A selection of SF volumes acquired over winter break!
Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
1. Flesh, Philip José Farmer (1960)
Gerald McConnell’s cover for the 1st edition
From the back cover: “Spaceman by DAY… MONSTER by night!
Peter Stagg was caught in the vilest trap ever devised–his own lust-driven body! For FLESH is the pulse-stirring story of a space explorer’s return from the strangest voyage man had ever made–to the strangest world the universe had ever seen–his own Earth!
Back from Norway! Time to acquire more science fiction.
Which books/covers/authors in the post intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
1. The Dreaming Dragons, Damien Broderick (1980)
Carl Lundgren’s cover for the 1st US edition
From the back cover: “TO THE PLACE WHERE SECRETS LIE SLEEPING. Alf Dean, an aborigine trained as an anthropologist, knew that his tribesmen, for centuries beyond memory, had warned of a dreadful secret in the mountains of Australia.
His ‘slow-witted’ nephew led him to the secret spot–the same spot where men were claimed by deaths that were secret to the world.
Here’s to a happy 2024! I hope you had a successful reading year. Maybe you pulled down some dusty tome that you’ve wanted to dive into for a decade. I’d like to imagine you finally picked up a book I raved about in years past that you acquired with great anticipation but never opened. Whether you are a lurker, occasional visitor, or a regular commenter, thank you for your continued support and wonderful conversation.
What were your favorite vintage SF reads–published pre-1985–of 2023? Let me know in the comments.
Continuing a trend, I read only a handful of novels this year. Instead, my obsessions focused on my science short story review initiatives (listed below), collections, and histories of the science fiction genre. Without further ado, here are my favorite novels and short stories I read in 2023 with bonus categories. I made sure to link my longer reviews where applicable if you want a deeper dive into the rich seam of science fictional gems.
Check out last year’s rundown if you haven’t already for more spectacular reads. I have archived all my annual rundowns on my article index page if you wanted to peruse earlier years.
My Top 5 Science Fiction Novels of 2023
Boris Vallejo’s cover for the 1976 edition
1. Edgar Pangborn’s Davy(1964), 5/5 (Masterpiece): Nominated for the 1965 Hugo Award for Best Novel. Full review.
Today I’ve reviewed the 29th story in my series on the science fictional media landscape of the future. In Sydney J. Van Scyoc’s debut “Shatter the Wall” (1962), a bedraggled wife attempts to prevent her daughter and husband from taking on the personas of a television family.
Sydney J. Van Scyoc (1939-2023) published eleven novels and around thirty short stories across her writing career (primarily 1962-1991). Her visions were rarely republished or anthologized. “A Visit to Cleveland General” (1968) might be her best-known short story as it appeared in Carr and Wollheim’s best of 1969 anthology. I have a positive impression of her work so far.
Have you read any of her work? If so, what were your thoughts?
Jack Gaughan’s cover for Galaxy, ed. Frederik Pohl (February 1962)
3/5 (Average)
“Shatter the Wall” first appeared in Galaxy, ed. Frederik Pohl (February 1962). You can read it online here.
According to Gary R. Edgerton in The Columbia History of American Television (2007), a debate emerged in the late 1950s about American materialism and its glorification on television. John Kenneth Galbraith’s The Affluent Society (1958) suggested that advertising created synthetic needs and damaging desires in American citizens. “Shatter the Wall” is all about synthetic needs and damaging desires.
Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
1. The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner (1975)
John Higgins’ cover for the 1988 edition
From the back cover: “Future shock!
In the obsessively technological, paranoidally secretive and brutally competitive society depicted by John Brunner, even personal identities are under threat. But one man has made it his mission to liberate the mental prisoners, to restore their freedom in a world run mad.
Nickie Haflinger, the only person to escape from Tarnover–where they raise hyper-intelligent children to maintain the political dominance of the USA in the 21st century–is on the run, dodging from loophole to crevise to crack in the computerised datanet that binds the continent like chains. After years of flight and constant changes of identity, at the strange small town called Precipice he discovers he is not alone in his quest. But can his new allies save him when he falls again into the sinister grasp of Tarnover…?”
Initial Thoughts: I read John Brunner’s The Shockwave Rider (1972) before I started my site–along with his other masterpieces Stand on Zanzibar (1968), The Sheep Look Up (1972), The Jagged Orbit (1969), The Whole Man (196), etc. Of his best known novels, I remember the least about The Shockwave Rider. However, I cannot find my copy for a rare reread! For all I know I gave it to a friend or lost it in a move. I sought out this UK edition due to the intriguing urban arcology background of the cover.
Over the last few months I’ve been reading more of Philip José Farmer’s 50s/60s SF — including the novelization of Night of Light (1966) [unreviewed], his deservedly famous 1968 Hugo-winning novella “Riders of the Purple Wage” (1967) [unreviewed], and the short story collection The Alley God (1962). I still hold that Strange Relations (1960) contains his most sustained and well-formed short fiction. For extensive discussion of his work, see the reviews (and their comments) I linked and for my views on his later SF more broadly — i.e. such as the 1973 novel Traitor to the Living. I rather not recap here. But, I have another one of his novels, I appear to be returning to his 70s work…
A novel with Chicago as a character over the millennia? Might as well give it a go, right?
I might snark occasionally at Bob Shaw, but, yet another one of his early novels enters my collection. Maybe the Diane and Leo Dillon cover sealed the deal rather than the probably dull contents.
And, I return to Sydney J. Van Scyoc… Her novel Assignment Nor’Dyren (1973) was one of my earliest reviews—written before the site even started—and I have no idea what I would say about it now.
Thoughts? Comments?
1. The Stone God Awakens, Philip José Farmer (1970)
Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 