...& like Lazaras, it rises! (read: SF never died)

[Tony Elias]

For all the listers who have convinced themselves somehow that SF has in
some way-some form, 'died-declined-fallen', or whether "it died for me in my
teens and early twenties" et. al. Take a look at:

Neal Stephenson, _The Diamond Age_    ......is breeeeeeeeeeliant!

There are also many analogies one could make between Stephenon and some kind
of 'Pynchonian' aesthetic. Stephenson has also written _Snow Crash_  /
_Zodiac: The Eco thriller_  /  _The Big U_ yet I'm really only referring to
The Diamond Age in this context, of which Rudy Rucker has written:

"Fast, dense, deep, funny, 'Neuromancer' meets 'Vineland'. The best book
I've read this year"

Also, I'm told, have-the-book-but-it-still-sits-silently-on-my-shelf that
Haruki Murakami's _Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World_ is also
an exceptional and recent ('91) SF novel.

And while we're on SF, Philip K. Dick has for many years and continues to be
(he wrote so much!), for me anyways, a constant inspiration, sure he has
written some trash (ie.: many of the short stories and various super-pulp)
but books like Ubik, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, the VALIS
trilogy, A Scanner Darkly, blah blah are all indredible novels.

Tony Elias