1970s

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLX (Jack Vance, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Thom Keyes, and Kenneth Bulmer)

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Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Jack Vance’s Galactic Effectuator (1980)

  • David Mattingly’s cover for the 1981 edition

From the back cover: “Meet Miro Hetzel, Galactic Effectuator. He’s part gentlemen, part detective, part fraud, and his trail of exploits cuts through some of the more improbably civilizations in the universe. Join him in a trip to the planet Maz, whose natives are so fierce that they’ll fight three battle before lunch and then dine on the enemy–a planet that only a man with Miro Hetzel’s steely nerve would dare to visit at all.”

Initial Thoughts: This is a fix-up novel containing “The Dogtown Tourist Agency” (1975) and “Freitzke’s Turn” (1977). I previously reviewed “Freitzke’s Turn” (1977) and did not classify it amongst Vance’s best. As many know, I’ve soured a bit on Vance in the last decade. That said, I still think novels like Wyst: Alastor, 1716 (1978) and Emphyrio (1969) are worth the read.

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Book Review: Knut Faldbakken’s Sweetwater (1976, trans. Joan Tate, 1994)

/ Joachim Boaz / 9 Comments

Preliminary note: This review originally appeared in the inaugural issue of Rachel S. Cordasco’s new magazine Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. You can read the entire issue for free here! I plan on contributing one review of pre-1985 SFF in translation for each issue. In addition to my review, there’s a fantastic range of other articles and interviews.

  • Iain Stuart’s cover for the 1994 edition

4.5/5 (Very Good)

Knut Faldbakken (1941-), a prolific Norwegian novelist, wrote a science-fictional duology titled Sweetwater early in his career. The first volume, Twilight Country (1974, trans. Joan Tate, 1993), followed an odd collection of refugees from a disintegrating urban metropolis, the titular Sweetwater, as they cast off the entangling membranes of lost paths and the weight of melancholy souls and attempt to chart a new beginning in the city Dump.

In volume two, Sweetwater (1976, trans. Joan Tate, 1994), a deathly equilibrium is reached. In an obliquely hinted at dystopia, the city slowly withers and depopulates due to the effects of global warming, industrialization, and malignant societal decay. As the city dies, less and less refuse enters the Dump. The community of outcasts, who inhabit a collection of huts around a camper and crumbling home with small garden plots surrounded by refuse, can no longer scavenge for supplies and food. They must abandon the uncertain topography of the Dump and return to the city. 

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What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

/ Joachim Boaz / 32 Comments

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

  • A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

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Exploration Log 13: Interview with Matthew I. Thompson, author of On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026)

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  • Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.

Over the last few years, I have highlighted a smattering of the vast range of spectacular scholarship on science fiction in my reviews and Exploration Log series that intrigue me.1 Today I have an interview with Matthew I. Thompson, author of the brand new book On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Due to the focus of my site and research interests, I focused my questions primarily on the historical rather than theory-focused sections of his book.

You can buy a copy directly from University of Minnesota Press here or on Amazon. Paperbacks copies are relatively inexpensive ($28) for an academic press.

Let’s get to the interview and the intersections of the environmentalist movement and dystopian science fiction film!

  • Graphic created by my father

1. Thank you so much for agreeing to this interview. Can you introduce yourself and your interest in science fiction cinema?

Thanks so much for having me! My name is Matthew I. Thompson and I am an assistant professor of film studies at the University of Regina. My interest in science fiction began early, as my mom introduced me to the sf cannon. I remember watching the original Star Wars trilogy (1977, 80, 83) and Blade Runner (1982) on VHS and reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979) and The Left Hand of Darkness (1969). I’ve always loved how good sf establishes a world with its own internal rules and atmosphere. I’m especially into the terminology for as-yet un-invented technologies that are taken for granted in the world of the story.

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Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLVIII (Eric Frank Russell, Ben Bova, Pat Frank, and John Collier)

/ Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Men, Martians, and Machines, Eric Frank Russell (1955)

  • Paul Lehr’s–uncredited but certainly his style–cover for the 1965 edition

From the back cover: “VOYAGE OF THE MARATHON. Even at the time when space ships were making regular voyages across the universe, the MARATHON was a remarkable craft. Powered by the Flettner system, its speed was so great that for the first time exploration of the outer galaxies was made possible.

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Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLVII (Edgar Pangborn, Rudy Rucker, Sally Miller Gearhart, and a SF anthology)

/ Joachim Boaz / 21 Comments

Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

The first purchases of 2026!

1. A Mirror For Observers, Edgar Pangborn (1954)

  • Richard Powers’ cover for the 1985 edition

From the back cover: “We would call them Martians, though they refer to themselves as Salvayans. Refugees from their dying planet, they arrived on our world almost 30,000 years ago to make new lives for themselves. From their vast underground cities, hidden from discovery, the Salvayans have ben observing us with care and concern, waiting for the day when humans will be ready to meet them. The Salvayans are not many, but they are long-lived and patient….

