James Nicoll Reviews

1979’s Destinies Aug – Sept ​’79 is the fourth issue of the first volume of Destinies, the ​“paperback magazine of science fiction and speculative fact”¹. Destinies was edited by Jim Baen, who is credited as James Baen on the cover and James Patrick Baen within.

Honestly, I thought I would have reviewed more issues of Destinies by now.

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John Wyndham’s 1959 The Outward Urge is a collection of short stories detailing the exciting and often fatal adventures of the Troon family… IN SPACE!

Although the collection was originally billed at being by both Lucas Parkes and John Wyndham, I have decided Parkes does not warrant a byline because…

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Francis Stevens’ 1918 The Citadel of Fear is a stand-alone lost-race dark fantasy.

Determined to find his fortune, American Archer Kennedy recruits a much younger ally, stalwart Irishman Colin O’Hara. Ignoring every warning uttered by Indigenous Mexican locals, the pair march off across an inhospitable desert towards Collados del Demonio — Hills of the Fiend — where Kennedy is certain fortune awaits.

Fortune does await… of a sort.

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James Blish’s 1967 Star Trek was the first of twelve volumes in the Star Trek Original TV Series Adaptations science-fiction TV-show novelizations. Later printings embraced the less misleading title Star Trek 1.

“Novelization” is a bit misleading.

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Arthur C. Clarke’s 1961 A Fall of Moondust is a stand-alone near-future science fiction novel.

Just as the brilliant Thomas Gold predicted, the Lunar surface consists in part of a very fine dust, so fine as to act like a dry liquid. In the Sea of Thirst, a deep crater has accumulated a deep pool of dust. Ever keen on enhancing their income stream, the Lunar tourist board commissioned a specially designed vehicle, the Selene, to traverse the Sea of Thirst like a very odd boat.

Under Captain Pat Harris and stewardess Sue Wilkins, the Selene has toured the Sea of Thirst many times. As Selene sets out from Port Roris, there is no reason to think the current excursion will be different. Nevertheless, this is Selene​’s final voyage.

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1957’s The Naked Sun is the second of Isaac Asimov’s science fiction mystery robot novels¹.

Having successfully resolved the matter of Spacer Roj Nemennuh Sarton to everyone’s satisfaction (save perhaps Roj), New York police detective Elijah Baley discovers that the reward for accomplishing a difficult task is an even more difficult task.

Summoned to Washington, DC, Plainclothesman Baley discovers he has been assigned another Spacer murder. The last one took him to unfamiliar Spacertown. This new case will send Baley somewhere far more exotic.

But first, some background.

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1977’s The Grey Mane of Morning is the second volume in Joy Chant’s House of Kendreth secondary-universe fantasy trilogy. Alternatively, The Grey Mane of Morning is a prequel set long before the events of Red Moon and Black Mountain.

Once the Khentorei, Gentle People of the Plains, were pathetic cave-dwelling savages. Driven from their former homes by the technologically superior Golden Ones, the Khentorei embraced the god Kem’nanh, domesticated the great Horned Horses, and made the plains their home.

Khentorei lives are not long lives, but they are for the most part enjoyable. The tribes wander as they please, following traditional ways, in an almost timeless existence. There is no need for history if nothing changes.

There is just one flaw in this paradise: the Golden Ones.

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C. J. Cutcliffe Hyne’s 1899’s The Lost Continent is a stand-alone tale of Atlantean tragedy.

Coppinger is an avid amateur archaeologist, a man who understood immediately the historical significance of the ancient documents found in a Canary Islands cave. Alas for posterity, the person who actually explored the cave was Coppinger’s unnamed companion, whose off-handedly brutal handling of the relics inadvertently destroyed a good part of them. Nevertheless, what remains paints a vivid picture of the final days of fabled Atlantis.

Pious, austere priest-general Deucalion has been pleased to govern Yucatan on behalf of Atlantis. His twenty-year reign ends when the empress orders Deucalion replaced. Deucalion is to return to the mid-Atlantic continent he has not seen in a generation.

Deucalion’s successor, Tatho, is gracious enough to warn Deucalion about what awaits stern Deucalion.

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Edgar Pangborn’s 1972 Good Neighbors and Other Strangers is a collection of speculative fiction stories¹.

Recently SF fans were thrilled to learn that, after a delay of more than half a century, Harlan Ellison’s The Last Dangerous Visions was finally being published. This news was of particular interest to Edgar Pangborn aficionados. Would Pangborn’s heretofore unpublished ​“The Life and the Clay,” one of many stories that Harlan Ellison had sat on for decades, finally see print?

No.

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Earl Derr Biggers’ Keeper of the Keys is the sixth and final Charlie Chan mystery.

Inspector Charlie Chan takes leave of mundane Honolulu and travels to exotic Truckee, California. There Chan hopes to finally see snow close up, rather than at a distance¹.

Chan will get his snow. He will also get the chance to solve yet another murder.

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