Recommendations for November 2013 - Jim Henderson

The Dark Beyond the Stars by Frank M. Robinson. Orb Books, 404p. (1991)

After returning to his ship from an away mission, Sparrow wakes up with no memory of his past. While recovering, more accidents occur and it's not long before our main character realized someone is trying to kill him. Set aboard a ship that left Earth hundreds of years earlier, Robinson's book explores multigenerational space travel and asks what price we are willing to pay to find evidence of other life in the universe.

The Dark Beyond the Stars brings together an interesting plot with unusual characters on an extraordinary set. Yet, what makes this book succeed is the interactions of the characters. They love, they fight with words and fists, and they have sex. They find out that sex and love are not the same. Sparrow explores what it is to be a part of a group, as well as an outsider. Through him, Frank M. Robinson works out what it means to be human, both with our frailties and our nobilities. While most versions of this book are out of print, many copies can be found through Amazon. It is one of the great reads of sci-fi.



Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley. Ace Books. (1968)

Where, among all of the possible configurations in time and space of Earth, is the Earth he left behind, and how can he find it? On his journeys Carmody meets a handful of disenchanted gods, and visits numerous permutations of the Earth, none of which is quite like the one he remembers. In one, he visits a town that talks to him in a gratingly solicitous tone, always making sure he's had enough dessert and is comfortable napping - but there is no other human being to be found. In another, everyone speaks in advertising slogans. In another, dinosaurs are sentient and avid practitioners of science. In another, Carmody seems to recognize everyone in his home town as old friends, except they are all famous movie stars.

Re-released in 2002 by NESFA Press as part of their glorious omnibus edition  .

Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh. DAW Books, 432p. (1981)

"The Earth Company built its first space stations to mine the resources of the solar system. Centuries later, it now controls only the first few stations reaching out from Sol. The interstellar distances, and the delays in crossing them, have lead the outer stations to independence. Further out, a Union has been formed, a fascist empire of a few free leaders and uncountable cloned slaves. The massive company fleet, once intended to enforce discipline in space and to battle the Union, now survives by leeching off of the stations it once protected. Pell station, the 10th one, orbits the first new world that is habitable by humans and more importantly, on which the first alien life has been discovered. For many years, the Konstantin family have ruled Pell Station and the colonies on Pell itself. Angelo and his two sons Damon and Emilio must fight to protect their fragile domain, now overloaded with refugees from neighbouring stations against overwhelming external forces and insidious internal subversion."

The Voyage of the Space Beagle by A. E. Van Vogt, Collier Books, 240p. (1950)

"Okay, here's your tip sheet. If you like whales, read Moby Dick. If you prefer dogs, try The Call of the Wild. If you like horses for your literary courses, go for Black Beauty. But if you're looking for creepy monsters from outer space, this is your book. Contrary to what you may have heard elsewhere, A.E. van Vogt doesn't actually use the term "bug-eyed monster" at any point of The Voyage of the Space Beagle, but whenever sci-fi scholars (no, that is not an oxymoron) refer to BEMs (yes, that is the accepted acronym), this is frequently the first literary work they mention, the granddaddy of them all." - Dana Goia

The Unreasoning Mask by Philip Jose Farmer. Overlook Press,243p. (1981)

All the skills and the soaring imagination which have won Farmer over a million dedicated fans are abundant in this highly charged, far-future, space adventure story. The Unreasoning Mask is the story of Ramstan, captain of al-Buraq, a rare model starship. It is capable of alaraf drive: instantaneous travel between two points of space. Three of these special ships were built to explore and make contact with the many sentient races inhabiting the universe. Suddenly, one of the ships mysteriously disappears. And then it is discovered that an unidentifiable "creature" is marauding through the universe, totally annihilating intelligent life on planet after planet.

Ranstan, a thoughtful and moral man, becomes a fascinated yet reluctant pawn in the hands of the strange forces which arise to fight the deadly destroyer. Ultimately, he is the one man who, in a fearful race against time, can stop the destruction. But what price must he pay for becoming the savior of intelligent-kind? The Unreasoning Mask is Farmer at his best--fast-paced, complex, slightly mystical, high-action adventure.

