Search Results for: tale covers

Vintage Treasures: The Opener of the Way by Robert Bloch

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Panther edition paperbacks (1976). Covers by Anthony Roberts. The Opener of the Way was Robert Bloch’s very first collection, published by Arkham House way back in 1945, when he was all of 28 years old. It contained 21 stories, all but two of which originally appeared in Weird Tales, including classics such as “Waxworks,” “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” and the Cthulhu Mythos tale “The Shambler from the Stars,” which inspired Lovecraft to write “The Haunter of the Dark,” his last work. The Opener…

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Space Empires, Ruined Civilizations, and Lovable Aliens: The Best of Eric Frank Russell

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Cover by H. R. Van Dongen The Best of Eric Frank Russell (1978) was the eighteenth installment in Lester Del Rey’s Classic Science Fiction Series. Alan Dean Foster (1946–) provides the introduction, his first and only introduction for the series. H. R. Van Dongen (1920–2010) does his seventh cover (far surpassing Dean Ellis’s five). Since Eric Frank Russell (1905–1978) was unavailable at the time this volume was compiled, no Afterword is included. Alan Dean Foster relates in the introduction that during…

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Dinosaurs, Mermaids, and Haunted Lumber: The Best of L. Sprague De Camp

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The Best of L. Sprague de Camp (Science Fiction Book Club edition, 1978. Cover by Richard Corben) The Best of L. Sprague De Camp (1978) was the fifteenth installment in Lester Del Rey’s Classic Science Fiction Series. Poul Anderson (1926–2001) gives the introduction. Darrel Sweet (1934–2011) does his second cover of the series, the first being The Best of Cordwainer Smith. L. Sprague De Camp (1907–2000), still living at the time, wrote the afterword. I’m a fairly late-comer to science fiction….

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: “Enemy Mine,” by Barry B. Longyear

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The Best Novella category was not one of the original Hugo categories in 1953. I twas introduced in 1968, when it was won by Philip José Farmer for “Riders of the Purple Wage” and Anne McCaffrey for “Weyr Search.” Since then, some version of the award has been a constant, with the exception of 1958. In 1980, the awards were presented at Noreascon II in Boston. The Nebula Award was created by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) and…

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Blogging Marvel’s Master of Kung Fu, Part Six

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Master of Kung Fu #33 sees writer Doug Moench continuing to build upon the series’ new direction while also continuing to deploy offbeat humor sparingly to great effect. This first installment of a three-part storyline begins when Shang-Chi thwarts an assassination attempt on Clive Reston by a highly-advanced automaton. The reader and Shang-Chi learn from MI5 that the automaton is one of the toys of Mordillo, a robotics genius and master assassin who, it transpires, was the force behind Carlton Velcro….

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Goth Chick News: Wizard World Chicago and a Goth Chick Wannabe

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Let me start by painting you all a picture. Everyone’s favorite Goth Chick comes to me (Black Gate photog Chris Z.) and says “Guess what…you get to write the article for Wizard World Chicago this year!” “Excuse Me?…What?…Who approved this?” Apparently even Goth Chicks need a vacation away from the world of Horror and Mischief at Black Gate magazine. Who knew? Anyway, I headed down to the Black Gate office complex by myself and made my way down to the Goth…

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Vintage Treasures: The Starfire Saga by Roby James

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Covers by Bruce Jensen The Ace Science Fiction Specials, a series of first novels edited by uber-editor Terry Carr, are legendary today. Between 1984-88 Carr published debuts by writers who’d go on to towering careers, including William Gibson, Kim Stanley Robinson, Lucius Shepard, Howard Waldrop, Michael Swanwick, Jack McDevitt, Richard Kadrey, and many others. The Ace Science Fiction Specials get all the attention, but they certainly weren’t unique. Many publishers tried their hand at something similar, with varying success. One of my favorites…

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Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1979: A Retro-Review

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Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1979 Edited by George H. Scithers Published by Davis Publications. 196 pages, $1.25 I heard you missed me! I’m back! Technically, this is Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (now known as Asimov’s Science Fiction). It was a refreshing change of pace after Galileo’s ‘story behind the story,’ and Analog’s massive book review. Asimov’s was pretty much fiction and nothing but fiction. 192 pages of it, as the cover advertises! Also advertised, Dungeons and Dragons — and not…

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Invincible Warriors and Goofball Sidekicks: Robots in American Popular Culture by Steve Carper

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Cover by Emsh Steve Carper has been blogging about robots at Black Gate ever since his first post, The First Three Laws of Robotics, appeared back in November 2017. His delightful and entertaining articles have explored every facet of robots in America over the last century and a half. And now his first book on the subject, Robots in American Popular Culture, has been published by McFarland. Here’s what Steve tells us about it. Robots in American Popular Culture is the first truly…

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Vintage Treasures: Heroes and Horrors by Fritz Leiber

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Cover by Michael Whelan If you want to get permanent editions of the brilliant short fiction of Fritz Leiber, these days your best bet may be the Centipede Press hardcovers like Swords in the Mist. These are gorgeous books, but they’re also a little out of my price range ($75 for the unsigned editions). Still, if there’s someone who deserves editions this beautiful, it’s Leiber. Or you could do what I do: happily buy one of Leiber’s many vintage paperback…

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