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Exploration Log 12: Adam Rowe on the Best Retro Science Fiction Art Collections

/ Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments
  • Jim Burns’ cover for the 1st edition of Mechanismo (1978)

I would like to welcome Adam Rowe again to Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations. Back in 2023, I interviewed him about his lovely book Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s (2023)–on 70s science fiction cover art with a foreword by SF artist Vincent Di Fate. You can buy Worlds Beyond Time on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. You can follow Adam’s art account on Bluesky and Tumblr. I also recommend subscribing to his free 70s SF art newsletter.

Adam Rowe is a writer who has been collecting retro science fiction art online since 2013. He covers technology at Tech.co and has been a Forbes contributor on publishing and the business of storytelling. He has also written for iO9, Popular Mechanics, Reactormag.com (previously Tor.com), and the Barnes & Noble Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog. Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s (2023) is his first book.

  • Graphic created by my father

Your Guide to the Best Retro Science Fiction Art Collections

Adam Rowe

I’ve read a lot of art books covering science fiction in the 20th century. This likely isn’t a big surprise, given that I sunk more than a few years into compiling my own retrospective art collection, Worlds Beyond Time: Sci-Fi Art of the 1970s. 

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Short Story Review: Herbert W. Franke’s “Slum” (1970, trans. by Chris Herriman 1973)

/ Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

Today I’m joined again by Rachel S. Cordasco, the creator of the indispensable website and resource Speculative Fiction in Translation, for the seventh installment of our series exploring non-English language SF worlds. Last time we covered Izumi Suzuki’s disturbed shocker “Terminal Boredom” (1984, trans. by Daniel Joseph 2021).

Please note that Rachel and I are interested in learning about a large range of authors and works vs. only tracking down the best. That means we’ll encounter some stinkers. This time we have an interesting German-language tale of ecological dystopia from Austria.

You can read Herbert W. Franke’s “Slum” (1970, trans. by Chris Herriman 1973) here if you have an Internet Archive account. This is an six page story. It’s really hard to talk about it in any substantial way without revealing spoilers.

Thank you Cora Buhlert for the recommendation!

Enjoy!

  • Gianni Benvenuti’s cover for the 1978 edition

Rachel S. Cordasco’s Review

Austrian-born author and cyberneticist Herbert W. Franke used speculative fiction to imagine distant planets and alternative societies for over half a century. Known to Anglophone readers mostly for three novels translated in the 1970s (The Orchid Cage, The Mind Net, and Zone Null) and a few short stories, Franke asked readers to think through what “exploration” really means and the responsibilities that the explorers have to those whom they find (or don’t find). Appearing first in English in F&SF (1963), Franke was subsequently featured in Franz Rottensteiner’s three major SFT anthologies: View From Another Shore: European Science Fiction (1973),The Best of Austrian Science Fiction (2001), and The Black Mirror and Other Stories: An Anthology of Science Fiction from Germany and Austria (2008). Other Franke stories appeared in Donald A. Wollheim’s The Best from the Rest of the World (1976) and James Gunn’sThe Road to Science Fiction 6: Around the World (1998).

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My 2025 in Review (Best Science Fiction Novels and Short Fiction, Reading Initiatives, and Bonus Categories)

/ Joachim Boaz / 40 Comments
  • Graphic created by my father

Here’s to happy reading in 2026! I hope you had a successful reading year. Whether you are a lurker, occasional visitor, a regular commenter, a follower on Bluesky or Mastodon, thank you for your continued support. As I say year after year, It’s hard to express how important (and encouraging) the discussions that occur in the comments, social media, and via email are to me. I’m so thankful for the lovely and supportive community of readers, writers, and discussion partners that stop by.

What were your favorite vintage SF reads–published pre-1985–of 2025? Let me know in the comments.

Throughout the later part of the year I’ve dropped hints about a research project. Perceptive readers might have parsed together the contours of the research: late 19th/early 20th century, utopian, African American, the American South, radical politics… It’s taking longer than expected. I’ve read a good ten monographs, five dissertations, countless articles. I’ve written twenty pages. I hoped to have it posted by early in this year. Alas. It’s coming together–slowly. Stay tuned.

Without further ado, here are my favorite novels (I only read a few) and short stories (I read a ton of those) I read in 2025 with bonus categories. I made sure to link my longer reviews where applicable if you want a deeper dive.

Check out my 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021 rundowns if you haven’t already. I have archived all my annual rundowns on my article index page if you wanted to peruse earlier years.

My Top 5 Science Fiction Novels of 2025

  • Alan Gutierrez’s cover for the 1985 edition

1. Octavia E. Butler’s Clay’s Ark (1984), 4.5/5 (Very Good). Full review.

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