Reflections on Robotics

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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 →

12 D0CGS Day 6: “The Third Shadow” by H. Russell Wakefield

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Brief Update: I’m still going to review 12 ghost stories, but I don’t think I’ll finish within the traditional Twelve Days of Christmas. I may include storeis that aren’t Christmas specific. I’m not sure if the tradition if telling ghost stories at Christmas means that the stories themselves must be set at christmas.

Today’s story is by one of the master of the traditional ghost story, H. Russell Wakefield.

I read it in Sunless Solstice, another of the British Library’s Tales of the Weird series.

I can’t recommend this series enough. I’ve got a handful of volumes in print and more in electronic format. They’re chock full of all kinds of good stuff.

But I digress.

Wakefield’s stories, at least the ones I’ve read, don’t deal with freindly ghosts. Wakefield’s ghost are not nice, and you hope you never meet one. In the case of “The Third Shadow”, we have a vengeful ghost. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 5: “Thw Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance” by M. R. James

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Merry Christmas!

It’s almost over as I write this, but I hope the day has been and continues to be a merry one for all of you. And that you’re enjoying some winter weather to set the tone. We’re running t he air conditioner here in Texas.

Today I’ve chosen to look at a ghost story by one of the practitioners whose work is associated with Christmas and keeping the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas alive into the Twentieth Century.

That would be Montague Rhodes James.

M. R. James routinely wrote a ghost story for his friends at Christmas, but there was only one that was acdtuallyt set at Christmas.

That story is “The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance”, which was first published in 1913.

It’s available in a number of volumes. I read it in Supernatural Horror Vol. VII edited by Will Oliver.There will be spoilers in this post. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 4: “The Spectre Horseman; or, Haunted Wye-Coller Hall” by James Skip Borlase

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James Skip Borlae is perobablay not a name familiar to many of you. I recall under what circumstances I bought The Shrieking Skull and Other Victorian Chritmas Ghost Stories. I bought a year ago, or maybe two. I didn’t get a chance to read any of the stories before Christmas in whatevder year I bought it.

So I decided to read on this year for Twelve Days of Christmas Ghost Stories. I read two stories that didn’t have a ghost in them, although they were set on Christams Eve and were horror stories without supernatural elements.

Then I read “The Specter Horseman”. (I haven’t read the title story yet. Maybe I should  ahve started with that one.)

I enjoyed the story, but I was disappointed int he ghost element.

Set during the English Civil War, it’st he story of an elderly minor nobler who is a Royalist. He falls for a beautiful young girl and convinces her poverty-stricken father to let him marry her. Or as the story puts it, sell her to him. Continue reading →

12DoCGS Day 3: “A Strange Christmas Game” by Mrs. J. H. (Charlotte) Riddell

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Followoing the theme of the previous post, this story concerns a game on Christmas Eve. Unlike the game  in “Smee”, the ghost isn’t a participant. Rather the ghost is the result of the game.

In this story, a young artist and his sister, through a legal issue, inherit a manor that had been owned by a relative of theirs. This relative had disappeared on Christmas Eve after playing cards with a friend.

They are told by the caretaker that the place is haunted. They scoff, but not for long. Noises disturb them every night.

They decide to spend a month in Europe to get away from teh noise. they have never had the means to travel before, and now they do. This is in August.

While in Europe, they make firends with an English family and discover the family lives near their manor. They decide to extend their tripa nd travel with this family. The plan is to spend Christmas in Rome  together. The artist is starting to pursue the daughter of the family. Continue reading →

A Multitude of Birthdays

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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 →

12DoCGS Day1: “Someone in the Lift” by L. P. Hartley

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L. P. Hartley was a British writer of ghost stories as well as mainstream novels during the middle of the previous century. “Someone in the Lift” isn’t jsut a ghost story, it’s a very effective horror story.

It takes place at Christmas in a hotel. The Maldons, father, mother, and son Peter are staying at the hotel due to an unexplaiined domestic crisis. Young Peter sees someone in the lift when it comes down to the ground floor. The lift in this case is an old-fashioned elevator with two glass paneled doors, it should be noted.

The strange thing about this figure is that only Peter can see it, and only when he is with his morther, never when he is with his father. Continue reading →

RIP, John Varley (1947-2025)

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Science fiction author Jaoh Varley passed away at his home in Beaverton, Oregon on December 10. He was suffering from diabetes and had COPD.

Varley’s firstpublished short story was “Picnic on Nearside” in 1974. He went on to become one of the major science fiction writers to emerge from the 1970s, being nominated fifteen times for hte Hugo and nine times for the Nebula. He was more prolific at short lengths than at novel length.  My favorites among his work are the Anna-Louise Bach stories. They are a blend of mystery and science fiction set on the Moon. The best collection of his short work is the 2004 retrospective, The John Varley Reader.

The Twelve Days of Christmas Ghost Stories: Introduction

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I’m going to try something this year.  One of the Christmas traditions in England is telling ghost stories. The best known example of this is Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. That’s not the only example. The practice was most popular during the Victorian era. It declined after World War II. I first heard of ghost stories at Christmas in the song The Most Wonderful Time of the Year. 

I’m gong to combine this tradition with the Twelve Days of Chritmas.

Sort of.

The Twelve Days of Christmas start on December 25 and run until Jnauary 5. The ghost story tradition (as leas4t as I understand it) leads up to December 25.

What I’m going to do is look at twelve ghost stories set at Christmas, but I’m going to start now and run through the end of the year. They won’t be every day, of course. I’ll try to stay away from the ones that are the msot well-known and choose some that readers might not be as familiar with. I night even throw in one of my own. If the spirit moves, of course.

(I have not forgottten The Starmen of Llyrdis by Leigh Brackett. I finished grading exams today. I’ll tabulated and upload them tomorrow, then get back to the book.)