70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Today's blast from the past is a time capsule in itself. While we were on vacation, my parents cleverly hid a few boxes of old books in the basement. It took about a month for me to notice :D.

See, back in the day when there were used bookstores all over the place and trendy neighbourhoods were less Starbucksy than they are today, I used to enjoy scooping up old sci-fi paperbacks by the pound. My husband also enjoyed this hobby, and it's possible that we bumped elbows in those dusty, musty places. Digging through the boxes was almost like shaking hands with my younger self. “Why hello there, young woman in the plaid shirt! You don’t know me, but let me tell you about the fuuuuuture!”

Sometimes I wasn't too careful about what grabbed - sometimes all it took was an interesting cover to seal the deal. Let's start with the author photo and cover of today's tome. Pretty groovy for 1976!

Doesn't the title alone make it sound like this awesome dystopia? The “Terminal Generation?” Who are these poor, trapped souls? Are they like “The Starlost”? What evil overlord must they overcome, what adventures will they have? I can totally see why I bought it. On the inside it says:

We are the Terminal Generation...

on the brink of despair, engulfed by waves of confusion, desperately grasping for hope in what seems to be an utterly hopeless world.

But, if I had read a little further, I would have discovered that it was one of those 70s disasters books full of future predictions, and this one more so than others. Hal Lindsey is an end times author, or dispensationalist, as Wikipedia helpfully explains, and apparently there was no shortage of all the ways the world was going to end by the mid-80s, if not sooner. Mr. Lindsey is still at it, actually! There isn't a cohesive narrative that most non-fiction books are able to form at all, just short screeds that clearly inspired the cover artwork. Lindsey's mind is wrapped up in a lot of anxiety caused by world events, particularly a fear of communism. The chapter on false prophets is particularly quaint - sometimes it's easy to forget all the consciousness raising stuff people did in the 70s that was pretty cultish.

It's pretty hard to take the book seriously in this day and age - maybe we’re just used to the news or have some disbelief because we're still here 30-plus years later. It was the idea that the alignment of the planets in 1982 would trigger disasters - but at least there's a hint of science fiction within. Lindsey mentions The Jupiter Effect, a book from 1974 which somehow had an introduction by Isaac Asimov. It's nice to know that goofy ideas existed long before the Internet :-D

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

It is appropriate that today's book features a big giant head, because so much has been going on in my head over the last month and a half, and I still don't know why! Let me say that I'm thankful for antibiotics when my salivary gland became infected. There were times too, when I was sure my ear canal was going to give birth to something gross and alien. Life is weird and so is this book:

Herds

The wife of a powerful figure in California is found brutally murdered in the couples' lonely mountain retreat. Wesley Stoneham made certain that all the evidence concerning the murderer of his wife pointed to a nearby hippie community. He had three goals in mind: to get rid of his wife, to drive out the hippie commune and to enhance his own power in the State. He was at the point of achieving them all when Garnna, from the peaceful planet of Zartic finally made contact with Debby, a hippie from the commune, who had problems of her own. Then Stoneham's troubles began.




Herds is number two in a new series called Laser Books - at first I thought this was a book of short stories. The main focus isn't even on Wesley Stoneham, but Garnna the alien centaur. He and his fellow Zarticku have a strong herd mentality that he comes to doubt and question. As an Explorer, he visits other worlds in a psychic sort of way (actually, in a box). Garnna is traumatized by witnessing Mrs. Stoneham's murder, which would be hard to work into a brief synopsis for the back cover.

The cover artist is a legend and his work is better known than his name. Sadly Frank Kelly Freas passed away in 2005, but his website remains. And although it doesn't have the same snazzy cover, you can buy Herds and other books by Stephen Goldin on his website too.

80s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

I was so bummed about not being able to make yesterday's post, so I backdated this one. I had the most severe pain ever in my face yesterday, and ended up Googling "ear infection or toothache" (Dr. Google says - "Inconclusive! See a real professional."). Maybe the virtual doctor needs another ten years. Anyway, the latest book on top of the reading pile is:

New Dimensions 11

The exciting series that showcased the best of the 70s now launches the 80s with superb science fiction - from the terrifying to the sublime!

