L. Sprague de CampResenhas

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

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An old and beloved favorite

Cute but disappointing (after having read how great & groundbreaking it's supposed to be.) Book 1 was much better than Book 2. Love the cover art.½

Time-travel that means alternative history. i.e. increasing survivability of ONE person through alteration of the historical timeline of civilization. Talk about an ambitious author/character! This is a fun and interesting novel full of wit and invention. Essential reading for vintage science fiction readers. Sets a pretty high bar, so to speak, for time travel/ alt history novels. I enjoyed the book and it demonstrates the author's skill and knowledge.

Fun, short book full of short stories of thr most iconic barbarian of all time. For someone who has never seen the movies I found it very easy to great a strong picture of this fearless menace in my mind. The stories written by Howard alone are the highlights.

Best Conan book I have read to date. Some really defining stories and fantastic descriptions of locations and characters

When we think of the writers who comprised the golden age of SF, names like Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, Lester del Rey, and Ted Sturgeon might be the first to spring to mind. There were many others, but to my dismay, they’re fading into the brume of antiquity—folks like Henry Kuttner, Clifford Simak, A.E. Van Vogt, Fritz Leiber, and L. Sprague de Camp to name a few.

Which is why I’m always excited to peruse used book shops and book dealer tables at conventions. I never fail to leave without a stack of golden age gems. One such recent find is the The Best of L. Sprague de Camp. Known in his time as a humor writer in the fields of SF and fantasy, the stately de Camp was also a historian, scientist, and engineer, all of which influenced his fiction.

This “Best of” compilation is an eclectic showcase of de Camp’s humor and intellect. My favorites include:

“The Command” - A chemically altered bear that can read, reason, and even operate some machinery, stops an evil chemist and his henchmen bent on world domination.

“Nothing in the Rules” - The desperate coach of a woman’s swim team knows they cannot beat the opposition without an advantage, but his solution is downright mythical.

“The Hardwood Pile” - Loggers cut down a Norwegian Maple that happened to be home of a wood nymph. After all attempts to reason with the company owner fail, the nymph uses her magical abilities to ensure he can’t sell the lumber made from her tree.

“The Reluctant Shaman” - The indigenous American owner of a trinket shop is burdened with temporary custody of the legendary Gahunga, elemental beings of the Seneca tribe who use their magic in the service of their caretaker. However, when the shop owner asks them to drum up more business for his shop, he soon regrets it.

“A Gun for Dinosaur” - Things go sideways when a time-traveling dinosaur hunter takes two clients back to the Late Mesozoic era. One customer is too small in stature to handle a dinosaur gun and the other is a belligerent hothead who disregards the guide’s advice and fires at every creature he sees.

“The Emperor’s Fan” - The Emperor of Kuromon comes into possession of a magical fan. Simply wave it at an enemy and watch them disappear, but what happens when the fan falls into the hands of an unexpected adversary?

“Two Yards of Dragon” - In order to achieve knighthood and win the hand of a lovely maiden, a young man travels far from home to slay a dragon and return with two yards of its hide. Little does he know that dragons are now protected game, he has no hunting license, and worse, dragons are out of season.

In 1938 an ancient historian/archaeologist is visiting Rome when he's struck by lightning and somehow sent back to 535 AD. He has absolutely no qualms about changing the future because he decides to 'invent' the printing press and a bunch of other should-be-anachronistic devices. He also decides to make sure that the Dark Ages don't happen.

I dunno. I feel like I should have adored this story, and I really super didn't. I mean, who hasn't daydreamed about going back in time and trying to decide how you would live in a past society (as a woman, though, these daydreams tend to end in a disturbingly nightmarish way for me). And yeah, it would be totally fun to act the non-modern day Prometheus (minus the monster, hopefully), but something about this version of the daydream seems off to me. Just because you know the printing press exists doesn't mean you could make one yourself (or am I just helplessly ignorant of such things? Does everyone know how to create something like that from essentially nothing?), and the main character has no problem doing just that and also creating so many other things without the benefit of Ikea-like instructions. (I mean, a telescope? Come on. I get the general concept, but actually *making* one?!) And he gets arrested a time or two, but has no real problem wriggling out of trouble, it seems. How was he not condemned for witchcraft?! (A TELESCOPE, FFS. AND CANONS.) It was also not...interesting? That period of Roman history has never been my favorite, but it's certainly not dull. But it seemed so here. Anyway, a big miss for me, sorry to say.

El rey Jorian no deseaba perder la cabeza, ¡y mucho menos bajo el hacha del verdugo!
Por eso le pareció que su promesa de robar el Kist de Avlen, un tesoro formado por antiguos manuscritos sobre magia, era un precio bastante pequeño a cambio de la oportunidad de librarse de su decapitación.
Pero, cuando la búsqueda le hizo enfrentarse a un peligro tras otro -- un mago asesino y su ardilla gigante, un castillo lleno de verdugos, una tropa indeseable de hombres-mono, y una voluptuosa princesa de 500 años de edad que era también una serpiente -- , Jorian se preguntó si habría hecho una buena elección.

Los relojes eran la clave del destino de la ciudad ...
pero los relojes fallaban y el tiempo corría ...
Los planes de los brujos, por lo que sabía Jorian, solían ser complicados. Pero esta vez el plan del brujo parecía sencillo. Según una antigua profecía, los relojes salvarían Iraz, pero, para ello, Jorian debía reparar antes los grandes relojes de la torre construidos por su padre.
Si todo iba bien, Karadur podría planear el rescate de la amada esposa de Jorian, la reina Estrildis, presa en Xylar.
Y Jorian debería ser nombrado relojero mayor de Iraz, un puesto que le exigiría romper un asedio pirata, aplacar a una sacerdotisa enamorada y ponerse, por lo menos, un paso por delante de la Real Guardia de Xylar ... ¡donde se le buscaba como estrella principal de una decapitación real!

Tres años antes, Jorian fue coronado rey de Xylar. Pero las leyes de Xylar decretaban que sus monarcas debían ser decapitados al final de un reinado de cinco años. A Jorian no le hacía feliz perder su cabeza. Con la ayuda del anciano mago Karadur, consiguió escapar.
Desgraciadamente, no pudo llevar consigo a su amada, la reina Estrildis, ni encontraba el modo de liberarala del palacio de la ciudad de Xylar.
Pero Jorian siente que su suerte ha cambiado. Él y el anciano mago Karadur son transportados a través del aire de la noche en una gran bañera de cobre movida por un demonio controlado por Karadur. Bajo ellos se encuentra ya la ciudad de Xylar. Mientras el demonio mantiene la bañera flotando sobre el palacio, Jorian debe descolgarse por una cuerda y rescatar a Estrildis.
El plan era infalible, pero ...