The Science Fiction Book Club Reviews Revisited: 1988 (fourth quarter)

[james_davis_nicoll]

Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.

Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
to Science Fiction www.locusmag.com/index/

October CYTEEN by C.J. Cherryh

Thick book (for the time) in which the environment in which a clone of a Very Useful Person is crafted to match as closely as possible the environment of the original. Since the original environment was not an especially pleasant one for the woman in question, ethical questions are raised.

[Raised for the reader, I mean. Union is run by a gang of self-selected amoral slave-owning sociopaths. They might mouth words having to do with ethics but they don't really worry about them]

As I recall, the MMPK version of this split it into three, which made the HC only slightly more expensive a way to obtain the story.

[Or was the HC cheaper than three MMPKs?]

Decent book. I probably missed a lot of it on the first pass.


EQUAL RITES by Terry Pratchett

Wizards are always male or at least they were until a dying wizard left his birthright to his latest child without checking its plumbing first. This pits an early version of Esme Weatherwax as the girl-wizard's mentor vs the assembled conservativism of the Unseen College. Who! Will! Win?

On the one hand, this is a bit like a Leon Spinks-Woody Allen match. On the other, I can't recall ever seeing a second female wizard...

Amusing but they get better. For some reason I have a false memory of del Rey panning this in same column as Mirkheim, which is impossible, so I wonder what I am confusing with this?

[Ah, bless you ISFDB. It was The Gameplayers of Zan by M. A. Foster that del Rey did not care for]

Special Cycle #1

Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies ed. Marvin Kaye (SFBC
#11698, Oct '88, $7.98, 582pp, hc); Anthology of stories from
Weird Tales.

