SFBC 1954
James Nicoll
List courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
Unfortunately the vast extent of my ignorance about SF begins to
be revealed with this year's offering. Of the twelve books offered,
I have read perhaps three of them and heard of another two.
1954
Jan. COSTIGAN'S NEEDLE, Jerry Sohl
I have never read this one but Clute speaks kindly of it
and of Sohl, calling him a professional craftsman. Apparently it
features the colonization of an alternate Earth.
Feb. THE LIGHTS IN THE SKY ARE STARS, Fredric Brown
Cribbing from Clute this is about 'Mankind at the turn of the
21st century and on the verge of star travel'. I myself have not read
it and should not comment but in general Brown rewards reading. I note
that it is included in NESFA Press' _Martians and Madness_.
March BORN LEADER, J. T. McIntosh
Another J.T. McIntosh and since I have read nothing by him,
another book I can not comment on in an informed manner. Apparently
it pits two sets of colonists from ruined Earth against each other.
One side is authoritarian and one is libertarian. I wonder which one
prevails?
April WILD TALENT, Wilson Tucker
Another Tucker I missed.
May THE CAVES OF STEEL, Isaac Asimov
This is the first story about the detective pair of Lija Baley
and the robot R Daneel. Baley, native of a relatively backward Earth,
and Daneel, construct of the advanced Spacers, must solve the murder of
a prominent Spacer and in so doing illuminate some aspects of this future
society.
I reread this a few years ago and although I was stuck by how
underpopulated this overpopulated Earth was (Not tremendously more populated
than today, although about four times the population at the time the book
was originally written) I think it stands up fairly well.
June MISSION OF GRAVITY, Hal Clement
This is an example of the sort of book Clement does best, the
examination of an interesting world by rational observers. In this case
the setting is the odd planet of Mesklin, high mass and with an impressive
angular momentum, which causes the net gravity to vary from merely
uncomfortable to humans at the equator to rapidly fatal at the poles.
Happily the world has natives and it is through their eyes that we
see this world.
Recommended and available with the connected stories from both
NESFA (_Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton_) and from Orb
(_Heavy Planet_), if I am not mistaken.
July A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS, Edgar Pangborn
I need an Ota of my very own.
If memory serves, this is about a young human genius and the
Martians who seek to use him for various ends, malign and benign.
This is the other Pangborn I bounce off of every time I try to read
it and once again I have no coherent reason why. Everything else
by Pangborn is very readable.
I think this won the International Fantasy Award.
Aug. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, ed. Boucher & McComas
As best I can tell, this included the following stories:
Introduction (Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas)
Huge Beast (Cleve Cartmill)
John the Revelator (Oliver La Farge)
Elephas Frumti (L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt)
The Gift of God (L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt)
The Friendly Demon (Daniel Defoe)
Old Man Henderson (Kris Neville)
The Threepenny-Piece (James Stephens)
No-Sided Professor (Martin Gardner)
The Listening Child (Idris Seabright)
Dress of White Silk (Richard Matheson)
The Mathematical Voodoo (H. Nearing, Jr.)
Hub (Philip MacDonald)
Built Up Logically (Howard Schoenfeld)
The Rat That Could Speak (Charles Dickens)
Narapoia (Alan Nelson)
Postpaid to Paradise (Robert Arthur)
In the Days of Our Fathers (Winona McClintic)
Barney (Will Stanton)
The Collector (H.F. Heard)
Fearsome Fable (Bruce Elliot)
Mere English can not convey how ignorant I am about the stories in
this collection. I think it is a clean sweep and I have read none of them,
even "Narapoia".
Sept. THE ALTERED EGO, Jerry Sohl
And yet more ignorance from me.
Oct. ONE IN THREE HUNDRED, J. T. McIntosh
And even more. How depressing.
Nov. ASSIGNMENT IN TOMORROW, ed. Frederik Pohl
An anthology containing the following, I believe:
Introduction (Fred Pohl)
Mr Costello, Hero (Theodore Sturgeon)
Angels in the Jets (Jerome Bixby)
The Adventurer (C.M. Kornbluth)
Subterfuge (Ray Bradbury)
Helen O'Loy (Lester del Rey)
5,271,009 (Alfred Bester)
The Big Trip Up Yonder (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
We Don't Want Any Trouble (James H. Schmitz)
The Peddler's Nose (Jack Williamson)
The Frightened Tree (Algis Budrys)
A Matter of Form (Horace Gold)
Back to Julie (Richard Wilson)
She Who Laughs (Peter Phillips)
Official Record (Fletcher Pratt)
Hall of Mirrors (Fredrick Brown)
Mother (Philip Jose Farmer)
I could have sworn I owned this but in restrospect I suspect I
was thinking of an anthology edited by Robert A. Heinlein, _Tomorrow,
the Stars_. As it happens, I have only read and remembered three of
these stories: "Helen O'Loy, a sappy story about a robot, "5,271,009",
one of Bester's better short stories as I recall and if I am remembering
correctly "Mother", about a boy trapped in another organism, a story that
really creeped me out as a kid when I first ran into it (I think in a
Silverberg edited anthology).
