Do you have any New Year’s Resolutions?

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

I was reading John O’Neill’s post on BLACKGATE.COM last week where John finally took Brian Aldiss’s Galactic Empires (1979) collections off his shelf after they sat there for decades (you can read about it here). It struck me I’ve had Aldiss’s Galactic Empires on my shelves for nearly the same amount of time! So I read them.

Brian Aldiss is a wonderful SF writer, of fiction and non-fiction, but he’s also an excellent SF editor. I’ve enjoyed every anthology Aldiss has assembled (and I have a couple in the pipeline for blog posts in 2022).

It would be hard to choose a favorite between Volume One and Volume Two. “The Star Plunderer” by Poul Anderson is a favorite of mine. I reread with pleasure Asimov’s famous “Foundation” and Cordwainer Smith’s haunting “The Crime and Glory of Commander Suzdal.” Clifford Simak’s “Immigrant” and James White’s clever “Resident Physician” make Volume One hard to beat.

But Volume Two includes John D. MacDonald’s “Escape to Chaos” and A. E. Van Vogt’s classic “Concealment.” For those readers who are in the mood for some pulp stories, try “Tonight the Stars Revolt!” by Gardner F. Fox and Poul Anderson’s “Lord of a Thousand Suns.” Rounding out the second volume are “Big Ancestor” by F. L. Wallace and Harry Harrison’s “Final Encounter.”

If you’re in the mood for some old-fashioned Science Fiction with Big Ideas and Cosmic Reach, Galactic Empires will tantalize you! GRADE: A

VOLUME ONE:

Introduction by Brian Aldiss
A Sense of Perspective, by Brian Aldiss
“Been a Long, Long Time” by R. A. Lafferty (Fantastic, December 1970)
“The Possessed” by Arthur C. Clarke (Dynamic Science Fiction, March 1953)
“Protected Species” by H. B. Fyfe (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951)
“All the Way Back” by Michael Shaara (Astounding Science Fiction, July 1952)
“‘Wider Still and Wider…’ by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“The Star Plunderer” by Poul Anderson (Planet Stories, September 1952)
“Foundation” by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science-Fiction, May 1942)
“We’re Civilized!” by Alex Apostolides and Mark Clifton (Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953)
Horses in the Starship Hold, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“The Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdal” by Cordwainer Smith (Amazing Stories, May 1964)
“The Rebel of Valkyr” by Alfred Coppel (Planet Stories, Fall 1950)
“Brightness Falls from the Air” by Margaret St. Clair (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1951)
“Immigrant” by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1954)
The Health Service in the Skies, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Resident Physician” by James White (New Worlds Science Fiction, #110 September)
“Age of Retirement” by Hal Lynch (Astounding Science Fiction, April 1954)
“Planting Time” by Pete Adams and Charles Nightingale (Antigrav, 1975)

VOLUME TWO:

Introduction by Brian Aldiss
You Can’t Impose Civilization by Force by Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Escape to Chaos” by John D. MacDonald (Super Science Stories, June 1951)
“Concealment” by A. E. van Vogt (Astounding Science-Fiction, September 1943)
“To Civilize” by Algis Budrys (Future Science Fiction, January 1954)
“Beep” by James Blish (Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1954)
The Other End of the Stick, by Brian W. Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Down the River” by Mack Reynolds (Startling Stories, September 1950)
“The Bounty Hunter” by Avram Davidson (Fantastic Universe, March 1958)
“Not Yet the End” by Fredric Brown (Captain Future, Winter 1941)
All Things Are Cyclic, Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Tonight the Stars Revolt!” by Gardner F. Fox (Planet Stories, March 1952)
“Final Encounter” by Harry Harrison (Galaxy Magazine, April 1964)
Big Ancestors and Great Descendants, by Brian Aldiss (non-fiction)
“Lord of a Thousand Suns” by Poul Anderson (Planet Stories, September 1951)
“Big Ancestor” by F. L. Wallace (Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1954)
“The Interlopers” by Roger Dee (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1954)
“Epilogue,” by Olaf Stapledon (excerpt from Star Maker, 1937)

This is another of the Rolling Stone magazine’s compilation CDs distributed by Rhino Records in 2002. Once again, the choices seem to be random. Whoever made the choices of the songs stuck to mostly mainstream, popular hits. The only “daring” pick is The Grateful Death’s “Casey Jones.”

As 2021 winds down, sometimes it’s fun to stroll down Memory Lane. Do you remember these songs from the Early Years of Rock & Roll? Any favorites? GRADE: B+

TRACK LIST:

A series of compilation CDs produced as a collaboration between Rolling Stone Magazine and Rhino Records:

Things look dire for the Buffalo Bills in Foxboro. They have five starters on the Covid-19 List so their offensive line and wide receiver corps are depleted. The Patriots are 3-point favorites. How will your favorite NFL team do today?

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985 presents a smorgasbord of articles–and over a hundred very cool paperback covers!–on Science Fiction in the Fifties, Sixties, Seventies, and a bit of the Eighties.

I enjoyed essays on Philip K. Dick, Samuel R. Delany, R. A. Lafferty, Michael Moorcock, Roger Zelazny, J. G. Ballard, Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr. and a dozen other key SF writers from this period. Just take a quick look at the Table of Contents and you’ll see something that will draw to a subject or writer you’re interested in.

