I bought a copy of Hello Summer, Goodbye on your recommendation and read it in one day yesterday. Beautiful. Everything you say about it is true: summer holidays in Devon and Cornwall in the 1970s, the authentic portrayal of an adolescent mind awakening to adulthood. Thank you!
I think I've read "Syzygy" and "Friends". I think my copy of "Friends" was a book club selection. That was partly how I learnt about new authors. Great video.
I really enjoy these author overviews and I hope you continue to make them. I just grabbed a couple of Coney books and I may talk about them in an upcoming video. Hope you're feeling better.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Wow thank you so much! I try to note in the videos and descriptions that I am still early in my science fiction reading journey - hopefully I don't say anything that makes you flip your table!
I’m currently reading Pallahaxi Tide since I’m heading to Vancouver Island for a vacation. This was a very helpful overview so I’m going to keep my eye out for Coney titles I’m missing 🎉
I have Charisma, Brontomek! and Hello Summer, Goodbye in the wonderful Pan Lozenge. After watching this Steve I am now going to finally read them. Thanks for the insights.
I was in a psychedelic rock band late 90s one of the first songs I wrote was friends come in boxes. A title so good I couldn’t resist stealing it ,never told the guys in the band it was from a book I’d read . I also used silverbergs born with the dead and at winters end . What a magpie 😆
Must add, I'd love to see a video on Cowper. One of my favourite 70s authors. My order of the Cs would be Cowper, Cooper, Compton and Coney. I'd put Coney last as I haven't read much of him, so I can't really judge him.
It is going to happen- I need to revisit some first, though, as it's many years since I had my 'Cowper Jag'- about 30-35 years in most cases. Watch this space.
The Charisma Pan Lozenge cover is beautiful! (or bootifal as my Welsh dad would have said). Only read a couple of Coney's books and that was 40 years ago! Perhaps I'll come across one soon. Thanks
A timely reminder of Coney, Stephen, I had him on my winter TBR (2023/24) but could not get to him. Would you suggest a good starter for his archive? As always, thanks for your dedication to this realm, it's importance cannot be underestimated. Cheers!
Thanks for another v enjoyable video. I discovered Coney via F&SF and Galaxy in the early 70s, bought the books as they came out in mmpb via DAW/Pan and then Orbit. I came across his web site in the early 00s, where he had 2 unpublished novels, 'Flowers of Goronwy' and 'Foul Play at Duffy's Marina', plus a few short stories, available for download as PDF files. Versions of the web site are archived at The Wayback Machine, the 20060822 version has the PDFs. I thought myself v lucky when I found the 2 comic non-SF novels, 'A Tomcat Called Sabrina' and 'No Place For A Sealion' at reasonable prices in the 00s via Bookfinder. The 4 main Song of Earth books are the only ones that I haven't read, I couldn't get into the first one, DNFd it; they, and Cat Karina, are v different from his other work, I really ought to give them another go. I look forward hopefully to watching your video about Richard Cowper, I love his work. Edmund Cooper's work is a mixed bag, he covered many of the classic SF themes, but wasn't as good a writer as the other 3 C's you mention, his work is something of a guilty pleasure for me.
Only read friend’s come boxes long ago but remember enjoying it. This is a great overview of his work some of these books have been on my radar for ages but this video is a perfect guide to coneys work many thanks as always .
The Celestial Steam Locomotive I think takes the prize for the book that's sat on my shelves unread for the longest in my collection - it must be about 30 years since I picked it up. I think I started once but it didn't grab me at the time - this might just prompt me to finally get around to it.
thanks so much, steve. i've been waiting for this one and it did not disappoint. so many title that i'm suddenly interested in. will keep an eye out for them when i go hunting. wish me luck btw: i'm two thirds of the way through the road to corlay and i am loving it! i'm definitely interested in reading more richard cowper. you often say that when there's a series it may only be worth it to read the first book. would you say that's the case with the white bird of kinship? looking forward to your next video and hoping that you are feeling better 🤞 cheers
Thank you for the overview. I'll look out for his books in Melbourne and Geelong. I do enjoy romantical story lines, which are rather lacking in hard SF.
