New Arrivals and a chatty post

In early Oct. we snuck off for a week long stay at the Sylvia Hotel in English Bay. This summer we had cancelled a trip to London for the second time and we wanted to do something. I have to say this is one of my favourite spots in the world. There is bay with mountains and cargo ships waiting to unload in front, Stanley Park and it's seawall to the right and Denman street with a huge selection of restaurants to the left. Also tons of people walk their dogs along the shore which makes for great viewing. I love it. Much of the rest of Vancouver is accessible by water taxi or foot and that means bookstores. The book covers span the entire spectrum from "what were they thinking" to pretty cool. 

The first store we visited was also a bindery. I got the Pangborn, (cover by Richard Powers)  and Helen was able to get a very interesting edition of Alice in Wonderland. Since the main thing we missed in London was the Alice exhibit at the V & A, this was only fair. 

The next was a small shop called The Paper Hound, which actually only had a couple of shelves of science fiction amid other wonderful holding, I got my first but probably not last Rupert Annual. Okay I bought the 2021 at our neighbourhood British Pantry the other day. Since I am indecisive and the book shop was central to several areas we planned to visit and since Helen is good natured enough to put up with a lot, we visited three times over the course our stay. We next visited a large used bookstore with mounds and towers of books everywhere and over priced PKD aces in glass cases. But I realized the internet may have spoiled this kind of chaos for me, plus their SF holding overall seemed insufficient for the size of the shop and uninteresting we bought nothing there.

https://paperhound.ca

The Paper Hound however while small was beautifully curated.  

A lovely understated cover by Daniel Schwartz.

The Lessing series is the kind of vast impenetrable British/European future history of human kind that haunts my shelves and TBR pile. Jacket Design by David Proust. 

I did not buy this very reasonably priced Shasta first edition until my third visit. I hate the cover of this man in what is obviously his Mom's housecoat so much. Looking at it again Mom must have been pretty tall. However as I lay awake in my bed at the Sylvia listening to the rain. (Immortalized in the Blue Rodeo song English Bay here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrhL5yAS2jI) 

I heard the rest of my Van Vogt collection remonstrating with me. It was after all family. Harold W. McCauley claimed credit for this, why?

God knows, I bought it for the cover by Harry Borman and a rather confused summary on the back. The summary claims SF roots, the cover seems more sword and sorcery.

This is a wonderful cover by Alan Brooks. 

This was interesting . I knew I had to buy A Ticket to Nowhere but left it where it was displayed on the shelf while I looked around, Helen then appeared with it and said you have to get this for your collection. She was right.

I have discussed the UK publisher Badger books several times, a great discussion and the first place I learned about them is at this link from the wonderful unsubscribed blog, sadly no longer updated.

 https://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/19/book-on-sunday-doom/

Vega books in Clovis California seems to have reprinted some Badger books with the same covers. However the ISFDB does not indicate this was the case here. I see no other novels listed for Don Begher, but authors for both Badger and Vega often seemed to use house names. Helen and I both loved the juxtaposition of the strange craft and log cabin. The cover was unattributed.

Sayers is my favourite mystery writer and one of the few I still read. These also fall into the great cover category. The covers were unattributed?

A couple more vacation snaps. Happy Reading. 

New Arrivals

 I have been reading mainly non-fiction from the library and mythos fiction which means I have been posting on my HPL blog. 

http://dunwichhorrors.blogspot.com

I have been reading some science fiction. Doug and I have been looking at a list of science fiction works set on the moon and I have been reading a few. 

http://launchdate.com/moon/moonscifi.htm

Yesterday I set out for the British Pantry a few blocks away for some local sausage for a rice dish Helen was going to make. I also picked up some mince tarts cause it tis the season. There is a free library in a repurposed newspaper box that we pass quite frequently while walking the dogs. It is set back from the sidewalk, and I have found little of interest, so I do not check it that often. I checked it yesterday and was amazed. There were several Science Fiction book club editions with their original jackets. So I scooped up four that were of particular interest. I don't think I have read the Anderson or the Niven. Doug and I have often discussed how we believe Niven has created some of the best aliens in science fiction in his tales of known space. I am not sure this falls within the series, but I am interested in reading it. The Anderson should to be worth a look.