It's really surprising that we don't have one of the earlier volumes on our bookshelf, because there were some truly groovy ones. I honestly can't figure out what this cover is about - the flip side has the faint skeleton of a pterodactyl and some sand. Is this the Planet of the Crystal Skulls? A user on GoodReads seems to hint that the contents match the weirdness of cover:

I read this collection of short stories when I was in junior high, much too young to be reading it. It contains a story about a spaceship navigated by sexual fantasies. And another story introduced me to the concept of sentient beings having more than two breasts.

There's only one way to find out!

80s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Everything lost is found again, and whether it's a centuries old manuscript or a pile of old paperbacks behind a VHS collection, there's always a gem like...

Interfaces

Hand-picked by Ursula K. Let Guinea, multiple award winning master of science fiction and fantasy, and Virginia Kidd, one of the field's most knowledgeable agents and discriminating anthologists, this is a wildly eclectic bouquet of the best that speculative fiction has to offer. Hugo and Nebula winners Ed Bryant, Vonda McIntyre, and James Tiptree, Jr. have a free hand within these pages, as do the young writers who will be turning up on next year's award ballots. Every story is appearing here for the first time, and every one is as unique an achievement as you would expect to find in the first anthology ever edited by Ursula Le Guin. This is a collection to be savored, a meeting of minds between fine authors and rare editorial excellence and imagination.

This is INTERFACES

I am smitten with this cover! Some of our paperbacks are too damaged to present (price tags and paperbacks are never a good combination) or just not as exciting as I hoped. But this cover, by Alex Abel, is so exciting! I love how the faces in the crystals fly upwards, freed from a huge chunk of crystal. Thought gains lightness! Each facet is beautifully airbrushed and the whole thing seems inspired by prog rock record covers. It's mysterious and fascinating and should be enlarged to poster size.

It is also beautifully in sync with the book - in the introduction, Le Guin and Kidd explain how they did not want to restrict the authors to a theme. Short stories are my favourite - longer works seem needlessly padded - but like the editors, I marvel at how lopsided anthologies can be. They wanted every story to be first rate and the collection carefully curated. It even includes some poetry! And so I add it to the reading pile, which never seems to get any shorter :)

60s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

It's easy to see that a lot of science fiction deals with control, but the why seems so elusive. Who are the mysterious "they" and why are they so prevalent? What happens when the hero goes up against Big Space Mega Corp? It's a topic that science fiction loves to explore over and over again like in...

Sundog

An unthinkably vast, invisible, and absolutely impenetrable screen imprisoned man within the solar system.

Cut off from the stars, men applied their ingenuity to themselves, setting up a world of total control - where even dreams were programmed.

If this sounds a little mystifying, the inside page reveals a little more:

Spacepilot Dod liked his work. It was dull and monotonous, and that was fine for the loyal, unthinking employee of the all-powerful Dog Company - the fourth of the original governing organizations, which had long since swallowed up Able, Baker, and Charlie, the first three.

And then, on his 71st routine trip between Pluto and Moonbase, a glowing light encircled his head. And strange, unnerving things began to enter his mind: curiosity, doubt, and even...ideas!


This 1965 book by Brian N. Ball presents a dystopia where an average Joe turns out to be key to the whole scheme. TV Tropes does a great job defining the Mega Corp, but doesn't quite get to the why. I think I know what it is though - as in so many fantasy and science fiction books, the main characters figure out how to control a situation where they should have none. Maybe toss in some anxiety caused by social upheaval, increased automation and a lack of the promised shiny post-World War 2 future, and the seed of a story sprouts. The cover - where I wish the head was much larger - is by Don Crowley. It really speaks Dod's mental state, perhaps even more so than Ball's writing.

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

As we've seen before, science fiction isn't just all about hardcore technology, new worlds or current events carefully couched as the future. I can only imagine that there was so much change going on in the 1960s that Edmund Cooper may have wistfully sighed and wished for escape to a place where he could see...

