AMAZING SCIENCE FICTION STORIES MAY 1958

Cover painting by Ed Valigursky.

EXTRO

Eyre-Methuen hardback, 1975. Cover artwork by Peter Tybus.

"Alfred Bester's first science fiction novel in nineteen years is a major event. Like both his earlier novels, Extro is a breathtakingly fast-moving adventure peopled with brilliant, talented, witty eccentrics. Scattered about the overcrowded, frenzied solar system there is a small group of immortals. They range in age from Hic-Haec-Hoc, a neanderthal who hasn't become any smarter in many thousands of years of life, to Daniel Curzon, the baby of the group at two hundred and fifty. Curzon's nickname, Guig, short for Grand Guignol, was given him for his charming habit of killing horribly people he admires. For that's how people become immortal - by dying particularly horribly. Now Guig has a new target: Dr. Sequoya Guess, a brilliant young Cherokee physicist. Dr. Guess is killed when his space programme ends in catastrophe before Guig can get to him - and is transformed into a new immortal anyway, to Guig's delight. Dr. Guess begins to take over Extro, the supercomputer complex that controls all mechanical activity on earth. The immortals join him, adding their own considerable resources to the effort. Their  aim is to free earth of political repression, to rebuild guess's  space-probe programme, and also to have a good time. But Extro takes over Guess instead, and turns evil for no discernible reason. The task of one merry band suddenly becomes a fight in deadly earnest for their own lives and Earth's existence. Sequoya Guess, whom they love, must be killed - but how do you kill an immortal?"

OMNI VOLUME 5 NUMBER 6 1983

Cover painting The Power Of Blackness by Paul Lehr.

Painting by Peter Goodfellow, accompanying the article Charts Of The Soul.

Painting by Tony Roberts, from the pictorial From Ruination's Fires.

Painting by Tony Roberts, from the pictorial From Ruination's Fires.

Painting by Tony Roberts, from the pictorial From Ruination's Fires.

Painting by Tony Roberts, from the pictorial From Ruination's Fires.

OMNI VOLUME 4 NUMBER 11 1982

Cover painting Freedom Of The Eyes by Wolfgang Hutter (1971).

OMNI VOLUME 4 NUMBER 1 1981

Cover painting by Paul Wunderlich.

THE BEST OF OMNI SCIENCE FICTION NO.6, 1983

The Best Of Omni Science Fiction No. 6, 1983. Painting by Michael Parkes.

"With six volumes now published in this very successful series, we are committed to the above title, even though it consists not only of reprints but of never-before-published stories as well. This has been straightforwardly stated on the covers of volumes two through five. Nevertheless, we still occasionally come upon a surprised, albeit pleased, reader who exclaims, "Original stories? Really!" Yes. Absolutely. Here, along with ten reprints from Omni and two classic stories, are five originals, all so good that they, too, can be categorized among the best - although some science fiction purists will no doubt that one or two of these originals strain the boundaries of the genre. Perhaps. But science fiction has long been in a state of flux; stirring it up some more can only be for the good. And another thing, just what is science fiction? Harlan Ellison, for example, vehemently contends that he's not a science-fiction writer, yet he enthusiastically contributed one of the original stories in this book and two of the reprints are his. All this seems just and proper: a title that is indefinite, some stories that may be considered as more fantasy than science fiction, an author of science fiction who says he isn't. Ambiguity is a common condition in the world of imaginative literature. Happily, it is so - for our reading pleasure."

