SFBC 1972
James Nicoll
List courtesy of Andrew Wheeler
Sorry this took so long but there were a lot of anthologies to
type, some of them rather thick. Come on, Elwood!
1972
January THE HUGO WINNERS, Volumes 1 & 2 edited by Isaac Asimov
Volume One contents
Introduction (ISaac Asimov)
The Darfstellar (Walter M. Miller)
Allamagoosa (Eric Frank Russel)
Exploration Team (Murray Leinster)
The Star (Arthur C. Clarke)
Or All the Seas With Oyster (Avram Davidson)
The Big Front Yard (Clifford Simak)
The Hell-Bound Train (Robert Bloch)
Flowers for Algeronon (Daniel Keyes)
The Longest Voyage (Poul Anderson)
Appendix: the Hugo Awards
Volume two contents
Here I Am Again (Isaac Asimov)
The Dragon Masters (Jack Vance)
No Truce With Kings (Poul Anderson)
Soldier, Ask Not (Gordon R. Dickson)
"Repent, Harlequin!" Said the Ticktockman (Harlan Ellison)
The Last Castle (Jack Vance)
Neutron Star (Larry Niven)
Weyr Search (Anne McCaffrey)
Riders of the Purple Wage (Philip Jose Farmer)
Gonna Roll the Bones (Fritz Leiber)
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream (Harlan Ellison)
Nightwings (Robert Silverberg)
The Sharing of Flesh (Poul Anderson)
The Beast That Shouted Love at the Heat of the World (Harlan Ellison)
Time Considered as a Semi-Precious Helix of Stones (Samuel Delany)
Appendix: Hugo Awards 1962-1970
My copy seems to have gone missing or have been misfiled. I suspect
the second because I was looking at it recently. Oh well. Can't be helped.
(insert 40 minutes of James looking for his copy)
It was under 'E' for some reason. It's both volumes in one,
the sort of concentrated SNfal goodness that hooks innocent 14 year
olds onto SF for life. For some reason, the first half seems to have
left much more of an impression on me.
A CHOICE OF GODS by Clifford D. Simak
Robots. Religion. Two great tastes that go great together!
Most of humanity vanished long ago and the few humans left behind
and the myriad of robots also left behind have made an accomedation with their
circumstances. It looks, however, like the missing people may be coming back,
with divine aid.
Not my favourite Simak but worth reading, I'd say.
February THE THIRD EAR by Curt Siodmak
Didn't read this.
THE MANY WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION edited by Ben Bova
Contents:
Introduction (Ben Bova)
The Blue Mouse (Gene Wolfe)
Hot Potato (Burt K. Filer)
All Cats Are Grey (Andrew North aka Andre Norton)
The Law-Twister Shorty (Gordon R. Dickson)
Three Blind Mice (Keith Laumer)
Daughter (Anne McCaffrey)
Something Wild is Loose (Robert Silverberg)
Silent in Gehenna (Harlan Ellison)
I probably read the Dickson (About Diblians, I think, a low tech
race caught between Earth and unnice aliens) but otherwise this seems to
have been a miss for me.
March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
I liked it.
ORBIT 10 edited by Damon Knight
Contents:
The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Gene Wolfe)
Jody After the War (Edward Bryant)
Al (Carol Emshwiller)
Now I'm Watching Roger (Alexei Panshin)
Whirl Cage (Jack Dann)
A Kingdom by the Sea (Gardner R. Dozois)
Christlings (Albert Teichner)
Live, From Berchtesgaden (George Alec Effinger)
Dorg (R.A. Lafferty)
The Fusion Bomb (Kate Wilhelm)
Index to Vols 1-10
I read the Panshin (a tale of cabin fever in space) but
otherwise missed this.
I wish Bryant's career had been more successful, in the sense
of producing books I saw.
April THE WRONG END OF TIME by John Brunner
Odd book about an America which has turned its back on the
world to hide behind an impenatrable wall of defenses. Aliens are
signalling Earth with what seems to be a threatening series of
messages and an agent of the !American world must journey into
Darkest America (Which is like a Larry Niven novel only, you know,
bad) to avert WWIII.
I liked it but do not think about the communications problem
that is revealed for even an instant.
CAN YOU FEEL ANYTHING WHEN I DO THIS? by Robert Sheckley
Contents:
Can You Feel Anything When I do This?
Cordle to Onion to Carrot
The Petrified World
Game: First Schematic
Doctor Zombie and His Furry Little Friends
The Cruel Equations
The Same to You Doubled
Starting from Scratch
The Mnemone
Tripout
Notes on the Perception of Imaginary Differences
Down the Digestive Tract and Into the Cosmos with Mantra, Tantra and
Specklebang
Pas De Trois of the Chef, the Waiter and the Customer
Aspects of Langranak
Plague Circuit
Tailpipe to Disaster
I seem to have missed this.
May MUTANT 59: THE PLASTIC-EATERS by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
There were copies of this in bookshops here in Ontario for
years and years but I never read it despite that. I distinctly recall
the cover, though.
A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
Introduction (Damon Knight)
Green Thought (John Collier)
The Red Queen's Race (Isaac Asimov)
The Cure (Henry Kuttner & C.L. Moore)
Consider Her Ways (John Wyndham)
An Ornament to His Profession (Charles L. Harness)
The Third Level (Jack Finney)
One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts (Shirley Jackson)
Bernie the Faust (William Tenn)
Light of Other Days (Bob Shaw)
The Game of Rat and Dragon (Cordwainer Smith)
Becalmed in Hell (Larry Niven)
Apology to Inky (Robert M. Green, Jr.)
The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester)
Day Million (Frederik Pohl)
Mann (Peter Philips)
Can You Feel Anythign When I do This? (Robert Sheckley)
Somerset Dreams (Kate Wilhelm)
He Walked Around the Horse (H. Beam Piper)
Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-Tah-Tee (Fritz Leiber)
Sea Wrack (Edward Jesby)
Man in His Time (Brian W. Aldiss)
Four Brands of Impossible (Norman Kagan)
Built Up Logically (Howard Schoenfeld)
Judgement Day (L. Sprague de Camp)
Journeys End (Poul Anderson)
More Than Human (Theodore Sturgeon)
Judging by the few stories in here I read (The Tenn, the Niven,
the Shaw, the Piper and the de Camp) I regret missing this. Left to his
own devices Tenn couldn't write a dud story if his life depended on it*.
The Niven is a Fun Niven, exploring the new solar system. The Shaw has
been reviewed here before. The Piper is about the mysterious disappearance
of an important man and is I think part of the Paratime series, and the
de Camp is an incredibly bitter some autobiographical short piece about
a fellow has to decide whether or not to publish information that will
lead to the end of the world.
* There are four or five bad stories in the second NESFA collection of
Tenn, but they share a common reason, given in the text, for being not
so good.
