Books and short story collections from three of my favorite science fiction authors — Barry N. Malzberg, D. G. Compton, and Robert Silverberg…  A review of Malzberg’s masterpiece Revelations (1972) — almost as good as Beyond Apollo (1972) — is forthcoming.

I’ve recently discovered Marx Books — an online bookstore run by a retired professor (at Texas Tech University) and avid science fiction collector.  His collection is substantial and most importantly, he only bills you for the exact shipping (not sure if he ships internationally).  So, no $3.99 a book as Amazon does!  Instead, $3 shipping total for seven books!  Because Malzberg novels, and his short story collections, are so hard to find in used book stores it’s always nice to know I can pick up a copy quite cheaply online.

Another Richard Powers cover for my collection….

1. Revelations, Barry N. Malzberg (1972) (MY REVIEW)

(Uncredited cover for the 1972 edition)

From the back cover of the 1977 edition: “REVELATIONS is the TV show of the future.  In an age when the monstrous impersonal forces of technology have left mankind emotionally withdrawn and disconnected, millions of Americans turn to the vulgar confessions of REVELATIONS.  REVELATIONS — where contestants are humiliated  and even the most intimate sexual details are ruthlessly laid bare.  REVELATIONS — a brutal stab at the naked nerve of connection, in a fragmented world where the machine has stolen the heart of man!

Then why is Walter Monaghan, ex-astronaut and traveler in the oceans of space, so desperate to appear on Revelations?”

2. Out From Ganymede, Barry N. Malzberg (1974)

(Ken Longtemps’ cover for the 1974 edition)

From the back cover: “Can man cope with the future shock of OTHER WORLDS?  Can he counter an ultimatum posed by Martians?  Can he handle the gift of the power to control others through mind-domination?  Can he face an eternity of programmed conflict?  With an understanding of human limitations and an unlimited imaginations, Barry Malzberg probes  the imponderable future…”

3. Farewell, Earth’s Bliss, D. G. Compton (1966) (MY REVIEW)

(Karel Thole’s cover for the 1971 edition)

From the back cover: “The time is the future; space travel has encompassed Mars, finding it barren, without mineral resources, useful only as a dumping ground for socially unacceptable humanity — a later-day convict settlement.  A new shipload of deportees lands, and the twenty-four new colonists, male and female alike, have to adjust themselves to the harsh life here, and to the unexpected new social patterns that have developed for defenses against the hostile Martian environment.  Before long, as the colony is shaken by dangers from within and without, the struggle becomes the most basic of all — not for comfort, but for survival itself.”

4. Needle in a Timestack, Robert Silverberg (1966)

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1966 edition)

From the inside flap: “Ten superb stories… some of which are as terrifying as others are funny — and not a few of which are both.  How much do you believe when you see news stories of the war (pick any of several that are going right not) on your omnivorous idiot box?

Or maybe you prefer an inspirational, up-lifting, almost real-life drama people with doctors and nurses — incredibly handsome, incredibly young, incredibly wise.  Don’t laugh.  It could happen.  And make a whirling dervish of Hippocrates.

Or like, sometime your grandchildren might ask you what it was like in the good old days before robots.  It was good.  So enjoy it while it lasts.  Never mind precognitive nostalgia.

Its all here.  Robots, time travel, alien cultures, social change, even a bug-eyed monster — but all with the indefinable touch of intelligent acerbity that spells Robert Silverberg.”