R. A. Lafferty’s “The Six Fingers of Time”

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Today is November 7, and it is the birth day of Raphael Aloysius Lafferty (1914-2002). Lafferty was one of the most unique voices in the field of science fiction. Centipede Press is slowly releasing his collected short fiction in nice, matching hardcover editions. Wildside Press has published some of his work in their Megapack series, the ebook collections they do.

I managed to read “The Six Fingers of Time” today in The R. A. Lafferty Fantastic Megapack.

Despite the title, it is not a time travel story. Rather it is the tale of a man who discovers he has the ability to shift himself so thata his sense of time stay normal but he is really moving much faster than everyone around him. They seem frozen, as though they were statures.

Then he meets another man, one whose face he can never see. Lafferty implies this man might be a demon. They are going to make him an offer once he learns to control his abiity and use it to learn anumber of other things.

Unlike a typical deal with the devil story, he doesn’t take the deal.

Things still don’t work out well for him.

It’s been a number of years since I read Lafferty. He was primarily a short story writer. He did write novels. Past Master won the Hugo Award. I read it in high school. It was…different. I think I woujld have a greater appreciation for the book if I read it today. I’ve dipped into a few of his collections over the years. I’ve found him to be unpredictable. Lafferty is going to be one of those writers I think will always have a small following. He had a unique voice and is worth reading.

Ed Gorman

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Today is November 2, the birthday of Ed Gorman (1941-2016). Gorman mostly wrote in the mystery and dark suspense genres, but he also wrote fantasy and science fiction, usually under the name Daniel Ransom.

Gorman wrote at short lengths as well as novels. For an excellent sampling of his shorter dark fantasy stories, check out the collection The Dark Fantastic. As much as I like his novels, I like his shorter work even better.

Gorman wrote series novels as well as stand-alones. His best-known series is probably the Sam McCain novels. They start at the end of the nineteen fifties and end in the sixties. All of the titles are song titles from the fifties and sixties.

My personal favorite series, though, are the four Robert Payne books. They are more traditional detective stories than the McCain books.

If you haven’t read Gorman, check him out.

Lansdale and Williams

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Today, October 28, is the birthday of Joe Lansdale (b. 1951) and Walter Jon Williams. These birthday posts are usually reserved for people who are no longer with us. Relax. Both of these men are still with us and still writing.

I’m making an exception because I’ve met both Lansdale and Williams multiple times. Lansdale at science fiction conventions in Texas and Oklahoma. Williams in Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.

I enjoy the wriing of both, although I’ve not been the target audience for everything Joe has written. They are both open and friendly. They are always appproachable at their public appearances. The times I’ve seen both of them, whether on panels, in the dealer’s room, or sitting around talking in a hotel lobby or con suite, have always been enjoyable.

I wish them both a very Happy Birthday.

RIP, Walter Koenig

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Actor Wlater Koenig (1936-2026) has died. He passed away at his home in California.

He played Chekov on the original Star Trek. That will probably be the role for which he will be best remembered. He did an excellent job in that role.

But my favorite character that he played was Alfred Bester on Babylon 5. His character was the head of the Psy Corps, the organization that ruled, or tried to, all telepaths. That’s the character he is portraying int he picture.

The name is, of course, an homage to science fiction writer Alfred Bester, whose classic novel, The Demolished Man, dealt with telepaths. Koenig’s character on B5 was a villain. There was none of the silliness of Chekov’s character. The episodes featuring Koenig were some of the strongest in Babylon 5‘s run.

By all accounts, Koenig was a wonderful human being.

Adventures Fantastic extends condolences to Walter Koenig’s family and many fans.

Mark Clifton’s “Clerical Error”

Ghost Stories

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This was a short week at the universtiy, Thursday adn Friday being Fall Break. That meant I didn’t spend those days in a car. Although I did do some driving for a few hours today.

Rather than continue with the next auciobook in the Fleet of Worlds series, I have been listening to The Big Book of Ghost Stories edited by Otto Penzler. It’s been my experience that any anthology Pnzler is involved in will be a good one.

I haven’t gotten very far into it. It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of about forty hours. I’m familair with some of the stories I’ve heard so far, such as “The Phantom Rickshaw” by Rudyard Kipling and “How Fear Departed From the Long Gallery” by E. F. Benson, “At My Back I Always Hear” by Davide Morrell, and “August Heat” by W. F. Hzrvey. “Thing of Darkness” by G. G. Pendarves was what I listened to today. There are plenty of stories to go, and I’ll break the listening up into segments.

