Jack Vance’s To Live Again, published as a Ballantine paperback original in 1956, was Vance’s first real science fiction novel (Winston Science Fiction published Vance’s juvenile Vandals of the Void in 1953). Vance describes a future society where the gift of immortality is given only to a few. The society is divided into six groups. Five of the groups are hierarchical: as you move up (called “slope”) from lower groups to higher groups your life gets extended. If you gain admittance to the top group, Amaranth, you are given the life-extension treatments that make you immortal. As you might suspect, the competition for admittance to Amaranth is fierce. Vance shows how social structures stress out citizens which slowly fractures society. To Live Forever introduces themes that will pervade most of Jack Vance’s later work: sociological analysis, unconventional social structures, and the dangers inherent in class-oriented societies. If you’re a newbie to Jack Vance’s work, this might not be the ideal book to start with (I’d recommend The Dying Earth or mystery-oriented Galactic Effectuator). But sooner or later you’ll get around to reading To Live Forever and you’ll be impressed with Jack Vance’s auspicious first novel.

I’m a big fan of Steely Dan so when I learned of these two new CDs I was eager to listen to them. Sadly, I have to report I was disappointed in both. I really enjoyed Mayer Hawthrone’s Motown-inspired CDs, A Strange Arrangement and How Do You Do, so I set the bar high for Where Does This Door Go. The switch from soulful music to a more jazzy Steely Dan style must be a work in progress. Where I listened to Mayer Hawthorne’s earlier CDs constantly when they first came out, I’ve listened to Where Does This Door Go exactly once. This isn’t a bad CD, it’s just not memorable. GRADE: C

Things are more dire on the Mark Masters Ensemble’s tribute to Steely Dan, Everything You Did. Just about every track had a skip (or three) in it. At first, I wondered if this was some kind of weird engineered sound effect. But, no, this CD was just poorly manufactured. I listened to all the tracks despite the skips and found the music bland. The best cut on this CD, “Black Cow,” is light-years away from the classic Steely Dan version. I’m returning Everything You Do to AMAZON for a refund. The lesson I learned from listening to both of these CDs is to take Steely Dan off my record shelf and listen to the Real Thing. As for Everything You Do, skip it. GRADE: D (for defective)

I’ve been reading Bill Pronzini’s work since the Seventies. Pronzini is a consummate professional. His books are well thought out and well written. I’ve read dozens of Pronzini’s books over the years (and I have dozens more waiting in the wings). Several of my friends have recommended The Crimes of Jordan Wise to me so I’ve finally gotten around to reading it. Jordan Wise starts out as an accountant, living a dull predictable life. He meets a woman named Annalise and falls in love with her. But in order to win Annalise, Jordan Wise has to pull off a perfect crime. Later, Jordan Wise has to commit two more perfect crimes. I’m being deliberately vague because I don’t want to spoil any of the surprises in this fine novel (and there are a lot of them!). If you haven’t read any of Bill Pronzini’s books, The Crimes of Jordan Wise is the perfect place to start. If you’re a long-time reader of Bill Pronzini’s work but haven’t read this one, drop everything and pick up a copy of The Crimes of Jordan Wise. It’s one of Pronzini’s best books! GRADE: A

I really enjoyed watching Law & Order, Season One last year. I was browsing AMAZON and Law & Order, Season Two appeared…for $10! The list price is $39.98 so this qualifies as a bargain in my book. You get over 10 hours (13 episodes) of the best of Law & Order translated into the British justice system (Season Two includes Series 3 and Series 4 in the UK). The cast is excellent. Bonus features include interviews with the cast and crew, gag reel, press interviews, and “behind the scenes” featurettes. Highly recommended! GRADE: A

By the time you read this, some nurses will be putting Diane and me through our echo-cardiograms. We’ve never had an echo-cardiogram before this, but our new doctors want us to have echo-cardiograms every two years. Diane gets the easy “lay on the table” echo-cardiogram. I have the more complicated “run on the treadmill” variety. Our instructions say Diane’s echo-cardiogram will take about an hour. My stress-test echo-cardiogram will take about 90 minutes. Both of us are interested to see the results of this test. Have you had an echo-cardiogram?

Season Three of The Killing moved a little quicker than the glacial pace of the episodes from the first two seasons. But the producers need to watch some episodes of 24 and Orphan Black to really figure out how to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. A serial killer stalks teenage girls, rapes and kills them, then takes a “trophy”–like a ring or necklace–for the experience. Seattle Police Detectives Sarah Linden (played by the intense Mireille Enos) and her druggie partner, Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman is amazing!), should wrap up this case during tonight’s 2-hour long finale. If The Killing gets renewed for next season, I’ll continue to watch it despite my quibbles.