Dec. SATELLITE E ONE, Jeffery Lloyd Castle
And to end a perfect year, I don't know this one from Adam
either, author -or- book.
--
"Repress the urge to sprout wings or self-ignite!...This man's an
Episcopalian!...They have definite views."
Pibgorn Oct 31/02
Garrett Wollman
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>May THE CAVES OF STEEL, Isaac Asimov
> I reread this a few years ago and although I was stuck by how
>underpopulated this overpopulated Earth was (Not tremendously more populated
>than today, although about four times the population at the time the book
>was originally written) I think it stands up fairly well.
Indeed -- overall one of Asimov's better full-length works. /The
Naked Sun/, which followed soon after, continues the story and has
much the same feel, in stark contrast to the bloated 1984 /The Robots
of Dawn/, which marks the point at which I stopped reading Asimov
novels.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | [G]enes make enzymes, and enzymes control the rates of
wol...@lcs.mit.edu | chemical processes. Genes do not make ``novelty-
Opinions not those of| seeking'' or any other complex and overt behavior.
MIT, LCS, CRS, or NSA| - Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002)
Mark Blunden
> In article <b3lhm1$jgd$1...@panix1.panix.com>,
> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>
>> May THE CAVES OF STEEL, Isaac Asimov
>
>> I reread this a few years ago and although I was stuck by how
>> underpopulated this overpopulated Earth was (Not tremendously more
>> populated than today, although about four times the population at
>> the time the book was originally written) I think it stands up
>> fairly well.
>
> Indeed -- overall one of Asimov's better full-length works. /The
> Naked Sun/, which followed soon after, continues the story and has
> much the same feel, in stark contrast to the bloated 1984 /The Robots
> of Dawn/, which marks the point at which I stopped reading Asimov
> novels.
I always felt that Caves of Steel was possibly the most filmable of Asimov's
novels - in the hands of a good director, it would make a decent futuristic
detective movie. That being the case, I daresay it'll be the last one
Hollywood considers.
--
Mark.
* Mmm - crunchy frog!
James Nicoll
The Caves of Steel (2006)
Director: Paul Verhoven
Scriptwriter: Joe Eszterhas
R Daniela: Ginger Lynn Allen
Lija Baley: Chris Tucker
(With Mila Kunis as Jezebel Baley)
Set in the distant year of 2008, Detective Baley must team
up with an experimental police gynoid named Daniela to uncover the
Military-Industrial plot to use stripper-droids to fight an illegal
war in support of the fascist junta ruling Costa Rica.
"She was programmed for Law! and for love..."
Lois Tilton
wrote:
>No-Sided Professor (Martin Gardner)
I assume this is "the" Martin Gardner. I hadn't known he ever wrote
SF, tho it is hardly surprising.
--
LT
Mark Blunden
Eek.
--
Mark.
* Tell me, do they still sing songs of the great Tribble hunts?
James Nicoll
Jon Meltzer <jmel...@pobox.com> wrote:
>On 27 Feb 2003 13:54:58 -0500, jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll)
>wrote:
>
>> Be careful what you wish for.
>>
>> The Caves of Steel (2006)
>>
>> Director: Paul Verhoven
>> Scriptwriter: Joe Eszterhas
>>
>> R Daniela: Ginger Lynn Allen
>> Lija Baley: Chris Tucker
>> (With Mila Kunis as Jezebel Baley)
>
>
Ron Hyatt.
Huh. Kunis is from Ukraine and English is her second language.
David Bilek
>On 27 Feb 2003 12:25:21 -0500, jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll)
>wrote:
>
>>1954
>>Jan. COSTIGAN'S NEEDLE, Jerry Sohl
>>
>> I have never read this one but Clute speaks kindly of it
>>and of Sohl, calling him a professional craftsman. Apparently it
>
>Scientists discover gateway to a parallel world. Freak accident causes
>several blocks of (Chicago?) to be transported over; society has to be
>rebuilt.
