Book Review: Luděk Pešek’s Trap for Perseus (1976, trans. Anthea Bell, 1980)

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Preliminary note: This review originally appeared in the second issue of Rachel S. Cordasco’s new magazine Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. You can read the entire issue for free here! I plan on contributing one review of pre-1985 SFF in translation for each issue. In the first issue, I reviewed Knut Faldbakken’s harrowing dystopia Sweetwater (1976, trans. Joan Tate, 1994).

  • Jane R. Wattenberg’s cover for the 1980 edition

3.5/5 (Good)

Czech author Luděk Pešek (1919-1999), also a painter of space landscapes and photographer, emigrated to Switzerland with his wife in 1968. Due to his political beliefs and penchant to criticize the state in his early literary works, the Union of Czechoslovak Visual Artists expelled Pešek from its ranks. In Switzerland, he focused on painting space landscapes and providing illustrations for foreign publishing houses like Penguin Books and the National Geographic Society.1 He also wrote three science fiction novels in Czech, his native language: The Earth is Near (1970, trans. Anthea Bell, 1973), Flight into the World of Tomorrow (1975), and Trap for Perseus (1976, trans. Anthea Bell, 1980). All three first appeared in print in German translations.2 Anthea Bell translated two of the novels, The Earth is Near and Trap for Perseus, from German to English.3 I am unsure if the Czech manuscripts still exist. In the safety of exile, Pešek’s Trap for Perseus re-imagines the generation ship, so often a symbol of humanity’s technological triumph, as an isolated microcosm of Stalinist extremes detached entirely from its original purpose to colonize the stars.

The Lay of the Halls and Plantations and Other More Conceptual Places

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Short Book Reviews: Tanith Lee’s Drinking Sapphire Wine (1977) and Edmund Cooper’s All Fool’s Day (1966)

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Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Tanith Lee’s Drinking Sapphire Wine (1977)

  • Don Maitz’ cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

In 2019, I read and mostly enjoyed Tanith Lee’s Don’t Bite the Sun (1976). The sequel Drinking Sapphire Wine (1977) follows the same nameless narrator of the first volume. It’s set in the same post-scarcity future  replete with advanced technology where youth, the Jang, are encouraged (and “taught” via hypno-schools) to engage in all forms of excess. The narrator, sometimes female and other times male, attempts to find life’s purpose in a society without need. In cities surrounded by desert sand and the hidden ruins of ancient habitation, humans deploy technology to satiate all their whims. Society falls into three groups: The Jang, or the youth. In Limbo, new bodies are made for the Jang who commit suicide and others who want a change in costume or gender. Old People, the post-Jang state, are allowed to have children and pursue simple jobs (of course, backed up entirely by machines!). They too are able to change gender and create new bodies… The third and final “human” state are Quasi-Robots, who are humanoid androids and care for every human need.

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Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCLII (Joe Haldeman, Jack C. Haldeman II, Zenna Henderson, Thomas Burnett Swann, and Edwin Corley)

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Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Joe Haldeman and Jack C. Haldeman II’s There is No Darkness (1983)

  • Jim Burns’ cover for the 1st edition

From the back cover: “The universe is not interested in fair play. The universe is interested in survival. That is lesson number one aboard the giant advance-training ship called ‘Starschool.’ Those who fail to learn lesson one very rarely have cause to worry about what comes next…”

Initial Thoughts: Even at his worst, I find Joe Haldeman a polished author. I’ve only read a few of his brother’s short stories. I’ve hear this volume is a bit on the juvenile SF side of things. We shall see.