Contains A Sepulcher Of Songs by Orson Scott Card, Johnny Mnemonic by William Gibson, a pictorial on the artist Paul Wunderlich, a Harlan Ellison celebration, including Chained To The Fast Lane In The Red Queen's Race, When Auld's Acquaintance Is Forgot, On The Slab, an appreciation by Robert Silverberg, A Blossom In Ares by Jack Massa, a pictorial of Rowena Morrill's paintings, A Brief Dance To The Music Of The Spheres by Michael Kurland, The Holy Father by Michael Cassutt, Intermezzo by Melisa Michaels, Kyrie by Poul Anderson, The Hero As Werwolf by Gene Wolfe, Angel At The Gate by Russell M. Griffin, Standing Woman by Tsutsui Tasutaka, A Cage For Death by Ian Watson, The Macrobiotic Revolution by Ian Stewart, Last Waltz by Warren Brown, Spider Robinson's God Is An Iron and a pictorial on photographer Pete Turner.

Painting by Paul Wunderlich, from a pictorial of the artist's work.

Painting by Michel Henricot that accompanied Michael Kurland's
A Brief Dance To The Music Of The Spheres.

Painting by Marshall Arisman that accompanied A Cage For Death by Ian Watson.

THE BEST OF OMNI SCIENCE FICTION NO.5, 1983

The Best Of Omni Science Fiction No. 5, 1983. Painting by James Christensen.

"This colorfully illustrated volume - a book in magazine format - includes reprints from Omni magazine, reprints of sf classics, and never-before-published stories. In these pages, there is plenty of riveting suspense, occasional straight humor, some satire, and much food for thought. Included in the latter are timely speculations about the environment and about the consequences of a big war. Science fiction may not be everything to everybody, but this volume stands witness to the fact that if you like a good yarn told in a lively style and if you are generally curious and concerned, you can be certain that you have spent your money wisely and well. Its predecessors, the four earlier volumes in this series, were bought by about one million people."

Contains Rautavaara's Case by Philip K. Dick, a tribute to Philip K. Dick by Michael Kurland, Only You Fanzy by Sherwood Springer, Lesson One by James Randi, a Pictorial on the artist Rudolf Hausner, The Hunting Of Hewlish by Sam Nicholson, New Is Beautiful by Tony Holkham, a Robert Silverberg celebration including Basileus, The Soul Painter And The Shapeshifter, The Palace At Midnight and an appreciation written by Harlan Ellison, Helen O'loy by Lester Del Rey, a pictorial of Chesley Bonestell's paintings, Down There by Damon Knight, The Touch by Gregory Benford, The Lost Secret by Laurence M. Janifer, There Were People On Bikini There Were People On Attu by William Tenn, Village Of The Chosen by Alan Dean Foster, Malthus's Day by Jayge Carr, a pictorial on Gervasio Gallardo, Body Ball by John Keefauver, Prime Time by Norman Spinrad, In The Hereafter Hilton by Bob Shaw, Whether Pigs Have Wings by Nancy Kress and a pictorial on Ernst Fuchs.

Painting by Herbert Kretschmar that accompanied Rautavaara's Case
by Philip K. Dick.

Painting by Rudolf Hausner, from a pictorial of his work.

Painting by Robert Giusti that accompanied Alan Dean Foster's Village Of The Chosen.

Painting by Gervaisio Gallardo, from a pictorial of his work.

GALILEO NUMBER 7 1978

Cover painting by John Scheonherr.

"Good covers are hard to come by. The opportunity to run a cover by John Schoenherr was asking the impossible. Here, with our compliments, is a bit of the impossible."

The magazine also notes that this painting was part of John Schoenherr's original portfolio, the one which he took to New York when first looking for work as an sf artist.

WORLD'S SPRING

Macmillan hardback, 1981. Cover painting by Richard M. Powers.

"The stories in World's Spring cover the entire spectrum of science fiction, from apocalyptic visions of a future dominated by an all-knowing, all-seeing, and all-intrusive computer, to a mocking view of a fully ordered society knocked haywire by fallible humans. We meet people inhabiting an Earth we cannot recognize, and aliens on distant planets who are not unlike ourselves. These twenty-one stories are a fine blend of fantasy and allegory. Introductions and commentary are by Vladimir Gakov."

