The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 1: Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, Clifford D. Simak, L. Sprague de Camp, and Fritz Leiber
Planet-x.com.au (Free subscription) | 11/23/2009
Simak also wrote City, which is in my top-20 list of favourite SF books . This was published only a couple of years after Cosmic Engineers but is in my opinion a vastly better - and better written - book; it really is time I read that ...
Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 11/21/2009
This is the fifth time I’ve picked my favorite books of the preceding decade, and I cannot help but wonder how many more chances I will have to do so in the future? Twice more? Three times perhaps? Scary thoughts. Before I begin, here is a brief review of my selections from past decades: The 1960s: Best Novel : Lord of Light / Roger Zelazny Best Short Fiction : The Star Pit / Samuel R. Delany...
Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 10/18/2009
The late 1960s were my “Golden Age” of science fiction, and I discovered most of my favorite writers during that era: Robert Silverberg, Clifford D. Simak, Roger Zelazny, Jack Vance, Ursula K Le Guin, and the subject of this review, Samuel R. Delany. Delany has published the least f&sf of anybody on this list, but because of that his average quality has probably been higher than any...
Visions of Paradise (Free subscription) | 09/19/2009
The following ABCdery originally appeared in Tom Sadler’s fanzine The Reluctant Famulus #71: A is for Isaac ASIMOV, one of the stalwarts of sf’s “Golden Years” B is for Michael BISHOP, who wrote my single favorite novel Brittle Innings in the 1990s. So where the heck has he been the past 15 years? C is for John W. CAMPBELL, one of the great writers of the 1930s who became the...
Happy Catholic (Free subscription) | 08/25/2009
Jesse at SFFaudio turned in an excellent but thought-provoking review of Clifford D. Simak's Way Station, saying: A couple years back a friend of mine (a filmmaker and used bookstore owner) was telling me about one of the scripts he was working on. He said something to the effect of “every story must have conflict.” That’s probably not a new concept, not original to him, but it was...
Slaw (Free subscription) | 08/20/2009
We discovered an early description of a computerized online retrieval system in the short story “How-2″ by science fiction writer Clifford D. Simak. The story was published in Galaxy November, 1954. One morning, a lawyer discovers a box with a do-it-yourself kit inside. Following the instructions for use, he builds a robot – one [...]
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 06/22/2009
Free Fiction and Stuff [courtesy of the magnificent QuasarDragon ] @Manybooks: " The Pygmy Planet " by Jack Williamson (1932). " Foundling on Venus " by Dorothy De Courcy and John De Courcy (1954). @Space Westerns: " A Rage for Justice " by John Whalen. @Atomjack: " The Orrery Man " by Brant Danay. @Tower of Light: " The Ethics of Blood Madness " by...
QuasarDragon (Free subscription) | 06/21/2009
Some cool stuff today, Tower of Light has new fiction, including a couple by writers whose stories have caught my attention elsewhere, Space westerns makes a very welcome return after too long of an absence, a classic short story by the "Dean of Science Fiction" Jack Williamson, the start of a reading of a Clifford D. Simak story, great comics, and much more. E-FictionThe Summer 2009 issue...
Divers and Sundry (Free subscription) | 06/11/2009
Ones I've read are in bold print, and I've linked to posts if I've written one. Winners of the Hugo Award for best novel: 2008 Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen's Union 2007 Vernor Vinge, Rainbows End 2006 Robert Charles Wilson, Spin 2005 Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 2004 Lois McMaster Bujold, Paladin of Souls 2003 Robert J. Sawyer, Hominids 2002 Neil Gaiman, American Gods...
The Guardian Books Blog (Free subscription) | 03/03/2009
The Wisconsin-born writer's now largely forgotten Way Station pioneered 'pastoral science-fiction' - so what happens when aliens land in the woods? Science-fiction giant Robert Heinlein might have been an expert at predicting the future when it came to waterbeds and presidents' wives influencing matters of state via the medium of astrology , but some of his ideas about the genre he wrote in haven't...
The Eternal Golden Braid (Free subscription) | 02/16/2009
The Infinity Concerto Clifford D. Simak ... as music ? The score is just the written descriptions used in the novels because I want the musicians who bring these sounds to life to use their imaginations. One of the great joys of doing a Mail Art project is the surprise of getting back wholly unexpected interpretations of the project parameters. Probably a bit beyond the fringe for me. I'll pass it...
Enough to Read (Free subscription) | 09/20/2008
First sentence: "Bentley Price, photographer for the Global News Service, had put a steak on the broiler and settled down in a lawn chair, with a can of beer in hand, to watch it, when the door opened underneath an ancient white oak tree and people started walking out of it." Description: "They were our children's children, and they came one day from nowhere -- walking through holes...
Bill Peschel (Free subscription) | 04/25/2008
B orn today: Howard Garis, journalist, children's author, Binghamton, N.Y., 1873; Walter de la Mare, poet, novelist, anthologist, Charlton, Kent, 1873; Maud Hart Lovelace, children's author, Mankato, Minn., 1892; Edward R. Murrow, journalist, broadcaster, Greensboro, N.C., 1908; Ross Lockridge Jr., novelist, Bloomington, Ind., 1914; Paul Mazursky, screenwriter, playwright, director, Brooklyn, 1930;...
SF Signal (Free subscription) | 02/28/2008
From the Science Fiction Writers of America : The SFWA® Board of Directors and President Michael Capobianco are pleased to announce that writer and editor Michael Moorcock has been named Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master for 2008. The Grand Master represents SFWA's highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Mr. Moorcock...
TexasBestGrok (Free subscription) | 12/26/2007
Destinies: Volume 1, Number 1 (November/December 1978), edited by James Baen (Ace Books, 1979 ISBN 0-441-14281-8, cover by Stephen Fabian). After he left Galaxy and...
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