Not seeing it on YouTube just yet…
Archive for the ‘Science Fiction’ Category
New Star Wars: The Force Awakens Trailer Drops
Thursday, April 16th, 2015Shoegazer Sunday: Echodrone’s “Glacial Place”
Sunday, April 12th, 2015Echodrone’s new album Five is now out, which is cause enough for Shoegaze fans to celebrate.
The video below is for the song “Glacial Place”:
The footage in the video is taken from the Philco Ford Corporation’s 1967 industrial futurist film The Home Of The Future: Year 1999 A.D.:
As glimpses of retrofuturism go, it hits a lot closer to the mark than most, offering a central home computer (“which is secretary, librarian, banker, teacher, medical technician, bridge partner and/or all-around servant”), computerized learning, bookeeping, etc., and lots of glowing screens. It even predicts online shopping! As always, the hairstyles immediately tell you the film’s actual era.
Philco actually manufactured the Mission Control monitors NASA used well into the 1990s. Ford sold Philco to GTE, and since then the brand has been broken up and licensed to various companies around the world.
Library Addition: Future War Novel From 1909
Monday, April 6th, 2015I saw this on eBay, put in a lowball bid and picked it up cheap.
Fitzpatrick, E. H. The Coming Conflict of Nations, or the Japanese American War. H.W. Rokker, 1909. First edition hardback, a Very Good copy in black cloth boards stamped in gold, stamping on spine dulled bit still present, a few spots of wear or discoloration, slight bends at head and heel, newspaper review clipping pasted in on inside front cover, resulting in considerable foxing to front free endpaper. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper: “Professor John Syphers/with the best wishes/of the author./Ernest Hugh Fitzpatrick/L.R.C.P., Ed./Pontiac, Illinois/March 5, 1910.” There’s also a long inscription by the recipient of the inscription on the other side of the front free endpaper. Bleiler, Checklist (1978), page 73. Bleiler, Science Fiction: The Early Years, page 247. Reginald, page 188. Possibly the first novel to predict a war between the United States and Japan. Bought off eBay for $10.50. Given that Currey has an unsigned copy that looks a bit worse at $350, I think it was a good buy…
You may be cool…
Friday, March 13th, 2015…but you’ll never be “Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark delivering a bionic arm to a seven year old boy” cool…
Sold My Story “Saul’s Diary” to Galaxy’s Edge
Thursday, March 12th, 2015I just sold my most recent story, “Saul’s Diary,” to Mike Resnick for Galaxy’s Edge.
This is the second story I’ve sold to Mike, following “Huddled Masses” to the Alternate Presidents anthology way back in the dim mists of the 1990s.
Library Addition: PB of Neal Barrett, Jr.’s Through Darkest America Inscribed to Lewis Shiner
Wednesday, March 4th, 2015I found this shopping at Half Price Books, bought it, then confirmed my suspicion:
Barrett, Neal. Through Darkest America. Worldwide, 1988. First paperback edition, a Fine- copy with tiny bump to bottom front corner and slight age-darkening to paper, otherwise apparently unread. Inscribed by Barrett, Jr. to fellow Texas science fiction writer Lewis Shiner: “11/29/88//Unca Lew—/Having you here for/a while has made my/day, as ever—/(Signature)”.
Lew confirmed that it was indeed inscribed to him, noting he must have sold it because he was moving again and already had the hardback…
Library Addition: Signed First of Ray Bradbury’s Murder Madness
Monday, March 2nd, 2015I’d seen signed copies of Ray Bradbury’s PBO A Memory of Murder floating around for $40 and up, but I struck a deal for this one off eBay for $25:
Bradbury, Ray. A Memory of Murder. Dell, 1984. First edition paperback original, a Fine- copy with a tiny bit of edgewear, signed by Bradbury, with a review slip laid in. Collection of Bradbury’s early mystery stories. An unusual book, in that you wouldn’t think he would have a mass market paperback original (with no hardback edition) this late in his career. Not particularly common, and even less so signed.
Leonard Nimoy, RIP
Friday, February 27th, 2015Super brief because I need to be back at work, but I wanted to note the passing of Leonard Nimoy at age 83. He was great as Spock, perhaps the best actor in a very fine ensemble cast, and also extremely good in several other roles. A good actor and, by all accounts, a classy, stand-up guy.
Library Addition: William Sloane’s The Edge of Running Water
Thursday, February 26th, 2015The one other item I bought from L. W. Currey’s most recent sale was William Sloane’s The Edge of Running Water, a science fiction novel about a machine to contact the dead that I’ve heard good things about. Firsts have gotten a bit hard to find in recent years.
Sloane, William. The Edge of Running Water. Farrar and Reinhart, 1939. First edition hardback, a Very Good+ copy with slight bumping at head and heel, foxing to gutters, darkening of endpapers and slight age darkening to pages, in a Good only dust jacket with a 1/2″ to 1/4″ loss at head, loss at points, long thin crease, 2″ closed tear, dust staining and wrinkling to rear panel, creasing and tear at bottom front edge, and additional shallow chipping at edges and general wear. Bleiler, Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1482. Bleiler, Checklist of Science Fiction and Supernatural Fiction (1978), page 181. Crawford, Donahue and Grant, 333, page 56. Locke, A Spectrum of Fantasy I, page 200. Barron, Horror Literature, 3-181. Bought from Currey for $50.
Library Additions: Two Interesting Books
Friday, February 20th, 2015My signed Ray Bradbury first edition buying spree continues apace, and I picked up a Stanley G. Weinbaum first I’d been wanting to buy for a long time.
