Monthly Archives: December 2017

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Science Fiction Omnibus edited by Groff Conklin

This collection of 11 reprinted tales edited by Groff Conklin features some of the most skilled storytellers in vintage SF including Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, H.P. Lovecraft, Lester Del Rey, Ray Bradbury, Frederic Brown, and more. There were at least three entries that I recalled reading in other collections as recently as a few months ago, but they were absolutely worth a second pass.Science Fiction Omnibus

In A.J. Deutsch’s “A Subway Named Mobius,” an entire passenger train is lost for months in a closed rail system. When transportation officials and a local mathematician with a theory attempt to locate the train, they discover that they can hear it—in multiple locations—but cannot see it since it has passed into another dimension. Will the train ever reemerge and if so, how can this be prevented from happening again?

In one of H.P. Lovecraft’s most popular stories, a meteorite crashes into a field of crops where it begins to poison both soil and water, driving the farmer and his family insane. It’s soon discovered that the vile, luminous substance that infected the area might be intelligent. How will the locals rid themselves of “The Colour Out of Space”?

When alien psychologists learn that Earth has finally achieved interstellar travel, the decision is made to invite them into the Federation of Planets, an honor which no race has ever turned down… until now.  Discover why in Isaac Asimov’s “Homo Sol.”

Anthony Boucher brings us hapless ventriloquist Paul Peters who encounters a benevolent extraterrestrial creature at a local zoo. The alien, relieved to finally find someone with whom he can communicate, enlists Paul’s help in finding his long lost love. At first, the pair is undecided on a strategy until Paul comes up with a new routine known as “The Star Dummy.”

A spaceship explodes ejecting its helpless crew into space. Fortunately, they’d had just enough time to don their spacesuits—but not their personal propulsion systems. As a result, each man is hurled on an uncontrollable trajectory with just enough time to settle their differences and make peace with their collective fate in Ray Bradbury’s “Kaleidoscope.”

When an Earth naval vessel lands on the alien world Shaksembender, the crew of three is greeted by a party of wary copper-skinned humanoids who had been expecting their arrival based on the prophesy of Fraser, the first human space explorer to visit their planet 300 years ago. Using a hidden mind-reading device against the alien emissary, the pilot of the Earth ship discovers that Fraser warned the aliens to be circumspect if the next human explorers utter two specific words… but will we ever learn those words in Eric Frank Russell’s “Test Piece”?

The incompetence of bureaucracy at a Galactic level is showcased in Murray Leinster’s “Plague.”  When all the women of the planet Pharona are consumed and killed by a bizarre luminescent organism, the planet is placed in quarantine and Space Navy reservist Ben Sholto is dispatched in his private vessel to ensure no one escapes. When a ship, piloted by Ben’s lost love Sally, emerges from Pharona, he takes her aboard in an attempt to cure her, making them both fugitives.

In John D. MacDonald’s “Spectator Sport,” a scientist travels into the future only to find society under control of a government that does not take kindly to independent thinking and prefers its citizens to be docile zombies.

In Arthur C. Clarke’s much reprinted “History Lesson,” five thousand years after an ice age has claimed all human life on Earth, Venusians arrive and uncover relics left in a vault—one of which is a roll of 35mm film that they believe depicts typical human behavior… or not.

A concerned citizen confronts physicist John Graham about the doomsday weapon Graham is developing and leaves him with a frightening metaphor that strikes close to the heart in Fredric Brown’s “The Weapon.”

Long after mankind has gone extinct, a race of heuristic automatons have taken over the Earth. A group of robotic biologists undertake experiments to reboot the human race in order to learn more about the concept of “Instinct,” which is also the name of this classic tale by Lester Del Rey.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Twisted Men & One of Our Asteroids is Missing

This ACE Double novel from 1964 contains a collection of three delightful SF stories by the legendary A.E. Van Vogt while the flip side is an engrossing SF mystery novella by Calvin M. Knox, a pseudonym often used by veteran writer Robert Silverberg.