A Far Sunset

The year: 2032 A.D. The Gloria Mundi, a starship built and manned by the new United States of Europe, touches down on the planet, Alatair Five. Disaster strikes, leaving only one apparent survivor - Paul Marlow, whose adventures in the lair of a strange primeval race known as the Bayani leads him first to their God, the omnipotent and omniscient Oruri, and eventually to an unlimited power that is so great that is must include a built-in death sentence. The forces that have remained static for centuries overcome both the forces of the future and the quest for unlimited knowledge.





If you don't want to hop on over to Google, Gloria Mundi comes from the saying "Sic transit gloria mundi", which translates to "Thus passes the glory of the world". My literary insides tell me that the 1977 cover of this book by David Bergen (original printing 1967), has little to do with the story inside. Paul Marlow, who is rechristened Poul Mer Lo, is a psychiatrist who finds himself accepted by the "primitive" society as a sort of god. The chapters are short and after six of them I get the impression that it's a pulpy men's adventure book - naturally Paul ends up with an exotic alien female who seems more concerned for him than herself. My gut is also telling me that Paul saves the Bayani, marries Mylai Tui and lives happily ever after. I'll keep reading and update this post later!

If A Far Sunset piques your interest, Edmund Cooper's books are now available as eBooks. He's one of the seemingly rare older authors whose works have made the digital leap, and thank goodness, because some of these old paperbacks get pretty fragile.

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Today's Swiss Army knife post is a book review, a movie preview and a 70s Sci fi scan, because the 70s could only have produced...

Rocket Raccoon

I have been gamely trying to get through this book since I bought it in November and really pushed to try and finish the original comics collected in Rocket Raccoon and Groot. It was one of those titles I had often heard about, but didn't want to spend hours digging for every year the local comic expo rolls around. Marvel has saved me from boxes of dusty newsprint by thoughtfully combining the original Groot comic, Rocket Raccoon comics and part of the new GotG series together in one volume.

Now, part of the excitement is that Bradley Cooper will be providing the voice for the plucky procyon lotor in Guardians of the Galaxy this summer. My anticipation for it has been been up and down - nothing is worse than a bad comic book movie after all - but then I found out Vin Diesel is voicing Groot. Groot is a tree. Let me rephrase that: One of my favourite actors is playing a CGI tree. 

The new trailer is out and I don't know what to think:

But let's dial back to the mists of time, when Groot first appeared in 1960. There's something dorky about a sentient space tree that terrorizes a town, and he meets a predictable, goofy end. Rocket shows up in 1976 with his furry pals, who are the guardians of the Keystone Quadrant and protectors of the Loonies - mentally ill people who...well, I really don't know what they do except bounce around in straitjackets. They all live on a planet called Halfworld, where competing toy companies start a war. Colourful, weird and punny sum up the original comics. At times they were almost unreadable, but then I went through a box of old Thor issues and realized it was just the style at the time - it was I, the reader who had changed! I can appreciate the editorial and creative freedom that abounded.

Even though the 2008-2010 comic version of Guardians of the Galaxy is slicker and well, more coherent in its narrative, it's hard to beat the sheer gleefulness of the 1970s series. Eye popping colour, dynamic action and a whole lot of weird, is something that comics have lost. The whole "dark and gritty" thing can get pretty old. Just look at this scene - killer clown tanks! Banana bombs! What?! There's creating something to send a message, and then there's creating a work just for the sheer fun of it. In that case, it's mission accomplished for Rocket Raccoon :-)

Click on over to Comixology where you can download the issues for your mobile device or just marvel (heh!) at the previews. I suppose I'll be back in a few more months reviewing the movie - until then, I'm going to try and figure out how they're going to make a cross-over with the Avengers ;-)

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

These days when so many parts of our lives are planned and regulated, it's always nice to be surprised. And today's book thrilled me because just when I thought I had read all of Monica Hughes' science fiction books, but it turned out I hadn't read...