June THE GODS THEMSELVES by Isaac Asimov
A novel in three parts about humans and their interdimensional
trade with aliens. We seem to be getting free energy but it develops
that there is an undocumented price tag attached.
I have fond memories of this. Not sure how it actually stands
up to a reread, though.
MIDSUMMER CENTURY by James Blish
July THE 1972 ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim
WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE by David Gerrold
A novel about the development of an AI, which I enjoyed when
I was a teen but have not reread in ages and ages. This is very much
the product of the early 1970s, when an irreversable wave of liberalism
was going continue forever. I wonder if the reworked version is any less
tied to its time?
August THE OVERMAN CULTURE by Edmund Cooper
Never much of a Cooper fan so I gave this a miss.
FROM THIS DAY FORWARD by John Brunner
contents
A 'From This Day Foreword' As It Were
The Biggest Game
The Trouble I See
An Elixir for the Emperor
Wasted on the Young
Even Chance
Planetfall
Judas
The Vitanuls
Factsheet Six
Fifth Commandment
Fairy Tale
The Inception of the Epoch of Mrs Bedonebyasyoudid
The Oldest Glass
Embarrasingly I think the only one of these I recall clearly
is 'Planetfall' one of the few stories about a generation ship completing
its mission and having to deal with logical consequences of that.
Summer THE METALLIC MUSE by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.
Contents:
The Tunesmith
Leading Man
Spare the Rod
Orphan of the Void
Well of the Deep Wish
In His Own Image
The Botticelli Horror
I don't own this but it has gotten consistently good reviews
online.
ALPH by Charles Eric Maine
And I missed this.
September AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison
Contents
An Assault on New Dreamers
The Counterpoint of View (John Heidenry)
Ching Witch! (Ross Rocklynne)
The Word For World is Forest (Ursula K. Le Guin)
For Value Received (Andrew J. Offutt)
Mathoms from the Time Closet (Gene Wolfe)
Time Travel for Pedestrians (Ray Faraday Nelson)
Christ, Old Student in a New School (Ray Bradbury)
King of the Hill (Chad Oliver)
The 10:00 O'Clock Report Is Brought To You By... (Edward Bryant)
The Funeral (Kate Wilhelm)
Harry the Hare (James B. Hemesath)
When It Changed (Joanna Russ)
The Big Space Fuck (Kurt Vonnegut)
Bounty (T.L. Sherred)
Still-life (K.M. O'Donnel)
Stoned Counsel (H.H. Hollis)
The Monitored Dreams & Strategic Cremations (Bernard Wolfe)
With a Finger in My I (David Gerrold)
In the Barn (Piers Anthony)
Soundless Evening (Lee Hoffman)
* (Gahan Wilson)
The Test-Tube Creature, Afterward (Joan Bernot)
And the Sea Like Mirrors (Gregory Benford)
Bed Sheets Are White (Evelyn Lief)
Tissue (James Sallis)
Elouise and the Doctors of Planet Pergamon (Josephine Saxton)
Chuck Berry, Won't You Please Come Home (Ken McCollough)
Epiphany for Aliens (David Kerr)
Eye of the Beholder (Burt K. Filer)
Moth Race (Richard Hill)
In re Glover (Leonard Tushnet)
Zero Gee (Ben Bova)
A Mouse in the Walls of the Global Village (Dean R. Koontz)
Getting Along (James Blish & Judith Ann Lawrence)
Totenbuch (Parra (y Figueredo))
Things Lost (Thomas Disch)
With the Bentfin Boomer Boys on Little Old New Alabama (Richard A.
Lupoff)
Lamia Mutable (M. John Harrison)
Last Train to Kankekee (Robin Scott)
Empire of the Sun (Andrew Weiner)
Ozymandias (Terry Carr)
The Milk of Paradise (James Tiptree, Jr.)
Ed Emshwiller (Anon)
And of all these I think I rean only two and not as part of this
collection (I knew old timey Problem SF author Ross Rocklynne had written
for this collection but that must have been from a review or something).
The Bova is about the first memebers of the 100 mile high club,
and part of the Kinsman series. The Lupoff is about power politics in a
setting where habitable planets were settled by various ethnic groups
who then grew into heavy handed caracatures of themselves, and where the
cheap FTL is a racial monopoly of the Australain aborigine. I've only
read the novel version, which was much delayed thanks to the inclusion
of a section in ADV, which was fairly late to the presses and whose
editor was hostile to the idea of the use of anything in ADV being used
elsewhere first.
THERE WILL BE TIME by Poul Anderson
This is the story of a boy who can will himself through time
and what happens when he meets other people with the same ability,
using history from Byzantium to the fifth millennium (I think) as
the backdrop. Unsurprisingly, history is mostly filled with tears
although there's a note of hope at the end.
October THE SECOND TRIP by Robert Silverberg
A humane society can deal with murderers and other reprobates
by wiping their minds and replacing them with personalities that are
more dull but less dangerous. Unfortunately the right stimulous (meeting
a neurotic psionic chick, for example) can bring the old personality out.
This is the story of the struggle between the new non-murderous version
and the old talented but completely bugfuck version of one person.
It was ok when I was 16 but I have not reread it in years and
years.
NOVA 2 edited by Harry Harrison
Introduction (Harry Harrison)
Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames,
John Westerly Dead (Robert Sheckley)
East Wind, West Wind (Frank M. Robinson)
Sumerian Oath (Philip Jose Farmer)
Now+n, Now-n (Robert Silverberg)
Two Odysseys into the Center (Barry M. Malzberg)
Darkness (Andre Carneiro trans. Leo L. Barrow)
On the Wheel (Damon Knight)
Miss Omega Raven (Maomi Mitchison)
The Poet in the Hologram in the Middle of Prime Time (Ed Bryant)
The Old Folks (James E. Gunn)
The Steam-Driven Boy (John Sladek)
I Tell You, It's True (Poul Anderson)
And Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways (James Tiptree, Jr.)
The Ergot Show (Brian W. Aldiss)
I like the Sheckley title. As far as I recall, the only story
I read in here is the Silverberg, which I think was a fairly minor one
about a fellow who can commicate with past and future versions of himself.
November THE SHEEP LOOK UP by John Brunner
Another one of the Morose Quartet, this is about a world with
serious population problem, apparently only resolvable through the deaths
of hundreds of millions of people and perhaps not even then. Not as upbeat
at the others in the series but worth reading.
THE DAY THE SUN STOOD STILL by Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson
and Robert Silverberg
I can't seem to find a content list on this.
December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
Contents:
The Callistan Menace
Ring Around the Sun
The Magnificent Possession
Trends
The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use
Black Friar of the Flame
Half-Breed
The Secret Sense
Homo Sol
Half-Breeds on Venus
The Imaginary
Heredity
Christmas on Ganymede
The Little Man on the Subway
Super-Neutron
The Hazing
Not Final!