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Exploration Log 16: Clifford D. Simak’s speech “The Face of Science Fiction” (1953)

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

Clifford D. Simak’s speech “The Face of Science Fiction” appeared in Minnesota Libraries, vol. XVII, no. 7. (September 1953). He originally gave it to the Minneapolis Branch Library staff. I have not found evidence that the speech appeared elsewhere or is anywhere online. I requested the article through the university library I’m affiliated with. I’ve included a transcription below. I hope with the easy access of important primary sources related to Simak’s fan activities and views on SF, we can see more scholarship on his fiction in the future vs. empty repetition of time-worn designators of his brand of SF.1 As with other posts on Simak’s interviews, speeches, and fan articles, I’ll provide a few words of summary first.

  • Four editions of Clifford D. Simak’s City (1952): Artists and publication date from L to R, Ed Valigursky (1958), Richard Powers (1954), Karel Thole (1964), uncredited (1965)

“The Face of Science Fiction” articulates the intersection of Simak’s own interest in the genre (and hope for its future), its larger history, with observations about the growing contemporary interest. He highlights the exploding popularity (and commercialism) the genre underwent in the 50s in the aftermath of WWII, for example the sheer quantity of magazines, toys, games, gadgets, and scientific gadgets designed with “science fiction motif” for teenagers. He charts his own exposure to the genre through authors like Jules Verne. 

And echoing later arguments by Darko Suvin, posits an incredible “long and honorable lineage” of the genre with works like the Greek Legend of Icarus, Plato’s Republic, Thomas Moore’s Utopia, and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels that detach its origins from the influence of Hugo Gernsback (he does not mention his name but does acknowledge the “first science fiction magazines” that appeared in 1926).2 Arguments like this one partially serve as a rhetorical flourish meant to legitimize the genre and to self-justify your own brand of writing. And like those classics of old, 50s SF seems to re-manifest some of that ancient maturity (“fewer and fewer of them think of it in terms of Buck Rogers and rocket guns”) with increasing quality of writing. While acknowledging the fix-up novels still hitting print culled from the old pulps, he hopes the “backlog of old stories” is coming to its end.3 He admits that modern science fiction is still a young genre with growing to do!

  • William Timmins’ cover art for Astounding Science Fiction, ed. John W. Cambell, Jr. (March 1944). Contains Cleve Cartmill’s “Deadline” (1944)
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Short Book Reviews: George Alec Effinger’s The Wolves of Memory (1981) and J. J. Connington’s Nordenholt’s Million (1923)

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. George Alec Effinger’s The Wolves of Memory (1981)

  • Norman Walker’s cover for the 1st edition

4.75/5 (Near Masterpiece)

I read almost 150 pages of George Alec Effinger’s masterful The Wolves of Memory (1981) before setting it down almost two years ago. As is often the case, I do not have a single reason why. It certainly had nothing to do with its quality. Perhaps Effinger’s uncanny evocation of dementia (through a SF lens) felt a bit too real. Perhaps his ability to render deeply affective interactions hurt in a way I rarely feel in science fiction. The volume sat on my desk waiting to be completed. I picked it up a few days days ago and finished in one sitting. I’m glad I did.

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Updates: Podcast discussion of Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955)

/ Joachim Boaz / 2 Comments
  • Three locations where Philip K. Dick’s “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955) appeared: L to R. Star Science Fiction No. 3 (1955), The Best Of Philip K. Dick (1977), and Second Variety (1991)

I appeared on the podcast DickHeads (i.e. Philip K. Dick fans) to discuss one of his most underrated (in my opinion) short fictions: “Foster, You’re Dead” (1955). If you want to read the short story before you listen to the quite detailed discussion, it’s available online here. I’m a sucker for science fiction satires of 50s American defense policy, commercialism, and the idiocracy of fallout shelters. As I am allergic to listening to myself, I’ve not given it a re-listen! Hopefully it went as well as I thought it did at the time.

Also, here is my short review of the story–part of my larger review of the entire original anthology Star Science Fiction No. 3, ed. Frederik Pohl (1955)–from last year if you don’t have time to listen to the podcast at the moment.

