Reading Event Complete: 2018 Sci-Fi Experience

(Cygnus by artist Les Edwards, used with previous permission)


I was so glad to see that Carl V over at Stainless Droppings put up a notice about his Sci-Fi Experience reading event in December-January. I wish I had seen it at the beginning of the month instead of the end--but my life has been pretty hectic and I missed it. So...I'm going to line up my SF TBR stacks so I can join Carl as well as participate in the Vintage SF read in January. I'm going to plan on reading four even though Carl puts no pressure on us to meet certain levels. 

I met my personal reading goal!


1. Search for Spock: A Star Trek Book of Exploration by Robb Pearlman (1/12/18)
2. World's Best Science Fiction: 1966 by Donald A. Wollheim & Terry Car, eds (1/9/18)
3. Partners in Wonder by Harlan Ellison [& others] (1/19/18)
4. The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction Eighth Series edited by Anthony Boucher (1/28/18)

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction 8th Series: Review

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction 8th Series (1959) edited by Anthony Boucher really isn't. The Best, that is. Or if these stories are, then I'm afraid science fiction and fantasy had a pretty off year in 1959. Stories that were supposed to be funny, weren't (Ron Goulart and "A New Lo," I'm looking at you). Stories that were supposed to be fantasy didn't seem to have any fantasy elements (Shirley Jackson and "The Omen," I'm looking at you). And it's not as if every story that didn't meet the expectation provided by the brief introductions were positively bad stories...but if you're told something's going to be humorous, you kind of expect to at least chuckle a bit even if the humor isn't your particular brand. Or you expect fantasy elements when you've been told straight up that the story before you is a "wholly delightful fantasy." So--if these stories are supposed to be the best representatives of particular styles of fantasy and science fiction, then they don't fulfill their objective. 

And, unfortunately, most of those stories that do fall under the fantasy and science fiction umbrella manage to fall a little flat as well. I expected more from authors such as Poul Anderson, C.S. Lewis, Isaac Asimov, and Brian Aldiss. The best of the bunch is a story from an author I'd never read before: "Captivity" by Zenna Henderson. This is one of several stories about "The People," an alien race whose members were forced to flee their dying planet and some of whom landed on Earth where they must try to keep their presence secret. Due to circumstances not explained in this story, those who came to Earth were separated and so there is some contact with humans as they try to find others of their kind. This particular story focuses on one young alien who is known as "the Franchers kid." He's never fit in and no one takes an interest in him until a woman whose health has prevented her from teaching full-time volunteers to work with him privately. She soon discovers his uncanny and unearthly musical abilities and eventually helps him find his people. This is a touching story that is ultimately about accepting differences and understanding that different doesn't have to mean dangerous. 

The Shirley Jackson story is actually a sweet little story about the effects of coincidence, but (as I mention above) I was disappointed when I found no elements of fantasy (or science fiction) at all. As a straight work of fiction it is particularly good, but it fails to meet the standard of the collection's purpose. Overall, one of the more disappointing SF and/or Fantasy collections I have read. ★★

Partners in Wonder: Review

Books by Harlan Ellison are a trip. You never know if it's a trip through Wonderland or a trip through the darkest regions of human nature, but it's a trip. Partners in Wonder (1971) takes the unpredictable Ellison and teams him up with some of the biggest names in science fiction at the time--including Robert Silverberg, Roger Zelazny, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Sheckley, Ben Bova and more to produce an even more out-of-this-world trip than usual.

It was interesting to see how Ellison's style would mesh with other equally strong (and sometimes head-strong) writers. As one might expect, sometimes it worked really well and sometimes...not so much. Ellison is quite proud of all the stories (naturally), though even he admits that some of the match-ups work better than others. For instance, he tells us in the intro to "The Power of the Nail" that neither he nor Samuel R. Delaney felt that particular story was successful. (I find myself in agreement with the authors). He also tells us that a collaboration with Isaac Asimov was supposed to happen, but never quite came to fruition. Now, there's a match-up I would have liked to have read.★★★ and 3/4 for the whole collection.

My favorites are the two stories he and Robert Bloch wrote as follow-ups to Bloch's famous "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" which aren't really a collaboration so much as conversation through story. Also in the favorites:

"Runesmith" by Ellison & Theodor Sturgeon: about a man who uses his dark arts to inadvertently bring about the destruction of civilization--only to find that he's been the tool of darker forces than he realizes.

