Donald E. Westlake’s farewell to science fiction: responses by Frederik Pohl, Westlake, and others

This, I’m sure we’ll all be relieved to hear, will be my final Violent World of Parker post for the year. Fear not, however (or, possibly, fear greatly): there’s plenty more to come from me in the new year, not just on Westlake but also on some other writers whose work intersects […]

“Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You”: Donald E. Westlake’s farewell to science fiction (from The Best of Xero)

I actually have Violent World of Parker reader Sandra Bond to thank for this latest post—or, more accurately, couple of posts: there’s a lot to cover here, so it’ll be better if I split it into two missives. Sandra emailed me after I’d finished my second run of reviews of Westlake’s SF stories to […]

Donald E. Westlake’s science fiction stories: “Look Before You Leap,” Analog, May / September 1962

On we go with Donald E. Westlake’s science fiction magazine stories; and like the last SF story I wrote about, “They Also Serve,” this one also appeared in Analog Science Fact & Fiction, and has similarly never been reprinted since (and it’s not even available via Project Gutenberg). But there the parallels […]

Donald E. Westlake’s science fiction stories: “They Also Serve,” Analog, Vol. 68, No. 1, September 1961

As promised (or perhaps threatened—and while I’m linking to that last post, let me just quickly point out that Lawrence Block—yes, Lawrence Block—took the time to comment on it, a turn of events as pleasantly surprising as it is humbling), this week I’m returning to the short stories Donald E. Westlake wrote […]