29 March 2005
books seen March 2005

Trade paperback reproduction of one issue of a semi-monthly pulp magazine from 1919. The issue has a novelette by Rothvin Wallace; two two-part stories, one by Murray Leinster; one serial, by Francis Stevens; a new series, by Clyde Broadwell; nine short stories, by Lillian Benyon Thomas, Tod Robbins, Junius B. Smith, et al; miscellaneous items, and departments.
• Wildside Press has this page about the book, which describes the original magazine as "a legendary magazine, one of the holy grails of pulp collecting. Original copies sell for thousands of dollars -- if you can find them. Running for sixteen issues in 1919, it was a magazine of "strange, bizzare, occult, mysterious tales," but not quite a fantastic-fiction magazine, mixing various types of adventure stories with often outstanding fantasy, horror, and science fiction..."
• This facsimile carries an advisory: "Note also that this magazine is a product of its time; ideas, language and content may not always be 'politically correct' by current standards."

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Fantasy thriller about a mysterious gypsy and a modern policeman who are at the center of a fantastical and murderous web spun by the Queen of the Underworld. (Locus Index)
• The book began as a song-cycle by Brust and Adam Stemple, subsequently recorded as an album by Boiled in Lead.
• Amazon has the Publishers Weekly review: "Part gritty urban police procedural and part horror fable, this enthralling fantasy/mystery examines issues of life, death, love and morality. ... a powerful and memorable fantasy."
• Green Man Review has this review by Chuck Lipsig of this and two related books.

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Mid-period SF novel by PKD, latest in the ongoing series of reprints from Vintage Books that now numbers some three dozen titles. First published in F&SF, July 1964, as "Cantata 140". It's about the discovery of an alternate Earth seen as a solution to the problem of overpopulation.
• Not regarded as a major PKD novel; David Pringle's Ultimate Guide to Science Fiction calls it "Satirical, philosophical, crazy -- a clotted Dick narrative".
• Amazon has the description, and mixed reader reviews.
• The publisher's site has this description, while philipkdick.com has this plot summary and a cover art gallery.

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Omnibus of three 'Deathworld' novels -- Deathworld (Bantam 1960), Deathworld 2 (Bantam 1964), and Deathworld 3 (Dell 1968) -- all first serialized in Astounding and Analog -- plus short story "The Mothballed Spaceship" (1973). They concern one Jason dinAlt, confronting a planet seemingly hostile to human life.
• The publisher's site has this description.
• The first novel was a 1961 Hugo nominee.
• Harrison's website has links to synopses, reviews, etc., of the three novels.

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Collection of two stories, short novel "Claws of the Corpse Cult" from the April 1938 issue of Secret Agent "X" magazine, and short story "Latin Blood" by Robert Leslie Bellem, from Speed Detective, 1946.
• Wildside Press' site has this description.

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Collection of 20 stories, including "The New Atlantis" (Hugo and Nebula nominee, Locus Award winner), "Schrodinger's Cat", "SQ", "The Diary of the Rose" (Hugo and Nebula nominee, Jupiter Award winner), "The Pathways of Desire" (Nebula nominee), and "Sur" (Hugo nominee, Locus Award winner).
• The book won the 1983 Locus Award as best collection, and the Ditmar Award.
• Also reissued this month by Perennial: collections Unlocking the Air and A Fisherman of the Inland Sea.

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Fantasy novel, about a town named Lud whose inhabitants sever their relationship with Faerie, resulting in the trafficking of illegal fairy fruit.
• The author's only fantasy novel, it's regarded as a minor classic, according to Clute & Grant's Encyclopedia of Fantasy.
• This edition has an introduction by Douglas A. Anderson, and a foreward by Neil Gaiman from the 2000 Gollancz Fantasy Masterworks edition.
• Infinity Plus has a review by Michael Swanwick; SF Site has this review by Georges T. Dodds.

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Anthology of 12 stories set on Mars, all first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
• Stories includes Ray Bradbury's "The Wilderness", Leigh Brackett's "Purple Priestess of the Mad Moon", Roger Zelazny's "A Rose for Ecclesiastes", Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", John Varley's "In the Hall of the Martian Kings", and Alex Irvine's "Pictures from an Expedition".
• Other authors are Alfred Coppel, Arthur C. Clarke, Gordon Eklund & Gregory Benford, Robert F. Young, Michael Cassutt, and Jerry Oltion.
• The book is reviewed by Rich Horton in the March '05 issue of Locus Magazine: "a first rate anthology".

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The young couple, black-haired, dark-skinned, probably Mexican or Puerto Rican, stood nervously at Herb Lackmore's counter and the boy, the husband, said in a low voice, "Sir, we want to be put to sleep. We want to become bibs."

I was busy translating one of my Madrigals Macabre into Martian on the morning I was found acceptable. The intercom had buzzed briefly, and I dropped my pencil and flipped on the toggle in a single motion.

Although I have no intention of publishing this report, I think it would be nice if a grandchild of mine, or somebody's grandchild, happened to find it some day; so I shall keep it in the leather trunk in the attic, along with Rosita's christening dress and Juanito's silver rattle and my wedding shoes and finneskos.