December 18, as I write this. There are four birthdays I want to mention today. Alfred Bester (1913-1987), Sterling E. Lanier (1927-2007), Michael Moorcok (b. 1939), and Jack C. Haldeman II (1941-2002). Continue reading
“Hell is Forever”
Unknown Worlds, August 1942
Most recently reprinted in Redemolished.
Alfred Bester’s birthday was a few days ago. I decided to reread his novella “Hell is Forever” to mark the occasion. Or rather, reread. I’d first read it in the collection Starlight: The Great Short Fiction of Alfred Bester way back in 8th grade. I didn’t like the story at the time, but since that was mumblety-mumble years ago, I thought I would give it another try.
I still didn’t care much for it.
The story opens in a bomb shelter in the basement of a manor house during the Blitz. The six people in the basement live to experience new things, and are a pretty jaded group. In the opening scene, they’re putting on a play one of them has written for the benefit of their hostess. During the play, one of the characters summons up a demon, which gets loose. The hostess, who is grossly obese and not in the best of health, dies of a heat attack.
Turns out that was the intention of the other five all along, and the demon wasn’t real. Except he was. Oh, not the actor done up to look like a demon, but the real one who shows up after the hostess dies. He makes a deal with the group, pass through a shimmering wall of flame where the exit used to be and they will each enter a world in which the individual’s greatest desire will be realized. Which sounds like a good deal. The husband of a married couple wants to stay married, while his wife wants to kill him. The artist is in love with a woman who often models for him, but she’s frigid and wants nothing to do with him. Continue reading
Today is December 18, and I want to point out three birthdays of significance. Because today is going to be one of those days, at least schedule-wise, this will be short.
Alfred Bester (b. 1913) is better known as a science fiction writer, but he did publish some stories in Unknown, so I’ll use that as an excuse to include him here rather than at Futures Past and Present. Besides, I have another post for FPaP this evening if I can get to it. Bester is remembered primarily for the novels The Stars My Destination (which I haven’t read yet) and The Demolished Man (which is awesome). Bester also wrote some really good short fiction, especially “Fondly Fahrenheit“.
Of the three authors whose birthdays I’m mentioning today, Sterling E. Lanier (b. 1927) is probably the most unfamiliar to modern writers. There’s been some interest in his apocalyptic sf novel Hiero’s Journey online lately. I’ve not read that one or its sequel. I have read some of the Brigadier Ffellowes stories, which are tall tale club style stories. They are currently available in electronic form, although the price ($9.99) is a bit high in my opinion.
And finally we come to the writer born today who has cast the longest shadow across the genre, Michael Moorcock (b. 1939). I’m not sure what I can say about Moorcock that others haven’t said, and said better. He’s still with us, and I’m glad to have had the privilege to have met him a few times. I’ve not read a great deal of his work, but that’s partly because he’s so prolific.
I’m not sure which of these writers I’ll read something by today. Like I said, it’s going to be busy. But I’ll try to work one of them in and report back.
When I was growing up, we lived in several towns, and one of those was Wichita Falls. There was a small radio station there that used to air The CBS Radio Mystery Theater after the 10:00 p.m. news. I would lie awake for the next hour listening to it when I was supposed to be sleeping. Some nights I would continue to lie awake long after the show ended if it was a scary episode (there were plenty of those). The show had a consistently high quality and was produced by producer of the old Inner Sanctum show from a few decades earlier. It even had the same creaking door. Henry Slesar and Alfred Bester both wrote scripts, although Bester only wrote for a year. He had gone on to other things by the time I started listening.
Other than some really low quality cassettes I used to record a few episodes of the show, I haven’t heard The CBS Radio Mystery Theater since 1980, when we moved to another part of the state.
Now all 1399 episodes are available online for free. I’ve already identified several favorites I want to hear again, and I’m trying to figure out the titles for several more. While I don’t recall any sword and sorcery, there were enough horror, suspense, and noir stories that I think some of you might be interested in listening. You can find them here. And thanks to James Reasoner for posting a notice about this on his blog.