>
Huh. This sounds familiar.
Does it have hot sword-wielding lesbians in it?
-David
wth...@godzilla4.acpub.duke.edu
I read this, decades ago (it is beginning to bother
me how often I have to say this) in one of Groff
Conklin's theme anthologies "Great SF by Doctors".
Alan Nelson wrote a number of wry stories with
medical/psychiatric themes. In "narapoia" a shrink
gets a patient who has the persistent feeling that
he is following someone, and that people are
plotting to do him good. Reverse paranoia, narapoia.
I have pleasant memories of a kleptomania story
by the same author.
None of the other titles ring a bell, alas.
William Hyde
EOS Department
Duke University
Nancy Lebovitz
>
> This is an example of the sort of book Clement does best, the
>examination of an interesting world by rational observers. In this case
>the setting is the odd planet of Mesklin, high mass and with an impressive
>angular momentum, which causes the net gravity to vary from merely
>uncomfortable to humans at the equator to rapidly fatal at the poles.
>Happily the world has natives and it is through their eyes that we
>see this world.
>
> Recommended and available with the connected stories from both
>NESFA (_Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton_) and from Orb
>(_Heavy Planet_), if I am not mistaken.
I starteed rereading it and got distracted by other books, but intend
to get back to it. I read the scene where the human is in trouble--
marooned away from his station, and it's too far to walk in the high
gravity. A solution is found relatively quickly, and I was struck by
the difference from Laumer, who I think would have made is a story
about courage, exhaustion, and endurance rather than problem-solving.
--
Nancy Lebovitz na...@netaxs.com www.nancybuttons.com
Now, with bumper stickers
Using your turn signal is not "giving information to the enemy"
James Nicoll
Nancy Lebovitz <na...@unix1.netaxs.com> wrote:
>In article <b3lhm1$jgd$1...@panix1.panix.com>,
>James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>June MISSION OF GRAVITY, Hal Clement
>>
>> This is an example of the sort of book Clement does best, the
>>examination of an interesting world by rational observers. In this case
>>the setting is the odd planet of Mesklin, high mass and with an impressive
>>angular momentum, which causes the net gravity to vary from merely
>>uncomfortable to humans at the equator to rapidly fatal at the poles.
>>Happily the world has natives and it is through their eyes that we
>>see this world.
>>
>> Recommended and available with the connected stories from both
>>NESFA (_Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton_) and from Orb
>>(_Heavy Planet_), if I am not mistaken.
>
>I starteed rereading it and got distracted by other books, but intend
>to get back to it. I read the scene where the human is in trouble--
>marooned away from his station, and it's too far to walk in the high
>gravity. A solution is found relatively quickly, and I was struck by
>the difference from Laumer, who I think would have made is a story
>about courage, exhaustion, and endurance rather than problem-solving.
Boy, the mental image of a Laumer protagonist in pretty
much -any- Clement setting is not pretty.
In _Fire Time_, no doubt the Laumer protagonist would have
arrive just before the beginning of summer...
James Nicoll
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>
> Boy, the mental image of a Laumer protagonist in pretty
>much -any- Clement setting is not pretty.
>
> In _Fire Time_, no doubt the Laumer protagonist would have
>arrive just before the beginning of summer...
Ack! Ack! _Cycle of Fire_! _Cycle of Fire_!
lal_truckee
Nope. Costigan's Needle is the real mcCoy - think 1632 by Eric Flint,
but written by someone with imagination. An early version of
displacement; these folks attempt to build a return gateway ...
This has always been a fondly remembered book, still residing in my
collection 50 years later (but brown and crumbly.) Of course reading it
at about 10-12 helped make it memorable. Costigan preceeded Heinlein's
Tunnel in the Sky by a year - I've always wondered if there was a
relationship.
Mike Schilling
"James Nicoll" <jdni...@panix.com> wrote in message
news:b3lmu2$pqe$1...@panix1.panix.com...
And this is worse than the Daneel of the late Asimov novels because... ?
Konrad Gaertner
>
> "She was programmed for Law! and for love..."
You just reminded me of the Foundation prequels. Jerk.
--KG
Bill Snyder
wrote:
>In article <b3lt29$9q2$1...@panix1.panix.com>,
>James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>>
>> Boy, the mental image of a Laumer protagonist in pretty
>>much -any- Clement setting is not pretty.
>>
>> In _Fire Time_, no doubt the Laumer protagonist would have
>>arrive just before the beginning of summer...
