July Books

 I got through 13 books last month, including ten from my Avon/Equinox project, which took me to #600 in that long term project.  Though I knew it would take me awhile, I didn't realize how much more would still be left to go after more than 5 years.  However, I will finish up Ballard in August, and James Blish will last three more months beyond that.  Still lots of Silverberg left, and Jack Williamson, Kenneth Bulmer, Harry Harrison, Michael Moorcock, and E. C. Tubb.  I won't read all of Piers Anthony's oeuvre, by choice.  But since I only read one book per month by each author, I will soon be able to read outside of the project even more frequently.  This month I managed three such books, which will likely be the norm after Ballard and Blish are done.  I still have novels by Iain Banks I haven't yet read, and a shelf full of others.

I began the month with Silverberg's The Second Trip, a flawed novel about replacing one man's criminal mind with another improved one, in the same body.  In this case, the criminal is not quite erased, and comes back to give the new tenant a hard time.  Like The Prisoner TV series, which saw the prisoner unable to escape his prison because of a big balloon, this one has to have a means of keeping the new person from seeking help from his doctors.  So of course the criminal can control bodily functions, and can cause a heart attack, etc. if he goes for help.  The story drags, is quite predictable, and I was happy to move to on to the next selection.

Bearing An Hourglass, by Piers Anthony, is the 2nd book in his Incarnations of Immortality series.  This promised to be quite a good series, but is spoiled in the main by Anthony's desire to be funny.  Sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn't.  There is no mistaking Anthony's brilliance as an idea man, and his painstaking research that ensures his science and metaphysics are up to date show his desire to write as well as he can.  This book deals with the character of Time (Death was the star of the first book), and Anthony does a good job of fleshing him out.  While everyone else lives with time running forward, Time himself lives his life in reverse, causing several paradox to occur, sometimes at the same time.  There are so many fascinating aspects to the story, and it ties in to the first book quite brilliantly, too.  I just wish Anthony would stop trying to appeal to juveniles and adults in the same story, and get back to his classic adult writing.

It's always so refreshing to read a book by Harrison, especially after one by Anthony.  Harrison can write SF comedy like nobody else (Anthony's young teenage daughter adored the Stainless Steel Rat series), and the serious stuff can knock your socks off.  The Jupiter Plague was a rewrite and extension of a previous version as Plague of Space.  Either version is great stuff, as a disease from space kills virtually everyone within hours of contacting it.  The race for a cure is Harrison at his adventurous best.  There are no bad guys in the story, but plenty of people who are not very smart, and make very bad decisions.  Sound familiar?  This disease makes Covid 19 seem like "a little flu."

Having completed all of Kenneth Bulmer's single novels and one of his series, I now turn to the rest of his series, many written under different names.  His largest series by far is the Dray Prescott Series, some 53 books.  The books are divided into smaller series, and I am currently reading the first five-book series, called The Delian Cycle.  And the first book is called Transit To Scorpio.  It's an hommage to Edgar Rice Burroughs, much like Moorcock's Mars series.  I have read virtually all of Burroughs, and have all his books in paperback and on Kindle (which is where I found the Delian Cycle at a bargain price).  But I haven't read any in a very long while.  So I have Moorcock, and now Bulmer, to thank for reminding me of many boyhood days spent reading stuff like this.  Silly stuff, of course, but silly can be fun.

Stardeath, by E. C. Tubb, keeps up the pulp SF tradition nicely, as Captain Varl returns (though it would appear to be his first time in each book he appears (the stories make it sound as if they are not connected).  Some really bad aliens are attacking Earth ships, and need to be stopped.  Varl has a ship build to his specifications, and heads out with a hand-picked crew to put a stop to it.  I really liked the netherworld where the 2nd half of the book takes place.  It is never explained, which I also liked.  After all, who can explain the unexplainable?

