Norman Spinrad Boeken

Eindelijk is deze sf-roman die zoveel stof heeft doen opwaaien en waarover de discussies nog steeds niet zijn verstomd, dan in Nederlandse vertaling verschenen. Het verhaal, gesitueerd in een niet al te verre toekomst en daarom des te beklemmender, opent met een waarlijk groots exposé van de elementen die "Pak Jack Barron" tot het keiharde en door velen gevreesde tv-programma hebben gemaakt, dat de hoogste kijkdichtheid geniet. Een neger heeft bij Barron, de weinig scrupuleuze presentator van het programma, een klacht ingediend tegen de Stichting voor Onsterfelijkheid (een diepvriesproject waar men tegen betaling van $ 50.000 een onsterfelijkheidskuur kan ondergaan), omdat hij als cliënt geweigerd is. Dit vormt de inzet van een onmenselijke strijd tussen twee giganten, met aan de ene kant Benedict Howards, een zeer invloedrijk man die niets en inemand ontziet om zijn maniakale ambities te verwerkelijken, en aan de andere kant... Jack Barron, even machtig en evenmin schromend alle menselijk waarden met voeten te treden teneinde zijn doel te bereiken. Het gaat om niets minder dan de Totale Macht.

Contents: No Direction Home (1971) Heirloom (1972) The Big Flash (1969) The Conspiracy (1969) The Weed of Time (1970) A Thing of Beauty (1973) The Lost Continent (1970) Heroes Die but Once (1969) The National Pastime (1973) In the Eye of the Storm (1974) All the Sounds of the Rainbow (1973)

The year is 1531. In a small hut on the slopes of the volcano Popocateptl, scholar and poet Alvaro de Sevilla reflects on his extraordinary life. For Alvaro was one of the small army of conquistadors who, some years earlier, set out to conquer an empire. Hernando Cortes was proclaimed a reincarnation of the god Quetzacoatl shortly after his arrival in the New World, and he took advantage and forced his way to the capital city. There he met Montezuma, the Aztec Emperor, who at first welcomed the conquistadors to his city, showering them with gold. But it was an encounter between two civilizations that could only end in chaos, death, and destruction.

An over-the-hill rock star, a Puerto Rican street kid, and two children of the electronic age discover strength in numbers when they take on the power of Musik, Inc., in a war of nerves, passion, and rock 'n' roll. Spinrad uses the violent, sexually explicit language of new wave sf to communicate an ultimately touching message of courage and humanity that breaks through the high-tech glitter of his medium.

The Iron Dream brings us the science fiction novel Hitler would have written if he had emigrated to the US in 1919 and become a hack science fiction writer - Lord of the Swastika ! In a post-nuclear holocaust era, we follow the rise to power of Feric Jaggar from ignominious exile amongst mutants and mongrels to absolute rule in the Fatherland of Truemen, having fought his way to power over the corrupt government. Obsessed with tight black leather and huge crowds, he vows to destroy all mutant scum and defeat the cold, heartless superpower of Zind led by the evil mind-controlling Dominators. In Spinrad's acid-etched satire the parallels between space opera, sword and sorcery and fascist wish-fulfilment are made explicit as as you find yourself rooting for Jaggar, while realising his rise has sinister parallels with that of Hitler and the Nazi party.

An encounter between opponents--Clear Blue Lou, a virile young Perfect Master called to judge the Sunshine tribe for their use of forbidden dark sciences, and Sunshine Sue, the sexy leader of the Word of Mouth network--has unexpected repercussions

Since its colonization by Earth, Pacifica has flourished. Now, under the guidance of Chairman Carlotta Madigan and her lover and Minister of Media, Royce Lindbold, it is the galaxy's supreme electronic democracy, a Utopian world where both sexes equally serve and are served by the Media. But there are those who would have it otherwise, who have come to Pacifica to turn its very freedom into an instrument of its bondage, who have launched a devastating media war on Pacifica to divide... and conquer.

About a hundred years from now, pollution, overpopulation, and ecological disasters have left the rich nations still rich, and the poor nations--the Lands of the Lost--slowly strangling in drought and pollution. New York City is below sea level, surrounded by a seawall. The climate in Paris is much like the twentieth-century climate of long-drowned New Orleans. And Siberia, Golden Siberia, is the crop-land of the world.Still, for the international corporations and businesses who make a profit on technofixing the environment--the Big Blue Machine--it is business as sell what you can where you can whenever you can. It is better to be rich. But it all may be coming to a terrible a scientist has predicted Condition Venus, the sudden greenhouse downfall of the entire planet--but she can't say when.So now the attention of the world is focused for a week on a UN conference on the Environment in Paris, where all hell is about to break loose.

Pacifica ist eine Welt die ihrem Namen alle Ehre macht: ein fast paradiesisch anmutender erdähnlicher Planet; die menschlichen Siedler leben in Frieden und einem Höchstmaßan persönlicher Freiheit; die Geschlechter sind gleichberechtigt; an der Spitze der Regierung steht eine Frau: Carlotta Madigan. Frieden und Freiheit sind gesichert durch ein kompliziertes zerbrechliches komplexes Regierungssystem: die Elektronische Demokratie. Das heißt daß jeder Bürgerjederzeit durch Knopfdruck Regierungsentscheidungen billigen oder ablehnen kann. Dieses empfindliche Gleichgewicht wird gestört als ein Raumschiff der Transzendentalen Wissenschaftler auf Pacifica landet einer ordensähnlichen Schule die mit ihrem technologischen Wissen der Menschheit um Jahrhunderte voraus ist aber nur Studenten männlichen Geschlechts zuläßt. Das ist für Femokraten ein militantes Matriarchat das die Erde beherrscht Grund genug ebenfalls ein Raumschiff zu entsenden und mit einer Medienkampagne Front gegen die »Machos» die »Faschochauvinisten« zu machen; die es ihrerseits an Gegenkampagnen gegen die »Ferninistinnenc» und »Lesben« nicht fehlen lassen. In kürzester Zeit tritt eine wachsende Polarisierung der Geschlechter ein die sich bald zu einem Zustand fanatischer Raserei steigert die einen blaurosa Bürgerkrieg befürchten läßt.