Part 2 of 5 acquisition posts covering my massive haul from Dawn Treader Books in Ann Arbor Michigan…. I suspect that if I lived nearby I’d slowly migrate their entire SF collection to my shelves. Two books below are by unknown authors (or at least to me) — Charles Runyon and D. Keith Mano. Runyon is supposedly average to bad (one of my risk buys) while Mano polarizes readers — he tends to be rather right wing in his views so it’ll be intriguing to see what he does with the dystopic future in The Bridge (1973). But, as with Runyon my expectations are low.
On the other hand, Malzberg’s The Men Inside (1971) seems to be one of his stranger works — I look forward to it. And despite how well-known Michael Bishop is I’ve yet to read any of his works so I’ll be reading Beneath the Shattered Moons (1976) soon.
Thoughts?
1. The Men Inside, Barry N. Malzberg (1971)
(Ron Walotsky’s cover for the 1971 edition)
From the back cover: “The messengers were at one and the same time the elite and the outcasts of society, chosen fro qualifications that were theirs only by the genetic accident of birth. Yet, for a selected few among the teeming millions of the under-life of the twenty-first century, to become a messenger for the Hulm institute was to escape the prison that was life, that was earth. They were the Chosen, the Apostles of a new religion, the forerunners of a happier, healthier time in which fear and want would be banished… and the world would be purified for eternity.”
2. The Bridge, D. Keith Mano (1973) (MY REVIEW)
(Uncredited cover for the 1974 edition — reminds me of Jerome Podwil)
From the back cover: “The time is the near future. Humanity has lost its will to live. Everywhere the primeval nature is reclaiming the earth from the species that has for so long dominated it. The government itself has abandoned the struggle and has even decreed the suicide of civilization. And in this nightmare world, only one man — Dominick Priest, a maverick revel — can reverse the fearful tide that is sweeping all humanity to oblivion…”
3. Beneath the Shattered Moons (variant title: And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees), Michael Bishop (1976) (MY REVIEW)
(H. R. Van Dongen’s cover for the 1977 edition)
From the inside cover: “Twelve thousand years in the future, on the island of Ongladred, mankind has survived two enigmatic, civilization-destroying setbacks. Now a third holocaust is anticipated. The people fear destruction from invading barbarians, the reappearance of a semi-mythical sea creature, and the devious intervention of the neo-human Parfects. This imminent disaster is very much the concern of Ingram Marley, a government spy sent to keep surveillance over Stonelore, a secluded haven and center of free thought on Ongladred, and Gabriel Elk, Stonelore’s resident genius. While panic and fear rage outside, deep inside Stonelore the mysteries of life are pursued — reanimation of the dead, the invention of powerful laser weapons, and the secrets of “old earth” knowledge. Amidst harrowing dangers of sea battles and land invasions, Michael Bishop explores the transformation of Ingram Marley, a man caught in the middle”
4. Pig World, Charles W. Runyon (1971)
(Uncredited cover for the 1973 edition)
From the back cover: “The Mind Slayer. He betrayed the revolution of the late 1970’s, despoiled its ideals, and used the most advanced technology to bring millions of minds under his absolute control. Ross. The world’s future depended on him, but the task was impossible — to regain control of the revolution, to defeat the most powerful dictator the world had ever known, and to destroy the Pig Wold.”