Gifts! Gifts! A varied haul — Spinrad, Herbert, Dickson, Niven, Norton…
1. The Solarians (1966), Norman Spinrad
Before Norman Spinrad’s metafictional if Hitler wrote a pulp extravaganza The Iron Dream (1972) and Bug Jack Barron (1969) there was The Solarians… Continue reading
This is the second post in a potential series of posts showcasing the science fiction cover art by Richard Powers (1921-1996). My first post discussed a few surrealist cityscape covers from the 1950s. Here I’ve selected a variety of surrealistic, composite, conglomerated, and masked faces from his 1970s covers.
A delightful green human shape — mouthless — replete with translucent hollows? emerging occupants or surfacing memories?
(Cover for the 1973 edition of All Flesh is Grass (1965), Clifford D. Simak)
The Eternal Frontiers utilizes another Continue reading
Oh the joys of amazon gift cards… And perusing dusty corners of local bookstores.
Here are my latest acquisitions.
1. Robert Silverberg’s World Inside (1971) (MY REVIEW HERE)
I’ve always enjoyed semi-dystopic works about the social ramifications of overpopulation (John Brunner’s Stand on Zanzibar is my all time favorite sci-fi novel). I wonder if Silverberg was inspired by Brunner’s work. I’ve yet to read a Silverberg novel and I’ve read that this is a pretty good effort. So, those factors contributed to my purchase.
2. Doris Piserchia’s Continue reading
3.75/5 (Good)
Barrington J. Bayley’s Collision Course (Collision with Chronos) (1973) is based on a fascinating hard sci-fi premise, the intersection of two time waves, one from the future heading into the past, and the “present”, heading Continue reading
4/5 (Good)
C. J. Cherryh’s Merchanter’s Luck is a heady brew of redemption, paranoia, fear, endless suspicion, and more paranoia. However, this work has markedly less of the seemingly-endless (and often unjustified) political manipulation that bogs down Cherryh’s more famous novels Cyteen and Downbelow Continue reading
1/5 (Drivel)
First:
Imagine a universe where art has evolved to the point where a single man can utilize images, computers, mythology, drugs, history etc to single handily bring about a monumental shift in a culture’s society––even bringing about a past “culture/realization of past” that had long since dissipated on a planet. Continue reading
3/5 (Average)
The Reefs of Space, by Frederick Pohl and Jack Williamson, is the first novel of the Starchild Trilogy (which includes Starchild and Rogue Star).
The novel follows the brilliant (and amnesia induced) scientist Continue reading