  Helen loved The Eye of Queen, and I have meant to read it. I read Mann's Wulfsyarn, and it was quite good, so I am looking forward to reading it. Two of the moon stories I have read recently were Varley's "Bagatelle" and "The Barbie Murders". Scanning isfdb, I see there are more stories involving the Anna-Louise Bach character, so I will be reading them. However, my all-time favourite Varley work is Titan. Finding it with the beautiful Ron Walotsky cover was a real gift. I think the sequels Wizard and Demon were okay, but the first volume in a series often makes the greatest impression. The first volume introduces the world building with all the odd creatures and wonderful settings that we can explore. Titan certainly provided that with the Blimps, Titanides and Angels and the epic quest to reach Gaea. All of these titles from the last 70's and early 80's were right in my wheel house and the probably tells you quite a bit about my taste in science fiction. 

Covers

The Avatar by Rick SternBack

A World out of Time by Rick SternBack

The Eye of the Queen by Loretta Trezzo

New Arrivals Roger Zelazny

“As he was cast over the edge, he was able to turn and look upward. Falling, he saw a dark figure in the sky that grew even as his eyes passed over it. Of course, he thought, he has finally looked upon the sunrise and been freed … Wings folded, his great, horned countenance impassive, Morningstar dropped like a black meteor. As he drew near, he extended his arms full length and opened his massive hands. Jack wondered whether he would arrive in time.”

Jack of Shadows - Roger Zelazny

“So feathers or lead?” I asked him. “Pardon?” “It is the riddle of the kallikanzaros. Pick one.” “Feathers?” “You’re wrong.” “If I had said lead’ . . .?” “Uh-uh. You only have one chance. The correct answer is whatever the kallikanzaros wants it to be. You lose.” “That sounds a bit arbitrary.” “Kallikanzaroi are that way. It’s Greek, rather than Oriental subtlety. Less inscrutable, too. Because your life often depends on the answer, and the kallikanzaros generally wants you to lose.”

This Immortal - Roger Zelazny

“Did you ever look back at some moment in your past and have it suddenly grow so vivid that all the intervening years seemed brief, dreamlike, impersonal—the motions of a May afternoon surrendered to routine?”

Doorways in the Sand - Roger Zelazny

When things seem meh, like they are now I continue to read new works or new authors but I also delve in old favourites, both books and authors for a little stability. Zelazny is one of those authors for me. The latest reread, that lead to my picking up these NESFA collections, started over at the Lovecraft Ezine. I discovered that they have run stories based on Zelazny's A Night in the Lonesome October, during October for several years.

 

These included several rememberances of Zelazny by his son Trent. I will include a link to only one of them here.

https://lovecraftzine.com/magazine/issues/2013-2/issue-27-october-2013/introduction-to-issue-27-by-trent-zelazny/

My own discussion of A Night in the Lonesome October appears here. 

https://dunwichhorrors.blogspot.com/2019/11/new-eldritch-tomes-and-night-in.html

I was surprised and delighted that so many people had enjoyed this work, the last novel he published by himself, as much as I did. 

“I took Jack his slippers this evening and lay at his feet before a roaring fire while he smoked his pipe, sipped sherry, and read the newspaper. He read aloud everything involving killings, arsons, mutilations, grave robberies, church desecrations, and unusual thefts. It is very pleasant just being domestic sometimes.”

A Night in the Lonesome October - Roger Zelazny

One of the joys of this book is that you read one chapter, most are quite short, per day in October ending on Halloween night. It's hard to do I could not resist reading several chapters at a time and then going back to the appropriate day. I don't see a Kindle edition but it's not too late to get yourself a hard copy for Oct. 1st. 

“If you ever loved anything in your life, try to remember it. If you ever betrayed anything, pretend for a moment that you have been forgiven. If you ever feared anything, pretend for an instant that those days are gone and will never return. Buy the lie and hold to it for as long as you can. Press your familiar, whatever its name, to your breast and stroke it till it purrs.”

Creatures of Light and Darkness - Roger Zelazny

Exploring more about the significance of A Night in the Lonesome October for other people lead me to reviews of Zelazny's work in general so I though I would try a few of the NESFA collections which include essay's and such as well as the stories. The essay in volume one, "Before Amber" by Zelazny's childhood friend Carl B. Yoke, is incredible. They became friends in grade 2 and the relationship continued their whole lives. This essay repaid my investment in spades.

There is a nice discussion of the books with a full wrap around version of the Michael Whelan covers here.

http://erics-hangout.blogspot.com/2014/06/short-stories-of-zelazny.html

“Such

times are rare, such times are fleeting, but always bright when caught, measured, hung, and later regarded in times of adversity, there in the kinder halls of memory, against the flapping of the flames.”

