This book has been staring at me for years and I have never opened it up but I’m going to take it back to Austin with me and finally read it. I love A. E. Van Vogt, prolly one of the craziest sf authors ever. His later work blows cuz he became a Scientologist. But this book was originally serialized in a magazine in 1950 so it should be good. I’d say don’t read anything after 1970 but that may be too late. Here’s the back cover blurb: “12,000 A.D. – The Earth, after the atomic holocaust, had reverted to a strange kind of barbarism where men could build spaceshipts but could not communicate except by the most primitive means. Alien invaders had been sighted at the edge of the galaxy – but no one took action. Only one man, THE WIZARD OF LINN could save the decadent empire and with his mysterious powers, prevent the Earth’s destruction.” Wow. Such bad grammar.
December 27th, 2007
"The Wizard of Linn" A E Van Vogt (1962)
"The Shape of Space" by Larry Niven (1969)
This is a collection of stories from Niven’s “Known Space” universe. I enjoyed Niven a lot when I was in junior high but I tried to re-read some of the Ringworld books when I was livin with my folks and I got kinda bored. Sorry Larry. This cover is dope though and the Puppeteer (depicted on the left) is prolly one of the weirdest aliens ever dreamt up by homo sapiens sapiens. So way to go LN.
"The Eyes of the Overworld" by Jack Vance (1966)
I seriously doubt I’ll ever read this but I found it on one of my parents’ bookshelves and thought the title was awesome. Here’s a snippet from the back cover blurb: “In this world of mystery and danger, the adventurer known as Cugel the Clever was forced to undertake a quest for lucounu [sic?] the Laughing Magician – a quest that as to take him to lands stranger than any he had dreamed of, and pit his wits and his sword against
powers from beyond time itself.” The bold text is what interests me.
"The Rose" by Charles L Harness (1969)
I’m pretty sure that “The Ring of Ritornel” is extremely similar to this book, which I have read. Cheezy in parts but Brian Aldiss and Michael Moorcock claim that this is a sf book for sf writers. I don’t know about that but there’s some interesting, fairly weird stuff in here.
"Rogue Moon" by Algis Budrys (1978)
Alongside Charles L Harness, Budrys is one of the unsung heroes of older sf. This book stars a death-lovin racecar-drivin total badass movie star or somethin dude. I bought this at the Half Price Book in Rice Village in Houston and then saw a hardcover at the Half Price Books on Lamar in Austin. So pissed. (On a side note, the weird shape behind the claw-handed astronaut could be the Miizzzard’s Tranzdimensional Hypercastle…)
"The Ring of Ritornel" by Charles L Harness (1968)
I bought this at an amazing book exchange on Manchaca in South Austin. They have the best used sf collection I’ve seen outside of this one store in Riverside, CA run by a dude with a pony tail who claims to have co-founded Half Price Books. I haven’t read this yet but I’ve been looking for “Paradox Men” by Harness for several years now. I know I can order it on Amazon but F that.
"Childhood’s End" by Arthur C Clarke (1967-7th printing)
I don’t know if this is the exact book that I read when I was younger, but what I do remember is that I found “Childhood’s End” incredibly creepy. I haven’t re-read it as an adult yet.
"Solaris" by Stanislaw Lem (1971)
When my Dad bought this it was new. Also, for some reason it’s a translation from French, not the original Polish. The movie the cover refers to isn’t the one that came out in 2002 with George Clooney but the Russian version directed by Tarkovsky, which is the one you should see. It’s the Commie equivalent to Kubrick’s 2001.
"VALIS" by Philip K Dick (1981)
My Dad and I both have this edition. The cover depicts the invading alien “Zebra” which is also Christ and beams data into the brain of Horselover Fat (German translation of the name Philip K Dick) by way of a pink laser so that he can save his son from an undetected genetic birth defect. True story y’all.
"The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula LeGuin
The cover on the left is the 1973 first printing by Avon Books. The one on the right is from the same year but is the sixth printing. I think I prefer the one on the right. I purchased the one on the right at a Half Price Books in Austin (probably the one on Lamar) and I found the one on the left on my Dad’s bookshelf. “The Lathe of Heaven” is LeGuin’s tribute to Philip K. Dick. It’s been made into several movies, some of which I’ve seen.