I need recommendations for science fiction this summer-- I'm at loose ends. I went down to the library yesterday planning to pick something off the shelf, but their SF section has deteriorated so badly in the last few years, it's hard to make sense of it-- they have a lot of random volumes of series stuff, plus they mixed the fantasy in with it, so it's hard to sort. And they've just reduced it so severely, getting rid of many good hardcovers that were core works and replacing them with cheap, second-rate paperbacks, or nothing. Most major authors are barely represented, or not represented at all. I need to just order something, I guess, but I miss being able to browse a shelf and have something attract me.
I ended up with a recent SS anthology, always a good place to branch out from. This was a new addition, one of very few. It has several authors I recognize (and admire) and many others I don't. I really miss Terry Carr's anthologies-- it's been decades now, I guess: I found every one of them full of stories that ranged from excellent to mind-blowing. And who else later... Gardner Dozois, and Wollheim? They were good too, but nothing ever quite equalled Terry Carr, in my opinion. If I had the money, I would still purchase story anthologies each year-- they always seem to be on the cutting edge.
So, I wanted to read something by Zelazny, but it all looked like fantasy. Or Greg Bear, but Queen of Angels wasn't on the shelf; I liked Darwin's Radio and loved Moving Mars. I still have an unread copy of Larry Niven's Rainbow Mars, and also Samuel Delaney's Dahlgren, which I inherited somehow. I suppose I should get to those eventually. I kind of feel like just going back and reading Waldo, again...