One of Our Asteroids is Missing by Knox/Silverberg details the adventures of asteroid prospector Johnny Storm who risks his life, career, and future marriage to travel to the asteroid belt beyond Mars in the hopes of striking it rich on rare metals. This he does after two years of searching. After documenting his find, Storm heads to Mars to file his claim. He then sells his ship and takes a passenger liner back to Earth—only to find both his claim and his identity erased from all computer records. It takes two days of haggling with bureaucrats to restore Storm’s identity. He then flies back to his asteroid to determine exactly who jumped his claim and why… only to discover that there is more inside this hunk of rock than precious metals.

Silverberg delivers a perfectly paced space adventure with enough mystery and suspense to keep those pages turning.

The Twisted Men & One of Our Asteroids is Missing

Flipping the book over brings us to the A.E. Van Vogt side with three delightful stories:

“The Twisted Men” – In an effort to preserve the human race before the destruction of its sun, a ship called Hope of Man was sent to the Alpha Centauri star system ten years ago with a few hundred of the best and brightest aboard. To the shock of wealthy scientist, ship builder, and predictor of doom, Averill Hewitt, the vessel returns—and crashes through the Earth like a fist through tissue paper. Hewitt hires another vessel to take him to the speeding ship and after a herculean effort, manages to board the Hope of Man. There, he discovers its crew out of phase with normal space and time, having nearly reached the speed of light. In fact, to Hewitt, they appear physically flattened and twisted. Can Hewitt stop the ship before it turns in its orbit and obliterates the Earth?

“The Star Saint” – Aboard the Colonist 12 starship, engineer and leader-elect of the human colonists, Leonard Hanley is charged with investigating the inexplicable destruction of the human colony on a planet called Ariel. Assisting him in this matter is the enigmatic explorer known as Mark Rogan, an alien capable of traversing the galaxy without need of a vessel. Viewing Rogan as competition, Hanley insists on being the first to solve the mystery of the dead Ariel colony only to find himself in a near fatal battle of Man versus Nature.

“The Earth Killers” – While piloting an experimental plane, Robert Morlake is called back to base when a salvo of atomic missiles are launched against the United States. One such bomb narrowly misses Morlake’s plane and from the pilot’s perspective, it had dropped straight down from somewhere above him. Morlake fails in an attempt to use his plane to divert the bomb now headed directly for Chicago. After safely returning to base and filing his report of the incident, Morlake is promptly imprisoned and court-martialed for lying about the trajectory of the bomb. To claim that it came straight down from above would be impossible… unless it was launched from either the moon or a spaceship. Morlake manages to escape custody, steal back the plane, and fly off on a mission to find out.

All three stories were thoroughly enjoyable although in “The Earth Killers,” the arrest and court-martial of Morlake was, to me, an extreme and unbelievable reaction to his report. Simply because he saw the bomb as having dropped straight down from above, rather than at an angle (as if launched by another country), was a ridiculous reason to put him on trial.

Articles, Blog, Writing and Publishing

About This Writing Stuff…

This week, PJ Parrish weighs in on the proper use of metaphors while editor Beth Hill delves into the differences between showing and telling. At Writer Unboxed, Kathryn Craft discusses enhancing dialogue through misdirection and modulation, David Corbett provides two methods of motivating your protagonist, and Lynne Griffin advises us to knot up our stories with conflict and tension.

Jonathan Vars offers tips on creating time-bomb plots and effective use of settings, and Kate Coe reviews the etiquette of editing another writer’s work.

All that and little more… Enjoy!