 

A Night in the Lonesome October, Roger Zelazny

Zelazny seems to have been not only a very influential author but a good friend and person and I read a number of tributes to him. I have provided a link to Martin's here because I think it gives you a sense of the man himself.

 https://georgerrmartin.com/about-george/friends/in-memoriam-roger-zelazny/

New Arrivals

 

I wrote about my impressions of the fifth volume in this series here,

https://ajaggedorbit.blogspot.com/2019/07/new-writings-in-sf5-edited-by-john.html 

and here,

https://ajaggedorbit.blogspot.com/2019/07/new-writings-in-sf5-edited-by-john_7.html. 

I enjoyed John Carnell's story selections enough that I was happy to expand my holdings. These volumes contain a number of authors I enjoyed in number five including R.W Mackelworth, John Baxter, and Joseph Green. They also contain two stories by Vincent King, an author I have been meaning to read.

Since a number of science fiction covers are based on the work of surrealist artists I thought I would mention a book we purchased today. Helen and I are interested in Surrealism and have a number of books on this topic. We love visiting museums and art galleries, and have visited the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice twice. This gallery has a wonder collection of Surrealist paintings and is one of my favourites. So we could not resist this book. It looks quite interesting and mentions some artists we are not familiar with. However women artists appear under represented. Leonora Carrington appears but seems to be mainly discussed due to her relationship with Max Ernst. Dorothea Tanning is briefly mentioned in the section on Surrealism in America. Kati Horna and Remedios Varo are not mentioned in the index. Given their significance in Surrealist art and their involvement in the Spanish Civil War this seemed to be a striking omission based on the stated topic of the book. 

Cover credits:

New Writings 3:  not attributed

New Writings 4:  R. Foster

New Writings 6:  David McCall Johnston

New Writings 7:  David McCall Johnston

New Writings 9:  Seafron?

Monsters and Myths: detail from Europe after the Rain, by Max Ernst

New Arrivals, Philip K. Dick and Ian Miller

I am cheating here the only recent arrival is Dick's Galactic Pot-Healer. I got The Art of Ian Miller, Titan Books, a couple of months ago. I have had A Maze of Death for years. But it's a theme. I love Ian Miller's covers. I have to say I would have liked to have seen more of the work he did for the paperback editions of Bradbury and Lovecraft in The Art of Ian Miller, but I understand that was only one aspect of his career. I love Dick and have a weakness for the many cover iterations the various paperback editions of his work have undergone. I also have to confess to enjoying his less-heralded early work Ace Double warts and all. The unsubscriber has lovely photos of some of Miller's wraparound covers, as well as a post on Philip K. Dick's paperbacks that I can recommend. I have been posting more on my HPL blog lately but I will try to pick up the pace here. I hope everyone is doing well. Guy

https://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/wraparound-cover-1/

https://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2014/08/06/off-the-shelf-1-philip-k-dick/

New arrivals, Stanislaw Lem

“Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.” 

from Solaris by Stanislaw Lem

Even though we are home most of the time, I have not posted a great deal. We have been doing some gardening, but I think my lifelong devotion too sloth is probably an even more significant factor. I have had some new arrivals, but most are additions to my weird tale and horror collections. That said, I am pleased to share what must be the most cheerful cover I have in my science fiction collection. I want to look at Stanislaw Lem's work, and I could not resist this edition. I love robots. The cover is by Robert Dale; according to the ISFDB, this is his only science fiction cover. That is unfortunate I would have loved to see what he might have done with Simak's Project Pope or Dick's Clans of the Alphane Moons. 

New Arrivals Soviet SF and a Badger Book

 Some years ago my wife and I visited London. A visit to the Barbican Estate was on our list. We have long been interested it this complex as an example of British brutalist architecture. It is on my list of cool places to live should I ever win (really really big) on the lottery. We had just missed the exhibit Into the Unknown A journey Through Science Fiction, but I bought the catalogue.

The first two illustrations below come from this catalogue.