Jack Williamson's Brother To Demons, Brother to Gods is another outstanding story by the master.  It very much resembles a comic book story, and would make a wonderful graphic novel series.  Two orphaned children, growing up on poor and strained Red Rock Reservation in a far future Colorado, cling to their belief that a superman will come someday to lift them to new heights.  Told in five novelettes, each story concludes with the children acquiring power, increasing with each obstacle at which they arrive.  It is a story of genetics and planting the seed for a more powerful being, one that can overcome the aristocratic gods that now rule the galaxy.  The children are wonderfully portrayed throughout the novel.  I didn't give the story a perfect rating because I had a problem with the ending.  Even so, considering it as a comic book, the ending is likely the correct one.  Excellent reading.

Speaking of comic books, next up was another Eternal Champion 3-book series by Moorcock.  The Eternal Champion introduces John Draker (John Carter tribute), and the book ties in to the Corum series and others.  Draker awakens in a different world, a hero expected to help humans defeat the evil (so we are told) Eldren.  He pledges to help exterminate the enemy, and then proceeds to do so.  When only a few Eldren remain, including the woman he loves, he realizes he has made a mistake in killing them.  Oops.  Sorry.  And so he joins forces with the Eldren to wipe out all the humans instead, including the woman he once loved.  In Moorcock's books of this type, very few people remain alive when all is said and done, and enough killing has gone on to turn the oceans red with blood.  There might even be a not so subtle message in his books about this.  Not that anyone important will ever hear it.  A good beginning to the series.

Next came another 15 or so shorter tales by J G. Ballard.  In one more month I will finish reading his works.  The best stories this time around were: My Dream of Flying To Wake Island, a meditation on downed aircraft, Pacific islands, and a failed astronaut; Say Goodbye To The Wind, another lovely poem-like story about strange events in Vermillion Sands, the desolate desert community where many of Ballard's finest stories occur; Low Flying Aircraft, one of the best near future stories ever written; The Dead Time, a gruesome precursor to his novel about wartime Shanghai; The Intensive Care Unit, a story that comes so close to the truth at present that I think it would have shocked the author; and A Host of Furious Fancies, a retelling, in Freudian terms, of the Cinderella story.

The Day of the Burning is a classic Barry Malzberg story, a variation on a theme he has written about many times.  Aliens are going to burn up the planet unless Mercer, a New York social worker, can close a difficult case in 12 hours.  Watching someone go mad might not seem the best material for comedy, but with Malzberg there is nothing funnier.  And he proves it again and again as his main characters go off the deep end in various ways, taking us on a one-way journey of horror and humour, into the darkest regions of ourselves.  No one writes better material about social workers (of which Malzberg was one once) and the people they serve.  A brilliant story.

Anywhen is a small collection of short stories by James Blish.  Out of seven stories in the book, I awarded highest ratings to four of them!  One I was unable to rate, as I didn't "get it."  (I still don't).  The Writing of the Rat brilliantly depicts humanity's struggle encountering superior aliens; And Some Were Savages is another excellent story, this one about 2nd contact (1st contact left the aliens with a human plague; the 2nd trip is to try and fix that little problem); A Dusk of Idols tells of a doctor landing on a disease-ridden planet, trying to save the people there.  His adventures recall Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith; How Beautiful With Banners reminded me of the writing of Hal Clement; this is a beautiful story with a sad but very funny ending.

And now for the best SF cover this past month.  And the winner is....

Cover art by Tom Kidd.  Congratulations, Tom!

Turning to other books on my miscellaneous shelf, I read two from the shelf and one from Kindle.  From the shelf came The Casebook of Solar Pons, #4 in the series by August Derleth.  Taking up where Conan Doyle left off, the short adventures mimic the original tales closely, with tongue in cheek references to Sherlock here and there.  I have enjoyed all the Pons books, and will check into whether I have read all the stories now.

Next was a little gem of a hardcover I picked up in a local antique store a few years ago.  The book disappeared behind other books, but was recently rediscovered.  There Were Two Pirates, by James Branch Cabell, reunited me with one of my favourite authors from the Ballantine Fantasy series, edited by Lin Carter.  I have Carter to thank for introducing me to one of the greatest fantasy writers who ever lived, and the most recent discovery is no exception.  Half pirate adventure and half youthful remembrance, this is a very funny and very classy story, told with real charm and sophistication.  I will soon own the complete works of Cabell, and can't wait to embark on the many tales awaiting me.

