1990s

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Nuclear Explosions + Mushroom Clouds

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

(Ed Valigursky’s cover for the 1957 edition of Doomsday Eve (1957). Robert Moore Williams)

The nuclear scare produced some of the best dystopic visions ever put to paper — the devastation would be utter, complete, and the radiation, oh what fun science fiction authors and filmakers had with the effects of radiation.  A red spectrum! Mutations! Hybrid bug people!  Godzilla!  Women with two heads!  An endless assortments of monsters…  I’ve selected a wide range of covers depicting the actual nuclear explosion — not the after effects.  Families gaze from caves in dispair, watching the bomb incinerate their world.  People run helter-skelter away from the explosion.  Or, artists take a more stylized approach to the explosion — figures are cast upward amongst the wreckage of buildings. Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Underwater Expeditions (futuristic submarines, unusual sea life, underwater cities) Part I

/ Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1968 edition of Conquerors from the Darkness (1965), Robert Silverberg)

A cornucopia of underwater sci-fi cover art images!  As always, Paul Lehr’s covers are among my favorite for he masterfully renders the green-blue depths and textures of water inundated worlds (especially above, Conquerers from the Darkness).  Watery worlds evoke unusual underwater life, a place fraught with danger where humans and aliens meet, unusual cityscapes (domes, water impervious shields, a plethora of transport craft) and of course, the vehicles for transportation (for example below, the futuristic submarine in Treasure of the Black Flacon and 21st Century Submarine, etc)  evoke the same giddy sense of adventure as when first reading Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) or watching Richard Fleischer’s surprisingly good 1954 film adaptation of the novel.

There are countless films, sci-fi TV shows, novels, short stories Continue reading →

Updates: Visit + Submit to the BSFA Award Nominated Review Site SF Mistressworks

/ Joachim Boaz / Leave a comment

   

Hello all,  Ian Sales’ wonderful SF Mistressworks (link), a review collating blog, has recently been nominated for the BSFA award (British Science Fiction Association) in the non-fiction category (link for the list).  I’ve submitted nine of my reviews of sci-fi works written by women over the last few months.  It was created in direct response to the absence of sci-fi masterpieces by women on a list by The Guardian, a lack of general knowledge in the sci-fi community about early female pioneers in the genre, and general lack of readership for their many award-winning works.

If you’ve written reviews of science fiction works by women (the novels/short story collections need to be written before 2000) please submit them as well (500 words or so is preferred)!  So, gather up any Russ, Norton, Cherryh, C. L. Moore, Merril, Brackett, Piserchia, Le Guin, MacLean, Butler, etc etc etc reviews you might have on your blog or anywhere else.  It’s a great resource for finding seldom read works/authors which deserve a greater readership. Continue reading →