SFBC 1984 (final quarter)
James Nicoll
Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
to Science Fiction.
October THE WAR AGAINST THE CHTORR: INVASION (2-in-1 of A MATTER FOR MEN and
A DAY FOR DAMNATION) by David Gerrold
Ah, this series started with such promise.
After a non-nuclear but major conflict that the USA lost,
plague comes to the world. Just as the survivors are getting back on
their feet it becomes obvious that the Earth is being invaded by an
alien ecosystem. Who is behind this and whether it makes any sense
to credit the events to intelligent entities is not clear. Our young
hero gets dragged into service against the alien lifeforms, often as
an expendible crew member.
Clearly written with RAH in mind Details of the alien ecology
are interesting. The series has never been resolved, so don't start it
thinking that any sort of closure is going to happen. As far as I recall,
there are *no* sympathetic non-American characters but to balance that
the protagonist is a jerk who Learns Better But Forgets Everything He
Learned By the Beginning of the Next Book.
THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
DAUGHTER OF REGALS AND OTHER TALES by Stephen R. Donaldson
(Alternate)
I missed this.
THE DRAGON WAITING by John M. Ford (Alternate)
An alternate history set in a world where vamparism exists
and has had a significant effect on world history. Unfortunately it
has been so long since I read it that is about all I do recall of it.
Special Cycle #1
Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison (Harper & Row, 1975, hc)
+ o Introduction: Oblations at Alien Altars o in
+ o The Whimper of Whipped Dogs o ss Bad Moon Rising, ed.
Thomas M. Disch, Harper & Row, 1973
+ o Along the Scenic Route ["Dogfight on 101"] o ss Adam Aug
'69; Amazing Sep '69
+ o On the Downhill Side o ss Universe 2, ed. Terry Carr, Ace,
1972
+ o O Ye of Little Faith o ss Knight Sep '68
+ o Neon o ss The Haunt of Horror Aug '73
+ o Basilisk o ss F&SF Aug '72
+ o Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes o nv Knight May '67
+ o Corpse o ss F&SF Jan '72
+ o Shattered Like a Glass Goblin o ss Orbit 4, ed. Damon
Knight, G.P. Putnam's, 1968
+ o Delusion for a Dragon Slayer o ss Knight Sep '66
+ o The Face of Helene Bournouw o ss Collage Oct '60
+ o Bleeding Stones o ss Vertex Apr '73
+ o At the Mouse Circus o ss New Dimensions I, ed. Robert
Silverberg, Doubleday, 1971
+ o The Place with No Name o ss F&SF Jul '69
+ o Paingod o ss Fantastic Jun '64
+ o Ernest and the Machine God o nv Knight Jan '68
+ o Rock God o ss Coven 13 Nov '69
+ o Adrift Just Off the Islets of Langerhans: Latitude 38° 54'
N, Longitude 77° 00' 13" W o nv F&SF Oct '74
+ o The Deathbird o nv F&SF Mar '73
I still don't think I am the one to discuss Ellison, although
some of these are very good.
I must admit to lingering Anthology Fatigue from reading _The
Essential Ellison_ in 2001. There's something about huge single author
anthologies I find quite tiring (In the case of the Tor Clarke, because
it sprains my wrists to hold the tome up). That is not a criticism of
the contents.
DARKOVER LANDFALL by Marion Zimmer Bradley
I missed this.
Fall THE BOOK OF LOST TALES, PART ONE by J.R.R. Tolkien
And this.
CLAY'S ARK by Octavia Butler
I am not sure what the formal name of the series is but this is
one in the sequence _Wild Seed_, _Mind of my Mind_ and _Patternmaster_.
This book explains how the Clayark disease came to Earth and how it
spread, reducing civilization to small enclaves in seas of animalistic
barbarity. Decently written but not my favourite of the sequence.
VOYAGER IN NIGHT by C.J. Cherryh (Alternate)
I think I missed this one.
FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
November WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
First in a series about intelligent dinosaurs confronting
intelligent mammals as (I think) an ice age looms. Solid pedestrian
fare that did not entice me into buying the books that followed.
