#paperbacks — Public Fediverse posts

Some fab free book scores.

Calling My Spirit Back by Elaine Alec
Elaine Alec, is a #Syilx & #Secwepemc author, based in Kamloops, BC.
https://www.elainealec.com/books

Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization provides a variety of Indigenous perspectives on the history of colonialism, current Indigenous activism and resistance, and outlines the path forward to reconciliation.

Originally released as a free e-book, the audio version features renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. The late Arthur Manuel’s writings are read by his grandson, Mahekan Anderson. FPSE has been proud to partner with Nuxalk Radio to produce the audio version of this essential work.
https://fpse.ca/resources/whose-land-is-it-anyway/

My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum
A novel about survival, reconciliation and identity set during the summer of 1979.
https://www.strongnations.com/store/10103/my-indian-summer
Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of James Smith #Cree Nation. Kakwinokanasum's work has been published in the 2022 anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, the Humber Literary Journal and Emerge.
Kakwinokanasum was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje, won the 1970 Governor General's Literary Award. Ondaatje's hauntingly disturbing evocation of the life and death of the 19th-century American outlaw placed him in the forefront of the new generation of Canadian poets emerging in the 1970s. The Collected Works commences with a list of 20 men killed by Billy the Kid and a foreshadowing of his own death. Using a highly visual, visceral poetic style featuring violent surreal images of madness and men killed in gun fights, shifts in time and perspective, and impressionistic fragments of Billy's existence, Ondaatje traces his capture, escape and eventual death at the hands of Pat Garrett, the "ideal assassin." Following the publication of The Collected Works by House of Anansi in 1970, a dozen major productions of a stage adaptation were held across Canada.(from The Canadian Encyclopedia)
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid

#books #bookstodon #ReadMoreBooks #Decolonization #Booklovers #Paperbacks #Literarature #DecolonialReading #DecolonizeYourMind #FreeBooks

Some fab free book scores.

Calling My Spirit Back by Elaine Alec
Elaine Alec, is a #Syilx & #Secwepemc author, based in Kamloops, BC.
https://www.elainealec.com/books

Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization provides a variety of Indigenous perspectives on the history of colonialism, current Indigenous activism and resistance, and outlines the path forward to reconciliation.

Originally released as a free e-book, the audio version features renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. The late Arthur Manuel’s writings are read by his grandson, Mahekan Anderson. FPSE has been proud to partner with Nuxalk Radio to produce the audio version of this essential work.
https://fpse.ca/resources/whose-land-is-it-anyway/

My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum
A novel about survival, reconciliation and identity set during the summer of 1979.
https://www.strongnations.com/store/10103/my-indian-summer
Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of James Smith #Cree Nation. Kakwinokanasum's work has been published in the 2022 anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, the Humber Literary Journal and Emerge.
Kakwinokanasum was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje, won the 1970 Governor General's Literary Award. Ondaatje's hauntingly disturbing evocation of the life and death of the 19th-century American outlaw placed him in the forefront of the new generation of Canadian poets emerging in the 1970s. The Collected Works commences with a list of 20 men killed by Billy the Kid and a foreshadowing of his own death. Using a highly visual, visceral poetic style featuring violent surreal images of madness and men killed in gun fights, shifts in time and perspective, and impressionistic fragments of Billy's existence, Ondaatje traces his capture, escape and eventual death at the hands of Pat Garrett, the "ideal assassin." Following the publication of The Collected Works by House of Anansi in 1970, a dozen major productions of a stage adaptation were held across Canada.(from The Canadian Encyclopedia)
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid

#books #bookstodon #ReadMoreBooks #Decolonization #Booklovers #Paperbacks #Literarature #DecolonialReading #DecolonizeYourMind #FreeBooks

Some fab free book scores.

Calling My Spirit Back by Elaine Alec
Elaine Alec, is a #Syilx & #Secwepemc author, based in Kamloops, BC.
https://www.elainealec.com/books

Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization provides a variety of Indigenous perspectives on the history of colonialism, current Indigenous activism and resistance, and outlines the path forward to reconciliation.

Originally released as a free e-book, the audio version features renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. The late Arthur Manuel’s writings are read by his grandson, Mahekan Anderson. FPSE has been proud to partner with Nuxalk Radio to produce the audio version of this essential work.
https://fpse.ca/resources/whose-land-is-it-anyway/

My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum
A novel about survival, reconciliation and identity set during the summer of 1979.
https://www.strongnations.com/store/10103/my-indian-summer
Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of James Smith #Cree Nation. Kakwinokanasum's work has been published in the 2022 anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, the Humber Literary Journal and Emerge.
Kakwinokanasum was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje, won the 1970 Governor General's Literary Award. Ondaatje's hauntingly disturbing evocation of the life and death of the 19th-century American outlaw placed him in the forefront of the new generation of Canadian poets emerging in the 1970s. The Collected Works commences with a list of 20 men killed by Billy the Kid and a foreshadowing of his own death. Using a highly visual, visceral poetic style featuring violent surreal images of madness and men killed in gun fights, shifts in time and perspective, and impressionistic fragments of Billy's existence, Ondaatje traces his capture, escape and eventual death at the hands of Pat Garrett, the "ideal assassin." Following the publication of The Collected Works by House of Anansi in 1970, a dozen major productions of a stage adaptation were held across Canada.(from The Canadian Encyclopedia)
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid

#books #bookstodon #ReadMoreBooks #Decolonization #Booklovers #Paperbacks #Literarature #DecolonialReading #DecolonizeYourMind #FreeBooks

Some fab free book scores.

Calling My Spirit Back by Elaine Alec
Elaine Alec, is a #Syilx & #Secwepemc author, based in Kamloops, BC.
https://www.elainealec.com/books

Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization provides a variety of Indigenous perspectives on the history of colonialism, current Indigenous activism and resistance, and outlines the path forward to reconciliation.

Originally released as a free e-book, the audio version features renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. The late Arthur Manuel’s writings are read by his grandson, Mahekan Anderson. FPSE has been proud to partner with Nuxalk Radio to produce the audio version of this essential work.
https://fpse.ca/resources/whose-land-is-it-anyway/

My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum
A novel about survival, reconciliation and identity set during the summer of 1979.
https://www.strongnations.com/store/10103/my-indian-summer
Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of James Smith #Cree Nation. Kakwinokanasum's work has been published in the 2022 anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, the Humber Literary Journal and Emerge.
Kakwinokanasum was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje, won the 1970 Governor General's Literary Award. Ondaatje's hauntingly disturbing evocation of the life and death of the 19th-century American outlaw placed him in the forefront of the new generation of Canadian poets emerging in the 1970s. The Collected Works commences with a list of 20 men killed by Billy the Kid and a foreshadowing of his own death. Using a highly visual, visceral poetic style featuring violent surreal images of madness and men killed in gun fights, shifts in time and perspective, and impressionistic fragments of Billy's existence, Ondaatje traces his capture, escape and eventual death at the hands of Pat Garrett, the "ideal assassin." Following the publication of The Collected Works by House of Anansi in 1970, a dozen major productions of a stage adaptation were held across Canada.(from The Canadian Encyclopedia)
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid

#books #bookstodon #ReadMoreBooks #Decolonization #Booklovers #Paperbacks #Literarature #DecolonialReading #DecolonizeYourMind #FreeBooks

Some fab free book scores.

Calling My Spirit Back by Elaine Alec
Elaine Alec, is a #Syilx & #Secwepemc author, based in Kamloops, BC.
https://www.elainealec.com/books

Whose Land Is It Anyway? A Manual for Decolonization provides a variety of Indigenous perspectives on the history of colonialism, current Indigenous activism and resistance, and outlines the path forward to reconciliation.

Originally released as a free e-book, the audio version features renowned Indigenous writers Taiaiake Alfred, Glen Coulthard, Russell Diabo, Beverly Jacobs, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Kanahus Manuel, Jeffrey McNeil-Seymour, Pamela Palmater, Shiri Pasternak, Nicole Schabus, Senator Murray Sinclair, and Sharon Venne. The late Arthur Manuel’s writings are read by his grandson, Mahekan Anderson. FPSE has been proud to partner with Nuxalk Radio to produce the audio version of this essential work.
https://fpse.ca/resources/whose-land-is-it-anyway/

My Indian Summer by Joseph Kakwinokanasum
A novel about survival, reconciliation and identity set during the summer of 1979.
https://www.strongnations.com/store/10103/my-indian-summer
Joseph Kakwinokanasum is a member of James Smith #Cree Nation. Kakwinokanasum's work has been published in the 2022 anthology Resonance: Essays on the Craft and Life of Writing, the Humber Literary Journal and Emerge.
Kakwinokanasum was shortlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

The Collected Works of Billy the Kid, by Michael Ondaatje, won the 1970 Governor General's Literary Award. Ondaatje's hauntingly disturbing evocation of the life and death of the 19th-century American outlaw placed him in the forefront of the new generation of Canadian poets emerging in the 1970s. The Collected Works commences with a list of 20 men killed by Billy the Kid and a foreshadowing of his own death. Using a highly visual, visceral poetic style featuring violent surreal images of madness and men killed in gun fights, shifts in time and perspective, and impressionistic fragments of Billy's existence, Ondaatje traces his capture, escape and eventual death at the hands of Pat Garrett, the "ideal assassin." Following the publication of The Collected Works by House of Anansi in 1970, a dozen major productions of a stage adaptation were held across Canada.(from The Canadian Encyclopedia)
https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-collected-works-of-billy-the-kid

#books #bookstodon #ReadMoreBooks #Decolonization #Booklovers #Paperbacks #Literarature #DecolonialReading #DecolonizeYourMind #FreeBooks

The perils of judging a book by its hard cover | Letters

Readers take issue with an article that advocated ditching hardback books in favour of paperbacks I read Larry Ryan’s piece with interest and some sympathy ( The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books, 6 May ). I agree that hardbacks are now becoming prohibitively expensive. I took a passing interest in a new hardback recently but my interest passed quickly when I saw that it was priced at £35. It is also true that hardbacks are awkward to read, other than at a desk, and make poor travelling companions. They can look attractive, but a pleasingly serious effort is put into the design of paperback covers these days. Continue reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/11/the-perils-of-judging-a-book-by-its-hard-cover