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick. Vintage Books, 259p. (1962)

It's America in 1962. Slavery is legal once again. The few Jews who still survive hide under assumed names. In San Francisco, the I Ching is as common as the Yellow Pages. All because some 20 years earlier the United States lost a war--and is now occupied jointly by Nazi Germany and Japan.

This harrowing, Hugo Award-winning, novel is the work that established Philip K. Dick as an innovator in science fiction while breaking the barrier between science fiction and the serious novel of ideas. In it Dick offers a haunting vision of history as a nightmare from which it may just be possible to awake.

Behold the Man by Michael Moorcock. Overlook Press, 144p. (1969)

Karl Glogauer is a disaffected modern professional casting about for meaning in a series of half-hearted relationships, a dead-end job, and a personal struggle. His questions of faith surrounding his father's run-of-the-mill Christianity and his mother's suppressed Judaism lead him to a bizarre obsession with the idea of the messiah. After the collapse of his latest affair and his introduction to a reclusive physics professor, Karl is given the opportunity to confront his obsession and take a journey that no man has taken before, and from which he knows he cannot return. Upon arriving in Palestine, A.D. 29, Glogauer finds that Jesus Christ is not the man that history and faith would like to believe, but that there is an opportunity for someone to change the course of history by making the ultimate sacrifice.

First published in 1969, Behold the Man broke through science fiction's genre boundaries to create a poignant reflection on faith, disillusion and self-sacrifice. This is the classic novel that established the career of perhaps contemporary science fiction’s most cerebral and innovative author.

SUPER-CANNES by J. G. Ballard. Picador USA, 392p. (2000)

Eden-Olympia is more than just a multinational business park, it is a virtual city-state in itself, with the latest in services and facilities for the most elite high-tech industries. Isolated and secure, overlooking the luxurious French Riviera, the residents lack nothing. Yet one day Dr. Greenwood from Eden-Olympia's clinic goes on a suicidal shooting spree. Dr. Jane Sinclair is hired as his replacement, and she and her husband, Paul, are given Dr. Greenwood's house as a residence.

Unable to work while recovering from an accident, Paul spends his days taking a close look at the house where Dr. Greenwood shot himself and three hostages. He discovers clues in the house lead him to question Eden-Olympia's official account of the killings. Drawn into investigating the activities of the park's leading citizens, while Jane is lured deeper into Eden-Olympia's inner workings, Paul uncovers the dangerous psychological vents that maintain Eden-Olympia's smoothly running surface. An experiment is underway at Eden-Olympia, an experiment in power and brutality. Soon Paul finds himself in race to save himself and his wife before they are crushed by forces that may be beyond any one's control.

Man Plus by Frederick Pohl. Orb Books, 267p. (1976)

Ill luck made Roger Torraway the subject of the Man Plus Programe, but it was deliberate biological engineering which turned him into a monster -- a machine perfectly adapted to survive on Mars. For according to computer predictions, Mars is humankind's only alternative to extinction. But beneath his monstrous exterior, Torraway still carries a man's capacity for suffering. A bestselling, Nebula Award–winning novel when first published more than thirty years ago.

The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe. Orb Books, 252p. (1972)

Gene Wolfe's The Fifth Head of Cerberus is a universally acknowledged masterpiece of science fiction by one of the field's most brilliant writers. Far out from Earth, two sister planets, Saint Anne and Saint Croix, circle each other in an eternal dance. It is said a race of shapeshifters once lived here, only to perish when men came. But one man believes they can still be found, somewhere in the back of the beyond.

In The Fifth Head of Cerberus, Wolfe skillfully interweaves three bizarre tales to create a mesmerizing pattern: the harrowing account of the son of a mad genius who discovers his hideous heritage; a young man's mythic dreamquest for his darker half; the bizarre chronicle of a scientists' nightmarish imprisonment. Like an intricate, braided knot, the pattern at last unfolds to reveal astonishing truths about this strange and savage alien landscape.