Lastly came Chesterton's first series of stories featuring little Father Brown, and his best friend, retired French master criminal Flambeau.  There are twelve stories in volume one, collectively called The Innocence of Father Brown.  They are all fun to read, though some of the mysteries work better than others.  The finest story in the volume is called The Sign of the Broken Sword, a tale of an English war hero is which the truth is revealed about his character and exploits.  It is a truly great story of deduction, and the cult of heroism.  Sadly, the wonderful stories and characters of Chesterton have little to do with the BBC TV series, other than the titles.  There is no Flambeau, no corrupt French chief of Police Valentin, and instead we have two rival women characters that add virtually nothing to the stories.  Give the TV series a miss, and grab hold of the original tales.

Next up on my (long) list is a Silverberg tale from 1971, called Son of Man.  Before we leave the world of books, I wish to say a few words about the Delphi complete works collection of e-books.  This is a vast and stunning undertaking, and has been going on for several years now.  I have already purchased the following, at less than $4 each:  the Complete Works of.... Chesterton, William Morris, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, Lord Dunsany, Edgar Allan Poe, Joseph Conrad, William Hope Hodgson, Arthur Machan, L. Frank Baum, and Jules Verne.  Coming soon is Clark Ashton Smith (!!!) and Cabell (!!!).  These editions are filled with artwork, photos, excellent editing, and virtually everything the author wrote, including criticism and non-fiction essays, etc.  In edition, there are articles from critics of the author, many of them famous writers themselves.  Delphi have hundreds of editions out, with more coming every year.  I will go back and pick up a few more soon, including H. Rider Haggard.  Many volumes contain hundreds of hours reading on their own.

Turning to movies, this weekend is devoted to Deb's film festival.  She has chosen a massive Russian 1960s version of War and Peace.  Sounds like fun.  My two most recent picks were Taipei Story, from 1985 and directed by a favourite of ours, Edward Yang.  We have now seen three of his films.  Part of Scorsese's World Cinema Project, we saw a fully restored version.  The movie is very good, and offers up some wonderful scenes of Taipei, as well as several generations of people that inhabit it.  Well worth seeing, as are all films in this wonderful restored series..

Now showing on Criterion. 

From the leaving July 31st list I chose Godard's Pierrot Le Fou, an amazing film I have never seen before.  Belmondo is superb as the man who is jerked around by a beautiful woman (Anna Karina) whom he loves.  It is a romantic road movie, a crime story, and a very funny comment on modern times, including cinema.  Godard must have had fun with this one.  A good catch, and none too soon.

Lots of tobacco is featured in this film by Godard, leaving Criterion at midnight tonight. 

No art from the DIA today.  Next time for sure, along with a brief climate recap of our July.

Mapman Mike

June Reading

 In addition to getting through books by my ten remaining Avon/Equinox Rediscovery authors, I managed two non-related books as well.  Reading continues to be a major pastime for me, with no end in sight yet for my project, now in its sixth year.  As usual, the month began with a novel by Robert Silverberg.  Tower of Glass is from 1970, and Silverberg already had captured the essence of a multi-billionaire's ego.  Krug is the richest man alive, with ambitions to match his wealth.  When a signal from space arrives indicating intelligent alien life, he sets out to build a communication tower.  This tower will be able to return a signal faster than light.  Krug wants to meet aliens before he dies, or at least talk with them.  The tower is being built west of Hudson's Bay, and it's a big one, all right.  However, the main theme of the novel appears to be the relationship between the fully human and the somewhat human AIs who do all the actual work.  Both themes intertwine to make a fascinating tale of the near future.  As we watch today's billionaires compete to be the first in space, and AI intelligence continues to be refined, this is not such a far fetched story 51 years after it was written.

