Thursday, July 15, 2004

Calling Captain Future!

Before there was Buzz Lightyear...there was Captain Future!

Here's a suggestion for Haffner Press. How about bringing back Captain Future?

Addendum: Captain Future covers. Titles.

Addendum (August 20, 2008): There's hope for fans of Edmond Hamilton and the Captain! Baen Books has come out with bundles of eBooks written by Leigh Brackett with Edmond Hamilton and the first of three expected bundles written by Edmond Hamilton. Alas, Baen will not have any Captain Future, but Haffner Press has announced a multi-volume set of stories by Hamilton, including a Captain Future volume!
Better Than Good Book

A while ago I tried to read Neil Gaiman's book Neverwhere. I gave up after the first chapter or so, finding it a pale imitation of the works of Tim Powers. I'm not a big comic, errr, graphic novel fan, so I can't say I'm familar with his works in that area.

I skipped American Gods, given my experience with Neverwhere.

I did read several reviews of Coraline while I was working through a pile of back issues of Locus. It sounded interesting, so I gave it a try. I read the whole thing last night at work (it's not very long).

Excellent book! It reminded me strongly of Ray Bradbury (especially Something Wicked This Way Comes) or Fritz Leiber (especially the earlier tales of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, especially Ill Met in Lankhmar). The flap says it's for ages 8 and up. Maybe when I was a kid (I read a lot of stuff like this). Today's kids might find it a bit tame (given the usual video game fare). Adults should love it, especially if you are a fan of Bradbury, Poe, Lovecraft, Leiber, (Clark Ashton) Smith, etc.

I may have to give Neverwhere another try.
Winston SF

The Illustrious Mr. Chung sent me this link to a site devoted to the wonderful YA series of SF novels published by the John C. Winston Company in the late 1950's and early 1960's. The artwork was wonderful, and many of the books are still fun to read today.

Triva time! The following Winston authors were really sombody else!

Evan Hunter...Ed McBain
Philip Latham...Robert Richardson (astronomer)
Milton Lesser...Stephen Marlowe
Eric North...Bernard Charles Cronin
Philip St. John...Lester Del Rey
Erik Van Lihn...Lester Del Rey
Kenneth Wright...Lester Del Rey

Thursday, July 01, 2004

Galactic Roamer

NESFA Press, one of the best places around to find classic SF, is working on a book about E.E. "Doc" Smith.

The works of "Doc" Smith, especially The Spacehounds of IPC, The Skylark of Space, and the entire Lensman Series "landed" an already "hooked" young SF fan (me).