James Nicoll Reviews

1985’s Child of Fortune is the second book in Norman Spinrad’s Second Starfaring Age science fiction series. As both books stand alone, one need not have read the first book, The Void Captain’s Tale, before reading Child.

The Jump Drive transformed the human-settled worlds. Travel no longer demanded decades. Instead, the trip was no more demanding than an intercontinental airplane trip centuries ago. The cultural effects were profound.

For teenage Moussa, the most relevant consequence is the wanderjahr.

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Norman Spinrad’s 2002 He Walked Among Us is a science fiction messianic fable¹ … or possibly an entirely mundane story about deranged people with overlapping manias and the people who exploit them.

The novel’s protagonist, Hugo Award winner Dexter Lampkin, was certain that Transformations was his Big Novel. But Transformations didn’t even earn out its advance. On the advice of Harlan Ellison, Dexter turned to cracking out television scripts. This did not produce the accolades that Dexter was sure should be his, but it did deliver the income he and his family needed.

Despite his Big Novel’s fate, Dexter does not turn his back on SF conventions. After all, SF conventions provide him with a steady stream of low-self-esteem unattractive fat women with whom he can cheat on his hot wife Ellie.

Fate hands Dexter the chance to save the world.

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Norman Spinrad’s 1980 Songs from the Stars is a standalone science fiction novel. 

Centuries ago, the black sorcery of the industrial age ended with the Smash. Much of the planet is a poisoned wasteland. West Coast Aquaria may be the sole exception. Relying solely on White Science of muscle, sun, wind and water, the people of Aquaria live karmically pure lives unsullied by the black sciences, living by the Clear Blue Way. 

Or so they tell themselves. It’s a lie.

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Norman Spinrad’s 1974 Riding the Torch is a standalone science fiction novella. 

Mistakes were made. Earth is a lifeless cinder. Before the planet was seared, a small fleet of interstellar ships managed to escape. Surely somewhere in the sky, there must be a second Earth. 

A thousand years later, the torchships are still looking. On and on they travel, harvesting the materials they need to survive and prosper from the interstellar void. 

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Norman Spinrad’s 1972 nested alternate history novel The Iron Dream isn’t my favourite Spinrad^1, but it is almost certainly his most famous work. It earned a Prix Apollo Award and a Nebula nomination. The book was also indexed by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien , the German Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons, for alleged Nazism and was placed on the American Nazi Party’s recommended reading list. Perhaps some explanation is required.

Spinrad’s The Iron Dream is composed of two sections. The final section is a commentary by a fictional academic named Whipple. The first part, the part that earned Spinrad unwanted attention from the BJpM and the American Nazi Party, is Adolf Hitler’s Lords of the Swastika .

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