#Books #Publishing #Culture #Society #Paperbacks

The perils of judging a book by its hard cover | Letters

Readers take issue with an article that advocated ditching hardback books in favour of paperbacks I read Larry Ryan’s piece with interest and some sympathy ( The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books, 6 May ). I agree that hardbacks are now becoming prohibitively expensive. I took a passing interest in a new hardback recently but my interest passed quickly when I saw that it was priced at £35. It is also true that hardbacks are awkward to read, other than at a desk, and make poor travelling companions. They can look attractive, but a pleasingly serious effort is put into the design of paperback covers these days. Continue reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/11/the-perils-of-judging-a-book-by-its-hard-cover

#Books #Publishing #Culture #Society #Paperbacks

The perils of judging a book by its hard cover | Letters

Readers take issue with an article that advocated ditching hardback books in favour of paperbacks I read Larry Ryan’s piece with interest and some sympathy ( The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books, 6 May ). I agree that hardbacks are now becoming prohibitively expensive. I took a passing interest in a new hardback recently but my interest passed quickly when I saw that it was priced at £35. It is also true that hardbacks are awkward to read, other than at a desk, and make poor travelling companions. They can look attractive, but a pleasingly serious effort is put into the design of paperback covers these days. Continue reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/11/the-perils-of-judging-a-book-by-its-hard-cover

#Books #Publishing #Culture #Society #Paperbacks

The perils of judging a book by its hard cover | Letters

Readers take issue with an article that advocated ditching hardback books in favour of paperbacks I read Larry Ryan’s piece with interest and some sympathy ( The hill I will die on: Heavy, awkward and incredibly expensive – we don’t need hardback books, 6 May ). I agree that hardbacks are now becoming prohibitively expensive. I took a passing interest in a new hardback recently but my interest passed quickly when I saw that it was priced at £35. It is also true that hardbacks are awkward to read, other than at a desk, and make poor travelling companions. They can look attractive, but a pleasingly serious effort is put into the design of paperback covers these days. Continue reading...
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/11/the-perils-of-judging-a-book-by-its-hard-cover

#Books #Publishing #Culture #Society #Paperbacks

More of the wonderful #books that I scored at the Ladysmith arts council garage sale, last Sunday 😊 I paid $1/each - all are mint condition.
I'll be putting the books into my little free library, after I'm finished reading them ✌️

#bookstodon #reading #paperbacks #novels #ReadMoreBooks #BookLovers #BooksToRead #BookCovers

More of the wonderful #books that I scored at the Ladysmith arts council garage sale, last Sunday 😊 I paid $1/each - all are mint condition.
I'll be putting the books into my little free library, after I'm finished reading them ✌️

#bookstodon #reading #paperbacks #novels #ReadMoreBooks #BookLovers #BooksToRead #BookCovers

More of the wonderful #books that I scored at the Ladysmith arts council garage sale, last Sunday 😊 I paid $1/each - all are mint condition.
I'll be putting the books into my little free library, after I'm finished reading them ✌️

#bookstodon #reading #paperbacks #novels #ReadMoreBooks #BookLovers #BooksToRead #BookCovers

More of the wonderful #books that I scored at the Ladysmith arts council garage sale, last Sunday 😊 I paid $1/each - all are mint condition.
I'll be putting the books into my little free library, after I'm finished reading them ✌️

#bookstodon #reading #paperbacks #novels #ReadMoreBooks #BookLovers #BooksToRead #BookCovers

More of the wonderful #books that I scored at the Ladysmith arts council garage sale, last Sunday 😊 I paid $1/each - all are mint condition.
I'll be putting the books into my little free library, after I'm finished reading them ✌️

#bookstodon #reading #paperbacks #novels #ReadMoreBooks #BookLovers #BooksToRead #BookCovers

I hate it when I get all excited over a new purchase only to discover I already have it in a different cover!
#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcockbooks #paperbacks #books #anthologies

I hate it when I get all excited over a new purchase only to discover I already have it in a different cover!
#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcockbooks #paperbacks #books #anthologies

I hate it when I get all excited over a new purchase only to discover I already have it in a different cover!
#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcockbooks #paperbacks #books #anthologies

I hate it when I get all excited over a new purchase only to discover I already have it in a different cover!
#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcockbooks #paperbacks #books #anthologies

I hate it when I get all excited over a new purchase only to discover I already have it in a different cover!
#AlfredHitchcock #Hitchcockbooks #paperbacks #books #anthologies

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

• A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)

1. Robert Silverberg’s Thorns (1967). Generally considered one of his first great novels — I thoroughly his rumination on two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. Harrowing stuff. Recommended.
2. J. G. Ballard’s The Terminal Beach (1964). Never managed to review this top-notch Ballard collection. I should just reread it… Coincidentally, I wrote a short story as a college student with a very similar premise to Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964).
3. Judith Merril’s Survival Ship and Other Stories (1974). Notably contains the three short stories that Merril planned to transform into a generation ship novel — “Survival Ship” (1951), “Wish Upon a Star” (1958), and “The Lonely” (1963). If she had, it would have been the first gen ship novel by a woman. According to my index, the first solo-written generation ship novel by a woman is Pamela Sargent’s YA novel Earthseed (1983).
4. Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization (1960). I found his short novel an interesting intersection of pulp narrative and “artfully constructed satire.”

What am I writing about?

While I have not had the most productive 2026, here are few notable reviews I’ve written recently in case you missed them: two interesting 50s short stories on race in America, Alan E. Nourse’s “Marley’s Chain” (1952) and Edward W. Ludwig’s “The Rocket Man” (1951); Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965); William Tenn’s collection Time in Advance (1958); and another installment on my survey of all pre-1985 generation ship stories available in English, Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing reviews for Rachel’s online magazine on SF in translation. When they go live I’ll double-post them on the site and link the other goodies that are sure to grace the pages.

What am I reading?

I recently finished Matthew I. Thompson’s fascinating monograph On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). He explores the intersection of popular science works by Rachel Carson and Paul R. Ehrlich and dystopia SF film with ecological themes. If you missed my interview with Thompson, I highly recommend you check it out. The interview surveys the main theoretical premises of the work and the main films he covers. I should rewatch Soylent Green (1972), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972).

• Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.
  

A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]

March 22nd: Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994).

• Johnny Bruck’s canvas for Perry Rhodan, #270: Ultimatum an Unbekannt (1966)

March 22nd: German cover artist Johnny Bruck (1921-1995). He’s easily one of the most prolific German cover artists.

March 22nd: Rudy Rucker (1946-).

March 23nd: H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I recently (sort of) covered my first Piper story on the site: H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire’s “Hunter Patrol” (1959). I have another one planned this year.

March 23nd: Sheila MacLeod (1939-).

March 23nd: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1947-). I enjoyed her Acorna sequence books (written with Anne McCaffrey) was a child. Most of her published solo work is outside my area of focus. I placed her novel The Healer’s War (1988-) on my Vietnam War-inspired SFF list.

March 23rd: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-). I recently reviewed Icehenge (1984). I really enjoyed it. Perhaps more than his Mars Trilogy, albeit, they are very different books…

• David K. Stone’s cover for the 1978 edition of The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)

March 24th: Cover artist David K. Stone (1922-2001).

March 24th: Peter George (1924-1966).

March 25th: Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1942-)

March 26th: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Author of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888), the highly influential utopian SF novel that inspired countless sequels and prequels and rebuttals by other authors.

March 26th: David J. Lake (1929-2016)

March 26th: K. W. Jeter (1950-)

March 27th: Artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

• Still from René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973)

March 27th: Stefan Wul (1922-2003). A French SF author best known for writing Oms en série (1957), the source material for Fantastic Planet (1973).

March 27th: Helmut Wenske (1940-).

March 28th: A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984)

March 28th: Cover artist George Ziel (1914-1982)

March 29th: Lino Aldani (1926-2009). I adored Aldani’s “Good Night, Sophie” (1963, trans. 1973). He represents one of the many reasons why Rachel’s magazine to promote SF in translation is such a great idea. Despite his ability to craft a masterpiece, only ONE additional short story exists in English translation.

• Walt Miller’s cover for the July 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

March 29th: Artist Walt Miller (1928-2015).

March 29th: Artist Johann Peter Reuter (1949-).

March 29th: Mary Gentle (1956-).

March 30th: Artist Curt Caesar (1906-1974).

March 30th: Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-1981). While she only published five science fiction short stories, “Created He Them” (1955) is a 50s masterpiece.

• Art Sussman’s cover for the 1957 edition of Murray Leinster’s The Planet Explorer (variant title: Colonial Survey) (1956)

March 30th: Artist Art Sussman (1927-2008). Another underrated SF artist with a beguiling surrealist streat– I put together a post on his work in 2017.

March 30th: Chad Oliver (1928-1993). Most recently I covered his two generation ship stories: “Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957).

March 31st: Marge Piercy (1936-). Dance the Eagle To Sleep (1970) is not to be missed!

April 1st: Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011).  I adored her work as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on–even from the lowest points in her career i.e. the Acorna Universe sequence and co-written Dragonriders of Pern novels with her son.

April 1st: Samuel R. Delany (1942-).

April 2nd: Artist Mitchell Hooks (1923-2013).  One of the underrated SF artists of the 50s-70s in my view. For a lovely example, check out my recent review of William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958).

• Murray Tinkelman’s cover for the 1978 edition of John Brunner’s The Squares of the City (1965)

April 2nd: Artist Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016). Another underrated SF artist… How can your forget his iconic cover for Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up?

April 2nd: Joan D. Vinge (1948-)

April 3nd: Noel Loomis (1905-1969).

April 3rd: Colin Kapp (1928-2007). As I’ve said before, “want to push my buttons? Recommend stories for me to read like Kapp’s “Hunger Over Sweet Waters” (1965). You’ll have to read my review (an exercise in snark) to find out why.”

• Jack Faragasso’s cover for the 1972 edition of The Thinking Seat (1969)

April 3rd: Peter Tate (1940-). One of those British New Wave authors I should read more of… Tate’s The Thinking Seat (1969) is on the burner for later this year.

April 4th: Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Best known for his early classic “A Martian Odyssey” (1934).

April 4th: Artist Tim White (1952-2020).

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

• A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)

1. Robert Silverberg’s Thorns (1967). Generally considered one of his first great novels — I thoroughly his rumination on two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. Harrowing stuff. Recommended.
2. J. G. Ballard’s The Terminal Beach (1964). Never managed to review this top-notch Ballard collection. I should just reread it… Coincidentally, I wrote a short story as a college student with a very similar premise to Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964).
3. Judith Merril’s Survival Ship and Other Stories (1974). Notably contains the three short stories that Merril planned to transform into a generation ship novel — “Survival Ship” (1951), “Wish Upon a Star” (1958), and “The Lonely” (1963). If she had, it would have been the first gen ship novel by a woman. According to my index, the first solo-written generation ship novel by a woman is Pamela Sargent’s YA novel Earthseed (1983).
4. Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization (1960). I found his short novel an interesting intersection of pulp narrative and “artfully constructed satire.”

