Ski-Ffy: September 2010

Wednesday, 29 September 2010

PATTERNS OF CHAOS

Ace SF paperback, may 1978. Cover art by Paul Alexander.

"LORD, WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN ME? HAS NOBODY EVEN TOLD YOU? THEY SAY THAT GOD IS DEAD.

He awoke without trace of memory. But as the echoes of the telepathic trigger phrase faded soundlessly from his mind things slowly fell into place.

1. He was on Onaris. 27th Rim Planet to fall prey to the Destroyers.

2. He was an operative in the Special Assignments group of the Stellar Commando.

3. His was the crucial role in saving the remaining Rim Worlds from the rapacious inroads of the Destroyer forces: he was point-man, victim, and helpless puppet all rolled into one, under the absolute dominance of a sadistic bitch-goddess whose voice spoke within his mind, who saw with his eyes - and who could punish him utterly. He hated and adored her.

What he would not learn until much later was that he was the focal point in a plot older than humanity, a plot before whose menace the threat posed by the Destroyer forces paled to insignificance."

THE BLACK MOUNTAINS

Ace paperback, 1971. Cover by John Schoenherr.

"When Chup's castle fell to the forces of the West, the ex-lord was reduced to beggary at its gates. Each day he faced the Black Mountains of the East to which he had sworn fealty - and where he hoped his unclaimed bride still waited.

Behind, the west plotted to assault the Black Mountains with their new weapons from the forbidden lore of the Old Technology. Ahead, lay the three most powerful lords in all creation. One was good, one was evil, one was immortal.

Chup knew the east could not help him unless they could profit by it. Nor could he refuse anything asked of him and still survive. If they reached him in any way, he might be both blessed and cursed. And then, one howling, windy night, came the deformed luminescence of a demon..."

COSMIC ENCOUNTER

NEL paperback, 1981. Illustration: Gerry Grace.

"Time had collapsed. For a brief instant, like the sudden reopening of a disused mineshaft forty million years deep. The strata of millennia upon millennia had compressed, bearing their fossils of the future, impacted and pressed down irresistibly on one spot. AD 1704. The ship Orinda, outward bound on piracy, dipped through the Caribbean swell. Intent only on its murderous rendezvous with a fat ripe merchantman, it noticed nothing. Never saw the man from the future who climbed aboard. Only saw too late the alien bulk of the Lantellan battlecraft that loomed and filled the eastern horizon. Could not know that the Lantella was at war and would live in a universe of total hostility. But, uncomprehending and terrified, did see the boarding craft that was skimming towards them..."

Tuesday, 28 September 2010

THE DUNE ENCYCLOPEDIA

Corgi edition, 1984 (paperback), cover painting by Bruce Pennington.

"EIGHT YEARS IN THE MAKING, THE WORLD OF PAINSTAKING SCOLARSHIP AND RESEARCH, CONTAINING THOUSANDS OF ENTRIES AND CROSS-REFERENCES...

Futurist, journalist, bestselling author, world-maker Frank Herbert's magnificent future history, The Dune Chronicles, has proven itself the most popular and enduring work of speculative fiction of our age - not only for the grandeur of its epic sweep, but for the complexity and intricacy of its world. Now, for the first time, Dune is revealed in panoramic detail - the people, the desert planet, the ecology, the history, the entire universe of the visionary masterpiece!

The legendary history of Paul Atreides, the Kwisatz Haderach

Salusa Secondus: the prison planet

Fremen Desert survival techniques

Duncan Idao (10158 - 10191): Swordmaster of the Ginaz

A complete guide to the heraldry of the major house of Harkonnen

"How Muad'Dib got his name": a folktale from the Oral history

The Dune tarot; or the Golden Path

the assassin's handbook: a complete guide to professional Chaumurky

THE AUTHORIZED GUIDE AND COMPANION TO DUNE! ORIGINAL, NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED MATERIAL!"