HEECHEE RENDEZVOUS by Frederik Pohl
Indifferent sequel to _Gateway_ and _Beyond the Blue Event
Horizon_. Robin has a change of venue, as I recall and various interesting
questions get dull answers.
THE WANDERING UNICORN by Manuel Mujica Lainez (Alternate)
Never even heard of this.
December CROSS-CURRENTS (3-in-1 of STORM SEASON, THE FACE OF CHAOS and WINGS
OF OMEN) edited by Robert Lynn Asprin and Lynn Abbey
Here are the contents lists for two of these:
Storm Season ed. Robert Lynn Asprin (Ace 0-441-78710-X, Oct '82,
$2.95, 305pp, pb) [*Thieves' World]; Thieves' World #4.
+ o Editor's Note o Robert Lynn Asprin o pr
+ 1 o Storm Season Introduction o Robert Lynn Asprin o in
+ 9 o Exercise in Pain o Robert Lynn Asprin o nv *
+ 37 o Downwind o C. J. Cherryh o nv *
+ 87 o A Fugitive Art o Diana L. Paxson o nv *
+ 127 o Steel o Lynn Abbey o na *
+ 192 o Wizard Weather o Janet Morris o na *
+ 254 o Godson o Andrew J. Offutt o nv *
+ 299 o Epilog o Robert Lynn Asprin o aw *
The Face of Chaos ed. Robert Lynn Asprin & Lynn Abbey (Ace
0-441-22549-7, Oct '83, $2.95, 242pp, pb) [*Thieves' World];
Thieves' World #5.
+ 1 o Introduction o Robert Lynn Asprin o in
+ 9 o High Moon o Janet Morris o na *
+ 65 o Necromant o C. J. Cherryh o nv *
+ 115 o The Art of Alliance o Robert Lynn Asprin o ss *
+ 135 o The Corners of Memory o Lynn Abbey o nv *
+ 175 o Votary o David Drake o nv *
+ 211 o Mirror Image o Diana L. Paxson o nv *
I assume the missing one is also yet another Thieves World shared
world anthology.
GODS OF THE GREATAWAY by Michael Coney
Missed this.
THE SHATTERED WORLD by Michael Reaves (Alternate)
And this.
STAR TREK: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane (Alternate)
And this.
--
"About this time, I started getting depressed. Probably the late
hour and the silence. I decided to put on some music.
Boy, that Billie Holiday can sing."
_Why I Hate Saturn_, Kyle Baker
Richard Horton
wrote:
> THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
>
> A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
>himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
>isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
>
Minor indeed but I did enjoy it.
>
> THE DRAGON WAITING by John M. Ford (Alternate)
>
> An alternate history set in a world where vamparism exists
>and has had a significant effect on world history. Unfortunately it
>has been so long since I read it that is about all I do recall of it.
>
Won the World Fantasy Award, I believe. It's about Richard III, and
very good but as it's a John M. Ford book it's also very complicated
and hard to follow.
I liked this particular collection a great deal -- it might be his
best single collection (leaving out things like _The Essential
Ellison_ -- just as you can't count "Greatest Hits" albums as among
rock stars' best albums.)
One of the lesser known stories that I like a lot in this book is "On
the Downhill Side", a unicorn story that a) really impressed me when I
read it in the first Nebula Awards Anthology I ever encountered, and
b) gave me a false impression of Ellison.
>
> FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
>
> Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
>
I think this might be an omnibus of Piper's Little Fuzzy books, but I
may be wrong.
--
Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://richard...@sff.net
Home Page: http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton
Also visit SF Site (http://www.sfsite.com) and Tangent Online (http://www.tangentonline.com)
John Duncan Yoyo
wrote:
> THE SHATTERED WORLD by Michael Reaves (Alternate)
IMS a standard fantasy world that is broken into to chunks all
floating in near proximity to each other and people can move with
difficulty from one bit to another.
It is or there was a sequel. I need to look it over again but I
remember having really enjoyed it. Every time I see it in a used book
store I want to pick it up.
-
John Duncan Yoyo
------------------------------o)
Peter D. Tillman
Jon Meltzer <jonme...@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
> >
> > A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
> >himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
> >isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
>
> This always struck me as a trunk novel, published only after Brin hit
> it big with "Startide Rising". He tries to do Harold Shea, but fails.
