Interior magazine artwork (from Omni, December 1982) for Ian Watson's 'Returning Home'

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, February 1985. ‘White Socks’ by Ian Watson

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1987. ‘Salvage Rights’ by Ian Watson

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, December 1988. ‘The Mole Field’ by Ian Watson

Ian Watson sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/watson... who sadly died a week ago, was born on this day; here's magazine artwork for some of his stories 1982-88: 'Returning Home' ‘White Socks’ ‘Salvage Rights' & ‘The Mole Field’ (Artist: Jean-Marie Poumeyrol, RJ Krupowicz, David A Hardy & Stephen Gervais):

Out of the Silent Planet (1938) by C. S. Lewis ✅ - I enjoyed this more than I expected, partly because Lewis' Christian apologism isn't heavy-handed in this first volume of the "space trilogy". It's a solid yarn set on a fantastical imagined Mars.

1978 cover art for Alien Embassy by Dean Ellis

Uncredited 1979 cover art for Alien Embassy, for the Panther edition

Uncredited cover art for the 1993 VGSF edition of Alien Embassy

Three covers for Alien Embassy (1977): one by Dean Ellis from 1978 and two uncredited ones for 1979 and 1993 UK editions.

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.

Episode 192 of the podcast is now very likely live in your podcast vendor of choice - here's your snippet, on the strange future envisioned by the late Ian Watson in Alien Embassy (1977).

The Fourth Consort (2025) by Edward Ashton ✅ - alas, not for me. Amusing at times but far too dialogue-heavy for my tastes and for me there wasn't enough meat on the story bone to carry it for 300 pages.

The Bittersweet Temporality of Love | Los Angeles Review of Books On the 50th anniversary of his death, it’s a perfect time to unearth the forgotten fantasies of Thomas Burnett Swann.

Out today from @lareviewofbooks.bsky.social, my essay reflecting on Thomas Burnett Swann's life and legacy as a fantasy writer 50 years after his death. This has been a year in the making and I'm happy there's a piece like this giving Swann some overdue attention!

Art by prolific UK illustrator Jim Burns

I was in Keswick last year, but I think this shop was closed at the time. I personally am not into those non-pictorial covers, but otherwise this is a good catch - especially Alien Embassy.

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.

I haven't read it myself, but Icerigger seems to be one of ADF's more praised novels, a solid adventure yarn apparently.

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.

My thread yesterday on Watson's passing.

As in The Embedding (1973) and The Jonah Kit (1975), Watson's characters use disturbing methods to attempt transcendence, to transform humankind. A bracing novel, short on physical action but long on huge conceptual breakthroughs.

Another dense, challenging Watson novel with diverse, unusual settings (primarily Tanzania, Miami, and Lhasa). Watson again explores communication, transcendence, and the mind.

Alien Embassy (1977) by the late Ian Watson ✅ - my third Watson novel. In a post-disaster era, a new kind of space programme uses astral travel to commune with three enlightened alien species. Or does it?

Mind of the ocean: The Jonah Kit (1975) by Ian Watson The nature of the universe is resolved in Earth’s oceans

Then last year, I covered Watson's second novel The Jonah Kit (1975), which is stirring and strange in its own right.

El Dorado of the mind: The Embedding (1973) by Ian Watson [Review] A startling debut novel of linguistics, anthropology, geopolitics, and first contact.

I've twice tried to do some justice to a Watson novel, firstly writing about his wild debut The Embedding (1973).

"Watson has been perhaps the most impressive synthesizer of late twentieth-century sf; and (it may be, after the radically different J G Ballard) the least deluded." The SFE entry on Watson is well worth a read.

Could this be the species that Maturin explains in Master and Commander...?

1979: What is SCIENCE FICTION? | The Book Programme | Classic BBC interviews | BBC Archive YouTube video by BBC Archive

Posted this before, but here's a fascinating BBC TV discussion featuring Watson, Peter Nicholls, Harry Harrison, and Douglas Adams discussing Watson's novel God's World (1979).

Cover art for the 1954 UK edition of Fury (1947); art by Ley Kenyon

Richard Powers' cover art for a 1958 edition of Fury (1947), published by Avon under the largely meaningless title Destination Infinity

1972 Larry Kresek cover art for the 1972 Lancer edition of Fury, which has an introduction by co-author C. L. Moore.

Uncredited cover art for the 1981 edition of Fury, by this point a "famous classic."

Four covers for Fury: Ley Kenyon (1954), Richard Powers (1958), Larry Kresek (1972), and uncredited (1981).

Absolutely - the three novels I've read so far are all thrillingly thought-provoking.

Sad to hear that the British SF writer Ian Watson has died aged 82. As it happens I'm reading his novel Alien Embassy (1977) at the moment. Everything of his I have encountered is bracingly strange and challenging.

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.

Jim Burns' cover art for Greg Bear's novel Eon (1985). Various disc-shaped spacecraft fly towards a vast, pyramidal structure inside an immense, seemingly infinite macrostructure.

Speaking of SF cover art, I missed artist Jim Burns' birthday yesterday. Here's probably my favourite of his, thrilling scale and imagination for Greg Bear's novel Eon (1985).

Not my favourite of the Hainish novels, but such a unique and important piece of work. From what I can remember Le Guin's introduction(s) to it are enlightening reads as well.

If your publisher wants your novel to look this samey, what does it say about how they view and value you and your work? I really feel this approach demeans almost everyone: writer, artist, publisher, reader. Maybe accountants are happy?

To me it's short-term thinking. These cookie-cutter covers have no chance of being recognisable, let alone iconic, over any length of time. Only established authors get any real thought given to a visual style. It's fast fashion for fiction.

To me it's short-term thinking. These cookie-cutter covers have no chance of being recognisable, let alone iconic, over any length of time. Only established authors get any real thought given to a visual style. It's fast fashion for fiction.