Brian Aldiss, 1925-2017

John-Henri Holmberg reports on an email list I'm a member of that Brian Aldiss passed away late last Friday, on his 92nd birthday. He was an interesting man and author. May he rest in peace.

Sorry to see him go.

:( We 'met' him at his talk at the LonCon in 2014. It was just so inspiring to hear him talk about his life and whatever struck his fancy.

I've still read nothing by him, although I can see my copy of Hothouse waiting to be read from where I'm sitting. Guess I should put some priority on that now, in his honour.

I had just decided to do some reading of some of his books,especially Hothouse,Non-stop,and the Helliconia saga. I recently read his poignant short story Supertoys Last All Summer Long.As editor,his anthology Science Fiction Omnibus is a personal favourite,the copy is incredibly tatty! I wasnt so keen on Billion Year Spree as I felt he was trying too hard to make SF be of serious literary quality. Dont think he had much time for the lighter fluff/popcorn side of things! I never really warmed to his works,perhaps he was a bit too literary,erudite and heavyweight for me as a teen? :0)
Like Cecrow,the books will move up the list,but into next year. I'm afraid I can barely get through my present TBRs.Foolishly dipped a toe back into researching family history after a ''twig'' on a branch that went off to the USA in 1908 got in touch. Once again I am lured into hours sifting through records of my ancestors,to the neglect of my reading! lol.

>5 dustydigger: avaland is on ancestry.com a lot.

>6 dukedom_enough: hmmm....tell the truth,dukedom enough,your wife really has a couple of clones? Or she doesnt sleep,or else how does she fit everything in? :0)
Actually even when we do sleep,family historians dream about researching. Almost every morning this week I have awoken from a dream where I am struggling to read a really exciting resource which solves all my problems/puzzles. But the print is super tiny and blurred,and I forget all my wonderful revelations as I awake.So annoying.
Its years since I did family history. Back then one had to actually go off and peer at blurred microfilm in distant libraries. Now an amazing amount of info is found on line,so much easier. But it doesnt have the triumph and excitement of tracking down info.I'll never forget the pleasure of locating my oldest ancestor,Richard,who with his wife Joan trotted off to their local church in 1561 for the christening of their daughter Elizabeth. That church is still there! Today I checked up and the info is online,but it was so moving to see the ancient writing. Very addictive,family history.

Very good writer with admirable ambition, Aldiss. Glad to see he enjoyed a goodly lifetime run.

I just started Hothouse in his honour. I am ashamed to say that while I do have a lot of his works, I have only read 3 of them, and 2 aren't even that SF (Frankenstein Unbound and Dracula Unbound)... Time to correct that.

Brian Aldiss's writing was always distinctive. His literate style evoked human emotions in a genre usually dominated by ideas and big machines. I didn't enjoy everything he wrote, but when he was good he was very good. It's sad to lose another major author.

The Helliconia books were part of SF shelf at the local library I fell to devouring a fair chunk of as I was discovering the genre.

Not everything I read then stayed with me (the selection went from the frankly pulpy to classics that have not all aged equally well) but they certainly did :)

Have read a number of his books over the years - 'Equator' remains a favourite novella, and Somewhere East of Life is one of my favourite sf novels. I never met him, that I can remember, although I saw him a numner of times at conventions - the last, time, IIRC, was Fantasycon in Brighton in 2011. I didn't go to his interview, but I was in the Gwyneth Jones interview immediately afterwards in the same room - which had been packed out for Aldiss, but wasn't for her.

A loss for science fiction, even if he did leave such a respectable legacy.

It's been a long time since I read any of his work. I've been on a reread kick of late. Time to rummage the shelves.

I met Aldiss a number of times over the years and although he only ever vaguely recognised me as someone he'd spoken to on odd occasions at conventions, he was always friendly and witty. The last time I spoke to him was when he visited the Birmingham SF Group a couple of years back, when he unashamedly hit on my other half.

I may have said before that his Report on probability A was the book that actually turned me on to sf in a big way, not because I understood it at the age of 14 or so, but because it was weird and experimental and exciting and I wanted to read more of this sort of thing. Oddly enough, I was in Manchester at the beginning of the week and spent an hour or so in the municipal art gallery there, only to find the Holman Hunt painting 'The Amorous Shepherd' which plays something of a role in 'Report...' and whose appearance on the cover was what made my Dad bring it home from the library in the mistaken belief it was one of my Mum's favourite Mills & Boon romances.

I'm pleased that I made the effort to contact Brian (through his website) about eighteen months ago to pass this story on. His son replied on his behalf to thank me (and to apologise for Brian hitting on my partner!).

A collection of reminiscences of Brian collected and put online by Dave Langford:

http://news.ansible.uk/a362supp.html