Platinum Pohl: The Collected Best Stories by Frederik Pohl
Platinum Pohl is a career-spanning collection of Frederik Pohl’s best short fiction. Almost every collection of short fiction contains weak stories but I was absolutely blown away by editor James Frenkel’s selection of Pohl’s work. It is one of the best collections of short fiction I have ever read.
Platinum Pohl contains a total of thirty stories, too many to comment on each of them but I’ll name a number of the highlights.
April 15th, 2016. Rob Weber | Frederik Pohl | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Like Man Plus (1976) and Gateway (1977), books which Frederik Pohl a number of awards, Jem (1979) is another book from this highly successful period in Pohl’s career. It was nominated for both the Hugo and Nebula awards but didn’t win. It did win a National Book Award.
Jem is set in the near future (as seen from the late 1970s). The world is divided in three large blocs of nations: the food-exporting nations,
April 7th, 2016. Rob Weber | Frederik Pohl | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
At the Gates of Darkness by Raymond E. Feist
At the Gates of Darkness is the second book in the Demonwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist, and while his work is some of the first fantasy I’ve read and enjoyed enough to purchase, over the years my appreciation of his work has waned somewhat. This is partly because I have discovered books that are qualitatively much better, and partly because I have developed my taste as a reader of fantasy. I do have fond memories of his first dozen books,
April 1st, 2016. Rob Weber | Raymond E. Feist | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls by Jane Lindskold
Originally released in 1994, Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls is Jane Lindskold‘s first published novel. She is perhaps better known for her Firekeeper books and her collaboration with Roger Zelazny, and her more recent work is considered (urban) fantasy, but this book strikes me as more of a near future science fiction novel. As in a lot of her novels, there is a strong connection between animals and people, although not quite in the way the title seems to suggest.
March 24th, 2016. Rob Weber | Jane Lindskold | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
All the Lives He Led by Frederik Pohl
Frederik Pohl sold his first work in 1937; seventy-four years later, a new novel hit the selves. I don’t think many authors can boast such a long career. I’ve read several of Pohl’s novels as well as Platinum Pohl, a best of collection of short fiction, and I very much like the often slightly satiric nature of his work. The second half of the 1970s are usually considered the best period in his writing career,
March 18th, 2016. Rob Weber | Frederik Pohl | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
In the 1970s Frederik Pohl produced a number of highly regarded science fiction novels. Man Plus, which earned a Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1976, shows its age just a bit but I still found it very much worth reading.
In the near future, as seen from the 1970s, we may well be there now, the world is in a pretty bad shape. The sheer size of the human population the earth has to support has put a strain on the resources available.
March 8th, 2016. Rob Weber | Frederik Pohl | Nebula Award | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Eye of the Heron by Ursula K. Le Guin
Starscape (Tom Doherty’s YA imprint) presents The Eye of the Heron as a book for ages 10 and above. While the story is straightforward enough, the philosophical ideas that underpin the story are quite complex, so The Eye of the Heron is quite an interesting read for the more mature reader as well. Le Guin does not waste any words in telling the story, she delivers a to-the-point but surprisingly complex novel. If you read it at age 10,
September 4th, 2015. Rob Weber´s rating: 4 | Ursula K. Le-Guin | Stand-Alone, Young Adult | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
Starlady and Fast-Friend by George R.R. Martin
In July 2008 Subterranean published this book containing two novelettes by George R.R. Martin, both of which were originally published in 1976. They are presented in a similar fashion to the Ace Double novels of the 1950s and 1960s. Thus, Starlady and Fast-Friend has two covers and is printed back to back and upside down. I was born too late and on the wrong continent to have been exposed to any of these double novels myself, but I thought it an interesting idea anyway.
May 12th, 2015. Rob Weber´s rating: 4 | George R.R. Martin | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Octagonal Raven by L.E. Modesitt Jr
His fantasy, in particular the RECLUCE saga, is a lot more popular but L.E. Modesitt Jr. has also written quite a few science fiction novels. I’ve read a number of these now and they are usually an all or nothing read for me. Some I enjoyed tremendously (Flash, Adiamante, The Forever Hero), others I will never read again (The Ethos Effect,
March 26th, 2015. Rob Weber´s rating: 3 | L.E. Modesitt_Jr | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Best of Connie Willis by Connie Willis
Connie Willis has received a staggering eleven Hugo and seven Nebula awards in her career, an achievement nobody has equaled. Her induction in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2009 and receiving the SFWA Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement in 2011 can hardly be called surprising. Of her novels, three or four, depending on whether or not you count the two volumes Blackout and All Clear as a single work, have won awards, the rest Willis received for her short fiction.
March 19th, 2015. Rob Weber´s rating: 4 | Connie Willis | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Do it! One of the best things I've read in recent years.
This reminds me. I want to read Addie LaRue.
We’re in total agreement David!
I felt just the same. The prose and character work was excellent. The larger story was unsatisfying, especially compared to…
Hmmm. I think I'll pass.