Science Fiction and Other Suspect RuminationsUpdates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXLVII (Edgar Pangborn, Rudy Rucker, Sally Miller Gearhart, and a SF anthology)
Which books/covers/authors intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?
The first purchases of 2026!
1. A Mirror For Observers, Edgar Pangborn (1954)
- Richard Powers’ cover for the 1985 edition
From the back cover: “We would call them Martians, though they refer to themselves as Salvayans. Refugees from their dying planet, they arrived on our world almost 30,000 years ago to make new lives for themselves. From their vast underground cities, hidden from discovery, the Salvayans have ben observing us with care and concern, waiting for the day when humans will be ready to meet them. The Salvayans are not many, but they are long-lived and patient….
…Most of them, that is. for some have already tired of waiting. They call themselves Abdicators, setting themselves apart from the more passive Observers; they’d like to rid the Earth once and for all of the greedy, petty race that populates its surface. And with a little help from the Abdicators, perhaps the humans will destroy themselves.
In the small town of Latimer, Massachusetts, dwells a 12-year-old boy named Angelo Pontevicchio. Angelo is no ordinary human child, though he often wishes he would be. The handicap of his polioed leg and his unassuming gentleness are more than compensated for by his soaring mind. To Namir the Abdicator, Angelo is the human tool he needs. Angelo’s genius, his read-to-mold-personality, give him the potential of a Ghandi–or a Hitler. For Namir, it is but a matter of careful manipulation…
Learning of Namir’s plans, the Observers send in their own agent, poet-historian Elmis. Alone in the field, disguised as a mild, middle-aged ex-school teacher, Elmis must reach Angelo and somehow counteract the influence of the renegade Namir, whose resources and determination will stop at nothing–including murder. Elmis’ weapons: only the power of love and truth… and an ancient bronze mirror from the last civilization of Crete, a mirror that can show what one really is–or could be.
Following Elmis, Namir and Angelo over nine years–years in which the boy will be drawn into corruption, violence and, ultimately, a Nazi-like cult that threatens to fulfill Namir’s sinister wishes for human catastrophe–A Mirror for Observers showcases the captivating talents of of one of the SF’s most brilliant, most human and most innovative writers.”
Initial Thoughts: I love Pangborn. This is actually a second copy as my 1st edition paperback crumbled as I attempted to read it.
2. The 57th Franz Kafka, Rudy Rucker (1983)
- Uncredited cover for the 1st edition
From the back cover: “Mathematical philosopher, former unground cartoonist, aruthor of three wild sf novels and two works of mathematical non-fiction, great-great-great-grandson of G. W. F. Hegel and father of three, Rudolf von Bitter Rucker has a mind and a wit all of his own. Come enter his bizarre and delightful world in this collection of fact, fancy, and mangled history.”
Contents: “The 57th Franz Kafka” (1982), “Schrödinger’s Cat” (1981), “A New Golden Age” (1981), “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (1983), “Sufferin’ Succotash” (1983), “Faraway Eyes” (1980), “Hyperspherical Space and Beyond” (1980), “The Indian Rope Trick Explained” (1983), “A New Experiment with Time” (1982), “The Man Who Age Himself” (1982), “The Facts of Life” (1983), “Tales of Houdini” (1981), “Buzz” (1981), “The Last Einstein-Rosen Bridge” (1983), “Pac-Man” (1982), “Pi in the Sky” (1983), “Inertia” (1983), “Message Found in a Copy of Flatland” (1983), “The Jack Kerouac Disembodied School of Poetics” (1982).
Initial Thoughts: Rudy Rucker remains a complete unknown to me. I’ve read a few reviews here and there and picked up a copy of Software (1982) (which remains unread). I’ve heard good things about White Light (1980) in particular.
3. Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women, Sally Miller Gearhart (1978)
- Jim Hanlon’s cover for the 1984 edition
From the back cover: No summary provided. See my quote from SF Encyclopedia below.
Initial Thoughts: According to SF Encyclopedia, Gearhart’s first sf book, one of the most extreme of those that envisage men and women as effectively different races, is The Wanderground: Stories of the Hill Women (coll of linked stories 1978). It is set in the outlaw, all-women, Utopian hill communities of a future when men are restricted to the Cities and dependent on Technology, while women (in a somewhat New Age manner) have developed Psi Powers through harmony with Nature. Even the Gentles, men no longer driven by violence, know that “maleness touched women only with the accumulated hatred of centuries.” She’s an author I’ve frequently encounter in scholarship of feminist SF but hadn’t picked up a copy, until now.
4. Science-Fiction Carnival, ed. Fredric Brown and Mack Reynolds (1953)
- Uncredited cover for the 1957 edition
From the back cover: “….in science fiction carnival you’ll find out how a screenwriter traded personalities with Ivan the Terrible in THE EGO MACHINE.
What happens when thinking machines can give the answers to any question in A LOGIC NAMED JOE.
When a hillbilly finds a Martian is easier to handle than a “revenoer” in THE MARTIANS AND THE COYS.
How a glorified slot machine solved the problem of interplanetary travel in THE COSMIC JACKPOT.
What Jeremiah Jupiter, “mad scientist” deluxe, thought in THE WHEEL OF TIME.
And six other yarns of the fabulous future collected for your enjoyment.”
Contents: Robert Arthur’s “The Wheel of Time” (1950), Murray Leinster’s “A Logic Named Joe” (1946), Larry T. Shaw’s “Simworthy’s Circus” (1950), H. B. Fyfe’s “The Well-Oiled Machine” (1950), Clive Jackson’s “The Swordsmen of Varnis” (1950), Fredric Brown’s “Paradox Lost” (1943), Eric Frank Russell’s “Muten” (1948), Mack Reynolds’ “The Martians and the Coys” (1951), Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s “The Ego Machine” (1952), George O. Smith’s “The Cosmic Jackpot” (1948), Nelson S. Bond’s “The Abduction of Abner Greer” (1941).
Initial Thoughts: Sometimes I cast my eyes on anthologies as a way to finally read SF authors that have escaped my focus. In this instance, I haven’t read anything by Robert Arthur, H. B. Fyfe, Larry T. Shaw, George O. Smith, or Nelson S. Bond.
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#1950s #1970s #1980s #CLMoore #EdgarPangborn #FredricBrown #HenryKuttner #MackReynold #MurrayLeinster #paperbacks #RudyRucker #SallyMillerGearhart #sciFi #scienceFiction #technology
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