>
> Ack! Ack! _Cycle of Fire_! _Cycle of Fire_!
Interesting brain-o. Reteif, for one, probably would have done well
in the _Fire Time_ milieu.
(But please don't tell me we're going to have to re-define "Nicoll
Event" as a synonym for Senior Moment.)
--
Bill Snyder [This space unintentionally left blank.]
Bill & Sue Miller
James Nicoll wrote:
>
> Aug. THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, ed. Boucher & McComas
>
> As best I can tell, this included the following stories:
>
> Introduction (Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas)
> Huge Beast (Cleve Cartmill)
> John the Revelator (Oliver La Farge)
> Elephas Frumti (L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt)
> The Gift of God (L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt)
> The Friendly Demon (Daniel Defoe)
> Old Man Henderson (Kris Neville)
> The Threepenny-Piece (James Stephens)
> No-Sided Professor (Martin Gardner)
> The Listening Child (Idris Seabright)
> Dress of White Silk (Richard Matheson)
> The Mathematical Voodoo (H. Nearing, Jr.)
> Hub (Philip MacDonald)
> Built Up Logically (Howard Schoenfeld)
> The Rat That Could Speak (Charles Dickens)
> Narapoia (Alan Nelson)
> Postpaid to Paradise (Robert Arthur)
> In the Days of Our Fathers (Winona McClintic)
> Barney (Will Stanton)
> The Collector (H.F. Heard)
> Fearsome Fable (Bruce Elliot)
I know a few of these -
"Elephas Frumenti" is a "tale from Gavagan's Bar". Light amusement.
"No-sided Professor" is an idea story about topology -i.e no characterization,
but amusing. Martin Gardner went on to write the "Mathematical Games" column in
_Scientific American_, and a lot of skeptical literature.
"Built Up Logically" is a joke story about a infant genius.
Hmm, all the ones I know are light humor pieces. Wonder what the rest of the
collection was?
Bill
--
Home: wbmi...@houston.rr.com
Work: william....@jsc.nasa.gov
Homepage: http://home.houston.rr.com/wbmiller3
Warrick M. Locke
No. A Nicoll Event involves trauma for someone.
Regards,
Ric
TechDock
still sits on my shelf. An interesting aspect of it is that only living
organics can pass through the needle (Hmmm... the time travel in the
Terminator movie comes to mind) and so folks must try to survive only with
the knowledge they remember.
Come to think of it, I think I was also 12 when I read it ... the Golden Age
of Science Fiction!
TechDock
TechDock Comic Books and Resources
www.techdock.net
"lal_truckee" <lal_t...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:b3ltb2$1nv4tu$1...@ID-90251.news.dfncis.de...
John M. Gamble
Yes it is. I think he's written another short also, although the
title escapes me. He's also written a theological novel, The Flight
of Peter Fromm.
And i count the Dr. Matrix essays as very enjoyable fiction too.
--
-john
February 28 1997: Last day libraries could order catalogue cards
from the Library of Congress.
Mike Van Pelt
James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
>>I always felt that Caves of Steel was possibly the most filmable of Asimov's
>>novels - in the hands of a good director, it would make a decent futuristic
>>detective movie.
>
>
> The Caves of Steel (2006)
>
> Director: Paul Verhoven
Oh, no.... Not "Ve're Heavin'"
> Scriptwriter: Joe Eszterhas
>
> R Daniela: Ginger Lynn Allen
> Lija Baley: Chris Tucker
> (With Mila Kunis as Jezebel Baley)
>
> Set in the distant year of 2008, Detective Baley must team
>up with an experimental police gynoid named Daniela to uncover the
>Military-Industrial plot to use stripper-droids to fight an illegal
>war in support of the fascist junta ruling Costa Rica.
I wish this were more obviously a joke, but it's plausible...
All too plausible. Hollywood has commited worse atrocities.
--
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
Fred Galvin
> I know a few of these -
> [. . .]
>
> "Built Up Logically" is a joke story about a infant genius.
No, you're thinking of "Built Down Logically", by the same author.
"Built Up Logically" is longer and funnier.
--
It takes steel balls to play pinball.
Brandon Ray
James Nicoll wrote:
> July A MIRROR FOR OBSERVERS, Edgar Pangborn
>
> I need an Ota of my very own.
>
> If memory serves, this is about a young human genius and the
> Martians who seek to use him for various ends, malign and benign.
> This is the other Pangborn I bounce off of every time I try to read
> it and once again I have no coherent reason why. Everything else
> by Pangborn is very readable.
>
> I think this won the International Fantasy Award.
fwiw, I liked this one. Not as well as "Davy", but I liked the moodiness of
it. It's definitely an "atmosphere" piece; those looking for a plot driven
book may be disappointed (although it does have a plot).
>
>
> Oct. ONE IN THREE HUNDRED, J. T. McIntosh
>
> And even more. How depressing.
Astromers have discovered that in a few months the sun will increase its
output. The Earth will become uninhabitable, but Mars will not. The Powers
That Be take everyone who has ever been in space and give them a crash course
in ship handling. These newly-minted pilots are then sent out to find ten
people who they want to take with them -- the "one in three hundred" is the
fraction of the Earth's population that will be saved. Moves along well,
although some of the social attitudes are obviously going to be dated -- for
example, the hero remarking that if a man gave his wife a black eye it was no
one's business but the family's. Overall, I'd call it a good read -- although
I first encountered it at 12 or 13, the so-called "golden age" that others have
mentioned, so that may bias me a bit.
--
In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics! -- Homer Simpson
Robert A. Woodward
jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote:
> List courtesy of Andrew Wheeler.
>
> Unfortunately the vast extent of my ignorance about SF begins to
> be revealed with this year's offering. Of the twelve books offered,
> I have read perhaps three of them and heard of another two.
>
<snip>
> March BORN LEADER, J. T. McIntosh
>
> Another J.T. McIntosh and since I have read nothing by him,
> another book I can not comment on in an informed manner. Apparently
> it pits two sets of colonists from ruined Earth against each other.
> One side is authoritarian and one is libertarian. I wonder which one
> prevails?
>
I believe I have read this, but it has been a LONG time. IIRC, the first
set of colonists (civilian) made their settlement a generation before
the second set showed up (the situation on Earth had gotten rather nasty
and the 2nd set was military). The Leader in the question was a member
of the 1st group and the story starts with him hitching up with one of
the 2nd generation girls (a hottie incidentally) and going out into the
wilderness. They are captured early in the novel by the a scout team of
the 2nd set. But I can't remember the resolution.
--
Robert Woodward <robe...@drizzle.com>
<http://www.drizzle.com/~robertaw
Fred Galvin
> On Thu, 27 Feb 2003, Bill & Sue Miller wrote:
>
> > I know a few of these -
> > [. . .]
> >
> > "Built Up Logically" is a joke story about a infant genius.
>
> No, you're thinking of "Built Down Logically", by the same author.
> "Built Up Logically" is longer and funnier.
I forgot to say, "Built Up Logically" is the story about the struggle
between an author and a rebellious character.
Jo'Asia
Well, not exactly...
http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/cavesofsteel.html
:)
Jo'Asia
--
__.-=-. Joanna Slupek http://bujold.fantastyka.net/ .-=-.__
--<()> (Add one 'l' to 'hel' when replying by e-mail) <()>--
.__.'| ..................................................... |'.__.
I feel like I'm diagonally parked in a parallel universe
Niall McAuley
>
> The Caves of Steel (2006)
You left out the cute kid and his amusing futuristic pet.
--
Niall [real address ends in se, not es.invalid]
Randy Money
Don't know if anyone noticed, but IMDB lists a 1964 British TV
production of this with Terry Nation as the script writer and Peter
Cushing playing Elijah Bailey.
Randy M.
Martin Wisse
It's mathematical science fiction of course, iirc featuring topology.
Sort of similar to "A Subway Called Mobius", but different sort of
math...
I cannot believe James didn't know "Built Up Logically"; I'm sure I
remember discussions about it here and it's one of those stories that
have been anthologised over and over again (and the author never did
anything interesting after that..).
Martin Wisse
--
"Comperable to Gentry Lee at his best."
-What you don't want as a cover blurb
(quote stolen from Justin Fang)
Mark Blunden
Interesting. Googling turns up more on this production, apparently it was
adapted as a teleplay in the anthology series Out of the Unknown.
http://www.625.org.uk/cavesofs/sb21cofs.htm
The information on this page is fascinating - if the description of the
programme is accurate, it was remarkably true to the novel. I hadn't heard
of the series 'Out of the Unknown' before, but it sounds like a very good
show, sharing some production staff with the original staff of Doctor Who.
Apparently The Naked Sun was also adapted in a later series of the same
show.
The bad news is that, like many early Doctor Who stories, the programme has
long since been deleted from the archives. Only a 1.20 minute clip from the
opening sequence, used in an episode of Tomorrow's World, remains.
--
Mark.
* That's the kind of woolly-headed liberal thinking that leads to being
eaten
Jo'Asia
>> Oct. ONE IN THREE HUNDRED, J. T. McIntosh
>> And even more. How depressing.
> Astromers have discovered that in a few months the sun will increase its
> output. The Earth will become uninhabitable, but Mars will not. The Powers
> That Be take everyone who has ever been in space and give them a crash course
> in ship handling. These newly-minted pilots are then sent out to find ten
> people who they want to take with them -- the "one in three hundred" is the
> fraction of the Earth's population that will be saved. Moves along well,
> although some of the social attitudes are obviously going to be dated -- for
> example, the hero remarking that if a man gave his wife a black eye it was no
> one's business but the family's. Overall, I'd call it a good read -- although
> I first encountered it at 12 or 13, the so-called "golden age" that others have
> mentioned, so that may bias me a bit.
It is probably a grown-up short story. I have a collection of ss. by McIntosh
and "One in 300" is one of them, the story fits.
The rest are: _Blessing of Solitude_, _Mind Alone_, _Men like Mules_, _Made in
U.S.A._, _Spy_, _You Were Right, Joe_, _Broken Record_, _Tenth Time Arond_,
_Immortality for Some_.
According to the editor's note it is the first collection of his works,
published in 1988 ... in Poland :).
I didn'r read any of his novels but the collection is one of my favourites.
Jo'Asia
--
__.-=-. Joanna Slupek http://bujold.fantastyka.net/ .-=-.__
--<()> (Add one 'l' to 'hel' when replying by e-mail) <()>--
.__.'| ..................................................... |'.__.
Seen it all, done it all, can't remember most of it.
Peter D. Tillman
David Bilek <dbi...@attbi.com> wrote:
No, but there's absolutely no question that SM Stirling has read it. Not
fair to say more, but think of the ending of this Sohl when you read
CONQUISTADOR.
Time for a reread, I think.
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
Peter D. Tillman
wth...@godzilla4.acpub.duke.edu wrote:
The Nearing story was reprinted in his fixup collection, The Sinister
Researches of CP Ransom (1954), which is one of the great unknown
humorous classics of our genre. I like this book a lot, and if you like
academic humor, give it a try -- not hard to find. Ah, the HD yields
this bit:
"Prof. Ransom is driven to increasingly-desperate measures to raise
money for the university... wonderfully droll stuff, somewhere between
"The Incompleat Enchanter" and Rucker's Harry Gerber stories. In fact,
this is the first SF book I read that I still have clear memories of,
and I'm happy to say it hasn't dated a bit." -- me, from an email
exchange with Christina Schulman, in which she expresses her admiration
for J.T. McIntosh's World out of Mind, topically enough: "It's a really
nifty book." In case you're wondering how we professional book reviewers
write amongst ourselves...
I see that all of the contents of this collection were first published
in F&SF, 1950-53. IB there are a few later uncollected Ransom stories,
that I keep meaning to hunt down.
Cheers -- Pete Tillman
Book Reviews: http://www.silcom.com/~manatee/reviewer.html#tillman
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/cm/member-reviews/-/A3GHSD9VY8XS4Q/
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Richard Horton
>It is probably a grown-up short story. I have a collection of ss. by McIntosh
>and "One in 300" is one of them, the story fits.
>
_One in Three Hundred_ is definitely an expansion of the novelette
"One in 300". The remaining sections of the novel were called
something like "One in a Thousand" and "One in One".
>The rest are: _Blessing of Solitude_, _Mind Alone_, _Men like Mules_, _Made in
>U.S.A._, _Spy_, _You Were Right, Joe_, _Broken Record_, _Tenth Time Arond_,
>_Immortality for Some_.
>
>According to the editor's note it is the first collection of his works,
>published in 1988 ... in Poland :).
>
>I didn'r read any of his novels but the collection is one of my favourites.
I've read "Men Like Mules" and "Immortality for Some" among those. He
wrote a lot -- a whole lot -- of short fiction. He was a regular at
Galaxy and F&SF in the 50s, and in the early 60s at Analog. (His
early stories sometimes read like attempts to attract John Campbell's
attention that didn't quite work.)
The sexism Brandon noted in _One in Three Hundred_ is, to me, a very
noticeable component of a whole lot of M'Intosh's work. Some of it
was just 50s attitudes, but some I think went a bit above and beyond
as it were. Partly this is because he tried fairly hard, to my mind,
to feature women prominently in his stories, and sometimes in quite
"advanced" roles -- but then he would undercut this by some
occasionally downright weird sexism.
