SF Book Reviews

Book Review: One Million Tomorrows (variant title: 1 Million Tomorrows), Bob Shaw (1971)

/ Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

(Diane and Leon Dillon’s cover for the 1971 edition of One Million Tomorrows (1971), Bob Shaw)

3/5 (Average)

One Million Tomorrows (1971) is the second of Bob Shaw’s science fiction novels I’ve read.  The first, Ground Zero Man (1971), suffered from an extreme case of grating melodrama which weakened the insightful central message — the ever evolving danger (and nature) of nuclear war.

One Million Tomorrows attempts, in a dubious manner, to tackle another standard trope — immortality.  That is, immortality with a catch, the sterilization and complete loss of sexual drive of all men who take the drug.  Women, on the other-hand, become ageless and maintain whatever level of sexual desire they had when they took the Continue reading →

Book Review: The Lifeship, Harry Harrison and Gordon R. Dickson (1976)

/ Joachim Boaz / 9 Comments

3.5/5 (Good)

Harry Harrison and Gordon R. Dickson’s The Lifeship (1976) is two parts tense and exciting adventure in the expanse of space and one part half-hearted “key differences between individuals are overcome in the end” attempts at social commentary.  I found the first two-thirds of the work riveting.  Sadly, the final third devolves into a ramshackle and unpleasant mixture of save the world formulae and endless exposition at gunpoint about all the nefarious nooks and crannies of each and every plan, counter-plan, potential plan, half-realized plan, and unrealized plan soon to be fomented in the liminal realm of coalescing Continue reading →

Book Review: Missing Man, Katherine MacLean (1975)

/ Joachim Boaz / 23 Comments

5/5 (Near Masterpiece)

Nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel

Katherine MacLean’s underrated and seldom read novel Missing Man (1975) was expanded from her 1971 Nebula Award winning novella by the same name.  I’ve not read the original version so I’m unsure about how much was added, subtracted, or completely re-conceptualized.

The novel version is a finely wrought vision of a future post-disaster Balkanized New York City comprised of innumerable communes, often at war with each other, inhabited by a small number of slightly telepathic people who are able to detect the emotions of others.  Archetype individuals unknowingly project emotions when they are in danger which could at any moment plunge society into intercommune Continue reading →

Book Review: Assignment Nor’ Dyren, Sydney Van Scyoc (1973)

/ Joachim Boaz / 9 Comments

3.25/5 (Average)

Sydney Van Scyoc’s Assignment Nor’ Dyren (1973), inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), is a problematic yet generally enjoyable work.  I found that Van Scyoc is unable to maintain the sense of wonder she conjures so vividly in the first third.  Likewise, her prose tends to plod due to the descriptive restrictions she forces on herself (for example, describing each alien the main character encounters by their species).  Perhaps it’s unfair to compare  Assignment Nor’ Dyren to Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece — considered among the best science fiction works ever written — but the overwhelming impression Continue reading →

Book Review: Down to Earth (variant title: Antic Earth), Louis Charbonneau (1967)

/ Joachim Boaz / 5 Comments

down to earth louis charbonneau

2/5 (Bad)

The seductive combination of a beautiful cover by Paul Lehr, a seldom read author, a fascinating premise (well, at least from the back cover) appeared at first glance a glorious chance for the pen to wax delightfully on the glories everyone else missed out on.

As much as the esotericist delights in searching through back catalogues of dusty books the lack of extant information/reviews on the work entails risk.  If I had known the entire plot revolves around a vengeful/vindictive/insane man inflicting tortures (the PG-13 sort) on an unsuspecting family hanging out in space — à la a watered down version of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997) without its postmodern deconstruction of our desire Continue reading →

Book Review: The Light That Never Was, Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (1972)

/ Joachim Boaz / 7 Comments

3.25/5 (Average)

The Light That Never Was (1972) is an unusual take on space opera — there are no epic battles, voyages on spaceships, weird technology, or heroic figures.  Instead, the swirling eddies of interstellar change descend on a tourist planet replete with legions of rather atrocious, silly, and easily maleable “artists.”  The island of Zrilund on the plant of Donev is afflicted by a general artistic malaise — artists paint for the swarms of tourists which descend on the fountains and beaches of the island snatching Continue reading →

Book Review: The Alien Way, Gordon Dickson (1965)

/ Joachim Boaz / 1 Comment

3.75/5 (Good)

I was pleasantly surprised by Gordon R. Dickson’s intelligent and occasionally thought-provoking The Alien Way (1965).  Considering he’s famous for his military sf Dorsai! saga, the lack of epic space battles — i.e. inter-species conflict in the traditional manner — came as a shock.  There are a few instances of violence but they’re few and far between.

The ultimate message is a cautionary one — only when the pattern of human nature (its instincts, reactions, ets) is understood can non-violent contact be made with an alien species.   We react to protect our species just as animals react to protect their young.  Of course the aliens have to come to this realization Continue reading →

Book Review: A Life for the Stars, James Blish (1962)

/ Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

3.25/5 (Good)

A Life for the Stars is the second novel according to internal chronology in James Blish’s famous Cities in Flight series.  Unlike the much more serious first installment, They Shall Have Stars (1956), A Life for the Stars is generally regarded as a juvenile work (i.e. science fiction for a younger audience containing a positive moral message, an intelligent but poor teen boy Continue reading →