Next I read Kiai! by Piers Anthony, a very early work by him focusing on a judo expert entering a mixed martial arts contest.  This work is quite terrible, and no doubt contributed to the disdain and disbelief most people have today regarding martial arts.  It is the first of a series, so I might try one more later on.  At this point I am trying the first book of each series Anthony wrote before deciding to continue of with them.

Winter In Eden is Harry Harrison's 1986 sequel to West of Eden, his major "what if" series about what might have transpired if the big meteor had not struck Earth.  In general I am bored by books about prehistoric humans.  But Farmer wrote a great one, and Harrison, a much better writer, has written a wonderful history novel.  The characters and races become a bit more complex, and new people are added to the epic tale.  All in all a good read, with one more novel in the set to go.

Roller Coaster World is from 1972, and is Bulmer's last single novel.  Now I only have his series to attack.  Bulmer sort of lost his way lately with exposition, but if readers stick to it, another good, solid SF novel emerges from the initial chaos.  At heart it's a hopeless love story, and would make a great film or series.  Several of  Bulmer's latest books go to a lot of trouble to set up an entire world and culture, only to end it permanently after the first book.  He seemed to have a mind for series later on, but managed to keep things to only the first book.  This story is about a human colony that thrives on the life-giving radiation a planet gives off.  Only the radiation has been dying out, leaving people feeling very poorly, indeed.

E.C. Tubb's Pandora's Box was written in 1954, but not published until the mid 1990s.  The story is really constructed well, and involves the smuggling of dangerous spores to Earth from Venus, sent by a mad professor to end all life on the planet.  But before we get near that aspect of the story, it begins on the Moon, at a customs station.  We meet John Weston, an honest customs agent who has a unique knack for finding smugglers.  He is saddled with Marge, a wife who likes to spend big.  John was once a space pilot, but lost his commission, along with his big salary.  Marge continues to spend regardless.  And so we come to the set up.  If John will allow one smuggler through, he will be well paid.  Once the smuggler has clear access to deliver his package (which he thinks are seeds for illegal drugs), then the story shifts to Venus.  A really good tale, by one of the best pulp writers to have ever taken up a typewriter.

Wall Around A Star, from 1983, concludes the Saga of Cuckoo, by Jack Williamson and Frederik Pohl.  The series consists of two books, both confusing due to the number of major characters involved, and the number of alien races.  It seems unusually cluttered, with enough characters to have lasted for five or six books, if they had been slowly introduced to us over time.  But concepts, ideas, plots, characters, and races are all thrown at us quite breathlessly.  The central story is excellent, about an incoming solar system size entity about to invade our galaxy.  In book one, everything was still pretty much a mystery regarding this object (called Cuckoo by the investigators).  Book two provides full explanations for everything, which is a relief.  However, some of these explanations are a bit far fetched and difficult to swallow.  This second book isn't as fun as the first book, and the series itself is certainly not required reading for diehard SF fans.  Still, there is a lot to ponder in here, if you can keep the characters straight in your mind.

Michael Moorcock's conclusion to his 2nd Corum trilogy is called The Sword and the Stallion.  It marks a strong finish to a really decent sword and sorcery series featuring a troubled and put upon hero (Corum), helping for the sixth and final time to put down evil and restore decency to the world.  The only problem with Moorcock's final solution (as per usual for him), is that the evil has rendered such destruction, mayhem, and murder that there really isn't much of a world remaining.  I will continue with his eternal champion theme next month, as I begin a new series with a (mostly) new hero.

Next up was Volume 2 of Ballard's shorter fiction, another 750 pages of mostly very good short stories.  I have once again chopped it into three segments, meaning that I still have two months of Ballard reading remaining.  Last month I read 14 stories from 1964 to 1968.  Despite a few clunkers.  The best of them, the ones that should seriously be sought out, include The Lost Leonardo, The Terminal Beach, The Illuminated Man (the first, much shorter version of The Crystal World), The Recognition, and, perhaps the finest story ever written (I know I've said this before with Ballard's works--I can't help it), The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D.