Legal Rites (with Fred Pohl)
Time Pussy
Author! Author!
Death Sentence
Blind Alley
No Connection
The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline
The Red Queen Race
Mother Earth
Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
THE LISTENERS by James Gunn
An episodic novel about researcher listening for signals from
deep space. Don't a lot about this, although I think it has strong fans.
--
"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
Brandon Ray
James Nicoll wrote:
>
>
> THE DAY THE SUN STOOD STILL by Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson
> and Robert Silverberg
>
> I can't seem to find a content list on this.
This was one of those theme collections that were popular in the 70s, where three
writers were given a theme or premise and asked to write a novella-length
story. In this case, the theme was to write a story that "considers in detail
the reaction of society to a unique and astonishing event -- a miracle." It
includes a brief (1 page) forward on the theme by Lester del Rey, and the
following stories:
A Chapter of Revelation, by Poul Anderson
Thomas the Proclaimer, by Robert Silverberg
Things Which Are Caesar's, by Gordon R. Dickson
I got this book from the SFBC when it was a featured selection, and have read all
three stories, but I remember nothing about any of them.
>
>
> December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
>
> Contents:
*snip*
>
> Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
> you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
> false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
> add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
The reason they are forgettable is that they were stories that had never been
anthologized anywhere else -- that was the point of the collection, to preserve
these early stories that otherwise were available only in hard-to-find, decaying
pulps from the late 30s/early 40s. And it turned out that there were good
reasons why they hadn't ever been anthologized.
However, the book *was* worthwhile (to me, anyway) because Asimov included
autobiographical snippets about how each story came to be written. Asimov's
non-fiction always held my interest, and he was at the height of his form when he
was talking about a subject he really loved -- such as himself. :) (And I
honestly don't mean that as a snide comment; I've read both volumes of his
autobiography, and go back to them from time to time. He didn't have a
particularly interesting life, nor did he think any particularly deep thoughts.
But somehow, he kept me turning the pages.)
--
In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics! -- Homer Simpson
Michael S. Schiffer
news:b5fdqh$rfr$1...@panix3.panix.com:
>...
IIRC, Asimov noted that it was also an inapt title in his intro,
since the weapon was in fact used in the course of the story. (I
no longer remember what it was, though.)
Mike
--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS
msch...@condor.depaul.edu
aRJay
<jdni...@panix.com> writes
> NOVA 2 edited by Harry Harrison
>
> Introduction (Harry Harrison)
> Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames,
> John Westerly Dead (Robert Sheckley)
>
>I read in here is the Silverberg, which I think was a fairly minor one
>about a fellow who can commicate with past and future versions of himself.
The Sheckley title is superb, unfortunately the story itself I found
unmemorable apart from a feeling of letdown.
--
aRJay
"In this great and creatorless universe, where so much beautiful has
come to be out of the chance interactions of the basic properties of
matter, it seems so important that we love one another."
- Lucy Kemnitzer
David Tate
> List courtesy of Andrew Wheeler
>
> Sorry this took so long but there were a lot of anthologies to
> type, some of them rather thick.
You are to be commended.
I'm still weak on most of these, but I can add a couple of notes:
> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
> The Third Level (Jack Finney)
I believe the title refers to a mythical top floor at Grand Central
Station.
> One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts (Shirley Jackson)
The best story from a great writer; all-time classic.
> The Demolished Man (Alfred Bester)
Excerpts, I assume?
> More Than Human (Theodore Sturgeon)
Again, the whole thing, or excerpts? _More Than Human_ is the name of
the fixup of three novellas, of which "Baby is Three" (from the SF
Hall of Fame, volume 2) is the most famous.
> June THE GODS THEMSELVES by Isaac Asimov
>
> A novel in three parts about humans and their interdimensional
> trade with aliens. We seem to be getting free energy but it develops
> that there is an undocumented price tag attached.
>
> I have fond memories of this. Not sure how it actually stands
> up to a reread, though.
It has held up very well for me. I'm only lukewarm toward Asimov
novels, in general, but this was probably my favorite. (There's one I
still need to read, according to people like Rich Horton who know my
tastes pretty well.)
David Tate
Mike Schilling
"David Tate" <dt...@ida.org> wrote in message
news:9d67e55e.0303...@posting.google.com...
> > A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
>
>
> Excerpts, I assume?
>
> > More Than Human (Theodore Sturgeon)
>
> Again, the whole thing, or excerpts? _More Than Human_ is the name of
> the fixup of three novellas, of which "Baby is Three" (from the SF
> Hall of Fame, volume 2) is the most famous.
Both novels are included in their entirety.
Amazon has 33 used copies iof _ASFA_ available. If I didn't already own it,
I'd order one now.
Andrea Leistra
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> ORBIT 10 edited by Damon Knight
>
> Contents:
>
> The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Gene Wolfe)
[...]
> I read the Panshin (a tale of cabin fever in space) but
>otherwise missed this.
The Wolfe is superb and subtle, dealing with identity in typical Wolfean
fashion. It's in _The Fifth Head of Cerberus_ along with two related
and (IMO) inferior novellas. Someone has said here that Wolfe is at his
best writing short fiction or multi-volume epics, and this story is a
fine example of the former.
> MIDSUMMER CENTURY by James Blish
Since you don't comment on this, let me: Yawn.
--
Andrea Leistra
GSV Three Minds in a Can
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> said
<snip>
>May MUTANT 59: THE PLASTIC-EATERS by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis
>
> There were copies of this in bookshops here in Ontario for
>years and years but I never read it despite that. I distinctly recall
>the cover, though.
Pity, you missed quite a nice little book, although as much
'technothriller' as ScFi. This was filmed (actually the book may have
come from the film script) for UK TV series 'Doomwatch', which was a
whole set of 'how technology can get out of control' programs (1 hour
each, iirc), and this one stuck in my mind much better than the rest of
the series.
<snip>
--
GSV Three Minds in a Can
Outgoing Msgs are Turing Tested,and indistinguishable from human typing.
wth...@godzilla2.acpub.duke.edu
>
> CAN YOU FEEL ANYTHING WHEN I DO THIS? by Robert Sheckley
>
> I seem to have missed this.
Took it to work at General Electric, night shift.
Not an unqualified success. "*What* to onion to Carrot?
You're reading weird stuff boy."
As I say, I got my taste for Rjistaffel from this.
>
>
> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
How did I fail to buy this?
>
> ALPH by Charles Eric Maine
>
> And I missed this.
Perhaps I've slagged this one often enough.
But I think not.
>
> September AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison
>
>
>
> And of all these I think I rean only two and not as part of this
> collection (I knew old timey Problem SF author Ross Rocklynne had written
> for this collection but that must have been from a review or something).
I was at a small discussion group a couple of years ago in
which Mr Ellison felt he had to explain (to SF fans) who Mr
Rockllynne was. I thought this was rather silly, as
*clearly* everyone who came to hear Ellison speak would
have read ADV. I was wrong.