+ xv o The Eyrie o Marvin Kaye o in
+ 1 o Interim o Ray Bradbury o vi Weird Tales Jul '47
+ 3 o The House of Ecstasy o Ralph Milne Farley o ss Weird
Tales Apr '38
+ 12 o The Stolen Body o H. G. Wells o ss The Strand Nov, 1898;
Weird Tales Nov '25
+ 27 o The Scrawny One o Anthony Boucher o vi Weird Tales May
'49
+ 31 o The Sorcerer's Apprentice o Lucian of Samosata o ar;
Weird Tales Oct '39
+ 33 o Skulls in the Stars [*Solomon Kane] o Robert E. Howard o
ss Weird Tales Jan '29
+ 44 o Eena o Manly Banister o ss Weird Tales Sep '47
+ 57 o The Look o Maurice Level o vi Weird Tales Mar '33; "Le
Regard", Le Journal 1906.
+ 61 o Methought I Heard a Voice ["When the Night Wind Howls";
*Gavagan's Bar] o L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt o ss
Weird Tales Nov '51
+ 70 o Off the Map o Rex Dolphin o ss Weird Tales Jul '54
+ 79 o The Last Train o Fredric Brown o ss Weird Tales Jan '50
+ 83 o Ti Michel o W. J. Stamper o ss Weird Tales Jun '26
+ 91 o In the X-Ray o Fritz Leiber o ss Weird Tales Jul '49
+ 104 o Speak o Henry Slesar o vi The Diners Club Magazine,
1965; Weird Tales Fll '84
+ 107 o The Pale Criminal o C. Hall Thompson o nv Weird Tales
Sep '47
+ 129 o The Sombrus Tower o Tanith Lee o ss Weird Tales #2, ed.
Lin Carter, DAW, 1981
+ 138 o Mr. George [as by Stephen Grendon] o August Derleth o
nv Weird Tales Mar '47
+ 164 o The Terror of the Water-Tank o William Hope Hodgson o
ss Blue Book Sep '07; Weird Tales Win '73
+ 179 o The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller o Gustave
Flaubert o nv Trois Contes, 1877; Weird Tales Apr '28
+ 204 o The Hoax of the Spirit Lover o Harry Houdini o ar Weird
Tales Apr '24
+ 212 o Seed o Jack Snow o ss Weird Tales Jan '46
+ 227 o Masked Ball o Seabury Quinn o ss Weird Tales May '47
+ 247 o The Woman with the Velvet Collar [*Capt. Michel] o
Gaston Leroux o ss; Weird Tales Oct '29
+ 262 o Mistress Sary o William Tenn o ss Weird Tales May '47
+ 274 o The Judge's House o Bram Stoker o ss Holly Leaves Dec
5, 1891; Weird Tales Mar '35
+ 292 o The Bagheeta o Val Lewton o ss Weird Tales Jul '30
+ 310 o Ghost Hunt o H. Russell Wakefield o ss Weird Tales Mar
'48
+ 316 o Funeral in the Fog [*Simon Ark] o Edward D. Hoch o ss
Weird Tales Sum '73
+ 332 o The Damp Man [*Damp Man] o Allison V. Harding o nv
Weird Tales Jul '47
+ 367 o The Lost Club o Arthur Machen o ss The Whirlwind Dec
20, 1890; Weird Tales Oct '35
+ 374 o Wet Straw o Richard Matheson o ss Weird Tales Jan '53
+ 381 o The Mysteries of the Faceless King o Darrell Schweitzer
o ss Weird Tales Spr '88
+ 402 o More Than Shadow o Dorothy Quick o ss Weird Tales Jul
'54
+ 413 o The Dead Smile o F. Marion Crawford o ss Ainslee's Aug,
1899; Weird Tales Sum '74
+ 433 o The Sorcerer's Apprentice o Robert Bloch o ss Weird
Tales Jan '49
+ 445 o Chicken Soup o Katherine MacLean & Mary Kornbluth o ss
Weird Tales Win '73
+ 451 o The Haunted Burglar o W. C. Morrow o ss Lippincott's
Jul, 1897; Weird Tales Sum '74
+ 457 o Never Bet the Devil Your Head ["Never Bet Your Head"] o
Edgar Allan Poe o ss Graham's Lady's and Gentleman's Magazine
Sep, 1841; Weird Tales Mar '24
+ 467 o He o H. P. Lovecraft o ss Weird Tales Sep '26
+ 478 o The Brotherhood of Blood o Hugh B. Cave o nv Weird
Tales May '32
+ 499 o The Weird of Avoosl Wuthoqquan o Clark Ashton Smith o
ss Weird Tales Jun '32
+ 508 o Men Who Walk Upon the Air o Frank Belknap Long o ss
Weird Tales May '25
+ 517 o A Child's Dream of a Star o Charles Dickens o ss
Household Words Apr 6, 1850; Weird Tales Jul '30
+ 521 o The Perfect Host o Theodore Sturgeon o nv Weird Tales
Nov '48
+ 568 o Why Weird Tales? o Otis Adelbert Kline o ar Weird Tales
May-Jul '24; Weird Tales Mar '34
+ 574 o Miscellaneous Notes o Marvin Kaye o ms
+ 577 o Recommendations for Further Reading o Marvin Kaye o bi


Another one of those collections I wish I had not missed. What's odd is that as far as I know I never saw any of Kaye's collections even though I collected his novels and collaborations at the time.

[Huh]


THE SHRINKING MAN by Richard Matheson

I don't recall if the movie came before the book or the other way round. This is a fairly straight forward setup: a man discovers he is continually shrinking, apparently to oblivion. As his scale changes, so do his challenges.



The Essential Ellison Harlan Ellison (Nemo Press 0-914261-01-0, Aug
'87 [Jul '87], $29.95, 1019pp, hc); Collection of many, many
stories and essays, edited by Terry Dowling, Richard Delap, and
Gil Lamont. This is ment as a 35-year retrospective (it's taken
3 years to publish) of Ellison's work, from his early 1949
juvenilia to his work in the '80s. It's not a "best of", but a
"warts and all" collection, divided into 15 sections with
introductions to each one by one of the various editors. The
texts of every item have been "corrected", but not rewritten.
It isn't a book you sit down and read as much as you browse it.
It isn't even reviewable except as a book-length study of
Ellison's life. It's a well made book despite its size, and
should stand up to years of use -- even throwing across a room.
A bargain at twice the price. Recommended. (CNB) A limited
edition ($60) was announced, but has apparently not appeared
yet.