Do You Dare to Eat a Peach? Finding the Perfect Metaphor by PJ Parrish

Bring Your Dialogue to Life by Kathryn Craft

Motivating the Reluctant Protagonist by David Corbett

Dying to Know, Afraid to Find Out: Building Tension in Fiction by Lynne Griffin

Building an Author Website: The First Step to Publishing by Joe Bunting

12 Tips to Get Unstuck and Finish Writing Your Book by Lorna Faith

Showing and Telling Particulars by Beth Hill

3 Tips to Creating a Time Bomb Plot Device and How to Create a Setting from Nothing in 5 Steps by Jonathan Vars

Editing Someone Else’s Work by Kate Coe

 

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Gryb by A.E. Van Vogt

The Gryb by A.E. Van VogtThe Gryb is a collection of six science fiction stories from the 1940s and early 1950’s culled from Van Vogt’s work in Astounding Science Fiction magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Planet Stories. All told, the quality of the works range from good to excellent.

“The Gryb” – Two men stranded on the surface of Europa struggle to survive on their way toward the nearest spaceport, only to find themselves hunted by the carnivorous and scale-armored beast known as the Gryb.

“Humans, Go Home” – Dav and Miliss, a human couple living on the planet Jana, have been assisting the primitive and violent population advance toward a more civilized society. However, they are eventually arrested by Prime Minister Jaer on the charge of cultural corruption. At the same time, the Janae king, Rocquel, returns from a year long absence and must convince the nobility that he is still capable of leading them toward the civilized age promoted by the humans, but can he save Dav and Miliss from execution… or is there a higher power at work?

“The Problem Professor” – Bob Merritt, member of the U.S. Spaceship Society, has been tasked with drumming up support for the cause of sending a man into space. His organization has the technology and personnel. What they require are letters of recommendation and funding from some of the country’s most prominent scientists and statesmen in order to convince the President to institute a space program. One such celebrity is Professor Hillier, eccentric and reclusive physicist. Another is a mildly interested Hollywood movie star. It doesn’t help that Bob’s wife views him as a failure for his inability to provide a luxurious living—which she might have had she remained with her first husband who made his fortune after they divorced.

“The Invisibility Gambit” – With intention to retire and raise a family, legendary space explorer and prospector Jim Rand take his final voyage on an Earthbound spaceship from the far end of the Milky Way. Soon after boarding, Rand encounters a familiar face and decides to take the man into his confidence, all the while being threatened by a group of thugs who have mistaken Rand for another famous adventurer, Artur Blord. However, prospects for increasing his fortune on the planet Zand might delay Rand’s retirement… but is he being unwittingly manipulated in that direction?

“Rebirth: Earth”  – Aboard a WWII cargo plane, Squadron Leader Clair is shocked to find a stowaway on board, one who consistently escapes incarceration and speaks with knowledge of future events. The stowaway insists that Clair allow him to man one of the machine guns, else the cargo plane—and all hands—will be destroyed. To prove himself, the stranger surrenders a book published in what is now New York City, but will be renamed Nach Hitler unless Clair’s mission is successful in delivering its cargo, and the only way to assure that is to believe the impossible claims of this inscrutable stowaway…

“The Star Saint” – Aboard the Colonist 12 starship, engineer and leader-elect of the human colonists, Leonard Hanley is charged with investigating the inexplicable destruction of the human colony on a planet called Ariel. Assisting him in this matter is the enigmatic explorer known as Mark Rogan, an alien capable of traversing the galaxy without need of a vessel. Viewing Rogan as competition, Hanley insists on being the first to solve the mystery of the dead Ariel colony only to find himself in a near fatal battle of Man versus Nature.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: Supermind by A.E. Van Vogt

Space vampires known as Dreeghs land on Earth in an attempt to dominate the planet and feed off humans, despite the fact that the planet is under protection from a being known as the Great Galactic. The Great Galactic uses lesser races such as Kluggs and Lennels to carry out its missions. These races are considered to be Observers and the Dreeghs begin by seeking them out to be destroyed first, thereby opening the floodgates for a full invasion.Supermind by A.E. Van Vogt

In doing so, the first two Dreeghs to crash on Earth somehow assume that any random newspaper reporter will have all of the information they need to find the local Observer for Earth. After murdering two humans for nourishment, the Dreeghs encounter a journalist named William Leigh when he accompanies a strange woman on a mission to confront the vampires and warn them off.