What am I writing about?

While I have not had the most productive 2026, here are few notable reviews I’ve written recently in case you missed them: two interesting 50s short stories on race in America, Alan E. Nourse’s “Marley’s Chain” (1952) and Edward W. Ludwig’s “The Rocket Man” (1951); Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965); William Tenn’s collection Time in Advance (1958); and another installment on my survey of all pre-1985 generation ship stories available in English, Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing reviews for Rachel’s online magazine on SF in translation. When they go live I’ll double-post them on the site and link the other goodies that are sure to grace the pages.

What am I reading?

I recently finished Matthew I. Thompson’s fascinating monograph On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). He explores the intersection of popular science works by Rachel Carson and Paul R. Ehrlich and dystopia SF film with ecological themes. If you missed my interview with Thompson, I highly recommend you check it out. The interview surveys the main theoretical premises of the work and the main films he covers. I should rewatch Soylent Green (1972), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972).

• Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.
  

A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]

March 22nd: Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994).

• Johnny Bruck’s canvas for Perry Rhodan, #270: Ultimatum an Unbekannt (1966)

March 22nd: German cover artist Johnny Bruck (1921-1995). He’s easily one of the most prolific German cover artists.

March 22nd: Rudy Rucker (1946-).

March 23nd: H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I recently (sort of) covered my first Piper story on the site: H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire’s “Hunter Patrol” (1959). I have another one planned this year.

March 23nd: Sheila MacLeod (1939-).

March 23nd: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1947-). I enjoyed her Acorna sequence books (written with Anne McCaffrey) was a child. Most of her published solo work is outside my area of focus. I placed her novel The Healer’s War (1988-) on my Vietnam War-inspired SFF list.

March 23rd: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-). I recently reviewed Icehenge (1984). I really enjoyed it. Perhaps more than his Mars Trilogy, albeit, they are very different books…

• David K. Stone’s cover for the 1978 edition of The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)

March 24th: Cover artist David K. Stone (1922-2001).

March 24th: Peter George (1924-1966).

March 25th: Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1942-)

March 26th: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Author of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888), the highly influential utopian SF novel that inspired countless sequels and prequels and rebuttals by other authors.

March 26th: David J. Lake (1929-2016)

March 26th: K. W. Jeter (1950-)

March 27th: Artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

• Still from René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973)

March 27th: Stefan Wul (1922-2003). A French SF author best known for writing Oms en série (1957), the source material for Fantastic Planet (1973).

March 27th: Helmut Wenske (1940-).

March 28th: A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984)

March 28th: Cover artist George Ziel (1914-1982)

March 29th: Lino Aldani (1926-2009). I adored Aldani’s “Good Night, Sophie” (1963, trans. 1973). He represents one of the many reasons why Rachel’s magazine to promote SF in translation is such a great idea. Despite his ability to craft a masterpiece, only ONE additional short story exists in English translation.

• Walt Miller’s cover for the July 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

March 29th: Artist Walt Miller (1928-2015).

March 29th: Artist Johann Peter Reuter (1949-).

March 29th: Mary Gentle (1956-).

March 30th: Artist Curt Caesar (1906-1974).

March 30th: Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-1981). While she only published five science fiction short stories, “Created He Them” (1955) is a 50s masterpiece.

• Art Sussman’s cover for the 1957 edition of Murray Leinster’s The Planet Explorer (variant title: Colonial Survey) (1956)

March 30th: Artist Art Sussman (1927-2008). Another underrated SF artist with a beguiling surrealist streat– I put together a post on his work in 2017.

March 30th: Chad Oliver (1928-1993). Most recently I covered his two generation ship stories: “Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957).

March 31st: Marge Piercy (1936-). Dance the Eagle To Sleep (1970) is not to be missed!

April 1st: Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011).  I adored her work as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on–even from the lowest points in her career i.e. the Acorna Universe sequence and co-written Dragonriders of Pern novels with her son.

April 1st: Samuel R. Delany (1942-).

April 2nd: Artist Mitchell Hooks (1923-2013).  One of the underrated SF artists of the 50s-70s in my view. For a lovely example, check out my recent review of William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958).

• Murray Tinkelman’s cover for the 1978 edition of John Brunner’s The Squares of the City (1965)

April 2nd: Artist Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016). Another underrated SF artist… How can your forget his iconic cover for Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up?

April 2nd: Joan D. Vinge (1948-)

April 3nd: Noel Loomis (1905-1969).

April 3rd: Colin Kapp (1928-2007). As I’ve said before, “want to push my buttons? Recommend stories for me to read like Kapp’s “Hunger Over Sweet Waters” (1965). You’ll have to read my review (an exercise in snark) to find out why.”

• Jack Faragasso’s cover for the 1972 edition of The Thinking Seat (1969)

April 3rd: Peter Tate (1940-). One of those British New Wave authors I should read more of… Tate’s The Thinking Seat (1969) is on the burner for later this year.

April 4th: Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Best known for his early classic “A Martian Odyssey” (1934).

April 4th: Artist Tim White (1952-2020).

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

• A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)

1. Robert Silverberg’s Thorns (1967). Generally considered one of his first great novels — I thoroughly his rumination on two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. Harrowing stuff. Recommended.
2. J. G. Ballard’s The Terminal Beach (1964). Never managed to review this top-notch Ballard collection. I should just reread it… Coincidentally, I wrote a short story as a college student with a very similar premise to Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964).
3. Judith Merril’s Survival Ship and Other Stories (1974). Notably contains the three short stories that Merril planned to transform into a generation ship novel — “Survival Ship” (1951), “Wish Upon a Star” (1958), and “The Lonely” (1963). If she had, it would have been the first gen ship novel by a woman. According to my index, the first solo-written generation ship novel by a woman is Pamela Sargent’s YA novel Earthseed (1983).
4. Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization (1960). I found his short novel an interesting intersection of pulp narrative and “artfully constructed satire.”

What am I writing about?

While I have not had the most productive 2026, here are few notable reviews I’ve written recently in case you missed them: two interesting 50s short stories on race in America, Alan E. Nourse’s “Marley’s Chain” (1952) and Edward W. Ludwig’s “The Rocket Man” (1951); Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965); William Tenn’s collection Time in Advance (1958); and another installment on my survey of all pre-1985 generation ship stories available in English, Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing reviews for Rachel’s online magazine on SF in translation. When they go live I’ll double-post them on the site and link the other goodies that are sure to grace the pages.

What am I reading?

I recently finished Matthew I. Thompson’s fascinating monograph On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). He explores the intersection of popular science works by Rachel Carson and Paul R. Ehrlich and dystopia SF film with ecological themes. If you missed my interview with Thompson, I highly recommend you check it out. The interview surveys the main theoretical premises of the work and the main films he covers. I should rewatch Soylent Green (1972), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972).

• Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.
  

A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]

March 22nd: Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994).

• Johnny Bruck’s canvas for Perry Rhodan, #270: Ultimatum an Unbekannt (1966)

March 22nd: German cover artist Johnny Bruck (1921-1995). He’s easily one of the most prolific German cover artists.

March 22nd: Rudy Rucker (1946-).

March 23nd: H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I recently (sort of) covered my first Piper story on the site: H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire’s “Hunter Patrol” (1959). I have another one planned this year.

March 23nd: Sheila MacLeod (1939-).

March 23nd: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1947-). I enjoyed her Acorna sequence books (written with Anne McCaffrey) was a child. Most of her published solo work is outside my area of focus. I placed her novel The Healer’s War (1988-) on my Vietnam War-inspired SFF list.

March 23rd: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-). I recently reviewed Icehenge (1984). I really enjoyed it. Perhaps more than his Mars Trilogy, albeit, they are very different books…

• David K. Stone’s cover for the 1978 edition of The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)

March 24th: Cover artist David K. Stone (1922-2001).

March 24th: Peter George (1924-1966).

March 25th: Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1942-)

March 26th: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Author of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888), the highly influential utopian SF novel that inspired countless sequels and prequels and rebuttals by other authors.

March 26th: David J. Lake (1929-2016)

March 26th: K. W. Jeter (1950-)

March 27th: Artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

• Still from René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973)

March 27th: Stefan Wul (1922-2003). A French SF author best known for writing Oms en série (1957), the source material for Fantastic Planet (1973).

March 27th: Helmut Wenske (1940-).

March 28th: A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984)

March 28th: Cover artist George Ziel (1914-1982)

March 29th: Lino Aldani (1926-2009). I adored Aldani’s “Good Night, Sophie” (1963, trans. 1973). He represents one of the many reasons why Rachel’s magazine to promote SF in translation is such a great idea. Despite his ability to craft a masterpiece, only ONE additional short story exists in English translation.

• Walt Miller’s cover for the July 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

March 29th: Artist Walt Miller (1928-2015).

March 29th: Artist Johann Peter Reuter (1949-).

March 29th: Mary Gentle (1956-).

March 30th: Artist Curt Caesar (1906-1974).

March 30th: Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-1981). While she only published five science fiction short stories, “Created He Them” (1955) is a 50s masterpiece.

• Art Sussman’s cover for the 1957 edition of Murray Leinster’s The Planet Explorer (variant title: Colonial Survey) (1956)

March 30th: Artist Art Sussman (1927-2008). Another underrated SF artist with a beguiling surrealist streat– I put together a post on his work in 2017.

March 30th: Chad Oliver (1928-1993). Most recently I covered his two generation ship stories: “Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957).

March 31st: Marge Piercy (1936-). Dance the Eagle To Sleep (1970) is not to be missed!

April 1st: Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011).  I adored her work as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on–even from the lowest points in her career i.e. the Acorna Universe sequence and co-written Dragonriders of Pern novels with her son.

April 1st: Samuel R. Delany (1942-).

April 2nd: Artist Mitchell Hooks (1923-2013).  One of the underrated SF artists of the 50s-70s in my view. For a lovely example, check out my recent review of William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958).

• Murray Tinkelman’s cover for the 1978 edition of John Brunner’s The Squares of the City (1965)

April 2nd: Artist Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016). Another underrated SF artist… How can your forget his iconic cover for Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up?

April 2nd: Joan D. Vinge (1948-)

April 3nd: Noel Loomis (1905-1969).

April 3rd: Colin Kapp (1928-2007). As I’ve said before, “want to push my buttons? Recommend stories for me to read like Kapp’s “Hunger Over Sweet Waters” (1965). You’ll have to read my review (an exercise in snark) to find out why.”

