Scores
Cover © Judith Clute

SCORES :
REVIEWS 1993-2003

John Clute



Shortlisted for 2004 Hugo Award
for Best Nonfiction Work


On the Locus "Recommended Reading List"
of the best non-fiction of 2004.
Clute
Photo © Roger Robinson

NOTE: Both the hardback & the paperback editions are now SOLD OUT.


Reviews of this book appear on the following sites -
Emerald City #96       Extrapolation       Christian Sauvé (no longer accessible)       SF Studies #95
and have also appeared in the following journals
Foundation#90 (by Bruce Sterling)      Locus#515 (by Gary K Wolfe)

> > > > > Sample pieces from this book can be viewed here. < < < < <



"John Clute, a critic of almost Jamesian elegance, who over the decades has become the genre's Boswell,
records every tick, trend and trope in speculative fiction."
Washington Post

For nearly 40 years John Clute has been reviewing science fiction and fantasy. As Scores demonstrates, his devotion to the task of understanding the central literatures of our era has not slackened. There are jokes in Scores, and curses, and tirades, and apologies, and riffs; but every word of every review, in the end, is about how we understand the stories we tell about the world.
Following on from his two previous books of collected reviews (Strokes and Look at the Evidence) this book collects reviews from a wide variety of sources, but mostly from Interzone, the New York Review of Science Fiction, and Science Fiction Weekly. Where it has seemed possible to do so without distorting contemporary responses to books, these reviews have been revised, sometimes extensively.
125 review articles, over 200 books reviewed in more than 214,000 words.



John Clute was born in 1940 in Canada, where he was raised. He lived for several years in the United States, which he visits constantly, but has resided in England since 1969. He's published two novels; three encyclopedias; four volumes of essays, reviews and commentary; and several co-edited anthologies. He's received four Hugo Awards, four Locus Awards, the Pilgrim Award for "distinguished contributions to the study of science fiction", the ICFA Distinguished Guest Scholar Award, and others.



Paperback, x+ 428 pages.
233mm x 150mm. Publication date 18 Sept 2005.

Price (paperback) - UK£14.00 or US$27.00 or CAN$33.00
Postage and packing (p&p) to addresses in the UK - add UK£2.50.
For more information on ordering & payment please see How to Order

Hardback (out of print)
ISBN (10) 1-870824-47-4
ISBN (13) 9781-870824-44-7
Price was UK£35.00
Paperback
ISBN (10) 1-870824-48-2
ISBN (13) 9781-870824-48-4



Contents list for SCORES


Preface

--- INTRODUCTION ---
What I Did on my Summer Vacation
--- REVIEWS 1993-1996---
Icon Speedway
Red Dust - by Paul J McAuley
Four Ways to Breathe
A Sudden Wild Magic - by Diana Wynne Jones
Overtime - by Tom Holt
Warpath - by Tony Daniels
Personal Darkness - by Tanith Lee
Dusting off the Props
False Gods - by Louis Auchincloss
Rainbow Man - by M J Engh
Merlin and the Last Trump - by Collin Webber
Deus X - by Norman Spinrad
Young Wolfe - by Gene Wolfe
Terminal Rocks
The Gripping Hand - by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
High Steel - by Jack C Haldeman II and Jack Dann
Here Comes the Sun - by Tom Holt
Against a Dark Background - by Iain M Banks
Glory Bee
Harvest of Stars - by Poul Anderson
Glory - by Alfred Coppel
Glory Season - by David Brin
Aztec Country - by Christopher Evans
Norn Nice
Kaeti on Tour - by Keith Roberts
The Island of Doctor Philmus
The Island of Doctor Moreau: A Variorum Text
    - by H G Wells, as ed. Prof. Robert M. Philmus
Sandman, Sleep - by Herbert Lieberman
The Golden - by Lucius Shepard
Three Butterflies (Pinned Ackroyd) - One
The House of Doctor Dee - by Peter Ackroyd
Three Butterflies (Pinned Ackroyd) - Two
Milton in America - by Peter Ackroyd
Three Butterflies (Pinned Ackroyd) - Three
The Plato Papers - by Peter Ackroyd
Things Suffered and Things Seen
Coelestis - by Paul Park
Virtual Light - by William Gibson
Sleepless Sleepless
Beggars in Spain - by Nancy Kress
Taste Iron
The Iron Dragon's Daughter - by Michael Swanwick
Canon at the End of Time
The Hollowing - by Robert Holdstock
The Aliens of Earth - by Nancy Kress
Iris Hog, Hidden King, Poop
Moving Mars - by Greg Bear
Men at Arms - by Terry Pratchett
The Streets of Ankh-Morpork - by Stephen Briggs
Popes and Phantoms - by John Whitbourn
Knots
The Innkeeper's Song - by Peter S Beagle
The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories - ed. Tom Shippey
The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories - ed. Tom Shippey
Anti-Ice - by Stephen Baxter
The First Church of the Millennium - by Bryan Appleyard
A Book of the Attempted Escape
X,Y - by Michael Blumlein
Spunk
A Tupolev Too Far - by Brian Aldiss
Hot Sky at Midnight - by Robert Silverberg
Scissors Cut Paper Wrap Stone - by Ian McDonald
Yellow Matter - by William Barton
The Dang Wildwood
The Fourth Guardian - by Ronald Anthony Cross
Robin Hood: Green Lord of the Wildwood - by John Matthews
Omni: Best Science Fiction Three - ed. Ellen Datlow
There is a Canon in this Hedge
The Norton Book of Science Fiction
    - ed. Ursula K Le Guin with Brian Attebery
Quorums
The Quorum - by Kim Newman
Wildlife - by James Patrick Kelly
Wheel Candy
Pasquale's Angel - by Paul J McAuley
Unconquered Countries - by Geoff Ryman
Grailblazers - by Tom Holt
Faust Among Equals - by Tom Holt
Unhampered
Feersum Endjinn - by Ian M Banks
Permutation City - by Greg Egan
Nobody's Son - by Sean Stewart
No Cigar
Worldwar: in the Balance - by Harry Turtledove
Beyond the Veil of Stars - by Robert Reed
The Flight of Michael McBride - by Midori Snyder
Locomotor Orrery
Waking the Moon - by Elizabeth Hand
FACE OF GLORY
Voices in the Light - by Sean McMullen
Popocatapetl [Urinating Dog]
The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye - by A S Byatt
Interesting Times - by Terry Pratchett
Arthur Machen & Montgomery Evans:
  Letters of a Literary Friendship, 1923-47
    
