paperbacks

Book Review: Wyst: Alastor 1716, Jack Vance (1978)

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

(Eric Ladd’s cover for the 1978 edition)

4.25/5 (Good)

Wyst: Alastor 1716 (1978), the second book of the Alastor Trilogy I’ve read, is more involving, satirical, and thought-provoking than Marune: Alastor 933 (1975).  Each book takes place in the same star cluster so there’s no need to read them in order.  As with every Vance book I’ve had the pleasure to read, the world is vibrant, detailed, and believable.  And also with every Vance book I’ve had the pleasure to read, an unoriginal political intrigue-driven plot is grafted with varying degrees of success onto the world.

A Description of Wyst

The Alastor trilogy takes place in the Alastor cluster, a dense collection of stars ruled by the Connatic (who makes a brief appearance in this novel) from his palace on Numenes. Wyst, Alastor 1716, is comprised of the urban center Uncibal in Arrabus where the egalist utopian society resides, large rural regions with small Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Imprisoned in Glass Vials (of the metaphoric + medical + experimental variety)

/ Joachim Boaz / 32 Comments

(Uncredited cover for the 1969 edition of The Fortec Conspiracy (1968), Richard M. Garvin and Edmond G. Addeo)

Humans and aliens in glass vials of all shapes and sizes waiting to be measured, matured, tested, analyzed, exposed to a variety of chemicals and emulsions.  The artists often combine the iconic laboratory scene filled with the tools of the trade with sci-fi speculation on human experimentation (queue babies grown in containers in Brave New World).  The result, humans in tubes.  The effect is downright terrifying and one suspects, evokes a certain moribund fascination.  As with the famous introductory sequence in Brave New World, the reader is horrified by birth entirety regulated by machines.  Or, we are simultaneously titillated Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions XXXIII (Delany + Wyndham + Sturgeon + Knight + Ellison)

/ Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

My last batch of the summer from Austin, TX — as always a nice haul.  Unfortunately, I’m back home in a rather lackluster state for acquiring sci-fi.  Henceforth, amazon/abebooks it shall be!

Still haven’t tackled a Sturgeon collection yet — now I have three unread ones sitting in my to read stack.  I also added Delany’s first published novel, The Jewels of Aptor (1962), to my collection.  And some Ellison stories…  And three short novels (in one collection) by Damon Knight of whom I have a rather dubious opinion (see Beyond the Barrier).

Most importantly, another Wyndham novel (still haven’t read The Day of the Triffids which I’ve had for years and years and years).

1.  A Way Home, Theodore Sturgeon (1956) (MY REVIEW)

(Mel Hunter’s cover for the 1956 edition)

Continue reading →

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 →

Book Review: Planet of the Voles, Charles Platt (1971)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

(Paul Lehr’s cover for the 1972 edition)

1/5 (Terrible)

Charles Platt’s Planet of the Voles (1971) has a similar feel to one of the more atrocious episodes of Stargate SG-1.  In place of all the horridly butchered Egyptian mythology is a weird pseudo-mythology about the inevitability of a battle between the sexes uneasily pasted on an archetypal military sci-fi plot.  The work is filled with alien landscapes which look like Earth, soldier/scientists who can do anything and everything with anything anywhere, random bits of hokey technology appear as if by magic to facilitate the pedestrian plot (this black box will make alien birds carry us into the fortress!) etc.

Platt’s prose is lacking all ability to convey human emotions.  After our Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXXII (Cowper + Vance + Williamson + MacTyre)

/ Joachim Boaz / 16 Comments

As always Half Price Bookstore in Northern Austin, TX yielded a wonderful collection of sci-fi paperbacks…  I bought Doomsday, 1999 (1962) solely on the cover art — cool looking city exploding…  Richard Cowper’s Profundis (1979) on recommendation of my friend 2theD at Potpourri of Science Fiction Literature who waxed prophetic (hopefully)/intellectually about to joys of this seldom read author (well, his fantasy at least).  I personally, do not have high hopes considering the questionable nature of the back flap blurb.  My previous Williamson experiment, Trial of Terra (1962), had promise so I picked up one of his supposedly best works, Bright New Universe (1967).  And well, Vance is Vance and thus almost always worth reading….

1. Doomsday, 1999 (variant title: Midge),  Paul MacTyre (1962)

(Uncredited cover for the 1963 Continue reading →

Book Review: The Penultimate Truth, Philip K. Dick (1964)

/ Joachim Boaz / 16 Comments

(Uncredited cover for the 1964 edition)

4/5 (Good)

Although I’ve read a great majority of Philip K. Dick’s novels and short stories, I’ve only reviewed one of Philip K. Dick’s novels in the lifetime of this blog, The Man Who Japed (1956).  Despite not reaching the near perfection which characterizes his best works, The Penultimate Truth (1964) is worth the read.  The work’s premise is pure PKD.  As with his best, an uncanny sci-fi infused surrealism seeps from the pages….  However, the work is plagued by ramshackle editing, the unfortunate tendency to use words like “homeostatic” and “tropism” ever few pages, and an ungainly plethora of named characters who have little to no import in the novel creates unnecessary confusion.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

Most of the inhabitants of Earth, due to worries about an approaching nuclear war with the Soviets, retreated to massive underground facilities (Tom Mix Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: Spaceships Under Construction

/ Joachim Boaz / 11 Comments

(James B. Settles’ cover for the October 1948 issue of Amazing Stories)

A spaceship rearing from the plain, scaffolding surrounds its lithe form…  A classic image (the new Star Trek movie for example)!  Often utilizing a very traditional science fiction trope which I’ve dubbed Rocket Field Figure, cover art concerning spaceship construction is often more stylized than realistic.  My favorite is Carlo Jacono’s cover for the Italian edition of The Stars are Ours (1954).  I’m not sure that he is actually the artist due to the fact that MANY foreign editions use the work of American or British artists  modified slightly (this is not a hard fast rule, the work Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: My Top 15 Science Fiction Covers

/ Joachim Boaz / 28 Comments

1. Harold Bruder’s cover for the 1967 edition of Pyschogeist (1966), L. P. Davies.

Because everyone loves lists…

…I’ve selected from my collection of cover art, placed in no particular order, my fifteen favorite science fiction covers of all time.  Of course, lists being lists, and the fact that I’ve only seen a portion of all the covers ever made, it is incomplete and maleable.  Although many of the most famous sci-fi artists (Powers, Lehr, and pulp masters such as Wesso) feature, some of my favorites are by lesser known artists whose visual contributions to the field should not be forgotten (Bruder, Podwil, Foster, Schongut, etc).

A few points to consider: 1) The artist rarely had control over the font.  If the graphic designer responsible for putting together the final cover wasn’t up to snuff, the text often doesn’t Continue reading →