• Jack Faragasso’s cover for the 1972 edition of The Thinking Seat (1969)

April 3rd: Peter Tate (1940-). One of those British New Wave authors I should read more of… Tate’s The Thinking Seat (1969) is on the burner for later this year.

April 4th: Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Best known for his early classic “A Martian Odyssey” (1934).

April 4th: Artist Tim White (1952-2020).

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

• A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)

1. Robert Silverberg’s Thorns (1967). Generally considered one of his first great novels — I thoroughly his rumination on two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. Harrowing stuff. Recommended.
2. J. G. Ballard’s The Terminal Beach (1964). Never managed to review this top-notch Ballard collection. I should just reread it… Coincidentally, I wrote a short story as a college student with a very similar premise to Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964).
3. Judith Merril’s Survival Ship and Other Stories (1974). Notably contains the three short stories that Merril planned to transform into a generation ship novel — “Survival Ship” (1951), “Wish Upon a Star” (1958), and “The Lonely” (1963). If she had, it would have been the first gen ship novel by a woman. According to my index, the first solo-written generation ship novel by a woman is Pamela Sargent’s YA novel Earthseed (1983).
4. Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization (1960). I found his short novel an interesting intersection of pulp narrative and “artfully constructed satire.”

What am I writing about?

While I have not had the most productive 2026, here are few notable reviews I’ve written recently in case you missed them: two interesting 50s short stories on race in America, Alan E. Nourse’s “Marley’s Chain” (1952) and Edward W. Ludwig’s “The Rocket Man” (1951); Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965); William Tenn’s collection Time in Advance (1958); and another installment on my survey of all pre-1985 generation ship stories available in English, Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing reviews for Rachel’s online magazine on SF in translation. When they go live I’ll double-post them on the site and link the other goodies that are sure to grace the pages.

What am I reading?

I recently finished Matthew I. Thompson’s fascinating monograph On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). He explores the intersection of popular science works by Rachel Carson and Paul R. Ehrlich and dystopia SF film with ecological themes. If you missed my interview with Thompson, I highly recommend you check it out. The interview surveys the main theoretical premises of the work and the main films he covers. I should rewatch Soylent Green (1972), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972).

• Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.
  

A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]

March 22nd: Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994).

• Johnny Bruck’s canvas for Perry Rhodan, #270: Ultimatum an Unbekannt (1966)

March 22nd: German cover artist Johnny Bruck (1921-1995). He’s easily one of the most prolific German cover artists.

March 22nd: Rudy Rucker (1946-).

March 23nd: H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I recently (sort of) covered my first Piper story on the site: H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire’s “Hunter Patrol” (1959). I have another one planned this year.

March 23nd: Sheila MacLeod (1939-).

March 23nd: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1947-). I enjoyed her Acorna sequence books (written with Anne McCaffrey) was a child. Most of her published solo work is outside my area of focus. I placed her novel The Healer’s War (1988-) on my Vietnam War-inspired SFF list.

March 23rd: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-). I recently reviewed Icehenge (1984). I really enjoyed it. Perhaps more than his Mars Trilogy, albeit, they are very different books…

• David K. Stone’s cover for the 1978 edition of The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)

March 24th: Cover artist David K. Stone (1922-2001).

March 24th: Peter George (1924-1966).

March 25th: Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1942-)

March 26th: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Author of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888), the highly influential utopian SF novel that inspired countless sequels and prequels and rebuttals by other authors.

March 26th: David J. Lake (1929-2016)

March 26th: K. W. Jeter (1950-)

March 27th: Artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

• Still from René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973)

March 27th: Stefan Wul (1922-2003). A French SF author best known for writing Oms en série (1957), the source material for Fantastic Planet (1973).

March 27th: Helmut Wenske (1940-).

March 28th: A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984)

March 28th: Cover artist George Ziel (1914-1982)

March 29th: Lino Aldani (1926-2009). I adored Aldani’s “Good Night, Sophie” (1963, trans. 1973). He represents one of the many reasons why Rachel’s magazine to promote SF in translation is such a great idea. Despite his ability to craft a masterpiece, only ONE additional short story exists in English translation.

• Walt Miller’s cover for the July 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

March 29th: Artist Walt Miller (1928-2015).

March 29th: Artist Johann Peter Reuter (1949-).

March 29th: Mary Gentle (1956-).

March 30th: Artist Curt Caesar (1906-1974).

March 30th: Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-1981). While she only published five science fiction short stories, “Created He Them” (1955) is a 50s masterpiece.

• Art Sussman’s cover for the 1957 edition of Murray Leinster’s The Planet Explorer (variant title: Colonial Survey) (1956)

March 30th: Artist Art Sussman (1927-2008). Another underrated SF artist with a beguiling surrealist streat– I put together a post on his work in 2017.

March 30th: Chad Oliver (1928-1993). Most recently I covered his two generation ship stories: “Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957).

March 31st: Marge Piercy (1936-). Dance the Eagle To Sleep (1970) is not to be missed!

April 1st: Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011).  I adored her work as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on–even from the lowest points in her career i.e. the Acorna Universe sequence and co-written Dragonriders of Pern novels with her son.

April 1st: Samuel R. Delany (1942-).

April 2nd: Artist Mitchell Hooks (1923-2013).  One of the underrated SF artists of the 50s-70s in my view. For a lovely example, check out my recent review of William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958).

• Murray Tinkelman’s cover for the 1978 edition of John Brunner’s The Squares of the City (1965)

April 2nd: Artist Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016). Another underrated SF artist… How can your forget his iconic cover for Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up?

April 2nd: Joan D. Vinge (1948-)

April 3nd: Noel Loomis (1905-1969).

April 3rd: Colin Kapp (1928-2007). As I’ve said before, “want to push my buttons? Recommend stories for me to read like Kapp’s “Hunger Over Sweet Waters” (1965). You’ll have to read my review (an exercise in snark) to find out why.”

• Jack Faragasso’s cover for the 1972 edition of The Thinking Seat (1969)

April 3rd: Peter Tate (1940-). One of those British New Wave authors I should read more of… Tate’s The Thinking Seat (1969) is on the burner for later this year.

April 4th: Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Best known for his early classic “A Martian Odyssey” (1934).

April 4th: Artist Tim White (1952-2020).

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

What pre-1985 science fiction are you reading? + Update No. XXVIII

First update post of 2026! What pre-1985 science fiction adventures have you started this year? Any great reads? Disappointing ones? Intriguing discoveries? Here’s the November 2025 installment of this column.

• A selection of read volumes from my shelf

Exciting news! Rachel S. Cordasco, who occasionally joins me to review older SF short stories in translation, will soon launch Small Planet: The SF in Translation Magazine. As the announcement on File 770 states, “the magazine will come out 4 times per year (February, May, August, and November) and include columns on such topics as: interesting upcoming books and notable reviews, interviews with authors, translators, editors, translators talking about books they’d like to see in English, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, essays on Anglophone awards, databases, and publishers that should recognize translators/SFT, pieces on interesting translation conundrums, notes on what’s happening in other countries in SF. It will be available for free on Cordasco’s Speculative Fiction in Translation website.”

Missing from the list will be my reviews of vintage SF in translation! The plan is to have one review in each issue for at least the next year or for as long as I can keep up a schedule (schedules and I do not mesh). I’ve already tracked down some lesser known gems from German, Norway, and Italy.

The Photograph (with links to reviews and brief thoughts)

1. Robert Silverberg’s Thorns (1967). Generally considered one of his first great novels — I thoroughly his rumination on two psychologically devastated characters who are set up to fall in love for the entertainment of the world. Harrowing stuff. Recommended.
2. J. G. Ballard’s The Terminal Beach (1964). Never managed to review this top-notch Ballard collection. I should just reread it… Coincidentally, I wrote a short story as a college student with a very similar premise to Ballard’s “The Drowned Giant” (1964).
3. Judith Merril’s Survival Ship and Other Stories (1974). Notably contains the three short stories that Merril planned to transform into a generation ship novel — “Survival Ship” (1951), “Wish Upon a Star” (1958), and “The Lonely” (1963). If she had, it would have been the first gen ship novel by a woman. According to my index, the first solo-written generation ship novel by a woman is Pamela Sargent’s YA novel Earthseed (1983).
4. Robert Sheckley’s The Status Civilization (1960). I found his short novel an interesting intersection of pulp narrative and “artfully constructed satire.”

What am I writing about?

While I have not had the most productive 2026, here are few notable reviews I’ve written recently in case you missed them: two interesting 50s short stories on race in America, Alan E. Nourse’s “Marley’s Chain” (1952) and Edward W. Ludwig’s “The Rocket Man” (1951); Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965); William Tenn’s collection Time in Advance (1958); and another installment on my survey of all pre-1985 generation ship stories available in English, Mari Wolf’s “The First Day of Spring” (1954) and Francis G. Rayer’s “Continuity Man” (1959).

As I mentioned earlier, I am writing reviews for Rachel’s online magazine on SF in translation. When they go live I’ll double-post them on the site and link the other goodies that are sure to grace the pages.

What am I reading?

I recently finished Matthew I. Thompson’s fascinating monograph On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). He explores the intersection of popular science works by Rachel Carson and Paul R. Ehrlich and dystopia SF film with ecological themes. If you missed my interview with Thompson, I highly recommend you check it out. The interview surveys the main theoretical premises of the work and the main films he covers. I should rewatch Soylent Green (1972), David Cronenberg’s Shivers (1975), and Douglas Trumbull’s Silent Running (1972).

• Matthew I. Thompson’s On Life Support: Eco-Dystopian Cinema in the Long 1970s (2026). Photographed by me on a hike in Pembroke, VA.
  

A Curated List of SF Birthdays from the Last Two Weeks [names link to The Internet Speculative Fiction Database for bibliographical info]

March 22nd: Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994).

• Johnny Bruck’s canvas for Perry Rhodan, #270: Ultimatum an Unbekannt (1966)

March 22nd: German cover artist Johnny Bruck (1921-1995). He’s easily one of the most prolific German cover artists.

March 22nd: Rudy Rucker (1946-).

March 23nd: H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). I recently (sort of) covered my first Piper story on the site: H. Beam Piper and John J. McGuire’s “Hunter Patrol” (1959). I have another one planned this year.

March 23nd: Sheila MacLeod (1939-).

March 23nd: Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (1947-). I enjoyed her Acorna sequence books (written with Anne McCaffrey) was a child. Most of her published solo work is outside my area of focus. I placed her novel The Healer’s War (1988-) on my Vietnam War-inspired SFF list.

