Sandy Ferber | Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews

Author: Sandy Ferber

The Isle of Forgotten People: Yellow flowers in the yellow sea

The Isle of Forgotten People by Thompson Cross

For almost a decade now, the publisher known as Armchair Fiction has been a godsend of sorts for all readers of lost world/lost race fare. The company released its first such book in 2015 – Pierre Benoit’s 1919 classic Atlantida – and as of today, its Lost World – Lost Race Classics series stands at a very impressive 58 volumes, with no end in sight. I have recently written here of two of those 58 books – James De Mille’s excellent A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888) and Will N.

The Land of the Changing Sun: Underground morons

The Land of the Changing Sun by Will N. Harben

Released seven years after English author H. Rider Haggard sensationally jump-started the “lost world” craze in fiction with his seminal novels King Solomon’s Mines (1885), She (1887) and Allan Quatermain (also 1887), American author Will N. Harben’s only contribution to the genre, The Land of the Changing Sun, is a decidedly second-rate affair that yet manages to somehow entertain.

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder: Antarctic bizarros

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder by James De Mille

As I believe I’ve mentioned elsewhere, British author H. Rider Haggard‘s back-to-back-to-back releases of King Solomon’s Mines, She, and Allan Quatermain from 1885 – 1887 served as a sort of triple shock wave on the worldwide literary community. From that point and for the next half a century, scores of imitators would come out with hundreds of works that attempted to emulate the so-called “Father of the Lost-Word Novel,” and with varying degrees of success.

Nick and the Glimmung: Likeable city!

Nick and the Glimmung by Philip K. Dick

In his 1969 novel Galactic Pot-Healer, cult author Philip K. Dick introduced his readers to a character named Glimmung: a semidivine being who calls ceramic repairman Joe Fernwright, among others, to Plowman’s Planet (aka Sirius 5) to help raise a sunken cathedral from the oceanic depths. Confusingly described by Dick as weighing 40,000 tons and, later, 80,000 tons, Glimmung was yet a truly fascinating creation. But as it turns out,

So Bright The Vision: Brownies and milk

So Bright The Vision by Clifford D. Simak

I have been on something of a kick this past year as regards Clifford D. Simak and his shorter fiction of the 1950s. All the Traps of Earth (1962), The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1961) and Other Worlds of Clifford Simak (1962) had all proved to be truly wonderful – or perhaps I should say “wonder-filled” – collections,

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: Sandy reviews 23 U.N.C.L.E. novels

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.

Perhaps you would have to be a baby boomer to fully understand just how big a deal The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was back in the mid to late 1960s. Riding the crest of the spy-wave mania created by the seismic shock that were the James Bond films starting in 1962, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. debuted on NBC TV in September 1964 and ran for four seasons; well, actually, 3 ½, that final season having the plug pulled on it after just 16 episodes.

June 14th, 2024. Sandy Ferber | J. Hunter Holly | SFF Reviews | 17 comments |

Other Worlds of Clifford Simak: From zebra charms to walking vines

Other Worlds of Clifford Simak by Clifford D. Simak

Other Worlds of Clifford Simak is the companion volume to the 1961 Avon paperback The Worlds of Clifford Simak, a collection that had recently impressed me very favorably. As I mentioned in my review of that earlier volume, The Worlds of Clifford Simak was originally released as a Simon & Schuster hardcover in 1960; a rather generous-sized, 378-page affair containing a dozen of the future Grand Master’s stories.

The Worlds of Clifford Simak: Finely wrought tales from a future grand master

The Worlds of Clifford Simak by Clifford D. Simak

A recent perusal of Clifford D. Simak’s wonderful collection All the Traps of Earth (from 1962) served to remind this reader of how very excellent the beloved Wisconsin-born novelist could be with the shorter form, and I resolved to read more of his stories in the near future. Thus, when I spotted a rather beat-up copy of his collection The Worlds of Clifford Simak (no middle initial here,

Giants In The Dust: Oliver shines in his final sci-fi novel

Giants In The Dust by Chad Oliver

At this late date, the authors who have penned works in the fields of science fiction and fantasy must number well into the multiple thousands, but the ones with an actual background in science, who have used their education and scientific training to both inform and add veracity to their stories … ah, they are indeed amongst a much more limited crew. Let’s see … Isaac Asimov was, of course, an associate professor of biochemistry. Hal Clement had degrees in both chemistry and astronomy,

The Flying Eyes: Congeal, heal and repeal

The Flying Eyes by J. Hunter Holly

It sports one of the most famous covers in sci-fi paperback history; a piece of art so iconic that I have seen it reproduced in the form of refrigerator magnets! I am referring here to the first edition of J. Hunter Holly’s The Flying Eyes, the cover of which depicts a man and a woman fleeing in abject terror from the onslaught of several dozen – you guessed it – self-propelled, levitating eyeballs!

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July 2024

Sandy Ferber on Three-Bladed Doom: Howard’s only El Borak novelJuly 26, 2024
Don't know how to answer that, Andrew; I've only read the long. But when it comes to REH, more is…
Andrew on Three-Bladed Doom: Howard’s only El Borak novelJuly 25, 2024
Would you recommend the long or the short version of Three Bladed Doom?
Sandy Ferber on Almuric: Overwhelming storytelling gustoJuly 24, 2024
"A Gent From Bear Creek," originally a collection of short stories later cobbled together to make a novel, and "Three-Bladed…
Andrew on Almuric: Overwhelming storytelling gustoJuly 23, 2024
What were the 4 novels we wrote? Two were Almuric and Hour of the Dragon, what's the other 2?
Marion Deeds on Stonefish: Not your basic horror novelJuly 17, 2024
He has a new one just out (or being released soon) called DRILL. I'm interested, but I may need to…

Author: Sandy Ferber

The Isle of Forgotten People: Yellow flowers in the yellow sea

The Land of the Changing Sun: Underground morons

A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder: Antarctic bizarros

Nick and the Glimmung: Likeable city!

So Bright The Vision: Brownies and milk

THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E.: Sandy reviews 23 U.N.C.L.E. novels

Other Worlds of Clifford Simak: From zebra charms to walking vines

The Worlds of Clifford Simak: Finely wrought tales from a future grand master

Giants In The Dust: Oliver shines in his final sci-fi novel

The Flying Eyes: Congeal, heal and repeal

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