I have just received Soviet Space Graphics, Cosmic Visions from the USSR  by Alexandra Sankova from a local bookstore and I knew Into The Unknown discussed the topic as well in the chapter, "Space Odysseys, Visions of the Cosmos in Soviet Science Fiction" by Alyona Sokolnikova. So I wanted to look at both essays as well as the illustrations. Soviet Space Graphics is a great book. The introductory essay is only about five pages long but the book is lavishly illustrated, some 267 in total. The reproductions are a bit matte but they allow one to get a real overview of the different styles that were employed over the years. 

One thing that struck me immediately was the similarities between these illustrations and those found in the science fiction pulp magazines of this period. They were also quite reminiscent to the more futuristic covers of general technical magazines like Popular Mechanics. 

https://ajaggedorbit.blogspot.com/2017/08/new-arrivals-sequel-popular-mechanics.html

In discussing the new Soviet era periodicals Sokolnikova notes "A significant number of these publications focused their attention on the exploration of Earth, its subterranean and oceanic depths, as well as the endless mysteries of outer space-each of the frontiers representing the promise of a bright, new Communist future." (8) 

These were not, at least initially, fiction magazines intended for entertainment. Sokolnikova tells us that, "In 1934, the first All-Union Congress of Soviet Writers was held. At this event, the genre of science fiction was defined exclusively as ' literature for young people' which was required to focus on readers' scientific and technical education in the spirit of social realism. Ideas about human flight were criticized as being too remote from everyday needs, and even utopian. Hence a more pragmatics genre of the science fiction essay, devoid of literary plot, evolved 5." (55) what a buzz kill, it sounds a bit like John Campbell's essays/diatribes in Analog education not fun. Sokolnikova notes that in the late 1960's the work of the Strugatsky's among others spurred the growth of a softer less technical or adventure oriented science fiction from the Soviet Union. 

And for something completely different, or is it? Maybe it's just a different vision of the future? I became interested in Badger books after following the unsubscribedblog's Badger Book on Sunday, posts. Now whenever I see one at an almost reasonable price, especially with the kind of garish covers I love I cannot resist. This cover is by Eddie Jones. Is it just me or is our hero standing in an old style a beer glass surrounded by equipment purloined from a hair salon. Now that is science!

https://unsubscribedblog.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/a-badger-book-on-sunday-with-the-reverend-r-l-fanthorpe-chapter-24/

Murderbot Diaries by Martha Well, plus a couple of new arrivals

Before I discuss Martha Well's Murderbot Diaries I wanted to share the covers of two books I received today. Cheesy as some may find it I love Laumer's A Plague of Demons, I also love this cover by Carlos Ochagavia. Really, does it get better than demon dogs trying to maybe gnaw on human brains encased in robots.

My discussion of A Plague of Demons appears here;
https://ajaggedorbit.blogspot.com/2015/09/a-plague-of-demons-keith-laumer.html

Joachim Boaz discussed “Testament” a short story by Vincent King here:

https://sciencefictionruminations.com/2017/03/14/book-review-new-writings-in-sf-9-ed-john-carnell-1972-harrison-coney-sellings-king-et-al/

I noticed the bookseller that had A Plague of Demons also had Light a Last Candle by King, with a pretty cool cover by Robert Foster. The discussions on Good Reads sounded intriguing if a bit mixed so the four armed diaper guy joined my collection.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3879759-light-a-last-candle

And now to Murderbot

I  really enjoyed The Murderbot Diaries. Murderbot is a fun character. Murderbot's various adventures take place across a a number of locations within the Corporate Rim. Most of the citizens we meet, we do not meet many, are people working in space in an economy geared to exploiting existing worlds or exploring for new resources at least within the planets and space stations where most of the action takes place. The society in the Rim is dystopian with many citizens indentured or leased to corporations, criminals or the mega-wealthy. The story feeds us enough detail that we can envision the societies and culture overall without becoming so dense that we bog down in back story and infodumps. Instead, the details are inserted into the narrative, emerging as needed without appearing forced or slowing down the action. These are action stories with a very good pace. They are also novella length which as means they are quick reads

Wells understands the human condition and offers a vision of how bleak the society she has extrapolated is for many people, via the experiences of Murderbot a security unit assigned to a mapped expedition on an unexplored planet. SecUnits are a merger of machine and cloned human parts created for tasks too challenging to be handled by even augmented humans or smart machines.  "When constructs were first developed, they were originally supposed to have a pre-sentient level of intelligence, like the dumber variety of bot, but you can't put something as dumb as a hauler bot in charge of security." (Artificial Condition) This would require human supervisors and slow down the unit's reaction time, among other things.  Therefore constructs have some freedom of choice but only within the limitations set by their programming and governor module. 

