Aaron's Book of the Week: False Night by Algis Budrys

Continuing our tribute to Algis Budrys (1931-2008), the Book of the Week is his first novel, False Night, published by Lion Books in 1954. Like all of Budrys's early books, False Night was a paperback original. Because Lion Books was a small publisher (whom BOTW devotees may recall for its early edition of Frankenstein ), this edition has become hard to find. Even harder to find, however, is the revised edition published under the title Some Will Not Die, next week's Book of the Week.

False Night / Some Will Not Die is a post-apocalyptic tale set after most of America's population has been wiped out by a plague. In its bleak and gritty approach to this subject matter, the novel prefigured Cormac McCarthy's recent Pulitzer Prize winner The Road, published over 50 years later. Of course, False Night is science fiction and The Road is not, for reasons that will make sense to you if you squint really hard and slap yourself sharply across the face three times.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Against the Fall of Night by Arthur C. Clarke

Science fiction lost a legend last week when Sir Arthur C. Clarke passed away at the age of 90. To begin our tribute, the Book of the Week is the 1954 first paperback printing of Sir Arthur's first book, Against the Fall of Night, cover art by Richard Powers.

Set far in the future on an Earth mired in decay, Against the Fall of Night tells of a young man named Alvin, who sets out to recapture past glories. The novel was first published in shorter form in the pulp magazine Startling Stories in 1948. Even though the book was well received when republished in the early 50's, Sir Arthur was dissatisfied with it, and entirely rewrote it as The City and the Stars, which first appeared in 1956. Such is the power of Clarke's imagination that both versions remained in print for many years.

As discussed in a prior BOTW about Childhood's End Arthur C. Clarke is best remembered outside the science fiction genre as the author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, while his most influential book within the genre was Childhood's End. But perhaps his greatest contribution to humanity was originating the concept of placing communications satellites in geosynchronous orbits -- to this day often called "Clarke orbits" in his honor.

An underappreciated aspect of Clarke's career is his outstanding short fiction. You will see the first appearance of my personal favorite Arthur C. Clarke short story next week.

Aaron's Book of The Week :: I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

The Book of the Week is the first printing, paperback original edition of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, printed in July 1954 by Gold Medal Books, cover art by Stan Meltzoff.

This was a highly collectible vintage paperback even before the success of the recent Will Smith movie. That film was the third film adaptation of I Am Legend. Will Smith's role of Robert Neville, the last man on earth, was previously played by Vincent Price in The Last Man on Earth (1964) and by Charlton Heston in The Omega Man (1971). I'd say the recent film was the best of the three versions -- although many viewers fondly remember The Omega Man, it has not aged terribly well.

Richard Matheson has generally fared much better in Hollywood than most science fiction and fantasy writers. Even if you don't recognize his name, you would recognize some of his creations that have appeared on the screen: that creature staring at William Shatner / John Lithgow through the window of an airplane (The Twilight Zone); the vicious little doll attacking Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror); the creepy ghost girl appearing to Kevin Bacon (Stir of Echoes); the possessed cat in The Legend of Hell House; the faceless truck driver menacing Dennis Weaver (Duel, Steven Spielberg's first film); reporter Darren McGavin taking on vampires and succubi to get the story (Kolchak: The Night Stalker); Christopher Reeve willing himself through time to meet Jane Seymour (Somewhere in Time); Robin Williams traveling into the underworld to save his wife's soul (What Dreams May Come); Barbara Eden realizing that her unborn child is controlling her actions (The Stranger Within), and many more.

Next week's BOTW will be another early Richard Matheson novel, his very first book to be adapted to film.

Aaron's Book of the Week :: Untouched by Human Hands by Robert Sheckley

The Book of the Week is Untouched by Human Hands by noted science fiction author Robert Sheckley, who passed away on Friday.

Robert Sheckley was an important contributor to the science fiction field in the 1950s and 60s, and continued to write sporadically and to interact with fans until his death. He was one of the earliest science fiction and fantasy writers to make humor an important part of nearly all his work, and he is said to have been a major influence on Douglas Adams, creator of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Sheckley was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001. Untouched by Human Hands, a collection of short stories, was Sheckley's first book. My copy is the first printing, paperback original (cover art by Jack Coggins), published in 1954.

Incidentally, "paperback original" (or "PBO") means that there was no prior hardcover edition. From the 1950s through the 70s, most science fiction books went straight to paperback without any hardcover edition (and many still do to this day), which is why any science fiction collector must necessarily also be a collector of vintage paperbacks - speaking of which, we will still get to Pocket Book #1 eventually.