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Author: John ONeill

Vintage Treasures: Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier

Vintage Treasures: Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier

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Hiero’s Journey and sequel The Unforsaken Hiero (Del Rey, 1983 and 1984). Covers by Darrell K. Sweet

Sterling Lanier occupies a unique and honored place in science fiction history. While he’s fondly remembered for his fiction, his greatest contribution came as a result of his keen eye, and his editorial daring.

In 1961 Lanier was hired as an editor at Chilton, a Boston publisher specializing in business magazines and automobile repair books. In 1965 he convinced Chilton to publish their first novel, an oversized science fiction epic that had been rejected by nearly twenty publishers due to its prodigious length. That novel, Frank Herbert’s Dune, eventually became a bestseller, launching one of the most respected literary franchises of the 20th Century, and completely remaking SF publishing.

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Monsters, Mech Warriors, and More: Startling Stories Magazine, 2022 Issue

Monsters, Mech Warriors, and More: Startling Stories Magazine, 2022 Issue

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The first two issues of Startling Stories in 65 years, courtesy of
Wildside Press and Douglas Draa. Covers: uncredited, and GrandeDuc.

One of the big news stories of last year was the return of Startling Stories, the legendary science fiction pulp mag of the 40s and 50s, which published classic SF by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Vance, Leigh Brackett, Fletcher Pratt, Henry Kuttner, A.E. van Vogt, Manly Wade Wellman, Edmond Hamilton, Stanley G, Weinbaum, and numerous others. The new venture is the brainchild of John Betancourt at Wildside Press, and at the helm is Douglas Draa, who worked tirelessly to resurrect Weirdbook a few years back.

The first new issue of Startling Stories in 65 years appeared in February of last year, and contained stories by Robert Silverberg, Steve Dilks, Adrian Cole, Cynthia Ward, Ahmed A. Khan, and many others. A second issue arrived in September of this year, with an even more impressive list of contributors, including John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, Mike Chin, Adrian Cole, Cynthia Ward, and more.

Douglas Draa understands the true magic of pulp fiction, and I was delighted to see that along with the fiction he has worked hard to bring great art to the pages of Startling Stories — and he has absolutely succeeded, with original black & white art by Vincent Di Fate, Bob Eggleton, Allen Koszowski, and even the MidJourney AI, all packaged under a terrific color cover by GrandeDuc. Startling Stories is one of the most visually impressive print SF mags on the stands. Check out some of the eye-catching art below.

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New Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition edited by Rich Horton

New Treasures: The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition edited by Rich Horton

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The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition
(Prime Books, August 22, 2022). Cover by Tithi Luadthong.

Earlier this year Rich Horton shared an update at Strange at Ecbatan on the long-awaited 2021 volume of his long-running The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy series:

My best of the year anthology for 2021 has been much delayed, for reasons mostly linked to the pandemic, including difficulty getting a slot at printers. (And other issues!) But at last I have a TOC nearly ready. We’re holding open one slot for one more potential story… hoping to hear from the author soon. But I figured it was time to post the list. It’s been fun going through these stories again, and realizing how good they are, and how worthy of whatever exposure they can get.

The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2021 Edition has now arrived from Prime Books, and it is a delight to see it at last. After a dozen years in print, the series has switched to digital only, at least for now. This volume collects 34 stories from 2020, and includes tales from Sofia Samatar, Annalee Newitz, Sarah Langan, Yoon Ha Lee, John Kessel, Naomi Kritzer, Ken Liu, Alec Nevala-Lee, Sarah Pinsker, Benjamin Rosenbaum, Michael Swanwick, Tade Thompson, Ian Tregillis, Jessica P. Wick, and many others. It does not include the mystery story Rich mentions above, so I guess they never secured the elusive rights for that last one!

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Vintage Treasures: The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard

Vintage Treasures: The Crystal World by J.G. Ballard

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The Crystal World (Berkley Medallion, March 1967). Cover artist unknown

I was intrigued by my buddy Jeffrey Ford’s brief but enticing description of J.G. Ballard’s novel The Crystal World on Facebook yesterday:

I read it years ago, but I still remember it very vividly. It had this dual sensibility of being really pulpy and yet wonderfully deep. The slow and then quickening crystalization of the world is freaky. And the description of the narrator finally outmaneuvered by it and overtaken is both frightening and beautiful.

