blogs i follow
essential references
posts of the past
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point and click
- alan dean foster
- alcoholism
- arthur c clarke
- banned books week
- barrington bayley
- books about games
- brian aldiss
- brian stableford
- charles ardai
- charles williams
- chris anderson (economist)
- clifford simak
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- jack vance
- james branch cabell
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- james patrick kelly
- jason starr
- john brunner
- john kessel
- jung
- ken bruen
- kris neville
- larry niven
- lawrence block
- library of america
- malcolm gladwell
- manly wade wellman
- margery allingham
- max allan collins
- michael bishop
- mordecai roshwald
- nietzsche
- nuclear war
- octavia butler
- olaf stapledon
- parker
- philip jose farmer
- philip k dick
- phil knight
- poul anderson
- primer
- psychotechnic league
- quarry
- richard stark
- robert bloch
- robert bo. parker
- robert heinlein
- robert silverberg
- roger zelazny
- russell atwood
- skeleton
- terrorism
- timescape
- william marshall
- william sleator
- william styron
- yellowthread street
Monthly Archives: November 2017
Freedom Beach, by James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel
Science fiction in the 1980’s and 1990’s developed a large preoccupation with “inner space” topics like mind-reading and dream travel. Obviously, these tropes began long before 1980, but as the size of novels ballooned in these later decades – perhaps … Continue reading
Skulduggery, by William Marshall
Skeletons washing ashore make for intriguing mysteries: they have a story to tell, but the truth of their origins are a cloudy mixture of time, culture and circumstance. The bodies of fishermen found in Japan indicate desperate searches for food … Continue reading
Thin Air, by William Marshall
The 1970s were a big decade for airline-disaster dramas, from the movie Airport in 1970 to its ultimate parody Airplane in 1980. The 1977 William Marshall book Thin Air looks like an attempt to tap the healthy audience for airborne suspense, … Continue reading
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories, by Jack Vance – part 3
There’s one more aspect of the Jack Vance Integral Edition (VIE) that I wanted to mention – not only did Vance’s entire oeuvre get digitized, re-edited and published in authoritative hardbacks, but the contribution of one Paul Allen enabled copies … Continue reading
Gelignite, by William Marshall
When reading genre paperbacks from the middle 20th century, it’s important to heed the context in which they were written. Otherwise, we’re preoccupied by what would be unforgivable insensitivity, pervasive sexism, by today’s continually evolving internet standards.* That said, a … Continue reading
The Hatchet Man, by William Marshall
The Hatchet Man (1976) is the second mystery in the Yellowthread Street series by the Australian writer William Marshall. It follows up on the wonderfully chaotic Yellowthread Street (1975), a book recommended to me by my mother about a year … Continue reading
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories, by Jack Vance – part 2
My previous post on Jack Vance mentioned his dedicated following, culminating in the production of the authoritative Jack Vance Integral Edition (VIE). The VIE is the product of the work of over 250 volunteers, who digitized, proofed, post-proofed and otherwise … Continue reading
After the First Death, by Lawrence Block
One of the two famous repeating characters in Lawrence Block’s fiction, the detective Matthew Scudder, is featured in eighteen books. He is a character enriched by a collection of evolving strengths and faults, not the least being his alcoholism. Block … Continue reading
The Augmented Agent and Other Stories, by Jack Vance – part 1
The collection The Augmented Agent and Other Stories (1986) is made up of early short fiction by the SF Grandmaster Jack Vance. Vance (1916 – 2013) happens to be one of my favorite authors, having turned out several series’ worth … Continue reading
The Seventh, by Donald Westlake (as Richard Stark)
First, a preamble about the highly regarded Parker series so far . . . Under the Richard Stark pseudonym, the mystery writer Donald Westlake wrote a very successful series of masculine crime novels about the violent thief Parker. Starting with … Continue reading
