Even the Gods so glorious must march at the last, down the dim dusty road to death the destroyer. —L. Sprague de Camp, The Tritonian Ring I hesitate to mention the name L. Sprague de Camp ‘round these parts, given the resentment held against him for his character-sullying, inaccurate portrayals of Robert E. Howard in his REH biography Dark Valley Destiny and elsewhere. But if you can look...
Oldtime Radio X-Minus One "A Gun for Dinosaur" Part One.A safari into the Cretaceous to hunt for Tyrannosaurus Rex is endangered by a reckless glory hound, whose ineptitude and arrogance are matched only by his capacity for murder. Story by L. Sprague de Camp Part 2 is here.
Gary Gygax, co-inventor of Dungeons and Dragons, will probably be best remembered as the man who brought role playing games into the lives of millions of teenagers in the 1970s, and who helped spawn... [[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more! ]]
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...
Along with Patty Hearst, Pete Shelley, Yog Sothoth, L. Sprague de Camp, and Radagast the Brown, this guy was a major touchstone/icon/bugbear of my childhood, such as it was, so, even though he went insane in the end: pax tecum....
I do like it when public figures put out books on alternate history and then venture forth to offer 'alternative timelines' on things. Really! It's fun! Latest is Newt Gingrich offering *his* alternate history on 'the war on terror', as reported on by David Freddoso at NRO . One of the great joys in my SF reading has been alt-history from H. Beam Piper's Paratime works (especially Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen...
(2004 winds up!) Astounding Stories: The 60th Anniversary Collection; edited by James Gunn (Easton Press, 1990). Three volumes, introductions by Poul Anderson (black cover volume),...
The saga of Recluce, launched in The Magic of Recluce and continuing in The Towers of the Sunset and The Magic Engineer reaches a new climax in The Order War . "Modesitt has created an exceptionally vivid world," says L. Sprague de Camp, "so concretely visualized as to give the impression that Modesitt himself must have dwelt there." Publishers Weekly says, "Modesitt creates...
Entertainment Weekly's April 20th issue has a review of Greg Bear's Quantico (first published in the US by the SFBC a year ago) and capsule reviews of Jim Butcher's White Night (also available in the SFBC omnibus Wizard Under Fire),...
Astounding Stories of Super Science Astounding Stories: The 60th Anniversary Collection ; edited by James Gunn (Easton Press, 1990). Three volumes, introductions by Poul Anderson (black cover volume), Stanley Schmidt (red cover volume) and Isaac Asimov (blue cover volume). Much of my short story reading for the year came from multi-author collections. I also read a number of magazines (which will be...
What do you care what I read in 1987? Nothing, of course, but I do. As I get older (I was 20 in 1983 when I started keeping track of the books I read) I find myself more and more in the position of looking at a stack of books on my shelves by, say, Cornell Woolrich and they all have the word "Black" in the title. I know I've read a couple but I can't remember which ones. Fortunately, I've...
What do you care what I read in 1985? Nothing, of course, but I do. As I get older (I was 20 in 1983 when I started keeping track of the books I read) I find myself more and more in the position of looking at a stack of books on my shelves by, say, Cornell Woolrich and they all have the word "Black" in the title. I know I've read a couple but I can't remember which ones. Fortunately, I've...
What do you care what I read in 1984? Nothing, of course, but I do. As I get older (I was 20 in 1983 when I started keeping track of the books I read) I find myself more and more in the position of looking at a stack of books on my shelves by, say, Cornell Woolrich and they all have the word "Black" in the title. I know I've read a couple but I can't remember which ones. Fortunately, I've...
The First Historian Sam Moskowitz: This year I'll be tackling three books by Sam Moskowitz. One concentrates on early writers of fantastic fiction, one concentrates on later writers (centering around many of the people who wrote for Astounding) and the third is an overview of fandom. Moskowitz was often derided by others (well after he stopped writing) as being a sloppy historian, but if it were not...
The late John Brunner used a bookplate designed by Jim Barker.The designer's name is hard to make out but you can click on the image for enlargement. Porcupine books in England websales@porcupine.demon.co.uk has a number of books from Mr. Brunner's library with his bookplate, priced at $20.00 + They are nice people to deal with. Edgar Rice Burroughs' bookplate does not come up for sale very often.About...
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