"The Human Operators" by Ellison & A. E. Van Vogt (easily the best of the stories): In which just enough men and women are kept alive by their Ships to keep the machines in repair. And as soon as they get old enough to be dangerous, they are killed off. Will humans find a way to take back control?

"The Song the Zombie Sang" by Ellison & Robert Silverbeg: In which a concert musician really outlasts his reputation.

"Come to Me Not in Winter's White" by Ellison & Roger Zelazny: A physicist who is the world's leading expert on time uses all his knowledge and resources to bend time to his will in order to save the love of his life. But will he lose her in the process?

World's Best Science Fiction 1966: Review

The title of World's Best Science Fiction 1966 edited by Donald A Wollheim & Terry Carr is a bit misleading. These are actually the best SF stories from 1965--and the collection was published in 1966. As the cover photo indicates, it includes stories by such SF luminaries as Arthur C. Clarke, Fritz Leiber, Clifford D. Simak and also those not mentioned: Larry Niven, Harlan Ellison, and Fred Saberhagen. It also includes stories by authors unfamiliar to me: Jonathan Brand, Joseph Green, and David I Massan. There are tales about spaceships that can sail the solar winds, time travel, dystopian futures (see Ellison), mixtures of man and machine, intelligence agents who lose their memories, and robots that keep fighting long after their original enemies are gone. As with all collections (even those that claim to have only the best), the stories represent various levels of strength depending on your taste. My personal favorites are "Sunjammer" by Clarke (the solar wind spaceships), "'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Ticktockman" by Ellison (a long-time favorite), "Over the River & Through the Woods" by Clifford D. Simak, "Planet of Forgetting" by James H. Schmitz, and "Vanishing Point" by Jonathan Brand. ★★★

Here is a run-down of the stories:

"Sunjammer" by Arthur C. Clarke: John Merton becomes the first man to sail a solar ship solo in the race to the moon. It looks like he'll take home the honors...until the sun decides to misbehave.

"Calling Dr. Clockwork" by Ron Goulart: In a world where healthcare becomes automated, things can really go wrong quickly when they don't go like "clockwork."

"Becalmed in Hell" by Larry Niven: A man will be stranded on Venus if he can't convince his cyborg ship, Eric, that "he" really can feel his thrusters and can achieve lift-off. How do you psycho-analyze a ship with a man's brain?

"Apartness" by Vernor Vinge: Set in a post-apocalyptic world which saw the destruction of the northern hemisphere. A treasure hunt sponsored by the Southern American Empire discovers an isolated tribe of Afrikaners--the only white people to escape the purge in South Africa during/after the war.

"Over the River & Through the Woods" by Clifford D. Simak: Two children come to visit their grandmother--but they come from further away than just miles. They are her great-great-grandchildren and they may be staying longer than either she or they think.

"Planet of Forgetting" by James H. Schmitz: An intergalactic intelligence officer wakes up to find himself on a strange planet with no memory of how he got there or of the last several months. He's quite sure that his boss must have sent him on a mission--his memory stops just moments before entering the man's office. He'd better remember quick--or he's going to find himself in the hands of some very nasty enemies.

"'Repent, Harlequin!' said the Ticktockman" by Harlan Ellison: One of Ellison's most famous stories about a dystopian world where time is regimented and if you waste it too much, you can find yourself quite literally "out of time" whenever the Ticktockman decides you've had your allotment. The Harlequin manages to disrupt the nice orderly society and Ellison uses him to make some very pointed social commentary.

"The Decision Makers" by Joseph Green: When mankind ventures out into the universe and encounters other lifeforms, who serves as his conscience? Who makes sure we don't run roughshod over potentially intelligent life? Green's story proposes the idea of the Practical Philosopher--and tells the story of one man's decision which affects an entire race of intelligent sea creatures.

"Traveler's Rest" by David I Masson: A war story about one soldier who is sent back to civilian life for a well-earned rest. But no one told him how brief that rest could be....

"Uncollected Works" by Lin Carter: A fairly mediocre tale about an aging literary critic who is interviewed by a young journalist. The critic name-drops all sorts of authors and then grows nostalgic over their future works of literary merit.

