Fury by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
1946 had been a very good year indeed for Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, with a full dozen stories published plus three fine novels (The Fairy Chessmen, Valley of the Flame and The Dark World), and in 1947, science fiction’s preeminent husband-and-wife writing team continued its prolific ways. Before the year was out, the two had succeeded in placing another 15 stories into the pulp magazines of the day,
May 22nd, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner
When budding author Henry Kuttner wrote a fan letter to the already established Weird Tales favorite C.L. Moore in 1936, little did he know that the object of his admiration was a woman… a woman who, four years later, would become his wife, and with whom a collaboration would begin that was ultimately recognized as one of the sturdiest pillars of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Such a melding of talents was Henry and Catherine Lucille’s, it has been said,
May 9th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Henry Kuttner | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Mahatma and the Hare by H. Rider Haggard
The Mahatma and the Hare was first published in book form in 1911, and is one of H. Rider Haggard‘s rarer titles. The idea for this short novel came to Haggard, he states in the book’s preface, after he had read a newspaper account of a hare that had swum out to sea to avoid being captured by pursuing hounds. In Haggard’s story, the self-called mahatma — a spiritual man who is able, when asleep, to view “The Great White Road”
May 1st, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | H. Rider Haggard | Free!, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Nine Tomorrows: Tales of the Near Future by Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov may very well be the most prolific author in modern history. With over 500 books to his credit (506, to be exact… go to asimovonline.com for the full list, if you don’t believe me!), covering just about every subject in the Dewey Decimal System (except philosophy, I believe), the man was a real marvel. One of these 500 volumes, Nine Tomorrows, is a collection of short stories that Doc Ike first had published in various magazines during the period July 1956 to November 1958.
April 19th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Isaac Asimov | Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Mutant by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
By the early 1950s, the great husband-and-wife writing team of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore had moved to the West Coast to acquire degrees at the University of Southern California, and were concentrating more on their scholastic pursuits than their (formerly prodigious) sci-fi/fantasy output. In 1953, the pair released Mutant, which would turn out to be their final, novel-length work of science fiction as a team. Mutant is what is known as a “fix-up novel,” consisting of four short stories originally published in 1945 and a final story released in 1953,
April 15th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Weird Tales: 32 Unearthed Terrors edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin Greenberg
Though hardly a runaway success in its day, and a publication that faced financial hardships for much of its existence, the pulp magazine known as Weird Tales is today remembered by fans and collectors alike as one of the most influential and prestigious. Anthologies without number have used stories from its pages, and the roster of authors who got their start therein reads like a “Who’s Who” of 20th century horror and fantasy literature.
April 8th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | C.L. Moore, Clark Ashton Smith, Frederik Pohl, Fritz Leiber, H. Warner Munn, H.P. Lovecraft, Henry Kuttner, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch, Robert E. Howard, Theodore Sturgeon | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore
I owe a debt of gratitude to writer Marvin Kaye, who selected Guy Endore‘s classic novel of lycanthropy, The Werewolf of Paris, for inclusion in Kim Newman and Stephen Jones‘s excellent overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books. If it hadn’t been for Kaye’s article on this masterful tale, who knows if I would have ever run across it. And that would have been a real shame,
April 1st, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 5 | Guy Endore | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Walk to the End of the World by Suzy McKee Charnas
In the mood for a good piece of post-apocalyptic, feminist science fiction? Well, then, I’ve got a doozy for you! Suzy McKee Charnas’ first novel, Walk to the End of the World (1974), is just such a book, combining a tough little tale with a healthy dose of sociopolitical rumination.
Taking place many years after mankind has destroyed its planet with wars and pollution, “leaving it to the wild weeds,” Walk to the End of the World introduces the reader to the society of the Holdfast,
March 29th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Suzy McKee Charnas | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison
The Dark Country was Dennis Etchison‘s first collection of short stories, and originally appeared back in 1982. I picked up an out-of-print copy recently, after seeing that it had been included in Stephen Jones and Kim Newman‘s excellent overview volume, Horror: 100 Best Books. Well, I don’t know if I would place it on my personal top 100 list, but this book certainly is a unique collection of shuddery,
March 18th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Dennis Etchison | Horror, Short Fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
House of Flesh by Bruno Fischer
It was horror writer David Bischoff, writing in Jones and Newman’s excellent overview volume Horror: Another 100 Best Books who first turned me on to Bruno Fischer’s House of Flesh (1950). In his essay, Bischoff mentions that House of Flesh is a “Gothic novel for males,” reveals that it is his favorite “shudder pulp horror” story, and tells us that this little novel surprisingly sold over 2 million copies in North America alone. The edition that I read is the hard-to-find original Fawcett “Gold Medal,”
March 11th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Bruno Fischer | Horror | SFF Reviews | no comments |
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