James Nicoll Reviews

Robert C. Dille’s 1969 The Collected Works of Buck Rogers in the 25^th Century is a collection of Buck Rogers strips from the 1920s to the 1940s. Early story arcs were written by Phil Nowland and illustrated by Dick Calkins. The last two arcs are by Calkins alone.

Trapped by a mine collapse, 20^th century American Buck Rogers is surely doomed, in this, the first panel of what would be a long-running series. 

When Buck wakes up, he finds that the USA has been delenda¹.

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Although the masthead asserted that Destinies would be published four times a year, Destinies, October-December 1979 was the fifth issue in the first volume of the science fiction bookazine Destinies. Destinies was edited by Jim Baen, who is credited as James Baen on the cover and James Patrick Baen within¹.

Volume One, Number Five has some vexing issues, but it did at least provide noteworthy juxtapositions.

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Frederik Pohl’s 1978 The Way The Future Was is an autobiography. Because of Pohl’s diverse roles in the science fiction field, Future is also a good introduction to the history of American¹ science fiction from the 1930s to the late 1960s.

Back when I was a teen, I knew who Pohl was. He was the unimaginably old writer who, before I was born, had written a lot of SF that I enjoyed (in reprint), who had somehow overcome the inevitable cognitive erosion imposed by advanced age to write some of the best SF of the modern era… which is to say the 1970s.

In 1978 he was about five years younger than I am just now.

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Peter George’s1965 Commander‑1 is a nuclear war novel.

October 1964. China’s strategic position is lamentable. While China can build nuclear weapons, they lack the US and USSR’s bomber and missile fleets; they will not be able to build up to parity for some time. Who knows how the Americans and perfidious Soviets will use this window of opportunity?

Comrade Li believes China can win an overwhelming victory, provided China’s limited resources are applied judiciously.

Fast-forward to Christmas Day, 1965.

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1976’s King and Joker is the first volume in Peter Dickinson’s Princess Louise alternate history duology.

Britain’s Princess Louise takes a closer look at her family (and its closest retainer) seated around the breakfast table. She comes to an appalling realization.

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Brian W. Aldiss’ 1976 Galactic Empires Volume One and Volume Two delivers what the title promises: two anthologies whose unifying theme is galactic empires.

Almost all of the stories could be considered vintage even by the standards of 1976.

Galactic Empires was well suited for my purposes this week, and not just because the two volumes fit nicely into the unused space in my shoulder bag.

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Fritz Leiber’s 1970 Swords and Deviltry is the first of seven or eight Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser secondary-world sword and sorcery books, featuring… Leiber’s adventurous duo, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser.

Set in the other-dimensional world Nehwon, the series chronicled the adventures of seven-foot-tall barbarian swordsman Fafhrd and the more diminutive sorcerer’s‑apprentice-turned-adventurer¹, the Gray Mouser.

But first! Explanations! Perhaps a bit confusing.

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1974’s The Hounds of Skaith is the second volume in Leigh Brackett’s Ginger Star trilogy.

Having rescued his adopted father Ashton and humiliated Skaith’s Lords Protector, Eric John Stark faces another challenge: surviving the consequences of his actions.

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James Blish’s 1958 A Case of Conscience is a Hugo-winning science fiction novel. It is part of a thematic trilogy, After Such Knowledge, about which more later.

No sooner did Haertel give humans faster-than-light drives¹ than humans discovered that they share the universe with aliens as intelligent as humanity. Aliens such as the Lithians.

Father Ruiz-Sanchez is part of a four-man UN team assigned the task of assessing recently contacted Lithia. Is the planet and its highly intelligent natives an opportunity for Earth to exploit? Is it a deadly menace? Or perhaps someplace to ignore…

Jesuit Ruiz-Sanchez fears it is a deadly menace. He also fears his reasoning will not sway his teammates.

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1979’s Murder and Magic collects four of Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy alternate-universe fantasy mysteries.

As a surprising number of characters find cause to ponder, Richard the Lionhearted’s change of heart following his near-death on the battlefield led to eight centuries of success for the Plantagenets. Another consequence was the codification of magic, which led to a powerful Angevin Empire spanning France and England, a New World dominated by the Angevins, and a Europe torn between the noble Angevins and the expansionistic Poles.

Humans of our technological, scientific 1964, as well as humans in Garrett’s feudal, magical 1964, display all of the usual human vices. When these lead to murder, it is the task of investigators like Lord Darcy to uncover the villains. And perhaps to see justice done.

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