My Library of America volumes of classic 1950’s science fiction have arrived:
The first volume features a perfectly appropriate cover by Richard Powers. I can’t trace the date of this cover, but it seems more like Powers late 50’s, early 60’s style: Continue reading “Feast your eyes on Library of America Sci-Fi Cover Art”
Classic Hard Sci-Fi By The Book
Charles Lackland is far from home, holed up in an isolated outpost on the inhospitable planet Mesklin. Inhospitable to humans anyway, but not to the methane-based, centipede-like natives who are adapted to the enormously high and remarkably variable gravity, the fierce cold, and the extreme storms of this gigantic, disc-like planet. Lackland’s mission is to assist a crew of Mesklinite natives on a journey to recover mission data from an unmanned rocket that crashed near one of Mesklin’s poles. With a gravity 700 times that of Earth, the pole is a place no human can survive. But the natives, Captain Barlennan and his methane sea-faring crew of the Bree, can make the journey. Continue reading “Hal Clement’s Mission of Gravity”
In preparation for the Library of America’s forthcoming volumes of vintage American Sci-fi, they’ve put up an amazing online companion with reviews of the books, additional stories, essays on the historical context, and a gallery of great covers.
If you’re like me and are struggling to sit tight until the books are released, the web site will keep you busy for awhile.
Jane Rogers’ The Testament of Jessie Lamb, shortlisted for the Booker, won a big SF award. This was a temptation I couldn’t resist so I checked it out of my library, and damn, this book was a let down.
It certainly qualifies as SF, in the great British, non-pulp tradition. It’s also one more book in the current fad of teenagers in dystopia, and like many teen-dystopias, this book, to its detriment, couldn’t decide whether it was YA or adult fiction.
There is nothing wrong being YA fiction. But if I don’t go in knowing that a book is aimed at young adults, I usually end up unsatisfied – it’s like picking up a cup of hot chocolate that you thought was coffee.
The idea behind this book has potential – a world-wide virus that kills all pregnant women is just one more catastrophe to add to our 21st century list of woes that includes global warming, terrorism, exploitation of animals and the environment, etc. Continue reading “Big SF award, big let-down”
Vintage sci-fi cover art connoisseur Joachim Boaz has posted his favorite covers over at Science Fiction Ruminations. Go check it out.
This is fun, and I want to play too. Here are my five favorites from my paperback collection:
The Finch and Pea 