March 23rd: Kim Stanley Robinson (1952-). I recently reviewed Icehenge (1984). I really enjoyed it. Perhaps more than his Mars Trilogy, albeit, they are very different books…

• David K. Stone’s cover for the 1978 edition of The Stainless Steel Rat Wants You (1978)

March 24th: Cover artist David K. Stone (1922-2001).

March 24th: Peter George (1924-1966).

March 25th: Jacqueline Lichtenberg (1942-)

March 26th: Edward Bellamy (1850-1898). Author of Looking Backward: 2000–1887 (1888), the highly influential utopian SF novel that inspired countless sequels and prequels and rebuttals by other authors.

March 26th: David J. Lake (1929-2016)

March 26th: K. W. Jeter (1950-)

March 27th: Artist Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006)

• Still from René Laloux’s Fantastic Planet (1973)

March 27th: Stefan Wul (1922-2003). A French SF author best known for writing Oms en série (1957), the source material for Fantastic Planet (1973).

March 27th: Helmut Wenske (1940-).

March 28th: A. Bertram Chandler (1912-1984)

March 28th: Cover artist George Ziel (1914-1982)

March 29th: Lino Aldani (1926-2009). I adored Aldani’s “Good Night, Sophie” (1963, trans. 1973). He represents one of the many reasons why Rachel’s magazine to promote SF in translation is such a great idea. Despite his ability to craft a masterpiece, only ONE additional short story exists in English translation.

• Walt Miller’s cover for the July 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction

March 29th: Artist Walt Miller (1928-2015).

March 29th: Artist Johann Peter Reuter (1949-).

March 29th: Mary Gentle (1956-).

March 30th: Artist Curt Caesar (1906-1974).

March 30th: Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-1981). While she only published five science fiction short stories, “Created He Them” (1955) is a 50s masterpiece.

• Art Sussman’s cover for the 1957 edition of Murray Leinster’s The Planet Explorer (variant title: Colonial Survey) (1956)

March 30th: Artist Art Sussman (1927-2008). Another underrated SF artist with a beguiling surrealist streat– I put together a post on his work in 2017.

March 30th: Chad Oliver (1928-1993). Most recently I covered his two generation ship stories: “Stardust” (1952) and “The Wind Blows Free” (1957).

March 31st: Marge Piercy (1936-). Dance the Eagle To Sleep (1970) is not to be missed!

April 1st: Anne McCaffrey (1926-2011).  I adored her work as a kid. I read everything I could get my hands on–even from the lowest points in her career i.e. the Acorna Universe sequence and co-written Dragonriders of Pern novels with her son.

April 1st: Samuel R. Delany (1942-).

April 2nd: Artist Mitchell Hooks (1923-2013).  One of the underrated SF artists of the 50s-70s in my view. For a lovely example, check out my recent review of William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958).

• Murray Tinkelman’s cover for the 1978 edition of John Brunner’s The Squares of the City (1965)

April 2nd: Artist Murray Tinkelman (1933-2016). Another underrated SF artist… How can your forget his iconic cover for Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up?

April 2nd: Joan D. Vinge (1948-)

April 3nd: Noel Loomis (1905-1969).

April 3rd: Colin Kapp (1928-2007). As I’ve said before, “want to push my buttons? Recommend stories for me to read like Kapp’s “Hunger Over Sweet Waters” (1965). You’ll have to read my review (an exercise in snark) to find out why.”

• Jack Faragasso’s cover for the 1972 edition of The Thinking Seat (1969)

April 3rd: Peter Tate (1940-). One of those British New Wave authors I should read more of… Tate’s The Thinking Seat (1969) is on the burner for later this year.

April 4th: Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Best known for his early classic “A Martian Odyssey” (1934).

April 4th: Artist Tim White (1952-2020).

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

Short Book Reviews: Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950)

• Uncredited cover for the 1950 1st hardback edition

3.25/5 (Above Average)

Frtiz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! first appeared across the May, June, and July 1943 issues of Astounding Science-Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. It was novelized in 1950. Written in the midst of WWII, Gather, Darkness! is a product of an important moment in Leiber’s life. The previous year he abandoned his profession as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College (1941-1942) and decided that “the struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-held pacifist convictions.” He joined Douglas Aircraft as a quality inspector and continued to publish science fiction.1

Gather, Darkness! likewise imagines a just war, in this case against an all-encompassing technocracy. This technocracy birthed from cataclysm dolls up their technologies—including a looming “Almighty Automation” (17) that literally smites those who defy from above–as a religion. It’s here where Leiber fascinates. While the scientists theoretically know that there is no cosmic power behind their inventions and manipulations of the masses, they can’t resist interpreting their own actions as either some part of a divine plan or spiritual vision or secretly believing their own religious invocations meant to control and manage the crowds.2 The scientists fall victim to their own invented religion. The story, told from a variety of viewpoints within and outside the technocracy, follows Brother Jarles, an idealistic young man, who attempts to convince others of the Great God’s sham. Jarles is an appealing character. Resistance isn’t enough. There must be a believable moral stratum supporting all actions. Simultaneously, another force appears to be at work—using similar technological tricks to manipulate and subvert. The population, and even those within the Apex Council, view the rebellion through a religious lens. There’s witchcraft afoot!

It’s all told with an exciting visual and textual exuberance. There’s brainwashing, a half-hearted love story, escapes through the tunnels of the old civilization, strange new technologies, plots and plots and plots, and an endless sequence of holographic permutations. However, it reads as a grandiose pulp adventure that never pauses long enough to consider its own ruminative implications. I imagine it was still one of the better works to appear in those early days of Campbell, Jr.’s Astounding. If you’re new to Leiber’s work, I recommend starting with his Hugo-winning The Big Time (1958) or spectacular short stories like “Coming Attraction” (1950), “The Moon is Green” (1952), “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949), and “A Bad Day for Sales” (1953). He certainly hit his stride in the 1950s.

Somewhat recommended for fans of 40s science fiction and Fritz Leiber completists.

2. Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

First, the inevitable “is this genre” question: maybe? SF Encyclopedia suggests, and this time I support John Clute’s entry, that The Leader (1965) is set in a “kind of near future dystopian UK” that charts the emergence of Britain First, a fascist, anti-Semitic, and nativist political party.3 Gillian Freeman (1929-2019) does not directly indicate a date. If it’s near-future, it’s the sense that it was moments from her now. Freeman strikes an interesting figure. She was a Jewish author who wrote an important early novel of gay love, The Leather Boys (1961). She turned her novel into a screenplay for the 1964 film of the same name and even wrote the screenplay to Robert Altman’s early psychological thriller The Cold Day in the Park (1969). To the best of my knowledge, The Leader is her only work that could be described as science fiction.

There’s an effective incremental terror to the proceedings. The novel builds step-by-step through its relentless logic made all the more uncomfortable by historical parallels and references. Freeman deliberately positions the origin of the native fascism within the “respectable” middle classes of Britain–the bankers, the office workers, the veterans, and the educated youth. She elides contemporary fetishization of Nazi artifacts and memorabilia with far more sinister obsessions. As a visitor pointed out two years ago when I purchased the book, Freeman’s text harkens to earlier manifestations of that “fragmented-but-organized neo-Nazi contingent in the UK that’s never really gone away and continues to work its way into various subcultural spaces.”4 It’s a hard read made all the more chilling due to the rise in right-wing nationalist groups in the US that openly espouse anti-Semitic views.5

If you’re a sucker for British near-future dystopias then check this one out. It’s of the unsettlingly real variety that will get under your skin and horrify.6

Notes

1. See the Wikipedia entry on Leiber. I’m still waiting for a volume on his work from the U. Illinois Modern Masters of Science Fiction series! ↩︎
2. I’d love to procure a copy of William E. Akin’s Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (1977). I imagine that Leiber’s satire is a bit more targeted than I can ascertain at the moment. Thankfully there’s a copy online here. ↩︎
3. See SF Encyclopedia. Clute does incorrectly state the publication date as 1966 instead of 1965. I can’t help but think of all of Trump’s “America First” proclamations. ↩︎
4. Jim J here. ↩︎
5. This chart lists the anti-Semitic incidents in the US by year from 1979 to the present. While only 2% of the American population is Jewish, they’re the target of almost 70% of the reported religiously motivated hate crimes. Of course, I don’t have to remind you of incidents outside the US either — the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney, Australia should immediately come to mind. ↩︎
6. I recently acquired a copy of Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017). While Freeman is not mentioned, I’ve added many more exemplars of this subgenre to my list to purchase and cover. ↩︎

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

Short Book Reviews: Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950)

• Uncredited cover for the 1950 1st hardback edition

3.25/5 (Above Average)

Frtiz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! first appeared across the May, June, and July 1943 issues of Astounding Science-Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. It was novelized in 1950. Written in the midst of WWII, Gather, Darkness! is a product of an important moment in Leiber’s life. The previous year he abandoned his profession as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College (1941-1942) and decided that “the struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-help pacifist convictions.” He joined Douglas Aircraft as a quality inspector and continued to publish science fiction.1

Gather, Darkness! likewise imagines a just war, in this case against an all-encompassing technocracy. This technocracy birthed from cataclysm dolls up their technologies—including a looming “Almighty Automation” (17) that literally smites those who defy from above–as a religion. It’s here where Leiber fascinates. While the scientists theoretically know that there is no cosmic power behind their inventions and manipulations of the masses, they can’t resist interpreting their own actions as either some part of a divine plan or spiritual vision or secretly believing their own religious invocations meant to control and manage the crowds.2 The scientists fall victim to their own invented religion. The story, told from a variety of viewpoints within and outside the technocracy, follows Brother Jarles, an idealistic young man, who attempts to convince others of the Great God’s sham. Jarles is an appealing character. Resistance isn’t enough. There must be a believable moral stratum supporting all actions. Simultaneously, another force appears to be at work—using similar technological tricks to manipulate and subvert. The population, and even those within the Apex Council, view the rebellion through a religious lens. There’s witchcraft afoot!

It’s all told with an exciting visual and textual exuberance. There’s brainwashing, a half-hearted love story, escapes through the tunnels of the old civilization, strange new technologies, plots and plots and plots, and an endless sequence of holographic permutations. However, it reads as a grandiose pulp adventure that never pauses long enough to consider its own ruminative implications. I imagine it was still one of the better works to appear in those early days of Campbell, Jr.’s Astounding. If you’re new to Leiber’s work, I recommend starting with his Hugo-winning The Big Time (1958) or spectacular short stories like “Coming Attraction” (1950), “The Moon is Green” (1952), “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949), and “A Bad Day for Sales” (1953). He certainly hit his stride in the 1950s.

