I just finished some short stories by Avram Davidson, an often-overlooked SF/Fantasy writer most active from the 50s-70s. His Masters of the Maze is excellent. This collection (and he has many), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), is a mixed lot. The best stories are excellent, if of a time. Others markedly less so. A couple have all of the initial confusion of Masters with none of the payoff. I don't think that any of his award winners appear here.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan. I enjoyed it, I found it a fun read. Since I haven't seen the series, I can't speak to how faithful the novel is to it. My suspicion is that it's about as "fathful" as Cadigan's Ultraman novel was. As with the previous book, she's updated it to more of a present-day setting, This doesn't bother me particularly, although it might have beeen interesting to see the stories done as "period pices".
Currently re-reading The Saga of the Volsungs. Interesting stuff, especially if you're into Norse myths and legends. It's said to have influnnced both Wagner and Tolkien. It's only 75 pages long, so it's a quick read.
I just finished Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn. This is a Star Wars heist novel. Han is the leader, but he knows this is way beyond his are expertise, so he assembles a team to help him, including Lando Calrissian. Han and team are hired to steal some credit chips from the biggest gang in the galaxy: Black Sun. They also learn that Black Sun's blackmail files are in the same well fortified safe inside a mansion. This takes place shorty after A New Hope. Not everyone knows Alderaan has been destroyed, and almost no one knows that the Death Stars is gone. I really liked this book. Its a bit different from the normal Star Wars fare, and nary a Force user in sight.
I just finished reading Godzilla Minus One, by Takashi Yamazaki (translated by Evan Ward). It's a novelization of the film by the film's director, and as such, it's very true to the film. There's a certain amount of character development, but not loads of new scenes that weren't inn the movie. Overall, I found it to be an excellent adaptation, and enjoyerd it immensely.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan..
It's been about two months since I abandoned the Ultraman one, but I just found my notes. the first two chapters were based onthe first first two episodes, the third chapter on the eighth episode, and that's as far as I got. I also jotted down "science - IT - monster descriptions - American sense of humor." I no longer remember what, specifically, I was going to say about those things. By "science - IT" I think I meant to mention how the technology of the novelization reflected advance in science over the last 60 years; by "monster descriptions" I meant to point out that Cadigan's discriptions would have evoked the specific visual from TV (or something very much like it) even if I hadn't known the monster; "America sense of humor" is self-explanatory, al though I no longer remember specific examples. I will probably get back into these books at a point when there is no new Ultraman for me to watch on TV.
Just finished reading Business is About to Pick Up!, by Jim Ross, with Paul O'Brien. In this book, Ross looks back at fifty years of his career as a wrestling announcer by focusing on fifty different wrestling events that he was involved in, from his days in college radio through his career in AEW. It's interesting stuff, since Ross has been involved in so many of wrerstling's great moments over the years. The ending is amusing - or maybe, bemusing - as Ross talks about AEW. He plays up what a great thing it was a for AEW to hire C.M. Punk. He discusses the infamous locker room incident between Punk, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, but, being the good company man that he always was, JR makes it sound like everything was settled, and then concludes with the build-up to AEW's big Wembley show. Thus, the book cuts off before said show, thus missing out on what happened at Wembley, specifically, Punk's confrontation with "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (son of actor Luke), which resulted in Punk being fired and returning to the WWE, where he's doing quite well for mhimself, whereas AEW's ratings have dropped in half in the years since. But I digress.
One side thing: Throughout the book, AEW promoter Tony Khan's name is spelled as "Tony Kahn". I mean, dozens of times! How does a professional publishing company let this happen? I'd be ashamed of a high school newspaper that let this happen!
Just finished reading Dominion Genesis, by Jonathan D. Beer, novel set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. After her homeworld is destroyed by the Tyranids, an explorer/scientist called Talin Sherax sets out on an obsessive quest for a fabled artefact that could restore her lost home. It's not a bad read, although the "Genesis" part seems derivative of the "Genesis" from the Star Trek molvies.
Call and Response, a solid (thus far) collection of short fiction by Christopher Caldwell which combine realism with fantastic elements. (Confusingly, there is more than one writer by this name, and several books by this title).
I've fallen a bit behind as we were at an out-of-town wedding this weekend, and snow hit on the way back.
If they have heard of The Birds, most people will think it was written by Alfred Hitchcock. I recently watched, for only the second time, his ambitious movie adaptation of the short story by Daphne du Maurier. Her story, somewhat open-ended, implies (IMO) that the revolt of the birds is worldwide and mankind is finished.* Her Don’t Look Now was adapted into a very scary movie by the same name. Though not quite as horrific, the movie version of her Rebecca, also by Hitchcock, took the best picture Oscar in 1940.
*We now know that the three-toed birds descended from the three-toed bipedal dinosaurs.
Here is a link to Stephen King’s testimonial to a new collection of some of her short stories.
