Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction 5, 1975

As I wind down the last three issues of this series, beginning with the fifth installment, you’ll see a few different names in this one, previously unseen. With an anthology title, that’s usually the method most publishers roll with, and it can be very exciting. I think it can be slightly problematic when a certain creator did a fantastic job in a previous issue (or is just a fan favorite). There are a couple of familiar names, but lets not get ahead of things. The cover is by an artist that isn’t one I’ve heard before. Boada Puigdomènech (cover), an artist with only this one credit for Marvel, and a few for Skywald Publishing, does a fair job, but it’s definitely a step back from the previous four issues. A frontispiece by Howard Chaykin (more on him later) leads us into the action!

First up we get…Slow Glass, revisited! I know last time I said that was the end, but it was a ruse (by myself and Marvel)! We thought we saw the last of this story (and Mister Tyme), but not so. We see something very creepy from Roy Thomas and the art team of Gene Colan and Frank Chiaramonte!

Up first is “Paradise Found.” We see a space traveler arrive on a planet named Terra 2. He’s greeted by another guy that treats the aliens there horribly, but don’t worry, he gets his in the end. Written by Bruce Jones, with art by Gray Morrow!

The next few pages bring an interview with Larry Niven (conducted by Alan Brennert)! There are some super cool illustrations by Eliot R. Brown and Rick Bryant.

Next up is “All the Myriad Ways,” an adaptation of a Larry Niven story. A police detective investigating a murder, parallel universes, time travel, it’s all here! And, brought to you by Howard Chaykin (script, art)!

Don and Maggie Thompson bring us another great edition of “Fantastic Worlds” next! In it they discuss the Hugo and Nebula awards, rumors of a Star Trek movie, and some sci-fi conventions!

Addict” is the next story in the book, and it is a wild one! We see a junkie in an alleyway beat his own dealer for some drugs. Well, not conventional drugs, that is. We also see some bureaucrats talking their usual disturbing rhetoric about needing to keep the populace under control (hmmm…nothing to see here, move along). Really good stuff here by Don Glut (story) and Virgil Redondo (art)!

The final story in this magazine, “Half Life,” is another solid entry. We see a monster-sized spaceship called The USS Agamemnon, that at first seems like a pleasure cruise. But, things don’t always work out the way they should, do they? Story and art by John Allison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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