I should write an article, but who would care about M'Intosh?
M'Intosh fascinates me, and I continue to seek out his work, but I
can't quite say he's a favorite. He's just -- interesting!
--
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)
Richard Horton
this thread, so I will piggy back on one of James' replies to post
this:
James Nicoll wrote:
>.Feb. THE LIGHTS IN THE SKY ARE STARS, Fredric Brown
>
> Cribbing from Clute this is about 'Mankind at the turn of the
>21st century and on the verge of star travel'. I myself have not read
>it and should not comment but in general Brown rewards reading. I note
>that it is included in NESFA Press' _Martians and Madness_.
Remember when you were doing those Y2K reviews? About novels set in
or around the year 2000. I suggested you should read this one, which
as Clute says is indeed set at the turn of the 21st century.
I thought it interesting but weird in some ways. Involves a crusty
engineer/pilot type and a female politician who get together to (often
illegally) make star travel happen.
It does have some interesting predictions such as the TV remote and
couch potatoes.
>April WILD TALENT, Wilson Tucker
>
> Another Tucker I missed.
Also known as _The Man From Tomorrow_ (at least, that's the title on
one of the two copies I have -- unfortunately I didn't notice the
small print saying "previously published as Wild Talent" until too
late, though I oughtn't complain as it only set me back about a
dollar).
OK story about a guy with, you guessed it, a Wild Talent, and his
attempts to avoid being exploited by the gummint. I liked it partly
because some of it is set in Bloomington, IL (Tucker's home) and
Chicago (sort of my hometown, though really I'm from the 'burbs).
>Nov. ASSIGNMENT IN TOMORROW, ed. Frederik Pohl
>
> An anthology containing the following, I believe:
>
> Introduction (Fred Pohl)
> Mr Costello, Hero (Theodore Sturgeon)
> Angels in the Jets (Jerome Bixby)
> The Adventurer (C.M. Kornbluth)
> Subterfuge (Ray Bradbury)
> Helen O'Loy (Lester del Rey)
> 5,271,009 (Alfred Bester)
> The Big Trip Up Yonder (Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.)
> We Don't Want Any Trouble (James H. Schmitz)
> The Peddler's Nose (Jack Williamson)
> The Frightened Tree (Algis Budrys)
>. A Matter of Form (Horace Gold)
> Back to Julie (Richard Wilson)
> She Who Laughs (Peter Phillips)
> Official Record (Fletcher Pratt)
> Hall of Mirrors (Fredrick Brown)
> Mother (Philip Jose Farmer)
I do have a copy of this, and I've read it. The Bester, one of his
greatest stories, is the real keeper. The Schmitz is a neat, very
scary, SF horror story -- to my knowledge only reprinted in this
anthology until the recent catchall Flint/Gordon-edited collection
_Eternal Frontier_. Sturgeon's story is very good, Gold's is pretty
good (a novella about a guy turned into a dog), and the Vonnegut and
Kornbluth, at least, are decent.
Brandon Ray
Richard Horton wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Feb 2003 20:54:43 +0100, Jo'Asia <JoA...@hel.pl> wrote:
>
> >It is probably a grown-up short story. I have a collection of ss. by McIntosh
> >and "One in 300" is one of them, the story fits.
> >
>
> _One in Three Hundred_ is definitely an expansion of the novelette
> "One in 300". The remaining sections of the novel were called
> something like "One in a Thousand" and "One in One".
The third section was called "One Too Many"
Martin Wisse
wrote:
>I should write an article, but who would care about M'Intosh?
I would, even if I've never read anything by him. I just like finding
out about obscure stuff like that.
Martin Wisse
--
"Desaad: Master, I have found it! Doom plus Magic plus IRC plus netnews
plus MUDding!"
"Darkseid: You cringing fool! That is *not* the Anti-Life Formula, it is
the No-Life Formula!"--Dave Van Domelen
Keith Stokes
wrote:
>April WILD TALENT, Wilson Tucker
>
> Another Tucker I missed.
I liked that one. It has a strong fantasy element, but falls in more
as an action-adventure novel.
Keith
John F. Carr
>
> This is an example of the sort of book Clement does best, the
>examination of an interesting world by rational observers.
With a better balance of rationalism vs. plot than some of his
stories.
> Recommended and available with the connected stories from both
>NESFA (_Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton_) and from Orb
>(_Heavy Planet_), if I am not mistaken.
I thought I saw _Heavy Planet_ in a recent SFBC "coming soon" list.
