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james_davis_nicollList courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
Contents from Contento.
* * *
snip dead links
* * *
July
Time and Tomorrow John D. MacDonald (SFBC, Jul '80, hc)
+ o Wine of the Dreamers o n. New York: Greenberg Publishers,
1951; enlarged from Startling Stories May '50.
+ o The Girl, the Gold Watch, & Everything o n. Greenwich, CT:
Fawcett Gold Medal, 1962
+ o Ballroom of the Skies o n. New York: Greenberg Publishers,
1952
Wine of the Dreamers and Ballroom of the Skies both blame the human condition on alien interference. In the first, the aliens are bored and decadent and don't realise the humans they play with are real. In the second, a galactic empire use Earth as a self-renewing source of vital barbarians, a use that requires us to be kept barbaric.
Of the two, I think I dislike the aliens from Ballroom more.
Girl is much more lighthearted and features a young man who is given a watch that can stop time. Wacky hijinks ensue.
[Hey, remember when rape was considered funny? Guess what happens to the female antagonist?]
Competently written. Not sure if I mind that we lost JDM to mystery, though, since his world view was so dark.
CHANGELING by Roger Zelazny
I missed this.
Galaxy ed. Frederik Pohl, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander
(Playboy, 1980, hc); Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction
+ o Introduction o Frederik Pohl o in
+ o Horace L. Gold o Frederik Pohl o bg
+ o Gold on Galaxy o Horace L. Gold o ar
+ o Coming Attraction o Fritz Leiber o ss Galaxy Nov '50
+ o To Serve Man o Damon Knight o ss Galaxy Nov '50
+ o Memoir o Damon Knight o ms
+ o From a Cave Deep in Stuyvesant Town- A Memoir of Galaxy's
Most Creative Years o Philip Klass o ms
+ o Betelgeuse Bridge o William Tenn o ss Galaxy Apr '51
+ o Memoir of Galaxy Magazine o Robert Sheckley o ms
+ o Cost of Living o Robert Sheckley o ss Galaxy Dec '52
+ o Memoir o William Morrison o ms
+ o The Model of a Judge o William Morrison o ss Galaxy Oct '53
+ o Memoir o Jerome Bixby o ms
+ o The Holes Around Mars o Jerome Bixby o ss Galaxy Jan '54
+ o Memoir o Margaret St. Clair o ms
+ o Horrer Howce o Margaret St. Clair o ss Galaxy Jul '56
+ o Memoir o Alan Arkin o ms
+ o People Soup o Alan Arkin o ss Galaxy Nov '58
+ o Something Bright o Zenna Henderson o ss Galaxy Feb '60
+ o The Lady Who Sailed the Soul o Cordwainer Smith o nv Galaxy
Apr '60
+ o Memoir o Judith Merril o ms
+ o The Deep Down Dragon o Judith Merril o ss Galaxy Aug '61
+ o Memoir: Spilled Milk o Algis Budrys o ms
+ o Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night o Algis Budrys o nv Galaxy
Dec '61
+ o Memoir o Jim Harmon o ms
+ o The Place Where Chicago Was o Jim Harmon o nv Galaxy Feb
'62
+ o Memoir o Allan Danzig o ms
+ o The Great Nebraska Sea o Allan Danzig o fa Galaxy Aug '63
+ o Memoir o Philip K. Dick o ms
+ o Oh, to Be a Blobel! o Philip K. Dick o ss Galaxy Feb '64
+ o Memoir o Isaac Asimov o ms
+ o Founding Father o Isaac Asimov o ss Galaxy Oct '65
+ o Memoir o Robert Silverberg o ms
+ o Going Down Smooth o Robert Silverberg o ss Galaxy Aug '68
+ o Memoir o Larry Niven o ms
+ o All the Myriad Ways o Larry Niven o ss Galaxy Oct '68
+ o The Last Flight of Doctor Ain o James Tiptree, Jr. o ss
Galaxy Mar '69
+ o Memoir o Algis Budrys o ms
+ o Galaxy Book Shelf o Algis Budrys o br Galaxy Sep '69
+ o Memoir o Theodore Sturgeon o ms
+ o Slow Sculpture o Theodore Sturgeon o nv Galaxy Feb '70
+ o Memoir o R. A. Lafferty o ms
+ o About a Secret Crocodile o R. A. Lafferty o ss Galaxy Aug
'70
+ o Memoir o Harlan Ellison o ms
+ o Cold Friend o Harlan Ellison o ss Galaxy Oct '73
+ o The Day Before the Revolution o Ursula K. Le Guin o ss
Galaxy Aug '74
+ o The Gift of Garigolli o Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth o
nv Galaxy Aug '74
+ o Note o John Varley o ms
+ o Overdrawn at the Memory Bank o John Varley o nv Galaxy May
'76
+ o Horace, Galaxyca o Alfred Bester o ar
+ o Index to Galaxy Magazine o [Misc. Material] o ix
Most of these I remember have already been reviewed. I have this in MMPK (two volumes) but I wish I had the hardcover.
