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Post by sean on Jun 15, 2008 10:12:58 GMT
I bet some of you lot have bumped into a few in your time! Anyway, for starters.... (highly recommended stories marked with a *) _______________ Penguin Science FictionEdited by Brian Aldiss. First published in 1961 (Penguin 1962) (illustration by Brian Keogh) BLURB: In 1961 Man went out into space.
But writers of Science Fiction have been taking him on tours of the universe for years. The submarine, the bathysphere, the aeroplane, and the tank are only a few examples of modern acheivements which have been foreshadowed by writers like Jules Verne or artists like Leonardo.
This Penguin collention of SF stories inclides work by John Steinbeck, Isaac Asimov, eric Frank Russell, Katherine Maclean and Bertram Chandler. Apart from the increasing possibilty of their imagined worlds, either of the future or of other quarters of the universe, these writers command our attention with stories which are freed from the gravitational pull of what we call reality today. Contains:Sole Solution - Eric Frank Russell Lot - Ward Moore The Short-Short Story of Mankind - John Steinbeck* Skirmish - Clifford Simak Poor Little Warrior! - Brian W. Aldiss Grandpa - James H. Schmidt The Half Pair - Bertram Chandler Command Performance - Walter M. Miller Jr Nightfall - Isaac Asimov* The Snowball Effect - Katherine Maclean* The End of Summer - Algis Budrys Track 12 - J.G. Ballard* _______________ More Penguin Science Fiction StoriesEdited By Brian Aldiss. First published in 1963 (Penguin 1964) (cover shows Small Worlds by Kadinsky) BLURB: 'Science Fiction is no more written for scientists than ghost stories are written for ghosts.' Thus said Brian Aldiss in his introduction to Penguin Science Fiction, an earlier anthology, which was so sucessful that it was twice reprinted within a year of its publication.
Here now are twelve further stories taken from leading British and American magazines and written by authors such as Howard fast, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Clarke, and Harry Harrison. By their variety, they show how SF is reaching out into ever new fields. It is indeed - as many critics now admit - among the liveliest forms of fiction writing in English today. Contains:The Monkey Wrench - Gordon R. Dickson* The First Men - Howard Fast Counterfeit - Alan E. Norse The Greater Thing - Tom Godwin Build Up Logically - Howard Schoenfeld The Liberation of Earth - William Tenn* An Alien Agony - Harry Harrison* The Tunnel under the World - Frederik Pohl* The Store of the Worlds - Robert Sheckley Jokester - Isaac Asimov Pyramid - Robert Abernathy The Forgotten Enemy - Arthur C. Clarke _______________ Yet More Penguin Science FictionEdited by Brian Aldiss. First published in 1964 (Penguin 1966) (cover shows a detail from Matta's The Angry One) BLURB: The outstanding success of the first two volumes of Penguin Science Fiction has proved that SF can command as wide a public today as the most readable of novels, adventure stories, or crime books.
This new collection made for Penguins by Brian Aldiss is recommended to those who are apt to be cheated by sleep or bored by the journey or who want a change from more orthodox fiction. It contans a dozen stories that are horrific, humorous, satirical, and above all inventive, by SF writers of the first magnitude: contributers include Clarke, van Vogt, Blish and Damon Knight.
These rank among the acknoweged experts in the field and, as they orbit a brilliantly imaginative world, they offer the best possible introduction to a literary medium that this century has made its own. Contains:The Wall Around the World - Theodore Cogswell Protected Species - H.B. Fyfe Before Eden - Arthur C. Clarke The Rescuer - Arthur Porges I Made You - Walter M. Miller, Jr* The Country of the Kind - Damon Knight* MS Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie - C.M. Kornbluth* The Cage - Bertram Chandler Eastward Ho! - William Tenn The Windows of Heaven - John Brunner* Fulfilment - A.E. van Vogt _______________ These anthologies were later republished in an omnibus edition (and I think it has been returned to print fairly recently also). Either way I think that they are possibly the best SF anthologies I have read. They certainly sent me out in loads of different directions, reading more by the authors represented within. Some of the stories that deserve a special mention are Frederick Pohl's 'The Tunnel under the World' (a man finds himself trapped in an advertising hell - and finds there is no escape from his dilemma), Harry Harrison's 'An Alien Agony' (missionaries bring death and sin to the alien race they are meant to be saving), 'Nightfall' by Asimov (the arrival of night on a planet that has for generations only known day - one of the few stories by Asimov that has really stood the test of time), and 'The Country of the Kind' (the story of a vicious outcast of a bland society). Classics of their kind. Well worth picking up if you fancy a bit of classic SF, or are even just vaguely curious about this SF lark.
