Getting to the end of Vintage SciFi Month, I’m back to the 1930s again with the amazing Northwest Smith Stories by C. L. Moore. Lurid and pulpy though they are, well matching the Weird Tales cover art of Margaret Brundage, each story is a tour de force of riveting intensity. But be prepared. Lurid they […]
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Continuing on my list for Vintage Science Fiction Month, I read Theodore Sturgeon’s 1953 novel, More Than Human. This was my introduction to Sturgeon’s work, and I’m in awe of his accomplishment. From the beginning, it’s clear you’re in the hands of a master. Forget genre, this is just great fiction writing. Aside from a […]
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin – Vintage Science Fiction Month
I’m starting off my Vintage Science Fiction Month with Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Lathe of Heaven (1971). It is one of the most thrilling books I’ve read but also one of the most philosophical and poetic. It achieves an amazing balance in the confrontation between two opposing characters: George Orr, whose “effective” dreams change […]
SciFiMonth: Colonizing the Mind in Tade Thompson’s Rosewater Insurrection
With #SciFiMonth getting underway, and a certain election holding our fates in the balance, my reading has turned to more political scifi themes, or maybe I’m just more attuned than ever to that dimension of so many recent books. I’m in the midst of Tade Thompson’s Wormwood trilogy and find it more engrossing with every […]
Pushing the Boundaries of Mind: Science Books for SFF Readers – 3
One of the reasons I’m drawn to science fiction is to see how writers explore boundaries of mind and consciousness. I mean not just the sort of psychic powers that were popular to write about 40 or 50 years ago (or superheroes today) but testing the limits of human consciousness. While sff fiction uses standard […]
