A.E. Van Vogt

A couple (link no longer valid) of sites (link no longer valid) about the Golden-Age SF author.

2019 Update: Well, two out of the three above links are long gone. So I will point you toward the Internet SF Database entry and the Wikipedia entry on the author.

Science Fiction and the Post-Apollo Blues

(Reposted from a previous blog.)

Here's a talk that Terry Bisson gave in 1993. Good stuff here about and for those of us who grew up with Willey Ley, Apollo, the promise of the shuttle and more.

Oh yes, and a bit about the state of science fiction in 1993 that certainly still applies to the state of science fiction in 2003.

(2019 Update: The link to the talk is no longer valid. Bisson's talk can be found in The New York Review of Science Fiction, Issue 58.)

David Gerrold

Keeping on the science fiction theme (not much news to report in the world of space, so far today!), here's a link to the website of SF author David Gerrold.

Gerrold got his start as a write of short SF and screenplays for the original Star Trek series. He's also written a number of SF novels. One, The Man Who Folded Himself, is an interesting time travel/parallel universe novel. Another, When Harlie Was One, is one of the few SF novels dealing with the development of artificial intelligence where the AI doesn't go berserk and try to kill the human race (the other is Robert A. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress).

Gerrold was also instrumental in the development of Star Trek: The Next Generation. He even had to take a case to arbitration when it was alluded that he was not heavily involved, and was denied back pay (he won).

From his involvement in the original series came a novel Yesterday's Children. He had written a proposal for a script about the Enterprise finding a multi-generation starship. Eventually that book was written as The Galactic Whirlpool, while Yesterday's Children was re-written as Star Hunt.

The introduction to the 1995 edition of Star Hunt has an amusing chronology of the series of books and proposed movies and/or television series based on this story. There have been a number of failed attempts to get the story told on the big and little screen, one even involved another Star Trek veteran (D.C. Fontana).

Gerrold's older stuff has been picked up by BenBella Books, publishers of an excellent reissue of John Brunner's The Sheep Look Up (link updated in 2019 for a edition from another publisher).

They already have a new edition of The Man Who Folded Himself (link updated for 2019), and are now reissuing the Star Wolf books. They have The Voyage of the Star Wolf (link updated for 2019) out as well as The Middle of Nowhere (link updated for 2019). No mention of Star Hunt (made available sometime after this was first written), which shares some of the same characters as the others (and was written first), but appears to be orphaned from the others in this publishing effort.

There is mention of another book in the series, Blood and Fire (link updated for 2019). From some of the text in other sources, it appears to be a reworking of a story for Star Trek: The Next Generation that did not pan out. I'll be interested in seeing what he's come up with.

Space Opera Redefined

Here's an article that appeared in SFRevu by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer. If you don't know who they are, seek out any one of the books that they have edited or co-edited for Tor Books. Among the excellent titles that I own are The Ascent of Wonder and The Hard SF Renaissance.

I hope this article is an indication that they are working on another massive tome, this time dedicated to the subject of space opera.

Addendum (May 23, 2007): Yep it was. Yep they did. Eventually, as we wind our way through my archives, there will be more on the Really Big Book of Space Operas. See this for more information.

The Lensman Meets the Skylark

(Reposted from a previous blog.)

E.E. "Doc" Smith is one of my all-time favorite authors in the science fiction sub-genre of "space opera". Very few could do it as well or better—John W. Campbell, Jr., Edmond "World Wrecker" Hamilton and Jack Williamson among a scant few others.

There have been a few folks who have tried to write sequels to the original stories. More are but pale imitations (and forget about that horrid Japanese anime version!). Here is some "fan fiction" set in "Doc's" universe: Doomed Lensman (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, and the unwritten sequel!)!!!

It's...Astounding!

Along with my love of old science fiction, comes a love of old science fiction art. Here's a wonderful site that features many of the covers of the classic SF magazines Astounding and Amazing.

Take a look around the site. They have other excellent pages devoted to Kelly Freas and many other subjects.

Good stuff. I could stare at these for hours.

