Frederik Pohl
Just a reminder that our giveaway program for that great new anthology, Gateways, edited by Elizabeth Anne Hull, ends on Monday. So, if you haven’t entered so far, get your entry in fast!
To enter the drawing, e-mail blog @ thewaythefutureblogs.com with your name and snail-mail address.
The winning names will be pulled out of a hat by Gene Wolfe, one of the fine authors represented in the book. Two copies will go to folks in the USA; all the others will go to people in other countries.
We’re happy to be able to tell you that we love all of you, not just the ones who live in the U. S. of A., but also all of you who happen to live in some place whose current capital is not Washington D.C. as well. To show that we mean it, we’re going to add our own personal giveaway program for that great new book, Gateways, to the one that was offered by our publisher, Tor, through GoodReads.
So, if you live in any country that is not the USA, from Argentina and Canada to Zanzibar and Zimbabwe, and would like to enter the drawing, e-mail blog @ thewaythefutureblogs.com with your name and snail-mail address. The winning names will be pulled out of a hat by Gene Wolfe, one of the fine authors represented in the book. Two of the copies will go to folks in the USA, so you guys can enter, too; all the others will go to people from elsewhere.
If you’ve already forgotten what a great book this is, here’s what the San Diego Union-Tribune said about it:
“Science fiction has been blessed and bolstered by the 70-year career of Frederik Pohl, whose wife, Betty Anne Hull, edited this collection as a 90th birthday gift for him. David Brin has a long and shiny story toward the front of the book, ‘Shoresteading,’ Cory Doctorow has the thought-provoking ‘Chicken Little’ toward the end, and every story, poem and appreciation in between is well worth your time … and the time it’ll take you to find any of the Pohl works you’ve missed.”
And, oh, by the way, just to sweeten the pot, every winning copy will be autographed by Betty Anne Hull, creator of the book; Frederik Pohl, who is lucky enough to be her husband; and Gene Wolfe, the winner-picker.
(List closes on November 15th. Enter before then!)
From the blog team:
Good news, Pohl fans! Goodreads is giving away some copies of Gateways, the just-released anthology of original new stories influenced by Frederik Pohl written by some of the top sf writers in the field and edited by Fred’s wife, Elizabeth Anne Hull. The deadline for entering the contest is July 31, so sign up soon!
Meanwhile, Betty wrote about the book for the Tor/Forge newsletter:
To celebrate my husband’s 90th orbit of the sun, I’m proud to have persuaded eighteen of the top writers in science fiction to contribute a story, and then to write an afterword, for this special anthology.Moreover, there are nine other appreciations of Fred, and these non-fiction pieces are exciting for me and for any serious fan who wants to know more about how we got where we are today in this literary movement Trufans call SF. For example, the memoirs by Bob Silverberg, Jim Gunn, Gardner Dozois, and Harry Harrison — themselves highly influential people who helped make the genre more respectable around the world — tell as much about the field and the way it was cultivated as they do about Fred and the way he encouraged each of them personally.
Elizabeth Anne Hull. Photo by Barb Knoff.
The main event here, of course, is the science fiction. Joe Haldeman, Mike Resnick, Frank Robinson, Harry Harrison, and Jody Lynn Nye each wrote a superb new tale. Many of the stories are inspired, either directly or indirectly, by Fred’s own fiction, most commonly by Fred’s favorite tale — the one he claims he is willing to have engraved on his monument when he dies — “Day Million.” I was delighted to realize that Gene Wolfe wrote that kind of singularity story, set in a world in an unspecified time — presumably our future — when humans had changed so much that their very nature has to be explained, or in Gene’s case, demonstrated by his first-person narrator.
The title of Cory Doctorow’s novella leaves no doubt that he was influenced by The Space Merchants,
but what he has done with the concept is entirely fresh and original, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that fifty years from now “Chicken Little” will have become a classic in its own right.
In Jim Gunn’s remarkable four first-person narratives of intelligent alien races, he lets the aliens reveal themselves by what they say and how they say it, and by what they each choose to tell us about themselves. I believe Jim was influenced not only by Fred’s many novels and stories in which he created original alien species but also by the many summers he and Fred spent critiquing young writers in the workshops at the University of Kansas.
Then there are some stories that are … well, Fred Pohl-ish stories, like Vernor Vinge’s piece. I was tickled to see Vernor write a story that I think Fred would be proud to have written himself.
Sometimes Fred’s influence was as an editor, when he put a writer’s work before the public. I believe Sheri Tepper’s satiric gifts were encouraged by Fred, and Ben Bova shows in his story that he understands that the sense of humor is just as important as the “sensawunda.”
This project has been a labor of love, not just for me, but also, judging from the fact that all the super-busy contributors found time to send their new works — Neil Gaiman’s coming all the way from China! — for everyone involved.
Oh, and one other thing I must mention: Fred has been nominated for a Hugo for Best Fan Writer — for thewaythefutureblogs.com. Be sure to check it out. The Master is still happily writing every day, and is currently putting some finishing touches on his newest novel, All the Lives He Led, scheduled for next spring from Tor.
This also seems a good time to remind you that the deadline for voting on the Hugo Awards is July 31 as well!
From the blog team:
By popular request, here is the table of contents for Gateways, an anthology of original stories inspired by Frederik Pohl, edited by Elizabeth Anne Hull, and due out this summer from Tor:
