The Simulacra by Philip K. Dick
Fueled by prescription amphetamines, and in a burst of creative effort rarely seen before or since in the sci-fi field, cult author Philip K. Dick, in the period 1963 – ‘64, wrote no less than six full-length novels. His 13th since 1955, The Simulacra, was originally released as an Ace paperback in 1964 with a cover price of 40 cents. The book, written in Dick’s best middle-period style, gives us a pretty whacky look at life in the mid-21st century.
November 6th, 2015. Sandy Ferber and Kat Hooper´s rating: 3.5, 4 | Philip K. Dick | Audio, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 1 comment |
The Terminal Beach by J.G. Ballard
J.G. Ballard is best known for his autobiographical novel Empire of the Sun (1984), along with his early novels like The Drowned World (1962), The Crystal World (1964), The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), Crash (1973), Concrete Island (1974), and High-Rise (1975). But many consider his best work to be his huge catalog of short stories,
October 21st, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | J.G. Ballard | Edge, Short Fiction, Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Davy (1964) is a wonderfully-written coming-of-age story set in a post-apocalyptic Northeastern United States 400 years after a brief nuclear exchange destroyed high-tech civilization, where life has become far more like the frontier days of the early US, with a scattered group of city-states dominated by the Holy Murcan Church. Far from what you might expect, it is a tale filled with humor, pathos, and charm. It is the narrative voice of Davy as he grows up from a simple boy to a randy young man that captures the reader from the start.
April 29th, 2015. Stuart Starosta´s rating: 4 | Edgar Pangborn | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature by C.S. Lewis
To me, this might be C.S. Lewis‘ best book. I will have to cop to not really liking the NARNIA books (too allegorical, and those British schoolchildren are pretty annoying), and while I do quite like his SPACE TRILOGY, I think that Lewis was much better as a writer of academic non-fiction than he was as a fiction writer. In The Discarded Image, Lewis is able to tackle a huge subject: medieval cosmology and worldview,
March 9th, 2015. Terry Lago´s rating: 5 | C.S. Lewis | Non-fiction | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Time of the Great Freeze by Robert Silverberg
Given that global warming seems to be an almost universally accepted fact of life these days (except by obstinate conspiracy theorists such as my buddy Ron, who also denies that men ever walked on the moon), it might strike a reader as strange to come across a sci-fi novel that posits the advent of a new Ice Age in the early 23rd century. And yet, such is the case with Robert Silverberg’s Time of the Great Freeze,
February 4th, 2015. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Robert Silverberg | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 7 comments |
Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick
It’s easy to be skeptical when you crack open a book by Philip K. Dick; his output is hit or miss. The psychotic craziness of Dick’s personal life so often leaked into his writing that on more than one occasion his work features plots and themes derailed by a chaos seemingly external to the text. In the moments Dick was able to focus his drug and paranoia-fueled energies into a synergistic story, the sci-fi world benefited. Martian Time-Slip, just falling shy in quality to The Man in the High Castle or A Scanner Darkly,
September 19th, 2014. Jesse Hudson´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | SFF Reviews | 2 comments |
Earth’s Last Citadel by C.L. Moore & Henry Kuttner
Catherine Moore and Henry Kuttner, generally acknowledged to be the preeminent husband-and-wife writing team in sci-fi history, initially had their novella Earth’s Last Citadel released in the pages of Argosy magazine in 1943 (indeed, it was the very last piece of science fiction to be serialized in that publication). It was finally published in book form 21 years later. This is a pretty way-out piece of sci-fi/fantasy that reveals its debt to a handful of writers who had been major influences on the pair,
August 15th, 2014. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3 | C.L. Moore, Henry Kuttner | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | 4 comments |
The Penultimate Truth by Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick’s 11th science fictopm novel, The Penultimate Truth, was originally released in 1964 as a Belmont paperback (no. 92-603, for all you collectors out there) with a staggering cover price of… 50 cents. Written during one of Dick’s most furiously prolific periods, it was the first of four novels that he saw published that year alone!
One of his more cynical depictions of a duplicitous U.S. government, the story involves yet another one of the author’s post-atomic holocaust futures.
September 10th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 4 | Philip K. Dick | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
Clans of the Alphane Moon by Philip K. Dick
Clans of the Alphane Moon was one of six books that science fiction cult author Philip K. Dick saw published in the years 1964 and 1965. Released in 1964 as a 40-cent Ace paperback (F-309, for all you collectors out there), it was his 14th science fiction novel since 1955. This period in the mid-’60s was a time of near hyperactivity for the author. Under the influence of prescription uppers (like one of Clans of the Alphane Moon ‘s central characters,
August 30th, 2013. Sandy Ferber´s rating: 3.5 | Philip K. Dick | Stand-Alone | SFF Reviews | no comments |
...as well as the 1932 sequel, "Topper Takes a Trip"!
It's such a rich and ancient ambience - in many ways the plot itself doesn't matter, I just like strolling…
I didn't know he wrote Topper!
Best new book: Play of Shadows by Sebastien Sebastien de Castell Honorary mention for The Naming Song by Jebediah Berry…
Best read for August was Karel Capek's War With the Newts, another one of his acerbic fables about the human…