Addendum: Ah, the internet. All those links are now dead. As alternatives, how about:

Astounding Science Fiction.

Amazing Stories, here or here.

Kelly Freas.

Now This Looks Interesting...

If you know me, or if you've read far enough into the posts here, you know I have a certain fondness for young adult science fiction (what we used to call "juneviles").

The problem is I'll often remember part of a plot--or even just a picture.

Now there's a site called Stump the Bookseller. Loganberry Books of Cleveland allows you to post questions, descriptions, etc., on their site of a book you are looking for. If the proprietor can't help you, maybe one of the members of the community can.

The service costs $2.00, but if you're awake at nights, trying to figure out who wrote that favorite book from your childhood, it might be worth it!

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein still remains one of my favorite authors. Here's a website that quotes bits and pieces of his wit and wisdom. The only downside is that the site is not updated (no changes since June 14, 2000!) and the person running the site does not seem to respond to e-mail. But, keep hitting your "Refresh" button for a stream of comments...

(This was clipped from a previous site, so here is a response from Steve Hart dated June 8, 2003...)

Fans of Robert A. Heinlein crop up in the most unexpected places. When he died, the single most heartfelt tribute I read was in the libertarian Reason magazine—not too surprising, when you think about Heinlein's libertarian mindset, but the editors of Reason give the impression of reading nothing beyond The Wealth of Nations and Atlas Shrugged. Just the other day, I was researching somebody in the Bloomberg database and came across a business advisory firm called Tanstaafl. That's probably a warning of what to expect when the guy sets his fee.

And a follow-up comment by me, from September 6, 2003...

You Just Can't Keep a Discorporate Author Down!

A long lost novel by Robert A. Heinlein has been found and will be published early next year.

Here's a link to The Heinlein Society. There's a link there to order the book through Amazon.com (somehow, using this link instead of the usual Amazon site, benefits the society...and they say that they promote human spaceflight, which is a good enough reason for me to send them something!)

The description is pretty interesting. The book was never published because it was so racy—so racy that you could not have legally shipped it when it was written! It also features the first appearance of Nehemiah Scudder, the "Prophet" of the short novel If This Goes On... (one of my favorite stories by RAH, and set in his future history (see the collection The Past Through Tomorrow as well as numerous other collections of short stories).

This will be of some interest to me. I've read a number of books by Heinlein that were re-published in their original format. Some, like Stranger in a Strange Land did not really benefit from their restoration (I liked it either way!). Others, like Podkayne of Mars and Red Planet showed how heavy-handed editors can be (and Heinlein laid out his feelings clearly in his semi-autobiographical work Grumbles from the Grave). Others, like The Puppet Masters just became much better books as a result of the restoration.

With the recent passing of Virginia Heinlein, it's possible that we might see some additional restorations. I don't know who makes up Heinlein's "estate", but I hope that they exercise restraint or some control in granting movie options. No more horrible movies like Starship Troopers or Puppet Masters, please!

So, Heinlein's first novel now becomes his last novel!

John C. Winston Books

A website dedicated to my favorite books as a kid (other than the Robert A. Heinlein young adult books, the Tom Swift series and the Chris Godfrey series).

Kids, Grow Giant Mushrooms In Your Basement!

Maybe not quite, but I have fond memories of these guys from my brief flirtation with comic books when I was a kid. Luckily that flirtation did not last, and I moved onto more important things like science fiction!

They're back (replacement link here and here; original link long gone)...and they are apparently internet-enabled (sort of). Yes, the Amazing Sea Monkeys found in the comic book back pages of yore are back with a whole product line to support them.

The "Executive Set" is certainly cheaper than the Sharper Image (I think) self-contained environment that I saw in a catalog around the holidays. Of course the Sharper Image environment was "NASA-certified" or some such rot. This one is just proven by countless generations of glorified brine shrimp (whoops! the secret is out!)...

Metropolis!

Newly restored (original film score, lots of footage put back in, digital restoration to picture) version of Metropolis will soon be available on DVD...

Metropolis!