Crisis on Conshelf Ten

When Moon-born, fifteen year old Kepler Masterman visits Earth for the first time, he finds heavy gravity impossible to live in. An underwater atmosphere seems to offer the best solution to his problems and friendly relatives welcome him to their experimental community many fathoms deep in the depths of the ocean. But on Conshelf Ten Kepler discovers a sinister situation linked to the mysterious, water-breathing Gillmen, and realises that not only is he in great personal danger but that the survival of the entire Earth is threatened. 

I don't have any complaints about the cover. This is actually her second book, published in 1975, and thankfully it looks very impressive. I mostly want to tell all y'all how wonderful Hughes' books are - my particular favourites are Devil On My Back and the Isis trilogy. She's another author that started writing later in life, and sadly she passed away in 2003. I assumed that she had stopped writing a long time ago, but she actually put out one book (sometimes two) a year. That's productivity to aspire too, not to mention all the reading I have to do now.

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

I was getting worried that I was running out of 70s paperbacks - and it turns out that if I do, this column can be renamed 60s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans, because we have lots of those too! While digging through the cache I found another Arthur C. Clarke book. I suppose dreaming of going to the moon is like dreaming of going to Mars for folks today, but back in 1955, Clarke dreamed of...

Earthlight

Like many works published in the 50s and 60s, one could still dream of a fantastic future in the 80s and 90s from the 70s. Today we take the acceleration of technology for granted, wondering why our mobile devices are so slow when 30 years ago teletypes were still chunking away and 20 years ago you had to have a second phone line if you wanted to make calls and use the Internet. Just 10 years ago most cellphones didn't even have a colour display.

I grew up on the tail end of the fantasy that this cover so fondly predicts. Colonies on the moon! Domed compounds! Monorails!! No wonder Futurama wasted little time with Fry visiting the moon in the second episode of the first season (it probably would have been an amusement park by now anyway). There's also something a little weird about this cover. That, uh, moon tree looks a little suggestive. Nothing quite says "We conquered the moon" by imposing a big ol' fertility symbol on it :-D

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

As one year ends and a new one begins, people struggle to define the past within the present and the future. Ten years from now, 2013 will seem like a faraway place. Thirty years from now, the teens will seem weird (heh, I guess teens always will be) but time is actually a continuum, which may surprise children of the 80s that one of their favourite series had roots in the 70s. Maybe it's more appropriate that the first book was called...

The Cave of Time

You are the hero of your own adventure

This is a book you'll love reading. You will read it differently from any other book you have read before, because in this book you will decide how the story comes out. You'll get to choose exactly where you - the hero - will go along the way. Like this:

What happens next in the story? It all depends on the choices you make. How does the story end? Only you can find out! And the best part is you can keep reading and rereading until you've had not one, but many incredibly daring experiences!





It's so quaint that they had to try so hard to explain the concept in 1979. We play Choose Your Own Adventure every time we play a game or surf the Web (especially Wikipedia), but, for legions of kids, this was the closest they would get to hypertext or the burgeoning interactive fiction genre. My brother and I read them as fast as the library could get them, and the original series spawned dozens of titles. We used a deck of cards to mark our places should we need to retrace our steps. And even though the covers and illustrations mostly featured boys, the text was gender neutral enough to appeal to girls. My brother was always a reluctant reader, and since comics were a no-no in our house, these were perfect for him. My favourites ended up being Be An Interplanetary Spy and Which Way books, which had more of a science fiction/weird horror bent.

It was fun to pick up The Cave of Time and remember why the series was so successful - kids often don't have much choice in their lives (or, at least, I didn't) and the books were literally all about you - just about every sentence starts with the word. You are the hero! You are the genius! You are anything you can be in the CYA universe!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Today we have another on the cusp book, from 1968 that I just couldn't pass up (and for 60 cents, who wouldn't!). Let's look at...

The Planet of the Blind

Eyes to see with...

Eyes to flee with...

What would happen to an intelligent, sighted inhabitant of Earth marooned on a planet inhabited by unsighted people with a technology equal or superior to his? Further, let us suppose that this man heads a world organization that controls the now expanding field of tests and testing - Mr. Test himself. How would he fare on this PLANET OF THE BLIND? This is the story of Dr. Thur Stone in just such a situation.