As far as I can tell, the NESFA and Orb contents are identical.
NESFA is credited in the front matter of the Orb book. (If they
are the same, I think SFBC made the right choice fromt he two titles.)
--
John Carr (j...@mit.edu)
Andrew Wheeler
>
> In article <b3lhm1$jgd$1...@panix1.panix.com>,
> James Nicoll <jdni...@panix.com> wrote:
> >
> >June MISSION OF GRAVITY, Hal Clement
> >
> > This is an example of the sort of book Clement does best, the
> >examination of an interesting world by rational observers.
>
> With a better balance of rationalism vs. plot than some of his
> stories.
>
> > Recommended and available with the connected stories from both
> >NESFA (_Variations on a Theme by Sir Isaac Newton_) and from Orb
> >(_Heavy Planet_), if I am not mistaken.
>
> I thought I saw _Heavy Planet_ in a recent SFBC "coming soon" list.
It's in our February magazine, which is out there right now, available
for purchase. (I think the Orb edition is also in stores now.)
> As far as I can tell, the NESFA and Orb contents are identical.
> NESFA is credited in the front matter of the Orb book. (If they
> are the same, I think SFBC made the right choice fromt he two titles.)
As far as Clement's work goes, that's right. There is an additional
foreword and afterword in the NESFA book by other people (I don't have
the book to hand right now, so I can't be more specific), that are
omitted from the Tor edition. But those, as I recall, were a bit more
fannish to begin with.
--
Andrew Wheeler
--
"It's a sad day for American capitalism when a man can't fly a midget on
a kite over Central Park." -Jim Moran
Mark Reichert
> Director: Paul Verhoven
He who butchered Starship Troopers.
> Scriptwriter: Joe Eszterhas
The worst writer in Hollywood as far as I'm concerned.
Mark Reichert
P.S. Thank god for IMDB, because even though you were obviously
joking, I had to make sure.<g>
John M. Gamble
Mark Reichert <Mark_R...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in message news:<b3lmu2$pqe$1...@panix1.panix.com>...
>> Director: Paul Verhoven
>
>He who butchered Starship Troopers.
Oh, he's worse than that. He butchered the remake of *his own movie*.
>
>> Scriptwriter: Joe Eszterhas
>
>The worst writer in Hollywood as far as I'm concerned.
Definitely in the running.
Brian Love
(in message <b48c0d$kvt$1...@e250.ripco.com>):
> In article <99e65015.03030...@posting.google.com>,
> Mark Reichert <Mark_R...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> jdni...@panix.com (James Nicoll) wrote in message
>> news:<b3lmu2$pqe$1...@panix1.panix.com>...
>>> Director: Paul Verhoven
>>
>> He who butchered Starship Troopers.
>
> Oh, he's worse than that. He butchered the remake of *his own movie*.
[*]
--
Brian Love
Freelance Otaku
David Cowie
> On Thu, 6 Mar 2003 12:45:01 -0800, John M. Gamble wrote
>> Oh, he's worse than that. He butchered the remake of *his own
>> movie*.
>
> [*]
From http://archive.salon.com/people/bc/2000/08/01/verhoeven/print.html
,quote>
"RoboCop" (1987) and "Starship Troopers" (1997) also begin with parodies
of propaganda broadcasts, and the latter film, as Verhoeven has
admitted, is essentially a remake of "Soldier of Orange," albeit a
remake in which the irony meter is cranked to 11 and the story's moral
polarities are thrown into grave doubt.
</quote>
I'll let others say how it was butchered.
--
David Cowie david_cowie at lineone dot net
John M. Gamble
Thanks for the save. Unfortunately, honesty compells me to admit
that i had the wrong movie (or rather, the wrong director) in mind.
Fortunately, i went and checked the details before writing this post,
and found that *The Vanishing* (both the European and the *blech*
Hollywood version) were directed by George Sluizer, not the dreaded
Verhoeven.
Brian Love
(in message <pan.2003.03.08...@lineone.net>):
Ahh, having never seen Soldier of Orange, I didn't realize that ST was a
loose remake. Having read ST, I am fully aware of that butchery.
Lynn Calvin
wrote:
>On Sat, 01 Mar 2003 01:37:36 GMT, Richard Horton <rrho...@prodigy.net>
>wrote:
>
>
>>I should write an article, but who would care about M'Intosh?
>
>I would, even if I've never read anything by him. I just like finding
>out about obscure stuff like that.
I liked some of his stuff a lot.
--
Lynn Calvin
lca...@interaccess.com