Apropos the dumbing down of titles for American audiences, I recall the story of a Disney animated film that was set to be released under the title , "Basil of Baker Street," until Disney CEO Michael Eisner stepped in insisting that "Basil" was too hoity-toity for Americans and had it renamed, "The Great Mouse Detective."
Yes, there are numerous examples of this across popular culture in many different media, genre films particuarly in the SFFH axis have been subject to this. These days of course, the VT is uncommon in film since so many features are sequels or have monolithic single word titles. One day I'll do a VT themed video- some of the film ones are funny and I like referring to them in print and conversation thus - "The other day I found myself watching 'The Wild World of Batwoman' aka 'She Was A Hippy Vampire' and it was a work of genius,'. This example of course, is a happy one, where both titles allow amusement and mythic resonance. Such as Folk Horror classic 'Blood on Satan's Claw' aka 'Satan's Skin'. But in SF writing it was almost always "Let's make it obvious this is Sci-Fi," instead of "Let's confound audiences in different countries by giving this ripoff Horror flick a different title with each release...". I definitely miss the latter!
I can't tell you how much I value these deep dives into authors I just didn't get enough exposure to in their time. It's great to gain from your experience while you Stan/Stump for them. (**sigh** I *used to* speak English.) Coney had no "popular" presence over here; the well informed and well read may have had respectful whisperings but his name brought shrugs from the rank and file. Perhaps his greatest champion (where I most remember his covers and titles from) was the SFBC. They pushed "The Celestial Steam Locomotive" hard. In fact, *SO* hard you knew it HAD to be bad. Also with their poor reproduction of the art it was off-putting. A young person looking for adventure, escape & spaceships offered a steam locomotive flying through space is NOT excited. Month after month they promoted it again & again. It made me flinch and avoid it. NOW I you tell me it's part one of the Gods of the Great Away! You made it sound more enticing than they did. And into this atmosphere of a market full of Arthur rewrites and overflowing in cheap fantasy came that Arthurian diptych one of which had a very melodramatic cover, in a SEA of Arthurian pastiche. To make it worse the "Fang the Gnome" cover felt really Pratchett-y or Xanth-y. Both VERY popular at the time and the same people were pushing these. So I judged a book by it's cover. AGAIN. (Or by the company it kept.) That's why I missed out on Hardwired too. In fact these titles/covers were never connected in my mind - just conditioned responses. Thank you for clearing this up and for making me want to spend money on MORE books I don't need at the moment. I've been watching the "skies" for a Hello Summer Goodbye since LAST Summer's video, and 2 or three others just waiting on lists to dip below certain prices of find them in stores. . . Fell Better.
I am a big fan of Edmund Cooper. He is not the very best of writers, but there are some gems among his books, and most of them are well worth reading. So I’m looking forward to your video on him. The Road to Corley by Richard Cowper is a classic of British SF and one of my favorite stories ever. But then I found Profundis to be silly and a disappointment. So, mixed in my experience.
I've only ever read three volumes of Coney's "Song of the Earth" series, & Cat Karina - going by the mythic, far-future feel of those books, Coney is a bit like Cordwainer Smith, Roger Zelazney, & I'll add S.P. Somtow's SF books to that mix as well. I recently obtained Hello Summer Goodbye, & Brontomek - both of which I haven't read, but going by their blurbs - seem to be somewhat different - & less mythical maybe (?) - we'll see.
Another enjoyable watch, arigato my friend. Never read Coney but definitely added to my list (which God knows needs some serious curating.) Glad you mentioned Graham as I couldn't remember his name and enjoy his dry take on the genre....but it's very British is it not? 😊 Pray tell please educate me, what is a "chat book"? Guessing it as old style blog plus comments? Cheers
It's not 'chat book', it's 'chapbook'. A Chapbook is a very old term, centuries in fact, that refers to a small, slim volume, usually containing only one story or a single non-fiction piece. In SF circles, they are usually limited editions, often distributed as an extra with a limited edition. Watch my video on the Kerosina small press and you'll see some chapbooks from the 1980s.