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Post by dem bones on Jun 15, 2008 11:11:50 GMT
Mike Ashley (ed.) - The History of the Science Fiction Magazine (Nel, 1975) I've only got volume 2: 1936-1945 - I don't know whether there was a number #3 - and I bought it mainly for Ashley's 66 page introduction, as I always find him interesting. The cover maybe swayed me a little as well. If anybody has details of Vol. 1, I'd be intrigued. Introduction: SF Bandwagon - Mike Ashley
Stanley G. Weinbaum - The Circle Of Zero E. F. Russell & Leslie J. Johnson - Seeker Of Tomorrow Jack Williamson - The Dead Spot William F. Temple - The 4-sided Triangle Neil R. Jones - Hermit Of Saturn's Rings Robert A. W. Lowdnes - The Abyss Donald A. Wollheim - Up There Robert Bloch - Almost Human John Russell Fearn - Wanderer Of Time Murray Leinster - The Power
Appendices:
A Checklist of Authors' Works: 1936-45 Summary Of Magazine Issues Glossary of Magazine Editors Note on Key Cover Artists Bibliography Blimey! Me in the Vault Of Sci-fi twice in one day! Strike a light, who'd have thought it, well ruffle my hair and call me Frankie, etc. Big shock 2: I read most of this at the time and have since been back to Robert Bloch's delightful crime-horror-sf crossover caper elsewhere and I seem to recall enjoying R. A. W. L.'s story when he revived it for an issue of Magazine Of Horror!
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Post by sean on Jun 15, 2008 14:25:04 GMT
Well get you reading SF before you know it, Dem... Anyway, according to some page the link to which I've just lost, the contents of Vol 1 are: The History of the Science Fiction Magazine Part 1 1926-1935 ed. Mike Ashley (NEL, 1974, 239pp, hc) · Preface · Mike Ashley · · Introduction: An Amazing Experiment · Mike Ashley · · The Coming of the Ice · G. Peyton Wertenbaker · Amazing Jun ’26 · The Machine Man of Ardathia [Ardathia] · Francis Flagg · Amazing Nov ’27 · Out of the Sub-Universe · R. F. Starzl · Amazing Stories Quarterly Sum ’28 · The Eternal Man [Herbert Zulerich] · D. D. Sharp · Science Wonder Stories Aug ’29 · The Power and the Glory · Charles Willard Diffin · Astounding Jul ’30 · The Voice from the Ether · Lloyd Arthur Eshbach · Amazing May ’31 · The Asteroid of Gold · Clifford D. Simak · Wonder Stories Nov ’32 · The Island of Unreason · Edmond Hamilton · Wonder Stories May ’33 · One Prehistoric Night · Philip Barshofsky · Wonder Stories Nov ’34 · Davey Jones’ Ambassador · Raymond Z. Gallun · Astounding Dec ’35 · Appendices · _______________ ...and, completely unrelated: Decade the 1950'sEdited by Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison. First published in 1976 (Pan 1977) BLURB: 'The Sf pulps began in the twenties and blossomed in the thirties. The fourties were Campbell and the ASTOUNDING years, one man single-handedly inventing modern science fiction...
The fifties built on Campbell's foundations, new editors and new writers... It was a vital and fascinating time to be alive and writing or reading SF, and that excitement is well relected in the stories here.' -from the Introduction by Brian W. Aldiss
'The DECADE series lives up to its potential as one of the best buys available... The topping on the cake comes from Cordwainer Smith's first published story, SCANNERS LIVE IN VAIN, a grand tale of the dehumanisation of Man.' - Eastern Daily Press
There was also a 40's anthology, and (I think) the 60's one as well... Contains:Grandpa - James H. Schmitz The Snowball effect - Katherine Maclean* The Edge of the Sea - Algis Budrys Scanners Live in Vain - Cordwainer Smith* The Pedestrian - Ray Bradbury The Last Day - Richard Matheson* The Holes Around Mars - Jerome Bixby The Star - Arthur C. Clarke Two-handed Engine - Henry Kuttner The Large Ant - Howard Fast Early Model - Robert Sheckley Sail On! Sail On! - Phillip Jose Farmer (I'm giving this one another read at the mo, so I'll probably do one of those story by story things soonish...)