- ed. by Sue Strong Hassler and Donald M Hassler
God Inhales
The Recursion Rink
Amnesia Moon - by Jonathan Lethem
Resurrection Man - by Sean Stewart
A Double, a Crow, a Couplet
The Prestige - by Christopher Priest
Animal Planet - by Scott Bradfield
At the Caligula Hotel - by Brian Aldiss
With All of Love - by James Blish
The Gap in Fremder
Fremder - by Russell Hoban
A Godgame of Solitaire
The Solitaire Mystery - by Jostein Gaarder
Claustrophile, Ringsmith, Steampunk Soft
Idoru - by William Gibson
The Ringworld Throne - by Larry Niven
The Cockatrice Boys - by Joan Aiken
Moses Supposes
Exodus from the Long Sun - by Gene Wolfe
--- REVIEWS 1997-2003---
Bound to the Stake
God's Fires - by Patricia Anthony
Yahoos Bite Dog
Lives of the Monster Dogs - by Kirsten Bakis
The Matter of Catastrophe
Eternity Road - by Jack McDevitt
A Tad Phatic
Otherland: City of Golden Shadow - by Tad Williams
Wiser Book
Destiny's Road - by Larry Niven
Fly in Amber
Signs of Life - by M John Harrison
The Delirium Scherzo
Jack Faust - by Michael Swanwick
A Geography of Unknown Lands - by Michael Swanwick
Theophany SF
The Rise of Endymion - by Dan Simmons
Been Bondage Done That
Donnerjack - by Roger Zelazny and Jane Lindskold
Jingo - by Terry Pratchett
Centuries - by A A Attanasio
Calcutta Decent
The Calcutta Chromosome - by Amitav Ghosh
The Mythago and the Dodo and Two Others
Forever Peace - by Joe Haldeman
Driving Blind - by Ray Bradbury
Giant Bones - by Peter S Beagle
Gate of Ivory, Gate of Horn - by Robert Holdstock
Willis Punting
To Say Nothing of the Dog - by Connie Willis
A Tale, a Rail, a Pogo
The Gift - by Patrick O'Leary
The Matter of the Heart - by Nicholas Royle
Earthling - by Tony Daniel
Swallowing Cosm
Cosm - by Gregory Benford
The Engine of our Dreams Hauls Freight
The Children of God - by Mary Doria Russell
Disaster Triumph
Moonfall - by Jack McDevitt
Vidal Veritas
The Smithsonian Institution - by Gore Vidal
A Ford
Girl in Landscape - by Jonathan Lethem
A Taste in the Mind
Weird Women, Wired Women - by Kit Reed
Portly Bark
Galilee - by Clive Barker
--- REVIEWS 1997-2003 cont ---
Reality Is Else
Darwinia - by Robert Charles Wilson
Shaggy Egg Story
Six Moon Dance - by Sheri S Tepper
Maze Manual
The Extremes - by Christopher Priest
Ada in the Badlands
A Song of Stone - by Iain Banks
An Arrow That Hangs Without Falling
Black Glass - by Karen Joy Fowler
Elliptical Billiard Balls
The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of - by Thomas M Disch
Cats on a Hot Steel Beach
The Golden Globe - by John Varley
Nonsense and Stuff
The Good Old Stuff - ed. Gardner Dozois
The Good New Stuff - ed. Gardner Dozois
Bound One Unbound Nil
The Twinkling of an Eye - by Brian W Aldiss
Spinning the Dinosaur
Science-Fiction: the Gernsback Years - by E F Bleiler
Moonseed - by Stephen Baxter
Distraction - by Bruce Sterling
A Strong Slow Dragon Pulse
The Dragons of Springplace - by Robert Reed
Two Feet from the Well
A Deepness in the Sky - by Vernor Vinge
From Abecedary to Yawn
The Dictionary of Science Fiction Places - by Brian Stableford
Punctuated Equilibrium
Darwin's Radio - by Greg Bear
Passages in the Puppet Dark
When We Were Real - by William Barton
Into Darkest America on a Wave
The Rift - by Walter J Williams
Twin Within
Ender's Shadow - by Orson Scott Card
A Making Thought Machine Book
Half Life - by Hal Clement
The World is Burn
All Tomorrow's Parties - by William Gibson
The Case of the World, One
Cryptonomicon - by Neal Stephenson
Fisher
The Book of the Short Sun:
On Blue's Waters - by Gene Wolfe
In Green's Jungles - by Gene Wolfe
Return to the Whorl - by Gene Wolfe
Hobbit, Harte, Hot Pot