+ 1 o Introduction: Sublime Rebel o Terry Dowling o in
+ 5 o Beginnings o Misc. Material o si
+ 11 o The Sword of Parmagon o ss The Cleveland News, 1949
+ 17 o The Gloconda o ss The Cleveland News, 1949
+ 23 o The Wilder One o vi Sundial Jan '55
+ 25 o The Saga of Machine Gun Joe o vi Sundial Jan '55
+ 27 o Introduction to Glowworm o is Unearth Win '77
+ 30 o Glowworm o ss Infinity Science Fiction Feb '56; slightly
revised and expanded
+ 41 o Life Hutch [*Kyben] o ss If Apr '56
+ 53 o S.R.O. [as by Ellis Hart] o ss Amazing Mar '57
+ 63 o Worlds of Terror o Misc. Material o si
+ 67 o Lonelyache o ss Knight Jul '64
+ 83 o Punky & the Yale Man o nv Knight Jan '66
+ 107 o A Prayer for No One's Enemy o nv Cad Mar '66
+ 125 o Worlds of Love o Misc. Material o si
+ 129 o In Lonely Lands o ss Fantastic Universe Jan '59
+ 135 o The Time of the Eye o ss The Saint May '59
+ 143 o Grail o nv Twilight Zone Apr '81
+ 163 o That New Old-Time Religion o Misc. Material o si
+ 167 o I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream o ss If Mar '67
+ 181 o Corpse o ss F&SF Jan '72
+ 189 o The Whimper of Whipped Dogs o ss Bad Moon Rising, ed.
Thomas M. Disch, Harper & Row, 1973
+ 205 o A Stab of Merriment o Misc. Material o si
+ 209 o The Voice in the Garden o vi Lighthouse Jun '67
+ 211 o Erotophobia o ss Penthouse Aug '71
+ 217 o Mom o nv Silver Foxes Aug '76
+ 229 o Ecowareness o ss Sideshow Sep '74
+ 231 o The Outpost Undiscovered By Tourists o ss F&SF Jan '82
+ 235 o Dept. of "What Was the Question?" Dept. o ms *
+ 237 o From Competition 4: Story Leads from the Year's Worst
Fantasy and SF o ms F&SF Apr '73
+ 238 o From Competition 8: Near-Miss SF Titles o ms F&SF Sep
'74
+ 239 o From Competition 23: Unwieldy SF Titles o ms F&SF Feb
'80
+ 239 o From Competition 26: Imaginary Collaborations o ms F&SF
Mar '81
+ 240 o From Competition 39: Complete the Following Sentence...
o ms F&SF Mar '86
+ 241 o Trouble With Women o Misc. Material o si
+ 245 o The Very Last Day of a Good Woman ["The Last Day"] o ss
Rogue Nov '58
+ 253 o Valerie: A True Memoir o ar Los Angeles Free Press Nov
3-24 '72
+ 267 o The Other Eye of Polyphemus o ss Cosmos SF&F Magazine
Nov '77
+ 275 o All the Birds Come Home to Roost o ss Playboy Mar '79
+ 287 o To the Mattresses with Mean Demons o Misc. Material o
si
+ 293 o The Tombs: An Excerpt from Memos from Purgatory o ar
Memos from Purgatory, Harlan Ellison, Regency, 1961
+ 333 o "Our Little Miss" o ar Los Angeles Free Press, 1970
+ 341 o A Love Song for Jerry Falwell o ar, 1984
+ 347 o Telltale Tics and Tremors o ar Unearth Fll '77
+ 357 o True Love: Groping for the Holy Grail ["How I Survived
the Great Videotape Matchmaker"] o ar Los Angeles Magazine,
1978
+ 377 o Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38°
54' N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W o nv F&SF Oct '74
+ 407 o Rococo Technology o Misc. Material o si
