Science Fiction 28 – Cordwainer Smith

The stories of the late, great Cordwainer Smith are undoubtedly among the most unique and original works of Science Fiction ever written.

There is something in Cordwainer Smith’s writing that instantly transports the reader to the far flung future of the Instrumentality of Mankind. The stories are entrancing, strangely wonderful and wonderfully strange. A great many of the stories are told from the viewpoint of an unnamed narrator in an even more distant future, a sort retelling of the history and folklore of the Instrumentality.

You’ve only got to look at the titles of the stories to get some sense of the wonder waiting for you. How could you resist a story titled “Golden The Ship Was – Oh! Oh! Oh!” or "The Dead Lady of Clown Town” or “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”

I came across Cordwainer Smith in the 1970s, so the above editions were all acquired then. I’m pretty sure my collection is complete, including the story, Down to A Sunless Sea published posthumously in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1975 written by Genevieve Linebarger, of which issue, I do have a copy, purchased no doubt because it had a Cordwainer Smith story.

Next – Robert Stallman

Science Fiction 27 – Dan Simmons

Dan Simmons of course needs no introduction. He is well known as a master writer in several genres, predominately Horror and Science Fiction. I’m not a big fan of horror – too squeamish I suppose, so it’s Simmons SF books I admire the most. First the Hyperion sequence…a bizzare take on the Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

Then there’s Ilium and its sequel Olympus – inspired by Homer.

Next – Cordwainer Smith

Science Fiction 26 – Lucius Shepard, Kathleen M Sidney, Robert Silverberg & Clifford D Simak.

First up for this entry is Lucius Shepard’s Life During Wartime, one of three Shepard novels in my collection. I also have his vampire novel, The Golden and Green Eyes, his take on zombies, but they are on another shelf which I’ll get around to eventually.

Who, you may well ask, is Kathleen M Sidney? I’m afraid there is very little information on her or her book Michael and the Magic Man, so I’ll just have to rely on the blurb on the back of the book to give an idea of its contents.

It says:
”When Earth was invaded nobody knew it.

Nobody but the Magic Man and Michael, a few footloose psychics in a supersleek van, driving through a fantastic American dreamscape in a nonstop, cross-country war with a mind bending Power from beyond the stars”

Sounds kind like hippie science fiction to me, and the cover does nothing to disabuse one of this notion.

Robert Silverberg has written many novels, but I appear to have only two of them – Lord Valentine’s Castle and Nightwings.

And lastly for this entry, Clifford D Simak’s wonderful City, where intelligent dogs and robots end up running the earth after man becomes obsolescent.

Next – Dan Simmons

Science Fiction 25 – Hilbert Schenck, James Schmitz, Robert Sheckley & Michael Shea

Little is known about Hilbert Schenck other than the fact that he is a ocean engineer who tried his hand at writing Science Fiction. A Rose for Amageddon is one of his full length novels, though he predominantly wrote short stories some of which won Hugo and Nebula awards in the early 1980s. A Rose for Armageddon sounds as if it could be filed under the dystopian novel category. I can’t remember if I’ve ever read it

James H Schmitz was a prolific writer, particularly of short stories. He only wrote five novels. Two of them are below – The Witches of Karres and The Universe Against Her, space opera with strong female protagonists.

Robert Sheckley had an interesting life and is well known as one of the greats of classic Science Fiction. As stated on his Wikipedia entry, “…his numerous quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist and broadly comical”, which gives you an idea of the sort of fiction he wrote.

My library boasts several books by Robert Sheckley, though as usual it has been decades since I last opened them, let alone read them. Dig the cover images of Mindswap and Immortality Inc!

And to finish this entry, the strange, Jack Vance inspired, Nifft the Lean by Michael Shea. It won the World Fantasy Award in 1982. Original DAW edition with cover art and frontispiece by Michael Whelan.

Next – Shepard, Sidney, Silverberg & Simak

Science Fiction 24 – Tom Reamy, Keith Roberts & Geoff Ryman

This entry covers two deceased authors and one still living.

Tom Reamy died at the early age of 42 before his first novel, Blind Voices, was even published. There was quite deal of hype about this novel when it was published, so naturally I got myself a copy. A great many years have passed since I read it, but I think my feeling at the time was that it didn’t quite live up to the hype. Reamy’s collected stories San Diego Lightfoot Sue was also published posthumously.

Pavane, by the late Keith Roberts, a British SF writer, is another thing altogether. It’s a wonderful book, in the alternate history sub genre, distinguished by beautiful writing. It is in the form of “a collection of linked stories set in an alternate world where Elizabeth I was assassinated and 20th century England remained technologically backward under the oppression of the Catholic Church”. It is a book I regularly revisit and is still in print in the SF Masterworks series. The SF Site reviewed Pavane in 2001. Also present in my collection is Roberts’ anthology Machines and Men.

Another acclaimed SF novel is The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman which is also available in SF Masterworks series published by Gollancz/Orion. An unusual and very original novel, there is a rave review of it on SF Site here.

Next – Schenck, Schmitz and Sheckley

Science Fiction 23 – Paul Park & Severna Park

I first discovered the writing of Paul Park back in the late 1980s reading his well regarded Starbridge Chronicles which comprise Soldiers of Paradise, Sugar Rain and The Cult of Loving Kindness. I recall being impressed with these books, and vaguely recollect that they had a touch of French Revolutionary history about them.

I wrote a review of The Roumanian Quartet on my Cat Politics Blog back in July last year.

I found it to be a highly original fantasy series. It is set in an alternate Roumania and has one of the most memorable villainesses in literature.

As Ian Sales has commented below, there is also Celestis AKA Coelestis. My copy appears to be unread, pristine in fact, so as an afterthought it is hereby entered. Note to self, read it next.

Severna Park, is not a writer you hear much about these days or maybe never. However, I do have a copy of her novel Hand of Prophecy which was reviewed on the SF Site way back in 1998. The book appears to be something of a rarity, judging by the prices for it on Amazon. And no, as far as I know she is no relation to Paul Park.

Next – Reamy, Roberts & Ryman

Science Fiction 22 – Edgar Pangborn, Alexei Panshin, Frederick Pohl & Christopher Priest.

Another writer of post apocalyptic stories is Edgar Pangborn. His most famous novel is Davy. He also wrote several other novels set in the same world as Davy, The Judgement of Eve, The Company of Glory and Still I Persist in Wondering, a collection of stories published after his death.

Rite of Passage is a science fiction novel by Alexei Panshin. Published in 1968, this novel about a Shipboard teenager's coming of age won that year's Nebula Award. It was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1969.

Another book in my collection published by Penguin is Wolfbane by Frederick Pohl.

Don’t ask me what it’s about, I have never got around to reading it. The cover is cool anyway.

Christopher Priest is an British SF writer whose novel The Prestige was made into a well regarded film in 2006. However, the only novel I have by him is A Dream of Wessex which is a “story about a group of twentieth-century dreamers who create a consensus virtual-reality future. Once they enter their imaginary world they are unable to remember who they are, or where they are from.”

Next – Paul Park