Copy of the Penguin Classics edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 novel ‘The Left Hand of Darkness

‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination’.

Embarking today on Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 masterpiece ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’.

Happy days 🙂

Mind, body, spirit, space: Alien Embassy (1977) by Ian Watson A challenging novel of mysticism, power, and alien contact

I happened to finish Alien Embassy (1977) in the week that we learned Ian Watson has died. Here is my new essay on the novel, about astral projection and set in Tanzania, Miami, and Tibet.

Under the domes: Fury (1947) by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore An influential classic of power and revenge on Venus

Is this a classic of the so-called "golden age" that stands up? This week's classic SF essay is a look at the Venusian antiheroism of Fury (1947) by power couple Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore.

Copy of the Penguin Classics edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 novel ‘The Left Hand of Darkness

‘I’ll make my report as if I told a story, for I was taught as a child on my homeworld that Truth is a matter of the imagination’.

Embarking today on Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1969 masterpiece ‘The Left Hand of Darkness’.

Happy days 🙂

Not acquainted with any of Wolfe‘s work to date, but this one has been recommended as a good place to start. On the ever expanding TBR list, but I imagine I’ll be embarking on this next month…

It’ll be well worth the wait I’m sure 👍

Cover of the July 1962 issue of ‘Fantastic’ magazine, which references the J,G, Ballard story ‘The Singing Statues’ - image shows a close-up of a woman with her eyes closed, her face framed by her long blonde hair. Behind her is one of the singing statues of the title, a large metallic column, curiously ornamented, and with curved struts forming a shape like two metallic wings at the top.

Back to J.G. Ballard’s Vermillions Sands series today & the 1962 story ‘The Singing Statues’. A darkly surreal love story involving the mesmeric effects of ‘sonic sculptures’, offset with moments of playful humour.
A rather wonderful cover here from the tale’s original publication in ‘Fantastic’.

Copy of the Gollancz paperback edition of the William Gibson collection ‘Burning Chrome’, which features ‘Johnny Mnemonic’ as the opening story.

On to one of the defining ‘Cyberpunk‘ stories of the 80s, Gibson’s ‘Johnny Mnemonic’.
The film version has its charms of course, but the original tale boasts an absolute surfeit of inventive set-pieces & the rogues gallery of characters (yes, including a cyborg dolphin) is brilliantly realised.

I‘m looking forward to tracking down ‘Web’ at some point - published posthumously and now long out of print as I recall.

5 paperback books by John Wyndham.

Picked these 5 up for about 1.80 each including p&p, and all in pretty good condition too. I've just finished listening to The Kraken Wakes on audiobook which was really good. #booksky

Copy of a recent Penguin paperback release of the 1954 collection ‘Untouched by Human Hands’ by Robert Sheckley, which contains the 1953 short story ‘Specialist’.

On to Sheckley’s ‘Specialist’, involving a group of vastly diverse aliens, whose specialist ‘functions’ work in harmony to fly their spaceship.
When they seek the services of a human, they cannot understand his antipathy to the concept of ‘cooperation’ between species.
A tight piece of satire 🙂

Cover of the collection ‘The Grain Kings’ by Keith Roberts. Minimalistic treatment, with the title shown on a plain black cover, with the solitary image of a wheat-stalk above the title.

Recently acquired this superb Keith Roberts collection & have just finished ‘Weihnachtabend’ - easily one of the best short stories I’ve had the pleasure to discover.
I thought ‘Pavane’ set a high bar for ‘alternative world’ tales, but this later masterpiece really is in a league of its own.

Very fond of Hothouse - it’s a world away from my favourite Aldiss (‘Greybeard’), but his sheer variety is what drew me to his work in the first place. Arguably thin on characterisation, but certainly big on ‘spectacle‘ - including a trip to the Moon which is unlike any other in the field! 🙂

Thanks for the re-post 👍
Yes, I’m halfway in just now and enjoying every word. Beautifully written and constructed. This will certainly be a volume that’ll keep me entertained for months to come (I frequently dip into short stories in between novels).

Copy of the 2020 Gollancz paperback release of the collection ‘Episodes’ by Christopher Priest.

