Retro Hugos: “Desertion” by Clifford D. Simak

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This is the last post for the short story nominees on this year’s Retro Hugo ballot. “Desertion” was first published in the November 1944 issue of Astounding. It was later incorporated into City.  It is currently available in that book (in a slightly revised form) and in Earth for Inspiration in its original form.

“Desertion” is the fourth story in the City series.  I’ve looked at the first and second as they are both on the final ballot for the Retro Hugos. The third, “Census”, isn’t on the ballot, but I’ll talk about it when I review City later in the year.

“Desertion” is a brief story that packs a punch. Just so you know, there will be spoilers. Continue reading →

Retro Hugos: “Huddling Place” by Clifford D. Simak

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I honestly haven’t been ignoring these Retro Hugo posts.  I’ve just been swamped. Trying to coordinate labs for four different courses plus teach a lecture, all in online format, is a bit time consuming. I’ve been making videos of myself lecturing to empty rooms or collecting data for labs and posting the videos to YouTube. (No, I won’t provide links.) I read this story over a week ago. I’ve just been too brain dead to get it written. Since Worldcon is in two weeks, I doubt I’ll get all of the nominees read. But I’m going to give it the ol’ college try.

“Huddling Place” is the second story that made up the mosaic novel City. It was first published in the July 1944 issue of Astounding. It is currently available in City or No Life of Their Own.

The tale concerns Jerome A. Webster, now the patriarch of the Webster family following the death of his father. There’s not much of a family left. Just he and his son. A once proud and successful line is dying, with only their faithful robot servants to remember their achievements within a few more years.

Jerome has noticed something. Agoraphobia or something very much like it is starting to spread among mankind. It seems to hit people around middle age, a desire to stay home and not venture out. Continue reading →

Cave’s “Black Gargoyle”

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Pulpster Hugh B. Cave (1910-2004)  was born on this date, July 11. Cave wrote for a variety of pulps in the 1930s, including Black Mask and Weird Tales. He was prolific enough that he used multiple pen names, the most famous being Justin Case. He was a war correspondent during WWII. After the war he bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica. During this period his writing shifted from the pulps, which were fast on their way out, to writing for the slicks, primarily what would be called “women’s fiction” today and was considered romance at the time.

Karl Edward Wagner’s Carcosa published some of Cave’s stories from the horror and fantasy in Murgunstrumm and Others in the 1970’s. This opened the door to him returning to weird fiction. Cave was experiencing something of a renaissance in the early 2000’s, with collections of his pulp stories from Fedogan and Bremer and Ash-Tree Press, among others, in addition to a steady output of novels. He passed away shortly after his autobiography, Cave of a Thousand Tales, was published.

For his birthday, I read “The Black Gargoyle”. It was the cover story for the March 1934 issue of Weird Tales.   It is available in the collection of the same name. Continue reading →

Belated Birthday Wishes for Glen Cook

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Glen Cook

I’m not sure how I missed it, but yesterday, July 9, was the birthday of Glen Cook (b. 1944). His books include the Black Company series, the Dread Empire Series, and the Garrett, PI series.

Back when Conestoga was an active convention, and held at a time of year I could attend, he was always there. He had a booth in the dealer’s room, right on the left as you walked in the door. He was always friendly and approachable and ready to sign some books. I ended up with signed copies of most everything that was in print at the time.  Talking with him, buying books from him, and listening to what he had to say on panels was one of the highlights of the convention each year.

His series of novels about the Black Company, a band of mercenaries caught in a war between two evil sorcerers, was one of the first grimdark fantasies. I loved it. In fact, I’m reading one of the later ones, She Is the Darkness, right now.

If you’ve not read Cook, you should really give him a try. Start with, what else, The Black Company.

W. C. Morrow

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W. C. Morrow (1854-1923) was born on this date, July 7.  At one time a protege of Ambrose Bierce, Morrow wrote a handful of horror stories. The one he is best remembered for is “His Unconquerable Enemy”.

I remember the first time I read it: sitting in the middle of a gravel road out in the country.

Perhaps I should explain that. Continue reading →

A Pair by Price

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E. Hoffman Price

Pulpster E. Hoffman Price (1898-1998) was born on this date, July 3. Hoffman wrote in multiple genres. Wildside Press has published multiple Megapacks of his work. We’ll look at two stories from The 11th Golden Age of Weird Fiction Megapack: E. Hoffman Price.

Before I get to the stories, I want to gloat for a bit. Price was one of the authors published by Carcosa Press back in the 1970s.  Far Lands, Other Days was one of four published before Carcosa folded.

L. Sprague de Camp moved to Plano, a suburb of Dallas, a few years before he died. Upon his death, many of his books ended up in a the flagship location of Half Price Books. This was a big deal that was promoted by the bookstore.

Of course I went.  Most of the really desirable items were locked under glass, such as volumes inscribed to de Camp by people like Heinlein. Others, books that de Camp had owned, many with a signed bookplate, were on a set of shelves. Among them was a copy of Far Lands, Other Days. I had been wanting a copy and grabbed it.

After I got it home (I paid for it.), I was looking through it a bit more carefully than I had in the store and saw something I’d missed. The employee who had processed and priced the book had missed it, too. Understandable since it wasn’t on the title page. But there was a full page inscription to de Camp signed by Price. Continue reading →

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 →