Unfortunately the writing is just as stilted as the back cover copy and I didn't get far into the book despite it being a quick read. Dr. Stone is roaming around the universe in his spacerover for some rest and relaxation when he lands on Grenda. He quickly discovers that the people are blind - but animals are not. Convincing the Grendans that he's not an animal is going to be tricky!

Once he discovers his predicament, he realizes how flawed his own testing methods have been. He's the director of Terra-Testing, known as Mr. Test, with the power to determine the fate of others with his testing methods. Having the tables turned on the doctor should make an exciting adventure, but the rambling, stream of consciousness style cries out for an editor. And while this book is Corey's first science fiction novel, it wasn't his first book at all. He is best known for a series about farming in Iowa called The Mantz Trilogy.

Nothing is ever produced in a vacuum, however, and the cover suits the book well. Psychological testing and abstract art were pretty new and interesting back in the 1950s and 1960s,and just like space, another realm to explore!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Fending off a cold this week as well as the craft sale craziness, so here's a book that doesn't need too much explanation except...

Spaaaaaaaace Pope!

I bet the artist had a lot of fun with this one! Now back to chugging Cold 911 from David's Tea :-D

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

To be honest, I'm not sure why I picked today's cover. It reminds me of one of those times in art college where myself or a classmate had to pin up a particular dud of a work. Either the class struggled to find something to say or the student stumbled through a poorly thought out explanation. Which is how I, as humble blogger, feel about...

Twilight at the Well of Souls

This is the way the world will end...

The rift in the fabric of space was fast approaching the Well World, and time was running out. Troops all over the planet were gathering for the final battle.

Nathan Brazil and Mavra Chang somehow had to reach the Well of Souls in time to save the universe before any of the hostile natives managed to kill them.

At best, a difficult mission. At worst, impossible - especially since there was a price on Brazil's head and many would-be claimants! For Brazil, the difficult was but the work of a moment - the impossible would take a little longer!


Well, it has orange and blue. It has a sphere...am I supposed to be looking down at a pit or is something exploding? Another thing I remember from art college is my crazy drawing teacher who occasionally said one sane thing for every five insane things. One of her sane tips was that artists can't always be standing by their work, ready to deconstruct it for every viewer. Same goes for books that want to be sold. If I didn't know who Jack Chalker was, I would totally judge this book by the cover and pass.

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

All rightey, I have put down the pen and the spirograph and am back in fine form. This week's entry is a doozy! Science fiction isn't just about imagining the future or imbuing it with fantasy - sometimes it's about one man's manly science fiction fantasies, such as...

Hook: The Virility Gene

The illuminated cube lit up with the scattered lights, looking like a handful of diamonds strewn carelessly across a velvet backdrop. Hook easily picked out the Jarhed system - any almost normal F-type sun and ten planets, with only three suitable for human habitation: Rondelle, Pheruchia, and Shyle.

Within that system, specifically on Shyle, Ryder Hook knew an inter-galatic "gold rush" was happening. The virility gene - once highly prized and more precious than any other substance in the universe - was being claimed and mined by all takers. Its source, once intensely guarded, and now, revealed, was being ravaged. Every form of intelligent life knew that the virility gene not only increased, but also prolonged, sexual pleasure.

Hook eagerly journeyed to this weird planet to stake a claim. But the joyous, potentially profitable events took a disastrous turn for the worse when he uncovered the gene's true source - and his arch-enemies, the Boosted Men, arrived to manipulate the powerful secret of the gene for their own evil ends.

I wish this cover was in better shape, and I suppose the title alone made it well read. I have to wonder if this 1975 book is a nod to 1967's Logan's Run - in the book version, Logan is tormented by women who give him a dose of something called Everlove. At least it's communicating all the right things - action! space! babes! Now if you're thinking Tully Zetford is the least manly name ever, it actually belonged to Kenneth Bulmer, who passed away in 2005. Apparently he was quite fond of pseudonyms as Wikipedia lists just over a dozen. It's easy to see why, because not only is this book has clunky named things, it also has bad steamy prose:

He stopped by a damak-velour couch. He did not release his hold upon Iola. She stood looking up at him, her eyes meeting his, her breath soft and sweet. Slowly, feeling the magnitude of the occasion, Hook bent. He kissed her. He kissed her and he felt the fires flickering all along his limbs and devouring his body. She responded. She was the flame. He held her to him and put a hand on her white gown and she put her slender hand on him and pressed. He could feel her heart beating. She moaned and her lips grew hot and soft under his.

