" In this universe the night was falling; the shadows were lengthening towards an east that would not know another dawn. But elsewhere the stars were still young and the light of morning lingered; and along the path he once had followed, Man would one day go again"

Arthur C. Clarke Against the Fall of Night

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Michael Dirda reviews Scientific Romance: An International Anthology of Pioneering Science Fiction & Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction



Some time ago I encountered the essays of Michael Dirda a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for The Washington Post Book World. As someone who is surrounded by more books than I can read in my remaining years, and who purchases even more each month, I was delighted to read the essays of someone who admits he shares much the same hobby/failing/obsession/etc. A critic who still haunts library book sales and used book stores and discusses not just Spinoza, Dickens and Welty but also Dick, Lovecraft, Vance and Doyle. Who in his book Browsing: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books notes that he acquired a number of issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction form the 1960's at a library book sale and then discusses the contents noting for example that Carol Emshwiller is one of the greatest living writers of fantasy and science fiction.

So when I noticed that he had just reviewed two anthologies

Stableford's Scientific Romance: An International Anthology of Pioneering Science Fiction, January 2017 and Sisters of Tomorrow: The First Women of Science Fiction, by Lisa Yaszek and Patrick B. Sharp 

thought I would pass along the link.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/michael-dirda-on-the-evolution-of-science-fiction/2017/02/28/79427c0a-fab2-11e6-be05-1a3817ac21a5_story.html?utm_term=.ec9a5b56de8f


2 comments:

  1. I'm working on a review of the Scientific Romances anthology. Well worth reading if you're interested in sf's history and several stories enjoyable on their own.

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  2. Hi

    I have to admit I have already ordered it. I love historical SF and I am really interested in some of the translated stories that I have never heard of before. Thanks for your comment.

    Regards
    Guy

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