science fiction

Book Review: Assignment Nor’ Dyren, Sydney Van Scyoc (1973)

/ Joachim Boaz / 9 Comments

3.25/5 (Average)

Sydney Van Scyoc’s Assignment Nor’ Dyren (1973), inspired by Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), is a problematic yet generally enjoyable work.  I found that Van Scyoc is unable to maintain the sense of wonder she conjures so vividly in the first third.  Likewise, her prose tends to plod due to the descriptive restrictions she forces on herself (for example, describing each alien the main character encounters by their species).  Perhaps it’s unfair to compare  Assignment Nor’ Dyren to Ursula Le Guin’s masterpiece — considered among the best science fiction works ever written — but the overwhelming impression Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: A Selection of Vincent Di Fate’s early 70s Covers

/ Joachim Boaz / 18 Comments

(Cover for the 1972 edition of Plunder (1972), Ron Goulart)

The covers of Vincent Di Fate (1945-) often evoke a Terry Gilliam-esque romp — for example, Ron Goulart’s Plunder — a lone facade and a house dot a purple and green plain, mountains emerge in the distance, planets pepper the sky, a head floats ominously, a bizarre reptilian creature in a boatie rides an antique bicycle.  I desperately want to know if it’s a scene from the book.  If so, I’m tracking down a copy!

Vincent Di Fate’s work graced a few of the great works of the genre Continue reading →

Book Review: Down to Earth (variant title: Antic Earth), Louis Charbonneau (1967)

/ Joachim Boaz / 5 Comments

down to earth louis charbonneau

2/5 (Bad)

The seductive combination of a beautiful cover by Paul Lehr, a seldom read author, a fascinating premise (well, at least from the back cover) appeared at first glance a glorious chance for the pen to wax delightfully on the glories everyone else missed out on.

As much as the esotericist delights in searching through back catalogues of dusty books the lack of extant information/reviews on the work entails risk.  If I had known the entire plot revolves around a vengeful/vindictive/insane man inflicting tortures (the PG-13 sort) on an unsuspecting family hanging out in space — à la a watered down version of Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997) without its postmodern deconstruction of our desire Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions N. XII

/ Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

1. The Trial of Terra (1962), Jack Williamson (MY REVIEW)

I’ve only read one of Jack Williamson’s novels co-authored with Frederik Pohl The Reefs of Space (1964) so I thought I’d pick up a solo effort.  I don’t have high hopes but the general plot from the back cover sounds a lot like Star Trek’s Prime directive: “The Men of Earth were on the verge of breaking into space.  The first of their manned moon rockets was on its way to Luna.  Now, after ten thousand years, the celestial Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Art: Rampant Machines, The 60s Covers of Jerome Podwil

/ Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

I’ve never been a fan of A. E. van Vogt.  A while back, having just finished his “masterpiece” The World of Null-A (1948), I headed to the used book store and saw Jerome Podwil’s cover for Vogt’s sequel, The Players of Null-A (1966) and had to pick it up.  Simply put, it is a spectacular piece of art.  Discovering Podwil’s Calder-esque machine extending its limbs across the plain made me pay more attention to the covers as art and the artists who made them.  Hence this series of posts! (Adventures in Science Fiction Art Index)

(Are any of the books worth reading? What’s your favorite of his work (perhaps one I haven’t listed)?)

(Cover for the 1966 edition of The Players of Null-A (1966), A. E. van Vogt)

Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Best of Alex Schomburg’s 50s Novel Covers

/ Joachim Boaz / 119 Comments

(Alex Schomburg’s cover for the 1955 edition of Secret of the Martian Moons (1955), Donald A. Wollheim)

Spontaneously conjure with but a meer glance — Excitement! Wonder! Adventure!

The best of the covers of old 50s/60s juveniles (sci-fi for younger readers) always stirs the recumbent inklings of adolescent wonder…  Intrepid boy/men (sadly, rarely women) trek across the “expanses” of the space — rarely expansive, more like puddle jumping from planet to planet with the phrase, “and the hyperdrive shook the ship but John wasn’t afraid because he had once ridden a farm cart with one of them spooked horses back home in Smalltown, US of A” — discovering planets, setting up colonies, angering some weird looking Continue reading →

Book Review: The Light That Never Was, Lloyd Biggle, Jr. (1972)

/ Joachim Boaz / 7 Comments

3.25/5 (Average)

The Light That Never Was (1972) is an unusual take on space opera — there are no epic battles, voyages on spaceships, weird technology, or heroic figures.  Instead, the swirling eddies of interstellar change descend on a tourist planet replete with legions of rather atrocious, silly, and easily maleable “artists.”  The island of Zrilund on the plant of Donev is afflicted by a general artistic malaise — artists paint for the swarms of tourists which descend on the fountains and beaches of the island snatching Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Art of Robert Foster, Part I

/ Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

Robert Foster produced only a handful of science fiction covers.  The most inventive graced a span of Frederik Pohl novels and short story collections released by Ballantine Books in the late 60s.  Sadly, I can find no information about the artist himself online (if you do please let me know).  Here’s a selection of the most interesting, haunting, and spectacular…

Part II (here)

Mechanical man — a bedraggled simulacra. Nude woman — embodiment of flesh.  A lunar landscape greets them…

(ranks among my favorite covers of all time)

(Cover for the 1969 edition of Turn Left at Thursday (1961), Frederik Pohl) Continue reading →

Book Review: The Alien Way, Gordon Dickson (1965)

/ Joachim Boaz / 1 Comment

3.75/5 (Good)

I was pleasantly surprised by Gordon R. Dickson’s intelligent and occasionally thought-provoking The Alien Way (1965).  Considering he’s famous for his military sf Dorsai! saga, the lack of epic space battles — i.e. inter-species conflict in the traditional manner — came as a shock.  There are a few instances of violence but they’re few and far between.

The ultimate message is a cautionary one — only when the pattern of human nature (its instincts, reactions, ets) is understood can non-violent contact be made with an alien species.   We react to protect our species just as animals react to protect their young.  Of course the aliens have to come to this realization Continue reading →