This is an amalgamation of two books originally published separately as The Official Guide to Comic Books and The Official Guide to Fantastic Literature (also called on the cover Official Guide to the Fantastics), the latter having been published in 1976. Both are reproduced virtually verbatim, with minimal changes in prices, and almost no changes in text. There is no indication in this new edition that the material has been previously published, other than the nebulous tag “Third Edition” on the title page. The science fiction section begins on page 267.
The SF half of the book includes the following sections: introduction, the hero pulps, science fiction and fantasy magazines, general magazines, fanzines, Edgar Rice Burroughs, hardcover books—the specialty publishers and hardcover books—the general publishers, paperback books, Star Trek materials, radio and television premiums, and miscellaneous collectibles. Resnick does not attempt to be comprehensive: his avowed intent is to give “a fairly comprehensive cross-section of authors and some of their representative works.” The specialty press section seems to have been derived from Owings and Chalker’s Index to the Science-Fantasy Publishers. No bibliographical information is provided to identify editions; prices are listed for books in “good” and “fine” condition. The selection criteria for the section on general publishers are eccentric at best: many relatively obscure books are included, and other, more popular items are left out, for no apparent reason. Many of the modern writers are covered only by brief, all-inclusive statements of dubious authority: “The works of Andre Norton, in first-edition hardcover with dust jackets, are worth about $10 apiece the moment they go out of print. She has about 18 titles in print at this time.” This may well be true, but it provides no help for the reader or librarian or book store owner who is trying to assign a value to a particular item. Generalities, unsupported by any apparent experience in pricing or selling science fiction books, abound. Changes in pricing structure since the 1976 edition are minimal: I compared two pages from the earlier book to the same pages in the new edition, and found only one price revision in each, during a period when inflation drove the prices of OP science fiction books right through the roof. Most of the books listed seem, in comparison to dealers’ catalogs issued by L. W. Currey, Barry R. Levin, or Kaleidoscope Books, greatly undervalued, although some few are overpriced. As a guide to the uninformed, this book is utterly useless. The section on Edgar Rice Burroughs, however, is both comprehensive and accurate, and seems to reflect a personal interest in Burroughsiana by Resnick. Caveat emptor.
Sabrina. Witch Bitch, bound with Dance of Love, by Martine. New York: Pleasure Books, 1979.
Trainor, Sandy. Future Sex. New York: Pleasure Books, 1979. Cover byline reads Sharon Taylor.
Trainor, Starr. Pleasure Planet. New York: Pleasure Books, 1979. Cover byline reads Sharon Taylor.
Four erotic novels from the sinister hand of Manor Books. Witch Bitch starts out as a standard sex novel, but then develops into a rather compelling tale of sexual and moral corruption, as the first-person narrator, Harry, is led with his wife into the bowels of a devil-worshipping cult. It is only at the end, when Satan himself finally appears, that Harry takes the ultimate step, willingly sacrificing his wife at the climax of a black mass, and thereby sacrificing his own identity, as he is renamed Agonaces by his master. Bound with this book is Dance of Love, an end-of-the-world tale of the final days on Earth, in which a frantic mankind waits for the Sun to explode. Without the explicit sex scenes, this too could have been compelling fiction. Men struggle to find some way out of their dilemma, but there is no reprieve to this grim narrative, and ultimately even the narrator is incinerated in the flaming denouement.
Future Sex is typical erotica: Alan Spindrift (love those names!) is a Lieutenant in the Inter-Planetary Services Command, his particular assignment being security surveillance. Spindrift uses his position in this totalitarian world of the future to gain sexual access (what else?) to the beauties he spies over his monitoring system. Alas, there is little evidence of imagination of any kind, much less sexual, and the writing is clumsy at best. Pleasure Planet is an equally awkward hodge-podge, a cross between pulp SF and hardcore porn. Major Ray Jetstream has landed on the planet Zephyr, the so-called “Pleasure Planet,” for a period of rest and recreation. The rest of the book is devoted to an explicit account of his playtime. Plot and characterizations are nonexistent, of course. Two to avoid.
Vinicoff, Eric, and Marcia Martin. Spacing Dutchman. Berkeley, CA: Aesir Press, 1978.
