Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXX (Christopher + Benford + Shaw + Frank + et al.)

June 4, 2012July 7, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 16 Comments

My second batch of books from my youthful haunt (Austin, TX) is equally as varied and intriguing as the first. I’m most interested in Pat Frank’s famous late 50s classic Alas, Babylon. Yes, a sci-fi fan like me should have read it a LONG time ago. John Christopher’s The Long Winter (1962) should also prove a worthwhile read — an ice age hits Earth and the English main characters flee to Africa. Shaw’s Orbitsville (1975) is the the vein of Larry Niven’s more famous Ringworld (1970) and Arthur C. Clarke’s classic Rendezvous with Rama (1972) — explorers encountering unusual alien worlds (in this case, a dyson sphere).

As always, a few stunning covers… My favorite of the bunch is John Schoenherr’s cover for Mark Phillips’ Brain Twister (1962)…

Enjoy! If you’ve read any of the novels few free to comment. I’ve not read any of Benford, Frank, Mark Phillips (pseudonym for Laurence Janifer and Randall Garrett) or Platt’s works before.

1. In The Ocean of Night, Gregory Benford (1977)

(Larry Kresek’s cover for the 1977 edition) Continue reading →

Book Review: Station in Space, James Gunn (1958)

May 30, 2012August 11, 2019 / Joachim Boaz / 21 Comments

(Walter Murch and Jerry Powell’s cover for the 1958 edition)

collated rating: 3.75/5 (Good)

James Gunn’s Station in Space (1958) is an interconnected series of stories that form a cohesive chronologically organized whole tracking the development of human exploration into space (Earth –> first space flight –> first space station –> second space station –> Mars). Because multiple characters reappear in later stories and the earlier events all have a direct bearing the work must be read in order. The result is more a loose form novel than short story collection.

The most intriguing aspect of Gunn’s stories is the careful demystification of the glamor of space travel. Many of the works begin like a juvenile à la Heinlein or Blish where space travel is fun and rosy and easy as picking corn before Gunn’s brutal realist streak seeps in and overwhelms the pages. I suspect that Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Acquisitions No. XXIX (Dick + White + Harrison + et al.)

May 28, 2012December 26, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 24 Comments

A return to old familial haunts yields a heart warming stash of gems and a few radiating a more dubious aura…

And more Richard Powers’ covers for my growing collection….

Most importantly, I picked up my fourteenth or fifteenth Philip K. Dick novel! I will acquire ALL of them eventually.

And another Ace double — little did I know (but I should have guessed considering the egregious art and interior images) that is was sci-fi of the more comic variety. But, I wanted at least one of Lafferty’s novels after reading a few of his impressive short stories.

Enjoy!

1. Star Surgeon, James White (1963)

(Richard Powers’ cover for the 1963 edition) Continue reading →

Book Review: The Outcasts of Heaven Belt, Joan D. Vinge (1978)

May 22, 2012February 6, 2013 / Joachim Boaz / 13 Comments

(Vincent Di Fate’s cover for the 1978 edition)

3.25/5 (Average)

The title of Joan D. Vinge’s first novel, The Outcasts of Heaven Belt (1978), is an homage to The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1869) by the turn of the century western writer and poet Bret Harte. He is famous for his depictions of resourceful women in California pioneer settlements. Vinge creates a resourceful female captain of a powerful but weaponless spaceship who finds herself beset–with only a depleted crew–by a series of challenges in the decadent, grasping, and fractured pioneer societies of Heaven Belt. Although the often less than amicable conflict between the egalitarian society with powerful women and the male-focused pioneer cultures could be the focus of the novel, Vinge is less interested in exploring the social ramifications (à la Le Guin and other works of the previous decade — the 1960s). Instead, this conflict provides a suitable world-building backdrop for a traditional space opera — a bedraggled but technologically Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXVIII (Ace Doubles: Brunner, Dick, Delany, et al.)

