Stories read in November 2016

[Don Kuenz]

"Music Played on the Strings of Time" (Kevin Anderson)

There are at least three ways to exploit other people's music if you
want to write popular songs. One way is nonfictional and the other two
are sfnal. The nonfictional way is to reach back into the past for
musical inspiration.

Two sfnal ways to exploit other people's music utilize a fictional
journey. The aspiring songwriter can take a one way time travel trip to
the past or take a roundtrip journey to an alternate universe.

In "Bob Dylan, Troy Jonson, and the Speed Queen" the wannabe songwriter,
Troy Jonson, takes a one way trip to the past. He also takes along
albums that are future hits from that past.

In "Music Played on the Strings of Time" the wannabe songwriter explores
alternate universes. Events play out differently in an alternate,
parallel universe. Popular artists whose lives were cut short in the
wannabe's "home" universe may live longer to produce yet another hit in
an alternate universe where the artist lives longer. There's a good
probability that yet another hit from an alternate universe will also
become a hit in the "home" universe.


_Fever_ (Robin Cook)

Dr Charles Martel is the most esteemed cancer researcher at "the
Weinburger" Cancer Institute in Boston. Charles' focus on the hybridoma
technique and chemical communication among cells puts him at odds with
the rest of the Weinburger, where the research gravitates towards more
profitable chemotherapeutic agents for palliative care.

When falsification of data for a new drug called Canceran causes a
scandal at the Weinburger management reassigns the project to an
reluctant Charles. They hope that Charles' spotless reputation can help
restore a profitable future to Canceran.

After he's coerced into the Canceran project, Charles discovers that his
daughter Michelle has leukemia. The most likely source of Michelle's
lukemia is Recycle Ltd, a factory near Charles' home. My favorite
passage in the novel occurs when Charles contacts the EPA to stop
Recycle from dumping benzene into the Pawtomack River.

"Let me be sure I understand what you're saying," said
Charles. "The primary task of the Enforcement Division of
the EPA is to make sure that paperwork gets done. It has
nothing to do with enforcing the Clean Water Act or anything
like that?"

Later in the story some disgruntled townspeople spray paint the word
"Communist" on Charles' home. That word seems somewhat dated today.

The story's action rumbles on to the climax. It also delivers a fair
amount of conspiracy along the way.


"Birth of a Salesman" (James Tiptree Jr)

This is James Tiptree Jr's debute story. A short story that appears in
the March 1968 edition of Analog.

The humorous story concerns one T. Benedict who works as an interstellar
freight expediter at Xeno-Cultural Gestalt Clearance (exceegeecee). Mr
Benedict fills his hectic days with the logistics of moving products
through a galaxy that teams with alien life.

Unfortunately, one alien's sensual song is another alien's dirge. One
alien's euphoric drink is another's hemlock and so on. The permutations
are enough to drive Benedict mad.


_Area 51 - Black Tuesday_ (Bob Mayer)

_Area 51 - Black Tuesday_ (BT) is the first book in the "Time Patrol"
subseries of Mayer's "Area 51" series. This story does not use Area 51
as a setting. Instead it uses New York, Washington DC, and a half dozen
places in the past as settings.

BT is a mix of seven short stories intertwined into one. There's half a
dozen time travel stories and an overarching seventh story set in the
present. The time travel shorts follow six different travelers back to
October 29 of various years from 999 to 1980. Each traveler is a
Nightstalker who belongs to an elite military force known as the Time
Patrol. A villain known as the Shadow appears in all stories.

Way back when, the Shadow destroyed Atlantis. Prior to its destruction
Atlantis stood in the middle of the Atlantic, surrounded by twelve other
islands. For six consecutive years the Shadow eliminated two islands
each year. On the seventh year the Shadow finally eliminated Atlantis.

If the Time Patrol can not stop the Shadow from altering six events in
history, then the Earth's civilization will fall. A Nightstalker named
Roland goes back to 999 as a Viking off the East Coast of England. Mac
goes back to 1618 to witness Walter Raleigh's beheading. Ivan goes back
in time to the 1929 stock market crash. Scout is sent back to 1969 when
the ARPANET is tested for the first time at UCLA. Moms goes back to the
1972 Andes flight disaster. The final Nightstalker, Eagle, is sent back
to 1980 for Operation Credible Sport.

