Jun 8
H.R. Van Dongen (1920-2010) "Iceworld" by Hal Clement, Astounding Science Fiction cover (1951) Source
Interior illustration by same artist
seen from Germany
seen from Italy
seen from Russia
seen from United Kingdom
seen from Italy
seen from Türkiye
seen from Italy
seen from Germany
seen from Malaysia
seen from Türkiye
seen from Türkiye
seen from United Kingdom
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from Poland
seen from Türkiye
seen from South Africa
seen from Italy
H.R. Van Dongen (1920-2010) "Iceworld" by Hal Clement, Astounding Science Fiction cover (1951) Source
Interior illustration by same artist
The Christmas season (really, the whole stretch from November to the beginning of April) is always rough on my depression, but at least today I got another pile of used sci-fi paperbacks in the mail to add to my growing hoard.
These I got because I enjoyed A Plague of Demons so I wanted to check out more of Laumer's work...but mainly because of the Wayne Barlowe covers. (I've also ordered a Barlowe cover copy of Plague, but it hasn't arrived yet.)
I've been meaning to check out the Lensman series for like ever. I went for this set because it had the coolest covers, and won it in a grueling auction. (I think there was only one other bidder. I ended up paying like fifteen bucks.)
Mesklin is a really cool worldbuilding concept, so I got some Hal Clement. This set actually had two different editions of Ocean on Top, so I will be donating the one with the lamer cover to my grandmother's used book store. (I've ended up with a lot of duplicate copies of books to donate, actually...)
I'd never heard of Elizabeth Moon and got these totally on a whim, and now I've gotta get Sporting Chance and Once a Hero to have the complete Familias Regnant series.
I feel like I should probably lay off these purchases for a while after this; they always seem to arrive in huge batches and I'm sure my mail lady is getting sick of having to deal with all those boxes. (I didn't even post the thirty-two other books that came the other day.)
Vibrations suggestive of a very rough skin scraping along the metal were coming to him, and abruptly something living ran into the extended limb. It demonstrated its sentient quality by promptly seizing the appendage in a mouth that seemed amazingly well furnished with saw-edged teeth.
Needle - Hal Clement
Mesklin from Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity.
Mesklin is 16 times the mass of Jupiter, made of ice and rock, with 8atm of methane, and a rotational period of about 17 minutes. Its surface gravity varies over its surface due to centrifugal forces, from 700G at the poles to 3G at the equator.
PAPERBACKS FOR TODAY # 12 : wanderers and busy-bodies all the way down in new cornucopolis
You know chocolate is pretty good when you least suspect it. Anyway…
Those in question…
Artificial Things by Karen Joy Fowler, Bantam 1986, art by Tito Salomoni
The Feast of St. Dionysus by Robert Silverberg, Berkley 1979
Change the Sky and Other Stories by Margaret St. Clair, Ace 1974
The Best of Hal Clement, ed. Lester del Rey, Del Rey 1979, art by H.R. Van Dongen
And for a(nother) fun bonus:
Divide and Rule by L. Sprague de Camp / The Sword of Rhiannon by Leigh Brackett : Tor SF Double No. 17, Tor 1990, art by A.C. Farley (D&R) & N. Taylor Blanchard (SOR)
Jim Steranko, cover art for "Iceworld" by Hal Clement, 1973
Hal Clement - Mission of Gravity (Foreign Science Fiction series, USSR, 1991)
artist: Kira Soshinskaya
NEEDLE [aka FROM OUTER SPACE] by Hal Clement. (New York: Doubleday, 1950) Cover by Hector Garrido.
The book broke new ground in the science fiction field by postulating an alien lifeform, not hostile, which could live within the human body. A similar plotline was used in the film The Hidden.
Astounding Science Fiction, May 1949. Edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. Cover art by Paul Orban.
NEEDLE by Hal Clement. Illustrated by Paul Orban [Part 1 of 2; Robert Kinnaird]
“Prophecy” by Poul Anderson. Illustrated by Orban
“Mother Earth” by Isaac Asimov. Illustrated by Orban
“Lost Ulysses” by William L. Bade. Illustrated by Brush [Advent]
“The Conroy Diary” by René Lafayette [aka L. Ron Hubbard]. Illustrated by Brush.
FROM OUTER SPACE (New York: Avon, 1957) Cover by Richard Powers. // (London: Corgi, 1963) // (New York: Avon 1967) Cover by Hector Garrido.
(New York: Avon, 1967) Cover by Frank Kelly Freas // (New York: Avon Rediscovery, 1976) Cover by Michael Pressley.
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