Browsing Pinterest I came across The Syndic by CM Kornbluth on Jim Potter's fab pages. Its a book I know not and have never seen the various book covers before. Have you readers?
The cover that caught my eye first was this red one with these two classy modelling mannequins.
I like how the modeller has given them a sort of Star Trek look.
They are made from wooden mannequins like this one universally available. I made a similar sci-fi figure using one a few years back for Wotan's birthday. I made it to look like a Micronaut.
I can't help thinking there's a similarity between the gold head of the model and this Herbert Lom headed robot from the horror film Asylum! or am I seeing things again!
This next copy of The Syndic rang another bell. I would say that the furious soldier on the cover has been more or less lifted from .....
... Warren's Blazing Combat issue number 1, a Frank Frazetta cover I always loved and stared at for ages when I saw it in the pages of Creepy and Eerie. Alas I never got a copy.
What do you think?
My final Syndic is probably its original publication, as a story on Science Fiction Adventures from 1953.
There's just something Thunderbird 5'ish about that antenna sticking out of a space dome. And that looks like a small red Fireball XL5 zooming out of the exit shaft.
What do you reckon?
Have you read the Syndic?
I have the 1978 Sphere reprint of this with a different cover. Its not very good, I'm sad to say, as I really like his short stories (The Little Black Bag and Shark Ship are superb).
ReplyDeleteI cant remember much of what its about, despite reading the blurb on the back (suppose I'd better reread it), but do remember being disappointed with it, so after a single reading its been sat on the shelf (poor thing! Books are meant to be read!)
A lot of these legendary SF writers worked better in the short form - and I personally do not have the attention span for most novels! - but I bet that The Syndic is one of those books which would have worked better trimmed down to novella or short story length...
ReplyDelete