Edgar Pangborn’s “Good Neighbors”

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Edgar Pangborn

Today is February 25, and that is the birthday of Edgar Pangborn (1909-1976). Pangborn was critically acclaimed during his lifetime, but he has faded into obscurity. Theodore Sturgeon was an admirer.

Pangborn was never prolific. He wrote only a handful of novels and a few dozen short stories. The most widely recognized novels are Davy and A Mirror for Observers.

I haven’t read Davy. I did read A Mirror for Observers back in college. I enjoyed the first half of it, then had an outpatient procedure. I finished hte book, but the rest of it was fuzzy due to still being under the influence of general anesthetic.

For his birthday, I read “The Good Neiighbors”. It was originally published in the June 1960 issue of Galaxy. It is available in the Edgar Pangborn Megapack. Continue reading →

Richard Matheson at 100

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Today is February 26, which makes it the one hundredth birthday of Richard Matheson.

Matheson should need no introduction here. He’s one of the greats of dark fantasy.  From his first published story, “Born of Man and Woman” to such classics as  The Shrinking Man and I am Legend, he has set a high standard that few have met.

His short story “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” is a classic Twilight Zone episode starring William Shatner. The ending is probably a little predictable to those new to the episode, but that’s because the story has had such a lasting impact.

Matheson’s work wasn’t confined to print, either. He wrote the screenplays for the Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work that starrred Vincent Price. If you’ve not seen any of them, you should check them out.

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The Universe of Terry Carr

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Today, February 19, is the birthday of Terry Carr (1937-1987). While Carr wrote a decent amoung of short fiction and a smattering of novels, he is best remembered as an editor.

He edited The Best Science Fiction of the Year for Ballantine and later Tor from the early seventies to the mid-eighties along with two companion valumes, The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year. (I wish someone would pout out such a volume these days.) Before  that there was the World’s Best Science Fiction with Don Wolheim from 1965 to 1971. There as also teh five volume fantasy reprint series, Fantasy Annual (1978-1982).

Those were all reprint anthologies. Carr edited three volumes of New Worlds of Fantasy (1967,1970, 1971). But his greatest achievement in original anthologies was the Universe series, which ran to seventeen volumes from 1971 to 1987, with a new volume every year except 1974, which saw the publication of volumes 4 and 5. Continue reading →

Ed Emshwiller

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Today, February 16, is the birthday of Ed Emswiller (1925-1990). Emshwiller was a prolific cover and interior artist in the nineteen fifties and sixties. He was married to author Carol Emshiwiller.

Galaxy February 1955, Cover by Emsh

He signed his work as Emsh. Much of it was for digests in the fifties, such as F&SF and Galaxy. His covers for Galaxy  tended to be fun and somewhat zany, especially his Christmas covers, which featured a four-armed Santa Claus.

His covers for publiscations such as F&SF, Infinity, and other magazines of the time tended to be darker in theme and tone. I’m not sure how much of this was due to editorial policies, Emsh’s preferences, or the nature of the fiction he was illustrating. Galaxy, after all, published more satire than any other publication of the day. Many of those covers feature beautiful women.

In the sixties, he did a number of covers for paperbacks. His work has a definite style and feel to it.

Belowo are some samples of his work. Continue reading →

RIP, Jeffrey A. Carver

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Science fiction author Jeffrey A. Carver (1949-2026) passed away on February 6. Locus Online is reporting that he had been in a coma after suffering several strokes following a lung transplant last year.

Carver wrote space opera, notably the Star Rigger series and the Chaos Chronicles as well as a handful of stand-alone novels, such as The Infinity Liink.

It’s been a number of years since I read any of his work. I read Star Rigger’s Way and enjoyed it. The series is on my list to obtain and read.  Caver’s short fiction was collected in Reality and Other Fictions and Going Alien.

Remembering Frazetta

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Today, February 9, is the birthday of Frank Frazetta (1928-2010). It’s hard to believe it’s been over fifteen years since we lost him.

His influence is still felt today and will be for years to come. His iconic covers for the Lancer edition of Robert E. Howard’s Conan collections alone will ensure that.

He is arguably the greatest fantasy artist of the last century.

There’s not much I can say about Frazetta that hasn’t been said before, and better, by toher people. I’m not going to write a long post.

I just wanted to acknowledge his birthday.

Ode to Future Histories

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I haven’t read much science fiction over the last few years. I haven’t even read that much fantasy. I’ve been reading a lot fo mysteries and thrillers. Most of my sicience fiction consumption during the last twelve months was in the form of audiobooks, mainly Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series with a little of David Drake’s Hammer’s Slammers thrown in. The bulk of my audio books (what hasn’t been nonfiction) has been Lovecraft, Wellman, Howard, and a little of C,lark Ashton Smith, plus some Conan Doyle and other short story wirters.

What got me to thinking about future histories was the audiobook of Alastair Reynolds’ latest novel, Halcyon Years. It’s a standalone deep space adventure, although I don’t think it falls into the category of space opera for reasons I won’t get into very deeply in order to avoid spolers.  I’ll say this, it’s a clever blend of hardboiled detective and hard science set on a generation ship.

It’s a standalone, and I don’t see how he can pull a sequel out of the ending that won’t be a letdown compared to t his one. I recommend it.

But I degress.

The topic of this post is future histories. Continue reading →

RIP, James Sallis

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James Sallis (1944-2026) has passed away. Sallis was primarily a writer of short fiction, but he wasn’t contrained by genre. He wrote science fiction, mystery, poetry, among others.

I must confess that I am not very familiar with his work. I know I’ve got copies of his stories since he was published in Analog, Asimov’s, and F&SF. I don’t recall any stories specifically, although I’m sure I’ve read some. There aren’t many of these types of writers, those who can write across genres. Sallis’s complete short fiction was collected in 2024 in the collection Bright Segments.

Over at Black Gate, Charles Gramlich has written a very thorough and moving tribute.

 

Ruminations on Private Eyes

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I’ve got a membership in the Stark House Press Crime Club. This is a small press based in California. Their primary focus is vintage crime and noir, but they published more than that. Science fiction, fantasy, supernatural, and stragiht-up adventure.

The way the Crime Club works is like a book club. Each month, I get a newsletter in my inbox describing the main selection and several ohters. There’s also the monthly Black Gat imprint. These are small paperbacks that reprint vintage crime novels. Think the early days of Hard Case Crime, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what they’re like except that the authors tend to be a little more obscure. I have a subscription to the Black Gat imprint and get a nicde dose of noir each month, whether I have time to read it or not.

This month’s lead title arrived the other day. It’s a collection of Marcia Muller’s Sharon McCone short stories, The Lost Coast.

I read the first two stories the other night while beeing snowed in.

And that got me thinking. Continue reading →