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 |
All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By by John Farris
Having never read anything by John Farris, I stumbled upon his 1977 novel All Heads Turn When the Hunt Goes By after seeing David J. Schow‘s very laudatory remarks concerning the book in Jones & Newman‘s overview volume Horror: 100 Best Books (1988). In his essay, Schow calls it a “unique horror novel; the strongest single work yet produced by the field’s most powerful individual voice,”
March 4th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | John Farris | Horror, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
The Mask of Circe by Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore
Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, sci-fi’s preeminent husband-and-wife writing team, eased back a bit from earlier years’ prolific outputs in 1948, coming out with only four short stories and a short novel. The previous year had seen their sci-fi masterpiece Fury serialized in the pages of Astounding Science Fiction, and to follow up on that brilliant piece of work, the team switched gears, as it were, and wrote what was in essence an example of hard fantasy,
February 28th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
What a fascinating exploration of Edwige Fenech's contributions to the giallo genre! I love how the post highlights her unique…
Pretty challenging book. Cut by half, speed up the cadence. Trying to figure out the plot, the main point of…
Thanks for the kind words, Marion! Coming as they are from a professional writer, they are much appreciated!
Wonderful review, Sandy.
The "body count" bothered me a bit less because being dead seemed more like an inconvenience than anything else... unlike…