But with Halloween just over a week away, I thought this would be an appropriate thing to listen to until the end of the month. I’ll liten to more of them around Christmas.

Who are your favorite ghost story writers?

What’s Up with the ISFDB?

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It’s late, and I am not up to writing fiction tonight. On nights like this, when I want to keep my writing streak up, I go to the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base. If there is any news in the science fiction/fantasy/mystery/horror fields, I might do a post. Otherwise, if there is a birthday of someone I’m familiar with, especially if they were prominent in the field, l do a birthday post.

I check the ISFDB pretty much every day or every other day. For the last couple of days, it hasn’t been online. I get a message saying the web server is down. Does anyone know what’s up with that? I don’t have any contacts with it.

Brief Update

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Things have been slow lately. At least they feel that way. It could be because I gave an exam last week, graded over the weekend, and passed the exams back yesterday and today. We have a fall break this year, which will be Thursday and Friday. I’m hoping to get caught up on other grading between class and a committee meeting tomorrow afternoon.

As for what I’ll be doing over the break, I’ll try to get some writing and reading done. We got a good rain last week, and now things are green again. I’ll mow one of the days I’m home in the afternoon. I’ll still be working at the post office in the morning.

The temperature seems to have settled in to something more comfortable. I’ve been listening to ghost stories on audiobook while driving back and forth to the university. Trying to get in the mood for Halloween and Christmas.

What’s up in your world?

Schmitz, Tubb, Puzo, and Hunter

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Today is October 15. It is the birthday of James H. Schmitz (1911-1981), E. C. Tubb (1919-2010), Mario Puzo (1920-1999), and Evan Hunter (1926-2005). Here’s a brief bit about each.

James H. Schmitz wrote other kinds of science fiction, but mostly he wrote space opera. The bulk of his stories were set in The Hub, what human space is called. The main character was Telzy Amberdon, and the second most used character was Trigger Argee. There were other recurring characters, and they tended to show up in each other’s stories. That’s the Frak Kelly Freas cover of The Lion Game, minus the wording.

The Hub stories are a lot of fun. About twenty-five years ago, Baen (finally!) collected nearly all of Schmitz’s fiction. Isaid finally, becaue I had been trying to find copies of some of the earlier collections for years. Copies should be available online for reasonable prices. If you haven’t read Schnmitz, check him out.

E. C. Tubb wrote other things, but he will always be remembered as t he creator of Dumarest of Terra. The premise is fairly stragiht forward. Dumarest is searching for the planet of his birth, a place called Earth, which is now a legend. The series ran for thirty-one volumes. In each book, Dumarest gets a little more information.

Of course, there is an organization opposing him. I read the first one years ago, liked it, and have collected all but one or two. I want to fill in the gaps and then start the series, reading straight through.

Mario Puzo wrote about the intersection of Italian life and the Mafia. He burst onto the scene with The Godfather. Although he wasn’t prolific, he left his mark on literary crime novels.

Evan Hunter is better known as Ed McBain. Neither of those was his real name. That would be Salvatore Albert Lombino. It was under the Hunter byline that he wrote The Blackboard Jungle, based on his experience teaching in a New York vocatioinal high school. That book was the basis of a highly controversial film in 1954. Hunter also wrote a little science fiction under that name. He is best known, however, under the Ed McBain name as the author of the 87th Precint police procedurals. They have a central cast, but the protagonist rotates from one book to another. While there are changes in the characters’ lives, the plot are mostly stand-alone and can be read in any order.

Returning to Niven’s Known Space

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In a recent post, I mentioned That I was listening to the audio books of the Fleet of Worlds sereis by Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner. I’ve got about an hour left in the third book, Destoryer of Worlds. It relies heavily on the events in Protector.

I’ve read that one twice, once in high school and most recently, seven years ago. While I remember a lot of it, some of the details have faded.

Next week is fall break at the university, so I won’t be going down but three days. I’ll listen to some ghost stories or something and take a break from the series before listening to the fourth and fifth audiobooks. In the meantime, I’m going to reread most of the Known Space stories that take place before the events in the audiobooks.

t has been good to remember why I fell in love with Niven’s universe as a teenager. I mioght post some thoughts here as I read along. I’m probably not going to reread the Gil “the Arm” Hamilton stories just yet since they haven’t really played a role in the audiobooks. I will reread them, though. I love a blend of science fiction and mystery when done well, and the Hamilton stories are well done.