I recall about half the stories and would happily re-read
the book if I had it here.
>
> October THE SECOND TRIP by Robert Silverberg
>
> A humane society can deal with murderers and other reprobates
> by wiping their minds and replacing them with personalities that are
> more dull but less dangerous.
Didn't like this book. I couldn't figure out why the
above was any better than the death penalty.
> THE DAY THE SUN STOOD STILL by Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson
> and Robert Silverberg
>
> I can't seem to find a content list on this.
Sun stands still for a day. How do people react?
[re: early asimov]
>
> Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
> you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
> false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
> add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
I did like both "legal rites" and "Author, Author".
>
>
> THE LISTENERS by James Gunn
>
> An episodic novel about researcher listening for signals from
> deep space. Don't a lot about this, although I think it has strong fans.
I liked this a great deal. It is more about what happens when
we get a reply.
William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University
Konrad Gaertner
[rearranged a bit]
> December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
>
> Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
> you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
> false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
> add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
I may have to find myself a copy of this. I thought I'd read almost
all his fiction, but I don't recognize a lot of these.
<gripe> And Doubleday never finished publishing the Complete Stories.
</gripe>
> Contents:
>
> The Hazing
I saw an author's note saying that *he* forgot what this one was
about. College prank goes awry in cliched ways.
> Not Final!
This one's worth reading, about perfecting force fields.
> Author! Author!
I know I've read this one. Might be about an author's creation
coming to life.
> Death Sentence
I think this a post-nuclear war story where everyone lives
underground, and someone is exiled to the surface.
> Blind Alley
A must read about a bureaucrat and suicidal aliens.
> No Connection
Another mediocre post-nuclear war story.
> The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline
The thiotimoline "essays" were pretty neat.
> The Red Queen Race
I mentioned this in another thread, about using time travel to
keep history the way it is. Worth reading.
--KG
Mike Van Pelt
Michael S. Schiffer <msch...@condor.depaul.edu> wrote:
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in
>news:b5fdqh$rfr$1...@panix3.panix.com:
>>...
>> December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
>>
>> Contents:
>> The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use
>IIRC, Asimov noted that it was also an inapt title in his intro,
>since the weapon was in fact used in the course of the story. (I
>no longer remember what it was, though.)
A brain eraser. The target becomes a drooling newborn, mentally.
It could be (was) used on a small target, but using it on whole
planets was just a matter of where you aimed it.
(Asimov also noted that once the (Venusians?) signed the treaty
and got rid of the weapon, they'd probably get anihilated, signed
treaty in hand.)
--
The only meaningful memorial, the only one that will really count, will be when there are streets, tunnels, living and working quarters named after each of those astronauts--and those who will yet die in this effort--in permanently occupied stations on the moon, on Mars, in the asteroid belt, and beyond.
-- Bruce F. Webster
raymond larsson
[...]
> A CHOICE OF GODS by Clifford D. Simak
Simak is (almost) always enjoyable for me, though I suppose he could do
with more exploding spaceships.
> March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
>
> A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
> to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
>
> I liked it.
> CAN YOU FEEL ANYTHING WHEN I DO THIS? by Robert Sheckley
I believe the short story is perfect for Sheckley. Recommended, if that
means anything.
> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
> One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts (Shirley Jackson)
> Bernie the Faust (William Tenn)
> Light of Other Days (Bob Shaw)
> The Game of Rat and Dragon (Cordwainer Smith)
> Becalmed in Hell (Larry Niven)
I want this book
> June THE GODS THEMSELVES by Isaac Asimov
[...]
> I have fond memories of this. Not sure how it actually stands
> up to a reread, though.
Ditto.
> WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE by David Gerrold
>
> A novel about the development of an AI, which I enjoyed when
> I was a teen but have not reread in ages and ages. This is very much
> the product of the early 1970s, when an irreversable wave of liberalism
> was going continue forever. I wonder if the reworked version is any less
> tied to its time?
Mileage varies, it did not encourage me to read other of his works.
> FROM THIS DAY FORWARD by John Brunner
> Wasted on the Young
Obviously a reference to yout', could it be the one about a jealous man
trades places with his famous father? The son feels the honour gives him
the better of it.
> September AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS edited by Harlan Ellison
> In the Barn (Piers Anthony)
A polemic that I would probably have forgotten if it had not been written
by someone with a tin ear for English.
> NOVA 2 edited by Harry Harrison
[...]
> On the Wheel (Damon Knight)
> Miss Omega Raven (Maomi Mitchison)
Naomi I believe. Last raven in the pecking order gets enhanced
intelligence.
Richard Horton
wrote:
>
> 1972
>January THE HUGO WINNERS, Volumes 1 & 2 edited by Isaac Asimov
>It's both volumes in one,
>the sort of concentrated SNfal goodness that hooks innocent 14 year
>olds onto SF for life. For some reason, the first half seems to have
>left much more of an impression on me.
>
As I'm sure I have mentioned, this was one of my "4 books for a
dollar". And as you say, concentrated SFnal goodness.
>
>
> THE MANY WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION edited by Ben Bova
>
> Contents:
> ORBIT 10 edited by Damon Knight
>
> Contents:
>
> The Fifth Head of Cerberus (Gene Wolfe)
> Jody After the War (Edward Bryant)
> Al (Carol Emshwiller)
> Now I'm Watching Roger (Alexei Panshin)
> Whirl Cage (Jack Dann)
> A Kingdom by the Sea (Gardner R. Dozois)
> Christlings (Albert Teichner)
> Live, From Berchtesgaden (George Alec Effinger)
> Dorg (R.A. Lafferty)
> The Fusion Bomb (Kate Wilhelm)
> Index to Vols 1-10
>
>
> I read the Panshin (a tale of cabin fever in space) but
>otherwise missed this.
>
> I wish Bryant's career had been more successful, in the sense
>of producing books I saw.
>
The Wolfe novella is the first section of the novel of the same name,
and it is pure Wolfe at his most brilliant. A clone, shapeshifters,
twin planets -- I'm sure the potential for questions of identity is
clear. A great novella.
I recall liking the Wilhelm and Dozois stories as well, but I confess
I don't remember them.
>
> CAN YOU FEEL ANYTHING WHEN I DO THIS? by Robert Sheckley
>
> Contents:
>
> Can You Feel Anything When I do This?
> Cordle to Onion to Carrot
> The Petrified World
> Game: First Schematic
> Doctor Zombie and His Furry Little Friends
> The Cruel Equations
> The Same to You Doubled
> Starting from Scratch
> The Mnemone
> Tripout
> Notes on the Perception of Imaginary Differences
> Down the Digestive Tract and Into the Cosmos with Mantra, Tantra and
> Specklebang
> Pas De Trois of the Chef, the Waiter and the Customer
> Aspects of Langranak
> Plague Circuit
> Tailpipe to Disaster
>
>
> I seem to have missed this.