Somewhat recommended for fans of 40s science fiction and Fritz Leiber completists.

2. Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

First, the inevitable “is this genre” question: maybe? SF Encyclopedia suggests, and this time I support John Clute’s entry, that The Leader (1965) is set in a “kind of near future dystopian UK” that charts the emergence of Britain First, a fascist, anti-Semitic, and nativist political party.3 Gillian Freeman (1929-2019) does not directly indicate a date. If it’s near-future, it’s the sense that it was moments from her now. Freeman strikes an interesting figure. She was a Jewish author who wrote an important early novel of gay love, The Leather Boys (1961). She turned her novel into a screenplay for the 1964 film of the same name and even wrote the screenplay to Robert Altman’s early psychological thriller The Cold Day in the Park (1969). To the best of my knowledge, The Leader is her only work that could be described as science fiction.

There’s an effective incremental terror to the proceedings. The novel builds step-by-step through its relentless logic made all the more uncomfortable by historical parallels and references. Freeman deliberately positions the origin of the native fascism within the “respectable” middle classes of Britain–the bankers, the office workers, the veterans, and the educated youth. She elides contemporary fetishization of Nazi artifacts and memorabilia with far more sinister obsessions. As a visitor pointed out two years ago when I purchased the book, Freeman’s text harkens to earlier manifestations of that “fragmented-but-organized neo-Nazi contingent in the UK that’s never really gone away and continues to work its way into various subcultural spaces.”4 It’s a hard read made all the more chilling due to the rise in right-wing nationalist groups in the US that openly espouse anti-Semitic views.5

If you’re a sucker for British near-future dystopias then check this one out. It’s of the unsettlingly real variety that will get under your skin and horrify.6

Notes

1. See the Wikipedia entry on Leiber. I’m still waiting for a volume on his work from the U. Illinois Modern Masters of Science Fiction series! ↩︎
2. I’d love to procure a copy of William E. Akin’s Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (1977). I imagine that Leiber’s satire is a bit more targeted than I can ascertain at the moment. Thankfully there’s a copy online here. ↩︎
3. See SF Encyclopedia. Clute does incorrectly state the publication date as 1966 instead of 1965. I can’t help but think of all of Trump’s “America First” proclamations. ↩︎
4. Jim J here. ↩︎
5. This chart lists the anti-Semitic incidents in the US by year from 1979 to the present. While only 2% of the American population is Jewish, they’re the target of almost 70% of the reported religiously motivated hate crimes. Of course, I don’t have to remind you of incidents outside the US either — the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney, Australia should immediately come to mind. ↩︎
6. I recently acquired a copy of Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017). While Freeman is not mentioned, I’ve added many more exemplars of this subgenre to my list to purchase and cover. ↩︎

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

Short Book Reviews: Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950)

• Uncredited cover for the 1950 1st hardback edition

3.25/5 (Above Average)

Frtiz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! first appeared across the May, June, and July 1943 issues of Astounding Science-Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. It was novelized in 1950. Written in the midst of WWII, Gather, Darkness! is a product of an important moment in Leiber’s life. The previous year he abandoned his profession as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College (1941-1942) and decided that “the struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-help pacifist convictions.” He joined Douglas Aircraft as a quality inspector and continued to publish science fiction.1

Gather, Darkness! likewise imagines a just war, in this case against an all-encompassing technocracy. This technocracy birthed from cataclysm dolls up their technologies—including a looming “Almighty Automation” (17) that literally smites those who defy from above–as a religion. It’s here where Leiber fascinates. While the scientists theoretically know that there is no cosmic power behind their inventions and manipulations of the masses, they can’t resist interpreting their own actions as either some part of a divine plan or spiritual vision or secretly believing their own religious invocations meant to control and manage the crowds.2 The scientists fall victim to their own invented religion. The story, told from a variety of viewpoints within and outside the technocracy, follows Brother Jarles, an idealistic young man, who attempts to convince others of the Great God’s sham. Jarles is an appealing character. Resistance isn’t enough. There must be a believable moral stratum supporting all actions. Simultaneously, another force appears to be at work—using similar technological tricks to manipulate and subvert. The population, and even those within the Apex Council, view the rebellion through a religious lens. There’s witchcraft afoot!

It’s all told with an exciting visual and textual exuberance. There’s brainwashing, a half-hearted love story, escapes through the tunnels of the old civilization, strange new technologies, plots and plots and plots, and an endless sequence of holographic permutations. However, it reads as a grandiose pulp adventure that never pauses long enough to consider its own ruminative implications. I imagine it was still one of the better works to appear in those early days of Campbell, Jr.’s Astounding. If you’re new to Leiber’s work, I recommend starting with his Hugo-winning The Big Time (1958) or spectacular short stories like “Coming Attraction” (1950), “The Moon is Green” (1952), “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949), and “A Bad Day for Sales” (1953). He certainly hit his stride in the 1950s.

Somewhat recommended for fans of 40s science fiction and Fritz Leiber completists.

2. Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

First, the inevitable “is this genre” question: maybe? SF Encyclopedia suggests, and this time I support John Clute’s entry, that The Leader (1965) is set in a “kind of near future dystopian UK” that charts the emergence of Britain First, a fascist, anti-Semitic, and nativist political party.3 Gillian Freeman (1929-2019) does not directly indicate a date. If it’s near-future, it’s the sense that it was moments from her now. Freeman strikes an interesting figure. She was a Jewish author who wrote an important early novel of gay love, The Leather Boys (1961). She turned her novel into a screenplay for the 1964 film of the same name and even wrote the screenplay to Robert Altman’s early psychological thriller The Cold Day in the Park (1969). To the best of my knowledge, The Leader is her only work that could be described as science fiction.

There’s an effective incremental terror to the proceedings. The novel builds step-by-step through its relentless logic made all the more uncomfortable by historical parallels and references. Freeman deliberately positions the origin of the native fascism within the “respectable” middle classes of Britain–the bankers, the office workers, the veterans, and the educated youth. She elides contemporary fetishization of Nazi artifacts and memorabilia with far more sinister obsessions. As a visitor pointed out two years ago when I purchased the book, Freeman’s text harkens to earlier manifestations of that “fragmented-but-organized neo-Nazi contingent in the UK that’s never really gone away and continues to work its way into various subcultural spaces.”4 It’s a hard read made all the more chilling due to the rise in right-wing nationalist groups in the US that openly espouse anti-Semitic views.5

If you’re a sucker for British near-future dystopias then check this one out. It’s of the unsettlingly real variety that will get under your skin and horrify.6

Notes

1. See the Wikipedia entry on Leiber. I’m still waiting for a volume on his work from the U. Illinois Modern Masters of Science Fiction series! ↩︎
2. I’d love to procure a copy of William E. Akin’s Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (1977). I imagine that Leiber’s satire is a bit more targeted than I can ascertain at the moment. Thankfully there’s a copy online here. ↩︎
3. See SF Encyclopedia. Clute does incorrectly state the publication date as 1966 instead of 1965. I can’t help but think of all of Trump’s “America First” proclamations. ↩︎
4. Jim J here. ↩︎
5. This chart lists the anti-Semitic incidents in the US by year from 1979 to the present. While only 2% of the American population is Jewish, they’re the target of almost 70% of the reported religiously motivated hate crimes. Of course, I don’t have to remind you of incidents outside the US either — the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney, Australia should immediately come to mind. ↩︎
6. I recently acquired a copy of Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017). While Freeman is not mentioned, I’ve added many more exemplars of this subgenre to my list to purchase and cover. ↩︎

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

Short Book Reviews: Fritz Leiber, Jr.’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950)

• Uncredited cover for the 1950 1st hardback edition

3.25/5 (Above Average)

Frtiz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! first appeared across the May, June, and July 1943 issues of Astounding Science-Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. It was novelized in 1950. Written in the midst of WWII, Gather, Darkness! is a product of an important moment in Leiber’s life. The previous year he abandoned his profession as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College (1941-1942) and decided that “the struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-held pacifist convictions.” He joined Douglas Aircraft as a quality inspector and continued to publish science fiction.1

Gather, Darkness! likewise imagines a just war, in this case against an all-encompassing technocracy. This technocracy birthed from cataclysm dolls up their technologies—including a looming “Almighty Automation” (17) that literally smites those who defy from above–as a religion. It’s here where Leiber fascinates. While the scientists theoretically know that there is no cosmic power behind their inventions and manipulations of the masses, they can’t resist interpreting their own actions as either some part of a divine plan or spiritual vision or secretly believing their own religious invocations meant to control and manage the crowds.2 The scientists fall victim to their own invented religion. The story, told from a variety of viewpoints within and outside the technocracy, follows Brother Jarles, an idealistic young man, who attempts to convince others of the Great God’s sham. Jarles is an appealing character. Resistance isn’t enough. There must be a believable moral stratum supporting all actions. Simultaneously, another force appears to be at work—using similar technological tricks to manipulate and subvert. The population, and even those within the Apex Council, view the rebellion through a religious lens. There’s witchcraft afoot!

It’s all told with an exciting visual and textual exuberance. There’s brainwashing, a half-hearted love story, escapes through the tunnels of the old civilization, strange new technologies, plots and plots and plots, and an endless sequence of holographic permutations. However, it reads as a grandiose pulp adventure that never pauses long enough to consider its own ruminative implications. I imagine it was still one of the better works to appear in those early days of Campbell, Jr.’s Astounding. If you’re new to Leiber’s work, I recommend starting with his Hugo-winning The Big Time (1958) or spectacular short stories like “Coming Attraction” (1950), “The Moon is Green” (1952), “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949), and “A Bad Day for Sales” (1953). He certainly hit his stride in the 1950s.

Somewhat recommended for fans of 40s science fiction and Fritz Leiber completists.

2. Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

First, the inevitable “is this genre” question: maybe? SF Encyclopedia suggests, and this time I support John Clute’s entry, that The Leader (1965) is set in a “kind of near future dystopian UK” that charts the emergence of Britain First, a fascist, anti-Semitic, and nativist political party.3 Gillian Freeman (1929-2019) does not directly indicate a date. If it’s near-future, it’s the sense that it was moments from her now. Freeman strikes an interesting figure. She was a Jewish author who wrote an important early novel of gay love, The Leather Boys (1961). She turned her novel into a screenplay for the 1964 film of the same name and even wrote the screenplay to Robert Altman’s early psychological thriller The Cold Day in the Park (1969). To the best of my knowledge, The Leader is her only work that could be described as science fiction.

