Where Memory Hides: A Writer's Life, by Richard A. Lupoff

Richard A. Lupoff is probably best-remembered as a science fiction writer, though he also wrote mysteries and non-fiction, and pseudonymous media tie-ins. He was very active in fandom and was a well-known and well-liked figure. His time-loop short story "12:01 p.m." (originally published in the December 1973 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction) was filmed twice: first in 1990 as part of the 30-Minute Movie series on Showtime, and then, in 1993, as a feature length film, titled 12:01. Lupoff's autobiography appeared in 2016, four years before his death in 2020 at the age of 85. It has introductions by Gregory Benford and Bill Crider, and lots of encomiums by Lupoff's friends, including Michael Kurland, Robert Silverberg, Christopher Conlon, Ed Gorman, and  others. There is a Lupoff bibliography at the end too. In between is a chatty bunch of reminiscences of Lupoff's life, with anecdotes about friends (like Philip K. Dick and Avram Davidson) and lots of sad stories about publishers and editors. The saddest publishing story at least has a sort-of happy ending. In the late 1970s, Lupoff wrote a massive novel called Marblehead, an alternate history about H.P. Lovecraft. His publisher didn't like it, and thought it way too long, so at their request Lupoff wrote a different much shorter version, which the publisher in turn also refused. Arkham House editor Jim Turner heard about the book a year or two later, and thus the rewritten shorter version appeared as Lovecraft's Book in 1985 from Arkham House. For many years Lupoff thought the original version was lost, but it turned up and was published in 2006 as a print-on-demand trade paperback from Ramble House. This is just one of the horror stories of publishers that Lupoff details. His writer's life is an interesting read about publishing and fandom from the 1960s onward.

This World and That Other, by John Howard and Mark Valentine

This collection of two novellas, one by John Howard and one by Mark Valentine, is another shared volume taking inspiration from the writings of Charles Williams, who is known for his supernatural thrillers, esoteric poems, and theological studies. It follows on the pair's similar previous volume, Powers and Presences (2020), which had one story by Howard and two by Valentine, also written in homage to Williams. In This World and That Other, the first novella, "All the Times of the City" by John Howard, is the more ambitious, and the more deeply-rooted in Williams' thought, particularly in his concept of co-inherence (in which mankind's essential relationship is compared with the unity of God and the Trinity), and with his use of the City in his final novel, All Hallow's Eve. Howard's story has two branches, one set in the mid-1940s just after the end of the War, and the other set somewhat contemporaneously, with one recurring character (a young man in one, a very old man in the other), and a setting around St. Paul's in London (an alternate St. Paul's in the contemporary strand). Howard manages the two strands skillfully, and the result is among the best of his stories that I have read, though I admit I would have understood it better if I were more up on the life and thought of Charles Williams (who appears in slightly distorted form). Valentine's novella, "Armed for a Day of Glory," unveils how some force is attempting to gather a number of ancient relics or talismans of Britain, for apparent sinister purpose, and how this might be thwarted. Both novellas are well-done in their aims and achievements.  

The Voyage of the Proteus, by Thomas M. Disch

Thomas M. Disch wrote a number of odd books during his career, but the oddest are found in the years just before his suicide in July 2008 at the age of 68. The Voyage of the Proteus: An Eyewitness Account of the End of the World, published in 2007, is among these late writings. A novella, published as a small book, it recounts the adventures of an American poet "Tom" who dreams he is on board the ship the Proteus, where he encounters Cassandra, Agamemnon, Socrates, and others of the post-Trojan War era. A wry humor is at play, with occasional touches of satire, directed towards the modern world and then-president George W. Bush. None of it works very well in combination. The satire, for one, is mostly too diffuse to be humorous, but there are occasional scenes (e.g. the attacks by the harpies) that hold the reader's interest.There is a sequel novella, The Proteus Sails Again, published posthumously, in which his former comrades visit Disch in his New York apartment.

Alien Hunter: Underworld, by Whitley Strieber

Having not especially liked the first Alien Hunter book, which I just reviewed recently, you may wonder why I went on to read the second, Alien Hunter: Underworld. Well, there were two reasons. One, I already had a copy of the second book; and two, the blurb on it revealed that much more about the aliens themselves would be unveiled in this book, and that sounded interesting, as well as thereby filling a noticeable gap in the first book. Flynn Carroll returns, along with other characters from the first book, and another series of increasingly implausible scenarios quickly develop in which Flynn and his friends attempt to defeat the evil alien. This time he is helped by a more informative alien called Geri from the same planet, Aeon, and thus Flynn learns that the alien he is hunting, called Morris, is a psychopath mercenary from a planet where the biorobots are revolting against their creators. Morris escaped to earth with second rate tech and equipment, and apparently hopes to take over this world. Secretly but in only limited ways assisting the humans are some other alien species, including the grays, and much of the plot is tied in with alliances and conspiracy theories that would make Q-Anon followers proud. My curiosity about the Streiber's aliens is sated, and I feel no interest in tackling the third and final novel of this series. If I try another Strieber book, it should be one of his earlier pre-Communion novels that I haven't read, just to see if he did have the talent back then to write a satisfying novel as opposed to his self-evident ability to string together scene after amped-up scene to make for a mostly mindless thriller.