"Vanishing Point" by Jonathan Brand: A spaceman tells his kids a bedtime story about the time he and his shipmates went off to visit with the representatives of the Galactic Federation. The only person they meet is an old man on a bit of Eden-like ground. They make an odd discovery about the man and the place where they rendezvous.  Not high adventure--but a charming story.

"In Our Block" by R. A. Lafferty: There are some pretty unusual people living at the end of our dead-end block. They can manufacture whatever you want out of thin air...at reasonable prices too. But one has to wonder why the two guys in the story don't take advantage of all the bargains....

"Masque of the Red Shift" by Fred Saberhagen: As the astute reader might guess, Saberhagen uses the Poe story as a bit of inspiration for his SF adventure. The Emperor of Esteel is hosting a party in honor of his "dead" brother Johann (a hero in the fight against the berserker robots) when a berserker is smuggled in under the guise of a captured anarchist. A little reanimation and a black hole is needed to get the survivors out of this mess.

"The Captive Djinn" by Christopher Anvil: A tale about an Earthman who uses a little Terran "magic" to escape his alien captors. Just remember what Arthur C. Clarke said--"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

"The Good New Days: by Fritz Leiber: About three brothers who live with their mother--who is described in ways that make her seem other than human. This is a breathless, fast-paced story which, I think is supposed to be social commentary, but which really didn't make sense to me at all.

[Finished on 1/9/18]

2018 Sci-Fi Experience Event

(Cygnus by artist Les Edwards, used with previous permission)


I was so glad to see that Carl V over at Stainless Droppings put up a notice about his Sci-Fi Experience reading event in December-January. I wish I had seen it at the beginning of the month instead of the end--but my life has been pretty hectic and I missed it. So...I'm going to line up my SF TBR stacks so I can join Carl as well as participate in the Vintage SF read in January. I'm going to plan on reading four even though Carl puts no pressure on us to meet certain levels. 

The goal? Just to read, discuss, and enjoy some science fiction.  Low pressure and fun!  So go on and join us!


1. Search for Spock: A Star Trek Book of Exploration by Robb Pearlman (1/12/18)
2. World's Best Science Fiction: 1966 by Donald A. Wollheim & Terry Car, eds (1/9/18)
3. Partners in Wonder by Harlan Ellison [& others] (1/19/18)
4. The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction Eighth Series edited by Anthony Boucher (1/28/18)

Challenge (not a challenge) Complete: Sci-Fi Experience

Each December and January, I join again Carl V over at Stainless Droppings for his Sci-Fi Experience reading event.  I enjoy revisiting my love of science fiction and focusing on the genre during the winter months. I set myself a personal goal to read at least five by January 31st and I completed that goal. I'll be looking forward to joining Carl again once December rolls around.

 

Here are my science fiction reads:

 

1. The Silent Invaders by Robert Silverberg (1/7/17)
2. Battle For Venus by William F. Temple (1/7/17)
3. The Hidden Planet by Donald A. Wollheim, ed (1/9/17)
3.5. "How We Lost the Moon" by Paul J. McAuley (1/14/17) [short story]
4. Metamorphosis by Gene L. Coon (1/16/17)
5. I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (1/24/17)

 

 

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Review

I was in junior high school when I first discovered Harlan Ellison. I brought home Deathbird Stories from the public library. I was immediately affronted, confronted, confused, delighted, amazed, intrigued, and literally thrown for a loop. Ellison has a way of doing that to you. And he offers no apologies for it. He is loud and brash and in your face. I've said in previous reviews of his work that Ellison isn't for everyone. He's not a safe read. His work is guaranteed to shake you up and make you examine yourself and your world in new ways....and to my mind, that's a good thing. Particularly in the days we're living in now. There are a lot of people who could use a good shaking up. But that's a discussion for another time....

I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (1967) is a collection of seven short stories by a master of the genre. The stories range from cautionary tales about where our computerized gadgets may take us to being careful what kind of heaven you wish for. He also gives us stories about love--but not the happily-ever-after kind; these are the kind that could cost you your life...or more. He comments on lust and luck and the ugliness that can sit in the midst of beauty. Another terrific collection from Ellison. ★★★★

The stories:
"I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream": When mankind builds supercomputers to do their fighting for them, they shouldn't be surprised that when the computer minds blend together and become sentient then it doesn't look to kindly on its creator.  A cautionary tale about man's intentions backfiring on him. But also...a tale of sacrifice. The narrator gives up (and endures) quite a bit to save his companions.