Andrew Nettle and Iain McIntyre assembled a set of essays full of variety and varying perspectives. If you’re a fan of SF, and if you lived through the years this volume focuses on, you’ll want to take a look at this book! I’m hoping for a sequel! GRADE: A

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: An Introduction / Iain McIntyre and Andrew Nette — 1
Imagining New Worlds: Sci-Fi and the Vietnam War / Rjurik Davidson — 5
Sextrapolation in New Wave Science Fiction / Rob Latham — 11
Radioactive Nightmares: Nuclear War in Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 23
On Earth the Air Is Free: The Feminist Science Fiction of Judith Merril / Kat Clay — 26
Women and Children First! John Wyndham and Second-Wave Feminism / David Curcio — 32
Bursting through the Boundaries: New Worlds Magazine / Iain McIntyre — 37
Vast Active Living (Possibly) Insane System: Paranoia and Anti authoritarianism in the Work of Philip K. Dick / Erica L. Satifka — 39
Flying Saucers and Black Power: Joseph Denis Jackson’s 1967 Insurrectionist Novel The Black Commandos / Iain McIntyre — 45
Doomwatchers: Calamity and Catastrophe in UK Television Novelizations / Iain McIntyre — 52
The Energy Exhibition: Radical Science Fiction in the 1960s / Hicolas Tredell — 56
“We change-and the whole world changes”: Samuel R. Delany’s Heavenly Breakfast in Context / Daniel Shank Cruz — 64
Flawed Ancients, New Gods, and Interstellar Missionaries: Religion in Postwar SF / Iain McIntyre — 70
Speculative Fuckbooks: The Brief Life of Essex House, 1968-1969 / Rebecca Baumann — 73
God Does, Perhaps? The Unlikely New Wave SF of R.A. Lafferty / Nick Mamatas — 81
The Tasty Worlds of Jerry Cornelius / Andrew Nette — 85
Hank Lopez’s Afro-6 / Brian Greene — 88
“The Hell with Heroes”: Rebellion and Responsibility in Roger Zelazny’s Damnation Alley / Kelly Roberts — 92
Eco-Death: Catastrophe and Survival in 1960s and 1970s Science Fiction/ Iain McIntyre — 99
Stepford Wives and Supercomputers Th e Science Fiction of Ira Levin / Andrew Nette — 102
“Houston, we’ve had a problem”: Technology, Mental Breakdown and the Science Fiction of Barry Malzberg / Andrew Nette — 107
The Stars My Destination: The Future According to Gay Adult Science Fiction Novels of the 1970s / Maitland McDonagh — 111
Higher than a Rocket Ship: Drugs in SF / Iain McIntyre — 121
Freedom in the Mind: Louise Lawrence’s Andra / Andrew Nette — 123
Mick Farren: Fomenting the Rock Apocalypse / Mike Stax — 128
Green Deaths and Time Warriors: Doctor Who Serials and Novelizations in the 1970s / Iain McIntyre — 135
A New Wave in the East: The Strugatsky Brothers and Radical Sci-fi in Soviet Russia / Scott Adlerberg — 139
The Future Is Going to Be Boring: The SF Present of J.G. Ballard / Cameron Ashley — 146
By Any Means Necessary: Revolution and Rebellion in 1960s and 1970s Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 153
Performative Gender and SF: The Strange but True Case of Alice Sheldon and James Tiptree Jr. / Lucy Sussex — 156
Coming of Age between Apocalypses: Young Adult Fiction and the End of the World / Molly Grattan — 161
Crowded Worlds and False Dawns: 1970s Dystopian Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 166
Cosmic Bond, Super Lover: William Bloom’s Qhe! Series / Iain McIntyre — 170
Feminist Future: Time Travel in Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time / Kirsten Bussiere — 177
Who Are the Beasts? Animals in Science Fiction / Andrew Nette — 185
The Moons of Le Guin and Heinlein / Donna Glee Williams — 188
Black Star: The Life and Work of Octavia Butler / Michael A. Gonzales — 195
Herland: The Women’s Press and Science Fiction / Iain McIntyre — 203

Acknowledgements — 206

Contributors — 207

Index — 211

Sounds of the Season: The NBC Holiday Collection is the best sounding Christmas album I own. Sounds of the Season came out in 2003 and I had it sitting on my shelves for over a decade. One day, a couple years ago, I played it and was stunned by how good it sounded! Plus, the mix of songs appears to me to be…unusual. Lisa Marie Presley sings “Silent Night” which is followed by a bluesy rendition to “Merry Christmas, Baby” by Bonnie Raitt and Charles Brown.

NBC included some current (for 2003) Christmas hits: Michael Buble’s “Let It Snow,” Josh Groban’s “O Holy Night,” and Sarah Brightman’s “Ave Maria.”

My favorite song on this CD is Kylie Minogue’s pouty “Santa Baby,” a song about what a Material Girl would want for Christmas…with some provocative innuendo. If you’re looking for something different Christmas music to listen to, try Sounds of the Season. GRADE: B+

Tracklist