Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Look, I’m Actually a Robot (chest flaps, faux skin, mechanical brains)

February 24, 2013February 25, 2013 / Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

(Gray Morrow’s cover for the the December 1964 issue of If)

One of Philip K. Dick’s trademark narrative devices is a character’s realization that they are not human as they previously believed but rather a robot — for example in one of my favorite sci-fi short stories, ‘Impostor’. Generally these bewildered robots float to the ceiling and explode, which has to be one of the more terrifying and cataclysmic revelations possible (the knowledge itself and the devastation caused).

Unfortunately, cover artists don’t attempt to depict that sort of “look, I’m a robot” type Continue reading →

Book Review: The Sea is Boiling Hot, George Bamber (1971)

February 23, 2013June 20, 2019 / Joachim Boaz / 22 Comments

(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the 1971 edition)

2/5 (Bad)

The Sea is Boiling Hot (1971), George Bamber’s sole novel length contribution to the genre (thankfully), is the unabashedly pornographic version of the ecological disaster, humanity cooped-up in massive domed cities, let’s all get lobotomies to escape the horrors of the world science fiction. As in, large portions of the narrative are endless sex scenes all gussied up with the accouterments of ecological “message” science fiction.

Unfortunately the sex scenes are there, in all their endless variation, simply to titillate to the reader rather than a necessary part of world building/character analysis — I’m thinking of Silverberg’s Continue reading →

Book Review: A Martian Odyssey and Other Classics of Science Fiction, Stanley G. Weinbaum (1962)

February 20, 2013October 16, 2019 / Joachim Boaz / 35 Comments

(Robert E. Schulz’s cover for the 1966 edition)

3/5 (collated rating: Average)

After reading Joanna Russ’ nihilistic downer (but brilliant nevertheless) We Who Are About To… (1976) I needed to decompress with some 30s pulp. I’m generally not a fan of pulp unless it attempts to integrate social science fiction elements or creates a vibrant/otherworldly sense of wonder. Thankfully, this collection of Stanley G. Wienbaum’s stories contains one of the most influential pulp science fiction shorts due to its descriptions of aliens — ‘A Martian Odyssey’ (1934).

For anyone interested in the history of the genre and 30s pulp, Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Composite Cover (illustrating a multiplicity of scenes, stories, thematic elements) Part II

February 18, 2013July 14, 2021 / Joachim Boaz / 22 Comments

(Vincent di Fate’s cover for the 1975 edition of The Other Side of Tomorrow (1973), ed. Roger Elwood)

My second composite cover post — here’s a link to Part I if you missed it. I’ve included a few covers by Vincent di Fate who has always been one of my favorite illustrators of the 1970s. His cover for The Other Side of Tomorrow (1973) is top-notch. A conglomerations of screens are placed on a barren stylized landscape where two figures gaze intently at them. Each screen shows a different scene, a space station, spaceships, a boy’s contemplative face, an old man — and, a ringed planet looms in the background. Whether or not the screens illustrate individual stories in the collection is unclear — regardless, the composite nature of the illustration is Continue reading →

Book Review: We Who Are About To…, Joanna Russ (1976)

February 16, 2013June 20, 2019 / Joachim Boaz / 31 Comments

(The hideous uncredited cover for the 1977 edition)

5/5 (Masterpiece: *caveats below*)

We Who Are About To… (1976) is the third of Joanna Russ’ science fiction novels I’ve read over the past few years. For some reason I was unable gather the courage to review The Female Man (1975) and might have been too enthusiastic about And Chaos Died (1970). We Who Are About To… is superior to both (although, not as historically important for the genre as The Female Man). This is in part because Russ refines her prose — it is vivid, scathing, and rather minimalist in comparison to her previous compositions — and creates the perfect hellish microcosm for her ruminations on the nature of history, societal expectation, memory, and death.

Highly recommended for fans of feminist + literary Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Maze (literal and metaphoric manifestations)

February 14, 2013February 14, 2013 / Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

(Jim Steranko’s cover for the 1971 edition of The Shores of Tomorrow (1971), David Mason)

The covers for this post are both literal and metaphoric mazes. Most come from two intriguing and highly recommended novels about mazes — no surprise there — Robert Silverberg’s brilliant The Man in the Maze (1968) and Philip K. Dick’s bizarre, hallucinatory, depressing as all hell A Maze of Death (1970). The artist of the uncredited cover for the 1971 edition and Don Punchatz’s cover for the 1969 edition of Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. LVIII (Tiptree, Jr. + Shaw + Bamber + Rossiter)

February 13, 2013February 25, 2013 / Joachim Boaz / 11 Comments

An eclectic grab bag of books… The last remaining gifts from 2thD… And a few from bookstores I’ve visited over the past few months. Two are complete mysteries — Bamber’s The Sea is Boiling Hot (1971) and Rossiter’s Tetrasomy Two (1974) — both author’s only published sci-fi novel. I don’t have high hopes — although, the premise of the former is fantastic — domed cities and over pollution!

My second collection of Tiptree shorts — was impressed with a handful of stories in her most famous collection Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home (1973). I find her work hit or miss… Unfortunately, there are some books that I can never convince myself to review. Although published in the 80s, Byte Beautiful (1985) contains mostly 70s stories so it is firmly within my era….

And Shaw, well, Shaw is Shaw — utterly average but always (at least so far) suprisingly satisfying…

1. The Sea is Boiling Hot, George Bamber (1971) (MY REVIEW)

(Jack Gaughan’s cover for the Continue reading →

Book Review: Who Can Replace a Man? (variant title: Best Science Fiction Stories of Brian W. Aldiss), Brian W. Aldiss (1965)

February 13, 2013June 20, 2019 / Joachim Boaz / 18 Comments

(Don Puchatz’s cover for the 1967 edition)

4/5 (collated rating: Good)

Seven of the 1950s short stories in Brian W. Aldiss’ best of collection Who Can Replace a Man? (1965) I’ve reviewed before in No Time Like Tomorrow (1959) and Galaxies Like Grains of Sand (1960). However, the collection contains seven additional 50s and 60s novellas/short stories that make up the majority of pages. I’ve indicated the old material in the review with an asterisk Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Planetary Rovers + Exploration Craft + Transport Vehicles of the Future

February 6, 2013July 2, 2017 / Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

(Alex Schomburg’s cover for the November 1964 issue of Amazing Science Fiction and Fact)

I’ve put together a vast assortment of futuristic planetary transport vehicles — high tech lunar rovers, personal levitating (by mysterious forces) transport craft glorified cargo tractors, self-propelling robotic brains, large exploration vehicles trekking across vast alien landscapes… Due to the subject matter the art tends to be in the more realistic vein — à la the classic art of Chelsey Bonestell, Alex Schomburg, and other greats. The Paul Lehr’s cover for Robert Heinlein’s Farmer in the Sky (1950) adds a nice fantastical take on the subject.

I found that Chelsey Bonestell’s cover for the April 1955 issue of Continue reading →