Note the publisher. Apparently Heffner toyed with the idea of buying Galaxy in the late 1970s.
August THE SNOW QUEEN by Joan Vinge
This is the fairy tale rewritten as space opera, set on a world kept in a barbaric state by a hegemony of more advanced worlds that don't want the locals interfering with the extraction of a valuable resource, the basis for immortality. Because access to the world is seasonal (with a time scale of a century or so), the Hedge deliberately pits two local societies against each other and engineers a collapse of technology just before access is cut off. The current ruler thinks she has come up with a way to get around her legally mandated death at the end of the current season of contact. The plan does not go off as she plans but neither is it entirely unsuccessul.
Well, I liked parts of this a lot. I thought Vinge made an error in making the source of immortality an intelligent species, as that plot twist has been used too often to list in other SF stories.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut
Novelization of the second, and best, Star Wars movie.
The Best of Omni Science Fiction ed. Ben Bova & Don Myrus (Omni, 1980,
$3.50, 144pp, large tp)
+ 3 o Introduction o Ben Bova o in
+ 4 o Found! o Isaac Asimov o ss Omni Oct '78
+ 10 o Robots [from Mechanismo, Reed Books, 1978] o Harry
Harrison o pi Omni Oct '78
+ 20 o Count the Clock That Tells the Time o Harlan Ellison o
ss Omni Dec '78
+ 28 o Inner Domains ["Inner Landscapes"] o Kathleen Stein o pi
Omni Feb '79
+ 28 o Inner Domains ["Inner Landscapes"] o Frank Armitage &
Paul Peck o il Omni Feb '79
+ 34 o Body Game o Robert Sheckley o ss Omni Dec '78
+ 38 o Unaccompanied Sonata o Orson Scott Card o ss Omni Mar
'79
+ 46 o Magnifications o Scot Morris o pi Omni Apr '79
+ 46 o Magnifications o David Scharf o il Omni Apr '79
+ 52 o Iceback Invasion o Hayford Peirce o ss Omni Apr '79
+ 60 o Visions of the Cosmos o F. C. Durant, III o pi Omni May
'79
+ 60 o Visions of the Cosmos o Andrei Sokolov o il Omni May '79
+ 68 o No Future in It o Joe W. Haldeman o ss Omni Apr '79
+ 72 o Galatea Galante o Alfred Bester o nv Omni Apr '79
+ 87 o Alien Landscapes o Les Edwards, John Harris, Terry Oakes
& Tony Roberts o pi Omni Oct '79
+ 94 o Kinsman o Ben Bova o ex New York: Quantum Science
Fiction, The Dial Press, 1979
+ 102 o Space Cities [from Mechanismo, Reed Books, 1978] o
Harry Harrison o pi Omni Mar '79
+ 110 o Halfjack o Roger Zelazny o ss Omni Jun '79
+ 114 o Sandkings o George R. R. Martin o nv Omni Aug '79
+ 130 o Planet Story o Jim Burns & Harry Harrison o ex Omni Jul
'79
+ 138 o Interview o Malcolm S. Kirk o iv Omni Mar '79 [Clarke]
I only read a few of these and they varied from very good (Martin's tale of SF horror) to dreadful (Harrison and Burn's tedious comedy).