>
It's pretty good, a collection of stories fairly contemporary to the
publication date. The best is probably "Pas De Trois of the Chef, the
Waiter and the Customer", which has come up a few times on this ng.
It's not SF, from Playboy (where it was called "Three Sinners in the
Green Jade Moon" or something), and it's three views of the same
events in a rijstaffel restaurant. "The Same to You Doubled" is the
literal working out of what used to be Dan Goodman's .sig. The other
stories are a mixed bag but over all I liked the collection.
The other stories are good too -- the Anderson is a great
anti-telepathy story, the Harness is one of his best, from his first
return to the field, in the mid-60s, the Jackson is a fabulous weird
story that appeared in F&SF in the 50s, the Pohl is one of the best
short descriptions of a believably incomprehensible human far future
I've ever read, the Asimov is one of his best non-Foundation,
non-Robot 40s stories, if that makes any sense, and several of the
others are quite good as well.
> MIDSUMMER CENTURY by James Blish
>
Pretty good late Blish, kind of weird, too, about a man flung far into
the future, if I recall. Quite short, as with most late Blish.
>July THE 1972 ANNUAL WORLD'S BEST SF edited by Donald A. Wollheim
>
Here's what the ISFDB gives for the contents (easier than typing!):
sf All Pieces of a River Shore R. A. Lafferty
sf Aunt Jennie's Tonic Leonard Tushnet
sf The Bear Went Over the Mountain Sonya Dorman
sf The Bear with the Knot on His Tail Stephen Tall
sf The Fourth Profession Larry Niven
sf Gehenna Barry N. Malzberg
(as K. M.
O'Donnell)
sf Gleepsite Joanna Russ
es Introduction (The 1972 Annual World's Best
SF) Donald A. Wollheim
sf A Little Knowledge Poul Anderson
sf Occam's Scalpel Theodore Sturgeon
sf One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty Harlan Ellison
sf Real-Time World Christopher Priest
sf The Sharks of Pentreath Michael G. Coney
sf Timestorm Eddy C. Bertin
sf Transit of Earth Arthur C. Clarke
sf With Friends Like These... Alan Dean Foster
Of thse I recall the Niven in particular, one of my favorite of his
stories. I think the Anderson is pretty good, and the Tall is OK, too
-- Tall (real name Compton Crook) published a few engaging stories and
novels then died -- it seemed fairly young but it turns he was born in
1908 and turned to writing late. There is an award named after him.
Sonya Dorman published some fun stuff (I really liked the Roxy Rimidon
stories), and some first-rate poetry, but I haven't seen anything by
her in years.
The Tiptree is one of Tiptree's very best stories, brilliant stuff. I
have read the whole book and a lot of it is OK but a lot is tedious.
Still, a project well worth doing.
>
> NOVA 2 edited by Harry Harrison
>
> Introduction (Harry Harrison)
> Zirn Left Unguarded, the Jenghik Palace in Flames,
> John Westerly Dead (Robert Sheckley)
> East Wind, West Wind (Frank M. Robinson)
> Sumerian Oath (Philip Jose Farmer)
> Now+n, Now-n (Robert Silverberg)
> Two Odysseys into the Center (Barry M. Malzberg)
> Darkness (Andre Carneiro trans. Leo L. Barrow)
> On the Wheel (Damon Knight)
> Miss Omega Raven (Maomi Mitchison)
> The Poet in the Hologram in the Middle of Prime Time (Ed Bryant)
> The Old Folks (James E. Gunn)
> The Steam-Driven Boy (John Sladek)
> I Tell You, It's True (Poul Anderson)
> And Have Come Upon This Place by Lost Ways (James Tiptree, Jr.)
> The Ergot Show (Brian W. Aldiss)
>
>
> I like the Sheckley title. As far as I recall, the only story
>I read in here is the Silverberg, which I think was a fairly minor one
>about a fellow who can commicate with past and future versions of himself.
>
The Tiptree is pretty good (it's early 70s Tiptree, how could it be
otherwise?)
>
> THE DAY THE SUN STOOD STILL by Poul Anderson, Gordon R. Dickson
>and Robert Silverberg
>
> I can't seem to find a content list on this.
>
Poul Anderson, "A Chapter of Revelation"
Gordon R. Dickson, "Things Which Are Caesar's"
Robert Silverberg, "Thomas the Proclaimer"
I have read the Anderson and Silverberg, and I think they are OK but I
can't recall them well.
The last 5 or so are pretty good, the others much weaker. I've long
been fond of "No Connection".
What makes the book worth reading is the long, chatty,
autobiographical story introductions.
>
> THE LISTENERS by James Gunn
>
> An episodic novel about researcher listening for signals from
>deep space. Don't a lot about this, although I think it has strong fans.
I read it and liked it in the 70s. Rather a quiet book.
--
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)
William December Starr
raymond larsson <ragl...@sk.sympatico.ca> said:
>> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
>> One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts (Shirley Jackson)
>> Bernie the Faust (William Tenn)
>> Light of Other Days (Bob Shaw)
>> The Game of Rat and Dragon (Cordwainer Smith)
>> Becalmed in Hell (Larry Niven)
>
> I want this book
<http://dogbert.abebooks.com/abe/BookSearch> currently lists 62
copies for sale, some for as low as ~$3.00. (I suspect that the SFBC
printed and sold roughly four gazillion copies of the thing, most of
them probably as parts of introductory "Four Books for [absurdly
small amount of money]!" deals.)
-- William December Starr <wds...@panix.com>
William December Starr
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) said:
> March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
>
> A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
> to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
Is this the one with the mile-tall apartment towers?
[ *snip* ]
> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
> Judgement Day (L. Sprague de Camp)
> ...and the de Camp is an incredibly bitter some autobiographical
> short piece about a fellow has to decide whether or not to publish
> information that will lead to the end of the world.
I was in the ninth or tenth grade -- fourteen or fifteen years old --
when I read that story. You would not *believe* how strongly it
resonated for me. [Pauses, reflects.] Still does, in fact.
Daniel Frankham
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in message news:<b5fdqh$rfr$1...@panix3.panix.com>...
>> One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts (Shirley Jackson)
>
>The best story from a great writer; all-time classic.
Is this the one about a guy who does good deeds all day, and then goes
home, where SPOILER
his wife tells him about all the bad deeds she's done that day; and
tomorrow, for a change, they're going to swap roles?
--
Daniel Frankham
Mike Schilling
"Daniel Frankham" <dan...@ecite.net.au> wrote in message
news:k3to7vo4kofiobuie...@4ax.com...
