Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XCI (Ballard + MacLean + Aldiss + Watson)

/ Joachim Boaz / 32 Comments

One of the better groups of acquisitions in a while!  After Katherine MacLean’s masterpiece Missing Man (1975) I was very excited to come across a collection of her late 40s and 50s short stories.  Unfortunately, my edition — from 1973— had such an awful cover that I couldn’t put in on this post.  Instead, I put the first edition cover by Paul Lehr which is simply gorgeous….

Ballard collections are always welcome!  I have all of his short works in a single volume but the Powers cover is top-notch.

One of Ian Watson’s most famous novels…

And an unknown work by Brian Aldiss,  Enemies of the System (1978)…  Has anyone read it?  I suspect it will be the weakest book of the bunch.

1. The Diploids, Katherine MacLean (1962)

(Uncredited — but looks like Lehr — cover for the 1962 edition) Continue reading →

Book Review: Strange Relations, Philip José Farmer (1960)

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

(Blanchard’s cover for the 1960 edition)

4/5 (collated rating: Good)

Blanchard’s abstract vaginal cover for the 1960 first edition of Philip José Farmer’s Strange Relations (1960) hints, just obliquely enough to avoid being explicit, at the collection’s radical and groundbreaking contents.  Nothing else existed like this from the 50s!  Having exploded onto the scene with the “transgressive” (SF encyclopedia) novella “The Lovers” (1952) (later expanded to novel length), Strange Relations (1960) collects a further five short works from the mid-50s and later on similar themes — theology, sex, xenobiology, Freud, and social satire.

Each work revolves around a particular Freudian scenario, a Freudian fantasy.  One can imagine that authors such as Barry N. Malzberg Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XC (Wilhelm + Watson + Farmer + Bryant)

/ Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments

More Dallas, TX Half Price Book finds… and a few gifts from 2theD at Potpourri of Science Fiction Literature (found on one of his infrequent trips to the states).

Can’t wait to tackle the Ian Watson collection — Ian Sales has characterized him one of the treasure of the British SF (I’ll post a book of his in the coming weeks).  Wilhelm’s extensive reputation seems to be based mostly on her Hugo-winning fix-up novel, Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976).  It’s unfortunate that few read her other novels and short story collections.  The Nebula-nominated Margaret and I (1971) is a welcome edition to my collection.

I’ve not had success with Philip José Farmer in the past—To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971) might be the worst novel to win a Hugo—but the collection of 50s novelettes Strange Relations (1960) was too good to pass up.

And finally, my find of the holiday break, a SIGNED (with personal note) copy of Edward Bryant’s collection Cinnabar (1976)!  For a mere two dollars (incorrectly placed in the non-signed SF books)….

1. The Very Slow Time Machine, Ian Watson (1979) (MY REVIEW)

(Paul Alexander’s cover for the 1979 edition) Continue reading →

Book Review: To Open the Sky, Robert Silverberg (1967)

/ Joachim Boaz / 22 Comments

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1967 edition)

3.5/5 (Good)

“And there is light, before and beyond our vision, for which we give thanks.  And there is heat, for which we are humble.  And there is power, for which we count ourselves blessed.  Blessed be Balmer, who gave us wavelengths.  Blessed be Bohr, who brought us understanding.  Blessed be Lyman, who saw beyond sight.  Tell us now the stations of the spectrum […]” (3).

Robert Silverberg’s To Open the Sky (1967) is an enjoyable pulp future history with a somewhat “different” premise–religion will be the main force that facilitates mankind’s exploration of the stars.  In his intro of 1978 edition he discusses how the project came about.  In the early 60s Frederik Pohl became his editor and allowed him to published, for the first time, SF “for love rather than money” (II).  Up to this point Silverberg had never attempted, other than in the briefest sketch form,  to extrapolate an entire future history à la Olaf Stapleton or Isaac Asimov.  Silverberg’s vision is nowhere as complex Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Space Station, Part IV

/ Joachim Boaz / 12 Comments

192dc8791f8ad474dd5bfcf367a3fe82

(Uncredited cover for the 1963 edition of The Changeling Worlds (1959), Kenneth Bulmer)

Part IV of my space station themed sequence (Part I, Part II, Part III)–if you have not yet checked them out I recommend you do.

Vincent Di Fate is the master of space station art.  They are hyper realistic and detailed.  Although I definitely prefer his earlier surrealist work (for example, here) there is a certain appeal to more technical depictions of future space technology.  However, my favorite of the handful Di Fate pieces I cobbled together is his for the 1975 edition of The Other Side of Tomorrow (1973)—the screens are windows into the future, and a space station is featured prominently.  I sort of enjoy Bob Eggleton’s cover for the 1993 Italian edition of To Open the Sky (1967) as well—although I suspect the cover was published on an English language book earlier, Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. LXXXV (Fowler + Bishop + Brunner + Blish)

/ Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

Dallas Part V (and some older finds) (Part IV, Part III, Part II, Part I)!