Here’s a fusion of pulp SF and the mystery genre that’s not half bad. Hans Bergenholm is sent to the Spacing Dutchman, a hollowed-out asteroid-cum-space station in permanent Earth orbit, to locate a super spy who keeps popping up every decade or so. Fritz Reismann had first appeared during the Second World War on the German side, and was killed at the end of that conflict; mysteriously, however, he rose from the grave in 1956 and was killed again two years later; and again in 1975, 1982, 1996, 2012, and so forth. Now there is evidence to place him on the Spacing Dutchman, the one vital link between Earth and its colonies. Bergenholm fears that Reismann is on to something big, something vital to world interests. Vinicoff and Martin keep the action moving fast enough so the reader doesn’t have time to think. Hans is aided by Contessa Valarie de Samario, Police Chief of the asteroid colony, plus a portable computer plug-in unit that generates an image of Sherlock Holmes to help him over the more difficult areas of deduction. Ultimately, of course, Hans and cohorts solve the mystery and save the day. Fun if you don’t take it too seriously.
Wurfel, Clifford. An Introduction to the J. Lloyd Eaton Collection of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Riverside, CA: Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Riverside, 1979.
Smith, Lynn S. Space Voyages, 1591-1920: A Bibliography of Works Held in the Library of the University of California, Riverside. Riverside, CA: Special Collections Dept., University Library, University of California, Riverside, 1979.
Dr. J. Lloyd Eaton (8 July 1902-22 December 1968) was a private collector in the 1940s and ‘50s who had the time, money, and inclination to establish one of the better private collections of fantastic literature then in existence. After his death, his widow sold the collection to a discerning University Librarian, the late Donald Wilson, at the University of California, Riverside. It took ten years for the University to catalog the 8,000 volumes that formed the core of his collection, but as these books began to find their way into public view, it became increasingly obvious that this is one of the finest assemblies of science fiction and fantasy literature available for general use by scholars and researchers anywhere in the world. It includes some outstanding rarities, among them the original editions of Varney the Vampyre and King of the Dead, as well as many unique or nearly unique signed copies or variant editions of classics in the field. The collection is strongest in pre-1955 materials, although the Library has made an effort in recent years to supplement its holdings by purchasing several large paperback and magazine collections, as well as several repositories of foreign-language SF books, almost impossible to locate anywhere else in the United States.
Wurfel’s introduction to the collection provides a brief overview of the history of science fiction literature, plus a brief history of the Eaton Collection itself. Lynn’s work is an annotated bibliography of particularly rare or unusual interplanetary novels included in the collection, with complete bibliographical information, references to other standard bibliographies, and a brief plot summary of each book. The publication of these two volumes, and the extraordinary vision demonstrated by the University of California in acquiring and maintaining this collection, should be welcomed by all persons interested in serious science fiction scholarship and research into popular and utopian literature.
(1980)
Bretnor, Reginald, editor. Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future. Chicago: Advent:Publishers, 1979.
This reprint of the 1953 Coward-McCann edition includes a new introd
uction, corrections, and an index not provided in the original version, but is otherwise a facsimile of the first anthology of science fiction criticism ever published. The contributors include such notables as John W. Campbell, Jr., Anthony Boucher, Don Fabun, Fletcher Pratt, Rosalie Moore, L. Sprague de Camp, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip Wylie, Gerald Heard, and Bretnor himself. While some of the pieces remain entertaining and perceptive some thirty years after their initial publication, much of the commentary has been seriously dated by the subsequent history and development of the field. Boucher’s article on “The Publishing of Science Fiction,” for example, is of historical interest only; other chapters suffer from SF’s “chip-on-the-shoulder” syndrome so evident in the 1950s, being filled with self-justifications and rationales offered in a half-apologetic way. Academic libraries which never obtained the original edition should certainly buy this quaintly antique volume, the ancestor of all SF critical anthologies, but the rest of us can safely pass it by.
Grebens, G. V. Ivan Efremov’s Theory of Science Fiction. New York: Vantage Press, 1978.
