James Nicoll Reviews

1975’s The Dracula Tape is the first volume in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Chronicles.

How did the guardian of Wallachia, Romania’s great hero, Vlad Dracula, come to be painted as a monster in popular fiction? Dracula, having snuck into the back seat of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Harker’s car, is more than happy to explain. To ensure his account is not lost, he records it on a handy portable tape recorder.

In this account, Dracula claims that his unfortunate modern-day reputation was set in motion by an ill-fated holiday, his lamentable choice of solicitor, and the most extraordinary run of regrettable coincidences.

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1976’s Interview With the Vampire is the first volume of at least thirteen more books in Anne Rice’s gothic-horror Vampire Chronicles.

Armed with a tape-recorder and a stack of cassette tapes, the boy sits down with his subject, Louis. Louis is a vampire and the boy is eager to learn all the gory details.

In 1791 Louis was an unremarkable member of Louisiana’s slave-owning aristocracy. The death of his beloved brother sends Louis into a spiral of self-destructive debauchery. This, and the fact Louis owns the Pointe du Lac¹ plantation, makes Louis of considerable interest to the vampire Lestat.

Louis is all too easily seduced into vampirism.

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1978’s Hôtel Transylvania is the first volume in Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s twenty-seven-plus volume series of fantasy horror historical novels about Le Comte de Saint-Germain.

1743: While the War of Austrian succession rages, Le Comte de Saint-Germain visits Paris. Saint-Germain is a man of mystery. He is also a man of considerable wealth and therefore respectable.

Le Comte is also a vampire.

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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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