The Sodom and Gomorrah Business by Barry Malzberg is from 1974, and continues his long winning streak in writing some of the most provocative fiction ever penned.  And there is always great storytelling going on, too.  This could be considered one of the weirdest road movie plots every created, as two cadets sneak out of their safe training haven in a 1964 Cadillac, and encounter the real world, head on.  Inspired by Anthony Burgess and Kubrick, the beginning owes a lot to Clockwork Orange.  The rest reminds me a bit of Budrys' writing, with a good solid chunk of Malzberg thrown in the mix, too.  A truly awesome writer.

Galactic Cluster contains 8 stories by master SF writer James Blish, all from the 1950s.  Six of the eight are truly fantastic tales, still resonating after almost 70 years!  Common Time, A Work of Art (Iain Banks??), Nor Iron Bars (in which a space ship ends up orbiting inside an atom!), Beep, and This Earth of Hours would all go on to influence SF writing for decades to come.  It's easy to see how and why.

Now we turn to the two books read not relating to my overall reading project.  These are books that have been on my reading shelf for years.  I am trying to clear off that shelf (about 20 books remaining on it), and it is slowly happening.  The hard part is trying not to add anything new to it!  Most new books are going on my Kindle, once the hard copies are read.  Even though I hope to read the complete Jules Verne (Kindle, $1.00), I had a hard copy of Carpathian Castle, a science based Gothic horror novel set in and near a small Carpathian village.  The story is told with humour, especially regarding the superstitious beliefs of the locals, but all the usual Gothic nonsense is also included.  The book is hard to put down once begun.  Despite all of the weird things that (seem) to go, they all have a scientific basis, explained at the end.  But the book's main flaw, which isn't explained, is why the (bad) Baron had to blow up his castle at the end.  He actually had done nothing wrong!  I am going to use parts of this story in my upcoming third Valeria the Vegetarian Vampire story, as her family goes to Eastern Europe on holiday.

Lastly comes a truly amazing and wonderful book by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish, called The Golden Age.  When we were studying for our education degree back in 1979-80, we learned all of the major theories of learning, and how children's minds work at different stages of their lives.  Piaget comes to mind here, especially as to his theory about concrete versus abstract thought processes.  This Grahame novel consists of many very short tales of childhood adventures and doings, wonderfully told (for adults) from a child's perspective, and illustrating better than anywhere I have ever seen exactly how children think concretely.  There are continuous laughs on every page, as well as some of the tenderest moments one could ever hope to live through.  This book is a real treasure, published by Dover.  I bought it new years ago from a store in Detroit, and wish I'd read it when I was still teaching.  It should be required reading for beginning teachers.

That (almost) takes care of this month's reading.  But I am going to add a new feature starting this month, for those of you not willing to tackle by Avon/Equinox webpage (see left margin for a link).  I will choose the best cover of books read over the past month, and post it here for your viewing pleasure.

Best cover of the month award goes to Charles Moll. 

Mapman Mike

April Books Read

 North America is a vast continent, and crossing less than half of it in four days is much too quick, especially in the US.  Road trips are a thing in our part of the world, a big thing.  I have driven west 9 times, and back home 8 times.  No, I am not still out west as I write this (I wish I was), but one time I drove west with my brother, then flew home.  I miss the road trip, and hope we can do one late this year or early next year, towards Albuquerque or Denver.

Because of web site instability years ago, many of my photos are no longer on line.  So I have set up a new blog, which I will attempt to update on a monthly basis, briefly outlining our past road trips.  Here is a link to that blog.  A permanent link can also be found in the upper right hand margin of this blog.

In April I managed to read 11 books, including one from beyond the Avon/Equinox project.  I have a small stack of books in the bedroom next to the digital clock, and I am trying to read through these before embarking on all of the Kindle editions I have purchased (not related to the Avon project).  This month I read the last book I have by P. D. Wodehouse, called A Damsel In Distress.  Wodehouse writes the comic opera versions of Upstairs, Downstairs.  His true gift, aside from being a very funny writer, is how his characters and plot, subplot, and seemingly nonsense antics all fit perfectly together by the end.  Not a wasted word, character, or situation.  Highly recommended.  Since I have no more paperbacks by him to read, I purchased a set of a whole pile of his novels on Kindle, for $.99.  The book was turned into a very bad movie starring Fred Astaire.  Wodehouse, in an intro to this more modern edition, discusses his Hollywood project in detail.  It was the only Astaire movie to lose money.

