The Engines of the Night: Science Fiction in the Eighties

Note: The book consists of SF criticism and essays, with one story. It was Hugo finalist for Best Non-Fiction book of the year.


 
 

From the cover blurb:

"The Engines of the Night is an important book. It's experly assembled, punchy and pointed, and carries an important message about not only science fiction writing, but commercial writing in general. I think it will be influential. It has that sardonic, pained Malzberg grace, and doubles both as analysis of the field and as autobiographical notes."

- Gregory Benford
"I would say that a book that causes a man as busy as myself to wrote on for this length has something to be said for it."
- Sam Moskowitz, at the end of a 4 page letter
"...Strikes me as superior to Herovit's World as a commentary on the relationship between Barry and science fiction, but is otherwise like it in being a personal bitch about Barry's existential situation."
- Alexei Panshin
"Destined to be misunderstood and mis-used, this cry from the heart will prove once more that honesty is suicidal. Not a work of reference; a work of brilliance."
- Algis Budrys

Sure to be one of the most-talked about science fiction books of the 1980s.
 

Contents:
 

  • Introduction
  • L'État c'est moi
  • I Could Have Been a Contender Part One
  • Anonymity and Empire
  • I Don't Know Hot to Put it Love but I'll Surely Surely Try
  • Memoir from Grub Street
  • The Fifties
  • The Fifties: Recapitulation and Coda
  • Ah Tempora! Ah Portions! Ah Mores! Ah Outlines!
  • Science Fiction and the Academy: Some Notes
  • At the Divining Edge
  • Some Notes Towards the True and Terrible
  • Wrong Rabbit
  • John W. Campbell: June 8, 1910 to July 11, 1971
  • The Science Fiction of Science Fiction
  • I Don't Want Her You Can Have Her -
  • Onward and Upward With the Arts Part II
  • Tell Me Doctor If You Can That It's Not All Happening Again
  • The Richard Nixon-John B. Mitchell-Spiro Agnew Blues
  • Cornell George Hopley Woolrich: December 1903 to September 1968
  • A Few Hard Truths for the Troops
  • Onward and Upward With the Arts Part III
  • Science Fiction as Picasso
  • Mark Clifton: 1906-1963
  • September 1973: What I Did Last Summer
  • The Cutting Edge
  • Son of the True and Terrible
  • The All-Time, Prime-Time, Take-Me-to-Your-Leader Science Fiction Plot
  • Grandson of the True and the Terrible
  • Give Me That Old-Time Religion
  • SF Forever
  • What I Won't Do Next Summer, I Guess
  • Com Fool, Follify
  • The Engines of the Night
  • Con Sordino
  • Corridors
  • L'Envoi


    • Review:
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     


    Disclaimer: Any quoted material or scanned image contained in these pages is copyrighted, either by Mr. Malzberg or others. It is not my intention to infringe on any copyrights, only to present information to the curious.