Category Archives: Book Reviews

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Book Review: The Deadly Streets by Harlan Ellison

The Deadly Streets by Harlan EllisonFor ten weeks in the early 1950s, Harlan Ellison joined a notorious Brooklyn street gang known as the Barons as part of his research for his first novel, Web of the City and later, his crime collection, The Deadly Streets.

The first edition of The Deadly Streets was released in 1958 and contained 11 hard-boiled tales about teenage street gangs. The book was re-released in 1975 with an additional five crime stories, some written in collaboration with other writers including “Ship-Shape Pay-Off” with Robert Silverberg and “Sob Story” Henry Slesar.

What sets these additional five stories apart from the original 11 is that they are much shorter and completely unrelated to the theme of teenage street gangs. Rather, they tend to focus on mob hits (“The Man with the Golden Tongue”), revenge (“Rat Hater”, “Hippie Slayer”) and personal vendettas (the aforementioned “Ship-Shape Pay-Off”). “Sob Story” is the weakest of the lot and barely qualifies as a crime drama.

My personal favorites from the collection include “We Take Care of our Dead,” “The Man with the Golden Tongue,” “Johnny Slice’s Stoolie,” “Buy Me That Blade,” “Hippie Slayer,” “With a Knife in Her Hand,” “Dead Shot,” and “Students of the Assassin.”

Although the slang is outdated and the depictions of violence mild by today’s standards, each of the original 11 tales present a vivid snapshot of the bloody and ruthless street gang culture of 1950s New York.

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Book Review: Stalking Kilgore Trout by Rachel C. Thompson

Stalking Kilgore TroutAn entertaining collection of clever stories addressing religious, governmental, and LGBTQ themes, Stalking Kilgore Trout showcases Thompson’s breadth as a storyteller, offering an imaginative variety of characters, plots, and settings. The tales range from silly and outlandish to serious and critical, with more than a few that are blatantly—and perhaps intentionally—“on the nose.”

My only criticism is that the manuscript would have benefitted from a more thorough proofreading. Nevertheless, there were several gems including “Mary Cook and the Railway Men,” “Stalking Kilgore Trout,” “Death by Lawnmower,” “The Jesus Probe,” “Going Up the Mountain,” “The Witch Child,” and “A Cat’s Tale.”

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Book Review: Arthur C. Clarke’s Voices from the Sky

Voices from the Sky by Arthur C ClarkeDivided into three sections, Voices from the Sky delivers a series of enjoyable essays–some prescient, others less so–on topics ranging from spaceflight and communication satellites to the future of human culture as shaped by technological advancement.

While many of Clarke’s predictions have come to pass, others miss the mark including the elimination of business travel and the obsolescence of cities as a result of video conferencing and a global communications network. So enthusiastic was he about the U.S.A.’s burgeoning space program of the 1960s, that Clarke predicted mankind’s expansion to the moon, Mars, and beyond. He could not have known that budget cuts would curtail our space program by the 1990s.

Still, Clarke’s considerable talents as a science fiction writer and science communicator, combined with his cosmopolitan viewpoint, provide fascinating insights from a time when humanity was just entering the space age.

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Book Review: The Making of Star Trek II by Allan Asherman

Making of Star Trek II by Allan AshermanAn excellent and succinct account of the making of what is arguably the best entry in the Star Trek film franchise. Asherman’s book recounts the genesis of the story, the various drafts of the script, the and the special effects as created by ILM. Through interviews with producers Harve Bennett and Robert Sallin, director Nicholas Meyer, and cast members Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley, we gain insight into the creative decisions that went into crafting the plot, the music, the wardrobe, and—most especially—the death of Spock.

 

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Book Review: Strange Stories of the Supernatural

When I was in high school, mumble-mumble years ago, the Scholastic Book Club was known for selling inexpensive reprints of classic novels and anthologies published by Watermill Press. You can still find these old paperbacks online and in used book shops.