Yup. And as soon as they agree, he says something rude to her:-)
Joseph Nebus
>January THE HUGO WINNERS, Volumes 1 & 2 edited by Isaac Asimov
> Allamagoosa (Eric Frank Russel)
You know, I keep reading Alamagoosa, and I keep forgetting
everything about it. Could some kind reader tell me what happens in
it, and I'll try to keep it in mind longer?
> MIDSUMMER CENTURY by James Blish
Man's mind is accidentally projected 25,000 years, four days
into the future, where it takes up residence in the Quant, the great
computer-god that rules the pitiful remnants of humanity in their
battles against the warming climate (they're all in Antarctica, and
it's hot) and the developing raven civilization.
This is from the era when Blish seemed to be taking stories
that were really dumb and rewriting them as novels that are, well,
all right, but not all that exciting (see all "And All The Stars A
Stage," space fleet constructed to cart a tiny handful of the world's
population away from the sun's explosion, only to find a couple neat
but inhospitable planets and then finally reach the end).
It really needed a more exciting thing to do once the guy was
in the Quant.
> WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE by David Gerrold
> A novel about the development of an AI, which I enjoyed when
>I was a teen but have not reread in ages and ages. This is very much
>the product of the early 1970s, when an irreversable wave of liberalism
>was going continue forever. I wonder if the reworked version is any less
>tied to its time?
The original novel was itself the extension of a short story;
I *think* it may have been in Dangerous Visions. I remember finding
the original story and then the original novel fun in part because of
its dated aspects. I haven't read the 2.0 version since ... oh, 1995
or so, so I don't remember much specific. I think most of the fixups
were in details and bits of terminology. (I could swear there was a
stretch making the careful distinctions between a virus and a worm
despite the very real risk that the reader would drift off.)
>December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
As it happens, a book I've been dipping around the past week.
The stories are generally bleah, although there are a couple neat bits
here and there. The real appeal, as others have noted, is Asimov
writing about his life and how the stories made the rounds and which
parts make him wince.
> Contents:
> Ring Around the Sun
This could have been a Robert Sheckley AAA Ace story, and probably
was.
> Trends
Asimov's first sale to Campbell, and a neat if not quite precisely
right bit of predicting society's response to the worst side effects of
scientific development.
> Half-Breed
> Half-Breeds on Venus
Paired because you will not want to miss the two worst short
stories Asimov published before his death. ("The Nations In Space" may
be worse.) All about the societal problems of Martian-human hybrids,
particularly as they settle down on Venus. Yeeeeesh.
> Homo Sol
> The Imaginary
Psychology introduced as an exact mathematical science! The
background's more interesting than the stuff that goes on with it,
though.
> Super-Neutron
In a dinner club-type setting (in the future) a tall tale is
told of how the Sun's about to be set nova. (Spoiler: it doesn't.)
Logical objections to the tale are raised, and answered, to the point
the tale gains a believability. It was intended to be the start of a
series of similar tall tale stories, and I'm sorry it wasn't followed
up on; when the Good Doctor wrote several characters out-logicking
each other he could build utterly beautiful structures.
> The Hazing
This reads like a spec script for a Star Fleet Academy series,
particularly if it were done as a Saturday morning cartoon.
> Author! Author!
This is probably the best of the bunch, and undeservedly
obscure. Mystery writer wrestles with his fictional creation.
Nifty all around, and a very funny scene of the writer describing
how he does all that dreadfully hard work of writing.
> Blind Alley
Top-notch bureaucrat saves aliens from extinction through the
applied use of paperwork. A clever story, although it feels at times
like it was written from the John Campbell Plot Template somehow (we
all know government procedures are designed to screw things up, so in
this tory procedure will make everything all better).
> No Connection
Intelligent bears discover the old ape civilization. I'd
really rather Asimov have written about bear society and not fussed
over how those silly ape-based things wiped themselves out (hint:
oh, you already know how they did it).
> The Red Queen Race
Nifty time-travel story with a great battle of history as the
non-expert understands it versus history as it really was.
> Mother Earth
The Earth government engineers a war it's sure to lose with the
big outer worlds it settled and which have been getting mighty darned
persnickety lately. The premise is neat, particularly as it clearly is
a forerunner to the Robot Novels, but ... it involves the government
of Earth figuring out a plan that will leave it ready to dominate the
galaxy a century or two from now, and that just doesn't ring true. The
story might work better if it were written as a future-historical, with
the future historians figuring out how the horrible defeat was what
made the great future possible.
But it fits seamlessly into the Robot Novels; one just has to
suppose that Earth's plans didn't work out, which is easy enough to
suppose.
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Paul F. Dietz
> You know, I keep reading Alamagoosa, and I keep forgetting
> everything about it. Could some kind reader tell me what happens in
> it, and I'll try to keep it in mind longer?
They misplace their offog.
Paul
James Nicoll
William December Starr <wds...@panix.com> wrote:
>In article <b5fdqh$rfr$1...@panix3.panix.com>,
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) said:
>
>> March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
>>
>> A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
>> to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
>
>Is this the one with the mile-tall apartment towers?
Yeah.
>[ *snip* ]
>
>> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
>
>> Judgement Day (L. Sprague de Camp)
>
>> ...and the de Camp is an incredibly bitter some autobiographical
>> short piece about a fellow has to decide whether or not to publish
>> information that will lead to the end of the world.
>
>I was in the ninth or tenth grade -- fourteen or fifteen years old --
>when I read that story. You would not *believe* how strongly it
>resonated for me. [Pauses, reflects.] Still does, in fact.
>
I think I was about 17 but the timing was unfortunate: my
father had just died and neighboring families up to tweny miles
away had dropped by with casseroles so the disruption of arranging
a funeral wouldn't be complicated by needing to cook, making the
entire blind resentment of other people more difficult.
Mike Schilling
"James Nicoll" <jdni...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:b5kpst$n60$1...@panix2.panix.com...
> >
> >> A SCIENCE FICTION ARGOSY edited by Damon Knight
> >
> >> Judgement Day (L. Sprague de Camp)
> >
> >> ...and the de Camp is an incredibly bitter some autobiographical
> >> short piece about a fellow has to decide whether or not to publish
> >> information that will lead to the end of the world.
> >
> >I was in the ninth or tenth grade -- fourteen or fifteen years old --
> >when I read that story. You would not *believe* how strongly it
> >resonated for me. [Pauses, reflects.] Still does, in fact.
> >
> I think I was about 17 but the timing was unfortunate: my
> father had just died and neighboring families up to tweny miles
> away had dropped by with casseroles so the disruption of arranging
> a funeral wouldn't be complicated by needing to cook, making the
> entire blind resentment of other people more difficult.
>
You just weren't trying hard enough. Surely many of them were insensitive or
patronizing in some way that a teenaged mind could construe as ineradicably
evil.
James Nicoll
The arrow of patronizing went from me (rational and clear thinking)
towards the poor Christian dupes around me.