Contains The Surf Of Mars by Dmitri Bilenkin, The Port Of Rock Storms by Genrikh Altov, World's Spring by Victor Kolupaev, Nine Minutes by Genrikh Altov, The World In Which I Vanished by Anatoly Dneprov, The Sun Sets In Donomag by Ilya Varshavsky, Testing Grounds by Sever Ganovsky, The Ultimate Threshold by German Maksimov, City And Wolf by Dmitri Bilenkin, An Ugly Bioform by Kirill Bulychev, The Very Biggest House by Victor Kolupaev, Appendix by Andrei Balabukha, The Great Actor Jones by Gennady Gor, The Stanislavsky Method by Alexander Gorbovsky, Life Space by Marietta Chudakova, Day Of Wrath by Sever Ganovsky, Once At Night by Dmitiri Bilenkin, The Choice by Kirill Bulychev, An Old Robot's Two Times Two by Vladimir Grigorev and Coincidence by Alexander Gorbovsky.  

THE STARS MY DESTINATION

Gollancz SF Masterworks paperback, 1999. Illustration by Chris Moore.

"EDUCATION: none. 

SKILLS: none. MERITS: none. 

RECOMMENDATIONS: none. 

That is the official verdict on Gully Foyle, unskilled space crewman. But Gully has managed to survive for 170 days in the airless purgatory of deep space after the wreck of his ship, and has escaped to earth carrying a murderous grudge and a secret that could change the course of history."

Ten points go to Bill Miller, who spotted that the painting is actually mirrored. According to Wikipedia this was done for aesthetic reasons. So when Gully meets the Scientific People, they tattoo 'DAMON' on his forehead.

CITIES IN FLIGHT

First Avon printing, Feb 1970. Cover artist uncredited.

"The epic cyclic history of the future is now brought together in one volume. In the tetralogy, James Blish has structured an entire universe in which mankind is no longer bound to the Solar System, but has become both conqueror and victim of the stars." 

ALIEN EMBASSY

Panther SF paperback, 1979. Cover artist uncredited.
Possibly Tony Roberts?

"A WORLD AT PEACE WITH ITSELF, AND WITH ITS NEIGHBOURS- 

The 22nd century world of Lila Makindi, a young African girl, is a world of simplicity and peace, where the greatest honour any citizen can hope for is to be chosen by Bardo (the Space Communications Administration) as a candidate for Starflight. 

Lila is chosen. She begins to practise the tantric yoga exercises that will take her to the stars where she will communicate and exchange knowledge with their alien inhabitants. 

But Lila soon discovers that galactic intercourse is not the sole purpose of Starflight. Bardo's purpose is much more urgent, for the galaxy is threatened by an immense, malignant energy force - the Starbeast. And the efforts of the Starflyers is the only way of containing the Starbeast. At least, that's Bardo's story..."

THE MIND RIDERS

Fontana SF paperback, 1977. Cover illustration by Tony Roberts.

"The boxers slugging it out in the ring were just holographs, patterns of light, but to millions of Network viewers they were genuine flesh and blood. They looked real, and with an E-link between the handler controlling the sim and the viewer's mind you could actually feel them emotionally - their excitement, power, anger...even their fear and crushing sense of defeat. 

After the fight, when the holos faded out and the handlers took off their headsets, the boxers ceased to exist. There were no scars to heal,  except mental ones - and Network wasn't interested in things like that. 

But for years one handler had been tortured by painful memories of a previous fight - so much so, that when he came back to the ring for the last time he was fighting not just to win, but to gain honour and self-respect in a world he had ceased to believe in."

RIP FRANK FRAZETTA

Painting for L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth.

Frank Frazetta died yesterday (10th May), he was 82. Admittedly, his work was never my cup of tea but nonetheless, he was an incredible artist with an astounding body of work, even if his few dalliances with sf were rendered with the clichés of heroic fantasy intact. RIP, Frank.

SCIENCE FANTASY JUNE 1958

Cover by Brian Lewis for Earth is But A Star.