Well, last night I restarted reading Dumarest 16: Haven of Darkness. I started it last year and got sidetracked, and now I’m coming back to it.
The Dumarest of Terra saga is what I’d call “pulp adventure science fiction.” The books are also probably the greatest influence on the Traveller roleplaying game. Many ideas from the novels made it right into the game.
The novels remind me somewhat of the Doc Savage novels that were my introduction to SF reading when I found Doc Savage #1 on my grandfather’s bookshelf when I was 11 years old. You can pick up any of the novels and have a good read, though they are really meant to be read in order.
I love high-minded/high-concept science fiction, but I also enjoy a good adventure with fun characters and cool ideas. And fighting. The Dumarest novels are old-fashioned. Earl Dumarest is the strong silent type surviving in a hostile galaxy. There aren’t many female characters of any consequence, which is a fault very common in science fiction before maybe 2000. The women characters in the novels who ARE of consequence for the most part are manipulative shrews, which is also a fault. They all fall in love with Earl, and thus far they all die. Loving Earl is not good for one’s life expectancy. Some might argue that the 1990s saw more important female characters in SF novels, and that might be fair. I’m not really sure. But when you go back and read even the masters like Asimov and Silverberg, they too suffer from everything being a sausage party. I’m sure this is probably off-putting to younger readers, which is also fair.
Anyway, I have enjoyed all the novels in the series so far, and will eventually read the whole thing.
I’ve been drawn toward science fiction my whole life. I suppose being a child in the mid–1960s it comes naturally. NASA was preparing for and executing moon missions when I was a kid. Saturday morning was full of science-fiction oriented cartoons. Frankenstein Junior, the Herculoids, Johnny Quest. I remember watching Lost in Space very early in life, and seeing Star Trek during the early 70s in reruns already. Later Saturday mornings would include shows like Space Academy, Land of the Lost, Sealab 2020, and Arc II.
I was all about space ships, robots, and monsters. I suppose I still am.
One of my best SF memories from childhood was going to a birthday slumber party in 2nd grade, and watch SF films until the wee hours as we drank Coca Cola and ate M&Ms until we were all sick. This was the night I first saw the classic War of the Worlds.
As a pre-teen and teen, Sunday afternoon television included Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the Time Tunnel, monster movies, horror, and science fiction. Local TV stations had great libraries of SF films they showed on a regular basis, like the Andromeda Strain, Colossus: the Forbin Project, etc. And of course one local TV station had “Ape Week” at least once a year during which they showed the Planet of the Apes series. In fact, I saw the final film in that series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, at the theater during its original release.
My interest in science fiction was fed by magazines like Starlog and others, through which I learned about classic films and series like the Quatermass films (which I have still not see, but just got on Blu-ray and will be watching soon). I would read about films I was not old enough to see yet, like Aliens.
Well, I’m not going to write a dissertation on my history with SF tonight. This is a warm up post, which will I’m sure lead to some rambling posts over the coming year.
My project for the rest of this week – read number 16 in the Dumarest of Terra saga and have a quality viewing of the first Quatermass film, give it some thought, and read about it from a few sources.
I have found that blogging about topics of interest is a good way for me to stay focussed, so I’m starting this new blog to chronicle a year of science fiction. My goal for the remainder of 2023 is to read 20 science fiction novels, watch/reqatch some classic SF films, read some historical stuff and watch some documentaries on the topic.