Author Archives: Keith West

We Need a Cold Wind in July

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Unfortunately the only wind we have around here is hot. Which is too bad, because I am getting tired of the triple digit days. They’re killing my garden.

So if I can’t have the real thing, at least I can have a substitute. Today, July 2, marks the birth of Hannes Bok (1914-1964) and Craig Shaw Gardner (b. 1949). I’m going to hold off looking at Bok because I hope to take a closer look at some of his novels at a later date.

Craig Shaw Gardner

Craig Shaw Gardner is still alive, AFAIK, but he his productivity has dropped off in recent years. He doesn’t have an active website. The one I found listed for him in multiple places isn’t him. Gardner is best known for writing humorous fantasy novels in the 1980s. His short fiction, however, tends to be horror.

A Cold Wind in July was originally published as part of the Necon Classic Horror series; it was number 16. It is currently available in ebook for $3.99. Continue reading →

In the Room with A. M. Burrage

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A. M. Burrage (1889-1956) was born on this date, July 1. Burrage was a prolific author of ghost stories, including tales of the occult detective Francis Chard.

Ash-Tree Press published Burrage’s complete (I think) ghost stories in the late 1990’s. Getting  your hands on any of them today will cost you a pretty farthing. Much of Ash-Tree’s catalogue was reissued in electronic format. Sadly the Burrage volumes weren’t.  Or rather they were, but Ash-Tree appears to have lost the rights. Burrage’s work is available in electronic, print, and audio editions from another publisher, but I not sure all of his stories are. One of the ones I read for this post, “The Oak Saplings”, doesn’t appear to be, although there are some listed in the ISFDB but the contents are listed. A tale of two murdered lovers, it’s a chilling story. I read it and “Someone in the Room” in the Ash-Tree ebook Someone in the Room and Other Stories.

“Someone in the Room” is in print and is the story of a professional poor relation, meaning the central character is a woman who takes advantage of wealthier relatives and makes the most of their hospitality. Where I come from we call these people bums.  Continue reading →

Enjoying Some Non-Conan Howard

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The Dark Man
Robert E. Howard
Lancer Paperbacks
Original Price $0.95

So earlier this month I was in the mood for some Robert E. Howard. I am always in the mood for Howard at this time of year. It has to do with Howard Days.  (This was about a week before the Fort McKavett excursion.)

The local comic shop has part of a wall devoted to used paperbacks, and they usually have about a dozen or more Robert E. Howard titles.  I haven’t bought many there because whatever the book, I usually either have a copy or have all the stories in other books.

But I didn’t have a copy of the The Dark Man. The book was in almost pristine conditions. For three bucks, I couldn’t pass it up. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “I, Rocket” by Ray Bradbury

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“I, Rocket” first appeared in the May 1944 issue of Amazing Stories.  It is available in a replica edition.

The early 1940s were a productive time for Bradbury. He had a number of stories published in the science fiction pulps and in Weird Tales. Not all of these stories were reprinted in Bradbury’s collections during his lifetime. If you are interested in these stories, the Kent State University Press is slowly (and I mean slowly) publishing what is supposed to be an eight volume set of The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury: A Critical Edition.  I came across a remaindered copy of the first volume at a Half Price Books a few years ago for a little under twenty bucks.  For Father’s Day this year, I bought myself the second and third volumes. The difference in price was nontrivial.

“I, Rocket” is in the first volume, although I read it in the collection Forever and the Earth, which was published by PS Publishing about 15 years ago. This year is the centennial of Bradbury’s birth, and I’ll be looking at some of these stories closer to his birthday.