The woman is later revealed to be Patricia Ungarn, daughter of renown Professor Ungarn. The space vampires conclude that this professor, who resides on a meteorite out near Jupiter, is the local Observer working for the Great Galactic. As such, he must be eliminated before the fleet of Dreegh vessels arrives in the solar system to take over Earth. However, the Great Galactic has foreseen this and initiates a plan to defeat the vampires by placing its enormous intelligence first into William Leigh and then into the mind of the Ungarn’s dim space freighter pilot, Steve Hanardy.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, research scientist Doctor Gloge is experimenting with the Omega serum, intended to increase human evolution in stages from several hundred thousand years to—ultimately—one million years. Frustrated by years of failed experimentation on animals, Gloge chooses two human subjects who work in lower positions for the Project Alpha research facility. During chance meetings with them, the scientist successfully injects them with the serum using an air gun. Each reacts in their own unique—and unexpected—way…

Did any of the above make sense to you? Do you see how the space vampire plot relates to the Omega serum story? No? Well, don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Van Vogt is a legend, but Supermind is, by far, not one of the grand master’s finest works. It’s a conglomeration of three short stories poorly stitched together (“Asylum”, “The Proxy Intelligence”, and “Research Alpha”). A byproduct of this attempt to blend and connect the three included minor rewrites that inserted some characters from each story into the others, however loosely.

The concept of space vampires has no appeal to me at all, but the final section of the novel, based on “Research Alpha,” is a fantastic story and a fine example of Van Vogt at his best.

There were a few bothersome aspects early in the novel that either threw me briefly out of the story or gave me a chuckle such as odd character reactions, jarring jump cuts where characters abruptly turned up in a new location, and a handful of cheesy lines of narrative: “…her eyes struck me like a blow,” “Vampire victory is near,” and “His brain tensed.” Oy vey!!

I would not recommend Supermind as a first book for readers interested in Van Vogt. Instead, I suggest beginning with Slan.

Blog, Book Reviews

Book Review: The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke

Former SF writer turned journalist Martin Gibson is given the honor of being the first and only passenger aboard the cruise ship Ares on its journey from Earth to Mars. His task is to chronicle both his travels and his time on the red planet and report back on the progress of the Earth colony there.The Sands of Mars by Arthur C. Clarke

Despite a challenging launch to Gibson’s adventure—during which he learns just how much actual space flight differs from what he’d imagined in his novels—he eventually befriends the crew and, to his consternation, discovers a personal connection to the youngest of them, Jimmy Spencer.

While en route to Mars, the Ares is contacted by Earth and told to expect a rocket containing a vital serum intended to battle Martian Fever. However, the rocket’s course is such that the odds of intercepting it are slim unless the Ares is able to contact the rocket’s navigational transceiver and adjust its course. With some jury rigging of equipment, two of the crewman accomplish the mission and the serum is procured.

Destined to land on the Martian moon of Phobos, the Ares is inexplicably diverted to Deimos where it lands and transfers Gibson, his luggage, and supplies to a rocket which will take him to the surface of Mars.

At first, Gibson finds himself unimpressed by the alien landscape and the domed town of Port Lowell, the largest city on Mars. However, as the days pass, Gibson warms to the place and begins to explore—with results that could change the evolution of the red planet and turn Mars into mankind’s second home… if only Earth could be convinced to cooperate.

The Sands of Mars was Arthur C. Clarke’s first finished novel, but was published after Prelude to Space, and the similar concept of a writer hired to report on an expedition was obvious. However, unlike Prelude to Space—with its utter lack of tension and plot—The Sands of Mars was an engaging story with interesting characters (something Clarke was not always known for) and enough foreshadowing, twists, and turns to hold my attention until the end. Clarke did not belabor the reader with lengthy infoblocks of scientific jargon, but kept a steady pace, revealing just enough scientific fact to maintain credibility.