Robert E. Weinberg

Takes a long, savoring, time to read because almost every story is worth a pause & a think. Most are dated, certainly... many have been collected elsewhere... many are available on gutenberg & librivox... many are more like anecdotes as they're only about 2 pp long... but as a whole the collection is great fun.

A few bookdarts:

From [a:Edmond Hamilton|61942|Edmond Hamilton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1338135286p2/61942.jpg] "Exile" is an observation of the difference between knowledge and belief... I want to read more of this author.

Co-credits in the Lovecraft stories is claimed by a certain Elizabeth Neville Berkeley... [a:Elizabeth Berkeley|3391843|Elizabeth Berkeley|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png]?

[a:Fritz Leiber|23001|Fritz Leiber|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1423163995p2/23001.jpg], in "Later Than You Think" considers the possibility that "When an intelligent species begins to retrogress, it tends to destroy, or, rather, debase, all the things it has laboriously created.... Machines are broken up and worked into primitive tools and weapons. There is a kind of unraveling or erasing."

No notes, brief credits, no bios, simple alphabetical by title order.… (more)

The Louis L’Amour Companion contains little in the way of serious criticism or even cursory explorations of his work. It is mostly comprised of overwhelming praise, biographical articles that are noted in the book as full of discrepancies and overstatement, and summaries of his various works (especially Hondo mostly concerning the movie) with the occasional bit of actual criticism (always the same criticisms though). These criticisms being: he uses formulaic plots, his characters are one-dimensional, and they often act implausibly. These are mentioned but are dismissed immediately on about half of the occasions that they are brought up in the book with the same excuse - he writes for his readers not critics.
The book is a bit shallow for my liking and has a regular fixation on the number of books sold or his status as a bestselling author more than on anything of substance. There is a bit from it that I do like however, "Louis L’Amour has written competent and exciting Westerns but no great ones" (pgs 382-383).
I have to admit this book was easy reading and maybe the checklists of L’Amour’s work could be useful if I were a collector. However, if you are looking for a reliable resource on the author’s life or exploration of his work in any capacity then I cannot recommend this book at all.
… (more)