Love Brunner, want his short stories, enough said….

Also, I have a love hate relationship with Blish (love his “hard” SF and dislike his juveniles of which he wrote a many and often in a “hard” SF series)—The Frozen Year (1957) supposedly is his attempt at a “realistic” SF novel.  I’ll just have to see…  I feel weirdly compelled to read it.

As for the Karen Joy Fowler collection—yes, she wrote in the 80s!—the book sorters at the Half Price Books failed to realized that it was a signed copy!  So for a mere dollar I now have only my second signed SF work after D. G. Compton’s Scudder’s Game (1988).  As people have probably realized, I completely eschew conventions and have little connection with fandom and thus do not go out of my way to procure signed editions…

Michael Bishp=one of my new favorite authors (after reading Beneath the Shattered Moons and A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire).  Hence, Catacomb Years (1979) is a welcome addition to my collection.

Thoughts?

1. No Future in It, John Brunner (1962)

(Uncredited cover for the 1965 edition) Continue reading →

Book Review: A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire, Michael Bishop (1975*)

/ Joachim Boaz / 27 Comments

funeral

(Gene Szafran’s cover for the 1975 edition)

Nominated for the 1976 Nebula Award for Best Novel

5/5  (Masterpiece)

*First, a preliminary note on the publication history:  I read the original, unabridged 1975 edition.  However, Michael Bishop “completely rewrote” the novel in 1980 (according to ISFDB and his introduction to the later edition).  The 1980 rewrite—initially titled Eyes of Fire but later confusingly released under the original title, A Funeral For the Eyes of Fire-–was the one republished and recently available as an eBook through SF Gateway according to Bishop’s wishes.  I would prefer my readers, if they are interested in the volume, to not hesitate in snatching up the original.  I suspect both are worth reading.

Fresh off Michael Bishop’s strangely wonderful And Strange at Ecbatan the Trees (variant title: Beneath the Shattered Moons) (1976) I eagerly devoured his first published novel, A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975)—and with this work, bluntly put, he enters my pantheon of favorite SF authors.  Bishop, completely in command of his narrative, weaves together a literary and anthropological tapestry filled with stories within stories and delicate interplay between these layers.

The deceptively simple premise unfurls into a complex and moving meditation on culture clash and the power of ritual, threatening at every moment to explode into violence.  This is perhaps the most sophisticated rumination I  Continue reading →

Book Review: Yesterday’s Children (variant title: Starhunt*), David Gerrold (1972)

/ Joachim Boaz / 20 Comments

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1972 edition)

3/5 (Average)

*The 1980 edition, still under the title Yesterday’s Children, was substantially rewritten.  In 1985 David Gerrold released it under a new title, Starhunt.  This is a review for the original 1972 edition.  I have not read the later rewrite so I am unsure how much was modified.

David Gerrold, best known for writing the famous Star Trek: The Original Series episode “The Trouble With Tribbles” (1967), has continuously produced SF novels since the early 70s.  I had previously read the disappointing Space Skimmer (1972) which combined a fascinating premise with puff-puppies, annoying princes, and bad poetry.  Yesterday’s Children (1972) (variant title: Starhunt) likewise combines a fascinating premise with a less than satisfactory delivery, numerous narrative hiccups, and uneven tone and characterization.  I am not surprised that the novel was rewritten due to the slightly rough Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. LXXXIV (Pohl + Brown + Biggle, Jr. + Darnay)

/ Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments

Some goodies! Half Price Books in Dallas, TX Part IV (Part I, Part II, Part III)…

Some early satire by the late master, Frederik Pohl—Drunkard’s Walk (1960).  An early metafictional SF novel in the form of Frederic Brown’s Martians, Go Home (1955).  I suspect works such as this one, about a SF writer presented with a real alien invasion, inspired Brian N. Malzberg’s numerous similarly themed experiments.  Also, Brown is one of the more famous 50s/60s authors I’ve yet to read.

Added to the mix are two unknown quantities—Arsen Darnay’s post-apocalyptical A Hostage for Hinterland (1976) and Lloyd Biggle, Jr.’s All the Colors of Darkness (1963) with a wonderful (and bizarre to boot!) Hoot von Zitzewitz cover.

Any thoughts? Comments?

1. A Hostage for Hinterland, Arsen Darnay (1976)

(Boris Vallejo’s cover for the 1976 edition) Continue reading →