I wasn't a fan of Omni. Actually I saw it as a blight on the SF landscape, from its inital lying ads to its inclusive attitude towards crank and junk science.
THE HOUSE BETWEEN THE WORLDS by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Alternate)
Read this but forgot it.
[This didn't involve Ireland, did it?]
September
The 1980 Annual World's Best SF ed. Donald A. Wollheim & Arthur W.
Saha (DAW 0-87997-535-0, May '80, $2.25, 284pp, pb)
+ 7 o Introduction o Donald A. Wollheim o in
+ 11 o The Way of Cross and Dragon o George R. R. Martin o nv
Omni Jun '79
+ 30 o The Thirteenth Utopia o Somtow Sucharitkul o nv Analog
Apr '79
+ 52 o Options o John Varley o nv Universe 9, ed. Terry Carr,
Doubleday, 1979
+ 81 o Unaccompanied Sonata o Orson Scott Card o ss Omni Mar
'79
+ 100 o The Story Writer o Richard Wilson o na Destinies Apr
'79
+ 144 o Daisy, in the Sun o Connie Willis o nv Galileo Nov '79
+ 163 o The Locusts o Larry Niven & Steven Barnes o nv Analog
Jun '79
+ 203 o The Thaw o Tanith Lee o nv IASFM Jun '79
+ 223 o Out There Where the Big Ships Go o Richard Cowper o nv
F&SF Aug '79
+ 252 o Can These Bones Live? o Ted Reynolds o ss Analog Mar
'79
+ 272 o The Extraordinary Voyages of Amélie Bertrand o Joanna
Russ o ss F&SF Sep '79
The Martin is about the value lies can have, well written although the moral seems easily abused. I think the Sucharitkul is one of his Inquisitor stories, about a "compassionate" authoritarian galactic regime that hunts down utopias, when it isn't indulging in less savory pursuits. The Varley is set early in the Eight Worlds, when sex changes were first becoming common. The Niven and Barnes is a clunker of a story about humans reverting to a more primitive form.
Otherwise I think I missed this.
CACHALOT by Alan Dean Foster
This had something to do with a planet given over to the last remaining cetaceans but what if anything happened has escaped my memory.
VOORLOPER by Andre Norton (Alternate)
(Blank look). I think I read this last year in the midst of a Witch World marathon but it left no impression. Two people are forced to go on a quest, find a magic plot twinkie, defeat the Big Bad and are velcroed together by fate is my guess.
The Golden Man Philip K. Dick (Berkley 04288, Feb '80, $2.25, pb);
Edited by Mark Hurst.
+ o Foreword o Mark Hurst o fw
+ o Introduction o in
+ o The Golden Man o nv If Apr '54
+ o Return Match o ss Galaxy Feb '67
+ o The King of the Elves o nv Beyond Fantasy Fiction Sep '53
+ o The Mold of Yancy o nv If Aug '55
+ o Not By Its Cover o ss Famous Science Fiction Sum '68
+ o The Little Black Box o nv Worlds of Tomorrow Aug '64
+ o The Unreconstructed M o nv Science Fiction Stories Jan '57
+ o The War with the Fnools o ss Galaxy Feb '69
+ o The Last of the Masters o nv Orbit #5 '54
+ o Meddler o ss Future Oct '54
+ o A Game of Unchance o nv Amazing Jul '64
+ o Sales Pitch o ss Future Jun '54
+ o Precious Artifact o ss Galaxy Oct '64
+ o Small Town o ss Amazing May '54
+ o The Pre-Persons o nv F&SF Oct '74
+ o Story Notes o ms
+ o Afterword o aw
All I remember is hating most of these, but not why. I think James1980's brain was not intended to run PKD stories.
[I have since had to read a number of PKD books for work and it remains not my thing]
Contents from Contento.
* * *
snip dead links
* * *
July
Time and Tomorrow John D. MacDonald (SFBC, Jul '80, hc)
+ o Wine of the Dreamers o n. New York: Greenberg Publishers,
1951; enlarged from Startling Stories May '50.
