The Talossan Science Fiction & Whisky Society

[Ián B. Anglatzarâ]

It appears that this most Antient & August Order, which I founded in 1998, hasn't had a website for some years now, not since my ISP got rid of the personal pages area a couple of years ago. That has been remedied.

fandom.se/TSFWS/index.html

The same flashy HTML 1.0 as before! ;D

I'm sure some of youse have told me over the years you want to join, but as I don't keep track of things you have to tell me again.

At the moment I'm reading Catherynne M. Valente's marvellous In the Night Garden. Highly recommended; Chinese boxes of vaguely Arabian Nightsy fairy tales.

Now, the little box tells me I have 59289 characters remaining. I wonder what to write with so much space to fill...

[Hooligan]

Welcome back to the Web, TSFWS. The link has been updated on this Webpage.

Hool

[David Drew]

May I enquire as to whether the society has specific reading and drinking lists available... and should one choose particular books to go with types of whiskey? For example, I am currently reading Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. Could the society pair this with a suitably good whiskey?

[Ián B. Anglatzarâ]

Now, for this very special, flawed but deeply interesting and seminal book I would have to step outside the normal bounds of the TSF&WS and recommend a Kentucky Bourbon: Maker's Mark. Not what I normally drink, but then, 1960s Heinlein isn't what I normally read, either. They should go well together.

[King John]

Stranger in a Strange Land was one of the few books I bought in hardback, back in my high school days, because I'd worn out the original paperback. Flawed certainly, but what an amazing job of story-telling, and what vivid characters — a top-rate fictioneer at the height of his powers. It wasn't until I Will Fear No Evil, at the very end of the 60s, that Heinlein's flaws began to outweigh his narrative strengths.

My most recent science fiction, to call it that, has been Gene Wolfe's 4-volume Book of the Long Sun and 3-volume Book of the Short Sun. Very very good, subtle and weird and terribly complex, and (like all Wolfe) requiring at least one more reading to "get" them.

And I've been working my way through a bottle of Ballantine's Scotch -- probably a mistake, in retrospect, but once you buy it you have to drink it, right?

— John R

[Hooligan]

His Majesty, a while back, introduced me to Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey. When it was submitted for categorization, the whiskey experts couldn't classify it, and had to create a fifth type (strain?) of whiskey. It was neither Scotch nor Irish nor Canadian nor Bourbon so now there is officially a fifth type of whiskey: "Rocky Mountain Straight".

Since we are talking about pairings, and what would go well with 1960's Heinlein, I am wondering -- what book would the society recommend go with Stranahan's (which is extremely good whiskey...and there are now other distilleries popping up that are making Rocky Mountain Straight)?

Hool

[D. N. Vercáriâ]

Most recently I drank approximately 2cl of an Ardbeg Ten, presently my favourite whisky. But usually I prefer to drink beer. I just discovered Paulaner Salvator, a very tasty stout that is the right drink for dark winter evenings.



A while ago I've read "Murder at the Galactic Writers Society" by Janet Asimov, which I found quite entertaining. I found this book in the house of my father, who loved to read science fiction novels.

You may have guessed it - only occasionally I'm coming across whisky and science fiction.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

A while back I picked up a few issues of a comic book series called "Michael Moorcock's Multiverse", with the sub-heading "New Adventures of the Eternal Champion". Moorcock, depicted in the opening pages of each issue, introduces the stories. As a Talossan, I immediately noticed his references to Berbers in the first issue, in particular this mention of a Berber Knight. I wondered if this was a character Moorcock had created and written about himself, or if it's a reference to some historical figure (or a fictional character written about by others.) A Google search yielded no results. I thought a fellow member of our illustrious society might be able to shed some light on this matter.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

(Just an attempt to revive this thread.) I'm currently reading Asimov's "Prelude to Foundation", which is the only Asimov Foundation book I had yet to read. (Funny, because, chronologically, it's the first in the series.) I only recently learned that Asimov's widow had licensed others to write further Foundation books, and am curious if anyone else has read them.

[Ián Tamorán S.H.]

I am reading La Tour De Verre, a French translation of Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. I read it in English some years ago, and it's an entertaining book, with a rather negative view about humankind. As always I am drinking Lagavulin, which I discovered (by accident) when I was working in France. My boss asked me to buy a bottle of La Gavoolang for him in Duty Free, which I duly did. And it wasn't until I read the label properly I realised it was a Scottish, not a French, name. Those of you who speak French will be smiting your foreheads by now!
Anyway, a great whisky it is.

[Ian Plätschisch]

I am currently reading Stranger in a Strange Land.  Alas, I have three and a half years to wait before I can legally drink whisky.

EDIT: Just realized that King John mentioned this book in a post from several years ago that I didn't notice until just now.

[Ián B. Anglatzarâ]

Sept 13, 2017 14:48:24 GMT -6 Iason Bitxichë Taiwos said:

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A while back I picked up a few issues of a comic book series called "Michael Moorcock's Multiverse", with the sub-heading "New Adventures of the Eternal Champion". Moorcock, depicted in the opening pages of each issue, introduces the stories. As a Talossan, I immediately noticed his references to Berbers in the first issue, in particular this mention of a Berber Knight. I wondered if this was a character Moorcock had created and written about himself, or if it's a reference to some historical figure (or a fictional character written about by others.) A Google search yielded no results. I thought a fellow member of our illustrious society might be able to shed some light on this matter.

Alas, I have no idea. But I will commend your mentioning Mr Moorcock, who is indeed a past patron saint of the Talossan Science Fiction & Whisky Society.

[Ián B. Anglatzarâ]

Myself, I am not reading anything sciencefictional at the moment, nor am I imbibing any whisky. However, I'll finish a book today and the next book might be science fiction. Ya never know.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

Sept 13, 2017 16:40:16 GMT -6 Ián Tamorán S.H. said:

I am reading La Tour De Verre, a French translation of Tower of Glass by Robert Silverberg. I read it in English some years ago, and it's an entertaining book, with a rather negative view about humankind.

Tower of Glass was actually the first Robert Silverberg book I ever read. It's been so long since I've read it, I can't even really remember anything about it, other than that I enjoyed it, and it made me want to read more of his stuff.
I haven't been drinking anything alcoholic lately, due to a medicine I've been recently prescribed, but I'm dying to bust into a bottle of Icelandic vodka my sister brought back from her visit there.

[Iason Bitxichë Taiwos]

I admittedly am no great connoisseur of whisky (hard liquor in general wreaks havoc on my digestive system), but I recall that, long before discovering Talossa and this noble Society, I was actually influenced to purchase a bottle of whisky by reading about it in an SF book. The book was, I believe, "A Maze of Death" by Philip K. Dick, and the whisky...Old Crow.