By John Tommasino, Special to the Van Nuys News Press
VAN NUYS, CA — The Science Fiction Book Club of the Van Nuys Branch Library is excited to announce its Summer Reading List. Titles are varied in the genre ranging from the psychologically complex to the Sword and Planet sub-genres of Science Fiction.
The Book Club meets the last Wednesday of every month at 5 pm in the Community Room of the Van Nuys Branch Library, 6250 Sylmar Avenue, Van Nuys. Copies of the book selection of the month are made available at the library one month in advance.
The next meeting, on May 27th, will review the Arthur C. Clarke epic “2001: A Space Odyssey.”
On June 24th, the club will be examining the psychological thriller “The Castle” by Franz Kafka. In this novel, a surveyor arrives in a remote European village and is subject to a harrowing dystopian nightmare. The book, originally published in 1926, was selected in honor of the 100th Anniversary of the Los Angeles Public Library’s Central Library in downtown Los Angeles.
Next, on July 29th , the club will be reading a novel by noted sword and sorcery author Robert E. Howard, entitled “Almuric”. Howard is best known for creating the ever- popular character Conan of Cimmeria also known as Conan the Barbarian. Howard’s Conan stories were originally published in the magazine, “Weird Tales” in the 1930s.
In “Almuric”, a convict named Esau Cairn is transported to the alien world Almuric and must fight for his survival among the planet’s warlike tribes. This novel is sponsored by the Van Nuys Branch Library’s Friends Group, a volunteer organization that helps to support the library.
“Robert E. Howard is one of my favorite writers. “Almuric” is the only science fiction novel that Howard produced in his short career, heavily influenced by “A Princess of Mars” by Edgar Rice Burroughs,” said John Tommasino, moderator of the Science Fiction Book Club. “We are very grateful for the funding by our Friends Group that will allow us to present “Almuric” for the public.”
Wrapping up the summer on August 26th, the group will read “The Last Astronaut” by David Wellington. In this modern science fiction epic, a retired astronaut must contend with her past failures while facing a hostile alien probe that threatens Earth.
For more information, contact the Van Nuys Branch Library at 818-756-8453.