Saturday 17 November 2007

THE ROAD TO SCIENCE FICTION #2 FROM WELLS TO HEINLEIN

Mentor paperback, 1978. Cover Artwork by Paul Stinson.

"H.G. Wells, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, John W. Campbell, Jack Williamson, A. E. Van Vogt, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein. 
These are just some of the top writers from the golden age of science fiction, the wonderful era when the universe was ours for the taking through a simple flight of the imagination. From H. G. Well's story of a scientist who can increase man's speed a thousandfold, to Edgar Rice Burroughs's tale of Mars teeming with alien cultures; from the chilling horror of A. Meritt's The People Of The Pit, to Murray Leinster's encounter with sentient and potentially deadly plant beings; from L. Sprague De Camp's humorous account of how the human race turned into the ultimate shaggy-dog story, to Robert Heinlein's portrait of a man who wanted to reach the stars so badly that he would sacrifice anything to get there... From Argosy to Astounding, from Incredible inventions to alien encounters, here is a delightful and fascinating sampling of some of science fiction's finest moments, a capsule history of the birth and evolution of a modern galaxy-spanning literature."

Contents:

The New Accelerator by H. G. Wells
The Machine Stops by E. M. Forster
The Chessmen Of Mars (chapters II and III) by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The People Of The Pit by A. Merritt
The Red One by Jack London
Dagon by H. P. Lovecraft
The Tissue-Culture King by Julian Huxley
The Revolt Of The Pedestrians by David H. Keller, M. D.
The First And Last Men (chapter XIII) by Olaf Stapledon
Brave New World (chapters 16 and 17) by Aldous Huxley
A Martian Odyssey by Stanley G. Weinbaum
Twilight by John W. Campbell
Proxima Centauri by Murray Leinster
What's It Like Out There? by Edmond Hamilton
With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson
Hyperpilosity by L. Sprague De Camp
The Faithful by Lester Del Rey
Black Destroyer by A. E. Van Vogt
Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
Requiem by Robert A. Heinlein

Thursday 15 November 2007

ELRIC OF MELNIBONÉ

Arrow SF paperback, 1973. Cover illustraton by Chris Yates.

"The tale of Elric, later called womanslayer; of his love for Cymoria and of the rivalry with his cousin Yyrkoon. A rivalry that was to bring the dreaming city crashing in flames, destroyed by the reavers of the young kingdoms. 
Elric, red-eyed, albino, the inheritor of waning powers, his strength precarious, sustained by arcane drugs. A hero seemingly unfit for his role. 
A story that treats of monstrous emotions and high ambitions, of sorceries and treacheries, agonies and fearful pleasures. A story that Elric was to remember only in his nightmares."