+ 413 o The Sky Is Burning o ss If Aug '58
+ 421 o The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World o nv
Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY:
Doubleday, 1967
+ 439 o Along the Scenic Route ["Dogfight on 101"] o ss Adam
Aug '69; Amazing Sep '69
+ 449 o The Song the Zombie Sang o Harlan Ellison & Robert
Silverberg o ss Cosmopolitan Dec '70
+ 461 o Knox o ss Crawdaddy Mar '74
+ 475 o Heart's Blood o Misc. Material o si
+ 481 o From Alabamy, with Hate ["March to Montgomery"] o ar
Knight Sep '65
+ 493 o My Father o ar Los Angeles Free Press, 1972
+ 499 o My Mother o ar Saint Louis Literary Supplement, 1976
+ 507 o Tired Old Man o ss Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine Jan '76
+ 517 o Gopher in the Gilly o ss Stalking the Nightmare,
Phantasia, 1982
+ 523 o Strange Wine o ss Amazing Jun '76
+ 531 o Nights & Days in Good Old Hollyweird o Misc. Material o
si
+ 537 o The Resurgence of Miss Ankle-Strap Wedgie o na Love
Ain't Nothing But Sex Misspelled, Trident, 1968
+ 607 o Flintlock: An Unproduced Teleplay (1972) o pl *
+ 687 o The Man on the Mushroom o in Ellison Wonderland,
Paperback Library, 1974
+ 691 o Somehow, I Don't Think We're in Kansas, Toto o ar
Genesis Jun '74; revised
+ 707 o Face-Down in Gloria Swanson's Swimming Pool o ar Los
Angeles Magazine, 1978
+ 711 o Petards & Hangings o Misc. Material o si
+ 715 o Soldier ["Soldier from Tomorrow"] o nv Fantastic
Universe Oct '57
+ 735 o The Night of Delicate Terrors o ss The Paper: A Chicago
Weekly Apr 8 '61
+ 743 o Shattered Like a Glass Goblin o ss Orbit 4, ed. Damon
Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1968
+ 751 o At the Mouse Circus o ss New Dimensions I, ed. Robert
Silverberg, Doubleday, 1971
+ 759 o Shadows from the Past o Misc. Material o si
+ 763 o Free With This Box! o ss The Saint Mar '58
+ 771 o Final Shtick o ss Rogue Aug '60
+ 781 o One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty o ss Orbit 8, ed.
Damon Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1970
+ 795 o Jeffty Is Five o ss F&SF Jul '77
+ 813 o Contracts on the Soul o Misc. Material o si
+ 817 o Daniel White for the Greater Good o ss Rogue Mar '61
+ 827 o Neither Your Jenny Nor Mine o ss Knight Apr '64
+ 861 o Alive and Well and on a Friendless Voyage o ss F&SF Jul
'77
+ 871 o The Classics o Misc. Material o si
+ 877 o "Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman o ss Galaxy
Dec '65
+ 887 o Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes o nv Knight May '67
+ 905 o A Boy and His Dog [*Vic & Blood] o nv New Worlds Apr
'69; revised
+ 939 o The Deathbird o nv F&SF Mar '73
+ 965 o Dark Liberation o Misc. Material o si
+ 971 o The Thick Red Moment o ar The Los Angeles Weekly News,
1981
+ 989 o The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge o ss Analog Aug
'78
+ 1003 o Driving in the Spikes o ar Los Angeles Magazine, 1983
+ 1015 o Afterword o aw


