Today, February 17, a tip of the hat to two ladies in honor of their birthdays, Margaret St. Clair and Andre Norton. Continue reading
St. Clair and Norton
4 Replies
Ed Emshwiller
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
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
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
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
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
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
“Heir Apparent” by C. L. Moore
Today is January 24, as I write this, and it’s the birthday of C. L. Moore (1911-1987). She’s a favorite around here.
Being cooped up in the house most of the day due tot eh weather, I was able read one of her stories. I chose “Heit Apparent” from the collection Judg,ment Night. That’s the cover of the original Gnome Press edition there on the left with a great cover by Kelly Freas.
It’s one of two stories in this volume that the ISFDB calls the Threshholders. The other is “Promised Land”.
Judgment Night was published in 1952.It contains five novellas that Moore was the primary author on. Her husband Henry Kuttner didn’t collaborate much if at all on these stories. They were all published under the pen name of Lawrence O’Donnell.
I read this book in the DCell paperback edition when I was in high school. I remember very little about it, which is why I chose a story from it for this post I wanted to look at some of her work that doesn’t get a lot of attention. There’s a slight C. L. Moore reviavl going on at the moment. At least it looks like it to me. While Northwest Smith and Jirel of Joiry are her best known works and my favorites of her stories, there’s more to the work of C. L. Moore than jsut those two characters. Continue reading
The Mass Market Paperback Is No More, Alas
Begin rant.
I don’t k ow how many of you might have noticed, but mass market paperbacks are pretty much a thing of the past. The major publishers have stopped making them.
The reason?
Ingram. Continue reading
Robert E. Howard at 120
So today, January 6. is the one hundred and twentieth birthday of Robert E. Howard. The day is nearly over as write this. I’ve been occupied by work and winterizing before the temperatures drop into the single digits.
But I didn’t want the day to get away without some sort of post.
I doubt there’s much I could say that I either haven’t said before or that someone else has said better.
But when have I ever let that stop me? Continue reading