time snake and superclown by vincent king

Unfortunately the “New Wave” mutated later (late 70s into the 80s and then 90s where it dominated) into the Politically Correct/bland tedium monster we have now. Lots of experimental works like this were published, also greats from the past dusted off and put in print again – Night Lands, Star Maker, Voyage to Arcturus, etc. This is where we had Logan’s Run, Planet of the Apes. There’s a neat graph “Organic history of science fiction” that puts this era into “New Wave – Sociology Dominant” and it focused more indeed on the human condition in the stories, effects on society, etc. Stuff like Michael Moorcock’s “Elric” to both play homage to and transcend classic “Sword and Sorcery”. of the Pulps.Īt the start it succeeded, giants standing on the shoulders of past giants. The classic space operas, sword and planet, barbarians, eldritch horror, etc. The movement was to evolve scifi and fantasy beyond the cliches it had become entrenched in. We have essentially the “New Wave” in action here

See all our recent Vintage Treasures here. He published one more book in the UK, Time Snake and Superclown, in 1976. “Vincent King” was the pseudonym of Rex Thomas Vinson, who got his start selling short stories to John Carnell’s New Writings in SF anthology series. I particularly enjoyed the back-cover text for his first novel, which warmly welcomed King to American shores.

Light a Last Candle (217 pages, $0.75, July 1969, cover by Robert Foster)Īnother End (185 pages, $0.95, January 1971, cover by Dean Ellis)Ĭandy Man (250 pages, $0.95, July 1971, cover by Dean Ellis) King is the kind of writer who can only be enjoyed the old-fashioned way: by hunting down his books. None of them was ever reprinted in the US, and they quickly vanished. Folks like the British writer Vincent King, who published three paperbacks through Ballantine in 1969-1971, all with eye-catching covers by Robert Foster and Dean Ellis. Who never really connected with a wide audience, and whose entire catalog has been out of print for three decades or more. Their books are still read and enjoyed today.Īnd then there are those writers who weren’t so lucky. Le Guin, Anne McCaffrey, and many others were busy launching decades-long careers. Writers like Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Samuel R. The sixties and early seventies were a very fertile era for science fiction in America.

Time snake and superclown by vincent king