GMRC Review: Hrolf Kraki’s Saga by Poul Anderson
Rhonda Knight is a frequent contributor to WWEnd through her many reviews and her excellent blog series Automata 101 and Outside the Norm. This is Rhonda’s seventh featured review for the Grand Master...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Divide and Rule by L. Sprague de Camp
Chris Uhl (chuhl) can’t remember a time when he wasn’t a science fiction fan. He has a B.A. in Classics from Vassar College and an M.A. in English Literature from the University of Virginia. He has...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
Guest Blogger and WWEnd Member, Charles Dee Mitchell, has contributed a great many book reviews to WWEnd including his blog series Philip K. Dickathon and The Horror! The Horror! He can also be found...
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: July Review Poll
July was a banner month for the GMRC and for Arthur C. Clarke who has 3 different titles in the most frequently read stats! We featured 9 reviews in the blog, with another first time reviewer in the...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
When a ten trillion ton asteroid wanders into the solar system, you take a second look. And when that asteroid turns out to be massive alien spacecraft, you really start to pay attention. This is...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge July Review Poll Winner: Emil Jung
The July GMRC Review Poll is now closed and the winner, for the second straight month, is Emil Jung (Emil) for his review of Hothouse by Brian Aldiss. This is Emil’s third GMRC win. Well done, Sir!...
View ArticleGMRC Review: White Mars by Brian Aldiss
While rereading Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy, books I consider to be among the very best in science fiction, I came across various references to White Mars Or, The Mind Set Free by Brian W....
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Languages of Pao by Jack Vance
First, a confession. I have not before this book read any of Jack Vance's novels. Even so I'm well aware of the fact that he has long been regarded as a very accomplished creator of planetary romances...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
My Junior high school library had a copy of Starship Troopers on the shelf. I never read it. I had read some of the Robert Heinlein juveniles, and I think I assumed Troopers was another. I had also...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Suldrun’s Garden by Jack Vance
Suldrun’s Garden is a meandering tale, though the plotlines of the main characters do connect neatly in the climax and conclusion. The novel jumps from character to character, showing many kinds of...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Gods Themselves by Isaac Asimov
Separated into three different but parallel stories, The Gods Themselves begins when scientists have discovered a way to exchange energy with another universe, the para-universe. Things get dicey when...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Man Plus by Frederik Pohl
In the not-too-distant future, a desperate war for natural resources threatens to bring civilization to a crashing halt. Nuclear warships from around the globe begin positioning themselves as the...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Legion of Space by Jack Williamson
I'm a big fan of space opera, but I've never read E. E. "Doc" Smith or Jack Williamson because I've always heard that, although their importance in the genre's history is undeniable, their prose style...
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: August Review Poll
Here, at last, is the GMRC review poll for August! (Worldcon has thrown a monkey wrentch into just about everything here on WWEnd so we’re a bit behind on the GMRC and all over the site for that...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Dragonsdawn by Anne McCaffrey
As I've noted before, the Damon Knight memorial Grand Master Award is seriously short on female authors. Only four out of the twenty-eight winners are women. Since one of my objectives for this year is...
View ArticleGMRC Review: A for Anything by Damon Knight
Since January, I have read a novel a month by one of the winners of the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Award, given by the Science Fiction Writers of America. I thought I was about time to read a...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge August Review Winner: Allie McCarn
The August GMRC Review Poll is now closed and the winner is Allie McCarn (Allie) for her review of Man Plus by Frederik Pohl. Allie won the April contest for To Your Scattered Bodies Go by Philip José...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Ring Around the Sun by Clifford D. Simak
Clifford D. Simak’s stories embody contradictions. Like Ray Bradbury, his writing looks back longingly to an idyllic rural Midwestern childhood. As John Clute and David Pringle put it in The...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Stepsons of Terra by Robert Silverberg
Stepsons of Terra is the story of Baird Ewing, a man on a mission to save his planet. His homeworld, a distant colony of Earth, lies in the path of implacable alien invaders. He travels to Earth, the...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Computer Connection by Alfred Bester
The Computer Connection is recognizably Alfred Bester's style, but I don't think it's one of his best books. His skill with language and his unstoppable energy shines through the pages, but the story...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Tau Zero by Poul Anderson
Tau Zero has been hailed as the quintessential hard SF novel, and it's a well-deserved accolade. It shares some of the weaknesses of the genre, sure; but in its strengths it shines as an exceptional...
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: September Review Poll
We featured 7 GMRC reviews in the blog for September and it’s time to cast your vote for the best. You don’t have to be a GMRC participant to vote and the poll will remain open until October 15th so...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge September Review Winner: Daniel Roy
The September GMRC Review Poll closed a few days ago and the winner is Daniel Roy (triseult) for his review of Poul Anderson’s Tau Zero. Well done, Sir! Daniel will receive a T-shirt, a GMRC button and...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
I once heard that all fantasy writers have a bad Lord of the Rings novel in them. It’s something they have to grapple with as writers; they have to deal with this mountain in the landscape of modern...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Sargasso of Space by Andre Norton
"WORLDS FOR SALE! That was the startling cry that electrified Dane Thorson of the space-trader Solar Queen. It was his first trip and the cosmic auction was taking place at an isolated port of call,...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Terraforming Earth by Jack Williamson
"There is a chance, however remote, that an asteroid might collide catastrophically with the Earth and destroy humanity. With that in mind, Calvin DeFort planned a moon base to preserve the genetic...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Mission of Gravity by Hal Clement
Hal Clement's Mission of Gravity (1954) is a love letter to science. Serialized in Astounding in 1953, it's often pointed to as a prototypical "hard" science fiction novel of the ‘50s, with the story...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Star Born by Andre Norton
Star Born packs quite a lot of storytelling punch in its brief 187 pages. Andre Norton’s 1957 story examines such issues as slavery, racial prejudice, apocalyptic warfare and governmental oppression...
