"The Last Supper" by T. D. Hamm
"Before reading this story, prepare yourself for a jolt and a chill in capsule form. O. Henry could have been proud of it. It could well become a minor classic."
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
The Last Supper
Today Project Gutenberg adds a short, short story by Thelma Hamm Evans. She was the wife of fellow sf author and fan E. Everett Evans, and one of the few women writing sf during the Golden Age.
"The Last Supper" by T. D. Hamm
"Before reading this story, prepare yourself for a jolt and a chill in capsule form. O. Henry could have been proud of it. It could well become a minor classic."
"The Last Supper" by T. D. Hamm
"Before reading this story, prepare yourself for a jolt and a chill in capsule form. O. Henry could have been proud of it. It could well become a minor classic."
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Freedom
Today Project Gutenberg adds two short novels by Mack Reynolds, including the Hugo Award nominated Status Quo.
Freedom (novelette) by Mack Reynolds
"Freedom is a very dangerous thing indeed. It is so catching—like a plague—even the doctors get it."
Status Quo (novella) by Mack Reynolds
Freedom (novelette) by Mack Reynolds
"Freedom is a very dangerous thing indeed. It is so catching—like a plague—even the doctors get it."
Status Quo (novella) by Mack Reynolds
Monday, October 26, 2009
Ultima Thule
Today another story by Randall Garrett and a novella by Mack Reynolds that was later included in his fixup novel Planetary Agent X (1965).
"Fifty Per Cent Prophet" by Randall Garrett
"That he was a phony Swami was beyond doubt. That he was a genuine prophet, though, seemed ... but then, what's the difference between a dictator and a true prophet? So was he...."
Ultima Thule by Mack Reynolds
"Fifty Per Cent Prophet" by Randall Garrett
"That he was a phony Swami was beyond doubt. That he was a genuine prophet, though, seemed ... but then, what's the difference between a dictator and a true prophet? So was he...."
Ultima Thule by Mack Reynolds
Sunday, October 25, 2009
High Dragon Bump
Just added to Project Gutenberg today...
"The Helpful Hand of God" by Tom Godwin
"...Can be very helpful indeed. But of course, it's long been known that God helps those who wisely help themselves...."
"Black Eyes and the Daily Grind" by Stephen Marlowe
"The little house pet from Venus didn't like New York, so New York had to change."
"High Dragon Bump" by Don Thompson
"If it took reduction or torch hair, the Cirissins wanted a bump. Hokum, thistle, gluck."
The Pathless Trail (1922) by Arthur O. Friel
"McKay and his two companions (a boisterous redhead named Tim Ryan and a bland blond named Meredith Knowlton) are in the scary jungles of Brazil to try and locate a missing heir to a fortune. The lost millionaire has been reported to have gone native, running around nearly naked with a bow, frightening traders and acting pretty much insane.The three heroes have been commissioned to find the wild millionaire and return him back to the States. But right off the bat, there`s trouble in the form of a Prussian brute named Karl Schwandorf, who immediately begins to scheme against them for his own vile reasons." Dr Hermes Reviews
"The Helpful Hand of God" by Tom Godwin
"...Can be very helpful indeed. But of course, it's long been known that God helps those who wisely help themselves...."
"Black Eyes and the Daily Grind" by Stephen Marlowe
"The little house pet from Venus didn't like New York, so New York had to change."
"High Dragon Bump" by Don Thompson
"If it took reduction or torch hair, the Cirissins wanted a bump. Hokum, thistle, gluck."
The Pathless Trail (1922) by Arthur O. Friel
"McKay and his two companions (a boisterous redhead named Tim Ryan and a bland blond named Meredith Knowlton) are in the scary jungles of Brazil to try and locate a missing heir to a fortune. The lost millionaire has been reported to have gone native, running around nearly naked with a bow, frightening traders and acting pretty much insane.The three heroes have been commissioned to find the wild millionaire and return him back to the States. But right off the bat, there`s trouble in the form of a Prussian brute named Karl Schwandorf, who immediately begins to scheme against them for his own vile reasons." Dr Hermes Reviews
Saturday, October 24, 2009
The Long Afternoon of Earth
Brian W. Aldiss stands as one of the most accomplished authors in the sf field. His ability to combine inventive sf imaginings with a deft literary style allow his works to be read and enjoyed on several levels. In his early novel Hothouse (1962), which was released in the U.S. in slightly abridged form under the title The Long Afternoon of Earth, all of his talent is on display.
The book is a seamless fixup of a series of novelettes originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Set in the distant future it paints a picture of an Earth in which human civilization has waned and the vegetable kingdom has asserted supremacy. The landmass of the world is now covered by a gigantic, sprawling banyan tree. In the tops of this tree prowl the traversers, titanic spider-like plant creatures. They feed on the hard radiation of outer space and have woven a web between the tidally locked Earth and its moon. Beneath them the planet seethes with aggressive vegetable creatures that have evolved to fill the niches once occupied by animals. Ravenous trappersnappers, devouring wiltmilts, swooping rayplanes, and "those mindless sharks" the thinpins. It is a world of menace at every corner, of Nature, red in tooth and claw.
In this world, in the middle layers of the banyan's branches, lives Lily-yo and her small tribe of diminutive humans. Now living a hunter-gatherer existence, the once dominant Homo sapiens have been reduced in stature both figuratively and literally. These humans are tiny creatures, only a fifth the size of their ancestors, their small size reflecting the diminished role of humans in this world. Faced with the constant threat of voracious plant beasts they live a precarious existence. They can only persevere and, like the vegetables around them, purse "their instinct for growth."