When it comes to the beautiful and the weird, Jeff knows what he’s talking about. His marvelous short story “Exo-Skeleton Town” appeared in the very first issue of Black Gate (way back in 2001), and won the Imaginaire Award in France a few years later. Jeff’s novels include The Well-Built City Trilogy, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque (2002), The Shadow Year (2008), and Ahab’s Return: or, The Last Voyage (2018).

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James Nicoll on Five Classic SFF Collections Too Good to Be Forgotten

James Nicoll on Five Classic SFF Collections Too Good to Be Forgotten

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A Pride of Monsters (Collier Books, 1973), Eyes of Amber (Signet, 1983) and Neutron Star
(Ballantine, 1976). Covers by Richard Jones, Tom Kidd, and Rick Sternbach

Over at Tor.com, James Davis Nicoll looks at a fine set of vintage SF collections, including Eyes of Amber and Other Stories by Joan D. Vinge.

Vinge began her publishing career with memorable novellas and novelettes. It’s therefore quite frustrating that, to my knowledge, there are only three collections of her work, all out of print. Of the three, Eyes of Amber and Other Stories is by far the best. In addition to the title story, a tale of aristocratic ambition and rock & roll set on Titan, the collection provides tales that range from straight-up adventure to puzzle stories, from classic hard SF to a deep space murder thriller, all skillfully written.

In addition to Vinge, James looks back at some very fine books by Tanith Lee, Katherine MacLean, Larry Niven, and James H. Schmitz.

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New Treasures: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

New Treasures: We Could Be Heroes by Mike Chen

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We Could Be Heroes (Mira, November 30, 2021). Cover design: Elita Sidiropoulou

Okay, I’m a little late with this one (it was published nearly a year ago). But I just found it at Barnes & Noble a few weeks back, and it’s quickly floated up to the top of my TBR pile, so I claim special circumstances.

The superhero novel is enjoying its time in the sun right now. Veronica Roth had a bestseller with her superhero dark fantasy Chosen Ones; so did Marissa Meyer with her Renegades trilogy. But Mike Chen’s humorous novel of two former archrivals — one with the power to wipe minds, and one with super speed and strength — who meet in a memory loss support group and gradually realize they each hold the key to the other’s recovery, and the clues to a deadly mystery, is the one I’m clearing the decks for. Buzzfeed calls it “an incredibly fun and thoughtful take on superhero lore,” and Martin Cahill at Tor.com say it’s “Wonderful.”

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Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year 11 edited by Terry Carr

Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of the Year 11 edited by Terry Carr

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The Best Science Fiction of the Year 11 (Timescape, July 1982)

I’ve realized I enjoy these old Terry Carr anthologies much more now than when they first appeared 40 years ago.

I wasn’t a sophisticated reader in those days (not that I’m particularly sophisticated today, but at least I’m more patient). I was still discovering science fiction, and purely on the hunt for tales of wonder and adventure. I’d read Carr’s Best Science Fiction volumes with a skeptical eye, not at all convinced I was actually enjoying the finest stories of the year, and skip anything that didn’t grab me in the first few pages.

Nowadays it’s a different story. When I plucked The Best Science Fiction of the Year 11 off my shelves last week, I was delighted to find it contained David R. Palmer’s Hugo-nominated novella “Emergence,” the tale of an 11-year-old girl traveling through a post-apocalyptic US; “The Thermals of August,” Edward Bryant’s Hugo and Nebula-nominated tale of wingsuit-wearing daredevils on a wonderfully realized alien world; Gene Wolfe’s Hugo-nominated classic “The Woman the Unicorn Loved,” about a genetically engineered unicorn that escapes onto a college campus; and Poul Anderson’s famous novella “The Saturn Game,” which swept all the major awards, about an immersive role playing game played by a crew exploring Saturn’s moons that turns unexpectedly deadly.

