On Wednesday, May 18, 2022 at 5:21:28 AM UTC+10, William Hyde wrote:
> On Monday, May 16, 2022 at 9:28:53 PM UTC-4, Moriarty wrote:
> > On Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 9:54:17 AM UTC+10, Titus G wrote:
> > > On 17/05/22 11:03, Moriarty wrote:
> > > > On Tuesday, May 17, 2022 at 7:01:04 AM UTC+10, Titus G wrote:
> > > >> On 16/05/22 00:40, art...@yahoo.com wrote:
> > <snip>
> > > >>> Tim Powers has a Trilogy (Last Call, Expiration Date, and
> > > >>> Earthquake Weather) in which the last one is a sort of a sequel
> > > >>> to the first 2.
> > > >> Despite little attraction to demons and horror suspense, I was
> > > >> fascinated by the strangeness and the complexity in the 'patterns'
> > > >> of _Last Call_ and would be happy to try the next.
> > > >
> > > > I loved "Last Call" but found "Expiration Date" to be a tedious
> > > > snore-fest. I finished it but had to make myself do so; Powers has
> > > > enough runs on the board that I won't abandon him mid-book.
> > > >
> > > > "Earthquake Weather" has been un-read on my shelves for years, and is
> > > > unlikely to ever be read.
> > > >
> > > > YMMV.
> > > >
> > > > -Moriarty
> > > Great. Thanks for the warning. Given your previous
> > > recommendations/reviews, I suspect my mileage will be similar.
> > > _Last Call_ is the only Powers' that I have read. I think it may have
> > > been recommended here.
> > Tim Powers is one of those authors who, for me, is very hit and miss. Some I love, some leave me totally cold. If you want to try another of his, give "The Anubis Gates" a go, or "Declare". The former is a time travel fantasy about Egyptian gods and dark magic, the latter is a fantasy spy thriller featuring Kim Philby
> And his dad, a fascinating character in his own right.
> with Powers channeling John Le Carre.
> >
> > But having said that, "Last Call" and the other two have come up in discussions a few times here over the years, and there are plenty of folks who loved "Expiration Date" and "Earthquake Weather". You may also be one of them.
> I loved "Expiration date" but have been unable to finish "Earthquake Weather" despite two tries.
>
> Of more recent novels, other than Declare, my favourite is probably "Hide me among the graves", full of pre-raphaelites and vampires. It is loosely connected to "The stress of her regard" but it's not at all necessary to read the latter first.

Oh! I hadn't read that due to being pretty ambivalent about "Stress". However I am interested in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, having seen an exhibition of their works a year or three back and then watched a pretty good fictionalised mini-series about their lives, called (googles) "Desperate Romantics".

Now I'll have to read that one to see what Powers does with the PRBs.

-Moriarty

On Fri, 13 May 2022 08:04:16 -0700 (PDT), Tony Nance
<tonynance17@gmail.com> wrote:

> 1) Re: It’s odd I cannot think of short, snappy terms
> to distinguish the two models. Do you have any ideas?

For the extreme of the first kind, we have the long-established term
"N-volume novel".

The extreme of the other is stories that just happen to be in the same
universe -- the works of any Mundane author could be said to
constitute a series in this sense.

Mundane stories sometimes recycle material that was made up for some
other story, because inventing brand-new background wouldn't improve
the new story any -- and after a while, the strain of elegant
variation would begin to spoil it.

And no two mundanes live in precisely the same universe.

I'd suggest something along the lines of "set" or "class" for this end
-- definitely not "series".

--
Joy Beeson
joy beeson at centurylink dot net
http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/

Joy Beeson wrote:
> On Fri, 13 May 2022 08:04:16 -0700 (PDT), Tony Nance
> <tonyn...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 1) Re: It’s odd I cannot think of short, snappy terms
> > to distinguish the two models. Do you have any ideas?
> For the extreme of the first kind, we have the long-established term
> "N-volume novel".
>
> The extreme of the other is stories that just happen to be in the same
> universe -- the works of any Mundane author could be said to
> constitute a series in this sense.

XKCD had a comic on this, with the theory that all the miniseries of documentary filmmaker Ken Burns are set in the same universe:
https://m.xkcd.com/2160
As with Heinlein's Future History. (The first series not to be just "The Adventures of Dr. X and Mr. Y"?)
I've heard Campbell broke the news in Astounding that some of Heinlein's seemingly-unrelated stories fit in the same world.

"Future History" has, I think, been used for other story sets of this type, at least on the Science Fiction side.
However speculative fiction includes fantasy, where "Future" is not always the case.

> Mundane stories sometimes recycle material that was made up for some
> other story, because inventing brand-new background wouldn't improve
> the new story any -- and after a while, the strain of elegant
> variation would begin to spoil it.

Not all Asimov stories about logic puzzles with positronic brains would fit into one consistent history.
Similarly, Charles Sheffield has mentioned his Mattin link in stories that I think are incompatible, but he also mentioned skystalks in several, and that is considered a sort of universal sf property, so I think of one incompatible story maybe being old science fiction from after the link was invented in the future of the other story.

> I'd suggest something along the lines of "set" or "class" for this end
> -- definitely not "series".

--
-Jack