Replies
I just finished some short stories by Avram Davidson, an often-overlooked SF/Fantasy writer most active from the 50s-70s. His Masters of the Maze is excellent. This collection (and he has many), What Strange Stars and Skies (1965), is a mixed lot. The best stories are excellent, if of a time. Others markedly less so. A couple have all of the initial confusion of Masters with none of the payoff. I don't think that any of his award winners appear here.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan. I enjoyed it, I found it a fun read. Since I haven't seen the series, I can't speak to how faithful the novel is to it. My suspicion is that it's about as "fathful" as Cadigan's Ultraman novel was. As with the previous book, she's updated it to more of a present-day setting, This doesn't bother me particularly, although it might have beeen interesting to see the stories done as "period pices".
Currently re-reading The Saga of the Volsungs. Interesting stuff, especially if you're into Norse myths and legends. It's said to have influnnced both Wagner and Tolkien. It's only 75 pages long, so it's a quick read.
I just finished Star Wars: Scoundrels by Timothy Zahn. This is a Star Wars heist novel. Han is the leader, but he knows this is way beyond his are expertise, so he assembles a team to help him, including Lando Calrissian. Han and team are hired to steal some credit chips from the biggest gang in the galaxy: Black Sun. They also learn that Black Sun's blackmail files are in the same well fortified safe inside a mansion. This takes place shorty after A New Hope. Not everyone knows Alderaan has been destroyed, and almost no one knows that the Death Stars is gone. I really liked this book. Its a bit different from the normal Star Wars fare, and nary a Force user in sight.
Just started Apaches by Lorenzo Carcaterra
I just finished reading Godzilla Minus One, by Takashi Yamazaki (translated by Evan Ward). It's a novelization of the film by the film's director, and as such, it's very true to the film. There's a certain amount of character development, but not loads of new scenes that weren't inn the movie. Overall, I found it to be an excellent adaptation, and enjoyerd it immensely.
Just finished Ultraseven: The Official Novel of the Series, by Pat Cadigan..
It's been about two months since I abandoned the Ultraman one, but I just found my notes. the first two chapters were based onthe first first two episodes, the third chapter on the eighth episode, and that's as far as I got. I also jotted down "science - IT - monster descriptions - American sense of humor." I no longer remember what, specifically, I was going to say about those things. By "science - IT" I think I meant to mention how the technology of the novelization reflected advance in science over the last 60 years; by "monster descriptions" I meant to point out that Cadigan's discriptions would have evoked the specific visual from TV (or something very much like it) even if I hadn't known the monster; "America sense of humor" is self-explanatory, al though I no longer remember specific examples. I will probably get back into these books at a point when there is no new Ultraman for me to watch on TV.
Just finished reading Business is About to Pick Up!, by Jim Ross, with Paul O'Brien. In this book, Ross looks back at fifty years of his career as a wrestling announcer by focusing on fifty different wrestling events that he was involved in, from his days in college radio through his career in AEW. It's interesting stuff, since Ross has been involved in so many of wrerstling's great moments over the years. The ending is amusing - or maybe, bemusing - as Ross talks about AEW. He plays up what a great thing it was a for AEW to hire C.M. Punk. He discusses the infamous locker room incident between Punk, the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, but, being the good company man that he always was, JR makes it sound like everything was settled, and then concludes with the build-up to AEW's big Wembley show. Thus, the book cuts off before said show, thus missing out on what happened at Wembley, specifically, Punk's confrontation with "Jungle Boy" Jack Perry (son of actor Luke), which resulted in Punk being fired and returning to the WWE, where he's doing quite well for mhimself, whereas AEW's ratings have dropped in half in the years since. But I digress.
One side thing: Throughout the book, AEW promoter Tony Khan's name is spelled as "Tony Kahn". I mean, dozens of times! How does a professional publishing company let this happen? I'd be ashamed of a high school newspaper that let this happen!
Just finished reading Dominion Genesis, by Jonathan D. Beer, novel set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. After her homeworld is destroyed by the Tyranids, an explorer/scientist called Talin Sherax sets out on an obsessive quest for a fabled artefact that could restore her lost home. It's not a bad read, although the "Genesis" part seems derivative of the "Genesis" from the Star Trek molvies.
Call and Response, a solid (thus far) collection of short fiction by Christopher Caldwell which combine realism with fantastic elements. (Confusingly, there is more than one writer by this name, and several books by this title).
I've fallen a bit behind as we were at an out-of-town wedding this weekend, and snow hit on the way back.
Daphne du Maurier Wrote Butt-Kicking Horror
If they have heard of The Birds, most people will think it was written by Alfred Hitchcock. I recently watched, for only the second time, his ambitious movie adaptation of the short story by Daphne du Maurier. Her story, somewhat open-ended, implies (IMO) that the revolt of the birds is worldwide and mankind is finished.* Her Don’t Look Now was adapted into a very scary movie by the same name. Though not quite as horrific, the movie version of her Rebecca, also by Hitchcock, took the best picture Oscar in 1940.
*We now know that the three-toed birds descended from the three-toed bipedal dinosaurs.
Here is a link to Stephen King’s testimonial to a new collection of some of her short stories.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/sep/28/she-wrote-the-best-fi...
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