In the first book-length study of the best-known writer from the middle period of Soviet science fiction, Dr. Grebens examines Efremov’s work (much of which has never been translated into English) from several different angles, showing how he used technology, futurology, and psychohistory to produce a utopian vision of a far-future Communist society. Grebens’s judgments seem sound, his knowledge of the material thorough. The book is copiously footnoted, and the bibliography of secondary sources contains much of interest for the student of Soviet literature. Recommended for academic collections.
Scherwinsky, Felix. Der Neologismen in der modernen französischen Science-Fiction. Meisenheim am Glan, West Germany: Verlag Anton Hain, 1978.
Dr. Scherwinsky has taken eighteen original French-language novels from the 1960s and ‘70s, and provided a fascinating study of invented words as they occur in these books. The basic list is by theme: in each section the words are listed alphabetically in French, followed by their German-language equivalents. Scherwinsky then gives a sentence-length quotation from the original showing how each word was used in context, with exact citations to books and page numbers. Each section is defined by subject. End matter includes a complete word list, a bibliography of the novels covered, a bibliography of secondary sources, an author index, and a name index to invented planets, places, things, aliens, and characters. Without comparing this book to the novels covered, it is difficult to judge the study’s comprehensiveness; yet there is no doubt that this is a valuable and utterly unique survey of the way in which modern French literature has adapted to the special terms and phrases required by the SF genre. A worthy addition to all academic libraries.
Schlobin, Roger C. The Literature of Fantasy: A Comprehensive, Annotated Bibliography of Modern Fantasy Literature. New York: Garland Publishing, 1979.
Tymn, Marshall B., Robert H. Boyer, Kenneth J. Zahorski. Fantasy Literature: A Core Collection and Reference Guide. New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1979.
Waggoner, Diana. The Hills of Faraway: A Guide to Fantasy. New York: Atheneum, 1978.
In comparing Schlobin’s work with his two competitors, Waggoner and Tymn/Boyer/Zahorski, one is struck by the differences and similarities between these books. All three cover the major works in the fantasy field. Tymn’s work is a selective, annotated bibliography restricting to 250 works; the annotations are longer than those in the other two books, and analytical. The judgments seem fair, and the books selected, with few exceptions, really do stand out as classics in the field. The book succeeds admirably in its purpose of providing a core collection and reference guide.
By contrast, Waggoner’s guide seems more flighty. A good portion of her book is devoted to theoretical musings on definitions of fantasy, plus lists of recommended reading by category. Her bibliography includes just under a thousand items, many of them juvenile. Her annotations are short to medium in length, and highly opinionated; she will sometimes dismiss a particular author’s work for no apparent reason than personal inclination, ignoring and failing to take into account the general critical opinion on that writer. Her judgments appear at times hasty and ill-considered, based more on emotion than reasoned insight. For that reason, I find her annotations untrustworthy in a very basic sense. Also, her knowledge of fantasy literature seems heavily oriented toward mid-twentieth-century publications, ignoring many books and authors who helped establish the foundations of modern fantasy literature.
Schlobin covers 1249 volumes, about 250 more than Waggoner; but since his definition of fantasy excludes juveniles, this figure actually includes many more adult fantasies than Waggoner. Schlobin’s literary background and training are evident in his annotations, which are reasoned, based firmly on prevailing literary opinion, and readable. His indexing of the contents of fantasy collections and anthologies is alone worth the price of the volume. His knowledge of the field seems much greater than Waggoner’s, although both have lacunae (neither, for example, has heard of G. P. Baker). Still, Schlobin is far stronger on late nineteenth- or early twentieth-century antecedents of the field. For the small- or medium-sized library, Tymn is clearly the choice; but larger libraries and the scholarly community will clearly find The Literature of Fantasy the most perceptive, comprehensive, and valuable of the three.
Taylor, R. G. Futura Man: An Orphan in Time. New York: Vantage Press, 1979.
LeBlanc, Richard. The Fangs of the Vampire. New York: Vantage Press, 1979.
Marinelli, Jean. From Blight to Height. New York: Vantage Press, 1979.
Isaac, Rondall. Stories of the Unforeseen. New York: Vantage Press, 1979. New York: Vantage Press, 1979.