There’s an effective incremental terror to the proceedings. The novel builds step-by-step through its relentless logic made all the more uncomfortable by historical parallels and references. Freeman deliberately positions the origin of the native fascism within the “respectable” middle classes of Britain–the bankers, the office workers, the veterans, and the educated youth. She elides contemporary fetishization of Nazi artifacts and memorabilia with far more sinister obsessions. As a visitor pointed out two years ago when I purchased the book, Freeman’s text harkens to earlier manifestations of that “fragmented-but-organized neo-Nazi contingent in the UK that’s never really gone away and continues to work its way into various subcultural spaces.”4 It’s a hard read made all the more chilling due to the rise in right-wing nationalist groups in the US that openly espouse anti-Semitic views.5

If you’re a sucker for British near-future dystopias then check this one out. It’s of the unsettlingly real variety that will get under your skin and horrify.6

Notes

1. See the Wikipedia entry on Leiber. I’m still waiting for a volume on his work from the U. Illinois Modern Masters of Science Fiction series! ↩︎
2. I’d love to procure a copy of William E. Akin’s Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (1977). I imagine that Leiber’s satire is a bit more targeted than I can ascertain at the moment. Thankfully there’s a copy online here. ↩︎
3. See SF Encyclopedia. Clute does incorrectly state the publication date as 1966 instead of 1965. I can’t help but think of all of Trump’s “America First” proclamations. ↩︎
4. Jim J here. ↩︎
5. This chart lists the anti-Semitic incidents in the US by year from 1979 to the present. While only 2% of the American population is Jewish, they’re the target of almost 70% of the reported religiously motivated hate crimes. Of course, I don’t have to remind you of incidents outside the US either — the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney, Australia should immediately come to mind. ↩︎
6. I recently acquired a copy of Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017). While Freeman is not mentioned, I’ve added many more exemplars of this subgenre to my list to purchase and cover. ↩︎

For book reviews consult the INDEX

For cover art posts consult the INDEX

For TV and film reviews consult the INDEX

Short Book Reviews: Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950) and Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

Note: My read but “waiting to be reviewed pile” is growing. Short rumination/tangents/impressions are a way to get through the stack before my memory and will fades. My website partially serves as a record of what I have read and a memory palace for future projects. Stay tuned for more detailed and analytical reviews.

1. Fritz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! (1943, novelized 1950)

• Uncredited cover for the 1950 1st hardback edition

3.25/5 (Above Average)

Frtiz Leiber’s Gather, Darkness! first appeared across the May, June, and July 1943 issues of Astounding Science-Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. It was novelized in 1950. Written in the midst of WWII, Gather, Darkness! is a product of an important moment in Leiber’s life. The previous year he abandoned his profession as a speech and drama instructor at Occidental College (1941-1942) and decided that “the struggle against fascism mattered more than his long-help pacifist convictions.” He joined Douglas Aircraft as a quality inspector and continued to publish science fiction.1

Gather, Darkness! likewise imagines a just war, in this case against an all-encompassing technocracy. This technocracy birthed from cataclysm dolls up their technologies—including a looming “Almighty Automation” (17) that literally smites those who defy from above–as a religion. It’s here where Leiber fascinates. While the scientists theoretically know that there is no cosmic power behind their inventions and manipulations of the masses, they can’t resist interpreting their own actions as either some part of a divine plan or spiritual vision or secretly believing their own religious invocations meant to control and manage the crowds.2 The scientists fall victim to their own invented religion. The story, told from a variety of viewpoints within and outside the technocracy, follows Brother Jarles, an idealistic young man, who attempts to convince others of the Great God’s sham. Jarles is an appealing character. Resistance isn’t enough. There must be a believable moral stratum supporting all actions. Simultaneously, another force appears to be at work—using similar technological tricks to manipulate and subvert. The population, and even those within the Apex Council, view the rebellion through a religious lens. There’s witchcraft afoot!

It’s all told with an exciting visual and textual exuberance. There’s brainwashing, a half-hearted love story, escapes through the tunnels of the old civilization, strange new technologies, plots and plots and plots, and an endless sequence of holographic permutations. However, it reads as a grandiose pulp adventure that never pauses long enough to consider its own ruminative implications. I imagine it was still one of the better works to appear in those early days of Campbell, Jr.’s Astounding. If you’re new to Leiber’s work, I recommend starting with his Hugo-winning The Big Time (1958) or spectacular short stories like “Coming Attraction” (1950), “The Moon is Green” (1952), “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes” (1949), and “A Bad Day for Sales” (1953). He certainly hit his stride in the 1950s.

Somewhat recommended for fans of 40s science fiction and Fritz Leiber completists.

2. Gillian Freeman’s The Leader (1965)

• Uncredited cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (Good)

First, the inevitable “is this genre” question: maybe? SF Encyclopedia suggests, and this time I support John Clute’s entry, that The Leader (1965) is set in a “kind of near future dystopian UK” that charts the emergence of Britain First, a fascist, anti-Semitic, and nativist political party.3 Gillian Freeman (1929-2019) does not directly indicate a date. If it’s near-future, it’s the sense that it was moments from her now. Freeman strikes an interesting figure. She was a Jewish author who wrote an important early novel of gay love, The Leather Boys (1961). She turned her novel into a screenplay for the 1964 film of the same name and even wrote the screenplay to Robert Altman’s early psychological thriller The Cold Day in the Park (1969). To the best of my knowledge, The Leader is her only work that could be described as science fiction.

There’s an effective incremental terror to the proceedings. The novel builds step-by-step through its relentless logic made all the more uncomfortable by historical parallels and references. Freeman deliberately positions the origin of the native fascism within the “respectable” middle classes of Britain–the bankers, the office workers, the veterans, and the educated youth. She elides contemporary fetishization of Nazi artifacts and memorabilia with far more sinister obsessions. As a visitor pointed out two years ago when I purchased the book, Freeman’s text harkens to earlier manifestations of that “fragmented-but-organized neo-Nazi contingent in the UK that’s never really gone away and continues to work its way into various subcultural spaces.”4 It’s a hard read made all the more chilling due to the rise in right-wing nationalist groups in the US that openly espouse anti-Semitic views.5

If you’re a sucker for British near-future dystopias then check this one out. It’s of the unsettlingly real variety that will get under your skin and horrify.6

Notes

1. See the Wikipedia entry on Leiber. I’m still waiting for a volume on his work from the U. Illinois Modern Masters of Science Fiction series! ↩︎
2. I’d love to procure a copy of William E. Akin’s Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941 (1977). I imagine that Leiber’s satire is a bit more targeted than I can ascertain at the moment. Thankfully there’s a copy online here. ↩︎
3. See SF Encyclopedia. Clute does incorrectly state the publication date as 1966 instead of 1965. I can’t help but think of all of Trump’s “America First” proclamations. ↩︎
4. Jim J here. ↩︎
5. This chart lists the anti-Semitic incidents in the US by year from 1979 to the present. While only 2% of the American population is Jewish, they’re the target of almost 70% of the reported religiously motivated hate crimes. Of course, I don’t have to remind you of incidents outside the US either — the 2025 Bondi Beach shooting in Sydney, Australia should immediately come to mind. ↩︎
6. I recently acquired a copy of Andrew Hammond’s Cold War Stories: British Dystopian Fiction, 1945-1990 (2017). While Freeman is not mentioned, I’ve added many more exemplars of this subgenre to my list to purchase and cover. ↩︎

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#printing costs are why all my books are now trade paperbacks - but they are in #print! The zombies are even illustrated!

Mass Market #Paperbacks are discontinued
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/mass-market-paperbacks-are-discontinued#google_vignette

#books #distribution #sales #publishing #pricing #writing #amwriting

#printing costs are why all my books are now trade paperbacks - but they are in #print! The zombies are even illustrated!

Mass Market #Paperbacks are discontinued
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/mass-market-paperbacks-are-discontinued#google_vignette

#books #distribution #sales #publishing #pricing #writing #amwriting

#printing costs are why all my books are now trade paperbacks - but they are in #print! The zombies are even illustrated!

Mass Market #Paperbacks are discontinued
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/mass-market-paperbacks-are-discontinued#google_vignette

#books #distribution #sales #publishing #pricing #writing #amwriting

#printing costs are why all my books are now trade paperbacks - but they are in #print! The zombies are even illustrated!

Mass Market #Paperbacks are discontinued
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/mass-market-paperbacks-are-discontinued#google_vignette

#books #distribution #sales #publishing #pricing #writing #amwriting

#printing costs are why all my books are now trade paperbacks - but they are in #print! The zombies are even illustrated!

Mass Market #Paperbacks are discontinued
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/mass-market-paperbacks-are-discontinued#google_vignette

#books #distribution #sales #publishing #pricing #writing #amwriting

"At the end of 2025, ReaderLink, one of the largest full-service distributors of paperbacks, decided to discontinue mass-market books."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-we-reached-the-final-days-of-the-mass-market-paperback-180988139/

#Books #Paperbacks

"At the end of 2025, ReaderLink, one of the largest full-service distributors of paperbacks, decided to discontinue mass-market books."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-we-reached-the-final-days-of-the-mass-market-paperback-180988139/

#Books #Paperbacks

"At the end of 2025, ReaderLink, one of the largest full-service distributors of paperbacks, decided to discontinue mass-market books."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-we-reached-the-final-days-of-the-mass-market-paperback-180988139/

#Books #Paperbacks

"At the end of 2025, ReaderLink, one of the largest full-service distributors of paperbacks, decided to discontinue mass-market books."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-we-reached-the-final-days-of-the-mass-market-paperback-180988139/

#Books #Paperbacks

"At the end of 2025, ReaderLink, one of the largest full-service distributors of paperbacks, decided to discontinue mass-market books."

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/have-we-reached-the-final-days-of-the-mass-market-paperback-180988139/

#Books #Paperbacks

Went kind of crazy at the bookstore recently, and I now have a big, lovely pile of books to get through. I've already started on the top one by Jason Pargin, and I'm really enjoying it.

This, of course, isn't counting all of the e-books I still haven't started (but are definitely up next), and there's also a local book fair coming up soon, so...I'll probably be busy for a while.

#reading #booknerd #supportyourlocalbookstore #paperbacks #readingisgoodforyou

Went kind of crazy at the bookstore recently, and I now have a big, lovely pile of books to get through. I've already started on the top one by Jason Pargin, and I'm really enjoying it.

