Astral Debris

The ageless D. Sidney-Fryer, who has been producing vital work in poetry, prose, and criticism since the 1960s, is back with another dynamic volume of miscellany that exhibits his wide range of interests. Leading off the volume is the novella Star Drek, an exquisite parody of the TV show Star Trek as it recounts the tribulations of a pair of men who run a "garbage scow in outer space." This rollicking adventure spans the cosmos while reflecting the genial good humor characteristic of the author.

There follows a series of poems in prose and verse focusing on such wide-ranging subjects as Arthur Machen, ancient gods, painting, dance, and the rugged terrain of New England. "Cosmic Castaways" includes additional poems of a more pensive and wistful sort, while the section "Infinitude and Then Return Therefrom" features work of a philosophical cast and reflects the author's decades-long interest in humanity's place in the universe.

D. Sidney-Fryer has made a name for himself as a leading scholar on Clark Ashton Smith and other poets of fantasy and terror. But in this volume he himself emerges as a creative artist in his own right, taking the cosmos as the backdrop for his deft ventures into prose and verse.