Four vanity press titles. In Futura, “Robert Taleur finds himself having to deal with inner urges that push him toward a vast space voyage and an ultimate encounter with the universe’s archenemy Sephus, the eater of white light and creator of black holes.” Absolutely unreadable. Fangs is set trillions of years in the future, where space explorer Capt. James Barclay discovers that one Richard LeBlanc had written the most significant book ever penned, The Total Story of Evolution. Then LeBlanc himself appears, and the story goes downhill from there. Cosmic solipsism. Blight is a near-future utopian novel filled with dialogue that would crack the faces of anyone actually trying to speak it. Naturally, everything works out beautifully in the end— except the story. Stories is primitive but readable, a collection of supernatural and fantasy tales, many with war or hunting settings. “The Disc,” a post-nuclear holocaust quest story, is the best of the lot, pulp-level quality. A very mixed bag.
(1982)
Schreuders, Piet, translated by Josh Pachter. Paperbacks, U.S.A.: A Graphic History, 1939-1959. San Diego, CA: Blue Dolphin Enterprises, 1981. As: The Book of Paperbacks. London: Virgin Books, 1981.
Schreuders focuses on the history of mass market paperback cover illustrations during the first twenty years (the golden period) of paperback publishing, and in the process provides a lively illustrated history of the publishers, artists, and books that quickly made paperbacks an integral part of American culture. Beginning with such experiments as Bonibooks and Haldeman-Julius publications in the 1920s and ‘30s, Schreuders follows these tentative steps into mass market distribution with the advent of Pocket Books in 1939, quickly followed by Avon in 1941, Dell in 1943, Popular Library in 1943, and Bantam in 1945. By the early 1950s paperbacks had supplanted the pulp magazines as the primary medium of mass entertainment in literary form for the American public; indeed, the surviving pulp companies often moved into paperback publishing as a means of continued survival.
Schreuders has clearly done his homework; his knowledge of the history of each company (he provides thumbnail sketches of each) is encyclopedic; in many instances, he quotes from surviving artists, editors, and publishers to bolster his arguments, or to provide enlightening tidbits on the editorial, sales, or design policies of each firm. This material alone is worth the price of the book. An appen
dix, “Who’s Who in Cover Art,” provides biographical and career details on many of the more obscure artists who worked (and who in some cases still work) as paperback cover illustrators. Also valuable are the other appendices, including a listing of the first hundred stock numbers for each major paperback line, an “Overview of American Paperback Publishers” (which provides historical, bibliographical, and other pertinent details for every paperback publisher active during the period 1939-1959), a history of paperback publishing in general, year by year through 1959, a small section on “Collecting Paperbacks,” and an extensive annotated bibliography of historical and bibliographical sources for the study of mass market publishing and collecting.
More than the solidly-based and readable information, however, are the illustrations that make this book a superior piece of work. Included are dozens of photographs of artists and editors, reproductions of paperback advertising and displays, and literally hundreds of carefully photographed covers, many in full color, most at least half the size of the originals. The care taken in reproducing these covers is extraordinary; they’ve been cleaned and prepared in such a way that they are, in most cases, more vivid and true-to-life than many of the surviving books themselves.
Paperbacks, U.S.A. does have some minor errors and omissions, but these are negligible compared to the wealth of information and visual material presented here. Schreuders’s book should become a standard history, of interest to anyone with even the slightest desire to learn more about this fascinating publishing phenomenon. Highly recommended for libraries and students of popular culture.
(1983)
Saxton, Mark. Havoc in Islandia. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1982.
Austin Tappan Wright’s posthumous utopia, Islandia (1942), was immediately recognized on publication as a classic of imaginative literature. His curious blend of philosophy, sex, utopian politics, and a certain amount of wistful thinking, combined with a meticulously-researched background (based upon thousands of pages of invented history and language), produced an attractive alternative to the real world that has captured a consistently faithful following over the last four decades. Wright delineated his imaginary country through the eyes of a naive American, John Lang, who eventually decided to switch allegiances, and became the first adopted Islandian in several centuries. The book was set in the early twentieth century, at a time of American (and European) colonialism and expansionism.
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