Recommended Books

Stephen Gallagher

These books have all been recommended by Stephen Gallagher.

If you wish to read the reviews or purchase a copy of any of these books from Amazon.co.uk just click on the name.

Paperback

Alfred Bester

Tiger, Tiger (aka The Stars my Destination) cover

This one edges ahead of Bester's The Demolished Man as my all-time favourite SF book, but it's a close-run thing. Bester never wrote a better skiffy novel and neither did anyone else.

Translated by E.V. Rieu

The Odyssey cover

This is a straight prose translation that reads like an epic novel. It's been around for years and has never been superceded, in my opinion. All the verse translations are for the academics; this one's JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS for the beach.

Paul M Sammon

The Making of 'Blade Runner'

Most 'making of' books are done by a tame journalist with access during the shoot, or else they're little more than the presskit in a thinly-disguised form. Sammon's book was written after the event but is much better for it -- the coverage and interviews have a perspective that's usually lacking, and he covers the development process... usually the unseen part of the iceberg. Sammon's fannish enthusiasm sometimes breaks through and sounds a bum note, but the book's an achievement.

Arthur Conan Doyle

The Lost World cover

Michael Crichton, hang your head in shame.

Hard Cover

Richard Fleischer

Just Tell Me When to Cry

Movie autobiography by someone you think of as a jobbing director until you consider some of the entries in his filmography -- FANTASTIC VOYAGE, THE VIKINGS, 20,000 LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA -- and realise that his work has significant points of contact with the life of anyone who loves the genre. Highly entertaining.

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