Beginning with Silverberg, I made it through another iteration of the remaining authors in my Avon/Equinox SF Rediscovery Series project.  I read a novel called Up The Line.  Silverberg is a man of many writing talents.  I first came across him as a youth with one of his archaeology books.  Of course he also writes SF, and history, and for a time he wrote pulp soft core porn as well.  Food must be put on the table, after all.  Now to the present story.  It is a mix of all of the above, as a man who works as a time travel guide for rich tourists takes them back to Byzantine times, just before the fall of Constantinople.  So we get a very rich portrait from the author of these (and a few other) times.  But the hero becomes obsessed and falls in love with one of his ancestors, whom he refers to as his great great great (etc) grandmother.  Silverberg, at least in the 50s and 60s) is one of the more sexist writers I have come across in this project.  Women are there for one thing, which is to please men.  The book is completely spoiled not by sex, but by the author's attitudes to it.  Nearly a complete wast of time.  But I did learn a lot about Constantine and his fall.

Ghost, by Piers Anthony, is a pretty solid SF novel, also about time travel.  His use of time travel is one of the more brilliant ones I have ever come across.  A spaceship essentially stays where it is, but as the galaxy spins, the solar system rotates, and our sun moves through space with its entourage, the ship always ends up in a different place, since it remains stationary.  They eventually become trapped in a ghost galaxy, and must seek to escape.  The final solution is not what one might expect, however.  Sadly, Anthony too often leaves the story behind in his attempt to problem solve, and the final one third of the book is more like sitting in a science class than reading a story.  He has become a bit of a blowhard in his later writing, leaving storytelling behind when it suits him.  His ideas, though, are brilliant.

Next came West of Eden, a long novel by Harrison which became a series for him.  I am not overly fond of cave man type SF, though I have read several goods ones from the authors of the Avon series.  Harrison's twist is this: what would have happened if the giant meteor had not struck the Yucatan?  Answer: there would still be a lot of reptilian life forms out there, competing with humans.  This is not necessarily a dinosaur versus humans story, but the two species do coexist.  The dominant species, though, is reptilian, very intelligent, warlike, and not easily changed from their role over thousands of years.  Humans are still low on the chain, but about to become more than they were, thanks to their reptilian nemesis.  Not a bad story at all, and would make an excellent TV series.

Bulmer's The Insane City was next, a pulp novel at heart, but with that added extra that this writer does so well.  Although the complexity of the story is rather high, Bulmer has a way with telling stories that makes reading easy and fun.  In fact, I read this novel in less than one day, as I was forced to sit on the couch for a long time with a cat recovering from eye surgery (the cat is doing fine).  There are many important themes running through the tale, almost too many to deal with properly.  Robots taking jobs, human lives becoming more ruled by central computers, computer intelligence and their ability to deal with emotions, megalomaniac CEOs wanting to dominate the planet, and even clearing slums and not properly seeing to the needs of the displaced.  Well worth reading, even though not his best writing.

Someone keeps unearthing unpublished manuscripts by Tubb and putting them up on Kindle.  This one is called Destroyer of Worlds, and was first published in 2016.  This is a really good SF novel, something along the lines of a decent Star Trek movie plot.  It could have been written in the late 60s, after Star Trek.  The captain of a starship searching for habitable planets with his crew encounter a galactic menace of startling complexity and intent.  Though warned away by an automatic system put in place, good old Captain Maddox of the ship Ad Astra goes barging ahead away, in a very Captain Kirk-like moment.  He lives to regret doing just that.  Highly recommended!

