There is no The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, 21st Series. Instead, Edward L. Ferman assembled this The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction: A Special 25th Anniversary Anthology (1974) featuring stories from the special Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction first six special one-author issues.

The one-author issues started in early 1960s with Theodore Sturgeon (September 1962) followed by Ray Bradbury (May 1963) then Isaac Asimov (October 1966), Fritz Leiber (July 1969), Poul Anderson (April 1971), and James Blish (April 1972).

In his Introduction, Ferman gives credit to Joe Ferman, then the publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, for the idea of one-author issues and the format: a major new work of fiction by the author, accompanied by a profile, critical appreciation, and bibliography.

If you’re a fan of Sturgeon, Bradbury, Asimov, Leiber, Anderson, and Blish this anthology should be a fixture in your library. Great stories! And I enjoyed reading the critical appreciations by Judith Merril, William F. Nolan, L. Sprague de Camp, Gordon R. Dickson, and Robert A. W. Lowndes. GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• ix • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, 25th Anniversary) • (1974) • essay by Edward L. Ferman
• 3 • When You Care, When You Love • (1962) • novelette by Theodore Sturgeon
• 56 • Theodore Sturgeon • (1962) • essay by Judith Merril
• 68 • Sturgeon Bibliography • (1962) • essay by Sam Moskowitz (variant of Fantasy and Science Fiction by Theodore Sturgeon (Bibliography))
• 75 • To the Chicago Abyss • (1963) • short story by Ray Bradbury
• 88 • Ray Bradbury • (1963) • essay by William F. Nolan (variant of Bradbury: Prose Poet in the Age of Space)
• 107 • Bradbury Bibliography • (1963) • essay by William F. Nolan (variant of An Index to Works of Ray Bradbury)
• 113 • The Key • [Wendell Urth] • (1966) • novelette by Isaac Asimov
• 153 • Isaac Asimov • (1966) • essay by L. Sprague de Camp (variant of You Can’t Beat Brains)
• 159 • Asimov Bibliography • (1966) • essay by Isaac Asimov (variant of Isaac Asimov: A Bibliography) [as by uncredited]
• 169 • Ship of Shadows • (1969) • novelette by Fritz Leiber
• 226 • Fritz Leiber • (1969) • essay by Judith Merril (variant of Fritz Leiber (profile))
• 240 • Leiber Bibliography • (1969) • essay by Al Lewis (variant of Fritz Leiber: A Bibliography)
• 247 • The Queen of Air and Darkness • [The Queen of Air and Darkness] • (1971) • novella by Poul Anderson
• 307 • Poul Anderson • (1971) • essay by Gordon R. Dickson (variant of Profile: Poul Anderson)
• 315 • Anderson Bibliography • (1971) • essay by uncredited (variant of Poul Anderson: Bibliography)
• 323 • Midsummer Century • (1972) • novella by James Blish
• 420 • James Blish • (1972) • essay by Robert A. W. Lowndes (variant of James Blish: Profile)
• 428 • Blish Bibliography • (1972) • essay by Mark Owings (variant of James Blish: Bibliography)

Between the Covers (2006) is a compilation of classic songs covered by a mix of performers whose net proceeds supported the T. J. Martell Foundation’s research efforts for research and treatments for cancer and AIDS.

I included the original singer/group and the year the song was a hit after the song titles above. Quite a variety of years!

My favorite cover song on Between the Covers is Maxwell’s version of Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work.” Do you remember these songs? Have you heard these cover versions? Any favorites? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

In his Introduction to Deadman’s Road, Joe R. Lansdale lays out the genesis of his violent Reverend and his crusade against the undead and other deadly supernatural entities. If you set The Walking Dead about 150 years ago, you’d be in the same world as Deadman’s Road.

Lansdale cites Jonah Hex as a prime inspiration for his own Reverend. But, wait, there’s more: Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter and Billy the Kid Meets Dracula. Clearly, Lansdale loves weird Westerns!

Deadman’s Road certainly qualifies as a weird Western. In “Dead in the West” the doctor in the small town the Reverend visits just happens to have a copy of The Necronomicon on his bookshelf. And, an ancient curse animates the corpses of the unlucky and sends them to inflect carnage on the guilty.