Snortle!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Well, I think I used up all my silly for the week in Wednesday's post, so I'll see what I can work up for today. One of the amazing things science fiction is that it is such an open framework, and if you want to add some fantasy to it, go right on ahead. No one says you can't, such as in 1978 when barbarian fantasy was all the rage. Conan, He-Man, Vardeman?

The Sandcats of Rhyl

SPACEPEDITION!

Nightwind and his cyborg companion were an unlikely team, by galatic standards, but they shared a fierce drive for independence and adventure. When they heard about the lost civilization, and its untapped treasures, they wasted no time to search for it. But Rhyl was a barren, unrelenting planet, covered with endless deserts, and deadly sciroccos. They were prepared for that hardship, but not for the beasts - sandcats of Hell!

This book sounds like it has it all, and it should, because Robert Vardeman is a prolific writer of space operas and at least one Star Trek novel. Just another book on the shelf that I haven't gotten around to reading, I think this would be a good one...it seems the sandcats are telepathic. The best thing I like, of course, is the cover. My gut is telling me that the artist is not Frank Frazetta, but heavily inspired by him. Here's to you, unknown book cover artist!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

It surprises me how quickly I run out of queued up posts, but at least I will not run out of books! I'll be photographing a whole bunch to show off in the coming Saturdays in between dashing to a couple of Thanksgiving dinners this weekend. Today I picked a book that I am quite fond of, Larry Niven's 1971 short story collection...

All The Myriad Ways

This collection contains some of Niven's most famous stories such as "Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex" which makes a clear case for why a relationship between Lois Lane and Superman is ultimately doomed, and one of my favourites, "Wait It Out", about astronauts stranded on Pluto. If I remember right, the cover depicts "Inconstant Moon", as illustrated by Dean Ellis. Niven toys with hard science fiction, humour and speculation in a very carefully crafted way. I really prefer short stories over novels, and not just because they are quicker to read. The format gives the author room to zoom in on a few ideas and a few characters, instead of adding more and more. Filler in books is just as unappetizing as filler in sausages. But I guess really this post is filler too :-D Have a great Thanksgiving if you're in Canada, and enjoy your long weekend if you are American!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Science fiction is regarded as the realm of "adventures in which you'll live in a million could-be years on a thousand may-be worlds" to quote the introduction of the old time radio program X Minus One. What iffing comes naturally to people, so much so that there is a whole genre of alternate history works, cousin to the time travel trope. An author doesn't have to imagine merely historical outcomes - they can have a fantastical element such as...

Baphomet's Meteor

CRUSADERS OF THE ATOM

Are there parallel dimensions in which history turned out differently? Are there other universes with other Earths where the alternates become the realities? Here is an exciting science fiction novel of such an historical by-pass. Told with the color and romance of the Crusades, reminiscent of the work of Harold Lamb and L. Sprague de Camp, what would have happened had the Knights Templars really made the demonic alliance claimed by their royal rivals?

The "demon" was Baphomet - a stranded extra-terrestrial - and his alliance gave the Templars the atomic arms and scientific equipment to create the empire Baphomet needed for his own outer-space motives.

Pierre Barnet, one of the Old World's most popular science fiction authors, has created a fascinating and authentically researched novel of the empire upon which our sun never rose.


First of all, I love this book, just for the delicate scent of its 41 year old paper. It takes me back to my junior high library full of thirty year old (or older still) books. You can bet in 1991 that my homework was written with the most up to date information from the 1967 Book of Knowledge encyclopedias.

But lest I become nostalgic for my teenage self, let's look at how all the elements in the cover painting by Karen Thole are simply awesome. No slick airbrushing here - her painterly strokes bring out the whoomph of the nuclear explosion behind Baphomet. And look, look what she did there by cleverly showing the demon-knight alliance. "Here," Baphomet says, "I give you great power," and the knight is all "Oh yeah, baby! 25 kilotons of TNT, that's what I'm talking about."