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Post by redbrain on Jun 15, 2008 15:08:55 GMT
Mike Ashley (ed.) - The History of the Science Fiction Magazine (Nel, 1975) I've only got volume 2: 1936-1945 - I don't know whether there was a number #3 - and I bought it mainly for Ashley's 66 page introduction, as I always find him interesting. The cover maybe swayed me a little as well. If anybody has details of Vol. 1, I'd be intrigued. I have Volume 1, and will post the contents, unless someone else beats me to it. Not today, though. I'm in a bit of a rush. I don't think there was a volume 3. *Edit -- oh foo! I see that Sean has beaten me to posting the contents... Oh well... Shuffles off singing tunelessly...*
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 15, 2008 16:17:28 GMT
Here's a not especially high quality scan of the revised and updated 1977 NEL paperback edition of Part One (which should hopefully put us on until something better turns up); There was a Part Three 1946-1955 (NEL hardback 1976), which contained the following stories; Memorial by Theodore Sturgeon The Fires Within by Arthur C. Clarke Don't Look Now by Henry Kuttner Kaleidoscope by Ray Bradbury To Serve Man by Damon Knight Earthman Beware! by Poul Anderson They Fly So High by Ross Rocklynne The Last Day by Richard Matheson Hands Off by Robert Sheckley The Wager by E. C. Tubb along with your usual appendices and what have you, and looked like this; And not only that, there was a Part Four 1956-1965 (NEL 1978), containing, I'm told, stories by Brian Aldiss, Robert Silverberg and J.G. Ballard among others. The original idea was to have 5 volumes, each covering a ten year period (with one story to represent each year), which would have taken us up to 1975 (or the present day as it was when the series began). If you bought Part Two mainly for the introduction, Dem, then more recently, i.e. in the last few years, Mike Ashley has done a three volume history of science fiction magazines for Liverpool University Press, which brings the story up to 1980.
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 15, 2008 17:25:03 GMT
Mike Ashley has done a three volume history of science fiction magazines for Liverpool University Press Quoting myself is surely just the latest sign of madness but anyway... those who take an interest in these things may like to know that great chunks of Time Machines, the first of Mike Ashley's updated & expanded 3 volume history, can be viewed on Google Book SearchAnd, in an interview for The Zone, Mike Ashley explains what happened to Part 5 of the original series; "I wrote five volumes but only four got published. The fifth was finished but NEL was merged with Hodder & Stoughton and with the takeover it fell into a limbo and lay around for a number of umpteen years."
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 15, 2008 19:27:17 GMT
Orbit 4 edited by Damon Knight, Panther 1972 (first published 1968) Cover art by Chris Foss Windsong - Kate Wilhelm Probable Cause - Charles L. Harness Shattered Like A Glass Goblin - Harlan Ellison This Corruptible - Jacob Transue Animal - Carol Emshwiller One At A Time - R. A. Lafferty Passengers - Robert Silverberg Grimm's Story - Vernor Vinge A Few Last Words - James Sallis One of my favourites back in the seventies when I used to read SF anthologies. I always preferred the more New Wave/Modern type stuff to the pulpier BEM/Space Opera fare. This one introduced me to Harlan Ellison, who subsequently became my favourite SF writer ('SF' in this case standing for 'Speculative Fiction' of course). The druggy "Shattered Like A Glass Goblin" had quite an impact on me at the time. My other great 'discovery' in this volume was R. A. Lafferty. Lafferty is probably one of those "love them or hate them" writers and I generally tend to the former although, like all the most interesting writers, Lafferty is capable of confounding even his greatest admirers. I keep promising myself that one day I'll get round to reviewing his collection, Nine Hundred Grandmothers, from which the story "One At A Time" is taken.
