stephen_means_me's review
4.0
This is an extremely fun blend - science-fictional literary criticism of science fiction! Presented as excerpts of a "gazetteer" of a temporal-spatial travel agency, the different sections of the book examine the planets of certain classic sf stories, where the landscape itself is essential to the story. The main examples are:
- Arthur C. Clarke's Rama (Rendezvous with Rama [1973])
- Anne McCaffrey's Pern (Dragonflight [1968] etc.)
- The Okie Cities of James Blish (Cities in Flight series [1950-1962])
- Hal Clement's Mesklin (Mission of Gravity [1953])
- Harry Harrison's Eros (Captive Universe [1969]
- the Arrakis of Frank Herbert's Dune (Dune [1965])
- Larry Niven's Ringworld (Ringworld [1970])
- Trantor from Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (Foundation series [1951-1953])
- Brian Aldiss's Hothouse (Hothouse [1962])
- the End of the World of H.G. Wells (The Time Machine [1895])
I've read some of these books - some of them because of their inclusion in this book - but even if you aren't familiar, the illustrations and "travel catalog" style are weird and lovely. As for justifying the selections, I think they're evenly split into absolute classics (Wells, Asimov, Herbert, Niven, McCaffrey), sleepers (Clarke, Blish), and ones I haven't even seen copies of in used bookstores (Clement, Harrison, Aldiss). That's a decent score. But the book contains many, many more little side references to the sf scene as of the late Seventies, as part of pretending that they're all part of the same fictional universe, so it becomes even more fun the more familiar you are with the material.
So 3.5 stars rounded up - it's a coffee table book, sure, but also a really cool example of the "Silver Age" of science fiction.
- Arthur C. Clarke's Rama (Rendezvous with Rama [1973])
- Anne McCaffrey's Pern (Dragonflight [1968] etc.)
- The Okie Cities of James Blish (Cities in Flight series [1950-1962])
- Hal Clement's Mesklin (Mission of Gravity [1953])
- Harry Harrison's Eros (Captive Universe [1969]
- the Arrakis of Frank Herbert's Dune (Dune [1965])
- Larry Niven's Ringworld (Ringworld [1970])
- Trantor from Asimov's Foundation Trilogy (Foundation series [1951-1953])
- Brian Aldiss's Hothouse (Hothouse [1962])
- the End of the World of H.G. Wells (The Time Machine [1895])
I've read some of these books - some of them because of their inclusion in this book - but even if you aren't familiar, the illustrations and "travel catalog" style are weird and lovely. As for justifying the selections, I think they're evenly split into absolute classics (Wells, Asimov, Herbert, Niven, McCaffrey), sleepers (Clarke, Blish), and ones I haven't even seen copies of in used bookstores (Clement, Harrison, Aldiss). That's a decent score. But the book contains many, many more little side references to the sf scene as of the late Seventies, as part of pretending that they're all part of the same fictional universe, so it becomes even more fun the more familiar you are with the material.
So 3.5 stars rounded up - it's a coffee table book, sure, but also a really cool example of the "Silver Age" of science fiction.
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