"Big Sam Was My Friend": Big Sam is especially gifted in the world of gifted circus performers. He's a teleporter who can move from place to place in the blink of an eye. He's on a search for his lost love...a search that will cost him just as much as the narrator of the titular story.

"Eyes of Dust": What does a world of perfect beauty do with the "ugly" offspring of two flawed individuals? The answer probably isn't too surprising....

"World of the Myth": Three space travelers are marooned on a plant inhabited by creatures with a hive mind. A mind that can reveal each traveler's true self to them. Can the traveler's survive once they know the truth about themselves?

"Lonely Ache": Paul is visited by horrible nightmares--men are sent to kill him and he must kill or be killed. But the worst nightmare is the soft brown staring creature he believes is living in his room. Again...the projections of the inner self can be the most dangerous of all.

"Delusion for a Dragon Slayer": Another cautionary tale that tells us that we all make our own heaven (or hell) when we die. But--having devised the perfect paradise we may forget that we're the ones who have to live up to it.

"Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes": A man down to his last silver dollar finds the slot machine of every gambler's dreams--jackpots every time. But the final payout may not be quite what he planned.

Metamorphosis: Review

Metamorphosis (ST Fotonovel #5) by Gene L. Coon is the last of the Star Trek fotonovels sitting on my TBR pile. In the 1970s, long before VCRs were a standard thing in most homes, Bantam Books in conjunction with Mandala Productions gave Star Trek fans the chance to relive some of the shows episodes through series of twelve fotonovels. These books were essentially proto-types of the graphic novels so prevalent today that re-tell classic stories and these used actual film stills from the show with word  bubbles and explanatory text to accompany the photos. I found my first few in the early days of book-collecting and was finally able to complete the collection in 2012 when my husband and I came across a treasure trove at my now favorite used book store in Illinois. Last fall, I decided to catch up on reading those that I had never gotten to and managed to leave this one out. I've now rectified that error.

"Metamorphosis," a second season episode, finds Kirk, Spock, and McCoy accompanying Commissioner Nancy Hedford in the shuttlecraft Galileo. Hedford has been in the midst of negotiating peace between warring factions on Epsilon Canaris III, but has contracted a rare, potentially fatal condition, Sakuro's Disease. She requires treatment on the Enterprise before she can continue her mission. [Don't ask me why the starship couldn't just go pick her up. I don't know--other than we'd obviously have no plot. :-) ]

The shuttlecraft is just under five hours from the rendezvous with the Enterprise when Spock loses control of the ship and it is pulled off-course to a small planet (or piece of a planet). Surprisingly, the atmosphere is breathable and the men get out to investigate. They find more surprises in store--a shimmering, cloud-like entity and Zefram Cochrane, inventor of the warp drive and a man who disappeared over 150 years ago. The Enterprise crew are going to need the help of Cochrane and the Companion (Cochrane's name for the entity) if they are going to get off the planet. But the Companion has brought them there to prevent Cochrane from being lonely and has no intention of letting them go. It takes an unusual set of events to convince it... ★★★★
 

Deal Me In Week #2: "How We Lost the Moon"

This is my first year participating in Jay's Deal Me In Challenge . In a nutshell--we line up 52 short stories for the year, we match those stories up to a card in a regular deck of card, and each week we shuffle our deck (of real cards) and draw a card from whatever remains in the deck. I just dealt myself the Ace of Diamonds...which gives me "How We Lost the Moon: A True Story" by Paul J. McAuley. Beware--spoilers below! [It's difficult to talk about the story at all without letting a cat or two out of the bag--besides, the title gives the punch line away....]

image credit

The image above which comes from an original deck of play cards by the artist Adam Valmassoi definitely has a science fiction vibe for me. Which works nicely with this week's short story. "How We Lost the Moon" appears in the 17th Annul Collection of The Year's Best Science Fiction (2000) edited by Gardner Dozois. As Dozois tells us in his introduction to the story, McAuley write many different kinds of science fiction from rigorous hard SF and "New Baroque Space Opera" to Dystopian speculation and Alternate History. This story falls most decidedly in the hard SF camp.