Wells, through Murderbot can find some humour or at least irony in rather dire situations, something I am increasingly challenged to do. Indeed Murderbot views the interactions of the humans with resignation, cynicism, paranoia and occasionally humour. Murderbot does come across as jaded, disengaged and very world weary. Also interactions with humans on a personal level are unwelcome and quite stressful. Indeed the first paragraph of All Systems Red provides a valuable insight in Murderbot's dilemma.

“I could have become a mass murderer after I hacked my governor module, but then I realized I could access the combined feed of entertainment channels carried on the company satellites. It had been well over 35,000 hours or so since then, with still not much murdering, but probably, I don't know, a little under 35,000 hours of movies, serials, books, plays, and music consumed. As a heartless killing machine, I was a terrible failure.” (All System Red)


One thing that Wells did that works for me in this series is avoiding some of the standard science fiction terms for artificial life or machine intelligence.  The term bot is used extensively for machines that operate independently often prefixed by the function; examples include bot-driven transports, cargo bots, hauler bots etc.

We have augmented humans, but no cyborgs, Miki in Rogue Protocol is usually described as a human-form bot, although the word robot is used a couple of times generally as a derogatory term. ART, the research transport vessel in Artificial Condition, is described as a bot, although it has the characteristics of what would be called an AI in many science novels. I found this freeing; I did not immediately feel I knew the attributes or roles of these characters based on the term. Instead, I learned how they fit into the range of artificial life forms by their actions within the storyline.

I am becoming increasingly interested in depictions of mechanical life, artificial intelligence, robots, drones and all the other manifestations of artificially created sentient beings. So this series was something I quite enjoyed. Indeed I read All Systems Red and hesitated to read the other books for fear I would not enjoy them as much. But when Tor made the series available for download for free, I could not resist. So I will say now I loved the entire series and am awaiting the next addition to Murderbot's story, which I will buy immediately. The setting and action reminded me a bit of C.J. Cherryh's Allliance-Union books, which is never a bad thing. 

New Year; New Arrivals

I have picked up a lot of new titles. Some online and some locally. 

These two books were written and published in New Brunswick in 1981 and 1982. I really liked the graphics of these b&w covers. Both also have interior illustrations.

Recently I read the first two volumes of Farmer"s World of Tiers series so I picked up volumes 4 & 5. I am still missing 3 of course.

I often find Reynolds exploration of economic and cultural themes interesting. Older SF tends to be so Libertarian a different perspective is refreshing.

Wyndham was actually covered when I was in public school and I read a lot of his works. I really like these Penguin  editions with the image extending into the white borders. There is a great overview of Penguins SF covers here.

https://www.penguinsciencefiction.org

I could not resist this Moorcock cover.

My collecting began with HPL/Arkham House related items and Edgar Rice Burroughs, so I am still a sucker for a cover like this from Corgi. 

If you follow my posts you know I like short stories and shorter novels. However I love Asher's Polarity series with it's Old Captains, War Drones, Golems, Gabbleducks, Runcibles, Dracomen, Haiman  and Hooders.  I will post on his books in more detail in the future. 

Cover Artists

Star Destroyer & Courier all illustrations by Owen Pulton

Behind the Wall of Terra by Gray Morrow, The Lavalite World by Boris Vallejo

The Phoenix and The Mirror by Leo & Diane Dillon, Adam Link - Robot by Jack Gaughan

The Five Way Secret Agent and Mercenary from Tomorrow uncredited (Lehr?), 
Satellite City by Davis Meltzer

Jack Wyndham both covers by Peter Lord

My Experiences in the Third World War by Michael Heslop

Fearless Master Of The Jungle by Chris Achilleos, who also did the covers for my copies of Talbot Mundy's Tros of Samothrace novels as well as some Burroughs I have never seen by Tandem Books. The ISFDB database is a wonderful thing.

Neal Asher both covers by Adam Burn design Claudia Noble

New Arrivals; Moorcock Moorcock The War Hound and the World's Pain

 I have been going to a new bookstore in Calgary's Inglewood neighbourhood, Next Page is a branch of the independent bookstore Pages. They sell both new and used books. While the selection of used science fiction is quite limited I have found more than enough to decimate my budget. The books are in beautiful condition with a nice selection of NA and UK publishers and authors. This represents the booty from several visits.

