As I mentioned in my previous post, today (January 13) is the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961).
I’m not sure what I can say about Smith that hasn’t been said, and said better, by someone else. This isn’t the first post I’ve made about Smith.
I havne’t read anything by him in a while, so I’m not going to try and review any of his stories. But I do want to acknowledge his birthday
So here goes. Continue reading
Today, January 13, is the birthday of both Ron Goulart (1933-2022) and Roger Elwood (1943-2007). It’s also Clark Ashton Smith’s birthday, but I’ll devote a separate post to him. Continue reading
Today is January 3. It’s the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). His shadow over the field of fantasy is arguably the longest of any author. Many writers have written in imitation of him (think early Terry Brooks) or in reguttal to him. (Michael Moorcock and George R. R. Martin).
Tolkien drew on northern European mythology in crafting his worlds. That topic alone is worth multiple dissertations, and I’m not going to try to dwell on it in any great scholoarly depth.
Instead, I want make some general observations. Continue reading
This is the second birthday post for today. It’s on Charles Beaumont (1929-1967), if you couldn’t tell from the title. The first birthday post was on Isaac Asimov.
Beaumont couldn’t have been more different than Asimov. Where Asimov focused on science, often at the expense of the humanity of his characters (it’s been said), Beuamont was a master at crafting believable, individual characters. But then Asimov wrote science fiction, whereas Beaumont primarily wrote fantasy.
Beaumont was a protege of Ray Bradbury, something I’ve commented on before. That’s not to say Beaumont was inferior to Bradbury. He wasn’t, although he was to soem extent a different kind of writer. For a compasrison of two stories written by Beaumont and Bradbury from the same prompt, see this post.
What I want to focus on today is Beaumont as short fiction writer. Continue reading
Today is January 2, which is the birthday of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). It’s the first of two birthday posts for this date. The other is Charles Beaumont.
Asimov needs no introduction, I’m sure. Some of his work is still in print, primarily the Foundation books (at least the early ones although I’m not sure about the later ones) and some of the robot stories. His other short fiction, both science fiction and mysteries, as well as his later science fiction novels that are stand-alones haven’t fared so well.
The Foundation series, along with some associated novels (The Stars LIke Dust, Pebble in the Sky, and The Currents of Space) are set in the far future. The robot stories were relatively near future at the time, a future that is now in our past. Not all of the robot stories directly connected to the main series which concerned scientist Susan Calvin. (Note to self: write an essay about Asimov’s choice of a female scientist as protagonist in the early forties.) Then, there were the novels featuring R. Daneel Olivaw, which were set a little further in the future and were a blend of detective and science fiction.
In the last few years of his life, Asimov connected the two series, bridging the near future Susan Calvin and R. Daneel Olivaw with the Foundation series. The wisdom of this decision could be open to question, but it’s been so long since I read some of those works, that I’ll refrain from comment.
He also cowrote some prequels to the Foundation series with some of the major science fiction writers of the early nineties. I’ve not read them and won’t mention them further in this post.
What I’d like to focus on here are the robot stories.
They were first collected in 1950 in I, Robot which was published by Gnome Press. That’s the cover above. Some of them, especially the earlier stories in the book, are rather dated and don’t hold up well. Susan Calvin isn’t a character in the first few storeis. Once she makes an appearance, though, the quality increases. Remember, these are some of Asimov’s earliest stories. He was still learning his craft. Continue reading
As I’m writing this, it is December 18. I just did a Christmas ghost story post. I usually don’t do two posts a day. Buy there were enough birthdays, I wanted to mention some of them. Murphy has been with me this week, and I’ve not gotten as many posts done as I had intended. So to make up for the derth of posts, here are some birthdays of authors I like and recccomend. Continue reading
Today is December 7, which is the birthday of Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). I was planning on reading and reviewing her novel The Starmen of Llyrdis. I read it in high school and haven’t reread it since, although I’ve planned on rereading it for the last few years.
Unfortunately, I’m in the middle of final exams and only got one -third of the way through the book. I’ll do a detailed review when i get a chance to finisht he book.
The Starmen of Llyrdis was originally published in the March 1951 issue of Startling Stories.
The plot and themes are familiar to regular readers of Brackett’s work. The loner who doesn’t fit but is looking for a place to belong is at the core of the novel.
This book isn’t set in the same solar system as most of her work up to this time. The solar system of Eric John Stark, Loreli of the Red Mist, and the ancient cities of Mars. At least, if it is, there’s no evidence of it that I’ve seen so far. The story concerns a galactic civilization.
I said I read this book in high school. I won’t say how many decades ago that was. I have very little memory of the story. I just know I enjoyed it at the time.
The Starmen of Llyrdis was one of the last long pieces of scieince fiction Brackett would write. There were the Skaith novels in th e seventies, as well as The Long Tomorrow, which was set here on Earth.
Brackett was’t idle, though. She was busy writing screenplays for such films as Rio Bravo. That one starred an obscure actor named John Wayne. Perhaps you’ve heard of him.
I’ll finish the book as soon as I get finals out of the way. I’ve got one set to grade and a second set to write and grade. That will all be done by the end of the week.
Today, November 26, is the birthday of Frederik Pohl (1919-2013). Pohl was many things in science fiction. Futurian. Writer. Editor. Collaborator (with other writers, not out countires enemies), Agent.
Keeping with the theme from yesterday, Pohl, like Anderson, was once one of the biggest names in science fiction. While not as prolific as Anderson (who AFAIK, was never an editor or agent), Pohl had a consistent work ethic and wrote pretty much up unitl his death.
Anderson wrote in the hard sciences, while Pohl tended to write more in the social sciences and satire. He could do rigor when he wanted to, though.
I did manage to read one of his stories today. “The Martian in the Attic” originally appeared in the July 1960 issue of IF, and it has onlhy been reprinted twice in english. First in the collection Turn Left at Thursday and in The Best of Frederik Pohl, which is where I read it. Continue reading
Today, November 25, is the 99th birthday of Poul Anderson (1926-2001). Anderson was once a major name in both science fiction and fantasy. Today, he is out of print and rapidly fading into obscurity.
He’s one of my favorites. I’ve not read anywhere near all of his works. There are a number I’ve not read.
I’ve not had time to read anything of his for this post. I try to do that for birthday posts, but I’m wrapping up a rough semester.
So I want to ramble or rant or ruminate, not sure which it will be, on something that’s been on my mind off and on for the last few months.
And that’s publishing and how one author is remembered and others are forgotten. This is not soemthing that is limited to the literature of the fantastic. Continue reading
Today is August 20, the birthday of H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937). It’s also my mother-in-law’s birthday, but that’s just a coincidence, I’m sure. Nothing nefarious about that at all.
I’ve spent a lot of time in a car over the last few years, and I’ve listened to a number of audio books. One of those was the complete works of Lovecraft. It was quite a good listening experience. This particular audio book was produced by the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society. The production values are top notch. I’m partly through his collaborations, also produced byt he HPLHS. I took a break to listen to the March Upcountry series by David Weber and Jonh Ringo (highly recommended.)
There are two other birthdays of note today, as well. Continue reading