One of the men directly involved in the events on the Moon before it was lost tells us his story--so we'll know the facts behind the "millions of bytes of Web journalism" and the "tens of thousands of hours of TV and a hundred schlocky movies" as well as "thousands of scientific papers and dozens of thick technical reports." Our narrator and his college Mike Doherty were sent to check on some odd readings from a power source on the far side of the moon. As soon as Mike sees the hole in the floor of the crawl space below the power chamber, he knows what's happened--but he won't tell his buddy. After all, he's got the same info as Mike--he ought to know too. But how many people are going to think that a black hole is opening up in the middle of the Moon? 

Given the title of the story, it's not difficult to figure out that the Moon doesn't make it past the ending, but a black hole is a bit of a surprise. McAuley gives us all the fine physics to explain the matter--but I have to say, I didn't take it all in. What did strike me was the interesting concept and the idea that the black hole could be used for a sling-shot propulsion effect for deeper space flight. Oh...and the method used to make it seem like the Earth still had a glowing orb in the night sky....

Black hole beginning: Photo credit

The Hidden Planet: Review

Using the last novella I read (Battle on Venus) as a jumping board, I moved on to The Hidden Planet (1959). This is a collection of stories by five authors featuring Earth's sister-planet Venus. Written during a time when we had little information about the planet (the brief introduction details just how little was known), each author gives us a little different vision of what lies beneath the cloud cover of our nearest neighbor. We get stories ranging from the man who made Venus a breeding ground for experiments with people  to the adventurer who went a little too deeply into the depths of Venus's ocean to those who investigated jungles where dangers lurk. As with most short story collections, this is a bit uneven. The best of the bunch are the stories by McIntosh and Weinbaum with Oliver and Brackett a distant second and Del Rey not even even making the race. I just found the story about the bad luck mascot to be annoying. Why not take the thing back where you found it and get yourself back to work so you can have the girl of your dreams? The critter doesn't even sound appealing and would be plenty happy in its swamp....An overall score of ★★★ for the entire collection.

"Field Expedient" by Chad Oliver (1954): Tells the story of a childless billionaire who pours all his wealth into creating a colony on the very Earth-like planet. The men of Earth have become very complacent and no longer wish to reach for the stars. Vandervort believes his colony will give mankind back his exploratory vision.

You're never finished with danger. It follows a brave man around.
Maybe, but I'm not a brave man. Never was.
~Virginia Stuart, Warren Blackwell in "Venus Mission"

"Venus Mission" by J. T. McIntosh (1951): A ship is damaged on its way to a city on Venus and crash-lands far from their target. Venus has been hard-won after a war with the "Greys." Little info is given about the Greys except that despite the war being over and a treaty being signed, there are still renegade groups that love nothing more than to capture and torture humans. Will the survivors be able to make it to the nearest settlement?

"The Luck of Ignatz" by Lester Del Rey (1939): What happens when the luckiest man in the universe takes on the unluckiest mascot imaginable? Lots of bad luck for everyone else....and then nobody wants to give him a job or allow him to travel on their rocket ships. So, how's he supposed to rescue the girl he loves?

"The Lotus Eaters" by Stanley G. Weinbaum (1935): Patricia Burlingame, biologist, and her newly-wedded husband Hamilton "Ham" Hammond are asked by the Royal Society and the Smithsonian Institution to investigate the dark side of Venus. While there, they find a species of warm-blooded plants who can move about and share a communal intelligence. The plants reproduce through spores which, when they burst, have an effect on humans that can send them into a comatose state. Will Patricia and Ham escape?

"Terror Out of Space" by Leigh Brackett (1944): Operatives from the Special Branch of the Tri-World Police, Lundy and Smith, have captured an alien who has been wreaking havoc with the males of Venus. Whenever a guy looks at "Her," he abandons whatever he's supposed to be doing and follows Her wherever She leads.  The alien causes men to see the her as the most beautiful woman ever--a dream girl, in fact. Lundy is the only one to survive the encounter and finds himself needing to defend Venus's plant people from Her as well. It turns into a very close call indeed.

The Silent Invaders and Battle on Venus: Review

This is an Ace Double book--so dual novels and dual reviews. Each portion has also been published as a stand-alone book, so I am absolutely counting these as separate steps on Mount TBR and separate entries for my challenges.