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Post by jkdunham on Jun 15, 2008 20:10:47 GMT
Nova 2 edited by Harry Harrison, Sphere 1975 (first published 1972) Zirn Left Unguarded, The Jenghik Palace in Flames, Jon Westerly Dead by Robert Sheckley "East Wind, West Wind" by Frank M. Robinson The Sumerian Oath by Philip Jose Farmer Now + n Now - n by Robert Silverberg Two Odysseys into the Center by Barry N. Malzberg Darkness by Andre Carneiro On the Wheel by Damon Knight Miss Omega Raven by Naomi Mitchison The Poet in the Hologram in the Middle of Prime Time by Ed Bryant The Old Folks by James E. Gunn The Steam-Driven Boy by John Sladek I Tell You, It's True by Poul Anderson And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways by James Tiptree Jr. The Ergot Show by Brian W. Aldiss As is probably evident from some of the titles, this is more of the 'modern' stuff. Favourites here, despite the presence of several big names, have always been "Darkness" by Andre Carneiro who, if I remember rightly, is a Brazilian writer, and Naomi Mitchison's "Miss Omega Raven", an odd little tale written, I think, for this collection. Naomi Mitchison, who wrote the 'pioneering' Memoirs of a Spacewoman, is one of those people who've long held a certain fascination for me but I'm not entirely sure why. Another thing I'm not sure about is why I always thought this anthology was edited by Ben Bova. It wasn't.
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Post by allthingshorror on Jun 15, 2008 20:29:19 GMT
13 French Science Fiction Stories Edited by Damon Knight
Juliette by Claude F Cheinisse The Blind Pilot by Charles Henneberg Olivia by Henri Damonti The Vana by Alain Doremieux The Devil's Goddaughter by Suzanne Malaval Moon-fishers by Charles Henneberg The Non-Humans by Charles Henneberg After Three Hundred Years by Pierre Mille The Monster by Gerard Klein A Little More Caviar? by Claude Veillot The Chain of Love by Catherine Cliff The Dead Fish by Boris Vian____________________________________________________ I don't have a lot of sci-fi in my collection, just a first edition hardback of Alan Dean Foster's Alien and quite a few books by Frank Belknap Long who by some strange way has become one of my all time favourite authors even though he never wrote all that well. I blame The Space Eaters. Little slice of genius. Anyhoo, I was in my local secondhand shop and I saw this for 50p and just had to get it. I will say that this book has some of the most entertaining but bizzarely written stories I think I have ever read. From a worrying human and car love affair in Juliette to a strange story called Moon-fishers which after four reads now, I still couldn't tell you what its about. I think the person tongues a dead spirit at the end of it, I can't be sure. Well worth a read though, the French aren't just moaning gits after all.
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Post by sean on Jun 15, 2008 21:34:56 GMT
Nova 2 edited by Harry Harrison, Sphere 1975 (first published 1972) That is a pretty good anthology. I also have Nova 3 kicking about - I'll scan it etc soonish.
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Post by sean on Jun 17, 2008 11:34:10 GMT
I always preferred the more New Wave/Modern type stuff to the pulpier BEM/Space Opera fare. This one introduced me to Harlan Ellison, who subsequently became my favourite SF writer... Harlan is fucking superb, 'Deathbird Stories' is one of the best collections I have read in any genre. And, surprisingly enough 'The Essential Ellison' is actually just that! Anyway, this antho from the 'New Worlds' days should suit you... The New SFEdited by Langdon Jones. First published in 1969. (Arrow 1970) BLURB: From the world of Science Fiction writing there has come a totally new literature, a Space Age fiction created by writers to whom new material demanded new techniques to explore territory way beyond the original Science Fiction bases.
These are writers who are not just reacting against the current conventions in fiction. They are positive in their creation of new forms, certain in their aims. And above all they are enthusiastic.
Langdon Jones, editor of NEW WORLDS, has brought together the leaders of this new writing.
(Replace 'Science Fiction' with 'Horror' and you've almost got something like what Cap'n Nemo is doing...) Contains:Preface - Michael Moorcock Fourteen Stations on the Northern Line - Giles Gordon The Peking Junction - Michael Moorcock Fast Car Wash - George MacBeth The Anxiety in the Eyes of the Cricket - James Sallis The New Science Fiction - J.G.Ballard / Georege MacBeth* So Far From Prague - Brian W. Aldiss* Direction - Postatomic - Michael Butterworth For Thomas Tompion - Michael Moorcock A Science Fiction Story for Joni Mitchell - Maxim Jakubowski The Communicants - John Sladek* Seeking a Suitable Donor - D.M. Thomas The Holland of the Mind - Pamela Zoline Quincunx - Thomas M. Disch* Some great experimental fiction here, although the occasional piece does accidentally vanish up its own arse now and then. The Ballard piece is an interview transcript which (to me at least) made clear what he was trying to do in some of his more nonlinear work (here he mainly talks of the stories which make up 'The Atrocity Exhibition' - one of the all time greatest book titiles, in my 'umble opinion). 'So Far from Prague' is a typical tale from 'Moment of the Eclipse' -era Aldiss. John Sladek (author of 'Tik-Tok', amongst others) has a 60 -plus page story, and last but not least, something from Thomas Disch to round off the collection. I have to say that I don't think there is a dull piece in this book, but there are sure one or two which are completely incomprehensible....