Seventies SF is probably my least well read era. I grew up (and still live) in a very rural part of Texas and never encountered most of it the pre-internet age. I would be lucky to find an ocasional classic reprint. I do have a Coney story in an ebook anthology of Canadian SF called Northern Stars. I'll try to read that soon.
Hi Stephen. Thanks for shining a light on heretofore unknown author to me. I picked up some fine and affordable editions of Mirror Image, Winter’s Children (the gorgeous Sphere edition), Monitor Found in Orbit, Jaws, and Rax(ugly Daw cover). Looking forward to diving into his oeuvre. I had some distractions while watching (will give it a rewatch later as I do many of your videos) but I’m wondering if you’ve read Brontomek! or if that’s one of the Coney’s you’ve yet to read.
I regrettably have not read any of the books by this other author, but now that I know about him, I can make up for it. Thanks to this excellent video.
I bought a copy of Hello Summer, Goodbye on your recommendation and read it in one day yesterday. Beautiful. Everything you say about it is true: summer holidays in Devon and Cornwall in the 1970s, the authentic portrayal of an adolescent mind awakening to adulthood. Thank you!
Thanks for this, Steve. I haven't read any Coney, but this has stirred my interest.
I think I've read "Syzygy" and "Friends". I think my copy of "Friends" was a book club selection. That was partly how I learnt about new authors. Great video.
I DO NOT have enough Coney books. I shopped a little more heavily on a few of your other recommendations. I must sit with this.
Health to you.
They will notice if you tell them LOL. Thanks for your loyalty, mate!
@@salty-walt You know, I do wonder from time to time what goes on here...not my doing, old chum!
I really enjoy these author overviews and I hope you continue to make them. I just grabbed a couple of Coney books and I may talk about them in an upcoming video. Hope you're feeling better.
Just subscribed to your channel. You will find Bob Shaw, Chris Beckett, D G Compton and other overviews here with many more to come.
@@outlawbookselleroriginal Wow thank you so much! I try to note in the videos and descriptions that I am still early in my science fiction reading journey - hopefully I don't say anything that makes you flip your table!
I’m currently reading Pallahaxi Tide since I’m heading to Vancouver Island for a vacation. This was a very helpful overview so I’m going to keep my eye out for Coney titles I’m missing 🎉
I have Charisma, Brontomek! and Hello Summer, Goodbye in the wonderful Pan Lozenge. After watching this Steve I am now going to finally read them. Thanks for the insights.
Thanks for this. "Hello Summer, Goodbye" is next in my TBR and I have a few other Coneys on my shelf that I need to read.
I may never had read anything by this author! Awesome, great video.
I want that cover. Sure, I'm shallow.
I bought Mirror Image DAW Coney just for the cover. Thanks for the Author coverage
I was in a psychedelic rock band late 90s one of the first songs I wrote was friends come in boxes. A title so good I couldn’t resist stealing it ,never told the guys in the band it was from a book I’d read . I also used silverbergs born with the dead and at winters end . What a magpie 😆
Must add, I'd love to see a video on Cowper. One of my favourite 70s authors. My order of the Cs would be Cowper, Cooper, Compton and Coney. I'd put Coney last as I haven't read much of him, so I can't really judge him.
It is going to happen- I need to revisit some first, though, as it's many years since I had my 'Cowper Jag'- about 30-35 years in most cases. Watch this space.
The Charisma Pan Lozenge cover is beautiful! (or bootifal as my Welsh dad would have said). Only read a couple of Coney's books and that was 40 years ago! Perhaps I'll come across one soon. Thanks
A timely reminder of Coney, Stephen, I had him on my winter TBR (2023/24) but could not get to him. Would you suggest a good starter for his archive? As always, thanks for your dedication to this realm, it's importance cannot be underestimated. Cheers!
