Wise in the Ways of Procrastination: James Davis Nicoll on the Science Fiction Book Club, and Five Great Books He Never Meant to Read

Wise in the Ways of Procrastination: James Davis Nicoll on the Science Fiction Book Club, and Five Great Books He Never Meant to Read

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Ursula K. Le Guin’s Three Hainish Novels (SFBC, 1978), John Brunner’s The Sheep Look Up (Del Rey, 1981),
and Triplicity (SFBC, 1980) by Thomas M. Disch. Covers: Jack Woolhiser, Murray Tinkelman, and Ron Logan

Over at Tor.com, occasional Black Gate contributor James Davis Nicoll has penned a charming look back at the way the Science Fiction Book Club introduced him to some terrific science fiction.

While but a callow youth, I subscribed to the Science Fiction Book Club. The club, wise in the ways of procrastination, would send each month’s selection of books to subscribers UNLESS the subscribers had sent the club a card informing the SFBC that one did not want the books in question. All too often I planned to send the card off, only to realize (once again), when a box of books arrived, that intent is not at all the same thing as action.

Thus, I received books that I would not have chosen but, once in possession, I read and enjoyed them. All praise to the SFBC and the power of procrastination! Here are five of my favorite unintended reading experiences…

Anyone who was a member of the SFBC knows of what James speaks — this is exactly how I discovered Zelazny’s Chronicles of Amber. Check out the complete article here.

Vintage Treasures: Other Days, Other Eyes by Bob Shaw

Vintage Treasures: Other Days, Other Eyes by Bob Shaw

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Other Days, Other Eyes (Ace, 1972). Cover by J. H. Breslow

Bob Shaw was a prolific science fiction writer from Northern Ireland who wrote over two dozen novels, including The Orbitsville trilogy, about the discovery of an intact Dyson sphere orbiting a far star, Medusa’s Children (1977), Who Goes Here? (1977), and perhaps his most popular book, the Hugo-nominated The Ragged Astronauts (1986), the tale of a technologically advanced civilization that builds spaceships out of wood. It wasn’t something you forgot in a hurry.

Shaw produced several highly-regarded collections, including Ship of Strangers (a fix-up novel, 1978) and Cosmic Kaleidoscope (1979). His most famous short story is still fondly remembered today: the Hugo and Nebula nominee “Light of Other Days,” originally published in John W. Campbell’s Analog Science Fiction and Fact in August 1966. The central concept of ‘slow glass’ — which slows down light so that it takes years or decades to pass through — was simple and enormously compelling, and Shaw returned to the idea several times, most notably in his 1972 fix-up novel of slow glass stories, Other Days, Other Eyes.

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Intelligent Lizards, Asteroid Mining, and Hardboiled Noir: November/December 2021 Print SF Magazines

Intelligent Lizards, Asteroid Mining, and Hardboiled Noir: November/December 2021 Print SF Magazines

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November/December 2021 issues of Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, and The Magazine
of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Cover art by Maurizio Manzieri, Shutterstock, and Maurizio Manzieri (again)

The November/December print magazines have an impressive list of contributors, including Jack McDevitt, Nalo Hopkinson, Robert Reed, Eleanor Arnason, David Gerrold, Megan Lindholm, Bill Pronzini & Barry N. Malzberg, Jack Skillingstead, Sandra McDonald, Sheila Finch, R. Garcia y Robertson, Ray Nayler, Gregory Feeley, Shane Tourtellotte, Alice Towey, and many others.

Sam Tomaino at SFRevu has been covering science fiction magazines for over a decade. Here’s a few of his thoughts on the latest Analog.

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Witches, Curses, and Wagner’s Kane: DAW’s The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V (1977), Edited by Gerald W. Page

Witches, Curses, and Wagner’s Kane: DAW’s The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V (1977), Edited by Gerald W. Page

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The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V (DAW, 1977). Cover by Michael Whelan

The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V was the fifth volume in DAW’s Year’s Best Horror Stories, copyright and printed in 1977. It was the second edited by Gerald W. Page (1939–), who was also a successful horror author and editor at the time.

Michael Whelan (1950–) appears for the third time as the cover artist. Whelan is a classic genre artist and I really liked his previous two covers, but this is the best yet. Though it has something of a sci-fi landscape in the background, it is by far his most horror-themed piece in the series up to this point.

Gerald Page’s selections for The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series V includes several authors from the last volume, such as Joseph Payne Brennan, H. Warner Munn, and Fritz Leiber. Of the fourteen stories, eight come from magazines, two from books, and four are original to this volume. (As I stated in the last two posts, I am very puzzled by how editor include new stories in a “Year’s Best” anthology.) All the authors are American men, the only exception being the female British author Tanith Lee.

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Retro-Review: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Summer 1950

Retro-Review: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Summer 1950

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The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Summer 1950. Cover by George Salter

This was the third issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, though only the second under that name. (The first issue, Autumn 1949, was titled The Magazine of Fantasy.) Here we see it in the classic form of its early years… Whimsical fantasies… reprints from the 19th and early 20th Century, often by prominent writers … modest essays into not very hard SF… a real attempt to find good SF and Fantasy from writers in other genres.

And, I might add, covers by George Salter. Salter (born Georg Salter in Bremen, Germany, October 5, 1897 (so I share a birthday with him!) contributed 9 covers in the first two years of F&SF, then 2 more (in 1955 and 1966) — his illustrations were very much in the spirit of the early F&SF, somewhat whimsical, semi-abstract, clever. I like them a lot, though I know that taste isn’t shared by everyone.

