avant-garde

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XXIII (Farmer, Malzberg + et al.)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

A while back I slogged through Philip José Farmer’s dismal To Your Scattered Bodies Go (1971) (the worst novel ever to win the Hugo Award?) and all the increasingly terrible sequels and made a solemn vow to wait a few years before I returned to his extensive oeuvre — so, against my better judgement I picked up a copy of  Traitor to the Living (1973).  I don’t have high hopes (but I love the cover!).  I hope my two dollars were well spent.

Malzberg is shaping into my “under read/unjustly forgotten author of the year” whom I’ll showcase.  Last year’s winner was the brilliant D. G. Compton (see INDEX for reviews).  Fresh off Conversations (1975) and In The Enclosure (1973) I picked up a copy of Guernica Night (1975).  I can’t wait!

Harold Mead’s The Bright Phoenix (1955) is yet another against the oppressive state à la Orwell’s 1984… But, I’ve found that the premise generally holds up despite frequent re-interpretations…

Greenfield’s Waters of Death (1967) should be avoided — at all cost.  I’ve already written a scathing review (rant).

1. Traitor to the Living (1973), Philip José Farmer (MY REVIEW)

(Hans Ulrich Osterwalder and Ute Continue reading →

Book Review: In The Enclosure, Barry N. Malzberg (1973)

/ Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments

(Davis Meltzer’s cover for the 1973 edition)

4.5/5 (Very Good)

Fresh off Malzberg’s intriguing young adult novel, Conversations (1975), I picked up a copy of the altogether more disturbing, transfixing, unnervingly prescient, and at moments, brilliant In The Enclosure (1972).  As with many of Malzberg’s oeuvre, the work is infused with a steady dose of metafiction — our hero laments (and we writhe along with him in a malaise of unease), “I will never really know” (189).  Just as Quir is unsure of his own reality, his diaristic words — which the reader is desperate to hold on to — are admittedly, “an impression, a conception, nothing more” (190).

Combining the science fiction trope of implanted memories with the literary narrative mode of the unreliable narrator creates an overwhelmingly uncomfortable gulf between reality and constructed reality.  The result, the overpowering desire to pick up a piece of pulp science fiction where the future is rosy, technology = happiness, the kids smart, where rockets Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XXI (Silverberg + Compton + Malzberg + Anderson)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

A few more Christmas gift card purchases…

Dying Inside (1972) is often considered one of Silverberg’s best works and I can’t wait to read it (I will after my soon to be hellish weekend grading ~60 undergrad history papers).  Despite a painfully negative review on Amazon slamming Compton’s The Silent Multitude (1967) as a dull imitation of J. G. Ballard, it is high on my to read list — almost any experimental (allegorical) work exploring a crumbling city intrigues me.  Malzberg’s Conversations (1975) was a shot in the dark — it might be the least read of any of his novels — hence, my interest.

Pohl Anderson is almost always worth reading — even his middling short stories are fun.

Enjoy!

1. Dying Inside, Robert Silverberg (1972)

(Jerry Thorp’s cover for Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XX (Clifton + Aldiss + et al.)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

Christmas giftcard expenditures continue…

An interesting collection of acquisitions — Clifton’s Eight Keys to Eden (1960) is considered, at least by the reviews I’ve found online, to be a little read classic — i.e. my kind of sci-fi novel.  Aldiss always has wonderful ideas and The Long Afternoon of Earth (variant title: Hothouse) is generally proclaimed one of his best — I’m still waiting for work which garners the same magic as his masterpiece Non-stop (variant title: Starship) (1958).

After reading Kornbluth’s masterful short story collection The Explorers (1953) I felt obligated to pick up a copy of one of the more famous Pohl + Kornbluth collaborations, Gladiator-In-Law (1954).

A few intriguing Malzberg stories in Future City (1973) compelled me to snatch one of his lesser known novels off of the shelf — In The Enclosure (1973) tells the story of an alien tortured by his human captives.  I find Malzberg’s relentlessly dark visions very appealing…  He has a HUGE catalog I’ve yet to read.

1. The Long Afternoon of Earth (variant title: Hothouse), Brian Aldiss (1962)

(Uncredited cover for the 1962 edition) Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XIX (Herbert + Aldiss + et al.)

/ Joachim Boaz / 6 Comments

Christmas = gift cards = more science fiction books, and a few my dad had procured for himself appeared miraculously in my pile — I’ve decided to break down the clump into manageable four book posts.

And of course, I wish you all a good sci-fi book hunting/reading year!

Enjoy!

1. The Santaroga Barrier, Frank Herbert (1968)

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1968 edition)

I’ve read a substantial number of Frank Herbert’s non-Dune Continue reading →

Book Review: Magellan, Colin Anderson (1970)

/ Joachim Boaz / 6 Comments

(Uncredited cover for the 1970 first edition)

3.5/5 (Good)

Magellan (1970), Colin Anderson’s only science fiction publication, is an inventive but emotionally hollow novel, overly brief, and lacking in sufficient prose to adequately convey the lengthy allegorical sequences.  It is a shame that Colin Anderson didn’t write other science fiction works because this one holds great potential.  The future evolution of mankind — waiting to be subsumed into a computer of their own making — is a fascinating premise.  The tepid  and unadventurous prose conflicts with the grand and audacious subject matter.

Brief Plot Summary (limited Continue reading →

Update: 2011 in review, best books, movies, etc

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

Here are my favorite films and science fiction novels I’ve reviewed this year (and some other interesting categories) with links to my reviews….

Watch them! Read them! Gaze at them!  (the array below….)

Best Science Fiction Novel (tie: The World Inside, The Unsleeping Eye, Hawksbill Station)

The World Inside (1971), Robert Silverberg (REVIEW) 5/5 (Masterpiece)

Silverberg’s The World Inside is a fascinating take on the theme of overpopulation — what if society was organized towards a single goal, propagation?  What would society look like?  What position in society would women occupy?  Men? What would cities look like? Hallways? Rooms? Institutions?  What happens to those who don’t fit in?  Or, can’t have children?

The Unsleeping Eye (variant title: Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XVIII (Disch + Silverberg + Pohl + Dickson + et. al.)

/ Joachim Boaz / 18 Comments

Half-Price Books in Dallas, Texas (its first location!) = bliss.

9 books = only 12 dollars. (curtesy of my girlfriend’s parents’ pre-Christmas gift)

What an amazing haul — and if I had known they were only going to be twelve dollars I would have picked up nine more.  Lots of Silverberg from his glory years…  Generation ships… City building machines… Weird psychic forcefields out beyond Pluto… Vietnam army camps experimenting with intelligence enhancing (and death inducing) syphilis strains…

1. Camp Concentration, Thomas M. Disch (1972)

(Uncredited cover for the 1971 edition) Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Doomed Cities (post-apocalyptical ruins, war-wrecked landscapes, burning winds)

/ Joachim Boaz / 14 Comments

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1959 edition of The Rest Must Die (1959), Kendell Foster Crossen)

The electricity turns off in a futuristic city and people turn into animals and everyone slowly kills each other, mysterious winds sweep through cities killing everyone, large machine minds take over, nuclear bombs destroy everything, intelligent dogs take over, the sun expands drying all the oceans, the sun expands (but not as much) and water floods over all the cities, aliens come with large guns and blow everything up, aliens come with brain probes and make others blow everything up, aliens pretend to be humans and annoy the humans enough so they blow each other up with nuclear bombs, people from the past go back in time and see that humans have blown everything up and they try to prevent the aliens from making the humans blow everything up, a bacterial agent from an alien kills everyone, Continue reading →