+ o The Girl, the Gold Watch, & Everything o n. Greenwich, CT:
Fawcett Gold Medal, 1962
+ o Ballroom of the Skies o n. New York: Greenberg Publishers,
1952
Wine of the Dreamers and Ballroom of the Skies both blame the human condition on alien interference. In the first, the aliens are bored and decadent and don't realise the humans they play with are real. In the second, a galactic empire use Earth as a self-renewing source of vital barbarians, a use that requires us to be kept barbaric.
Of the two, I think I dislike the aliens from Ballroom more.
Girl is much more lighthearted and features a young man who is given a watch that can stop time. Wacky hijinks ensue.
[Hey, remember when rape was considered funny? Guess what happens to the female antagonist?]
Competently written. Not sure if I mind that we lost JDM to mystery, though, since his world view was so dark.
CHANGELING by Roger Zelazny
I missed this.
Galaxy ed. Frederik Pohl, Martin H. Greenberg & Joseph D. Olander
(Playboy, 1980, hc); Thirty Years of Innovative Science Fiction
+ o Introduction o Frederik Pohl o in
+ o Horace L. Gold o Frederik Pohl o bg
+ o Gold on Galaxy o Horace L. Gold o ar
+ o Coming Attraction o Fritz Leiber o ss Galaxy Nov '50
+ o To Serve Man o Damon Knight o ss Galaxy Nov '50
+ o Memoir o Damon Knight o ms
+ o From a Cave Deep in Stuyvesant Town- A Memoir of Galaxy's
Most Creative Years o Philip Klass o ms
+ o Betelgeuse Bridge o William Tenn o ss Galaxy Apr '51
+ o Memoir of Galaxy Magazine o Robert Sheckley o ms
+ o Cost of Living o Robert Sheckley o ss Galaxy Dec '52
+ o Memoir o William Morrison o ms
+ o The Model of a Judge o William Morrison o ss Galaxy Oct '53
+ o Memoir o Jerome Bixby o ms
+ o The Holes Around Mars o Jerome Bixby o ss Galaxy Jan '54
+ o Memoir o Margaret St. Clair o ms
+ o Horrer Howce o Margaret St. Clair o ss Galaxy Jul '56
+ o Memoir o Alan Arkin o ms
+ o People Soup o Alan Arkin o ss Galaxy Nov '58
+ o Something Bright o Zenna Henderson o ss Galaxy Feb '60
+ o The Lady Who Sailed the Soul o Cordwainer Smith o nv Galaxy
Apr '60
+ o Memoir o Judith Merril o ms
+ o The Deep Down Dragon o Judith Merril o ss Galaxy Aug '61
+ o Memoir: Spilled Milk o Algis Budrys o ms
+ o Wall of Crystal, Eye of Night o Algis Budrys o nv Galaxy
Dec '61
+ o Memoir o Jim Harmon o ms
+ o The Place Where Chicago Was o Jim Harmon o nv Galaxy Feb
'62
+ o Memoir o Allan Danzig o ms
+ o The Great Nebraska Sea o Allan Danzig o fa Galaxy Aug '63
+ o Memoir o Philip K. Dick o ms
+ o Oh, to Be a Blobel! o Philip K. Dick o ss Galaxy Feb '64
+ o Memoir o Isaac Asimov o ms
+ o Founding Father o Isaac Asimov o ss Galaxy Oct '65
+ o Memoir o Robert Silverberg o ms
+ o Going Down Smooth o Robert Silverberg o ss Galaxy Aug '68
+ o Memoir o Larry Niven o ms
+ o All the Myriad Ways o Larry Niven o ss Galaxy Oct '68
+ o The Last Flight of Doctor Ain o James Tiptree, Jr. o ss
Galaxy Mar '69
+ o Memoir o Algis Budrys o ms
+ o Galaxy Book Shelf o Algis Budrys o br Galaxy Sep '69
+ o Memoir o Theodore Sturgeon o ms
+ o Slow Sculpture o Theodore Sturgeon o nv Galaxy Feb '70
+ o Memoir o R. A. Lafferty o ms
+ o About a Secret Crocodile o R. A. Lafferty o ss Galaxy Aug
'70
+ o Memoir o Harlan Ellison o ms
+ o Cold Friend o Harlan Ellison o ss Galaxy Oct '73
+ o The Day Before the Revolution o Ursula K. Le Guin o ss
Galaxy Aug '74
+ o The Gift of Garigolli o Frederik Pohl & C. M. Kornbluth o
nv Galaxy Aug '74
+ o Note o John Varley o ms
+ o Overdrawn at the Memory Bank o John Varley o nv Galaxy May
'76
+ o Horace, Galaxyca o Alfred Bester o ar
+ o Index to Galaxy Magazine o [Misc. Material] o ix
Most of these I remember have already been reviewed. I have this in MMPK (two volumes) but I wish I had the hardcover.