If you’re looking for action, gruesome fights, and supernatural horror in Western settings, Deadman’s Road is the book for you! GRADE: B

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION: THE REVEREND RIDES AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN By Joe R. Lansdale — 3

Dead in the West — 9

Deadman’s Road — 143

The Gentleman’s Hotel — 145

The Crawling Sky — 215

The Dark Down There — 245

Based loosely on Gregory McDonald’s Confess, Fletch mystery novel from 1976, this movie opens with Fletch (Jon Hamm) finding the body of a murdered woman in his rental apartment. Fletch just returned from Rome where he’s involved in recovering stolen masterpiece paintings worth millions, the kidnapping of the painting’s owner, and juggling his love life between the daughter of the owner and the owner’s seductive wife.

Fletch uses his skills honed as an investigative reporter to discover where the stolen paintings are stashed, who killed the woman in his apartment, and what the women in his life really want from him.

I liked the first Fletch (1985) comedy thriller starring Chevy Chase and directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Andrew Bergman.  Confess, Fletch, directed by Greg Mottla, and written by Zev Borow struggles to advance the plot. The “comic” dialogue falls flat too often. Jon Hamm never really convinced me that he was Fletch. He seemed more like Jon Hamm in a Progressive Insurance commercial. And this 98-minute film mostly sags like a bad episode of a cable TV Hallmark mystery-of-the-week movie. GRADE: D

After the Thursday Night Football beatdown of the Super Bowl Champion LA Rams by the Buffalo Bills 31-10, the Monday Night Football game tonight features the Tennessee Titans who have defeated the Bills in 2020 and 2021. The Titans got beaten by the mighty NY Giants last Sunday, so they’ll be fired up for this game. The Bills are favored by 10 points…but I suspect the score will be closer than that!

Week One of the 2022 NFL season shocked many people (especially bettors on FanDuel and DraftKings). As I predicted, the New York Giants–with former Offensive Coordinator of the Buffalo Bills, Brian Daboll, now Giants’ Head Coach–played above their station and beat the Tennessee Titans 21-20 on a gutsy 2-point conversion call.

Deb’s New Orleans Saints stole a victory over the unlucky Atlanta Falcons 27-26 after trailing most of the game. And, projected Super Bowl bound Dallas Cowboys lost their Quarterback, Dak Prescott, for 8 weeks because of a thumb injury. Meanwhile, another Super Bowl bound team, the Green Bay Packers, got slammed in Minneapolis during BOUCHERCON by the suddenly powerful Vikings, 23-7.

How will your favorite NFL team do today?

Death and the Conjuror: A Locked Room Mystery for Fans of Golden Age Crime Fiction by Tom Mead takes readers back to the 1930s where a locked room murder in London baffles police. But, a magician named Jospeh Spector starts to unravel the cunning crime.

The victim is celebrity psychiatrist Anselm Rees. His body is discovered in his locked office. His throat had been cut. The list of possible “Persons of Interest” leads Tom Mead to provide a handy “Dramatic Personae” to help us keep track of the many suspects.

And, just as Golden Age Crime Fiction liked to do, Mead includes a Reader’s Challenge on p. 227 to solve the murder because all the clues had been revealed.

If you enjoy Locked Room mysteries in the John Dickson Carr and Edward D. Hoch tradition, you’ll enjoy Death and the Conjuror. GRADE: B

“As the series went on and on and as I became more secure with the voicing and with my apparent ability to circumvent surface and not get fired, Wuliff came crazier and crazier.” (p. 9)

Barry N. Malzberg (aka, “Mike Barry”) wrote The Lone Wolf series in the white heat of the drug-addled Seventies–16 volumes so this new Stark House omnibus takes us halfway through this bloody and violent saga. Burt Wulff, avenging the death of his fiancé, launches an international mission to Peru. In the Hotel Crillon in Lima, Wulff is approached to  deliver several million dollars worth of heroin to the USA. 

A Nazi, who knows who Wulff is, promises Wulff an out for the trap he’s in–as long as Wulff does what he wants. Deception and double-crosses result.