The simple contrast of black and white and the pentagram and cross keep this cover from being overcomplicated. Limiting the colour palette was a smart move, but there's almost no room for the title. You can feel the relief of the layout artist as she or he discovers there's just a few millimetres of space between the top of the horn and the author's name. Whew, crisis averted!

Baphomet's Meteor was translated from French by the way. The author, Pierre Barbet, was a pseudonym for a pharmacist (the book notes that he is a "distinguished doctor of pharmacology"). It seems that when he wasn't filling prescriptions, he was prolifically writing space operas. Just proof that those who daydream, "What if I was an author?" can make it happen!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

It's a fact that people love what they know, which explains why most new movies are sequels or remakes and books must have a minimum of three volumes. Nothing is a bigger bummer than missing out on the first book in a series, but maybe when I was in luck when I found...

The Coming of Steeleye

Steeleye - a new Man Challenging an Old Empire

By the 99th Century the Sylvan Empire had achieved several centuries of peaceful repression, known to history as 'The Lull'. But now the end was in sight. The Eumigs, a gentle race of huge Androids from the planet Zrost, were plotting to join the Sylvan Federation. To achieve membership they must first prove that natural life existed on their planet. To produce a child they must have a mother. Thus, after long study, the Eumigs built the beautiful Chaos, to the same specifications as the now-extinct race of Man.

And then there was her mate, Steeleye the magnificent. Steeleye, whose creation was the accidental result of a jealous rivalry. Steeleye, who was nearly nine feet tall, a Man with perfect features, a superb and invincible body and a high-voltage brain. But he was also a superman with a steel eye which could devastate his enemies with its inbuilt atomic heat blaster. All in all, Steeleye was a very dangerous Man...


Wow! The back cover copy goes on and on and I can't pretend to understand any of it. The cover is strangely unappealing - this Steeleye fellow doesn't look very heroic or nice. Steeleye sounds like the creation of an eight year old and the author merely typed away as his kid went on and on: "He's nine feet tall because he's better than everyone, and then he's got this eye, this eye can kill people and go pew pew!" Far be it for me to discourage the imaginations of wee ones, the first of a three book saga, Steeleye actually is more like it was written by an eight year old's oldest brother. It has the feel of fan fiction - check out part of the sample passage inside:

Reaching the space where the guard still stood, watching for his quarry, Steeleye drew up to his full height, and without warning sent a single streak of fire from his head and levelled the Sylvan guard to the ground. In a three step movement he turned and knocked out two other groups of guards, turning again he lifted another in his huge hand, dashing his helpless body against the wall.

Fan fiction authors are aware of a character named Mary Sue who saves the day: the male version is Marty Stu. Steeleye is a whole lot of wish fulfillment in a nine foot tall package. Sadly, I couldn't find much information on Saul Dunn, other than this entry on SF Encyclopedia. He also wrote write another three part saga called Cabal. I assumed that perhaps Dunn had found another calling by the time the 1980s rolled around, it seems he just ran into financial problems instead. The mystery of Saul Dunn is forever ruined for me!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Today's gem is actually from my own collection, and I found it at the diviest, funky smellingest used bookstore ever. Really, there is no getting away from the scent of aging paper, which also takes on any scents in the home. Do used bookstore clerks suffer from "paperback lung"?

I don't really remember growing up in the seventies - just born that bit too late - but I can tell it was an awesome time of experimentation, ideas and technology. Society was not quite where it is today - it's hard to believe some of Mom's stories aren't crazy talk. What? You couldn't get a credit card because you weren't married? No way! Thirty some years later, we're still not a perfect world, but back in 1975 there was...

More Women of Wonder

One of science fiction's great appeals has always been that it both reflects the age in which it was written and forecasts the future. For many years, its women characters appeared only in the traditional roles of damsels in distress, wives and mothers, or occasionally tempters. Today women writers are producing some of the best science fiction - with women protagonists. In this new collection of stories, seven women writers use the literary form of the novelette to explore feminist themes in science fiction.

