My youngest sister Paula and her husband from Florida came to visit us so Diane and I decided to celebrate Paula’s recent retirement (she was an Elementary School teacher for decades) and Diane’s Birthday. One of our favorite restaurants is the swanky Russell’s Steaks and More. Paula and Steve had never been to Russell’s so it was an extra special treat for them!
This was the first collection of Robert Silverberg’s short stories to be published. I bought this ACE Double in 1962 and loved it. The stories were written early in Silverberg’s career, from 1954-1957. “Slaves of the Star Giants” is pure pulp as you can tell from the over-the-top title. Lloyd Harkins finds himself mysteriously transported to a far future when civilization has collapsed. Mutated, primitive humans live underground in isolation. Ancient robots (check out the EMSH cover above) left over from the Time of Cities still roam the jungles randomly. Can a man from the Past save the Future?
From time to time, ACE would feature a Double devoted to one writer. On one side, the book would include a short novel–in this case it’s The Seed of Earth first published in Galaxy in 1962. “It’s a story of a group of individuals, selected randomly by a government-sponsored lottery, who are forced to leave Earth and establish a colony on a distant world. Once there, four of the colonists are abducted by the planet’s native inhabitants, and must put aside their differences and work together in order to survive.”
ACE Doubles in this format introduced a writer both through short stories and short novels they’d written. I had read several of Silverberg’s novels and stories before this one, but it remains one of my favorites–partly because of the cover artwork. Are you a fan of Robert Silverberg’s work? GRADE: B (for both the short stories and the short novel)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Slaves of the Star Giants • novella — 5
The Songs of Summer • short story — 48
Hopper • novelette — 66
Blaze of Glory • short story — 87
Warm Man • short story — 102
Last week, Netflix released five of the ten episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer, Season 2. The next five episodes will be released on August 3. I enjoyed The Lincoln Lawyer Season 1 (you can read my review here). The first season dealt with Mickey Haller’s (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) return to law after a lengthy absence and addiction to prescription painkillers. Haller is a clever lawyer, but his past continues to complicate his life.
As usual, Haller juggles several law cases at the same time. The big case is a murder trial where Haller is defending a chef, Lisa Trammel (Lana Parrilla), who owns her own restaurant who is accused of murdering a real estate developer. The events in The Lincoln Lawyer, Season 2 are based on Michael Connelly’s fourth Mickey Haller novel, The Fifth Witness (2011). Haller’s first ex-wife, Maggie (Neve Campbell), presents both opportunities and problems. The problems center around their teen-age daughter, Lisa.
And then there’s my favorite character, Lorna (Becki Newton), Mickey’s second ex-wife. Lorna is now running Mickey’s new office and pursuing her own law school degree. Lorna’s relationship with her fiancé Cisco (Angus Sampson), the firm’s investigator and former biker, becomes complicated as their wedding approaches. Cisco’s past now produces more problems.
I’ve watched the first five episodes and can’t wait until Netflix drops the next five episodes. GRADE: A
“On March 10, 1977…Roman Polanski brought Samatha Bailey to his friend Jack Nicholson’s house in the Hollywood Hills. He urged her into the Jacuzzi, encouraged her to strip, gave her a Quaalude, followed her to where she sat on a couch, penetrated her, shifted his position, penetrated her anally, ejaculated. All of these details piled up, but I was left with a simple fact: anal rape of a thirteen-year-old.” (p. 3)
Claire Dederer explores a question that has been raised on this blog occasionally–most incisively by Deb–how can you enjoy a novel, painting, movie, or sculpture when you know the artist is a monster? Dederer starts with Roman Polanski and moves on to Woody Allen, Michael Jackson, the anti-LGBTQ+ stance of J. K. Rowling, and other Big Name artists.
Dederer brings up Doris Lessing–who abandoned two of her children–and Joni Mitchell who sings about her child on Blue. The various mis-deeds of Raymond Carver and Miles Davis concludes Dederer’s study.
Artists are not saints. Dederer wonders if she’s a monster because she loves some of the movies, novels, paintings, and music created by people who have done some Bad Things.
In her brilliant comment on Michael Dirda’s article “predicting” writers who would stay relevant, Deb pretty much nails the crux of this dilemma:
“As for Saul Bellow and Philip Roth, it will be interesting to see how future critical opinion addresses ongoing accusations of misogyny, sexism and racism in their work.
Years ago, I remember posting something to the effect that now humanities majors were so often women rather than men, male authors who had been utter pigs toward women in their personal lives (regardless of their perceived liberal political outlooks) would not fare well in posterity. No one want to read the books of a man who almost stabbed his wife to death (Mailer) or was serially unfaithful (Bellow) or who served his wife with a petty itemized list of reimbursements he expected from her, including the down payment for her car (Roth). Women don’t want to waste their time reading books written by men like that.
I may have been on to something.”
What do you think? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Matthew Hughes frequently channels Jack Vance and writes stories and novels that capture the style and substance of Vance’s classic Dying Earth series. Hughes’s latest novel, The Ghost-Wrangler, deals with some dark issues that cloud the far, far future.
Galabras Nachecko is a necromancer who controls two spirits who serve to deliver him information that he can sell like “Where did I lose my wallet?” or “Is my husband seeing another woman?” But, it’s Nachecko’s ability to discover secrets that leads him into the orbit of the ruling Duke Simisson whose treacherous seneschal demands Nachecko capture the ghost of an executed land pirate…or else! While Nachecko successfully captures the ghost, the secrets he learns sends him on a dangerous mission as an unlikely secret agent to learn even more secrets.