I usually trim Brown's comments but in this case they seem more likely to be useful than anything I might say. I would recommend this collection but I am not sure I enjoyed reading it.

Fall RETURN TO EDEN by Harry Harrison

I did not read this.


HELLSPARK by Janet Kagan

Nor this. I bought a copy but it mysteriously disappeared.

[I have a copy! But no time]

THE NEW DINOSAURS by Dougal Dixon (Alternate)

A look at what we might have seen if the K/T extinction had not eliminated the dinosaurs. Eh. Not a fan of Dixon, I am afraid.


KING OF THE MURGOS by David Eddings (Alternate)

I missed this.


FIRST MAITZ by Don Maitz (Enclosure)

And this, although I suspect it was an art book.


November ETERNITY by Greg Bear

An inferior sequel to Eon.


THE STORY OF THE STONE by Barry Hughart

A sequel to Bridge of Birds, set in a fantasy China. I have
not yet read this.


UNICORN MOUNTAIN by Michael Bishop (Alternate)

I missed this.


FILMS OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY by Baird Searles (Alternate)

And this.


The Year's Best Fantasy: First Annual Collection ed. Ellen Datlow &
Terri Windling (St. Martin's 0-312-01851-7, Aug '88 [Jul '88],
$19.95, 491pp, hc)

+ xiii o Summation 1987: Fantasy o Terri Windling o ar
+ xx o Summation 1987: Horror o Ellen Datlow o ar
+ xxix o Horror and Fantasy on the Screen o Edward Bryant o ar
+ xxxiv o Obituaries o Misc. Material o bg
+ 1 o Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight o Ursula K. Le
Guin o nv Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences, Capra
Press, 1987
+ 26 o A World Without Toys ["The House Under the Street"] o T.
M. Wright o ss Upstate Oct 26 '86
+ 35 o DX o Joe W. Haldeman o pm In the Field of Fire, ed.
Jeanne Van Buren Dann & Jack M. Dann, Tor, 1987
+ 43 o Friend's Best Man o Jonathan Carroll o ss F&SF Jan '87
+ 59 o The Snow Apples o Gwyneth Jones o ss Tales from the
Forbidden Planet, ed. Roz Kaveney, Titan, 1987
+ 71 o Ever After o Susan Palwick o nv IASFM Nov '87
+ 91 o My Name Is Dolly o William F. Nolan o ss Whispers VI,
ed. Stuart David Schiff, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1987
+ 95 o The Moon's Revenge o Joan Aiken o ss London: Cape, 1987
+ 105 o Author's Notes o Edward Bryant o ss Night Visions 4,
ed. Anon., Arlington Heights, IL: Dark Harvest, 1987
+ 112 o Lake George in High August o John Robert Bensink o ss
Masques #2, ed. J. N. Williamson, 1987
+ 117 o Csucskari [from The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars] o
Steven Brust o ex New York: Ace, 1987
+ 135 o The Other Side o Ramsey Campbell o ss World Fantasy
Convention Program Book, 1986; story based on a J.K. Potter
illustration.
+ 146 o Pamela's Get o David J. Schow o nv Twilight Zone Aug
'87
+ 168 o Voices in the Wind o Elizabeth S. Helfman o ss
Spaceships & Spells, ed. Jane Yolen, Martin H. Greenberg &
Charles G. Waugh, Harper & Row, 1987
+ 176 o Once Upon a Time, She Said o Jane Yolen o pm National
Storyteller Journal Spr '87
+ 178 o The Circular Library of Stones o Carol Emshwiller o ss
Omni Feb '87
+ 187 o Soft Monkey o Harlan Ellison o ss Mystery Scene Reader
#1, ed. Ed Gorman, Fedora, 1987
+ 200 o Fat Face o Michael Shea o nv Axolotl Press: Eugene, OR,
1987
+ 222 o Uncle Dobbin's Parrot Fair [*Newford] o Charles de Lint
o nv IASFM Nov '87
+ 244 o The Pear-Shaped Man o George R. R. Martin o nv Omni Oct
'87
+ 269 o Delta Sly Honey o Lucius Shepard o ss In the Field of
Fire, ed. Jeanne Van Buren Dann & Jack M. Dann, Tor, 1987
+ 285 o Small Heirlooms o M. John Harrison o ss Other Edens,
ed. Christopher Evans & Robert Holdstock, London: Unwin, 1987
+ 296 o The Improper Princess o Patricia C. Wrede o ss
Spaceships & Spells, ed. Jane Yolen, Martin H. Greenberg &
Charles G. Waugh, Harper & Row, 1987
+ 307 o The Fable of the Farmer and Fox o John Brunner o vi
Omni Jun '87
+ 310 o Haunted o Joyce Carol Oates o nv The Architecture of
Fear, ed. Kathryn Cramer & Peter D. Pautz, Arbor House, 1987
+ 327 o Dead Possums o Kathryn Ptacek o ss Doom City, ed.
Charles L. Grant, Tor, 1987
+ 338 o Pictures Made of Stones o Lucius Shepard o pm Omni Sep
'87
+ 348 o Splatter: A Cautionary Tale o Douglas E. Winter o ss
Masques #2, ed. J. N. Williamson, 1987
+ 357 o Gentlemen o John M. Skipp & Craig Spector o nv The
Architecture of Fear, ed. Kathryn Cramer & Peter D. Pautz,
Arbor House, 1987
+ 380 o Demon Luck [*Ithkar] o Craig Shaw Gardner o ss Magic in
Ithkar #4, ed. Andre Norton & Robert Adams, Tor, 1987
+ 389 o Words of Power o Jane Yolen o ss Visions, Delacorte,
1987
+ 401 o Jamie's Grave o Lisa Tuttle o ss Shadows #10, ed.
Charles L. Grant, Doubleday, 1987
+ 415 o The Maid on the Shore o Delia Sherman o ss F&SF Oct '87
+ 428 o Halley's Passing o Michael McDowell o ss Twilight Zone
Jun '87
+ 443 o White Trains o Lucius Shepard o pm Night Cry Spr '87
+ 449 o Simple Sentences o Natalie Babbitt o ss The Devil's
Other Scrapbook, Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1987
+ 453 o A Hypothetical Lizard [*Liavek] o Alan Moore o nv
Liavek: Wizard's Row, ed. Will Shetterly & Emma Bull, Ace,
1987
+ 488 o Honorable Mentions: 1987 o Misc. Material o bi

