E-Book Overview
01/08/2003 . Source: Rod MacDonald 

RENAISSANCE E-Books.

check out website: http://66.216.113.14/pageturner.php3

Renaissance E-Book publications, an American internet company, have two main avenues to their approach in selling literature. The first is their SIZZLER series which concerns itself with ancient and modern pornographic pieces, none of which I've read and also the PAGE TURNER series of contemporary and revived fiction, some of which are Science Fiction in nature.

I've already reviewed one of their books - Scout by Octavio Ramos Jr - but my selections this time went back to classic stuff of the fifties in an anthology of HL Gold's Galaxy Magazine short stories and then even further back in time to a bit of ghostly horror from William Hope Hodgson.

Renaissance have the ability to sift out popular literature that has become extinct for one reason or another but which is of sufficient merit to see the light of day once more and delight a new audience.

While this may not be a commercial proposition in conventional book-form, it lends itself to electronic publishing with ease. An ideal format for the release of old literature into the market, I would expect this practice will increase in popularity over the next few years. There is a wealth of quality material out there which doesn't have to be edited and is waiting to be picked up by an ebook publishing company.

Now to the books under review:- .

Inside Man And other Science Fictions edited by H. L. Gold
pub: Renaissance E Book publication: A Futures-Past Science Fiction Classic. 250 e-pages. Price: $4.00 (US). ISBN: 1-58873-171-5

Jean Marie Stine, as with most Renaissance book editions, gives an introduction which in this case explains some of the background information to Gold's work and career. A leading author in the 1950 decade, he wrote many award-winning stories and started Galaxy Magazine which itself became the launching pad for many well-known authors including Frederick Pohl, Clifford Simak, Robert Sheckley, William Tenn and Fritz Leiber.

Seven of his own works are included in this entertaining collection. There's a feeling of nostalgia here when reading through short stories such as 'Inside Man' and 'Grifter's Asteroid'. The novella 'Someone to Watch Over Me' takes us into hyperspace where another universe exists and where the possibility of accumulating enormous wealth is there for he who dares.

Even after all the passing years, Gold's work is still intriguing. As Stine says, ‘he has the ability to turn preconceived notions on their head.’ He gives us new angles of approach to life and a witty banter which is still relevant today. Gold didn't write to any great extent which makes this collection all the more important when considering that his only other anthology is now deleted.

However, it's probably as an editor that he made the most impact in Science Fiction. It's said that he was agoraphobic in the extreme. Imagine this man confined within the walls of his apartment while his mind wandered around the universe.

I enjoyed reading this collection to the extent that I wanted to read more. There's a need for someone like Stine to faithfully sift through the available literature of once popular authors to make more volumes like this for us to read.

The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson
pub: Renaissance E Book publication: A Futures-Past Science Fiction Classic. 260 e-pages. Price: $4.00 (US). ISBN: 1-58873-181-2

This is not a jolly book. From the beginning, a forbidding atmosphere of menace seems to pervade the salty atmosphere. Something will go wrong on this doomed voyage and, of course, it does.

Strange happenings. Missing people. The creeping fog and the creaking of ship's decks. It's all there in this seafaring horror story written almost a century ago. While the style is somewhat dated, turgid and tiresome at times, the story never becomes becalmed in a sea of words. Make allowances and take this volume in the spirit it was intended and you'll probably enjoy it. Suffice to say, I wouldn't have been happy as a crew member. Even Uncle Geoff in his crowsnest would be shivering at the timbers with this one.

Nautical phases leap out from the pages and if you didn't know what a poop deck was or what eight bells signified, you'll soon learn on this voyage. Hodgson didn't write many books. Like many of his time, he died in the trenches in 1916 but his influence lived on to inspire other authors.

Rod MacDonald