CL Moore: "Jirel Meets Magic"
Leigh Brackett: "The Lake of the Gone Forever"
Johanna Russ: "The Second Inquisition"
Josephine Saxton: "The Power of Time"
Kate Wilhelm: "The Funeral"
Joan D. Vinge: "Tin Soldier"
Ursula K. Le Guin: "The Day Before the Revolution"

Compared to the other books profiled here each Saturday, the cover and back copy aren't really selling it. The cover has a remarkable sense of constraint. It is a nice change from the anti-gravity boob babes often found on SF covers, but it doesn't really convey excitement and adventure. The back cover copy is so, so serious, almost academic. What are the women of wonder actually doing? Why should I buy this? I actually bought this more for Pamela Sargent's introduction, which is an invaluable history of women and science fiction.

Last night I reread the last three stories, because they are also my favourites, especially "The Funeral". It's a science fiction story tinged with Victorian horror. I still don't quite understand the story, but I do understand the sense of dread that fills young Carla as her own life is beyond her control. The breadth of subjects in this volume make it unique because they're not really about science fiction or fantasy, but oftentimes about human relationships, such as in "Tin Soldier", when a gruff bartender falls in love with a space cadet. Many a SF saga revolves around social movements - crushing an evil empire for example - but Ursula K. Le Guin looks at the "woman behind the revolutionary man" instead.

As writers still continue to fall back on lazy female tropes such as the damsel in distress, creators need constant reminding that women can do a lot more than just look pretty, be strong or need rescuing. To be honest, when I put my book up on Smashwords back in December, I didn’t know if I should use my first name. So I just put a J on the cover. I kind of assumed no one would want to read science fiction written by a woman, otherwise James Tiptree wouldn’t exist as a nom de plume. But everyone has a story to tell and it's not my problem if someone cares more about the gender of my name than the ideas in my head!

70s Saturday Sci-Fi Scans

Today we visit a place that has knocked around in the human head for a long, long time - the utopia! The hard, sad truth is that utopias can't exist; even the word means "no place". However, that hasn't stopped people with very good intentions from giving it a shot for a long, long time with variable success. With the counterculture wave of the sixties and fallout from political corruption in the seventies, it makes sense that Ernest Callenbach came up with...

Ecotopia

Imagine a future that works!

We are in the year 1999. Since 1980, Ecotopia has been isolated, Chinese fashion. Now, finally, an official visitor is admitted. He is Will Weston, crack investigative reporter. Like a modern Gulliver, Will is sometimes horrified, sometimes overwhelmed by strange practices and sensual encounters. He discovers a nation which, in lucky circumstances, has taken charge of its own biological destiny. As Will becomes deeply involved with a sexually forthright Ecotopian woman, ritual war games and a female-dominated "stable-state" government, his confusion of values intensifies and reaches a startling climax. The novel of your future.

I could stare at the cover all day. The slightly off center circle seems to signal that everything is not all right in Ecotopia, not to mention the "square peg in a round hole" metaphor going on. The fleshed out faces of the two women pull off a neat illusion, and the way the hands connect and interplay is very subtle (the yellow fist on the right might be a bit hard to see). The psychological nature of this image almost betrays the back cover copy of sexual forthrightness. Even the miltiant, stencilled title is a giveaway.

How far off 1999 must have seemed in 1975! I was 22 in 1999 and even that seems a long time ago now. I missed out on a lot of the trends that lead up to this novel, but I'm going to guess that Callenbach was spot on in picking trends and societal changes to include in the book, especially since he lived in Berkeley, California. Good writers always have their thumb on the now, even if it seems dated later. Presented in diary format, Will chronicles the day to day life of Ecotopia, its government and industry.

As readers and viewers, we've come to expect that there's always something sinister with perfect societies, otherwise utopias would be boring as heck. But, sometimes these sinister ends play out in real life too. If one can feel a little jaded and disappointed about utopias, we can at least thank them for one of the biggest trends of the past ten years - dystopias!