The Sorcery Club by Elliott O’Donnell
1912 was something of a banner year in the field of fantastic literature. Here in the U.S., Edgar Rice Burroughs jump-started his writing career with the releases of Tarzan of the Apes and A Princess of Mars, while Jack London came out with one of his finest fantasy creations, The Scarlet Plague. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond,
June 6th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Elliott O’Donnell | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Whispering Gorilla by Don Wilcox & Return of the Whispering Gorilla by David V. Reed
By my rough count, the publisher known as Armchair Fiction currently has, in its constantly expanding catalog, something on the order of 317 “double-novel” volumes for sale, not to mention its “single-novel” and short-story volumes. But of all those many two-novel volumes, which usually incorporate an unrelated pair of shortish but full-length pieces under one cover, the potential buyer would have to look long and hard to find a wackier pairing than is to be found in the publisher’s D-119: The Whispering Gorilla and Return of the Whispering Gorilla.
May 30th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | David V. Reed, Don Wilcox | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
All the Traps of Earth by Clifford D. Simak
Looking back, it strikes me with some surprise that, up until very recently, I had not read any of sci-fi Grand Master Clifford D. Simak’s shorter work in over 40 years. Oh, I had read any number of the author’s novels during those four decades, but since reading his 1968 collection So Bright the Vision back in 1981, none of his work of a shorter length. Coming to my rescue in this regard was the Wisconsin-born writer’s All the Traps of Earth,
May 18th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Clifford D. Simak | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
Corpus Earthling by Louis Charbonneau
As revealed in David J. Schow and Jeffrey Frentzen’s essential reference book The Outer Limits: The Official Companion (1986), that TV series’ producer and co-creator, Joseph Stefano, was laboring with some pretty serious concerns before the airing of Season 1’s ninth episode, “Corpus Earthling.” To quote from the book: “’When “Corpus Earthling” was finished and the music added, I sat there wishing I could say don’t air this,’ said Joseph Stefano. ‘I had never thought it could be that scary,
May 12th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Louis Charbonneau | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
G.O.G. 666 by John Taine
When famed Scottish mathematician Eric Temple Bell released his first novel, 1924’s The Purple Sapphire, no one could have foreseen that his literary career would extend 30 more years and encompass 15 books of very high-quality science fiction. Looking back on the eight books by Bell that I have read so far – all of them written under his pen name, John Taine – the thing that strikes me first is how very different each one is from the others.
May 8th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | John Taine | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Mars Is My Destination by Frank Belknap Long
Five years back, I shared some thoughts here regarding Frank Belknap Long’s famed horror anthology The Hounds of Tindalos (1946), which in later years was broken into two volumes, The Hounds of Tindalos and The Black Druid. It was a perfect introduction to this wonderful writer for me, and I’ve been, uh, longing to read some more Long ever since.
May 2nd, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Frank Belknap Long | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Crashing Suns by Edmond Hamilton
In his serialized novel of 1930 entitled The Universe Wreckers, which originally appeared in the pages of Amazing Stories magazine, Ohio-born author Edmond Hamilton gave his readers a tale concerning the pancake-shaped residents of Neptune who were trying to increase the spin rate of our sun for their own nefarious purposes. But this was hardly the first time that Hamilton had presented his audience with a gaggle of bizarrely shaped aliens who were weaponizing the celestial bodies;
April 25th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Edmond Hamilton | Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Joy Makers by James Gunn
Shortly before being taken over by Random House in 1988, Crown Publishers had a wonderful thing going with its Classics of Modern Science Fiction series; a nicely curated group of books in cute little hardcover volumes that the imprint released during the mid-‘80s. Previously, I had enjoyed (and, in some cases, written about here) such terrific titles in this series as Charles L. Harness’ The Paradox Men (1953), Murray Leinster’s The Forgotten Planet (1954),
April 20th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | James Gunn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Shores of Another Sea by Chad Oliver
1961 was something of a banner year for Cincinnati-born sci-fi author Chad Oliver. In the first part of that year, having already released four novels of anthropological science fiction, he received his Ph.D. in anthropology at UCLA, a degree that would help him become an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin two years later, and the Chairman of the Dept. of Anthropology there in 1967. And in the latter part of 1961,
April 10th, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Chad Oliver | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Shadows in the Sun by Chad Oliver
Although it’s been almost seven years since I read Chad Oliver’s masterful fourth novel, Unearthly Neighbors (1960), such are the evocative atmosphere and compelling alien depictions in that book that I still manage to remember it quite well. And indeed, Unearthly Neighbors just might be the most convincingly realistic description of “first contact” on another world that a reader could ever hope to encounter.
March 31st, 2023. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Chad Oliver | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The book that wouldn't burn by Mark Lawrence and a reread of the murderbot diaries.
Have not read Turow's fiction but his book One-L, describing the entry level law school experience and featuring the prifessor…
Scott Turow's second book, "The Burden of Proof", is a semi-sequel to "Presumed Innocent". The psychological darkness of the situations…
I've been reading The Everything Learning Russian book to help with my novel set in Russia. The structure of the…
In the first part of the graphic novel series "Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise", we see that after…