As always I love old science fiction, I am also a bit of an anglophile so Doyle, Well and Jefferies were a welcome find. I am also a big Hesse fan I read them to relax, often skipping here and there.

I read Bear's short story "Blood Music", it was quite good. I always wanted to try the novel version. Do I need more Clarke and Asimov, no. Could I resist new editions of their short stories. No, I find it difficult.

I am familiar with Micheal Moorcock's writing primarily from the various series that form The Eternal Champion multiverse. Initially I did not plan on buying these books. His sword and sorcery novels had been formulaic and I was torn. However I had also read his novella "The Wrecks of Time" in New Worlds and I had purchased Colin Greenland's The Entropy Exhibition on Moorcock's tenure at New Worlds. We were waiting for friends and the longer we waited the more titles I grabbed. I am glad I did. I have actually ordered some of his older works to complete series I already owed. 

I am not going to attribute all the covers in this post, You can find this information at the isfdb. I will do this if I deal with a work in greater detail. 

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

Cover by Boris Vallejo

The War Hound and the World's Pain  is set in a fantasy version of the thirty years war. The protagonist, Graf Ulrich von Bek is the commander of a mercenary company that has fought on both sides of the conflict depending on the payoff. He has just deserted his men taking all the units money and food because he sees signs some of the men have contacted the plague. While staying at a manor house he found abandoned, von Beck learns he is damned and his only hope of salvation is to undertake a quest for Satan. What struck me immediately was the similarity to Moorcok's novels set in the far future or totally fictional worlds. Even the atrocities committed are similar to those committed by the soldiers of Granbretan in his Hawkmoon novels. It takes the form of a quest in search of a potentially mythical object. As with most of Moorcock's  protagonists von Bek also acquires a companion on his quest, a religious young Kazak (Cossack) soldier Gregory Sedenko. Neither are nice men von Beck is from a prosperous German family, his sole reason for becoming a mercenary seems to have been the potential excitement. His home was not threatened and he is a best a religious skeptic. He admits several times that he and his men robbed, raped, tortured and murdered the civilian population on either side. At one point he murders a hermit, he claims in part to release a young girl that will not leave the hermit's side even if it means her death. However the true reason is that the hermit annoys him. When Sedenko later rapes the girl, von Beck seem to expect it, and makes no attempt to intervene. These are not Arthurian knights. If anything the Thirty Year's War setting that Moorcock creates is every bit as brutal or more than his totally fictional settings. All Moorcock's heroes are a best problematic. This is very much a fantasy novel that addresses the callousness and brutality of war. As one might expect from a novel set in the Thirty Year's War organized religion does not fare very well either.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years%27_War

The wikipedia entry on Moorcock notes:

"Moorcock's works are noted for their political nature and content. In one interview, he states, "I am an anarchist and a pragmatist. My moral/philosophical position is that of an anarchist."[16] Further, in describing how his writing relates to his political philosophy, Moorcock says, "My books frequently deal with aristocratic heroes, gods and so forth. All of them end on a note which often states quite directly that one should serve neither gods nor masters but become one's own master."{16) "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Moorcock

The fantasy settings that Moorcock creates often include the negative treatment of female characters. This should of course, not be considered a reflection of his beliefs. Moorcock stated in an interview in the Guardian that he fell out with one of his closest friends the writer J.G. Ballard.

"We were estranged for some time because of his treatment of women. I got sick of it."

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/feb/04/michael-moorcock-hari-kunzru

No stranger to censorship himself the quote below is also interesting.

"Science fiction/fantasy author Michael Moorcock has suggested that the Gor novels should be placed on the top shelves of bookstores, saying, "I’m not for censorship but I am for strategies which marginalize stuff that works to objectify women and suggests women enjoy being beaten."^[17]"

^{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gor}

I found The War Hound and the World's Pain an interesting read. As is often the case with Moorcock there is a sequel, The City In the Autumn Stars, pictured above, which I have not yet read. I am going to be reading more Moorcock for a number of reasons. His work in the field especially with New Worlds make him a influential figure in science fiction. He was prolific which means there are lots of novels and stories to choose from. If like me, you enjoy seeing how an author's themes and plots change over time this can be quite attractive. He crosses genre which I like mixing elements of both science fiction and fantasy in wide ranging works that vary from fairly standard sword and sorcery to the adventure of the hipster Jerry Cornelius. And I have enjoyed his work in the past. What do you think of Moorcock's work.