THE SHIP WHO SANG

Corgi paperback, 1977. Cover painting by Angus McKie.

"The brain was perfect, the tiny, crippled body useless. So technology rescued the brain and put it in an environment that conditioned it to live in a different kind of body - a spaceship. Here the human mind, more subtle, infinitely more complex than any computer ever devised, could be linked to the massive and delicate strengths, the total recall, and the incredible speeds of space. But the brain behind the ship was entirely feminine - a complex, loving, strong, weak, gentle savage - a personality, all-woman, called Helva..."

THE UNDERPEOPLE

Pyramid SF paperback, 1968. Cover: Jack Gaughan.

"DOWNDEEP-

in the forgotten corridors and caverns under the glittering, crowded surface of old earth - live the underpeople. Mutated from animal stock, they are man's servants - laborers, clerks, even pleasure girls.

But the scorned underpeople have dreams men do not suspect - powers men cannot conceive. And now they have a strange ally, the richest man who ever lived - the winning piece in their deadly game with lords who rule the universe!"

FRONTIER OF GOING

Panther paperback, 1973 reprint. Cover illustration by Chris Foss.

"POETS IN ORBIT

The dreamers of the world, rhymers of the moon and dune, are at last looking to the stars with more than romance in mind. Until recently, the only writers who regularly used the literally universal themes offered by space travel were science fiction authors and the occasional avant-garde "wild talent" such as William Burroughs.

Now, more and more, poets are being inspired by the fresh fields of space exploration. Mind-dazzling visions of other planets, galaxies and satellites, create new frontiers - Frontiers of Going.

This anthology includes the best space age poetry by new and established poets-

George Barker, Edward Lucie-Smith, Peter Redgrove, James Kirkup, John Wain, Robert Conquest, D. M. Thomas and many others..."

THE LAST DEFENDER OF CAMELOT

Sphere SF paperback. Cover illustration by Peter Goodfellow.

'I envy anyone who has not read them and is about to!'

-Theodore Sturgeon

"There are fifteen strange and beautiful stories in this collection, spanning the full spectrum of Zelazny's remarkable career. Zelazny is one of the most acclaimed and honoured writers in the science fiction field and these dazzling and memorable stories explain why."

'Zelazny, telling of gods and wizards, uses magical words as if he were himself a wizard'

-Philip José Farmer

Contents:

Passion Play
Horseman!
The Stainless Steel Leech
A Thing Of Terrible Beauty
He Who Shapes
Comes Now The Power
Auto-Da-Fé
For A Breath I Tarry
The Engine And Heartspring's Center
The Game Of Blood And Dust
No Award
Is There A Demon Lover In The House?
The Last Defender Of Camelot
Stand Pat
Ruby Stone
Halfjack

Friday, 24 September 2010

SPACE 5:

Hutchinson Books hardback, 1979. Jacket illustration by
David Hardy.

"In the science fiction stories Richard Davis has collected here, the range of ideas and moods means that there is a treat for everyone. The authors represented are masters like Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke and Richard Matheson, and some of the brightest of the younger talents, such as Glenn Chandler, Tim Stout and David Campton.

There are stories about space travel and some of the natural (and unnatural) hazards faced by spacemen - also a couple of adventures for those who travel to the Earth! Adrian Cole sees us through such visitors' eyes in his memorable piece. Ray Bradbury's story is a striking comment on the implications of time travel: Martinsen's hero Dani Smiff solves another case for his father, and young Bobo's creation gets a little out of hand in Bobo's Star.

So - dip in. You'll be amazed, amused, terrified and puzzled, and always entertained."

Contents:

A Sound Of Thunder by Ray Bradbury
Bobo's Star by Glenn Chandler
The Specimen by Tim Stout
Mind Bend by Martin Martinsen
The Giftie by David Compton
Summertime On Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke
Johnson by Guy Weiner
Out Of An Ocean, Long Ago by Tony Richards
Little Girl Lost by Richard Matheson
Offside by Adrian Cole