May 1, 2012May 1, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 15 Comments

I’m the proud new owner of four ace doubles in remarkable condition! And considering the general quality of many of the Ace doubles, I consider it quite the haul. The contents: two early pulp works (of rather dubious quality) by John Brunner (one under his pseudonym Keith Woodcott), one early Philip K. Dick novel, two early Samuel Delany novels, and an assortment of works by lesser known authors (Tom Purdom, Jack Sharkey, and Bruce W. Ronald). I will devour the Philip K. Dick and John Brunner works — yes, Brunner’s early works are terrible but I’m a Brunner completest which requires a high pain threshold for his pre-Stand On Zanzibar (1968) works.

1. Captives of the Flame/The Psionic Menace (1963), Samuel R. Delany, John Brunner (as Keith Woodcott)

(Cover by Jack Gaughan Continue reading →

Updates: (New Resource) List of Generation Ship Novels and Short Stories

April 30, 2012November 7, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 22 Comments

I recently checked out a copy of Simone Caroti’s scholarly The Generation Starship In Science Fiction: A Critical History, 1934-2001 (2011) (amazon link) from my library — its appendix contains a wonderful list of generation starship novels and short stories (and the very first non-fiction attestations of this fascinating sci-fi concept).

I highly recommend the book for all aficionados of this particular sci-fi subgenre. Be warned, as a certain reviewer points out on amazon, it is a work of serious scholarship not a lighthearted romp projecting future developments. It is not a complete list so I’ve gone ahead and added a few (for example, White’s The Watch Below) and starred them (*). I’ve also included his chronological divisions. I’ve supplied links for the few I’ve reviewed. Also, I’ve included the list as a page in the right hand column of the main page.

If you know of any that I haven’t included or were skipped in Caroti’s study Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXVII (Gerrold, Panshin, Shaw, et al.)

April 24, 2012May 1, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 10 Comments

My second to last backlog acquisitions post from Spring Break — a fruitful sci-fi hunting adventure indeed!

With my PhD Qualifying exams complete (proposal defense in months and months and months), I will actually get around to posting sci-fi art related (and perhaps get back to my film reviews) and reading my massive to read pile.

Enjoy!

1. Space Skimmer (1972), David Gerrold. Another author whom I know little about and haven’t read yet. As a Star Trek fan I know that he submitted the script that became The Trouble With Tribbles…

(Dean Ellis’ cover for Continue reading →

Adventures in Science Fiction Cover Art: The Space Age Family

April 13, 2012April 13, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 4 Comments

(Malcolm Smith’s cover for the 1951 edition of Space on My Hands (1951), Frederic Brown)

I’ve scrounged through my collection of cover images over and over again trying to find families — and not alien families being slaughtered by intrepid earthmen à la The Red Planet (below). Simply put, sci-fi generally revolves around characters who set off on their own, occasionally (at the end) finding a spouse (alien or not) and starting a family. Heinlein’s juveniles are a great example — boy from broken family (dead mother, abandoned orphan…) learns all the math necessary for navigating in space from a book, sets off (or stows away) in the nearest possible spaceship and goes on grand adventures — perhaps killing some alien families along the way…..

I’ve still managed to find a few. The best Continue reading →

Updates: Recent Science Fiction Acquisitions No. XXVI (Malzberg + Wells + Gunn +Pohl)

March 31, 2012May 30, 2012 / Joachim Boaz / 12 Comments

A nice (varied) selection of finds….

I’ve continued to be on the lookout for Malzberg’s novels and, due to the proliferation of comments by my readers about what is his best, I’ve acquiesced and picked up a copy of his acknowledged masterpiece, Beyond Apollo (1972). I suspect it will be as good as In The Enclosure (1973).

If there is any area (besides sci-fi from the 21st century) that I haven’t read a good portion of the classics, it’s works from around the turn of the century. I have read a large swathe of Verne’s works and from beginning of the 20th century all of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series — but, only a few of H. G. Wells’ oeuvre (The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine). So, when I came across a 60s edition of The First Men in the Moon (1901) with a nostalgic looking cover I snatched it up!

The two short story collections are unknown commodities: Frederick Pohl’s In The Problem Pit (1976) and James Gunn’s Station in Space (1958). I’ve never heard of Gunn and sort of dislike what I’ve read of Pohl so far. Regardless, both works have intriguing covers!

Enjoy!

1. Beyond Apollo, Barry Malzberg (1972)