Month: July 2012

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Nuclear Explosions + Mushroom Clouds

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

(Ed Valigursky’s cover for the 1957 edition of Doomsday Eve (1957). Robert Moore Williams)

The nuclear scare produced some of the best dystopic visions ever put to paper — the devastation would be utter, complete, and the radiation, oh what fun science fiction authors and filmakers had with the effects of radiation.  A red spectrum! Mutations! Hybrid bug people!  Godzilla!  Women with two heads!  An endless assortments of monsters…  I’ve selected a wide range of covers depicting the actual nuclear explosion — not the after effects.  Families gaze from caves in dispair, watching the bomb incinerate their world.  People run helter-skelter away from the explosion.  Or, artists take a more stylized approach to the explosion — figures are cast upward amongst the wreckage of buildings. Continue reading →

Book Review: Bright New Universe, Jack Williamson (1967)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

(John Schoenherr’s cover for the 1967 edition)

3.25/5 (Average)

Jack Williamson’s Bright New Universe (1967) is one part juvenile (young man trekking into space against the wishes of his family), one part 1960s social commentary on race, and one part 30s/40s pulp (look at that beehive alien!  Look at that sexy Asian girl alien!).  The hybridity is jarring and unsuccessful but shows Williamson’s valiant attempt to modify his earlier writing styles to the increasingly prevalent social science fiction of the 60s.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

In the middle of a gathering with his family and the family of his wealthy fiancée Kayren, Adam Cave (early 20s) calls off his wedding and declares that he will follow his father’s footsteps and Continue reading →

Book Review: Planet of the Voles, Charles Platt (1971)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1972 edition)

1/5 (Terrible)

Charles Platt’s Planet of the Voles (1971) has a similar feel to one of the more atrocious episodes of Stargate SG-1.  In place of all the horridly butchered Egyptian mythology is a weird pseudo-mythology about the inevitability of a battle between the sexes uneasily pasted on an archetypal military sci-fi plot.  The work is filled with alien landscapes which look like Earth, soldier/scientists who can do anything and everything with anything anywhere, random bits of hokey technology appear as if by magic to facilitate the pedestrian plot (this black box will make alien birds carry us into the fortress!) etc.

Platt’s prose is lacking all ability to convey human emotions.  After our Continue reading →

Book Review: Marune: Alastor 933, Jack Vance (1975)

/ Joachim Boaz / 6 Comments

(Darrell Sweet’s cover for the 1975 edition)

3.75/5 (Good)

Even though I’ve previously read only three of Jack Vance’s lesser known works, The Showboat World (1975), The Blue World (1966) and City of the Chasch (1968) I’ve come to appreciate his world building and solid story telling abilities.  Marune: Alastor 933 (1975), although not the best of his Alastor trilogy, is no exception.  I recommend the work for all fans of space opera, “fantasy in space,” and fans of Vance’s more famous works who haven’t yet tracked down other works of his substantial catalogue.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

This work of space opera takes place in the Alastor Cluster, a node Continue reading →