Up first is Robert Silverberg's 1963 novella, The Silent Invaders. Welcome to 26th Century Earth! It's a hustling, bustling, over-crowded world where aliens can take on human form and get lost in the masses. And they do. Aar Khiilom is just such an alien. Spruced up as Major Abner Harris, this Daruuiian has been sent to Earth to meet up with fellow under-cover aliens and attempt to win Earthlings over to their side of an intergalactic war with the dreaded Medlins. Every Daruuiian knows what evil creatures Medlins are and it's imperative to have every race on the right side of the battle.

Except....is the Daruuiian side really the right side? When Harris (to make things simple) meets up with an undercover Medlin (who just happens to have taken on the form of a beautiful Earth woman), he begins to have his doubts. And what about the race of super-humans that the Medlins have been encouraging along? Are they set to team up with the Medlins to destroy the Daruuiians? Or is this race the hope of the universe?

This is very early Silverberg and a fairly decent story. Once upon a time I read everything I could my hands on by Silverberg. Then there was a long hiatus from science fiction in general and when I took the genre up again, I read his The Masks of Time--which was an absolute dud (click for review). This one is better. I bought the main story this time. The hook is a good one--aliens among us and all that. I do have a bit of an issue with the super-humans, though. They're supposedly so much better than your average, run-of-the-mill humans (or Medlins or Daruuiians). Beyond all that war and greed and whatnot. And yet...they still think in order to deal with their "enemies" that those enemies should be killed. I'm thinking super-advanced humans ought to be able to come up with a better solution than that. ★★★

Battle on Venus (1963) by William F. Temple gives us the first manned mission to Venus. When the crew of the Earth ship break through the thick, poisonous clouds surrounding the planet, they find themselves in the middle of a war that has been going on for years. The war machines are familiar--they look like Earth tanks, planes, and bombs of the past. But the machines are all on auto-pilot. There doesn't seem to be any Venusians running the show.

Their ship is damaged and they need to find a way to repair it before they become real casualties of war. George Starkey (our hero) goes off on an expedition to see if he can find anyone at all who might be in charge, listen to their peaceful pleas, and give them a chance to head back to Earth. What he finds is a beautiful Venusian girl named Mara, an ancient seer who seems to know everything, and a immortal with a nasty sense of humor. Luckily the beautiful Venusian takes a fancy to him and has fantastic thieving abilities which aid him in his cause. But will he be able to stop the war machines long enough get him, Mara, and the rest of the crew off the planet? Or will the immortal practical joker have the last laugh?

This one feels a little more dated than the Silverberg story, probably because we know that humanoid life forms wouldn't be able to survive on the surface of Venus--but it still has a good solid base. George is a good lead character, taking front and center away from the rather weak ship's captain. The most enjoyable portion of the novella is after he sets off on his mission to find those responsible for the war. It also reminds me of a couple of Star Trek episodes: "A Taste of Armageddon" (where two planets have been waging computer war on each other for ceturies) and "The Squire of Gothos" (where an alien child with incredible powers plays deadly games with the Enterprise crew). ★★★

2017 Sci-Fi Experience

Once again Carl V over at Stainless Droppings is starting his Sci-Fi Experience reading event in December & January.  So...I'm going to be looking over my TBR stacks and lining up some SF reads for the rest of this month and into the new year.  I'm going to take a wild guess and say that I'll finish at least five by January 31st. Since the event ends in January, this will count towards my 2017 Challenges.

The goal? Just to read, discuss, and enjoy some science fiction.  No required reading levels.  Low pressure and fun!  So go on and join us!

Reviews not required, but if you'd like to share them then the Review Site can be found HERE.

1. The Silent Invaders by Robert Silverberg (1/7/17)
2. Battle For Venus by William F. Temple (1/7/17)
3. The Hidden Planet by Donald A. Wollheim, ed (1/9/17)
3.5. "How We Lost the Moon" by Paul J. McAuley (1/14/17)
4. Metamorphosis by Gene L. Coon (1/16/17)
5. I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison (1/24/17)
 

Sci-Fi Experience Reading Event: Complete

When Carl V over at Stainless Droppings posted his Sci-Fi Experience reading event in December.  I umped in feet first and started lining up my SF reads. I took a wild guess and said that I would finish at least five by January 31st.  And....I've done it!