Mike Schilling
You never got to the stage where blowing up the earth was preferable to
hearing "He's with Jesus now" once more?
James Nicoll
(I want to say parish but that is the wrong word). It's actually one of
the consistent design features in their religion, one that has the effect
of a mutagen on their day to day practices. Mennonites can be typed, for,
example, by the allowed decorations on women's hats.
aRJay
<neb...@rpi.edu> writes
>> Allamagoosa (Eric Frank Russel)
>
> You know, I keep reading Alamagoosa, and I keep forgetting
>everything about it. Could some kind reader tell me what happens in
>it, and I'll try to keep it in mind longer?
Highly edited version.
Survey ship about to be audited. They can't find something on their
inventory, so they make up a fake and lie about it. Later after
surviving the audit they are scheduled for maintenance, realising fake
will be found they lie about its destruction. Major panic ensues and
crew realise what was really the missing item on inventory, as their
last lie gets ready to bite them on the ....
David Kennedy
Oh, wow. That's a weird sensation; I've just realised that's one
of my favourite stories from when I was a kid - my parents got
me a big SF compendium for Christmas and I re-read it very
many times, but was too young for details of authors/titles
to stick. This was one of them...
--
David Kennedy
John M. Gamble
Indeed, i consider it to be one of the necessary anthologies to own.
It's a superb collection.
--
-john
February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.
John M. Gamble
Konrad Gaertner <gae...@aol.com> wrote:
>James Nicoll wrote:
>
>[rearranged a bit]
>
>> December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
>>
>> Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
>> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
>> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
>> you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
>> false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
>> add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
>
>I may have to find myself a copy of this. I thought I'd read almost
>all his fiction, but I don't recognize a lot of these.
>
><gripe> And Doubleday never finished publishing the Complete Stories.
></gripe>
>
>> Contents:
>>
>> The Hazing
>
>I saw an author's note saying that *he* forgot what this one was
>about. College prank goes awry in cliched ways.
It was set in the same universe as the erm, "humans panic creatively"
story. It was even less convincing that that one.
>
>> Not Final!
>
>This one's worth reading, about perfecting force fields.
This one is very good, i'd forgotten that it was in this
anthology. It is the story that precedes the dimwit-robots-on-Jupiter
story. The one he didn't bother to send to Campbell, because he
knew Campbell would reject it.
>
>> Author! Author!
>
>I know I've read this one. Might be about an author's creation
>coming to life.
Yes. I thought it was pretty funny when i read it as a teen. It's
aged a bit (it is set in WWII era, and you have to know about the
smarmy detectives that were fashionable in mysteries then), but
it still quite readable.
>
>> Death Sentence
>
>I think this a post-nuclear war story where everyone lives
>underground, and someone is exiled to the surface.
>
>> Blind Alley
>
>A must read about a bureaucrat and suicidal aliens.
Hmm, it is sort of an aliens-don't-think-like-us story.
The bureaucrat is the hero, rather subtly so. I've always
liked this story. It has a "Foundation" setting, but i'm
not certain that Asimov ever considered it to be officially
part of that universe.
>
>> No Connection
>
>Another mediocre post-nuclear war story.
>
>> The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline
>
>The thiotimoline "essays" were pretty neat.
Well, the original (this one) was. The following ones suffered
from the "Look!, I'm being clever!" syndrome.
>
>> The Red Queen Race
>
>I mentioned this in another thread, about using time travel to
>keep history the way it is. Worth reading.
>
Yes, another good one.
Mike Schilling
"John M. Gamble" <jga...@ripco.com> wrote in message
news:b5lftq$o4s$1...@e250.ripco.com...
>
> Yes. I thought it was pretty funny when i read it as a teen. It's
> aged a bit (it is set in WWII era, and you have to know about the
> smarmy detectives that were fashionable in mysteries then), but
> it still quite readable.
I found the detective to be a combination of the Saint and the Scarlet
Pimpernel..
John M. Gamble
Richard Horton <rrho...@prodigy.net> wrote:
>On 21 Mar 2003 11:15:13 -0500, jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll)
>wrote:
>
>
>>
>> 1972
>
>>
>
>Here's what the ISFDB gives for the contents (easier than typing!):
>
> (as K. M.
>O'Donnell)
> SF) Donald A. Wollheim
>
>Of thse I recall the Niven in particular, one of my favorite of his
>stories. I think the Anderson is pretty good, and the Tall is OK, too
>-- Tall (real name Compton Crook) published a few engaging stories and
>novels then died -- it seemed fairly young but it turns he was born in
>1908 and turned to writing late. There is an award named after him.
The Tall is a little on the cute side, but okay. The Sturgeon is
a sort of con game that might turn out true (good story). The Coney
is one of his stories where a resort (?) owner has to deal with the
obnoxious rich and famous (he'd down a few of those, they were good
although i don't know how well they'd hold up if read in sequence).
The Tushnet is a terrific tale of obsession for the elixer of life:
he's found it and will stop at nothing to quantatize it to modern
standards.
The Clarke is another of those wistful stories that he
does so well, set on Mars.
The Ellison is about an adult who revisits his childhood, literally.
It seems to have been a strong theme with him back then. He's written
other stories with a similar theme ("Jefty is Five", for example), and
i recall seeing him on a talk show back then where, in describing a
plot that should be done on TV (instead of the SF that currently was
on TV), he obviously described "One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty".
The Foster is him doing an Eric Frank Russell story, not too badly,
but nothing special. I don't know why it wound up in a Best Of
anthology, unless Wolheim and Carr were indulging in nostolgia.
>
>Sonya Dorman published some fun stuff (I really liked the Roxy Rimidon
>stories), and some first-rate poetry, but I haven't seen anything by
>her in years.
>
--
John M. Gamble
Joseph Nebus <neb...@rpi.edu> wrote:
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) writes:
>
>
>> WHEN HARLIE WAS ONE by David Gerrold
>> A novel about the development of an AI, which I enjoyed when
>>I was a teen but have not reread in ages and ages. This is very much
>>the product of the early 1970s, when an irreversable wave of liberalism
>>was going continue forever. I wonder if the reworked version is any less
>>tied to its time?
>
> The original novel was itself the extension of a short story;
>I *think* it may have been in Dangerous Visions. I remember finding
No, there were a couple of shorts, and they were in Galaxy and/or If
(both had the same publisher, and both were edited by Pohl at the
time). I *think* one of the shorts was "Requium [?] for a White
Rabbit", i have no idea what the other one was called.
>the original story and then the original novel fun in part because of
>its dated aspects. I haven't read the 2.0 version since ... oh, 1995
>or so, so I don't remember much specific. I think most of the fixups
>were in details and bits of terminology. (I could swear there was a
>stretch making the careful distinctions between a virus and a worm
>despite the very real risk that the reader would drift off.)