>
Hmmpph. You're being too hard on Brin & this book, methinks. The device
is, hmmm minor spoiler [R13] negvsnpgf trg *orggre* nf gurl'er hfrq, naq
ernyyl jryy-hfrq negvsnpgf--sberk n obj, be unaqgbby--orpbzr
Znfgrejbexf. Juvpu yrnqf gb fhpu nzhfvat tbvatf-ba nf evpu crbcyr uvevat
freinagf gb jrne gurve pybgurf, hfr gurve gbbyf rgp rgp.
Anyway, I found PE light, amusing & fun, and it holds up well to
rereading. YMMV, a lot, as seems usual for [alleged] humor.
> > DARKOVER LANDFALL by Marion Zimmer Bradley
> >
> > I missed this.
>
> Earth colony ship crashes on alien planet, which turns out to be ...
I think this is the first Darkover novel by internal chronology. That
one's pretty good, actually, decent and colorful soft-SF and a nice
setup for the (interminable) sequels. Was this a retconned start of the
Darkover series?
And I'm enjoying this series, James. Interesting to see your reading
habits, and blindspots.... <g>
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
--
"Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center"
--from a high-school essay on "use of the simile"
MPorcius
>
> First in a series about intelligent dinosaurs confronting
>intelligent mammals as (I think) an ice age looms. Solid pedestrian
>fare that did not entice me into buying the books that followed.
>
I remember enjoying this when I read it 15 years ago. The most memorable
element was how the invading dinosaur people used an organic technology, quite
like the Tyranids in the Games Workshop games. I also recall that the edition
I borrowed from a friend had clever little illustrations. I think the book
was supposed to have something to say about imperialism or colonialism, the
humans being like Native Americans and the dinos like Europeans, but I remember
the illustrations (creepy organic guns, scary organic naval vessels) better
than the plot.
Mike Schilling
"Richard Horton" <rrho...@prodigy.net> wrote in message
news:%FRqa.54$da4.11...@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com...
>
> >
> > FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
> >
> > Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
> >
It's Piper's long-lost third Fuzzy novel, not found and published until
1984.
Richard Todd
> FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
>
> Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, this is the long-unpublished 3rd
Fuzzy novel by H. Beam Piper. It was okay, IMHO, but not as interesting
as the Fuzzy sequel that William Tuning wrote (_Fuzzy Bones_).
> HEECHEE RENDEZVOUS by Frederik Pohl
>
> Indifferent sequel to _Gateway_ and _Beyond the Blue Event
> Horizon_. Robin has a change of venue, as I recall and various interesting
> questions get dull answers.
Yeah. Robin is as whiny as ever, only now he can whine faster. Bleah.
The only redeeming feature of this book is the cool aura of mystery about
the Assassins, which gets blown completely in the sequel.
> STAR TREK: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane (Alternate)
>
> And this.
Star Trek (obviously) novel, with a Romulan commander seeking the help of the
Enterprise and friends to stop an Evil Plot in her homeland. I quite liked
it.
Richard Horton
<til...@aztec.asu.edu> wrote:
>I think this is the first Darkover novel by internal chronology. That
>one's pretty good, actually, decent and colorful soft-SF and a nice
>setup for the (interminable) sequels. Was this a retconned start of the
>Darkover series?
Yes, it was.
John Andrew Fairhurst
> STAR TREK: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane (Alternate)
>
> And this.
>
Star Fleet has been loosing it's Vulcan crewed starships (no wonder they
can't find recruits from there!) and Kirk's given a task force to see
what's going on.
When a Rihansu captain tells him, he's in two minds as to whether to
trust her, especially when he finds out whose aunt she is...
--
John Fairhurst
In Association with Amazon worldwide:
http://www.johnsbooks.co.uk/
Your One-Stop Site for Classic SF!
Updated for 2003 Publications
David Allsopp
<jdni...@panix.com> writes
> THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
>
> A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
>himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
>isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
in my memory, as does the main plot conceit. But as it's humour, YMMV
more than ordinarily.
