Author Archive: Eugene R.
Science fiction, why not?
With our hundreds of years (combined!) of reading science fiction, it is hard to believe that much could have escaped the collective intelligence of the Beamers. Until we came face to face with the history of female authors who labored long and were, in many cases, complete surprises to us. Editor Lisa Yaszek complied 25 …
To everything, turn, turn, turn
In the immediate present, the Beamers tackled the far, far future, looking at the end of human time and the extinction of our Sun. With a particular if peculiar hope. In the dark of winter, what could brighten our days? This time, it was the 2006 Hugo winner, Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson, a novel …
Misfiring Chekhov’s phaser
Bringing the Beamers up to speed on some contemporary fiction, we tackled a newer work by an author not known for her science fiction, Louise Erdrich, who posits that evolution could reverse its course and suddenly leave Earth as a vacant lot waiting to become the Future Home of the Living God. Full of saints …
The angels discover Terry Bisson
Locus Magazine has reported that sf/f author Terry Bisson is dead, a month shy of his 82nd birthday. Mr. Bisson, a versatile writer who made a living with a variety of styles and genres, including a series of children’s books sponsored by NASCAR (as “T. B. Calhoun”), may best be remembered for his pungent sf/f short …
In space, everyone can hear you laugh
For the opening book of 2024, the Beamers opened an oldie but a goodie, The Witches of Karres by James H. Schmitz. For most of us, it was a re-opening of a book that we encountered among our first sf books, one denoted as a classic of the genre. And one still being reprinted 70 …
Once, twice, three times a witch
With the solstice approaching, the Beamers tackled a book about the rediscovery of witchery that built its calendar around the Sun’s quarterly positions. The Once and Future Witches (echoing the Beamers’ own “Once and Future Books” web page) by Alix Harrow is an historical fantasy that introduces several issues of female empowerment via the idea …
Michael L. Bishop is dead, alas
Michael Bishop, winner of 2 Nebula Awards and 4 Locus Awards, succumbed to sarcoma on November 13, one day after his 78th birthday. The author of 18 novels and over 150 shorter pieces, Mr. Bishop was well-loved within the sf/f community and was part of the post-New Wave writers of the 1970s. He was noted …
Getting bogged down in Area X
Never afraid to tackle a tough book or topic, the Beamers launched off into the weird wilderness of Area X, the setting for Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, which starts with the novel, Annihilation. Loosely adapted into a movie, Annihilation has won a Nebula Award for science fiction and a Shirley Jackson Award (2014) for …
Something Great Pumpkin this way comes
Due to a confluence of personal and professional obligations, I was unable to attend the October Beamer gathering, a discussion of Ray Bradbury’s important early collection, The October Country (I mean, how could we NOT pick that one?). But not to totally miss the party, I did write down my thoughts and sent them to …
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