>
At the time it was written, the VIRUS program was clearly what
we would now call a worm, and it was an amusing concept in the
story. Very few people ever thought there would be a personal
computer, after all (there were none in the novel). Nowadays,
of course, with the blasted things sent off by all sorts of script
kiddies, it's no longer so amusing.
John M. Gamble
Hmm, i think more of S. S. Van Dine and the first novels of Ellery
Queen (before the personality change).
Mike Schilling
> In article <Purfa.1297$VH1...@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com>,
> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >"John M. Gamble" <jga...@ripco.com> wrote in message
> >news:b5lftq$o4s$1...@e250.ripco.com...
> >
> >>
> >> Yes. I thought it was pretty funny when i read it as a teen. It's
> >> aged a bit (it is set in WWII era, and you have to know about the
> >> smarmy detectives that were fashionable in mysteries then), but
> >> it still quite readable.
> >
> >I found the detective to be a combination of the Saint and the Scarlet
> >Pimpernel..
> >
> >
>
> Hmm, i think more of S. S. Van Dine and the first novels of Ellery
> Queen (before the personality change).
>
The don'cher'now accent reminded me of the Saint and the flawless dress of
the Pimpernel.
John Andrew Fairhurst
m...@web1.calweb.com says...
> A brain eraser. The target becomes a drooling newborn, mentally.
> It could be (was) used on a small target, but using it on whole
> planets was just a matter of where you aimed it.
>
Worse than a new born IIRc, they were completely incapable of relearning
the skills that had been destroyed.
> (Asimov also noted that once the (Venusians?) signed the treaty
> and got rid of the weapon, they'd probably get anihilated, signed
> treaty in hand.)
>
I believe Asimov says that it was Fred Pohl who pointed this out...
--
John Fairhurst
In Association with Amazon worldwide:
http://www.johnsbooks.co.uk/
Your One-Stop Site for Classic SF!
Updated for 2003 Publications
John Andrew Fairhurst
kgae...@worldnet.att.net says...
> > Death Sentence
>
> I think this a post-nuclear war story where everyone lives
> underground, and someone is exiled to the surface.
>
No, no!
New Galactic Civilisation coming on the remains of an ancient one that
was deeply into robotics and created a planet full of the things, vastly
simplified of course.
After much initial disbelief, the bureaucrats of the new empire decide
that these robots provide a threat to the New Order but the initial
discoverer decided that he's not going to stand by and let his new
friends be eliminated. The last lines tells us which planet this was...
--
John Fairhurst
In Association with Amazon worldwide:
http://www.johnsbooks.co.uk/Books/Asimov/
Asimov's Foundation & Robots
John Andrew Fairhurst
> March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
>
> A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
> to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
>
>
About all I can remember of this is the various ways in which those who
couldn't take the way of life met their ends either in death or
reconditioning.
--
John Fairhurst
In Association with Amazon worldwide:
John M. Gamble
Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>"John M. Gamble" <jga...@ripco.com> wrote in message
>news:b5lhk8$p18$1...@e250.ripco.com...
>> In article <Purfa.1297$VH1...@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com>,
>> Mike Schilling <mscotts...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >"John M. Gamble" <jga...@ripco.com> wrote in message
>> >news:b5lftq$o4s$1...@e250.ripco.com...
>> >
>> >>
>> >> Yes. I thought it was pretty funny when i read it as a teen. It's
>> >> aged a bit (it is set in WWII era, and you have to know about the
>> >> smarmy detectives that were fashionable in mysteries then), but
>> >> it still quite readable.
>> >
>> >I found the detective to be a combination of the Saint and the Scarlet
>> >Pimpernel..
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Hmm, i think more of S. S. Van Dine and the first novels of Ellery
>> Queen (before the personality change).
>>
>
>The don'cher'now accent reminded me of the Saint and the flawless dress of
>the Pimpernel.
>
Believe me, the early Ellery Queen could out-snob anyone. I admit that
the fighting skills weren't there, but it's not like i was looking for
one-to-one correspondences either.
Joseph Nebus
>Joseph Nebus wrote:
>They misplace their offog.
Oh! It's *that* story.
Thank you. Obviously the story and the title just refused to
stick together in my mind; I don't know how that could happen.
Joseph Nebus
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nyrath the nearly wise
> December THE EARLY ASIMOV by Isaac Asimov
>
>
> The Callistan Menace
> Ring Around the Sun
> The Magnificent Possession
> Trends
> The Weapon Too Dreadful to Use
> Black Friar of the Flame
> Half-Breed
> The Secret Sense
> Homo Sol
> Half-Breeds on Venus
> The Imaginary
> Heredity
> Christmas on Ganymede
> The Little Man on the Subway
> Super-Neutron
> The Hazing
> Not Final!
> Legal Rites (with Fred Pohl)
> Time Pussy
> Author! Author!
> Death Sentence
> Blind Alley
> No Connection
> The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline
> Mother Earth
>
>
> Most of these (not the last seven) were written over a two year
> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
> you don't use if the other guy has them as well). Thiotimoline is a
> false fact bit about a substance so soluable it dissolves before you
> add the water and is, I think, the best of the lot.
Oh, I dunno. I rather liked Black Friar of the Flame.
Sort of like a warm-up exercise for the Foundation Trilogy.
Asimov notes that the space battle at the end was based
on the naval Battle of Salamis.
David Johnston
> >> period of time. In general, these are entirely forgettable (_The Weapon Too
> >> Terrible to Use_ in particular, as there is no such thing; only weapons
> >> you don't use if the other guy has them as well).
Well of course the "Weapon Too Terrible to Use" was in fact used in the story.
However the claim is wrong. Atomic weapons are in fact so terrible (in
the sense of inspiring terror) that there really is a significant degree
of general reluctance to use them, even if the other guy doesn't have them.
Mike Schilling
"John Andrew Fairhurst" <jo...@johnsbooks.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.18e7811c4...@news.virgin.net...
> In article <b5fdqh$rfr$1...@panix3.panix.com>, jdni...@panix.com says...
> > March THE WORLD INSIDE by Robert Silverberg
> >
> > A portrait of a very high population world whose ihanbitants seem
> > to enjoy it, which is fairly uncommon for this kind of setting.
> >
> > I liked it.
> >
>
> About all I can remember of this is the various ways in which those who
> couldn't take the way of life met their ends either in death or
> reconditioning.
What I remeber is mostly the explicit (for 70s SF, anyway) sex. I suspect
that on a re-read it would seem quite tame.
Mike Schilling
"David Johnston" <rgo...@telusplanet.net> wrote in message
news:3E7EC0...@telusplanet.net...
There's another Asimov story ("The Gentle Vultures") which posits that Earth
was lucky that nuclear weapons were developed by only one side and that
their initial use concluded a war. This allowed a revulsion against them to
develop and prevent their use in future wars. The usual pattern among
human-like species was for both sides to have them before the war, so
they're used early and often before any reluctance grows.