science fiction

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 →

Book Review: A Life for the Stars, James Blish (1962)

/ Joachim Boaz / 8 Comments

3.25/5 (Good)

A Life for the Stars is the second novel according to internal chronology in James Blish’s famous Cities in Flight series.  Unlike the much more serious first installment, They Shall Have Stars (1956), A Life for the Stars is generally regarded as a juvenile work (i.e. science fiction for a younger audience containing a positive moral message, an intelligent but poor teen boy Continue reading →

Book Review: The Unsleeping Eye (variant title: The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe), D. G. Compton (1974)

/ Joachim Boaz / 11 Comments

5/5 (Masterpiece)

I’d previously read four of D. G. Compton’s lesser known works before procuring a copy of his acknowledged masterpiece, The Unsleeping Eye (variant title: The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe) (1973).  The Unsleeping Eye far surpasses the remarkable The Steel Crocodile (1970) and Synthajoy (1968).  Many of the themes and techniques Compton uses in the other works of his I’ve read are honed to perfection and greatly expanded on:  strong intelligent female characters dominate the pages, Continue reading →

Book Review: Beyond the Barrier, Damon Knight (1964)

/ Joachim Boaz / 19 Comments

1/5 (Bad)

Damon Knight’s dismal Beyond the Barrier (1964) is all plot, lacks even the most cursory world development, makes no attempt to construct a “character”, and contains one of the single most ludicrous scenes I’ve encountered.  Knight is considered somewhat of a “master” of sci-fi but his supposed skills are not on show here (short stories?).  Yes, there’s adventure, intrigue, action, bizarre technology, green frog aliens, time travel, Earth core traversing oscillating field machines, and time  Continue reading →