There and Back Again - by Pat Murphy
Wild Angel - by Pat Murphy
Adventures in Time and Space With Max Merriwell - by Pat Murphy
Breakfast in the Runes
The Book of Confluence:
Child of the River - by Paul J McAuley
Ancients of Days - by Paul J McAuley
Shrine of Stars - by Paul J McAuley
Science Fiction Is What I Look At
Science Fiction of the 20th Century - by Frank M Robinson
Great Carnival Barker of Loss
Perpetuity Blues - by Neal Barrett Jr
Watch This Not-Space
Revelation Space - by Alastair Reynolds
A Great Novel Threatens
Galveston - by Sean Stewart
The Perdido Faces
Perdido Street Station - by China Miéville
Fractal Breaks
King of the City - by Michael Moorcock
A Long Haul Off the Beach for Sap
Slow Lightning - by Jack McDevitt
Burgundy Ash
Ash - by Mary Gentle
A Dry Telling We Had of It
The Telling - by Ursula K Le Guin
Disappeared
Blue Kansas Sky - by Michael Bishop
Nectar from the Long Crash
Selected Stories - by Theodore Sturgeon
The Niche We Inhabit Is Aftermath
Thirteen Phantasms - by James P Blaylock
Yore Is Us
Wizard's Isle - by Jack Williamson
Gaze of the Toad in August, Gaze Against God
Super-Cannes - by J G Ballard
The Truth - by Terry Pratchett
The Amber Spyglass - by Philip Pullman
Fallen Angels
Declare - by Tim Powers
Slants of Light
In the Stone House - by Barry N Malzberg
Zeitgeist Follies
Zeitgeist - by Bruce Sterling
Beluthahatchie - by Andy Duncan
A Bullet to Bite
Ship of Fools - by Richard Paul Russo
The Taste of the World
The Pickup Artist - by Terry Bisson
A Great Deal In Sand
Hammerfall - by C J Cherryh
Mean Steam
Chasm City - by Alastair Reynolds
Dreaming Conan Hard
The Conan Chronicles - by Robert E Howard
The Aesop Trick
Immodest Proposals - by William Tenn
Under the Skin of Story
Stranger Things Happen - by Kelly Link
The Cost of Living
Nekropolis - by Maureen McHugh
Good Ged, Good Di, a Pearl of Bad
The Other Wind - by Ursula K Le Guin
Strange Trades - by Paul Di Filippo
The Best-Known Man in the World - by Daniel Pearlman
I Have a Tale to Tell O
Black House - by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Coup in Time
Counting Coup - by Jack Dann
A Call for Wounded Surgeons
Redshift - ed. Al Sarrantonio
The Ashes of Time Travel
Bones of the Earth - by Michael Swanwick
A Long Cajole
Psychohistorical Crisis - by Donald Kingsbury
A Twin of the Century
Vitals - by Greg Bear
The Hover! The Hover!
A Winter Haunting - by Dan Simmons
The Years of Rice and a Grain of Salt
The Years of Rice and Salt - by Kim Stanley Robinson
The Voice of the Captain
The Birthday of the World - by Ursula K Le Guin
The Writing of Tomorrow
Nebula Awards Showcase 2002 - ed. Kim Stanley Robinson
Caduceus Twining
The Impossible Bird - by Patrick O'Leary
A Seethe of Stuff
Better to Have Loved - by Judith Merril
Happy Hours in Escape World
Worlds That Weren't - ed. Laura Anne Gilman
Caught Like Theseus
Stories of Your Life and Others - by Ted Chiang
The Anxiety of the Meme
Coraline - by Neil Gaiman
Trying to Find The Separation in This World
The Separation - by Christopher Priest
Imagine, As That Dolphin, Breathing Light
Light - by M John Harrison
Beating Holes to Pulp
The Hard SF Renaissance - ed. by David Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
Looking Glass Protocols
Falling Out of Cars - by Jeff Noon
Book of the Mouth
The Haunted Air - by F Paul Wilson
A Strike for Heaven
Summerland - by Michael Chabon
Grail Brokedown
Louisiana Breakdown - by Lucius Shepard
The Case of the World, Two
Pattern Recognition - by William Gibson
--- AFTER SEPTEMBER 2001 ---
Next
--- INDEX---
Index - compiled by Leigh Kennedy Priest
Acknowledgements