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Post by sean on Jun 18, 2008 9:53:57 GMT
Nova 3Edited by Harry Harrison. First published 1973. (Sphere 1975) BLURB: The third book in Harry Harrison's exciting Nova series.
The talents of Robert Sheckley, David Bunch, Brian Aldiss, Norman Spinard, Mack Reynolds combine with a galaxy of other sf writers on top form to give you NOVA 3 - a star studded anthology of the best in Science Fiction. Contains:Welcome to the Standard Nightmare - Robert Sheckley The Expensive Delicate Ship - Brian W. Aldiss Dreaming and Conversions: Two Rules by Which to Live - Barry N. Malzberg Breakout in Ecol 2 - David R. Bunch The Cold War... continued - Mack Reynolds The Factory - Naomi Mitchison The Defensive Bomber - Hank Dempsey Endorsement, Personal - Dean McLaughlin The National Passtime - Norman Spinnard The Ultimate End - Dick Glass Pity the Poor Outdated Man - Philip Shofner The Exhibition - Scott Edelstein Sketches among the Ruins of my Mind - Phillip Jose Farmer Like Nova 2, a good anthology with a mix of well known names and some that don't pop up very often. Both this and the previous volume begin with a story from the brilliant Robert Sheckley, an author it was always a treat to find a book by when I was a kid. He died a couple of years back. I sent him a e-mail shortly after there was an earlier health scare (just a 'thanks for the stories' sort-of thing) and I actually got a short e-mail back off him. OFF FUCKING ROBERT SHECKLEY!!!!!!!! Sadly, a couple of days after that RS went into hospital for the last time and died shortly after.
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Post by troo on Jun 18, 2008 13:15:33 GMT
So what you're saying is that you killed Robert Sheckley...
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Post by Craig Herbertson on Jun 18, 2008 13:35:58 GMT
lol Troo. Sheckely was genius. I devour everything I can find by him. problem is my memory is getting bad and I constantly buy books I have already read.
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Post by sean on Jun 20, 2008 7:28:08 GMT
Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone! And moving very swiftly on... The Inner LandscapeMervyn Peake, J.G. Ballard, Brian W. Aldiss. First published 1969 (Corgi 1970) (cover by Ian West) BLURBS (back cover and inside): Three authors have created three worlds... weird... eerie... bizarre worlds... landscapes of mists and strangeness and alien shapes.
And in worlds of strange landscapes, man himself becomes strange... unpredictable and capable of new powers, of exploration into the mind... into the world of the inner landscape... __________
MERVYN PEAKE 'The latest and greatest of the gothic writers' - Financial Times
J.G. BALLARD 'One of the brightest new stars in post-war fiction' - Kingsley Amis
BRIAN W. ALDISS 'The most versatile of the younger science fiction writers' - The Observer
Three of the leading contemporary inaginative writers have written three speculative and astounding stories of the inner landscape...
A boy alone in a bestial world ruled by a blind white lamb...
A university lecturer who finds himself on an Earth almost identical to ours - but not quite...
A biologist who carves an incomprehensible design on the bottom of a swimming-pool and then dies...
THE INNER LANDSCAPE brings together three outstanding novellas from Peake, Ballard and Aldiss. Contains:Boy in Darkness - Mervyn Peake The Voices of Time - J.G. Ballard Danger: Religion! - Brian W. Aldiss What a line-up! And each is a pretty good example of the writer's work. The Peake story seems to take place in the same world as the Gormenghast books, although in a different location. A boy escapes from the endless routines and rituals of home, only to encounter a goatish man and a hyena in human form, both of whom serve the blind Lamb-being. More than a touch of Moreau about this one, a nice chunk of Peakeishness (incidentally written in the 1950s) which ends rather abruptly. Next up is Ballard with a world that is winding down, with victims of a strange variety of narcolepsy sleeping away more and more of their time until they remain permanently unconscious. Classic Ballard stuff. The Aldiss story is not his greatest, but is pretty entertaining nonetheless, an alternate universe story in which religion has a much greater importance than in this one. This is a different version of the story than that which appears in 'The Saliva Tree', longer and with a new ending. Unless my mind is playing tricks on me, that is.
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