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Short Story Reviews: Harlan Ellison’s “Night Vigil” (variant title: “Yellow Streak Hero”) (1955) and “Life Hutch” (1956)

/ Joachim Boaz / 40 Comments

The following reviews serve as the 38th installment of my series searching for “SF short stories that are critical in some capacity of space agencies, astronauts, and the culture which produced them.” Some stories I’ll review in this series might not fit or are poor quality. And that is okay. I relish the act of literary archaeology. I’ve previously covered two Harlan Ellison short stories for this series: “Psycho at Mid-Point” (1956) and “The Discarded” (variant title: “The Abnormals”) (1959). As always, if you know of any others that might fit, let me know. I’ve compiled an extensive list but like all lists it’s incomplete.

Thank you Richard, “Friend of the Site,” for these recommendations all the way back in 2022. I didn’t forget.

Previously: Clifford D. Simak’s “Madness from Mars” (1939)

Up Next: TBD

Let’s get to the stories!

  • Ed Valigursky’s cover for the Amazing Stories, ed. Paul W. Fairman (May 1957)

3/5 (Average)

Harlan Ellison’s “Night Vigil” (variant title: “Yellow Streak Hero”) first appeared in the fanzine Peon, ed. Charles Lee Riddle (May 1955). It was reprinted in Amazing Stories, ed. Paul W. Fairman (May 1957). You can read it online here in Peon and here in Amazing Stories.

Futuristic Press Gangs

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Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCLI (Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Philip K. Dick, Howard L. Cory, Ward Moore and Avram Davidson, and Muriel Jaeger)

/ Joachim Boaz / 38 Comments

Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s Roadside Picnic (1972, trans. Olena Bormashenko, 2012)

  • Dominic Harman’s cover for the 2012 edition

From the back cover: “Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those misfits who are compelled, in spite of the extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artefacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the the alien products. Even the nature of his mutant daughter has been determined by the Zone. And it is for her that he makes his last, tragic foray into the hazardous and hostile territory.”

Initial Thoughts: One of those obvious holes in my SF knowledge… I certainly have read about the writing pair but I’ve only read a story here and there–for example “Wanderers and Travellers” (1963, trans. 1966)–and one novel that I never managed to review. My father has been pushing me to read more of their work. And yes, Andrei Tarkovsky’s adaptation Stalker (1979) remains one of my favorite movies. I took a History of Russian Film class in college and wrote my term paper on Tarkovsky’s use of color.

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Short Story Reviews: David Ely’s “Court of Judgment” (1961), “The Last Friday in August” (1961), and “The Wizard of Light” (1962)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

In 2019, I reviewed and adored David Ely’s science fiction thriller Seconds (1963), the source material for John Frankenheimer’s similarly brilliant 1966 film. I did not know that Ely got his start in genre magazines under the editorship of Cele Goldsmith Lalli (1933-2002), known for “discovering” SF luminaries like Ursula K. Le Guin, Thomas M. Disch, Keith Laumer, Sonya Dorman, and Roger Zelazny (among others).1 Before his writing career, Ely served in the Navy (1945-1946) and Army (1950-1952) and as a reporter in St. Louis (until 1956) before entering the corporate world as an “administrative assistant” for the nebulously named Cold War organization Development and Resources Corporation in New York (1956-1959).2

After a handful of short stories in genre magazines, Ely moved to far more lucrative venues like Playboy and Cosmopolitan. I’ve had my eyes on his collection–containing additional SF tales–Time Out (1968) for years. Unfortunately, prices rarely drop below $70 with shipping. Science fiction seems to have been close to his heart as he returned to the genre with his novel Journal of the Flood Year (1992).

Let’s get to the stories!

  • Alex Schomburg’s cover for Fantastic Stories of Imagination, ed. Cele Goldsmith (October 1961)

3/5 (Average)

“Court of Judgment” (1961) first appeared in Fantastic Stories of Imagination, ed. Cele Goldsmith (October 1961). You can read it online here. Received an Honorable Mention at the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Short Fiction.

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