Yet another example of how out of touch I was with late 1980s F&SF.


December ALIEN BLOOD (2-in-1 of PSION and CATSPAW) by Joan D. Vinge

Pairing of two novels about a psionic human/alien crossbreed who enjoys the same kind of status as a halfbreed 100 years ago, in a setting with the amiable interfamilial relations of Italy in the 1400s. Left me cold, right from the moment Vinge revealed the kid's background.

[I should probably reread these]


WAITING FOR THE GALACTIC BUS by Park Godwin

Two aliens stuck on Earth decide to play roles in human development.

I remember liking this a lot so I am puzzled why it is that I stopped buying Godwin.


HEAVEN CENT by Piers Anthony (Alternate)

Avoided this.


LAND'S END by Frederik Pohl and Jack Williamson (Alternate)

Tedious thriller about the survivors of an event that kills most life on land.

Comments

[geekosaur]

Cyteen felt like a futuristic (and rather bloated) retelling of Joshua, Son Of None. It even had rather similar (in significance and effect if not in details) things happening to Joshua Ari.

[oh6]

Not every day that an anthology comes out with Lucian of Samosata in the table of contents.

I just finished reading "The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller" in The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, and it struck me as a Christian, or maybe just Christianized, fairy tale.

I'm pretty sure First Maitz is an art book, since I'm mostly familiar with Don Maitz as the artist of the covers of the volumes of The Book of the New Sun that I have.