Note the publisher. Apparently Heffner toyed with the idea of buying Galaxy in the late 1970s.
August THE SNOW QUEEN by Joan Vinge
This is the fairy tale rewritten as space opera, set on a world kept in a barbaric state by a hegemony of more advanced worlds that don't want the locals interfering with the extraction of a valuable resource, the basis for immortality. Because access to the world is seasonal (with a time scale of a century or so), the Hedge deliberately pits two local societies against each other and engineers a collapse of technology just before access is cut off. The current ruler thinks she has come up with a way to get around her legally mandated death at the end of the current season of contact. The plan does not go off as she plans but neither is it entirely unsuccessul.
Well, I liked parts of this a lot. I thought Vinge made an error in making the source of immortality an intelligent species, as that plot twist has been used too often to list in other SF stories.
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by Donald F. Glut
Novelization of the second, and best, Star Wars movie.
The Best of Omni Science Fiction ed. Ben Bova & Don Myrus (Omni, 1980,
$3.50, 144pp, large tp)
+ 3 o Introduction o Ben Bova o in
+ 4 o Found! o Isaac Asimov o ss Omni Oct '78
+ 10 o Robots [from Mechanismo, Reed Books, 1978] o Harry
Harrison o pi Omni Oct '78
+ 20 o Count the Clock That Tells the Time o Harlan Ellison o
ss Omni Dec '78
+ 28 o Inner Domains ["Inner Landscapes"] o Kathleen Stein o pi
Omni Feb '79
+ 28 o Inner Domains ["Inner Landscapes"] o Frank Armitage &
Paul Peck o il Omni Feb '79
+ 34 o Body Game o Robert Sheckley o ss Omni Dec '78
+ 38 o Unaccompanied Sonata o Orson Scott Card o ss Omni Mar
'79
+ 46 o Magnifications o Scot Morris o pi Omni Apr '79
+ 46 o Magnifications o David Scharf o il Omni Apr '79
+ 52 o Iceback Invasion o Hayford Peirce o ss Omni Apr '79
+ 60 o Visions of the Cosmos o F. C. Durant, III o pi Omni May
'79
+ 60 o Visions of the Cosmos o Andrei Sokolov o il Omni May '79
+ 68 o No Future in It o Joe W. Haldeman o ss Omni Apr '79
+ 72 o Galatea Galante o Alfred Bester o nv Omni Apr '79
+ 87 o Alien Landscapes o Les Edwards, John Harris, Terry Oakes
& Tony Roberts o pi Omni Oct '79
+ 94 o Kinsman o Ben Bova o ex New York: Quantum Science
Fiction, The Dial Press, 1979
+ 102 o Space Cities [from Mechanismo, Reed Books, 1978] o
Harry Harrison o pi Omni Mar '79
+ 110 o Halfjack o Roger Zelazny o ss Omni Jun '79
+ 114 o Sandkings o George R. R. Martin o nv Omni Aug '79
+ 130 o Planet Story o Jim Burns & Harry Harrison o ex Omni Jul
'79
+ 138 o Interview o Malcolm S. Kirk o iv Omni Mar '79 [Clarke]
I only read a few of these and they varied from very good (Martin's tale of SF horror) to dreadful (Harrison and Burn's tedious comedy).
I wasn't a fan of Omni. Actually I saw it as a blight on the SF landscape, from its inital lying ads to its inclusive attitude towards crank and junk science.
THE HOUSE BETWEEN THE WORLDS by Marion Zimmer Bradley (Alternate)
Read this but forgot it.
[This didn't involve Ireland, did it?]