Early F&SF was light on features. This issue featured only one… “Recommended Reading,” by the editors (Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas.) This was published just as genre SF was beginning to be widely published in book form. The recommendations include two Heinlein books (Sixth Column from Gnome, and Waldo and Magic, Inc. from Doubleday), as well as an anthology from Judith Merril, a couple of books from outside the genre, and more… if I am to be honest, none of the books mentioned are really all that memorable, save perhaps the Heinleins — and those more because they are Heinlein books, rather than because they are particularly outstanding.

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Now Streaming: Pushing Daisies

Now Streaming: Pushing Daisies

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Pushing Daisies
Pushing Daisies

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I offer you a healthy serving of pie.

The television series Pushing Daisies debuted in October 2007 and ran for two seasons, ending in December 2008, although three unaired episodes would eventually be shown in mid-2009. The first season of the show was cut short due to the 2007 Writers Guild of America strike and only nine episodes of the planned 22 were completed, although creator Bryan Fuller retooled the ninth episode to provide a cliffhanger leading into the second season.

Pushing Daisies followed the adventures of Ned, the Piemaker (Lee Pace), who discovered at an early age that he could bring the dead back to life for 60 seconds with the touch of a finger, although he had to touch them a second time during that 60 seconds or someone else in close proximity would die. Any second touch would kill a person permanently.  Effectively orphaned by the death of his mother when he first learned of his ability and his subsequent abandonment by his father, Ned’s secret was accidentally discovered by private investigator Emerson Cod (Chi McBride) and the two partnered to solve murders.

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Meanwhile, in a Universe with Space Ninjas and Sentient Insectoids: Neodymium Exodus by Jen Finelli MD

Meanwhile, in a Universe with Space Ninjas and Sentient Insectoids: Neodymium Exodus by Jen Finelli MD

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Neodymium Exodus (WordFire Press, October 2021)). Cover design by Janet McDonald

Kevin J. Anderson’s Wordfire Press has published plenty of SF the last few years, including exciting books by Cat Rambo, Paul Di Filippo, D.J. Butler, Bill Ransom, R.M. Meluch, Mike Resnick, Lou Antonelli, Robert Asprin, Alan Dean Foster, Frank Herbert, Brenda Cooper — and even the first Nexus novel by Mike Baron.

Of course, any publisher worth its salt really proves itself by discovering and promoting new authors. So I was intrigued to see Neodymium Exodus cross my desk, the first novel in a “fun, frenetic space opera” (Publishers Weekly) featuring “sentient insectoids, purple jungles, and insane electromagnetic fields.” I don’t much about the author, Jen Finelli MD, except that she likes to put ‘MD’ after her name, which tells me that at some point in our relationship she’s likely to remind me I’m overdue for a colonoscopy.

Anyway, you lot know how I feel about space opera. I think I’ll settle down with this one in my big green chair.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: The Year of Shogun

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: The Year of Shogun

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TV Guide featuring Shogun (September 6-12, 1980)

Before 1980, few people in America and Europe knew much about Japan’s samurai era — if anything, they associated its warrior ethos with the hostile mindset that had led the country into its big mistake in World War II. The unarmed combat skills of judo and karate had been popularized during the Sixties, but little was known about the martial arts of the samurai that had preceded them until Shogun, James Clavell’s blockbuster novel and subsequent hit TV miniseries, hit the American and European mainstream.

Suddenly samurai were top-of-mind for mass market consumers, from low-culture exploitation videos (as they were regarded then) like Shogun Assassin to high-culture art-house darlings like Kagemusha, the triumphant return of director Akira Kurosawa to the genre of his breakthrough film Seven Samurai. After 1980, “samurai” was nearly as recognizable a historical concept as “cowboy.”

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Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1954: A Retro-Review

Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1954: A Retro-Review

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Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1954. Cover by Emsh

At the time I’m writing this article, we’re approaching the holiday season, just as people were when Galaxy’s December, 1954 issue arrived. And what could usher in the Yuletide spirit better than some festive, science-fiction artwork by Ed Emshwiller? That’s right. Nothing.

“Skulking Permit” by Robert Sheckley – The colony on the forested planet of New Delaware has been isolated from Earth for 200 years. It operates as a peaceful, small town, where the residents are harmonious, and crime doesn’t exist. When their ancient radio becomes active again, a person from Earth tells the mayor that an inspector is coming in two weeks to determine if the colony conforms to the “customs, institutions, and traditions of Earth.” The mayor takes action, determined to uphold those customs, institutions, and traditions. The colony builds a schoolhouse, a church, and a jail. And the mayor assigns new roles to people, such as Postman and Police Chief.

Tom Fisher wants to enjoy his vacation, but the mayor assigns Tom an important role – the Criminal.

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New Treasures: The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel

New Treasures: The Body Scout by Lincoln Michel

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The Body Scout (Orbit, September 2021). Cover by Lauren Panepinto

I rejoined the Science Fiction Book Club over fifteen years ago, because it was the only way to get Jonathan Strahan’s fabulous Best Short Novels anthologies. After a corporate shake-up in 2007 led to the retirement of editor Ellen Asher — who’d been at the helm since 1973 — and Andrew Wheeler was laid off, the SFBC sadly stopped producing original anthologies and those delicious omnibus volumes. I miss them.

I’m still a member, even though their Things to Come newsletter isn’t as interested as it used to be. Partly it’s because they choose my novel The Robots of Gotham as a Feature Selection back in 2018 (a dream I’d had since I was a kid). But also because I still discover interesting books through the club that I don’t find anywhere else. Like Lincoln Michel’s debut novel The Body Scout, a near-future SF noir that looks very intriguing indeed. Here’s the description.

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