At the start of The Story of the Stone, Number Ten Ox complains that it's unreasonably convoluted, and he is not wrong. It makes me think of a Marx Brothers film at some points. What mostly stuck with me is the depiction of a very self-serving sort of spirituality.

I read "Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight" in F&SF and mostly remember how very angry the child protagonist was at one point.

I'm pretty sure I've read "Ever After" which I think was "Cinderella" done as a vampire story.

I have the F&SF issue with "The Maid on the Shore" but recall nothing about it.

I read Catspaw and in retrospect I guess one thing that bothered me was how the hybrid protagonist seemed to have been conjured out of the air, with no connection to their human or alien antecedents. I suppose it might have benefited from reading the first book. I interpreted the intrigue of the story as something in the way of jazz-age decadence, and the relative violence of the proceedings rather confused me.

I had no idea about Waiting for the Galatic Bus when it first appeared, save that it had an enigmatic cover and was supposed to be good. Sounds interesting, anyway!

[(Anonymous)]

The Godwin was fun but... ultimately clever-sophomoric, in the way that a lot of post-Christian depictions of Heaven and Hell are.

Story of the Stone was one of two much-less-good sequels to Bridge of Birds. Of course, being much-less-good than Bridge of Birds is still a fairly high bar, and these are not bad books. In any event there will not be any more of the series, so if you like Master Li and Number Ten Ox, there it is.

Dixon's After Man was pretty good; he seemed to go steeply downhill after that.

Hellspark was a decent midlist book by an author who always seemed about to write something really good.


Doug M.

[sanskritabelt.livejournal.com]

I read the Godwin, and the sequel, and was generally unimpressed, but it kept showing up in the back pages of the catalog for years and years, so somebody must have been buying it.

Essential Ellison

[(Anonymous)]

On one hand, it's a bit startling to think that Ellison had an "essential" volume that was a "35 year retrospective" come out *25 years ago*. He's almost 80 now.

On the other hand, I don't think a version of this volume published today would be much thicker. Has Ellison written any fiction worth reading since 1988? (Serious question, not trolling.) I think you could argue with a straight face that he's written essays and nonfiction that have value. But fiction?


Doug M.

[dsrtao]

HELLSPARK is the best book on this list. Linguistics SF, murder mystery, aliens being alien... and at least three really interesting characters.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

If you're going to get just one Harlan Ellison collection, that is the one to get.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

There's also a "revised edition, 50 year retrospective". Not having the patience this morning to use Google, I don't know what was added and (if anything) cut.

But, yeah. It's a doorstop, and hard core SF readers could probably do without the Veronica Lake novella, but it is the one.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The revised edition is probably the one I have, come to think of it.

[agharta75.livejournal.com]

I have the 35 year edition. From SFBC, back when I still could get something I wanted every three months or so.

(The last time I was a member, it took me two years to fulfill the original four-book requirement, because _there was no longer anything they offered that I really wanted_. I was only saved by "Dance with Dragons" coming out before I would have been forced to get something.)

[jeffr23.livejournal.com]

I'm not certain, but I think that there was a passing reference in one of the more recent Discworld books that there are a fair number of female students at UA these days, wearing extremely bad false beards while everyone pretends not to notice this.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

As I recall, the MMPK version of this split it into three, which made the HC only slightly more expensive a way to obtain the story.

I imagine that the SFBC hardcover was cheaper than three mass-market paperbacks.

Weird Tales: The Magazine That Never Dies ed. Marvin Kaye
[...]
+ 31 o The Sorcerer's Apprentice o Lucian of Samosata o ar;
Weird Tales Oct '39

Speaking of never dying, here's a career of impressive length. Was this hack still selling stories to Weird Tales at the age of 2064?

[carbonel]

Hellspark is one of my favorite books. I just wish Janet Kagan had lived longer.

[tekalynn.livejournal.com]

The Story of the Stone is well worth reading, if only for Grief of Dawn and Moon Boy.