A collection of short stories with a paragraph by the editor before each one introducing it. This was a great collection with contributions from Asimov, Bradbury, Sturgeon and Van Vogt, all of whose work I enjoy. It also contained the story Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell which was the basis of John Carpenter’s The Thing. A great collection of golden age and new wave writing.
ISBN: 9780330234313
Publisher: Pan Books
Year of publication: 1968
This slim volume provides the epilogue to the story of Dream of the Endless. After his story is complete, the whole series is bookended by a story of Hob Gadling and Shakespeare’s last encounter with the King of Dreams which was the inspiration for The Tempest. A satisfying conclusion to an epic journey.
ISBN: 9781563892875
Publisher: Vertigo
Year of publication: 1996
Although this is just a novelisation of a film, it’s a novelisation by Isaac Asimov. The story of the group of people miniaturised and injected into a dying scientist to save his life is enjoyable but keeps being interrupted in a very Asimov-ian way by descriptions of the part of the body that they were passing through at the time, something I can’t imagine having been in the film :-). The best kind of novelisation.
ISBN: 9780553275728
Publisher: Bantam
Year of publication: 1966
Subtitled The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe, this pop science book, written by the astronomer royal, discusses six cosmological constants that define the size, shape and structure of the universe.
An interesting book, but one that didn’t really teach me that much that I didn’t already know. The most interesting thing was the stress on how if any of these numbers were very slightly different, they would have resulted in a universe that would be unsuitable for life. Rees deliberately avoids the question of why this ‘fine tuning’ exists until the final chapter and even then, he remains fairly neutral on the matter just outlining the possibilities, including that of a creator.
ISBN: 9780753810224
Publisher: Phoenix Paperbacks
Year of publication: 1999
Only the Scholars live in the City and have access to Machines and Power. Noren believed that their knowledge should be available to all, and sets out to disprove the Prophecy that has the people in thrall.
I enjoyed this children’s adventure story. It’s a coming of age tale with a well-sketched protagonist and enough depth to hold your attention. There’s a little bit of dubious astronomy but we can probably let that slide.
ISBN: 9780140307795
Publisher: Puffin
Year of publication: 1972
This was a collection of four long-ish short stories by Dr. Asimov. I’d definitely read one of them before and two of the others seemed to be vaguely familiar, but I enjoyed them all. The stories are typical Asimov, by which I mean that they’ll not change your opinion of him either way. They’re about ideas, not characters, although the last one, The C-Chute is more character-based than is usual for Asimov. If you like Asimov then you’ll probably enjoy these stories, if you don’t, this won’t change you mind.
ISBN: 9780450035500
Year of publication: 1967
I enjoyed this pulp story of a god brought into human form in the far future, who has to fight to regain his power from the evil goddess who seeks to overthrow him.
Van Vogt can tell a story well and this is an excellent example of it. From the early frustration of the protagonist being manipulated, while seeing why it seems to be the logical thing for him at the time to his gaining knowledge and then the final battle. Rip-roaring stuff.
ISBN: 9780890833575
Publisher: Kensington Pub Corp (Mm)
Year of publication: 1943
The penultimate Sandman novel, this sees the culmination of the story that’s been building up over the past eight books. After her child is kidnapped, Lyta Hall calls on the Furies for vengeance on the one she holds responsible: Morpheus.
The rules that govern the behaviour and actions of the principal characters are far from transparent, but you get the impression that old rules don’t necessarily have to make sense, but just have to be “mythic”, and that certainly applies here. The only odd storyline seems to be that of Rose Walker, which didn’t really seem to go anywhere. Apart from that, an excellent story.
Just don’t read the introduction until you’ve read the story since it contains a pretty massive spoiler.
ISBN: 9781563892042
Publisher: Vertigo
Year of publication: 1996
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Reading books and then writing about books
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