Sunday, June 22, 2014

Treasures from a Library Sale

Our local library has a room that is stocked with books they are selling.  As books are sold, more are added so you never know when or what you will find.

Last week I found 2 science fiction collections that were on my want list.


First up is a "best of" collection of the short fiction of James Tiptree, Jr. called "Her Smoke Rose Up Forever".  Tiptree, who was really Alice Sheldon, was one of the best short fiction writers of the seventies (my golden age of magazine fiction).  Among the classics I remember that appear in this collection are:

"Houston, Houston Do You Read"
"The Screwfly Solution"
"The Girl Who Was Plugged In"
"And I Awoke and Found Me on the Cold Hill's Side"
"We Who Stole the Dream"

I look forward to reading all of the stories in this book.  I am sure that I will find many more classic Tiptree stories.

The other book I picked up is "The Hugo Winners Vol. 4 1976-1979" edited by Isaac Asimov.  Many of these bring back fond memories and I am anxious to re-read many of the stories.

"Home is the Hangman" by Roger Zelazny
"The Borderland of Sol" by Larry Niven
"By Any Other Name" by Spider Robinson
"The Bicentennial Man" by Isaac Asimov
"Tricentennial" by Joe Haldeman
"The Persistence of Vision" by John Varley

And that is just a list of ones I read when they were first published.

The authors and time period make these part of my remembrance of Bob Sabella's Visions of Paradise blog.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Beyond the Wall

Editor:  James Lowder

First Publication:  June, 2012

Source:  Netgalley

Publisher:  Smart Pop

Exploring George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire

Next to reading science fiction and fantasy fiction, I enjoy reading all types of non-fiction about the field.  In my teen years the first thing I read in the genre magazines was the book review columns.  Now I do not have to wait for the monthly magazines.  Between blogs and the numerous non-fiction books being published, my to be read list is growing faster than ever.

Editor James Lowder has put together a great collection of articles about Martin's wildly successful "A Song of Ice and Fire".  R. A. Salvatore starts the book off with a perfect forward for this edition.  One of the articles that caught my attention was Myke Cole's commentary on post traumatic stress in the series.  As a reader I did not stop to think about this syndrome.  I know the next time I read the series I will be keeping Cole's article in mind.  That is the sign of great non-fiction writing when the author shows you something you missed in a series.  

Highly recommended.

I read this as part of the "Once Upon a Time VIII" challenge.