Updates: Recent Science Fiction Purchases No. CCCXXXIX (Frank Herbert, Alan E. Nourse, Ann Maxwell, Craig Harrison)

Which books/covers/authors in the post intrigue you? Which have you read? Disliked? Enjoyed?

1. Frank Herbert’s Destination: Void (1966, rev. 1978)

From the back cover: “DESTINATION: VOID

THE COMPLETELY REVISED AUTHOR’S EDITION OF THE CLASSIC DEEP-SPACE ADVENTURE!

‘When the publishers announced that they were going to bring out a new edition of DESTINATION: VOID, they offered me the opportunity to make any changes I felt were necessary. Because of the tightly interwoven scientific premises behind this story and rapid development in the fields related to these premises, it would be extraordinary if discoveries across thirteen years did not dictate certain revisions.

You will find, therefore, that this newly-published version of DESTINATION: VOID contains significant additions, rewritten portions, changes in character development and certain deletions.’ — Frank Herbert.”

Initial Thoughts: I read and enjoyed Destination: Void in my late teens. However, apparently my copy has gone missing. Impulsively a few years ago, I purchased the 1970 edition not realizing the novel’s publication history: Herbert revised the 1978 edition as he describes in the blurb. As I read the post-1978 edition as a kid, I thought I’d make sure to have both. I am not always a fan of authors updating their novels decades later. Two examples come to mind, Michael Bishop’ and his’s brilliant A Funeral for the Eyes of Fire (1975) and John Shirley’s Eclipse trilogy (1985-1990) come to mind. Not sure which Herbert edition I should reread when the whim strikes!

2. Alan E. Nourse’s Psi High and Others (1967)

From the back cover: “In PSI HIGH AND OTHERS, Nourse once again demonstrates his superb imagination in a trilogy of stories about a series of tests which Earthmen undergo while being observed by the Watchers, representatives of a Galactic Federation.

In THE MARTYR, Noruse examines the desirability of prolonging the lives of individuals who have positions of leadership and responsibility in a society.

PSI HIGH, set in the year 2177, dramatizes the plight of people who are ‘different,’ in this case, those who possess extrasensory perception

MIRROR, MIRROR, the last story, pits Earthmen in a psychological war against aliens…”

Contents: “Prologue” (1967), “The Martyr” (1957), “Psi High” (1967), “Mirror, Mirror” (1967), “Epilogue” (1967).

Initial Thoughts: I’ve only read Nourse’s average medical thriller The Mercy Men (variant title: The Man Obsessed) (1955). I look forward to trying some of his short fiction (in this instance, in fix-up novel form).

3. Ann Maxwell’s The Singer Enigma (1976)

From the back cover: “Deadly Desire. Her name was Lyra. She was beautiful, unimaginably beautiful. She was dangerous, unspeakably dangerous. At her touch, Tarhn felt himself becoming the perfect man he had always dream of being. At the sound of her voice, Tarhn heard a message of doom for himself and all mankind.

He passionately loved this creature from the bottom of his heart. He viciously hated her from the darkest depths of his soul.

For Lyra was a Singer–a member of the outcast race that alone held for good of evil the elusive answer to — THE SINGER ENIGMA.”

Initial Thoughts: Ann Maxwell published nine SF novels (and zero short stories) between 1975-1986. I have yet to read any of them. I’d previously acquired Fire Dancer (1982) back in 2021.

4. Craig Harrison’s Broken October: New Zealand, 1985 (1976)

From the inside flap: “October 1985

Who would have thought that aging, yellowing document could still be so potent?

But when Māori guerillas steal the Treaty of Waitangi, it lifts the lid off an explosive racial situation.

A weak Prime Minister resigns, and his power-hungry successor can’t cope with the internal and international problems which rapidly follow. Industrial unrest flares overnight into violent racial conflict. New Zealand splits into two colours. And then the dominoes begin to fall..

In one sense this novel is a straightforward narrative of violent revolt and savage repression–a 20th century Māori Land War fought with all the weaponry and psychological techniques so grimly familiar in the 1970s. fantastic? Or eerily credible…

At a deeper and even more disturbing level this credibility reminds us that only a thin line separates a smugly-cosy democracy from ruthless dictatorship and blood anarchy.”

Initial Thoughts: Craig Harrison (1942-), in New Zealand after 1966, wrote a handful of SF novels that, according to SF Encyclopedia, embody “anti-racist themes. Harrison is best known for his novel The Quiet Earth (1981), adapted as a rare New Zealand science fiction film in 1985. I decided to acquire Broken October (1976), Harrison’s first SF novel, as it’s a sympathetic look at the plight of Māori in a near future dystopia. I know little else about it. Not the easiest book to find!

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