100 beautiful British dust jackets

Nearly seven months ago now, I created a new permanent page over on Existential Ennui (my personal books blog, as if you didn’t know), dedicated to the finest examples of British dust jacket design—or rather, my idea of the finest examples, taken from my own collection of books, and including a fair […]

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: “The Question,” with Larry M. Harris; The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March / July 1963)

Rounding off this intermittent series of posts on Donald E. Westlake’s early-1960s science fiction stories, I’ve a particularly pithy tale which Westlake was the co-writer of, rather than the sole author. And of all the SF stories I’ve been reviewing in this series and the previous series, I think this might just […]

Donald E. Westlake’s science fiction stories: “The Earthman’s Burden,” Galaxy, Vol. 21, No. 1 (October 1962)

After a slightly-longer-than-anticipated John le Carré-shaped diversion, it’s back to the short stories written by Donald E. Westlake for various science fiction magazines in the early 1960s. And whereas the previous Westlake SF short (if you can cast your mind back that far) involved teleportation, this next story centers on… telepathy…

“The […]

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 […]