This, of course, isn't counting all of the e-books I still haven't started (but are definitely up next), and there's also a local book fair coming up soon, so...I'll probably be busy for a while.

#reading #booknerd #supportyourlocalbookstore #paperbacks #readingisgoodforyou

Went kind of crazy at the bookstore recently, and I now have a big, lovely pile of books to get through. I've already started on the top one by Jason Pargin, and I'm really enjoying it.

This, of course, isn't counting all of the e-books I still haven't started (but are definitely up next), and there's also a local book fair coming up soon, so...I'll probably be busy for a while.

#reading #booknerd #supportyourlocalbookstore #paperbacks #readingisgoodforyou

Went kind of crazy at the bookstore recently, and I now have a big, lovely pile of books to get through. I've already started on the top one by Jason Pargin, and I'm really enjoying it.

This, of course, isn't counting all of the e-books I still haven't started (but are definitely up next), and there's also a local book fair coming up soon, so...I'll probably be busy for a while.

#reading #booknerd #supportyourlocalbookstore #paperbacks #readingisgoodforyou

Went kind of crazy at the bookstore recently, and I now have a big, lovely pile of books to get through. I've already started on the top one by Jason Pargin, and I'm really enjoying it.

This, of course, isn't counting all of the e-books I still haven't started (but are definitely up next), and there's also a local book fair coming up soon, so...I'll probably be busy for a while.

#reading #booknerd #supportyourlocalbookstore #paperbacks #readingisgoodforyou

I found a few paperbacks in a repurposed phonebox on my way to a job, which wasn't that unusual. However, one of them has a contact address for Emerson Lake & Palmer in the back of it, which is a bit odd.
#paperbacks #progrock #emersonlakeandpalmer

I found a few paperbacks in a repurposed phonebox on my way to a job, which wasn't that unusual. However, one of them has a contact address for Emerson Lake & Palmer in the back of it, which is a bit odd.
#paperbacks #progrock #emersonlakeandpalmer

I found a few paperbacks in a repurposed phonebox on my way to a job, which wasn't that unusual. However, one of them has a contact address for Emerson Lake & Palmer in the back of it, which is a bit odd.
#paperbacks #progrock #emersonlakeandpalmer

I found a few paperbacks in a repurposed phonebox on my way to a job, which wasn't that unusual. However, one of them has a contact address for Emerson Lake & Palmer in the back of it, which is a bit odd.
#paperbacks #progrock #emersonlakeandpalmer

I found a few paperbacks in a repurposed phonebox on my way to a job, which wasn't that unusual. However, one of them has a contact address for Emerson Lake & Palmer in the back of it, which is a bit odd.
#paperbacks #progrock #emersonlakeandpalmer

Book Review: William Tenn’s Time in Advance (1958)

• Mitchell Hooks’ cover for the 1st edition

3.5/5 (collated rating: Good)

Over the years, I’ve slowly made my way through a substantial portion of William Tenn’s output: I’ve reviewed his only SF novel Of Men and Monsters (1968), two short story collections–The Human Angle (1956) and Of All Possible Worlds (1955), and three additional short stories “Bernie the Faust” (1963), “Eastward Ho!” (1958), and “Generation of Noah” (1951). I’ve found him an effective satirist with a penchant for often self-defeating twist endings. At his best, Tenn challenges grand narratives of American progress and exceptionalism, 50s consumerist culture and gender roles, and renders an absurdist spin on Cold War conflict. I imagine his reluctance to write novels relegates his often brilliant ouvre to the fringes of contemporary interest in 50s SF.

Time in Advance (1958) contains four solid but unspectacular visions. I recommend the collection only for fans of his work. If you are new to Tenn’s brand of intelligent satire, check out “Down Among the Dead Men” (1954), “Eastward Ho!” (1958), “The Liberation of Earth” (1953), and “The Servant Problem” (1955) first.

Brief Plot Summary/Analysis

• H. R. Van Dongen’s interior art for William Tenn’s “Firewater” in Astounding Science Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. (February 1952)

“Firewater” (1952), 4/5 (Good): First appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, ed. John W. Campbell, Jr. (February 1952). You can read it online here.

Easily the best story in the collection, “Firewater” puts an original and fascinating spin on the first contact tale that’s simultaneously in dialogue with the American past. In the years after first contact, blinking light-like aliens are allotted “reservations” in the world’s deserts. In possession of far superior technology, a few brave humans attempt to interact with the alien presences, whom they assume feel far superior to the humans around them. Most humans who interact with the aliens go insane yet receive, in return for a transaction that isn’t entirely clear, unusual powers. A few business men choose to bring in the insane emissaries of the aliens and conduct exchanges for alien technology. Algernon Hebster, motivated entirely by profit, runs a not entirely legal business, Hebster Securities, gleaning details from the linguistic chaos of the transformed humans. He uses the fragments he uncovers to create new fashions and gadgets for the American suburban life.

One day he’s approached by the UM Special Investigating Commission with a deal. Hebster’s unique skills are needed to confront a growing far-right movement called Humanity First that seeks to destroy Hebster and evict the aliens from earth. If he doesn’t help, his own business will be investigated and potentially destroyed. Both sides spy on each other. Hebster finds himself in a meeting with the leader of Humanity First, who expounds his own fascist delusions. He must take actions into his own hands. Can conflict be avoided? Are the aliens as superior as they assume? Or are both sides possessed by a psychological block unique to their species? As with the superior “Eastward Ho!” (1958), Tenn places his future world in dialogue with American narratives of the past–in particular Native American history. I’d love to explore these historiographic and narratological parallels in more detail in a longer-form article.

Recommended for fans of unique first contact stories.

• Dick Francis’ interior art for William Tenn’s Galaxy Science Fiction, ed. H. L. Gold (August 1956)

“Time in Advance” (1956), 3.5/5 (Good): First appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, ed. H. L. Gold (August 1956). You can read it online here.

Imagine a future in which colonization on alien worlds creates a desperate need for almost sacrificial labor. No one wants to volunteer. However, planets must be conquered and massive bugs and monsters rooted out and slaughtered before humanity can lay down outposts in the far beyond. Somehow companies in charge of colonizations manage to push a law that would allow men to serve hard labor for crime. In addition, if you’re itching to murder someone you can sign up for punishment before you commit the crime. To incentive volunteers, you’ll receive half the sentence. If you murder someone and then are convicted, you’ll serve a full sentence. If you survive, you’ll be able to return to Earth already having served a shortened sentence for a crime you have yet to commit.

Two men return from their service making the stars fit for humanity’s inevitable expansion. Both survived, traumatized, and both served long enough to murder anyone they might wish. Both signed up because they wished to commit violence. The media descends in droves desperate for the ultimate scoop: who are YOU going to murder? The story follows Nicholas Crandall. He originally signed up for his punishment in advance as he wanted to murder his business partner who stole his invention. However, when he returns a whole series of people reach out confessing their sins and breaches of trust thinking they might be the target of his murderous ire. Will he murder his original target? Or someone else?

“Time in Advance” contains an outrageous and non-sensical premise for sure. Tenn posits a gentle satire of humanity’s quest for the stars. The story shifts with the focus on Crandall’s life, one spent in a similar quest for financial gain. He was oblivious to the actions of those around him. Had he lived a life worth living? Was he blind to what gave value and worth in the present? Both men find themselves mired in an entirely different existential state as their narratives of purpose come tumbling down.

Somewhat recommended.

• Robert Engle’s interior art for William Tenn’s “The Sickness” in Infinity Science Fiction, ed. Larry T. Shaw (November 1955)

“The Sickness” (1955), 3.5/5 (Good): First appeared in Infinity Science Fiction, ed. Larry T. Shaw (November 1955) You can read it online here.

The era: the paranoid depths of the Cold War. Physical conflict seems inevitable: “Something had to be done, and done fast” (83). The last-gasp cooperative idea to generate detente? A multi-ethnic expedition, lead by the non-aligned India, sets off to explore the desert reaches of Mars. Both the Americans and Soviets implant a secret service member into the astronaut ranks with plans to take over if needed. In order to facilitate cooperation in the face of the omnipresent paranoia of secret ploys and plots, the astronauts must learn the language of the other superpower. American astronauts must speak Russian to each other, even in private. Soviets must converse in English. As the expeditions approaches its conclusion, the Russian Belov discovers well-preserved ruins on Mars. A sinister sickness begins to infiltrate the expedition’s best attempts at quarantine and control.

I read this initially for my series on subversive takes on space travel. It’s paranoid. It’s a fascinating manifestation of contemporary fears. Unfortunately, Tenn is wedded to “twist” ending that weakens and diminishes all the effective setup work. Rather than an expedition that falls victim to the paranoid whirlwinds on Earth’s surface or realizes the value of an alternative, Tenn settles on a third far less interesting reveal. I find Tenn’s obsessive hunt for endings with sufficient twist, especially the tacked on sort, diminishes narratological impetus and thematic cohesion.

I’m not entirely sure what to make of this one. The rating comes from the setup and intriguing suggestion that the un-aligned Third World might be valuable players in a more peaceful future. I found the other elements disappointing.

• Virgil Finlay’s interior art for William Tenn’s “Time Waits for Winthrop” in Galaxy Science Fiction (August 1957)

“Winthrop Was Stubborn” (1957), 3/5 (Average): First appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, ed. H. L. Gold (August 1957). You can read it online here.

A group of common Americans, a cross-section of society, is selected for an experimental voyage into the future. There’s a problem. Winthrop, the oldest of the bunch, wants to stay in the 25th century. The others find the constantly shifting hallways and furniture, unusual rituals, discombobulating personal transportation, food consumption as symphonic appreciation, fantastical technology, and unusual future denizens too different and shocking. Winthrop, a product of the Great Depression, reminds his fellow travelers of his “lousy job and lousy life” (106). He was the kid left by his parents in the breadlines as they hunted for work. And when the Depression ended, he could only find menial jobs that never granted security or a moment of peace. Winthrop enjoys the post-scarcity 25th century. He enjoys relaxation. He’s finally able travel and participate in new experiences of every imaginable nature with his daily cares lavishly provided for. His fellow travelers beg him to return. They all need to jointly return at the assigned time else they won’t be able to return at all.

As with “The Sickness,” I found this story’s “twist” ending deeply unsatisfying. It entirely dodges and diminishes the conundrum, the generational issues and desires brought up by Winthrop’s need to stay in the future, Tenn lays out. Is there no way past generational divides? Can we really never bridge differences? Spectacular art by Finlay aside, this is not Tenn at his best.

Not recommended.

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