle for Leibowitz = autobuy. I don't care what the price is, within that range.

As for the rest, I recently read the first of Lewis' Cosmic Trilogy and found it interesting, but not interesting enough to continue the series. The Philip Dick and Gibson would be strongly considered; not on the level of Leibowitz, but few books of any genre are. I've read a few Heinlein, but not that one; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Starship Troopers were good, but laden down with politics. Being fairly new to science fiction, I'm really not very familiar with the Lindsay, Strugarsky and Bester volumes. And since I bought the first Dune book, I'd probably buy the second - a friend who does read a lot of science fiction told me that if one reads Dune, he/she should also read Dune Messiah, but the rest of them aren't nearly as essential.

I would get the extra Dune books, the Canticle for Leibowitz, Philip K Dick and also the C S Lewis.
I put Ursula Le Guin in the free text box, and The Forever War.
re Earthsea; I think you have to read it first as a child. It may not resonate as much now but they were my first, different world, fantasy books and the imagery of good versus evil, even when nuanced, is much stronger when younger.

I'd really like a nice copy of Arthur C. Clarke's Rendezvous with Rama someday.

if I get the survey I would recommend Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

>19 brother_salvatore: I'd second that. As long as they commit to publishing all volumes though.

They sent me the survey, but no idea why - I've not exactly gone overboard in my purchase of sci-fi books, i.e. none so far (although I do want to get a copy of Dune at some stage), although I do occasionally read them.

Some on that list are attractive, others not. Unfortunately, anything other than a full reply, i.e. ranking all the books, not just some of them, not even allowing only one of the two questions to be answered, isn't allowed. So I didn't send any opinions in at all. A really poorly put together survey.

>5 Bond_Girl:
"The Russian editions of their books are beyond the pale. "

http://www.ozon.ru/?context=search&group=div_book&text=%f1%f2%f0%f3%e3%e...

In the "If there are any science-fiction titles not listed above that you would like to see in a Folio edition, please list them below" box I put
Ursula le Guin - Earthsea trilogy, The Dispossessed, The Left Hand of Darkness
Isaac Asimov - Robot stories
Ray Bradbury - Something Wicked this way comes, The golden apples of the sun
John Christopher - The Death of Grass
Theodore Sturgeon - More than Human
George Stewart - Earth Abides
Richard Cowper - The Road to Corlay
I would also like selected short stories of James Tiptree Jr and Harlan Ellison.
Many of these have already been mentioned above.

My extra titles were:-
The Mote in God's Eye - Niven
Until - Dick
Fire Upon the Deep - Vinge
and I agree with gmacree about Arthur C Clarke and Rendevous with Rama

It's also interesting how they choose who to send to - I have every SF book they had published and never got it. Oh well. :)

>22 elladan0891: I probably sound difficult, but this rather illustrates my point, doesn't it? :)

And none of these are even the Strugatsky best titles. There's this rather ornate edition of Hard to Be a God, but at $112 plus $40 shipping in a flimsy box, it'll be a no for me.

If they're going to do another CS Lewis I do wish it would be Till We Have Faces. Much better than the Space Trilogy. But it's not Science fiction if that's all they're interested in at the moment.

I'd buy a Mote in God's Eye immediately. It's one of the books that still stands out from my youth.

I must say that I'm quite ashamed to be reading these knowledgeable posts. I've only really been starting up on sci-fi the last few years, and many of these authors and titles are nothing but names to me, something I hope to rectify over the next few years.

Thank you all for your wonderful suggestions, &c - I certainly will take up many of them, and I hope FS does over the next few years as well.

How do you think we feel when you write about medieval history, scholasticus? :)

Last time we talked what titles we would like to see, I posted some SF titles off the top of my head. I'd still love to see these

Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons
A Fire Upon the Deep (and the whole Zones of Thought sequence) - Vernon Vinge (and if we go that way, there are a lot of still writing new SF writers that had produced some good work)
The Forever War - Haldeman - despite being considered dated lately, I still like it a lot.
Gateway - Frederik Pohl
Ringworld - Niven
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes (maybe a combined edition of the story and the novel - I prefer the story but... both are worth reading)
The Dispossessed - Le Guin
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - Heinlein

And I can continue... some were mentioned above already.

The Forever War has my fullest support.

In recent science fiction I would heartily endorse Alastair Reynolds' Revelation Space work.

>34 gmacaree: Reynolds is one of the names I was thinking of when I wrote the comment after Vinge's name :)

>32 gmacaree:

Very, very well-played, my good sir! :)

>31 scholasticus:

I don't know much recent science fiction either, but I'm interested to explore further. The Aldiss LE sounds wonderful, and if they've got Alan Lee on board, I guess it will fly off the shelves like Dune - even at that price.

I would definitely go for the C. S. Lewis set. It's certainly on the quirky side, but I always find Lewis's ideas stimulating and I think one needs to read the whole trilogy to make full sense of the individual parts.

Like >12 davidjbrown10:, I wish they would publish Charles Williams. His themes, a blend of the metaphysical and the Christian, are again both strange and compelling.

Doomsday book..

>18 gmacaree: I suggested at the end of my survey either Rendezvous with Rama or Childhood's End.

I ask for Ringworld.

At this rate, I think FS will have quite a few sci-fi titles to consider publishing for the next decade or two! All I ask is that Canticle be first, as that'll absolutely be an autobuy for me.

Of all these, I'm most interested in the C.S. Lewis trilogy--to my mind, an absorbing and delightful saga, learned and thoughtful, using three distinct literary approaches.

>41 scholasticus: FWIW, I listed Canticles as my first choice on the survey.

>43 podaniel:

As did I! I didn't even need to think about that one. The rest of them, though....

I'd like to see Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy.

ETA: I should delete this post to avoid the embarrassment, but instead I'll just say I'm a complete idiot! Why I didn't think to check the site before I posted, I'll never know....

ETA again: If only I liked the illustrations.....

I am all for Flowers for Algernon. Wholeheartedly. The CS Lewis trilogy sounds interesting, I am apprehensive as I didn't really enjoy the Narnia series as much as I thought I should have, but given the reviews in here, I would give it a chance.

I'd love for I, Robot to be published as well as.

Oh yes, C S Lewis trilogy, I would go for. Have Folio published Arthur C Clarke before? What about Carl Sagan, that would be nice.

>47 ironjaw:

Oh, I'd definitely pick up a FS edition of Sagan's Cosmos! Not technically science fiction, but I'd pick it up all the same.

Slightly related, article in the Guardian today mentions:

A Wizard of Earthsea
Set in the fictional archipelago of Earthsea, Ursula K Le Guin’s seminal fantasy trilogy has real literary heft. The magic in it is particularly well thought out: magicians use the Old Speech, the language of dragons, and since it is impossible to lie in that tongue, whatever you say in it becomes real. To know something or someone’s true name in the Old Speech is to have power over it – think of this every time you use a Google search. The Folio Society will be publishing their illustrated edition of this extraordinary work for Christmas 2015.

(just off to find link to the whole article)

http://www.theguardian.com/rediscover-dune

scroll down to Related Content in three parts

>49 overthemoon: Thanks for spotting this and the Guardian article. I know what I will be asking for for Christmas and as I expect (hope) that the other volumes will follow, this will be expensive.

Cool! I've never read Earthsea and am looking forward to it.

Oh finally something by Ursula Le Guin! :)

I would also buy Cosmos, instantly! As well as Contact, which IS fiction!