BT houses past and future timelines in a place known as the "Probability
Palace." (Word salad happens when you use words to describe Ouspensky's
six dimensions.) The Palace reminds me of Metachronopolis in _City
Beyond Time_ (Wright). In both cases the imagery just doesn't work for
me.

Mechanical devices and paper documentation are used in lieu of computers
both in the Probability Palace and elsewhere in Time Patrol
administrative areas. Computers, presumably, are too prone to alteration
to prove trustworthy as ripples in the past make their way to the
present.

It was fun to figuratively travel back in time and revisit historical
events. Some short stories grabbed me enough to make me "cheat." They
made me skip over all of the intervening stories so as to follow only
that one story though to the end just to see what happened at the end of
that short story. Afterward my focus returned back to the point in BT
where the cheat started. BT was non-linearly read, in other words.

Thank you,

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

[The art of the novel] happens because the storyteller's own experience
of men and things, whether for good or ill - not only what he has passed
through himself, but even events which he has only witnessed or been
told of - has moved him to an emotion so passionate that he can no
longer keep it shut upon his heart. - Murasaki Shikibu

[David DeLaney]

On 2016-12-01, Don Kuenz <g...@crcomp.net> wrote:
> "Birth of a Salesman" (James Tiptree Jr)
>
> This is James Tiptree Jr's debute story.

^^^^^^ spoilers, man!!
Dave
--
\/David DeLaney posting thru EarthLink - "It's not the pot that grows the flower
It's not the clock that slows the hour The definition's plain for anyone to see
Love is all it takes to make a family" - R&P. VISUALIZE HAPPYNET VRbeable<BLINK>
gatekeeper.vic.com/~dbd - net.legends FAQ & Magic / I WUV you in all CAPS! --K.

[Gene Wirchenko]

On Fri, 02 Dec 2016 00:02:42 -0600, David DeLaney
<davidd...@earthlink.net> wrote:

>On 2016-12-01, Don Kuenz <g...@crcomp.net> wrote:
>> "Birth of a Salesman" (James Tiptree Jr)
>>
>> This is James Tiptree Jr's debute story.
> ^^^^^^ spoilers, man!!

^^^ Another spoiler!

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

[William December Starr]

In article <2016...@crcomp.net>,

Don Kuenz <g...@crcomp.net> said:

> If the Time Patrol can not stop the Shadow from altering six
> events in history, then the Earth's civilization will fall. A
> Nightstalker named Roland goes back to 999 as a Viking off the
> East Coast of England. Mac goes back to 1618 to witness Walter
> Raleigh's beheading.

And thereby settle once and for for the "Roll / Didn't Roll" dispute
that has bitterly divided Raleigh scholars for centuries.

Seriously, why did the Time Patrol high command or whoever send him
to that event?

-- wds

[Don Kuenz]

As an aside, my original post neglected to mention Scout's shout-out to
_The Things They Carried_ (O'Brien). Thus far, every Vietnam combat
veteran known to me who's read _Things_ speaks favorably of it. Mayer,
the author of _Black Tuesday_, was too young for Vietnam, but he's a
former Green Beret who's obviously read _Things_.

Now, on to your question. The "Roll / Didn't Roll" dispute? That's a new
one for me.

Raleigh acts fearless at his own execution. He entertains the crowd with
gallows humor.

Raleigh was beheaded in the Old Palace Yard at the Palace
of Westminster on 29 October 1618. "Let us dispatch", he said
to his executioner. "At this hour my ague comes upon me. I
would not have my enemies think I quaked from fear." After he
was allowed to see the axe that would be used to behead him,
he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician
for all diseases and miseries." According to biographers,
Raleigh's last words (as he lay ready for the axe to fall)
were: "Strike, man, strike!" [1]

For the sake of the story, the author attributes Raleigh's fearlessness
to Raleigh's foreknowledge of a plot to free him. The Nightstalker named
Mac must ensure that Raleigh is indeed beheaded.

spoiler space


Otherwise there's no Thirty Years' War and Germany isn't devasted and
splintered by religious strife and millions aren't killed. So far, so
good. Except centuries later zeppelins with swastikas drop atomic bombs
on American cities.

Note.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh

Thank you,

--
Don Kuenz KB7RPU

Everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humor itself is not
joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven. - Twain