Monthly Archives: October 2026

It’s Beginning to Feel Like Fall

1 Reply

For those of you who don’t live in Texas, let me explain what the title of this post means.

The daily high temperature will usually be in the nineties rather than triple digits.

Although things have been a bit cooler this last week because of some cold fronts and rain last weekend. This next week, we’re back int he nineties.

Classes are going well. I’ll be ruining some people’s day giving exams the first psrt of the week. Then I’ll be ruining my weekend grading next weekend.

On the writing front, I’ve maintained my streak (one hundred words per day, minimum) althaough some days I’ve barely hit the minimum. I’m writing a science fiction novelette right now that should be wrapped up sometime in the next week.

I’ve been listening to the audiobooks of Larry Niven and Edward M. Lerner’s fleet of worlds series driving back and forth to work. I’ve completed the first two. Some of the second book retells some of the Beowulf Schaeffer stories from a different character’s point of view. I’ve read all of those, of course, more than once, but it’s been years. I”m rereading those in the evening to refresh my memory.

Niven has always been one of my favorite writers, one I will reread regularly. There aren’t many I wouls say that about.

Another is the Commonwealth stories of Alan Dean Foster, although I still have a few to catch up on. I’ve been listening to some of those on audiobook as well.

That’s about all for now. What’s up with ya’ll?

More Than Just Dune

2 Replies

Today is October 8. It is the birthday of Frank Herbert (1920-1986). He was only sixty-five years. We lost him way too soon.

He will always be remembered as the author of Dune and its sequels.  Dune, if not the sequels, is one of the must-reads of science fiction. I’ve read it twice and plan to listen to the audiobook later this year or early next year.

But Herbert wrote much more than just the Dune books.

Those works are in danger of fading into obscurity.

There is the Pandora Sequence which starts with Destination Void. (Herbert rewrote this one to update the science.)

There’s Under Pressure. And Whipping Star.  The Dosadi Experiment. The Santaroga Barrier.

These are all solid science fiction works. There is also a massive collection of Herbert’s short fiction.

If your only experience with Frank Herbert has been Dune, you’ve missed some good sicence fiction.

What non-Dune works by Herbert have you read?

 

A Look at Neither Beg Nor Yield, Part 1

1 Reply

So Jason M. Waltz has been asking me to reivew Neither Beg Nor Yield for, well, a long time. When he first asked, I wasn’t reviewing current works because I didn’t want to create a conflict of interest for myself by givng a less than positive review to an editor I might want to submit to.

I’ve since modified that policy.

I had dipped into this anthology, but I hadn’t read it straight through. So I decided to read it from the front cover to the back.

Neither Beg Nor Yeild is a hefty anthology devoted to “sowrd and sorcery with attitude”. Given the time contraints I have on my reading, I decided to break up the reivew into four parts. (There are twenty stories here, so four reviews covering five stories is what I’m going to do.) If I waited until I fiinished the book, I would have forgotten half the stories. I’m just going to give a brief description of the stories rather than plot details.

So here is the first of four reviews covering the first five tales in the book. The other reviews will be posted over the next mumblety-mumble months as I work the reading into my shcedule. Continue reading →

St. John and Wollheim

2 Replies

Just a quick post to acknowledge two birthdays today (October 1). J. Allen St. John (1872-1957) and Donal A. Wollheim (1914-1990).

I’ll start with Wollheim. A member of the famed Futurians, Wollheim had his greatest impact as an editor, first at Ace Books and later under his own imprint, DAW. Those yellow spined paperbacks were a sure sign of pulpy goodness. Wollheim also edited the Avon Fantasy Reader, which kept the works of many fo the pulp fantasy authors in front of readers, not the least of which was Robert E. Howard.

J. Allen St. John was an artist who didi many of the classic covers for Weird Tales that weren’t done by Margaret Brundage. Some of his more noted covers illustrated tales from Otis Adelbert Kline and Jack Williamson. Here are some samples of his work.