The Power of Blackness by Jack Williamson is writing quite a large notch below his previous novel, The Moon Children.  4 shorter fiction tales connect the lives of Black Lantern, the hero of the tale, and his beloved female, Snowfire.  The story opens on a planet colonized thousands of years ago, likely by an all black colony.  The planet is hot, rich in certain minerals, and has a ritualized civilization that is not keeping up with the times.  Some of the stories of pretty good; the last one is the weakest.  The best thing about this collection, written in the mid-70s, is the personality of Snowfire, and independent sort if there ever was one.  The love interest is well handled, as Black Lantern must overcome his own prejudices of the role of women.  Not Jack's best, but worth a read, with several memorable moments.

I have began The Chronicles of Corum, by Michael Moorcroft, the 2nd trilogy about the wandering, lost hero Corum.  The first short novel of the three is called The Bull and The Spear.  If you are expecting a story that includes a bull and a spear, then you will get your money's worth.  Corum, who lives a very long time unless killed, has outlived his original wife, who dies at 90.  He mopes around his gloomy castle, as Moorcock's fantasy heroes often do when not out saving the planet.  Jerry Cornelius stops by with an assignment for him, if he wants it.  After hooming and hawing for a long time, Corum sets out on his next adventure.  The quest is quite a good read, and Corum meets another woman, too.  I am looking forward to part 2 later this month.

I read 14 more stories by Ballard, whose short fiction continues to astound me.  The Garden of Time, The Cage of Sand, and The Watch-Towers are three superb stories that should be sought out and read (or reread).  Ballard, as one of the blurbs on my copy of his stories says, is a one-man genre.  Virtually everything he wrote is worth reading once; much of it is worth reading twice, and a large portion of that is worth a third reading.  When this massive reading project eventually comes to an end, there will be a summary and accounting of the authors, ranking them overall.  Ballard will at least be in the top three, if not at the very top.

I know that Ballard would have liked reading books by Barry Malzberg.  Malzberg's in depth dive into the human psyche is unparalleled among most writers, and virtually all SF writers.  If Ballard can be a one-man genre, then so can Malzberg.  The latest read is called Destruction of the Temple, from 1972.  It is a mini-lesson in the battle for civil rights in the US in the 1960s, and is obsessed with the Kennedy assassination, as well as that of Malcom X, Martin Luther King, and the white civil rights young men in Mississippi.  Missing from Malzberg's writing here is his dark humour, replaced by a freezing cold irony and stark approach to truth that still gives me shivers when I think about it.  Much of Malzberg's output is required reading, and this novel, though quite difficult at times, is one of those.  It should be read twice, in fact.

Finishing up the month was Blish's The Quincunx of Time, a 1973 expansion of his great short story called Beep.  Though beep really needs no expanding, I'm glad it happened, since it gives me more of this author to read avidly.  Blish, sadly known mostly for his published Star Trek TV plot summaries, is one of the greatest minds to ever approach the subject of SF.  When it is turned loose on a subject as all-encompassing as instantaneous galactic communication, itself giving access to all communications using the new device past, present, and future, then lookout, as you are in for a real treat.  Blish coyly uses some of his earlier novels' plots in this story, too, making his last true novel a pure delight for his fans.  Though highly recommended, and very short, I still push his Cities In Flight to new readers of him first.  Simply the best.

I also read two more hours worth of Volume 2 of The Arabian Nights by Burton.  I'll likely be reading that set until I die, but I do find an innocent sort of joy in reading them.  As a fan of orientalist art, architecture, and literature, I seem to be in my element when reading this stuff.

I'll conclude today with a short film, Deb's weekend choice.  Crumbs is a very curious, fun, easy to look at independent SF film, made by a Spaniard in Ethiopia, with Ethiopian actors. It seems to owe something to Tarkovsky's Stalker, though exactly what that is I cannot say.  Definitely a good catch if you can find it, with some great photography.  Featured in the movie is Santa Claus, a bowling alley, a hovering space ship, a witch, and an antiques dealer.  Great little film, from 2016.

Showing on Criterion until May 31st.  Don't miss this little gem! 

Mapman Mike