Our Heroine, a software baron (who actually knows how to code -- talk about science fiction!), flees dark forces in a near-future Earth only to be yanked into a strange universe populated with highly evolved, cyberneticly enhanced human-like races. The action gallops along briskly in a strange and original setting. It's pure Space Opera with an evil Empress, a marauding galaxy-consuming alien entity, and rivals who hurl titanic energies against each other. One action sequence follows another as our Heroine and her allies are battered, bruised, and tortured, miraculously recover, then move on to another girl, another weird planet. But before concluding in the somewhat underwhelming final conflict, our Heroine learns to overcome her selfish, controlling tendencies and place her trust in the ability and loyalty of the odd collection of friends she's gathered during her journey. It's an enjoyable and well-written tale, but it runs a little long. Shaving off 20% probably would...

  Took advantage of a bright, blustery Sunday and motored out to Hagerstown, Maryland to troll the used bookstores. Picked up a bunch of history and biography at 2nd & Charles , but all the Sci-Fi at Wonder Books . The latter had a 2-for-1 deal on mass market paperbacks, which regular readers know would make me happy. The Haul:   -- The Tar-Aiym Krang -- Alan Dean Foster -- 1972   -- Probability Moon -- Nancy Kress -- 2000   -- Midnight at the Well of Souls -- Jack Chalker -- 1977   -- Bloodhype -- Alan Dean Foster -- 1973   -- Black Sun Rising -- C. S. Friedman -- 1991 Also picked up "King Jesus", by Robert Graves. Haven't read it yet, but I guess it's either an alternate history or an alternate myth, depending on your tribal allegiance. Genre-adjacent, at least.

  Mark Zwonitzer with Charles Hirshberg -- 2002     The first biography of the Carter Family, who burst out of Maces Spring, Virginia in 1927 and became perhaps the most important musical artists in American history. An inspirational tale of three people from an isolated rural community who created music that shook the world, and still reverberates today. A. P., Sara, and Maybelle Carter are universally recognized as having created the genre of Country music. But the influence of their recordings, particularly Maybelle's innovative guitar technique, also profoundly affected the development of Blues, Pop and Rock and Roll; in essence, the entirety of American popular music. This is fabulous book with very affecting stories of real people, experiencing triumph and loss, sorrow and joy. Mark Zwonitzer wrote the book, in large part from interviews conducted by Charles Hirshberg with the family, friends, neighbors and colleagues of the principals. From the stories they to...

The Concise Version Science Fiction should only be read in mass-market paperback, preferably with a garishly illustrated cover. And the reader should be 12 years old. The Verbose, Profusely Self-Referential Version Science Fiction should never be read in hardback. Paperbacks merely by their tatty, down-market appearance flag you as someone who's just that type of shifty subversive capable of imagining a reality more than half a step distant from the status-quo. And you can hide it away in your back pocket so won't be eyeballed as one of those people should you ever find yourself in some rigidly conformist stronghold -- like a Whole Foods or University campus. Back in the previous century, when libraries actually bought books instead of burning them, it was common to have at least a couple of spinner racks stuffed with Sci-Fi paperbacks. A perfect gateway drug for youngsters venturing out from the Heinlein juveniles stashed in the children's section. I can't remember wh...

  A Journey Through America With the Rolling Stones   Robert Greenfield lived and traveled with the Rolling Stones as they prepared for and executed their 1972 tour of the U.S. and Canada. S.T.P. was an acronym for "Stones Touring Party", which consisted of the band, crew, handlers, PR flacks, security, photographers, film crew, celebrities, groupies, hangers-on ... and Greenfield, pet journalist. Considered to be the first in-depth account of the 1970's traveling circus Rock-and-Roll tour, it was well-regarded at the time, but fell flat with the public. Only 5000 copies were printed. The book is a product of an interesting moment in time. Rock and Roll had survived its teenage Fad period before morphing into a viable artistic vehicle for young adults by the mid-sixties. After that second, short-lived interval (certainly over by Altamont, if not already by 1968) Rock and Roll transformed into a mass-market commercial product performed in 10,000 seat arenas. There's no...

    Tinker -- Wen Spencer -- 2003 My membership for Balticon 2020 was rolled over to Balticon 2021, then rolled over to Balticon 2022 . Hopefully it'll stop rolling. If it starts to gather some moss, I'll see you in Baltimore over Memorial Day weekend. One of the scheduled guests is Wen Spencer, from whom I've read nothing. I decided to try something, in my quest to discover new SF authors -- by new, I mean someone not publishing before the present century. One of her earliest novels, "Tinker", was highly recommended in on-line reviews. Even though it was awarded Best Science Fiction Romance novel of 2004, I decided to take a flyer. In the near future, the Chinese have built an orbiting inter-dimensional gateway that sends out colonists for interstellar exploration. An unexpected side effect from the gate's operation sends the city of Pittsburgh to a parallel Earth where magic exists. This mirrored Earth, Elfhome, is populated by a race of elves who have esche...

  Won't You Try / Saturday Afternoon -- Jefferson Airplane  "The Be-In was a great long stare in the mirror for the psychedelic community, both at the event and in the awed coverage given it by the news media -- everybody was impressed by the fact that the notorious Hell's Angels had stood guard over the generator for the PA system. The temptation to admire the image was too great."   -- Charles Perry, Rolling Stone  #207  26 February 1976 The above Ralph J. Gleason column published 55 years ago today in the San Francisco Chronicle, reports on the Gathering of the Tribes / Human Be-In on the Polo Field at Golden Gate Park, Saturday 14 January 1967. The hyperbolic, if good-natured, review of the event reflected the view of many in the new-generation Hip community (derisively named "Hippies" by the previous paragons of Hip, the "Beat" generation) who saw this event as the heralding of a new utopian era. But it marked instead the high-water mark of a...