Brittle Innings

The acclaimed author of No Enemy But Time combines humor, tragedy, and suspense to tell a uniqely American story reminiscent of the film Field of Dreams. When 17-year-old Danny Boles joins a Class C farm club in Georgia, he forms some unusual friendships--but his mind is on making it to the big leagues.

Acclaimed author and scholar Brian Stableford turns his penetrating mind to matters of science fiction, fantasy, and horror in this collection of essays. He covers such diverse topics as: SLAVES OF THE DEATH SPIDERS: Colin Wilson and Existentialist Science Fiction IS THERE NO BALM IN GILEAD?: The Woeful Prophecies of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale A FEW MORE CROCODILE TEARS?: Gwyneth Jones THE ADVENTURES OF LORD HORROR: Across the Media Landscape FILLING IN THE MIDDLE: Robert Silverberg's The Queen of Springtime RICE'S RELAPSE: Memnoch the Devil FIELD OF BROKEN DREAMS: Michael Bishop's Brittle Innings THE MAGIC OF THE MOVIES H. G. WELLS AND THE DISCOVERY OF THE FUTURE THE MANY RETURNS OF DRACULA TARZAN'S DIVIDED SELF SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: Jacques Cazotte's The Devil in Love THE TWO THOUSAND YEAR QUEST: George Viereck's Erotic Odyssey THE PROFESSION OF SCIENCE FICTION

This new collection of critical essays on science fiction and fantasy literature and media features the following pieces: "Slaves of the Death Spiders: Colin Wilson and Existential Science Fiction," "Is There No Balm in Gilead? The Woeful Prophecies of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale," "A Few More Crocodile Tears?" "The Adventures of Lord Horror Across the Media Landscape," "Filling in the Middle: Robert Silverberg's The Queen of Springtime," "Rice's Relapse: Memnoch the Devil," "Field of Broken Dreams: Michael Bishop's Brittle Innings," "The Magic of the Movies," "H. G. Wells and the Discovery of the Future," "The Many Returns of Dracula," "Tarzan's Divided Self," "Sympathy for the Devil: Jacques Cazotte's The Devil in Love," "The Two Thousand Year Odyssey: George Viereck's Erotic Odyssey," and "The Profession of Science Fiction" (an autobiography). Brian Stableford is the bestselling writer of 50 books and hundreds of essays, including science fiction, fantasy, literary criticism, and popular nonfiction. He lives and works in Reading, England. ISBN 0-8095-0910-5 (cloth) ISBN 0-8095-1910-0 (paper)

For more than 50 years John Clute has been reviewing science fiction and fantasy. As Scores demonstrates, his devotion to the task of understanding the central literatures of our era has not slackened. There are jokes in Scores, and curses, and tirades, and apologies, and riffs; but every word of every review, in the end, is about how we understand the stories we tell about the world. Following on from his two previous books of collected reviews (Strokes and Look at the Evidence) this book collects reviews from a wide variety of sources, but mostly from Interzone, the New York Review of Science Fiction, and Science Fiction Weekly. Where it has seemed possible to do so without distorting contemporary responses to books, these reviews have been revised, sometimes extensively. 125 review articles, over 200 books reviewed in more than 214,000 words.

Highlighting this collection is an ingenious new episode in the saga of Jimmy Blackburn, the eponymous serial killer of Denton's third novel. "Blackburn Bakes Cookies" might best be called the icing on the cake that is Blackburn's story, and it is appropriately delectable. Other highlights of this collection include: "The Territory," a "what if?" story revisiting Kansas in the days of the Civil War and imagining, in one small way, how things might have gone a bit differently; "We Love Lydia Love," a science-fictional examination of the ways in which modern obsessions with celebrity and stardom can change us...and the ways in which we'll never change; and "The Calvin Coolidge Home for Dead Comedians," a moving and funny trip to the afterlife, where all great comics go when they die. In assembling these stories, Bradley Denton discovered that all of them are concerned with some aspect of death. It's true. And yet (as they say), in death there is life: these eight tales brim with such vitality and joie de vivre that readers will find themselves enjoying the work of this fantastic storyteller again and again.

First published in 2003. Brooks Landon analyses science fiction not as a set of rules for writers, but as a set of expectations for readers. He presents science fiction as a social phenomenon that moves beyond literary experience through a sense of mission based on the belief that SF can be a tool to help you think. He offers a broad overview of the genre and the stages through which it has developed in the twentieth century from the dime store novel through the New Wave of the '60s, the cyberpunk '80s, and soft agenda SF of the '90s. The writers he examines range for E. M. Forster and John W. Campbell to Philip K. Dick and Ursula K. Le Guin. He also examines the large body of criticism now devoted to the genre and includes a bibliographic essay and a list of recommended titles.

This reader’s guide provides uniquely organized and up-to-date information on the most important and enjoyable contemporary English-language novels. Offering critically substantiated reading recommendations, careful cross-referencing, and extensive indexing, this book is appropriate for both the weekend reader looking for the best new mystery and the full-time graduate student hoping to survey the latest in magical realism. More than 1,000 titles are included, each entry citing major reviews and giving a brief description for each book.

Propounding his "small ball theory" of sports literature, George Plimpton proposed that "the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature." Of course he had the relatively small baseball in mind, because its literature is formidable--vast and varied, instructive, often wildly entertaining, and occasionally brilliant. From this bewildering array of baseball books, Ron Kaplan has chosen 501 of the best, making it easier for fans to find just the books to suit them (or to know what they're missing). From biography, history, fiction, and instruction to books about ballparks, business, and rules, anyone who loves to read about baseball will find in this book a companionable guide, far more fun than a reference work has any right to be.

The year's darkest tales of terror Here is the latest edition of the world's premier annual showcase of horror and dark fantasy fiction. It features some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's masters of the macabre - including Neil Gaiman, Brian Keene, Elizabeth Massie, Glen Hirshberg, Peter Atkins and Tanith Lee. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror also features the most comprehensive yearly overview of horror around the world, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology. It is the one book that is required reading for every fan of macabre fiction.