Opening these books now is a journey of discovery of a different sort. I’m not on the hunt for new authors, and not simply for entertainment, either. It’s more a journey into the past, a chance to explore some of the most innovative and exciting SF of 1981, and see what authors whom I’ve come to love were up to early in their careers — and, especially, find an overlooked fictional gem or two.

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Tales of Adventure and Exploration from the Pre-Spaceflight Era: Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics

Tales of Adventure and Exploration from the Pre-Spaceflight Era: Mike Ashley’s British Library Science Fiction Classics

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All ten anthologies in the British Library Science Fiction Classics edited by Mike Ashley,
plus his non-fiction survey Yesterday’s Tomorrows, and interior art from Moonrise (bottom right).
Covers by Chesley Bonestell, David A. Hardy, Warwick Goble, Frederick Siebel, et al

Mike Ashley is a fascinating guy. He interviewed me years ago about founding the SF Site (sfsite.com), one of the first science fiction websites, back in 1995, for his book The Rise of the Cyberzines, the fifth volume of his monumental History of Science Fiction Magazines. He’s edited dozens of SF anthologies over the years, including 19 volumes in The Mammoth Book series (The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy, The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction, The Mammoth Book of New Sherlock Holmes Adventures, etc.)

But I’m currently obsessed with his latest project, a sequence of terrific anthologies published under the banner of the British Library Science Fiction Classics. There are nineteen volumes in the British Library Science Fiction Classics so far, including long-forgotten novels by William F. Temple, Charles Eric Maine, and Muriel Jaeger, and even a new collection of previously-abridged novellas from John Brunner, The Society of Time, which looks pretty darn swell.

But the bulk of the series — eleven books — consists of ten anthologies and a non-fiction title from Mike Ashley. And what books they are! They gather early fiction across a wide range of themes, heavily focused on pulp-era and early 20th Century SF and fantasy. Mining classic tropes like the Moon and Mars, sinister machines, creeping monsters, and looming apocalypses, Ashley has produced a veritable library of foundational SF and fantasy. Reasonably priced in handsome trade paperback and affordable digital editions, these volumes are an essential addition to any modern SF collection. And they are positively packed with fun reading.

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The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams

The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022, edited by Rebecca Roanhorse and John Joseph Adams

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The Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy 2022 (Mariner Books, November 1, 2022)

The busier I get, the more I treasure editors. If there are unsung heroes in this business, they are the tireless editors who read towering stacks of unsolicited subs to sift out those few precious treasures that get you and me excited to go to the bookstore.

I appreciate editors of all kinds these days. The ones who acquire novels; the ones who edit magazines. But I especially cherish those who comb through hundreds of stories in venues large and small to bring us Year’s Best volumes every year. John Joseph Adams has been editing The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy since 2015, each year with a distinguished co-editor, and this year he partnered with Rebecca Roanhorse, author of Trail of Lightning, the 2019 Locus Award winner for Best First Novel, to bring us the eighth volume in the series, this one containing stories by Kelly Link, P. Djèlí Clark, Caroline M. Yoachim, Stephen Graham Jones, Aimee Ogden, Meg Elison, Nalo Hopkinson, Rich Larson, Sam J. Miller, and many others.

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New Treasures: Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

New Treasures: Poster Girl by Veronica Roth

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Veronica Roth is the author of the hugely popular Divergent trilogy, adapted as an ill-fortuned 4-part film series that was canceled after three installments (Divergent, Insurgent, and Allegiant, Part One).

That’s the kind of thing that might sour me on the writing biz for good, but Roth has carried on admirably. You can’t blame her for losing her taste for young adult fiction though, and in the last few years she’s turned her skills to adult novels with the dark superhero tale The Chosen One, and her newest, Poster Girl, an SF noir.

She certainly seems to have adopted comfortably to her new niche. Library Journal called Poster Girl “Highly recommended for… lovers of Philip K. Dick’s thought-police science fiction,” high praise indeed. And Kirkus labels it a “wonderfully complex and nuanced book.”

Elisabeth Egan at The New York Times has one of the better long-form reviews, calling it “a fun, read-it-in-a-weekend novel, one that pairs well with Halloween candy, spiked cider and a smattering of neighborhood gossip.” I like the sound of that. Here’s her take.

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