science fiction

Book Review: Ossian’s Ride, Fred Hoyle (1959)

/ Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

SSNSRDSLDK1959.jpg

(Hoffman’s cover for the 1959 edition)

2.5/5 (Bad)

Fred Hoyle’s Ossian’s Ride (1959) is a disappointing sci-fi thriller which fails to live up to its intriguing premise: why is unusual technology flowing from unknown sources from far Western Ireland (a handy map is provided) beyond the Erin Curtain?  Get it, Ireland’s IRON CURTAIN…  This wobbly little thriller conjures but little thrill, the grand mystery is all too obvious/abrupt/giggle-inducing, and, most damaging, intended or not the political message is an endorsement of a police state as long as it encourages technological advancement.

The first edition cover proclaims Ossian’s Ride 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: Bright New Universe, Jack Williamson (1967)

/ Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

(John Schoenherr’s cover for the 1967 edition)

3.25/5 (Average)

Jack Williamson’s Bright New Universe (1967) is one part juvenile (young man trekking into space against the wishes of his family), one part 1960s social commentary on race, and one part 30s/40s pulp (look at that beehive alien!  Look at that sexy Asian girl alien!).  The hybridity is jarring and unsuccessful but shows Williamson’s valiant attempt to modify his earlier writing styles to the increasingly prevalent social science fiction of the 60s.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

In the middle of a gathering with his family and the family of his wealthy fiancée Kayren, Adam Cave (early 20s) calls off his wedding and declares that he will follow his father’s footsteps and 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 →

Book Review: Marune: Alastor 933, Jack Vance (1975)

/ Joachim Boaz / 6 Comments

(Darrell Sweet’s cover for the 1975 edition)

3.75/5 (Good)

Even though I’ve previously read only three of Jack Vance’s lesser known works, The Showboat World (1975), The Blue World (1966) and City of the Chasch (1968) I’ve come to appreciate his world building and solid story telling abilities.  Marune: Alastor 933 (1975), although not the best of his Alastor trilogy, is no exception.  I recommend the work for all fans of space opera, “fantasy in space,” and fans of Vance’s more famous works who haven’t yet tracked down other works of his substantial catalogue.

Brief Plot Summary (limited spoilers)

This work of space opera takes place in the Alastor Cluster, a node 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 →