In October, I reviewed two of them on this blog—The Legend of Sleepy Hollow/Rip Van Winkle and Great Ghost Stories. I recently discovered Strange Stories of the Supernatural tucked away in one of our bookcases at home. It is a thin anthology consisting of only five tales, the best of which is the “The Monkey’s Paw” by W.W. Jacobs. A military veteran returns home from India with a mummified monkey’s paw, which grants its owner three wishes—at a terrible cost. While visiting a friend, the soldier tosses the trinket into the fire, but his friend hastily retrieves it and insists on trying it, despite the soldier’s warning…

The remaining four stories range from mildly enjoyable (“The Upper Berth” and “The Ghost Ship”) to disappointing (“The Mortal Immortal” and “The Dream Woman”).

In “The Upper Berth” by F. Marion Crawford, an Englishman named Brisbane recounts a ghostly encounter while crossing the Atlantic aboard a ship where six previous passengers threw themselves overboard during previous voyages. As it happens, every one of them slept in the same stateroom as Mr. Brisbane…

While spending the night at a secluded inn, Isaac Scatchard dreams that a young woman with a knife tries to murder him in his bed. Upon arriving home, Isaac describes the dream to his mother, who takes detailed notes. Years later, he meets an attractive woman and eventually arranges for her to meet his mother, who recognizes her instantly from Isaac’s description of “The Dream Woman.” This story by Wilkie Collins is among the better ones in the book.

“The Ghost Ship” by Richard Middleton. In the English town of Fairfax, ghosts are a common sight and are, in fact, taken for granted. However, it is unusual for a tall ship to materialize in the middle of a turnip field after a violent storm. The ghost ship’s captain assures the town that he will return to sea in a few days—after taking on new recruits.

In Mary Shelley’s “The Mortal Immortal,” an alchemist’s young apprentice drinks a solution that might have made him immortal, for his outward appearance never changes throughout his decades-long marriage. Yet, he drank only half the bottle, so is he truly immortal or merely aging slowly?

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Book Review: The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov

The Caves of Steel by Isaac AsimovIn the far future, humanity has long since colonized many worlds beyond our solar system with the help of positronic robots. During those years, an expanding philosophical and cultural schism has formed between the people of Earth and the “Spacers.” Colonists regard Earth—with its enclosed and overcrowded Cities, agoraphobic citizens, and abhorrence of robots—as a backward planet rife with filth, ignorance, and disease.

Just outside of New York City, Spacetown keeps its borders closed to citizens of Earth except by appointment and even then, visitors are required to shower and submit to a medical exam before being permitted to enter. After the murder of a prominent “Spacer” roboticist, Doctor Sarton, Spacetown authorities engage NYC police to investigate.

Enter plainclothesman Elijah “Lije” Bailey, assigned to the case by his agitated supervisor, Police Commissioner Julius Enderby, who seems more concerned about maintaining an amicable relationship with the Spacers than about solving the murder. More, Spacetown authorities insisted on assigning one of their own detectives to the investigation, Daneel Olivaw—a robot indistinguishable from a human, configured with a special “justice” circuit.

To make matters worse, members a subversive group called the Medievalists—whose goal is to see Earth return to a time reminiscent of the 20th century—somehow discover Olivaw’s true nature and begin conspiring against the two detectives, hampering their investigation.

Bailey is well aware that if the citizens of New York learn that an advanced humanoid robot walks among them, their paranoia and outrage could easily spark a destructive riot…

The Caves of Steel, referring to Earth’s enclosed cities, is the first in a trilogy of SF detective novels starring Elijah “Lije” Bailey and his android partner R. Daneel Olivaw (all robots in this trilogy are designated by the first initial of “R”). While the murder of Doctor Sarton is the catalyst that brings these two characters together, their investigation soon becomes secondary in favor of developing their partnership and to Olivaw’s full range of capabilities as a robot but lack of human cultural experience, as well as Bailey’s relationship with his wife, Jessie, and to a lesser extent, his son, Bentley.

Yet, Asimov adroitly ties all of these elements together for a neatly packaged and satisfying ending. There is little doubt as to why The Caves of Steel, and its two sequels (The Naked Sun and The Robots of Dawn) are counted among Asimov’s best works of science fiction. Asimov pays more attention to character development here than in many of his other novels, save perhaps for the Foundation series, in which Olivaw is also a fairly prominent character.