Tag Archives: birhtday

John Varley

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August 9, today as I write this, is the birhtday of John Varley (1947-2025). We lost him last December.

Varley was never really prolific, but over the course of about half a century, he wrote quite a bit of groundbreaking science fiction. His series about the Eight Worlds and about Anna-Louise Bach are favorites. (BTW, Varley has gone ofn record saying the two series are separate, although they have a lot of similarities.)

I first became aware of Varley when someone left a copy of the January 1979 issue of Analog in my homeroom class. The teacher let me have  it. It contained the first installment of the serialized version of Titan.It was more than a few years before I got my hands on the complete novel.

In the author profile, Varley said his two favorite science fiction writers were Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert. That made an impression on seventh grade me. I looked for books by those two authors.

If I can fit it, I’ll try to read one of the Anna-Louise bach stories later tonight.

Remembering John Collier

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Today, May 3, is the birthday of John Collier (1901-1980). Collier was primarily a short story writer. This is a different person than the artist with the same name. Although he’s faded into obscurity today, he wrote some good fantasy. My favorite is a little called “Evening Primrose”. I had intended to reread it today, but with the semester winding down, I’ve had hardly a free minute. It’s a story I’ll try to revisit sometime later this weeks.

“Evening Primrose” is about a man who hides out in a department store only to discover that there is a whole society of people who live in various businesses and only come out at night. He’s welcomed among them, unlike the woman he falls in love with, who got locked in one night by accident and is now treated as an indentured servant among them.

It’s been years since I read it, but it’s a chilling little horror story. If you haven’t read Collier, check him out. His collected fantasies are available in electronic format.