 

My List:
1. The Wind's Twelve Quarters by Ursula K. Le Guin (12/9/15)
2. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit by Ray Bradbury (12/15/15)
3. The Purple Cloud by M. P. Shiel (1/2/16)
4. Imagination Unlimited edited by Everett F. Bleiler & T. E. Dikty (1/18/16)
5. The Platypus of Doom & Other Nihilists by Arthur Byron Cover (1/23/16)

 

 

The Platypus of Doom: Review

Journey into a universe where the strangest monsters ever imagined will make you shudder, laugh--and think twice!

The Platypus of Doom & Other Nihilists is a science fiction cult classic by Arthur Byron Cover. I found this by lucky happenstance on the shelves of my all-time favorite (but, alas, now defunct) used bookstore back in 1985. Then in my eagerness to share my enthusiasm for the quirky stories by Cover I loaned the book to a good friend and her good-for-nothing (not really, but in this instance) brother ran off with it and swore it was always his.

I didn't think about the book for a good long while but then when I decided to try and replace the book a few years ago I found no copies available anywhere for anything like a reasonable price. That would be the fault of AbeBooks. In 2009 they featured the book as part of their collection of weird books. The book promptly sold out at AbeBooks and paperback editions became available for outrageous prices. I was delighted to find a copy in 2011 for not much more than I originally paid in the 80s. And now I'm am delighted to have read it again.

"The Platypus of Doom": This gigantic, bow-tie-wearing space monster can grant the winner of the "great game"* his or her heart's desire. Sounds great, right. Well, you know the old adage....Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. [*The great game appears to be ping pong, by the way :-) ]

"The Armadillo of Destruction": An immortal creature that feeds off the powerful negative energy of hate. He's often on the lookout for a new energy source--which always ends badly for the source. Leopold Janifer thinks he has found a way to beat the Armadillo's system. Is he right?

"The Aardvark of Despair": Can Davis, a mean-streets private eye who has been flung through a time vortex into the future, help Dr. Bishop and his family shake off the suicidal depression that the Aardvark instills in its victims?

"The Clam of Catastrophe": Will the Clam, the goddess of love, teach the first and most long-lived consulting detective to love and then turn it into disillusionment. Or will the detective find the solution the one of man's oldest problems?


It was very nice to find that this held up to the memories I had of reading this in my teens. The monsters do have a comic element to them--in their descriptions if nothing else--but there is, under the near-farcical trappings, an examination of such things as love, hate, motivation, and the meaning of existence itself. Cover manages to pose his questions with a light touch that offers food for though as well as entertaining stories. Adding to the fun, the last two tales are also pastiches of detective fiction. "Aardvark" features the private eye and "Clam" plays on the Sherlock Holmes tradition. ★★★★


~Since I only owned this for an all-too-brief moment over twenty years ago and bought it in 2011 specifically so I could read it again some day, this counts for the Mount TBR Challenge.

Imagination Unlimited: Review

Imagination Unlimited (1952), edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty, is a collection of seven science fiction stories from 1939-1951. It provides us with a vision of the future from the vantage of the World War II- and post WWII-eras and does so through stories by Ray Bradbury, Theordore Sturgeon, L. Sprague de Camp, and others. According to the back of the book, it asks questions such as:

With the continual triumphs of medicine, how long will men live when cancer and heart disease have been conquered, as they will be within the lifetime of many who read these words? [We're still waiting to find out.]

With one rocket already in orbit around the sun [huh?], what will man be doing with rockets in fifty years. [Not a heck of a lot as it turns out...]

What happens when the earth's resources have been depleted and its population has increased tenfold? [We're working hard to make that problem a reality.]

This is a middle of the road collection of science fiction stories. The strongest are by Bradbury, Sturgeon and Phillips. "Dune Roller" is a fine second-tier story as is "Employment" and the remainder have concepts that hold the interest although the story-telling is not quite as good as the others.  ★★★

Here are the synopses for the stories:

"Referent" by Ray Bradbury: In the future (1997 as it happens) a young boy named Roby is at a controlled, live-in educational facility on Orthopedic Island. Everything is controlled from activities throughout the day (down to the minute)--including instructional time and "play" time (which hardly seems like play when every detail is dictated) as well as regimented meals and sleep periods. One day a strange sphere lands with a being capable of changing shape--a capability that seems oddly connected to the thoughts and desires of those around it. Little does the alien know that it will provide Roby a means for escape from the facility.