This fine collection of stories by the superlative Christopher Priest has thankfully arrived in time for some Easter holiday reading.
Hard pressed to select which tale to savour first, but the central premise of ‘An Infinite Summer’ (such a great title) has long piqued this reader‘s curiousity…

Copies of two books by Samuel R. Delaney: ‘Babel-17’ from 1966 and his 1971 collection ‘Driftglass’ (books shown are more recent paperback releases published by Gollancz and Penguin respectively)

Celebrating writer and literary critic Samuel R. Delany, who is 84 today.
A extraordinary legacy & a highly influential body of work. To date, I’ve read only a handful of his stories, but the kaleidoscopic ’Babel-17‘ & the various gems that comprise ‘Driftglass’ were such a great place to start 🙂

Copy of the 1980 Coronet paperback edition of ‘The Feast of St Dionysus’, a collection of SF stories by Robert SIlverberg.

Today’s vintage acquisition.
A real nostalgia hit here, as this SIlverberg collection was one of the last SF book purchases of my younger years before ‘drifting away’ from the genre.
Never got around to reading all the stories, so well over 40 years on I guess I can finally finish what I started! 😀

I feel I know exactly what you mean Vaughan! 😀

Yes, it’s certainly taken me a while to get round to this author! 🙂
Glad I started with thus one though.

I’ll certainly seek out more of his work in the future - I’ve noticed he does seem to divide opinion, but his earlier work still seems to be viewed more favourably.

Copy of the Gollancz Masterworks edition of the 1967 novel ‘The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress’ by Robert Heinlein. Cover depicts a rocket blasting off with (I think) the moon as its target.

A third of the way through my first Heinlein & vastly enjoying it. The sentient computer ‘Mike’ (or ‘Michelle’ when the occasion demands) is surely one of the best written & engaging AI ’characters’ of the era - arguably a benevolent HAL 🙂.
An inventive novel, far more playful than I’d anticipated.

Computer fugitive: The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner On the run in the networked society

The hiatus is over and this week's essay is up, focusing on The Shockwave Rider (1975), John Brunner's novel of a hyper-connected, networked society and phreaking proto-hacktivism written over 50 years ago.

Yes, it’s generally a very faithful adaptation (with some variations here and there, including the increased emphasis on the reversal of roles between Abel and Dr Francis at the end). Such a great premise though and a very rare TV outing for Ballard!

Chris Foss painting of a spaceship in flight, used as the cover image for Issue 2 of the UK magazine ‘Science Fiction Monthly’ in 1974.

Celebrating artist Chris Foss, 80 today.
As a youngster discovering ‘grown-up’ SF in the 70s, his striking cover art would never fail to catch my attention. Even if some of the stories went over my head at times, the sense of ‘breathtaking spectacle’ in his imagery always drew me back for more… 🙂

Ages since I read any Nabokov, but I recall avidly working through what was then available in paperback - I particularly recall being entertained by one of his early works, Bend Sinister, which was very reminiscent of Kafka. Wonderful stylistic prose.

Cover of the ‘Complete Short Stories of J. G. Ballard’ collection, with a simple b/w portrait of the author in high contrast.

Back to the Complete Stories tome & 1962’s ‘The Watch-Towers’.
A disconcerting & eerie tale, set in an oddly quiet suburbia ostensibly overlooked by mysterious observation towers suspended from the hazy sky.
A menacing tone conveyed with great subtlety, all the way to an unsettling final paragraph.

Not a list of shame as such (I know I’ll get to them in good time!) but amongst the more ‘hallowed’ works I’ve yet to read:
1. Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
2. Le Guin - Left Hand of Darkness
3. Miller - Canticle for Liebowitz.
And count me in also for A Clockwork Orange & the Gene Wolfe series 🙂

Copy of the Arthur C. Clarke collection ‘The Sentinel’. Cover image (by Lebbeus Woods) depicts a rear view of the figure of an astronaut looking over a rocky planet surface.

I still enjoy sampling from the length & breadth of the genre, so another change of pace & style with this week’s acquisition - a collection of Arthur C. Clarke‘s best known short fiction.
Lots to choose from of course, but
I’ve opted to start with his 1972 Nebula winner ‘A Meeting with Medusa’…

Absolutely - Carnival of Monsters, Terror of the Autons, Ark in Space, the list goes on…. 👍

Love Irongron’s labelling of Lynx as ‘Toadface’ and “Yours is indeed a towering intelligence!” is such a great line! 🙂