'Hello Summer, Goodbye'
I could (and will) watch this over and over again - Coney is one of my favourites and your commentary is so apt and knowledgeable - thanks Steve!
Cheers Bob, hope you are well mate.
Thanks for another v enjoyable video. I discovered Coney via F&SF and Galaxy in the early 70s, bought the books as they came out in mmpb via DAW/Pan and then Orbit.
I came across his web site in the early 00s, where he had 2 unpublished novels, 'Flowers of Goronwy' and 'Foul Play at Duffy's Marina', plus a few short stories, available for download as PDF files. Versions of the web site are archived at The Wayback Machine, the 20060822 version has the PDFs.
I thought myself v lucky when I found the 2 comic non-SF novels, 'A Tomcat Called Sabrina' and 'No Place For A Sealion' at reasonable prices in the 00s via Bookfinder.
The 4 main Song of Earth books are the only ones that I haven't read, I couldn't get into the first one, DNFd it; they, and Cat Karina, are v different from his other work, I really ought to give them another go.
I look forward hopefully to watching your video about Richard Cowper, I love his work. Edmund Cooper's work is a mixed bag, he covered many of the classic SF themes, but wasn't as good a writer as the other 3 C's you mention, his work is something of a guilty pleasure for me.
I tried to post a link to the Wayback Machine page copy of Coney's 2006 web site, but my post vanished. The SF Encyclopedia's Coney entry has a link.
Only read friend’s come boxes long ago but remember enjoying it. This is a great overview of his work some of these books have been on my radar for ages but this video is a perfect guide to coneys work many thanks as always .
This is a classic OB video. Love these.
The Celestial Steam Locomotive I think takes the prize for the book that's sat on my shelves unread for the longest in my collection - it must be about 30 years since I picked it up. I think I started once but it didn't grab me at the time - this might just prompt me to finally get around to it.
I hope you're getting well. You have your orders.
thanks so much, steve. i've been waiting for this one and it did not disappoint. so many title that i'm suddenly interested in. will keep an eye out for them when i go hunting. wish me luck
btw: i'm two thirds of the way through the road to corlay and i am loving it! i'm definitely interested in reading more richard cowper. you often say that when there's a series it may only be worth it to read the first book. would you say that's the case with the white bird of kinship?
looking forward to your next video and hoping that you are feeling better 🤞
cheers
I'd say that with Fantasy more than SF, just that I personally prefer singletons. That's a good series, I found.
Thank you for the overview. I'll look out for his books in Melbourne and Geelong. I do enjoy romantical story lines, which are rather lacking in hard SF.
Apropos the dumbing down of titles for American audiences, I recall the story of a Disney animated film that was set to be released under the title , "Basil of Baker Street," until Disney CEO Michael Eisner stepped in insisting that "Basil" was too hoity-toity for Americans and had it renamed, "The Great Mouse Detective."
Yes, there are numerous examples of this across popular culture in many different media, genre films particuarly in the SFFH axis have been subject to this. These days of course, the VT is uncommon in film since so many features are sequels or have monolithic single word titles. One day I'll do a VT themed video- some of the film ones are funny and I like referring to them in print and conversation thus - "The other day I found myself watching 'The Wild World of Batwoman' aka 'She Was A Hippy Vampire' and it was a work of genius,'. This example of course, is a happy one, where both titles allow amusement and mythic resonance. Such as Folk Horror classic 'Blood on Satan's Claw' aka 'Satan's Skin'. But in SF writing it was almost always "Let's make it obvious this is Sci-Fi," instead of "Let's confound audiences in different countries by giving this ripoff Horror flick a different title with each release...". I definitely miss the latter!
Haven't read any Coney, but 'Girl With a Symphony in Her Fingers' sounds interesting.
I can't tell you how much I value these deep dives into authors I just didn't get enough exposure to in their time.
It's great to gain from your experience while you Stan/Stump for them. (**sigh** I *used to* speak English.)
Coney had no "popular" presence over here; the well informed and well read may have had respectful whisperings but his name brought shrugs from the rank and file.