"What Dead Men Tell" by Theodore Sturgeon: A young genius discovers a secret society who can offer him immortality. But he must accept an entrance exam challenge and there are only two possible outcomes: the promised immortality or if he fails the challenge....immediate death. He will have to figure out what the dead men can tell him if he is to succeed.

"Dune Roller" by Julian May: An ecologist is studying life in the tide pools of Lake Michigan when he discovers the reality behind local legends of a ravenous beast that comes from the lake "in search of a man" to kill...and then retreats until its hunger forces it from the lake once again.

"Employment" by L. Sprague de Camp: Definitely a precursor to Jurassic Park. A paleontologist/inventor devises a method to bring animals back from the dead--starting with more recent varieties and working his way back to the dinosaurs. His "creations" become a hit with zoos everywhere, but his employee fears what might happen if he reanimates the larger carnivores....

"Dreams Are Sacred" by Peter Phillips: Science Fiction and Fantasy writer Marsham Craswell has overworked himself and escaped the stress in a dream-state coma where he loves out the lives of his fictional worlds. His psychiatrist is afraid that if the dreams become too real and Craswell "writes" a story in which the hero (Craswell) dies, then it just might happen for real. The doctor has a machine that will allow someone to share Craswell's thoughts/dreams and he asks his very down-to-earth, pragmatic friend to "go in" and bring Craswell back.

"Berom" by John Berryman: An alien ship shows up and the crew speaks in what seems to be gibberish. A translator discovers that the aliens are speaking in an obsolete code from the 1920s--which they picked up on radio waves before arriving. But what do the aliens really want?

"The Fire and the Sword" by Frank Robinson: Don Pendleton was sent to the primitive world of Tunpesh to live among the inhabitants. Inexplicably, he commits suicide and Templin is sent to investigate why. The investigator nearly suffers the same fate himself. What is it about the idyllic world that could drive men to kill themselves?

The Purple Cloud: Review

And...we're off. The first review of 2016. I just wish I'd picked a better book....

M. P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud tells the story Adam Jeffson, the last survivor of a doomed Polar expedition and, ultimately, the last man on Earth. For some inexplicable reason, the North Pole, which bears no resemblance whatsoever to the Garden of Eden in the Bible, has become associated with that place and the idea behind The Purple Cloud is that if anyone every reaches the Pole and enters the forbidden territory once again, then all of mankind will be wiped out. Many expeditions are mounted before Jeffson's crew heads north and they all fail (luckily for mankind). But some sort of fate protects Jeffson and he alone of his entire expedition makes it to the goal. 

When he returns to the ship, expecting to be greeted by the cheers of the ship's crew, he finds all hands dead. And as he makes his way back to England, he finds nothing but dead men and women everywhere. The evidence he finds leads him to understand that a great "purple cloud, smelling of peaches" made its way over the Earth, killing everything in its path. Only he has been spared.

Jeffson remembers a man he met in college who claimed that two great powers--one Black and one White--were in competition for the Earth. For whatever reason, he has become the focus of these powers, guided by them to the Pole and throughout his life after the mass destruction. We follow his story as he works his way through loneliness, despair, acceptance, and finally...the decision he must make when he finds that he's not alone after all. There has been an Eve spared to match his Adam. But should he really start the human race again?

The Purple Cloud is one of the earliest "last man alive" stories in science fiction. It deserves to be noted for that fact alone. But--looking back at it from 100-plus years--I have to say it is one of the most tedious post-apocalyptic tales I've ever read. The book could truly have been a short story...or short novella at most and done the work. The endless pages of Jeffson meeting up with boat after boat full of dead men and then going from city to city to city to city....on endless repeat--finding everyone dead, wandering around looking in this building and that building and describing the ghastly scene over and over and over got to be a bit much.

The first third of the book which is devoted to the race to the Pole was quite interesting. After that, like the purple cloud, it turned quite deadly. Deadly dull that is. It doesn't help that Adam Jeffson is a thoroughly unlikeable man. He doesn't bat an eye when his fiancee kills her own nephew so Jeffson can be on the Polar expedition (there's a huge cash prize for the first man to set foot on Pole, you see). And he casually kills other members of the expedition later. His mad dash around the cities of Earth (after the disaster) burning everything in sight is appalling as well. And we're left to wonder--if the White power really has "won" (as Jeffson seems to think), why on earth would it choose this man to be the father of the new race of men? We're certainly not headed for a new, improved humanity given that Adam is a killer. ★★