Nachecko’s adventures are perfect Summer Reading for those who enjoy the exploits of mad wizards, demons, and powerful rulers who complicate the life of a necromancer. GRADE: B
Disney+ series based on STAR WARS and MARVEL have mixed reviews. Of course, The Mandalorian was a big hit. I really liked Loki. And WandaVision. I didn’t get excited about Moon Knight.
Secret Invasion is a six-episode series starring Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury. Fury has been working with the Skrulls–an alien race of shapeshifters–but one of the Skrulls has decided to take over the Earth. Part spy thriller, part conspiracy drama, Secret Invasion spends too much time in dark alleys in Moscow and abandoned nuclear sites in Russia.
It’s hard to believe a bearded and aging Nick Fury can handle this massive threat. Kingsley Ben-Adir plays the scary Skrull, Gravik. Gravik has no problem killing people and blowing stuff up.
Olivia Colman is my favorite character. She plays an high-ranking MI6 agent and a friend of Nick Fury, but has her own agenda in protecting the UK’s national security interests. I would dump Jackson and let Olivia Colman run the whole operation. So far, Secret Invasion is a dud. GRADE: C
Leo P. Kelley (no relation) was a Science Fiction writer who edited three “academic” anthologies (see below) for McGraw-Hill. In the early 1970s, many colleges and universities started offering courses in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Some editor at McGraw-Hill saw the opportunity to create a series of textbooks for students taking those courses.
Kelley delivered an anthology of 32 stories with a “contemporary” feel. Most of the stories were published in the 1960s. There are a few stories from the 1950s and a couple from the 1970s.
Obviously, Kelley decided to skip the “historical” approach to SF–no Heinlein, no Van Vogt–and concentrated on stories students might enjoy. The most “classic” of these stories is Tom Godwin’s “The Cold Equations” from 1954.
Big Name writers like Isaac Asimov, Philip K. Dick, Arthur C. Clarke, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., and Harlan Ellison are included. Newcomers like Gene Wolfe, Carol Carr, Norman Spinrad, Charles Platt, and Dean R. Koontz point toward the Future.
Kelley includes some of my favorite writers: Fritz Leiber, Keith Laumer, Chad Oliver, Fredric Brown, Poul Anderson, Richard Matheson, Fred Saberhagen, C.M.Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl.
Other publishers got into the SF textbook market with more traditional chronological anthologies. Themes in Science Fiction provides short stories that are still fun to read today! Do you recognize some of these stories? Any favorites? Did you ever take a SF course in College? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
MCGRAW-HILL ANTHOLOGIES EDITED BY LEO P. KELLEY:
I’ve been listening to a couple of Greatest Hits CDs from the 1990s. Heart toured extensively in the 1980s when their videos were popular on MTV. Bob Seger and his band showed up in Western NY just a few years ago, Pre-Pandemic. Their show was sold-out.
The glaring omission on Heart–Greatest HIts/Live is the absence of “These Dreams,” one of Heart’s biggest hits. Otherwise, this CD has most of their hits: “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” “Dreamboat Annie,” “Dog & Butterfly,” and “Magic Man.” Plus some filler.
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band/Greatest Hits (1994) has “Like a Rock,” best known for being featured in Chevrolet truck commercials throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. I love “Night Moves” and “We’ve Got Tonight.”
Are you a fan of Heart or Bob Seger? Do you remember these songs? Any favorites? GRADE: B (for both)
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Barracuda | 4:21 | |
| 2 | Silver Wheels | 1:18 | |
| 3 | Crazy On You | 4:54 | |
| 4 | Straight On | 4:52 | |
| 5 | Dreamboat Annie | 2:06 | |
| 6 | Even It Up | 5:09 | |
| 7 | Magic Man | 5:27 | |
| 8 | Heartless | 5:00 | |
| 9 | Dog & Butterfly | 5:20 | |
| 10 | Bebe Le Strange | 4:28 | |
| 11 | Tell It Like It Is | 4:29 | |
| 12 | Mistral Wind | 4:16 | |
| 13 | Sweet Darlin | 4:11 | |
| I’m Down / Long Tall Sally | (4:16) | ||
| 14.1 | I’m Down | ||
| 14.2 | Long Tall Sally | ||
| 15 | Rock And Roll | 5:56 |
TRACK LIST:
AA
| Roll Me Away | 4:36 | ||
| Night Moves | 5:25 | ||
| Turn The Page | 5:01 | ||
| You’ll Accomp’ny Me | 3:59 | ||
| Hollywood Nights | 4:59 | ||
| Still The Same | 3:19 | ||
| Old Time Rock & Roll | 3:12 | ||
| We’ve Got Tonight | 4:38 | ||
| Against The Wind | 5:32 | ||
| Mainstreet | 3:42 | ||
| The Fire Inside | 5:53 | ||
| Like A Rock | 5:53 | ||
| C’est La Vie | 2:58 | ||
| In Your Time | 3:05 |
Lawrence Block’s latest theme anthology from Subterranean Press just arrived. All the stories involve games. Patti Abbott’s “Seek and You will Find” concerns a menacing twist on that classic game. “Paladin” by Tod Goldberg takes Dungeons and Dragons to a murderous level.
My favorite story in Playing Games is “Red Billie” by Joe R. Lansdale. An unusual girl moves into town and challenges the boys to a game of marbles. Needless to say, she beats them all. But, more than marbles are at stake as Lansdale slowly reveals who the girl really is.
Robert Silverberg’s “A Tip on a Turtle” features a man who wins every bet. “Chance” by Wallace Stroby involves Russian Roulette. And Lawrence Block closes the anthology with a cunning variation on a classic story with “Strangers on a Handball Court.” I’ve enjoyed all of Lawrence Block’s anthologies. Playing Games is one of his best. GRADE: B+
Table of Contents:
