Search Results for: edited

A Stellar Lineup: Harlan Ellison, James Tiptree, Jr, Frederik Pohl, John Brunner, Roger Zelazny, Poul Anderson, and more in The Alien Critic 7, edited by Richard E. Geis

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  The Alien Critic Number Seven, November 1973. Published and edited by Richard E. Geis. I subscribed to TAC the following year after reading Geis’s column in IF. Geis really had the juice back then — this issue includes Frederik Pohl, John Brunner, Roger Zelazny, Damon Knight, Poul Anderson, Robert Bloch, Miriam Allen de Ford, Ross Rocklynne, “James Tiptree, Jr.,” and others — including a letter from Harlan Ellison that lists the then-current contents of The Last Dangerous Visions. Seriously.

Vintage Empires: James Nicoll on Galactic Empires, Volumes One & Two, edited by Brian W. Aldiss

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My fellow Canadian James Nicoll continues to be one of my favorite SF bloggers, probably because he covers stuff I’m keenly interested in. Meaning exciting new authors, mixed with a reliable diet of vintage classics. In the last two weeks he’s discussed Kate Elliots’s The Witch Roads, Axie Oh’s The Floating World, Ada Palmer’s Inventing the Renaissance, and Emily Yu-Xuan Qin’s Aunt Tigress, all from 2025; as well as Walter Jon Williams The Crown Jewels (from 1987), Wilson Tucker’s The…

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A Sword & Sorcery Series I Really Love: Flashing Swords!, edited by Lin Carter

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Flashing Swords! #2, 4, & 5 (Science Fiction Book Club, September 1973, May 1977, and December 1981). Covers by Frank Frazetta, Gary Viskupic, and Ron Miller It’s time to take a look at another Sword & Sorcery anthology series I really love: Flashing Swords, edited by Lin Carter. It is second in my affections only to the Swords Against Darkness 5-book series edited by Andy Offutt that I wrote about here last year. Flashing Swords! came out of the group…

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Cover Reveal: Space Ships! Ray Guns! Martian Octopods!: Interviews with Science Fiction Legends, edited by Richard Wolinsky

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At Black Gate, we’re all about science fiction legends. Specifically, science fiction legends who appeared in paperback in spinner racks in the 70s and 80s. Or pulp magazines. Or wrote adventures at the dawn of the role playing industry. You know what, forget all that. We’re not picky. What makes a true science fiction legend? This is the sort of thing that’s hotly debated on social media, and at science fiction conventions, and in lengthy blog posts titled “Towards a…

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A Masterful Three Novella Original Anthology: The New Atlantis, edited by Robert Silverberg

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The New Atlantis (Warner Books paperback reprint, 1978). Cover by Lou Feck My latest look at a book from the 1970s treats a major anthology from 1975. The New Atlantis and Other Novellas collects three long stories: “Silhouette,” by Gene Wolfe; “The New Atlantis,” by Ursula K. Le Guin, and “A Momentary Taste of Being,” by James Tiptree, Jr. The project received plenty of notice at awards time – the book as a whole was fifth in the Locus Poll…

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Two Classic Fantasy Anthologies: Barbarians and Barbarians II, edited by Robert Adams

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Barbarians, edited by Robert Adams and Martin H. Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, and Barbarians II, edited by Pamela Crippen Adams, Robert Adams, and Martin H. Greenberg (Signet New American Library, January 1986 and February 1988). Covers by Ken Kelly Besides editing the Friends of the Horseclans books (discussed here last week), Robert Adams also edited — along with others — two thick anthologies from Signet entitled Barbarians (1985) and Barbarians II (1988). Covers by Ken Kelly. I bought these…

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Folk Horror edited by Paul Kane & Marie O’Reagan

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Folk Horror is one of those terms that’s never quite fashionable or unfashionable. To me there’s only either good or bad horror fiction, and that’s what really matters to the readers. This anthology — part of the Beyond & Within series from Flame Tree Publishing — fortunately is very good, regardless of labels. So kudos to the editors (excellent horror writers themselves) for assembling such an amount of creepy and entertaining material. To be precise the book includes two little…

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Recognizing Genius: Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, edited by David E Schultz and S.T. Joshi

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Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and and Clark Ashton Smith, 1922-1931, Volumes 1 and 2 (Hippocampus Press, July 14, 2020). Cover art by David C. Verba I’ve been reading Dawnward Spire, Lonely Hill: The Letters of H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith, a two-volume set edited by David E. Schultz and S.T. Joshi. I talked about this in my company newsletter sent out a short while ago, and I’ll repeat it here for the interested. Lovecraft…

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Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

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Dastardly Damsels (Crystal Lake Publishing, October 11, 2024) Dark fiction anthologies are currently very popular and, with a few exceptions, tend to be a medley of horror, fantasy, mild SF or something in between. I don’t like the expression “speculative fiction” but maybe this is an acceptable label. Some are published exclusively in digital format, which explains why the number of stories included is getting increasingly higher. The present anthology, for instance, features thirty-two contributions (including a couple of short…

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A Red Desert World, Full of Mystery: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin & Gardner Dozois

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Old Mars (Bantam Books, October 8, 2013). Cover by Stephen Youll This isn’t a Sword & Planet collection per se but is likely to prove interesting to readers of S&P. It’s a big book, 548 pages of reading in 15 longish stories and an introduction by Martin. All the tales evoke the kind of Mars that readers of Burroughs, Bradbury, and Brackett will recognize — a red desert world full of mystery.