>Fall THE BOOK OF LOST TALES, PART ONE by J.R.R. Tolkien
>
> And this.
At this point I realised I wasn't as much of a Tolkien completist as I had
at first thought... I'm still tempted to get the later one with the full
Beren & Luthien bit from the library though.
> FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
>
> Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
OK, but not as good as the William Tuning sequel, which took the plot in
an intelligent direction given the unanswered questions of the first two.
(ROT13 spoilers: jvgu uvaqfvtug, vg jnf *boivbhf* gung gur Shmmvrf zhfg
unir pbzr sebz bss-cynarg.)
>November WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
>
> First in a series about intelligent dinosaurs confronting
>intelligent mammals as (I think) an ice age looms. Solid pedestrian
>fare that did not entice me into buying the books that followed.
Dull. Dull dull dull.
> GODS OF THE GREATAWAY by Michael Coney
>
> Missed this.
I believe this is the followup to "The Celestial Steam Locomotive", which
is Coney's attempt to prove that Cordwainer Smith is not irreplaceable[*].
Read his "Hello Summer, Goodbye" instead, which is achingly beautiful and
altogether A Good Thing.
[*] He failed.
--
David Allsopp Houston, this is Tranquillity Base.
Remove SPAM to email me The Eagle has landed.
Htn963
>On 27 Apr 2003 09:19:05 -0400, jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll)
>wrote:
<snip>
It also gets my vote as the best sf collection from an author ever
assembled. (No, I haven't sampled Le Guin's yet). Not a weak story in the
lot, but therein goes the caveat: it is a scorpion's nest not recommended to
be opened all at once. The blurb usually found on it from the NY Times is spot
on: it is a quite powerful and savage compilation. The last two stories,
_Adrift_ (a Fantastic Journey kinda fantasy) and _Deathbird_ (Duel with God) ,
iirc, were Hugo winners.
Hmm, and most of the "other" stories would themselves be stand-outs in any
other collections: the first, _Whimpers_ (urban violence assumes a face) was
inspired by a rl case of a woman being knifed to death just outside her
apartment building while a bunch of her neighbors looked on; _Basilisk_ is a
bitter and harrowing allegory of a Vietnam POW (the detailed description of how
he stepped on a spike still gives me the cringe) who returned home to
indifference and hatred, but found that he has now gained powers to wreak
carnage on his persecutors in a fashion Rambo would have approved; _Maggy
Money-Eyes_ -- about a sentient female jukebox and reads like it was based on
one of Ellison's past girlfriends -- is a minor classic.
--
Ht
|Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore
never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.
--John Donne, "Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions"|
David Tate
> In article <b8glc9$quk$1...@panix3.panix.com>, jdni...@panix.com says...
> > STAR TREK: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane (Alternate)
> >
> > And this.
> >
>
> Star Fleet has been loosing it's Vulcan crewed starships
On whom?
Peter D. Tillman
David Allsopp <d...@tqSPAMbase.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> >November WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
> >
> > First in a series about intelligent dinosaurs confronting
> >intelligent mammals as (I think) an ice age looms. Solid pedestrian
> >fare that did not entice me into buying the books that followed.
> Dull. Dull dull dull.
Well, I found it OK to good. Precisely AOL to James, actually...
>
> > GODS OF THE GREATAWAY by Michael Coney
> >
> > Missed this.
> I believe this is the followup to "The Celestial Steam Locomotive", which
> is Coney's attempt to prove that Cordwainer Smith is not irreplaceable[*].
>
> [*] He failed.
Huh. So *that's* what he was trying to do.
Both LOCO & GREATAWAY had moments, but I've forgotten what they were. I
remember being mildly puzzled as to whathehell was going on, while
reading them, but the writing was good enough to lure me on... Once.
> Read his "Hello Summer, Goodbye" instead, which is achingly beautiful and
> altogether A Good Thing.
Thanx for the tip!
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
--
"Paris, this army you're battling--they're *Greeks*. Idomeneus,
Diomedes, Sthenelos, Euryalos, Odysseus--I *know* these men. Know them?
By Pan's flute, I've *dated* half of them..." -- Helen, per James Morrow.