Perhaps his greatest champion (where I most remember his covers and titles from) was the SFBC.
They pushed "The Celestial Steam Locomotive" hard. In fact, *SO* hard you knew it HAD to be bad. Also with their poor reproduction of the art it was off-putting. A young person looking for adventure, escape & spaceships offered a steam locomotive flying through space is NOT excited. Month after month they promoted it again & again. It made me flinch and avoid it. NOW I you tell me it's part one of the Gods of the Great Away! You made it sound more enticing than they did.
And into this atmosphere of a market full of Arthur rewrites and overflowing in cheap fantasy came that Arthurian diptych one of which had a very melodramatic cover, in a SEA of Arthurian pastiche. To make it worse the "Fang the Gnome" cover felt really Pratchett-y or Xanth-y. Both VERY popular at the time and the same people were pushing these. So I judged a book by it's cover. AGAIN. (Or by the company it kept.)
That's why I missed out on Hardwired too.
In fact these titles/covers were never connected in my mind - just conditioned responses.
Thank you for clearing this up and for making me want to spend money on MORE books I don't need at the moment.
I've been watching the "skies" for a Hello Summer Goodbye since LAST Summer's video, and 2 or three others just waiting on lists to dip below certain prices of find them in stores. . .
Fell Better.
@outlawbookselleroriginal Ugh! Still there are typos.
I am a big fan of Edmund Cooper. He is not the very best of writers, but there are some gems among his books, and most of them are well worth reading. So I’m looking forward to your video on him. The Road to Corley by Richard Cowper is a classic of British SF and one of my favorite stories ever. But then I found Profundis to be silly and a disappointment. So, mixed in my experience.
I picked up Cat Karina and Gods of the Greatway from Hay. But recently found a Pan Lozange of Charisma. Should I start with that?
Star with 'Charisma'.
I've only ever read three volumes of Coney's "Song of the Earth" series, & Cat Karina - going by the mythic, far-future feel of those books, Coney is a bit like Cordwainer Smith, Roger Zelazney, & I'll add S.P. Somtow's SF books to that mix as well.
I recently obtained Hello Summer Goodbye, & Brontomek - both of which I haven't read, but going by their blurbs - seem to be somewhat different - & less mythical maybe (?) - we'll see.
Another enjoyable watch, arigato my friend. Never read Coney but definitely added to my list (which God knows needs some serious curating.)
Glad you mentioned Graham as I couldn't remember his name and enjoy his dry take on the genre....but it's very British is it not? 😊
Pray tell please educate me, what is a "chat book"? Guessing it as old style blog plus comments?
Cheers
It's not 'chat book', it's 'chapbook'. A Chapbook is a very old term, centuries in fact, that refers to a small, slim volume, usually containing only one story or a single non-fiction piece. In SF circles, they are usually limited editions, often distributed as an extra with a limited edition. Watch my video on the Kerosina small press and you'll see some chapbooks from the 1980s.
Seventies SF is probably my least well read era. I grew up (and still live) in a very rural part of Texas and never encountered most of it the pre-internet age. I would be lucky to find an ocasional classic reprint.
I do have a Coney story in an ebook anthology of Canadian SF called Northern Stars. I'll try to read that soon.
Hi Stephen. Thanks for shining a light on heretofore unknown author to me. I picked up some fine and affordable editions of Mirror Image, Winter’s Children (the gorgeous Sphere edition), Monitor Found in Orbit, Jaws, and Rax(ugly Daw cover). Looking forward to diving into his oeuvre. I had some distractions while watching (will give it a rewatch later as I do many of your videos) but I’m wondering if you’ve read Brontomek! or if that’s one of the Coney’s you’ve yet to read.
Yes, read it. Only ones I've not read are the last five- from 'Cat Karina' onwards.
I regrettably have not read any of the books by this other author, but now that I know about him, I can make up for it. Thanks to this excellent video.
What joy!
Sadly, I'm running out the door, gratification must be delayed. . . You Summer reading tease!