As you might have noticed, thanks to the publishing company known as Armchair Fiction, I have lately been on something of a reading binge when it comes to lost-race fare. Just recently, I wrote here of three books in Armchair’s ongoing Lost World – Lost Race Classics series, which currently stands at a most impressive 58 titles. Those novels were James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder (1888),
August 8th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Ganpat | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
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.
July 22nd, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Thompson Cross | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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.
July 11th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 2.5 | Will N. Harben | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 3 comments |
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.
July 2nd, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | James De_Mille | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
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,
June 27th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Children, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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,
June 20th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Clifford D. Simak | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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 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.
May 20th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Clifford D. Simak | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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,
May 13th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Clifford D. Simak | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
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,
April 29th, 2024. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4.5 | Chad Oliver | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
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