DAW - No 4 - The 1972 Annual World's Best SF

 

This book encapsulates what I loved about DAW books when I was just starting to read SciFi. Different writers telling their own stories in their own style. In this case 14 different stories in the single collection by 14 different writers. Some of whom I've heard of and some I haven't. 

It may have been a book like this that first introduced me to one of my favourite authors, Larry Niven.

Some very interesting ideas amongst these stories but the idea that remained with me after finishing it was that of technology out of time. Now we're all used to having it be portrayed as magic to more primitive cultures but the idea that a primitive technology could actually be of benefit to someone living in more advanced times is a good one.

Imagine a cave man, protecting his village, throwing a spear at a more advanced invader who has a force field that deflects particle beam weapons. The far superior spaceman wouldn't actually have a chance as the spear passes through his shield, his space suit and his body.

Daw - No. 4 - The Book of Van Vogt

I've had a hectic few months with family, work and comic things all going on.

This has reduced the amount of time I've had to spend chilling out with an old Sci Fi book.

The latest Daw Book is a collection of tales from A E Van Vogt, one of my childhood favourites. I remember really enjoying Slan, Voyage of the Space Beagle and The World of Null-A to name but a few.

This volume has a real mix of subject matter, from time travel twister, through Intergalactic Empire conquest to a brain in a jar.

I enjoyed them and the message behind the ones that had a message to deliver (or the message I took from them as I'm not entirely sure it was the one intended).

It all felt a bit dated but was easy to read and enjoyably readable throughout.

DAW - No 3 - The Probability Man

 

I found this book tough to get into.

The plot is quite a challenging one, where effectively actors appear to be sent to worlds to recreate historical and fictional dramas as a means to give the populace something else to think about rather than how bad their lives were. This predates streaming services and I doubt it would be written in today's world. Back in the 1970s though there were only a few channels and programmes ended at midnight and started again around 8am, so I guess with that context this plot makes some kind of sense.

I didn't really connect with the lead character, Spingarn, which resulted in my not really connecting with the book.

Not sure what else Brian N Ball has written but I think there's where he failed here.

DAW - No 2 - The Mind Behind The Eye

This has got to be one of the strangest Science Fiction books that I've ever read.

The Earth is being invaded by giant beings from a distant planet. During hostilities one of these giants is brought down and killed. Kept in a very large refrigerator the alien is then converted into a vehicle for a couple of very clever and gifted scientists to take the fight back to the alien home world.

Yep. the scientists sit in the creature's head and drive its body, operate its speech and effectively try to come across as one of them. 

Oh, they have to learn the language too.

I've read a fair number of books in my time and thought, 'Yes, I could have come up with something a bit like that, just not as well written.' This is not one of those books. I wouldn't have come up with this in a million years. 

I'll look out for any other books by Joseph Green in the DAW back catalogue. I'm not sure how he could follow this one tough.

DAW - No 1 - Spell of Witch World

 

Although this is the first book published by DAW it is actually the Seventh book in Andre Norton's Witch World saga. As someone who has not read the others the result was that I think I lost a lot of context and certainly a lot of the history.

Centred on twins, warrior brother and witch sister the story ambles along nicely but the problem I found is that since reading books like this I've read books by the likes of Steven Erikson and Joe Abercombie and I'm afraid this felt very light weight in comparison. The central characters were never as fleshed out or engaging as books written today, I guess there was more novelty in fantasy stories and the book gathered fans based on the story and concepts rather then the writing style or characterisation.

All in all, it was readable and moved along nicely. It didn't however make me want to track down the other six and immerse myself in more of Andre Norton's stories.

DAW books

When I was growing up I started my reading of fantasy with R E Howard's Conan books and science fiction books by A E Van Vogt and Isaac Asimov.

I still remember picking up my first R E Howard Conan book, the Sphere edition of Conan, when I was 10 years old at a charity event run for the local children's hospital (which was to take out my appendix a few years later)

I think my original version was black surround 

but picked this up recently.

Every now and then over the coming years I would pick up a book by the DAW publisher.

It allowed me to sample the works of new writers and I loved the yellow spine which made them all look so neat on my shelf.

A few years ago I started coming across DAW books in Charity shops and decided to pick them up with a view to re-reading, or reading them for the first time.

A year or so later it became more about the collecting than the reading but I am working my way, slowly, through them.