Los Angeles Holocaust begins with Wulff aboard a hijacked helicopter returning to El Paso from Peru. Wulff has millions of dollars worth of heroin in a bag. Wulff connects with Williams, his former partner on the NYPD, who was stabbed in Chicago Slaughter. Williams leaves his pregnant wife in New York, buys a U-Haul full of weapons from a Harlem priest, kills a couple of carjackers in Nebraska, and arrives in L.A. ready to do battle.

The stage is set for an epic battle fueled by the heroin worth millions and Wulff’s lust for vengeance. Drug cartels, Mafia dons, illegal drugs galore mixed with sudden death and carnage: The Lone Wolf series takes the reader on a guided tour of the modern Circles of Hell. GRADE: B+ (for both)

TRACK LIST:

TRACK LIST:

• Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar – Dean Parks
• Art Direction – Bob Wynne
• Backing Vocals – Gene Morford, Jim Haas, Joe Chemay, Jon Joyce, Linda Dillard, Rita Coolidge
• Backing Vocals, Directed By [Vocal Director] – Carol Parks
• Bass – Dennis Belfield
• Drums – Paul Leim
• Electric Guitar – Roy Orbison (tracks: B4)
• Engineer [Additional Engineering] – Arthur Kelm
• Engineer [Assistant] – Duane Seykora, Julie Last
• Harmonica – Tommy Morgan
• Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Roy Orbison
• Photography By [Cover] – Peter Darley Miller
• Producer, Arranged By, Keyboards – Michael Utley
• Programmed By [Synthesizer Programming] – Robert Irving
• Recorded By, Mixed By – Richard Bosworth
• Saxophone [Saxaphones] – David Woodford
• Strings – Sid Page

I was in the mood to listen to Roy Orbison and I dug out these two collections that have some overlap but with some differences.

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) sang songs that were described by critics as operatic, earning him the nicknames “The Caruso of Rock” and “The Big O.”  Roy Orbison performed while standing motionless and wearing black clothes to match his dyed black hair and dark sunglasses, which he wore to counter his shyness and stage fright.

It’s amazing that 22 of Orbison’s singles reached the Billboard Top 40. He wrote most of those songs.  In 1988, Orbison co-founded the Traveling Wilburys with George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne. Orbison died of a heart attack in December 1988 at age 52. One month later, his song “You Got It” (1989) was released as a solo single, becoming his first hit to reach the US & UK Top 10 in nearly 25 years. Are you a Roy Orbison fan? Any favorite songs? GRADE: A (for both)

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, Playboy magazine bought Science Fiction stories to wrap around their popular nude photos. Playboy’s rates were much higher than Galaxy, Analog, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction could pay so SF writers would try selling their stories to Playboy first.

After these stories were published in Playboy magazine, Playboy Press would publish anthologies of those stories. From the “S” File, published in 1971, features 16 stories…all written by SF writers whose last names start with “S.” And, some of the “S” writers are included multiple times–a rarity in most SF anthologies.

My favorite stories are Robert Sheckley’s snarky “The Same to You Doubled” about the problem of making the wrong wish, and Henry Slesar’s classic “Examination Day” where passing a test can have dire consequences. Jack Sharkey takes a different view of making wishes in “Conversations With a Bug.” I enjoy these Playboy Press anthologies, and you would too! Were you a fan of Playboy back in the day? GRADE: B+

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

PREFACE — 4

The Nail and the Oracle (1965) by Theodore Sturgeon –7

The World of Heart’s Desire (1959) by Robert Sheckley — 32

Can You Feel Anything When I Do This? (1969) by Robert Sheckley — 42

Triplication (1959) by Robert Sheckley — 55

The Same to You Doubled (1970) by Robert Sheckley — 63

Cordle to Onion to Carrot (1969) by Robert Sheckley — 77

Control Somnambule (1962) by William Sambrot — 97

The Man from Not-Yet (1968) by John Sladek — 115

Melodramine (1965) by Henry Slesar — 128

Victory Parade (1957) by Henry Slesar — 146

Examination Day (1958) by Henry Slesar — 152

The Jam (1958) by Henry Slesar — 158

After (1960) by Henry Slesar — 164

The Pool (1964) by Jack Sharkey — 171

Conversation with a Bug (1961) by Jack Sharkey — 179

Deathwatch (1965) by Norman Spinrad — 187