Let’s take a quick look to see what’s arrived at the Geek Compound.
American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s
Edited by Gary K. Wolfe
Cover by Richard M. Powers
Promo copy:
Modern science fiction came of age in the 1950s, and it was inAmericathat the genre broke most exuberantly free from convention. Moving beyond the pulp magazines, science fiction writers stretched their imaginations at novel length, ushering in an era of stylistic experiment and freewheeling speculation that responded in wildly inventive ways to the challenges and perplexities of an era of global threat and rapid technological change. Long unnoticed or dismissed by the literary establishment, these “outsider” novels are now recognized as American classics.
- Frederik Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth, The Space Merchants
What’s it all worth? - Theodore Sturgeon, More Than Human
Could this be the next stage of evolution? - Leigh Brackett, The Long Tomorrow
Who will control post-apocalyptic America? - Richard Matheson, The Shrinking Man
Ever feel small? - Robert A. Heinlein, Double Star
Are politicians ever really themselves? - Alfred Bester, The Stars My Destination
What is the price of revenge? - James Blish, A Case of Conscience
What in God’s name are we to do with aliens? - Algis Budrys, Who?
Can you trust? - Fritz Leiber, The Big Time
Is the past ever really past?
This is a MUST have for all science fiction fans!
Paprika
by Yasutaka Tsutsui
Promo copy:
Widely acknowledged as Yasutaka Tsutsui’s masterpiece, Paprika unites his surreal, quirky imagination with a compelling, haunting narrative. When prototype models of a device for entering into patients’ dreams go missing at the Institute for PsychiatricResearch, it transpires that someone is using them to manipulate people’s dreams and drive them insane. Threatened both personally and professionally, brilliant psychotherapist Atsuko Chiba has to journey into the world of fantasy to fight her mysteriousopponents. As she delves ever deeper into the imagination, the borderline between dream and reality becomes increasingly blurred, and nightmares begin to leak into the everyday realm. The scene is set for a final showdown between the dream detective and her enemies, with the subconscious as their battleground, and the future of the waking world at stake.
Pathfinder Tales: Queen of Thorns
by Dave Gross
Cover by Mathias Kollros
Promo copy:
In the deep forests of Kyonin, elves live secretively among their own kind, far from the prying eyes of other races. Few of impure blood are allowed beyond the nation’s borders, and thus it’s a great honor for the half-elven Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan to be allowed inside. Yet all is not well in the elven kingdom: demons stir in its depths, and an intricate web of politics seems destined to catch the two travelers in its snares. In the course of tracking down a missing druid, Varian and a team of eccentric elven adventurers will be forced to delve into dark secrets lost for generations – including the mystery of Varian’s own past!