Author: Joachim Boaz

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 →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXXII (Cowper + Vance + Williamson + MacTyre)

/ Joachim Boaz / 16 Comments

As always Half Price Bookstore in Northern Austin, TX yielded a wonderful collection of sci-fi paperbacks…  I bought Doomsday, 1999 (1962) solely on the cover art — cool looking city exploding…  Richard Cowper’s Profundis (1979) on recommendation of my friend 2theD at Potpourri of Science Fiction Literature who waxed prophetic (hopefully)/intellectually about to joys of this seldom read author (well, his fantasy at least).  I personally, do not have high hopes considering the questionable nature of the back flap blurb.  My previous Williamson experiment, Trial of Terra (1962), had promise so I picked up one of his supposedly best works, Bright New Universe (1967).  And well, Vance is Vance and thus almost always worth reading….

1. Doomsday, 1999 (variant title: Midge),  Paul MacTyre (1962)

(Uncredited cover for the 1963 Continue reading →

Book Review: The Penultimate Truth, Philip K. Dick (1964)

/ Joachim Boaz / 16 Comments

(Uncredited cover for the 1964 edition)

4/5 (Good)

Although I’ve read a great majority of Philip K. Dick’s novels and short stories, I’ve only reviewed one of Philip K. Dick’s novels in the lifetime of this blog, The Man Who Japed (1956).  Despite not reaching the near perfection which characterizes his best works, The Penultimate Truth (1964) is worth the read.  The work’s premise is pure PKD.  As with his best, an uncanny sci-fi infused surrealism seeps from the pages….  However, the work is plagued by ramshackle editing, the unfortunate tendency to use words like “homeostatic” and “tropism” ever few pages, and an ungainly plethora of named characters who have little to no import in the novel creates unnecessary confusion.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

Most of the inhabitants of Earth, due to worries about an approaching nuclear war with the Soviets, retreated to massive underground facilities (Tom Mix Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Spaceships Under Construction

/ Joachim Boaz / 11 Comments

(James B. Settles’ cover for the October 1948 issue of Amazing Stories)

A spaceship rearing from the plain, scaffolding surrounds its lithe form…  A classic image (the new Star Trek movie for example)!  Often utilizing a very traditional science fiction trope which I’ve dubbed Rocket Field Figure, cover art concerning spaceship construction is often more stylized than realistic.  My favorite is Carlo Jacono’s cover for the Italian edition of The Stars are Ours (1954).  I’m not sure that he is actually the artist due to the fact that MANY foreign editions use the work of American or British artists  modified slightly (this is not a hard fast rule, the work Continue reading →

Book Review: Guernica Night, Barry N. Malzberg (1975)

/ Joachim Boaz / 2 Comments

(Tim White’s cover for the 1979 edition)

4.25/5 (Good)

Nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel

“Here we are in Disney Land/Disney World; clutching the strange hands of those with whom we came, we move slowly through the ropes under the chanting of the attendants, swatting insects of habitation, toward the exhibit of the martyred President.  The martyred President has become a manikin activated by machinery, tubes and wiring; he delivers selected portions of his famous addresses, stumbling back and forth […] (1)”

Guernica Night (1975) is the third of Barry N. Malzberg’s books I’ve read after Conversations (1975) and In the Enclosure (1973).  Although lacking the Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: My Top 15 Science Fiction Covers

/ Joachim Boaz / 28 Comments

1. Harold Bruder’s cover for the 1967 edition of Pyschogeist (1966), L. P. Davies.

Because everyone loves lists…

…I’ve selected from my collection of cover art, placed in no particular order, my fifteen favorite science fiction covers of all time.  Of course, lists being lists, and the fact that I’ve only seen a portion of all the covers ever made, it is incomplete and maleable.  Although many of the most famous sci-fi artists (Powers, Lehr, and pulp masters such as Wesso) feature, some of my favorites are by lesser known artists whose visual contributions to the field should not be forgotten (Bruder, Podwil, Foster, Schongut, etc).

A few points to consider: 1) The artist rarely had control over the font.  If the graphic designer responsible for putting together the final cover wasn’t up to snuff, the text often doesn’t Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Disembodied Brains, Part I

/ Joachim Boaz / 5 Comments

(Gerard Quinn’s cover for the December 1956 issue of New Worlds)

Disembodied brains — in large metal womb-like containers, floating in space or levitating in the air (you know, implying PSYCHIC POWER), pulsating in glass chambers, planets with brain-like undulations, pasted in the sky (GOD!, surprise) above the Garden of Eden replete with mechanical contrivances among the flowers and butterflies and naked people… The possibilities are endless, and more often than not, taken in rather absurd directions.

I’ve cobbled together a large variety of images from pulp magazines to covers from the late 70s.  My favorites include Valigrusky’s Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXXI (Dick + Zelazny + Tucker + Smith)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

Another wonderful assortment (some from Central Texas bookstores, some from my father as presents, some semi-forgotten works from a few months ago that I forgot to post about)…  Regardless, I’m almost finished Zelazny’s Jack of Shadows (1971) and am quite impressed (I loved This Immortal and Lord of Light).  Another PKD, Dr. Bloodmoney or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965),  swells my already extensive collection of his novels and short story collections — again, the premise is vintage PKD surrealism (girl with twin brother growing inside of her in a post-apocalyptical wasteland).  I bought the Wilson Tucker novel, Tomorrow Plus X (1956), because of the gorgeous Richard Powers cover…  A few of his works are supposedly readable, but this one is probably justly forgotten.  The Cordwainer Smith collection, Space Lords (1965), will be my first exposure to his work — very excited!  Now that I think about it, I do have a copy of Norstrilia (1975) languishing somewhere.

Enjoy!

1. Jack of Shadows, Roger Zelazny (1971)

(Robert Pepper’s cover for the 1972 Continue reading →