September
The 1980 Annual World's Best SF ed. Donald A. Wollheim & Arthur W.
Saha (DAW 0-87997-535-0, May '80, $2.25, 284pp, pb)
+ 7 o Introduction o Donald A. Wollheim o in
+ 11 o The Way of Cross and Dragon o George R. R. Martin o nv
Omni Jun '79
+ 30 o The Thirteenth Utopia o Somtow Sucharitkul o nv Analog
Apr '79
+ 52 o Options o John Varley o nv Universe 9, ed. Terry Carr,
Doubleday, 1979
+ 81 o Unaccompanied Sonata o Orson Scott Card o ss Omni Mar
'79
+ 100 o The Story Writer o Richard Wilson o na Destinies Apr
'79
+ 144 o Daisy, in the Sun o Connie Willis o nv Galileo Nov '79
+ 163 o The Locusts o Larry Niven & Steven Barnes o nv Analog
Jun '79
+ 203 o The Thaw o Tanith Lee o nv IASFM Jun '79
+ 223 o Out There Where the Big Ships Go o Richard Cowper o nv
F&SF Aug '79
+ 252 o Can These Bones Live? o Ted Reynolds o ss Analog Mar
'79
+ 272 o The Extraordinary Voyages of Amélie Bertrand o Joanna
Russ o ss F&SF Sep '79
The Martin is about the value lies can have, well written although the moral seems easily abused. I think the Sucharitkul is one of his Inquisitor stories, about a "compassionate" authoritarian galactic regime that hunts down utopias, when it isn't indulging in less savory pursuits. The Varley is set early in the Eight Worlds, when sex changes were first becoming common. The Niven and Barnes is a clunker of a story about humans reverting to a more primitive form.
Otherwise I think I missed this.
CACHALOT by Alan Dean Foster
This had something to do with a planet given over to the last remaining cetaceans but what if anything happened has escaped my memory.
VOORLOPER by Andre Norton (Alternate)
(Blank look). I think I read this last year in the midst of a Witch World marathon but it left no impression. Two people are forced to go on a quest, find a magic plot twinkie, defeat the Big Bad and are velcroed together by fate is my guess.
The Golden Man Philip K. Dick (Berkley 04288, Feb '80, $2.25, pb);
Edited by Mark Hurst.
+ o Foreword o Mark Hurst o fw
+ o Introduction o in
+ o The Golden Man o nv If Apr '54
+ o Return Match o ss Galaxy Feb '67
+ o The King of the Elves o nv Beyond Fantasy Fiction Sep '53
+ o The Mold of Yancy o nv If Aug '55
+ o Not By Its Cover o ss Famous Science Fiction Sum '68
+ o The Little Black Box o nv Worlds of Tomorrow Aug '64
+ o The Unreconstructed M o nv Science Fiction Stories Jan '57
+ o The War with the Fnools o ss Galaxy Feb '69
+ o The Last of the Masters o nv Orbit #5 '54
+ o Meddler o ss Future Oct '54
+ o A Game of Unchance o nv Amazing Jul '64
+ o Sales Pitch o ss Future Jun '54
+ o Precious Artifact o ss Galaxy Oct '64
+ o Small Town o ss Amazing May '54
+ o The Pre-Persons o nv F&SF Oct '74
+ o Story Notes o ms
+ o Afterword o aw
All I remember is hating most of these, but not why. I think James1980's brain was not intended to run PKD stories.
[I have since had to read a number of PKD books for work and it remains not my thing]
no subject
Date: 2013-07-31 07:59 pm (UTC)"We have to kill this intelligent species for this resource" has been done a lot. "We have to do something difficult or nasty to get our immortality drug" is another. Stroon, melange... somehow nobody ever manages to just synthesize the damn immortality drug.
"The Thaw" is a Tanith Lee horror story: cryogenics seems to work, but something unpleasant creeps in during the freeze.
I remember liking "Can These Bones Live?" quite a lot at the time. Long after the extinction of humanity, aliens resurrect a single human and grant her one wish. She is given both relevant information and plenty of time to think about her choice. This is good, because the obvious choice is not the winner here. A good story that seems to have disappeared -- don't think it's been anthologized in ages.
Doug M.