The novel is divided into three parts, each following the characters on their odysseys. The first involves Lily-yo and her small group, which includes the headstrong youth, Gren. They climb to the strange heights of the banyan, the Tips, to perform the ritual which will deliver Lily-yo and the other adults of the group to the afterlife. The remaining children of the group, including Gren, will go and start a new group as has been the custom from time immemorial. The second and third parts of the novel deal primarily with Gren whose obstinacy has resulted in his parting with the group. His resulting journeys lead him to unexpected perils and discoveries.
Delivered in a concise and economical style, Aldiss' novel is successful on all levels. As an entertaining story it never ceases to amaze with it's array of marvelous creatures and environments. The fecundity of imagination revealed here is matched only by deftness with which Aldiss crafts the narrative. The central image of the book, that of the cobweb draped Earth and moon, can be forgiven its lack of scientific plausibility for the shear power of its metaphorical vividness. Yet despite the brutality of the protagonists' world, and the ostensibly gloomy milieu of the Dying Earth subgenre in which this story is situated, the novel is never oppressive. The final pages leave you with a sense of hope, even in the face of cosmic adversity. It is a rewarding and accomplished book that exhibits Aldiss in the full flower of his growth as a writer.
The book is a seamless fixup of a series of novelettes originally serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Set in the distant future it paints a picture of an Earth in which human civilization has waned and the vegetable kingdom has asserted supremacy. The landmass of the world is now covered by a gigantic, sprawling banyan tree. In the tops of this tree prowl the traversers, titanic spider-like plant creatures. They feed on the hard radiation of outer space and have woven a web between the tidally locked Earth and its moon. Beneath them the planet seethes with aggressive vegetable creatures that have evolved to fill the niches once occupied by animals. Ravenous trappersnappers, devouring wiltmilts, swooping rayplanes, and "those mindless sharks" the thinpins. It is a world of menace at every corner, of Nature, red in tooth and claw.
In this world, in the middle layers of the banyan's branches, lives Lily-yo and her small tribe of diminutive humans. Now living a hunter-gatherer existence, the once dominant Homo sapiens have been reduced in stature both figuratively and literally. These humans are tiny creatures, only a fifth the size of their ancestors, their small size reflecting the diminished role of humans in this world. Faced with the constant threat of voracious plant beasts they live a precarious existence. They can only persevere and, like the vegetables around them, purse "their instinct for growth."
The novel is divided into three parts, each following the characters on their odysseys. The first involves Lily-yo and her small group, which includes the headstrong youth, Gren. They climb to the strange heights of the banyan, the Tips, to perform the ritual which will deliver Lily-yo and the other adults of the group to the afterlife. The remaining children of the group, including Gren, will go and start a new group as has been the custom from time immemorial. The second and third parts of the novel deal primarily with Gren whose obstinacy has resulted in his parting with the group. His resulting journeys lead him to unexpected perils and discoveries.
Delivered in a concise and economical style, Aldiss' novel is successful on all levels. As an entertaining story it never ceases to amaze with it's array of marvelous creatures and environments. The fecundity of imagination revealed here is matched only by deftness with which Aldiss crafts the narrative. The central image of the book, that of the cobweb draped Earth and moon, can be forgiven its lack of scientific plausibility for the shear power of its metaphorical vividness. Yet despite the brutality of the protagonists' world, and the ostensibly gloomy milieu of the Dying Earth subgenre in which this story is situated, the novel is never oppressive. The final pages leave you with a sense of hope, even in the face of cosmic adversity. It is a rewarding and accomplished book that exhibits Aldiss in the full flower of his growth as a writer.
Friday, October 23, 2009
Modus Vivendi
Today Project Gutenberg adds one of John Berryman's series of stories involving psychokinesis that he wrote under the pseudonym Walter Bupp. They mistakenly attribute the story to Randall Garrett. John Clute addressed this misconception in the Encyclopedia of SF, writing that, "...Walter Bupp is not a pseudonym for Randall Garrett, as often listed."
Update: They caught the error and now correctly attribute the story to Berryman.
"Modus Vivendi" by John Berryman
"It's undoubtedly difficult to live with someone who is Different. He must, because he is Different, live by other ways. But what makes it so difficult is that, for some reason he thinks you are Different!"
Update: They caught the error and now correctly attribute the story to Berryman.
"Modus Vivendi" by John Berryman
"It's undoubtedly difficult to live with someone who is Different. He must, because he is Different, live by other ways. But what makes it so difficult is that, for some reason he thinks you are Different!"
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Hawk Carse
A bit of déjà vu today as Project Gutenberg adds another story by Randall Garrett and the first Hawk Carse yarn. Bleiler observes, "The Hawk Carse stories, which are dated vaguely as in the period A. D. 2117-2148, are for all practical purposes traditional pulp Western stories transplanted into space, with the addition of an Oriental villain in the mode of Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu. While stories by other authors have approached this same aesthetic, the Hawk Carse series is a typological extreme."
Hawk Carse (A Complete Novelette) by Anthony Gilmore
"One of the spectacular exploits of Hawk Carse, greatest of space adventurers."
"Hanging by a Thread" by Randall Garrett
"It's seldom that the fate of a shipful of men literally hangs by a thread—but it's also seldom that a device, every part of which has been thoroughly tested, won't work...."
Hawk Carse (A Complete Novelette) by Anthony Gilmore
"One of the spectacular exploits of Hawk Carse, greatest of space adventurers."
"Hanging by a Thread" by Randall Garrett
"It's seldom that the fate of a shipful of men literally hangs by a thread—but it's also seldom that a device, every part of which has been thoroughly tested, won't work...."
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