I finally got around to seeing Despicable Me 2. After the events of Despicable Me 1, Gru (who used to be a Super Villain) has turned into a Good Guy and spends his time making jams and jellies. But when another Super Villain steals a secret formula to transform living creatures into ravenous monsters Gru joins the Anti-Villain League (AVL) to help find the secret formula before it can be used to take over the planet. Gru’s partner is a ditzy spy named Lucy Wilde (voiced by Kristin Wiig). The minions play their usually comedic tricks. I find these Despicable Me movies fun to watch. GRADE: B+

Hot Times in Magma City collects Robert Silverberg’s short stories and novelettes written between July 1990 to March 1995. This just released collection is VOLUME 8 of the collected short fiction of Robert Silverberg published by the laudable Subterranean Press. There aren’t many writers that I would be willing to invest the time and the money into acquiring their complete works, but Robert Silverberg certainly makes the cut. For over 50 years, Silverberg has written first-rate fiction. I actually think Silverberg’s short fiction is superior to his novels, but I’m sure others will disagree with that assessment. If you’re a fan of science fiction, I highly recommend these wonderful collections! Buy them now while they’re still available.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
In the Clone Zone
Hunters in the Forest
A Long Night’s Vigil at the Temple
Thebes of the Hundred Gates
It Comes and Goes
Looking for the Fountain
The Way to Spook City
The Red Blaze is the Morning
Death Do Us Part
The Martian Invasion Diaries of Henry James
Crossing into the Empire
The Second Shield
Hot Times in Magma City

I’m a sucker for books like Must Read: Rediscovering American Best Sellers. If you glance at the Table of Contents below, you’ll see the essays that explore the best sellers of the past. My favorite essay was on The Godfather which I’ve always thought was undeservingly dismissed as “trash.” The essays with the most surprises (for me, at least) was the publishing history of Peyton Place. If you’re interested in the history of publishing, Must Read will delight you. GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Must Read: Rediscovering American Bestsellers
Sarah Churchwell and Thomas Ruys Smith
2. Missing Numbers: The Partial History of the Bestseller
Sarah Garland
3. The History of Charlotte Temple (1791) as an American Bestseller
Gideon Mailer
4. ‘Like Beads Strung Together’: E.D.E.N. Southworth and the Aesthetics of Popular Serial Fiction
Rachel Ihara
5. Ten Nights in a Bar-Room (1854) and the Visual Culture of Temperance
William Gleason
6. ‘The Man Without a Country’ (1863): Treason, Expansionism, and the History of a ‘Bestselling’ Short Story
Hsuan Hsu
7. Exhilaration and Enlightenment in the Biblical Bestseller: Lew Wallace’s Ben-Hur, A Tale of the Christ (1880)
James Russell
8. ‘Absolutely Punk’: Queer Economies of Desire in Tarzan of the Apes (1912)
J. Michelle Coghlan
9. Ornamentalism: Desire, Disavowal and Displacement in E.M. Hull’s The Sheik (1919)
Sarah Garland
10. Small Change? Emily Post’s Etiquette (1922-2011)
Grace Lees-Maffei
11. Blockbuster Feminism: Peyton Place (1956) and the Uses of Scandal
Ardis Cameron
12. Crimes and Bestsellers: Mario Puzo Path to The Godfather (1969)
Evan Brier
12. Master of Sentiment: The Romances of Nicholas Sparks
Sarah Churchwell
13.The Kite Runner Transnational Allegory: Anatomy of an Afghan-American Bestseller
Georgiana Banita
14. The Fiction of History: The Da Vinci Code (2003) and the Virtual Public Sphere
Stephen Mexal

Todd Mason and Patti Abbott raved about Orphan Black so I finally binged using On Demand. I watched all 10 episodes in three days. Yes, this Canadian science fiction series about clones compels you to watch. Tatiana Maslany plays all the clones with impressive versatility. Why do these clones exist? Who is doing the cloning? Why are the clones being hunted and murdered? We don’t get all the answers to these questions in Season One, but Season Two is being filmed in Toronto as you read this. Orphan Black is head-and-shoulders above other Summer series like Under the Dome (which I’m also watching). Nothing is quite what you think it is. The producers and writer throw in plenty of plot twists and surprises. I can’t wait for more Orphan Black in April 2014! Highly recommended! GRADE: A