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

/ 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)

/ Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

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(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)

/ 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)

/ Joachim Boaz / 18 Comments

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(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

/ Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

AMAZNOV1964

(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 →

Book Review: Beyond This Horizon, Robert A. Heinlein (magazine publication 1942, novelized 1948)

/ Joachim Boaz / 29 Comments

(Sandy Kossin’s cover for the 1960 edition)

2.5/5 (Bad)

Beyond This Horizon (magazine publication 1942, novelized 1948) was Robert A. Heinlein’s second published novel and one of the few non-juvenile works he published until the late 50s and early 60s.  Interesting tangent: Starship Troopers (1959) was originally conceived as a juvenile but rejected by his normal publisher due to its more serious content.

Unfortunately, Beyond this Horizon is plagued by an utterly contrived Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. LVII (del Rey + Knight + Pohl + Kornbluth + Weinbaum)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

A nice collection of old, venerable, classic authors….  I’ve yet to read any of Weinbaum’s pulp — a short story collection is probably a good place to start…. I was somewhat impressed with Lester del Rey’s The Eleventh Commandment (1962) so I look forward to his short stories — and, the fantastic Richard Powers collage cover will be a welcome addition to my collection.

1. A Martian Odyssey (variant title: A Martian Odyssey and Other Classics of Science Fiction), Stanley G. Weinbaum (1962) (MY REVIEW)

(Robert E. Shultz’s cover for the 1966 edition) Continue reading →

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

/ Joachim Boaz / 24 Comments

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(Ed Emshwiller’s cover for the 1954 edition of Murder in Space (1944), David V. Reed)

Ed Emshwiller’s cover for the 1954 edition of Murder in Space (1944) perfectly embodies the composite cover comprised of sequences from the narrative.  Our hero (or villain) plots the murder in the foreground (guns, books, furrowed brow), commits the murder in the background, his love interest looks over his left shoulder (she’s constantly on his mind), and some random astroids/planets (let’s call them space rocks), a spaceship, and a strange piece of technology alert us to the science fiction aspect of the narrative…  The uncredited cover for the 1955 edition of The Altered Continue reading →

Book Review: The Falling Astronauts, Barry N. Malzberg (1971)

/ Joachim Boaz / 25 Comments


(Davis Meltzer’s cover for the 1971 edition)

4.25/5 (Good)

The Falling Astronauts (1971) (from now on FA) is the first in Barry N. Malzberg’s thematic trilogy on the American space program.  Although not as engaging or experimental as the other two masterpieces in the sequence — Beyond Apollo (1972) and Revelations (1972), FA is highly readable and a notable work in Malzberg’s extensive corpus.  FA attempts to debunk the so-called cult (in part propagated by the media) of the astronaut (and his ideal family) and in so doing questions the ultimate purpose of the space Continue reading →