Hobbit

You may have realised that I like old cover art.

If so, you might like this website I found today: SKIFFY (or perhaps it is SKI-FFY.)

Not so sure about all the writing in CAPITAL LETTERS - some may find reading that quite difficult! - but the art is is wonderful, or just odd.

Today's favourite:


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Sad to read this today. Patricia is in what is one of my favourite films of all time, The Day the Earth Stood Still. (that's the 1950's version, not the Keanu Reeves awful version!)

From Digital Spy:

Actress Patricia Neal has passed away aged 84 after losing her battle with lung cancer.

The Oscar winner died at her home in Edgartown on Sunday. Her death was confirmed by friend Edward S. Albers.

Neal won an Academy Award in 1963 for her

...

New month.....

Here's another of those space ship covers I love, this one from 70 years ago this month.

Astounding, August 1940:




Love those colours and the epic scale of the thing.

Seems apt as I've just finished Connie Willis's latest, Blackout, set around the time that that issue was on sale in America.

FINALLY got to the point where I can sit with a pile of books for the next few weeks.

Had a think: tried to suggest what readers might like over the Summer (or Winter if you are below the Equator!)

Here's what I wrote for the website:


Or: ‘I know what you should be reading this summer.....’!

OK: it’s summer here at Hobbit Towers. (Apologies to our Southern Hemisphere readers!)

One of the questions I get asked a ...

For those who haven't seen the new mega-art book from Centipede Press by Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King, here's a great slide show.

Looks lovely but well out of my price range: $5500 spare, anyone?

Thank you Michael for putting that up.

At last we may be seeing a little sunshine outside Hobbit Towers. Which means being able to sit outside with a good book and a cold drink...

Finished the SFFWorld review of Kraken. Currently reading Mark Chadbourn's Sword of Albion (known as The Silver Skull in the US) which I'm really enjoying. Mark's a lovely man, met him a couple of times and one who doesn't live that far away from Hobbit-ville.

OK: back to reading....

Mark

The latest arrivals of my Heinlein Virginia Editions this week have reminded me that it is 22 years ago today that Robert A Heinlein passed away.

Though I did not like everything of his I read and was/am uncomfortable with some of his opinions, these were formative SF books for me.

It is lovely having some of my favourites arrive in quality editions. This batch included:

# The Future History of Robert Heinlein, Volume 1
# The Future History of ...

And as I'm reading Kraken at the moment, something about China's win of a record-making third Arthur C Clarke award: HERE.

The only worrying thing there is that the article was embargoed until 9pm this evening. Hope that isn't the sign of a well-liked author disappearing into celebrity diva-ville.

Having fun connecting blog to Twitter....

So: just checking this works....

From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1950.



Still on that Bonestellian vibe!

Locus News (again!) has announced the death of editor George Scithers, aged 80, who died April 19, 2010 after suffering a massive heart attack on April 17.

Again, this is a name I've been picking up lately as one of the founders of Issac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine (now often simply called Asimov's.)




The SF world will be much poorer without ...

Got a copy of the Everyman Library Stories of Ray Bradbury arrive today.

It is a monster: 1200+ pages. But it's a nice holdable size, and it is hardback.

The basic content is no different to the old edition, though the Introduction is different. (I do prefer the Bradbury version in Bradbury Stories:100 Best, though.)

Despite the overheated introduction by Christopher Buckley (though there are good points!), it is basically 100 - yes, 100! - of Bradbury's ...

Locus News has reported the death of artist John Schoenherr on the 8th April.

Which is bizarre, as I've been looking at his magazine covers the last few weeks in my magazine trawl. Coincidence or what?

*Sigh* Too many of these seem to be happening at the moment.

RIP John. Here's a couple that I've been looking at, just to illustrate the world of the 20th
century SF fan:


...

I was surprised to be reminded that it is this week (on the 14th April) that the comic Eagle was born in 1950.

60 years old! (Older than me, anyway. )

But I do have some of the (now very expensive) Hawk Books collections which were the Dan Dare stories from issue one. Fabulous stuff.

Here's the marvellous front cover:


And thanks ...

Still trawling through the back catalogue.

Today's picture I have most enjoyed is:



Ah, that Bonstellian optimism! From The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February 1956.

(and look at the names on that cover: Blish, Damon Knight, Frederik Pohl, CS Lewis!)