Nancy Lebovitz
Htn963 <htn...@cs.com> wrote:
>
> Hmm, and most of the "other" stories would themselves be stand-outs in any
>other collections: the first, _Whimpers_ (urban violence assumes a face) was
>inspired by a rl case of a woman being knifed to death just outside her
>apartment building while a bunch of her neighbors looked on; _Basilisk_ is a
>bitter and harrowing allegory of a Vietnam POW (the detailed description of how
>he stepped on a spike still gives me the cringe) who returned home to
>indifference and hatred, but found that he has now gained powers to wreak
>carnage on his persecutors in a fashion Rambo would have approved; _Maggy
>Money-Eyes_ -- about a sentient female jukebox and reads like it was based on
>one of Ellison's past girlfriends -- is a minor classic.
It was about a haunted slot machine, not a juke box.
--
Nancy Lebovitz na...@netaxs.com www.nancybuttons.com
Now, with bumper stickers
Using your turn signal is not "giving information to the enemy"
wth...@godzilla5.acpub.duke.edu
> On 27 Apr 2003 09:19:05 -0400, jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll)
> wrote:
>
> > THE SHATTERED WORLD by Michael Reaves (Alternate)
>
> IMS a standard fantasy world that is broken into to chunks all
> floating in near proximity to each other and people can move with
> difficulty from one bit to another.
>
> It is or there was a sequel. I need to look it over again but I
> remember having really enjoyed it.
I found the first book to be fresh, at a time when
most fantasy products were beginning to take on
that "extruded" participle. I didn't know there
was a sequel.
William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University
David E. Siegel
> Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
>
> Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
> to Science Fiction.
>
> www.locusmag.com/index/
>
>
>
> And this.
The very earliest versions of what would, many years later, become the
Silmarillion. Most of the beast stories are, IMO, in Part II,
including the only full telling of the story of the Fall of Gondolin
(I wish he had finished the revised version in UT) and the first
version of Beren and Luthien.
>
> FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
>
> Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
>
The 3rd fuzzy book by Piper, unearthed and published long after his
death. not as good as the first two IMO, and the sequel by Tuning was
in many ways more interesting, and the publication of this prevented
the 2nd part of that from being published.
>
> STAR TREK: MY ENEMY, MY ALLY by Diane Duane (Alternate)
>
> And this.
The first of the "Rihanisau" (sp?) books in which Duane explores the
relations btwn romulans and Vulcans, and Romulan society in general.
_Spock's World_ ties into this sequence, as does her very good
earlier ST book (which was mentioned her recently its the one with the
glass spider, can't recall the title). These have been officially been
declared non-canon, probably because they don't fit the romulans in
the later TV series.
-DES
Scott Beeler
> In article <20030428050554...@mb-m12.news.cs.com>,
> Htn963 <htn...@cs.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hmm, and most of the "other" stories would themselves be stand-outs in any
> >other collections: the first, _Whimpers_ (urban violence assumes a face) was
> >inspired by a rl case of a woman being knifed to death just outside her
> >apartment building while a bunch of her neighbors looked on; _Basilisk_ is a
> >bitter and harrowing allegory of a Vietnam POW (the detailed description of how
> >he stepped on a spike still gives me the cringe) who returned home to
> >indifference and hatred, but found that he has now gained powers to wreak
> >carnage on his persecutors in a fashion Rambo would have approved; _Maggy
> >Money-Eyes_ -- about a sentient female jukebox and reads like it was based on
> >one of Ellison's past girlfriends -- is a minor classic.
>
> It was about a haunted slot machine, not a juke box.
Yep. "Pretty Maggie Moneyeyes" is my personal favorite Ellison story,
though there's tons of his stuff I haven't read.
--
Scott C. Beeler scott...@home.com
John Andrew Fairhurst
dt...@ida.org says...
> > Star Fleet has been loosing it's Vulcan crewed starships
>
> On whom?
>
Oooh, petty!! :-)
Robert A. Woodward
sie...@acm.org (David E. Siegel) wrote:
> jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in message
> news:<b8glc9$quk$1...@panix3.panix.com>...
