Remembering Lloyd Biggle Jr.
I have a confession to make. Before this week I never read any of Biggle's stories. I am now reading "Monument" for the Classic Science Fiction group.
In the area I grew up in, Biggle's books did not appear on the book racks. I was fascinated by this author but at that time I did not have the option of buying the books online. The titles of his novels sounded different from other writers' books. "The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets", "All the Colors of Darkness", "Silence is Deadly". The names alone evoke exotic sounding tales. What are "All the Colors of Darkness"? I know that I am anxious to find out.
From what I have heard, "Monument" is a good place to start reading the Biggle novels. It is a stand alone novel that some consider to be his best work. I am finding it very interesting. A space bum crash lands on a backwards planet, lives peacefully with the natives (descendents of an earlier ship), realizes he is dying and proceeds to prepare them for the inevitable efforts of mankind to turn their planet into a resort. The writing is easy to read while introducing more complex thoughts that are not apparent until later.
I will be adding more Biggle books in the future.
Follow this link to the Wikipedia biography. While serving in World War II he was wounded twice. The second time left him disabled for life. In his civilian life he became known, in addition to being an author, as a musician and as the founder of the Science Fiction Oral History Association. The association maintains an archive of video and audio recordings of people involved in science fiction.
He published two dozen mystery books and numerous short stories.
Bibliography
Series
Jan Darzek
- “Whom the Gods Love” (1971)
- All the Colors of Darkness (1963)
- Watchers of the Dark (1966)
- This Darkening Universe (1975)
- Silence is Deadly (1977)
- The Whirligig of Time (1979)
Cultural Survey
- · “The King Who Wasn’t” (2001)
- · “Perchance to Dream” (2002)
- · “The Pristine Planet” (2003)
- · “Off the Zomler, By the Zomler” (2003)
- · “The Problem of the Gourmet Planet” (2003)
- · The Still, Small Voice of Trumpets (1968).
- · The World Menders (1971) Serialized in three parts in Analog
Other Novels
* Hornet's Nest (1959)
* The Angry Espers (1961)
* A Taste of Fire (1959)
* The Fury Out of Time (1965)
* The Light that Never Was (1972)
* Monument (1974)
* Alien Main (1985), with T. L. Sherred
* Interface for Murder (1987)
* The Quallsford Inheritance (1987)
* The Glendower Conspiracy (1990); see camera obscura
* Where Dead Soldiers Walk (1994)
Collections
* The Rule of the Door and Other Fanciful Regulations (1967)
* The Metallic Muse (1972)
* A Galaxy of Strangers (1976)
3 comments:
Like you, I have hardly read anything by Biggle, although he was one of the founders of SFWA. THE WORLD MENDERS is the novel I have heard the most of, although your review of MONUMENT makes it sound interesting. I guess I'll do a bit of research on him and perhaps add a few titles to my [endless] wish list.
OK,lets try this again.
A little tibit of info for the Monument readers. This story was destined to be a movie. The screenplay scripts were written, the spacecraft and creatures created, the filming location selected. Then the producer, John Flory of Eastman Kodak and Spacefilms fame became ill. See Starlog for June, 1979 for the story on the movie production.
It would still make one heck of a movie.
Ken Biggle
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