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: October Review Poll
We featured 5 GMRC reviews in the blog for October and it’s time to cast your vote for the best. You don’t have to be a GMRC participant to vote and the poll will remain open until November 15th so you...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Day After Tomorrow by Robert A. Heinlein
6 Men–against 400,000,000 So the dramatic language of the back cover states, a battle against impossible odds, “the adventures of a handful of soldiers of the future, fighting to save America from a...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Listeners by James E. Gunn
I haven't been very adventurous in my reading for the Damon Knight Grand Master reading challenge. Seven of the ten books I've read so far have been by authors I have read other works of, while two...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge October Review Winner: Glenn Hough
The October GMRC Review Poll is now closed and our winner is Glenn Hough (galleyangel) for his review of Joe Haldeman’s The Accidental Time Machine. Congrats to Glenn! In case you missed it, Glenn...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
Let's just get this out of the way right now. (And if you don't know, this was the novel which was the basis for the 70s era classic SF movie Soylent Green.) It's not people! Soylent is not people in...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Ensign Flandry by Poul Anderson
Poul Anderson is one of the authors I chose earlier this year as part of the Grand Master Reading Challenge hosted by Worlds Without End. Anderson was a prolific author whose career spanned many...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Calling this book "perfect" would do it an injustice. Its brilliance is not so much in meeting SF standards, but in exceeding them and leaving them far behind. The Dispossessed is a complex novel. It's...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Big Time by Fritz Leiber
This is my second-to-last novel for WWEnd's 2012 Grand Master Reading Challenge. Fritz Leiber was an author with a wide-ranging imagination, who applied his skill to many kinds of speculative fiction....
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: November Review Poll
This is the penultimate GMRC review poll! For November we featured 6 GMRC reviews in the blog and it’s time again to cast your vote for the best. Remember, you don’t have to be a GMRC participant to...
View Article2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master Awarded to Gene Wolfe
In news that will surprise absolutely no one on the planet, the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America have named the legendary Gene Wolfe as their 2012 Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master....
View ArticleGMRC Review: The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov
When I started reading science fiction, Heinlein, Asimov, and Clarke were the "big three" SF writers—already thought of as the authors of classics while they were still alive and writing. Of the three,...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge November Review Poll Winner: Daniel Roy
The November GMRC Review Poll is over and our winner is Daniel Roy (triseult) for his review of Ursula K. Le Guin’s classic The Dispossessed. Congrats to Daniel for his second win – the first was for...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Genesis by Poul Anderson
This is my final novel for WWEnd's Grand Master Reading Challenge, and my first experience of Anderson's writing. Poul Anderson was a highly prolific and celebrated author, whose work spanned from the...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Last month I ran a poll to help me decide which book should be reviewed work number 300 on Random Comments and tied it to the Grand Master Reading Challenge for which I still have to read a couple of...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
Time travel happens. And if you're an excitable undergad historian that means you can have the chance to visit your very favorite times throughout history. For Kivrin Engle, that means the Oxford of...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Listeners by James E. Gunn
Guest Blogger and WWEnd Member, Charles Dee Mitchell, has contributed a great many book reviews to WWEnd including his blog series Philip K. Dickathon and The Horror! The Horror! He can also be found...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman
Great SF stories stand the test of time by transcending the period from whence they emerged. The Forever War, oddly enough, is timeless precisely because it is firmly rooted in a key period of world...
View ArticleGMRC Review: The Best of Frederik Pohl Edited by Lester Del Rey
The Best of Frederik Pohl, edited by Lester Del Rey, collects nineteen stories written during the first half century of Pohl's life.
View ArticleGMRC Review: Always Coming Home by Ursula K. Le Guin
To borrow from the title of one of the first sections of Always Coming Home, this book is an "archaeology of the future." I purposely use the term book rather than novel, since the structure of Ursula...
View ArticleGMRC Review: Approaching Oblivion by Harlan Ellison
This was my first and is likely to be my only encounter with the writing of Harlan Ellison. It's not as though I didn't know what I was letting myself in for. Ellison's reputation as an old crank,...
View ArticleWWEnd Grand Master Reading Challenge: December Review Poll
Well, would you believe it? The Grand Master Reading Challenge has finally come to a close and this is the very last GMRC review poll! For December we featured 9 GMRC reviews in the blog and it’s time...
View ArticleGrand Master Reading Challenge December Poll Results and Final Wrap Up
The December GMRC Review Poll is over and our winner is Scott Lazerus (Scott Laz) who actually tied himself in the voting for the 2 reviews he submitted: The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov and Always...
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