> > Lists courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
> >
> > Contents for anthologies and omnibuses from the Locus Index
> > to Science Fiction.
> >
> > www.locusmag.com/index/
> >
> >
> > Fall
<snip>
>
> >
> > FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
> >
> > Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
> >
> The 3rd fuzzy book by Piper, unearthed and published long after his
> death. not as good as the first two IMO, and the sequel by Tuning was
> in many ways more interesting, and the publication of this prevented
> the 2nd part of that from being published.
>
Tuning finished it before he died? I had thought that he hadn't.
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw
David Tate
> In article <9d67e55e.03042...@posting.google.com>,
> dt...@ida.org says...
> > > Star Fleet has been loosing it's Vulcan crewed starships
> >
> > On whom?
>
> Oooh, petty!! :-)
Guilty as charged. Mea culpa, but my GOD that one drives me crazy.
(Do I get any credit for letting the bogus apostrophe pass without comment?)
David Tate
Randy Money
Kitty Genovese, I believe, was the name of the real woman.
Anthologized many, many times in both mystery and horror anthologies, I
believe "Whimper..." won the Mystery Writers' Edgar Award. I have meant
to reread it numerous times but have stalled -- I was young when I first
read it and Ellison's in-your-face style overwhelmed me. I can't think
of the story without instantly flashing to my impression of the author's
rage and indignation. If the power of a story has relation to the effect
it leaves on its readers, I'd say this story was intensely powerful.
Randy M.
Randy Money
>> THE WANDERING UNICORN by Manuel Mujica Lainez (Alternate)
>>
>> Never even heard of this.
>
>
> Magical realist novel from Mexico(?)
Not sure about the "from Mexico" part, but magic realism, certainly. It
follows Melusine, a fairy, who takes human form, marries, has kids, gets
caught out of human form and loses all, then watches over them as they age.
And that isn't really what the story is about. That's just the hanger
the story of her family is hung on. The book, as I recall, covers a
significant time span of the middle ages and does so without becoming
cement-block thick.
I didn't exactly enjoy it when I read it -- my liking for novel-length
magic realism seems to wax and wane -- but it gets better in memory.
It's one of those I need to reread some day, though probably not soon.
Randy M.
David E. Siegel
I don't know, but I am pretty sure that if he hadn't, he stopped work
when the 3rd piper fuzzy book was found, as this maed it unlikely that
a sequel to his work would ever be published.
-DES
Taki Kogoma
to rec.arts.sf.written decree...
No, but I'll let you have a 10% discount at the Quirk Peeve Ranch[1].
Gym "May specials: Buy a 'their/there/they're', 'to/too/two' or
'sight/site/cite' and get 'WWW != Internet' for 50% off." Quirk
[1] Having collected such a wide an varied group of pet peeves, I've struck
out into the unexplored field of commercial peeve ranching. Specialties
are spelling/grammar/word-selection, and computer-technical.
--
Capt. Gym Z. Quirk | /"\ ASCII RIBBON
(Known to some as Taki Kogoma) | \ / CAMPAIGN
quirk @ swcp.com | X AGAINST HTML MAIL
Veteran of the '91 sf-lovers re-org. | / \ AND POSTINGS
Niall McAuley
> [1] Having collected such a wide an varied group of pet peeves, I've struck
> out into the unexplored field of commercial peeve ranching.
Home, home on the range
Where the peeves and the gruffalopes play...
--
Niall [real address ends in se, not es.invalid]
Thomas Yan
-snip-
> CLAY'S ARK by Octavia Butler
>
> I am not sure what the formal name of the series is but this is
> one in the sequence _Wild Seed_, _Mind of my Mind_ and _Patternmaster_.
> This book explains how the Clayark disease came to Earth and how it
> spread, reducing civilization to small enclaves in seas of animalistic
> barbarity. Decently written but not my favourite of the sequence.
-snip-
I've seen those books referred to as Patternist books.
Trip the Space Parasite From:
> THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
> A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
>himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
>isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
Full of in-jokes for Brin's alma mater (Caltech), if that helps clarify
how minor it is.