But I digress. Let’s talk about “I, Rocket”. Continue reading →

Ambrose Bierce’s Birthday, with a Guest Appearance by Robert E. Howard

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What follows is a guest post from John Bullard. – KW

Ambrose Bierce

Today, June 24th, is the birthday of writer, reporter, and Civil War veteran, Ambrose Bierce. He became famous for his reporting, his fiction writing and his satires. He disappeared while down in Mexico covering the Mexican Revolution around 1914. His work is readily available. An online site that has most of his fiction, including all of the stories mentioned in this piece, and some of his non-fiction is here:

http://www.ambrosebierce.org/works.html

So, why on Bierce’s birthday am I going to talk as much about Robert E. Howard as the birthday boy? Simple: Ambrose Bierce had a big influence on some of Howard’s weird western stories. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “And the Gods Laughed” by Fredric Brown

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So the next few Retro Hugo posts are going to be focusing on the short stories that I haven’t already looked at.  I covered “Far Centaurus” for A. E. van Vogt’s birthday, and a scheduling slip-up resulting in my post on “The Wedge” by Isaac Asimov going live before I finished the novelettes.

Today we’re looking at “And the Gods Laughed” by Fredric Brown. It was first published in the Spring 1944 issue of Planet Stories.  It is currently available in hardcover in From These Ashes: The Complete Short SF of Fredric Brown from NESFA Press and in electronic format in The Second Fredric Brown Megapack from Wildside Press.

Planet stories is remembered today as a pulp with lots of sword and planet tales and space opera from the likes of Leigh Brackett and Poul Anderson, full of exotic adventure. But it also published more laid back stories as well, albeit usually at shorter lengths.

“And the Gods Laughed” is one of these. Continue reading →

Haggard and Quatermain

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Sir H. Rider Haggard

Today, June 22, marks the birth of Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856-1925). Haggard was one of the premier adventure writers of the 19th Century. Best known for his character Allan Quatermain, H. Rider Haggard wrote many other novels.

His work has has a major influence on many writers, from his friend and contemporary Rudyard Kipling to such fantasy giants as Robert E. Howard.

These days he’s fallen out of favor because he wasn’t woke enough. I don’t care.  I’m smart enough to not judge people from previous centuries by today’s shifting standards. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: Final Thoughts on the Novelettes

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The Retro Hugo nominees for best novelette are (links are to reviews):

  • “The Big and the Little”, Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction 8/44)
  • “Arena”, Fredric Brown (Astounding Science Fiction 6/44)
  • “No Woman Born”, C.L. Moore (Astounding Science Fiction 12/44)
  • “The Children’s Hour”, Lawrence O’Donnell (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science Fiction 3/44)
  • “When the Bough Breaks”, Lewis Padgett (C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner) (Astounding Science Fiction 11/44)
  • “City”, Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction 5/44)

All of these stories are strong contenders. There isn’t a bad one in the bunch. but they aren’t all equal. With the exception of “Whent he Bough Breaks” and “The Children’s Hour”, I’ve not read any of them since high school. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “The Wedge” by Issac Asimov

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“The Wedge” was originally published in the October 1944 issue of Astounding.  It’s a Foundation story and was reprinted as “The Traders” when the stories were collected in book form. It was published after “The Big and the Little” but placed before that story (as “The Merchant Princes”).

I thought this was a fairly weak story. A trader gets an emergency message instructing him to go to a particular planet where another trader has gotten himself in trouble with the local potentate.

The trader who is in trouble is actually an agent of the Foundation, and the protagonist knows this. The Foundation has been trying to gain influence and power two ways. With missionaries of the religion the Foundation has set up and through agents who act as traders.

The agent in trouble has violated a ban on nuclear power.  Many of the star systems have reverted to a pre-atomic level of technology since the Empire pulled back from the edge of the galaxy.

The trader uses entrapment to bring about a a change in the policy by blackmailing his main opponent. The story was worked out logically and held my interest, but it is the weakest of the Retro Hugo stories I’ve read so far.

Retro Hugos: “Trog” by Murray Leinster

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Today, June 16, is the birthday of Murray Leinster (1896-1975).  I was going to cover the novellas on the Retro Hugo ballot after I read the short stories, but with Leinster’s birthday today, I’m going to cover this one.

Leinster was a prolific author in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s. He won the Hugo Award in 1956 for “Exploration Team”. At his best, Leinster had few peers. He was the author of such classics as “First Contact” and “Sidewise in Time”, for which the Sidewise Award is named. He anticipated the internet in “A Logic Named Joe”. I wonder if Al Gore read that one before he invented the internet.

“Trog” appeared in the June 1944 issue of Astounding. It has never been reprinted. Continue reading →