Today (april 14) is the birthday of two writers, one whose work I really like (Jack McDevitt) and the other I’ve never been a fan of (James Branch Cabell). I’ll start with the latter, since he was born first. Continue reading
Henry Kuttner (1915-1958) was born today, May 5. He’s been my favorite science fcition and fantasy writer ever since I read “Mimsy were the Borogoves” in The Best of Henry Kuttner the summer before I started high high school.
I was going to read and review Lands of the Earthquake (thanks for sending me a copy, Deuce), but I’ve been on the road with one of the dayjobs most of the past week. It took me all week to read “The Brood of Bubastis” for the Robert Bloch post, and I was falling asleep over the keyboard as I wrote it. So, obviously, I didn’t get to it. I’ll try to read it and post something in the next few months. Continue reading
For Robert Bloch’s birthday, I’m going to spend a few minutes looking at one of his early short stories, “The Brood of Bubastis”. It was published in the March 1937 issue of Weird Tales. It’s one of Bloch’s early Lovecraftian telas. That’s the cover to the right. Another amazing Margaret Brundage cover.
Bloch was born on April 5, 1917 and passed away in 1994. We was a prolific author in the horror, fantasy, mystery, and science fiction fields.
“The Brood of Bubastis” is your typical Lovecraft plot, although it’s better executed than most. Here’s the setup. Continue reading
One of the brightest stars of the pre-Campbell pulp era was Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). His aliens were truly alien, and his stories often had a sense of whimsey to them that is missing in much of today’s fiction. He helped to break the mold of stories that were gadget stories with cardboard characters.
In other words, reading him was fun.
He could be serious. “Pygmalion’s Spactacles” comes to mind as an example. He was just beginning to stretc h himself as a writer when he died of cancer. Much of what he was writing at the end of his career was romance.
Weinbaum’s style is a little dated now, but his work is still enjoyable.
Today, March 30, marks the birthday of two writers whose work deserves to stay in print, Chad Oliver (1928-1993) and Dennis Etchison (1943-2019). Oliver wrote science fiction and Etchison horror, but interstingly enough, both had connections to what has become known as the California school. Continue reading
Today, March 23, is the birthday of H. Beam Piper (1904-1964). Piper was one of John W. Campbell’s stable of authors from the late 1940s until his death.
Piper wrote two major series. The first is the Paratime Police, consisting of a collection of shorter works (collected in Paratime!) and the novel Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen. As you can probably tell from the series title, it concerns an organization dedicated to preserving the timeline across multiple dimensions.
The seond series is sometimes called the Terro-Human Future History. This series contains much of Piper’s best known works, including the Fuzzy books and the novel Space Viking, as well as a few lesser-known novels and a number of shorter works. It was by reading Piper when I was in high school, that I really got interested in knowing more history.
Piper wasn’t the only author who ignited my interest in history. The other was Poul Anderson. Continue reading
March 14 (today as I write this) is the birthday of Algernon Blackwood (q869-1951), one of the greatest practitioners of the weird tale. H. P. Lovecraft considered him to be one of the four great living masters of the weird tale. The other three were Arthur Machen, M. R. James, and Lord Dunsay.
It’s been a while (years) since I read any of his work, and I don’t think I’ve read more than two stories. Those stories are “The Willows” and “The Wendigo”.
My memroy is vauge on the details, but I really liked both of them. Of the two, I remember “The Willows” the best. It concerns a pair of men on a canoe trip who spend the night on an island in the middle of a river. I remember there was a lot of wind, and the willows on the island seemed to move.
My memory of “The Wendigo” is a little fuzzier. I think I read it a couple of years before I read “The Willows”. It’s about a some men who are either hunting for fishing in the wilds of Canada (I think) and experience some strange things.
I apologize for the vagueness of these descriptions. Like I said, it’s been a few years. If I’ve gotten any of those details wrong, I’m sure somone will correct me in the comments, and that would be appreciated. I’d like to reread both of those stories if I can work them in. Finding time to write this week, much less read, has been a challenge, and it looks like the next few weeks are going to not be much better.
So what other stories by Blackwood should I read? His works are readily available in a variety of formats, from electronic editions to cheap (relatively speaking) paperbacks to high-end collectible volumes.
March 12 is the birthday of Harry Harrison (1925-2012). Harrison was a major figure in the field while he was alive. Sadly, he has fallen into obscurity these days.
He wrote a number of science fiction series, some serious, some humorous and satirical. In addition to being a prolific writer, he was an accomplished editor. Among his editorial credits are The Best SF, coedited with Brian Aldiss (1967-1975), the original anthology series Nova (four volumes, 1971-1974), The Astounding-Analog Reader (two volumes, coedited with Brian Aldiss), and Astounding: the John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology. He also briefly edited Amazing Stories and Fantastic in the late 1960s. Continue reading
March 11 is the birthday of three science fiction writers whose works I’ve enjoyed. They are F. M. Busby (1921-2005), Christopher Anvil (1925-2009), and Douglas Adams (1952-2001). Let’s take a closer look at each of them. Continue reading
Marvin Kaye (1938=2021) was born on this date, March 10. In observance, I’m going to look at some (but not all) of his anthologies. I’ll not be discussing his tenure as editor of H. P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror or Weird Tales. I’m furthermore going to limit most of my remarks to mostly the anthologies that had Science Fiction Book Club editions in the 1980s and 1990s.
Kaye’s first anthology was a paperback book with the title of Fiends and Creatures in 1975. It was quickly followed by a second paperback anthology entitled Brother Theodore’s Chamber of Horrors, also in 1975.
Then nothing until 1981, when Ghosts was published. Continue reading