Trip
--
I write of things which I have neither seen nor learned from another,
things which are not and never could have been, and therefore my readers
should by no means believe them. --Lucian of Samosata
Karl M Syring
> jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) writes:
>
>> THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
>
>> A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
>>himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
>>isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
>
> Full of in-jokes for Brin's alma mater (Caltech), if that helps clarify
> how minor it is.
Still, it is a very amusing read, much more than some intentional
funny novels, if you ask me.
Karl M. Syring
Andrew Plotkin
It's intentionally funny.
--Z
"And Aholibamah bare Jeush, and Jaalam, and Korah: these were the borogoves..."
*
* Make your vote count. Get your vote counted.
Martin Wisse
<til...@aztec.asu.edu> wrote:
>In article <CBAwMaBT...@tqbase.demon.co.uk>,
> David Allsopp <d...@tqSPAMbase.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>>
>> >November WEST OF EDEN by Harry Harrison
>> >
>> > First in a series about intelligent dinosaurs confronting
>> >intelligent mammals as (I think) an ice age looms. Solid pedestrian
>> >fare that did not entice me into buying the books that followed.
>
>> Dull. Dull dull dull.
>
>Well, I found it OK to good. Precisely AOL to James, actually...
I couldn't get past the silly premise, of having both intelligent
dinosaurs and humans; it just doesn't seem possible to me. There are few
times when I get annoyed at the science in a book, but this was one of
them.
For some reason though, this book and the subsequent series was heavily
hyped in the Netherlands as an science fiction classic, but like all off
Harrison's work, it wasn't.
Mike Schilling
"Martin Wisse" <mwi...@ad-astra.demon.nl> wrote in message
news:3eb1f4c5....@news.demon.nl...
Universal statement: must find counterexample.
_Make Room, Make Room_ is the classic novel of overpopulation.
Bill Snyder
Arguably even _Deathworld_. Clunky, but still a classic.
--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank.]
John M. Gamble
Yes. Not only that, but this collection as a whole was nominated for
Best Anthology or Collection for the 1976 World Fantasy Award. It
lost to *The Enquirires of Doctor Eszterhazy,* by Avram Davidson.
> Hmm, and most of the "other" stories would themselves be stand-outs in any
>other collections: the first, _Whimpers_ (urban violence assumes a face) was
>inspired by a rl case of a woman being knifed to death just outside her
>apartment building while a bunch of her neighbors looked on; _Basilisk_ is a
>bitter and harrowing allegory of a Vietnam POW (the detailed description of how
>he stepped on a spike still gives me the cringe) who returned home to
>indifference and hatred, but found that he has now gained powers to wreak
>carnage on his persecutors in a fashion Rambo would have approved; _Maggy
>Money-Eyes_ -- about a sentient female jukebox and reads like it was based on
>one of Ellison's past girlfriends -- is a minor classic.
--
-john
February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.
John M. Gamble
><jdni...@panix.com> writes
>> THE PRACTICE EFFECT by David Brin
>>
>> A minor comic novel in which a person from our world finds
>>himself in one where entropy apparently works in reverse. Probably
>>isn't a vector for herpes but not my thing.
>As you say, a minor work, but I enjoyed it enough that some scenes stick
>in my memory, as does the main plot conceit. But as it's humour, YMMV
>more than ordinarily.
>
It may also resonate more or less deeply depending upon whether you
were in college when you read it. The whole "practice effect" is an
obvious metaphor for the over-and-over studying one has to do then,
not to mention the envy one feels for the naturals who just breeze
through their course.
John Duncan Yoyo
The Burning Realm (1988) not as good as the first but still better
than much of the extruded stuff out there. The world building is
fresh and interesting with just enough of the extruded world furniture
to make it comfortable.
-
John Duncan Yoyo
------------------------------o)
Danny Sichel
>> FUZZIES AND OTHER PEOPLE by H. Beam Piper (Alternate)
>> Either I never read this or it left no impression on me.
> The 3rd fuzzy book by Piper, unearthed and published long after his
> death. not as good as the first two IMO, and the sequel by Tuning was
> in many ways more interesting, and the publication of this prevented
> the 2nd part of that from being published.
....uh? There's a sequel to _Fuzzy Bones_? Could it be published, even
at this date?