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Reading for pleasure Issue 9
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* R E A D I N G F O R P L E A S U R E *
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* Issue #9 *
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* Editor: Cindy Bartorillo *
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* TIME TRAVEL *
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CONTACT US AT: Reading For Pleasure, c/o Cindy Bartorillo, 1819
Millstream Drive, Frederick, MD 21701; or on CompuServe leave a
message to 74766,1206; or on GEnie leave mail to C.BARTORILLO; or
call our BBS, the BAUDLINE II at 301-694-7108, 1200-9600 HST.
NOTICE: Reading For Pleasure is not copyrighted. You may copy
freely, but please give us credit if you extract portions to use
somewhere else. Sample copies of our print edition are available
upon request. We ask for a donation of $1.50 each to cover the
printing and mailing costs.
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DISTRIBUTION DIRECTORY
Here are a few bulletin boards where you should be able to pick
up the latest issue of READING FOR PLEASURE. See masthead for
where to send additions and corrections to this list.
Accolade! BBS Round Rock,TX Jack Moore 512-388-1445
Ad Lib Monroeville,PA John Williams 412-327-9209
The Annex Dayton,OH John Cooper 513-274-0821
Beginnings BBS Levittown,NY Mike Coticchio 516-796-7296 S
Billboard Bartlett,IL Gary Watson 708-289-9808 P
Blcksbg Info Serv Blacksburg,VA Fred Drake 703-951-2920
Boardello Los Angeles,CA Bryan Tsunoda 213-820-4527 P
Bruce's Bar&Grill Hartford,CT Bruce 203-236-3761 P
Byrd's Nest Arlington,VA Debbie&Alan Byrd 703-671-8923 P
CC-BBS ManhattanBchCA Chuck Crayne 213-379-8817 P
Center Point PCB Salt Lake,UT Kelvin Hyatt 801-359-6014 P
Chevy Chase Board Chevy Chase,MD Larkins/Carlson 301-549-5574 P
Computer Co-Op Voorhees,NJ Ted Hare 609-784-9404
Daily Planet Owosso,MI Jay Stark 517-723-4613
Death Star Oxon Hill,MD Lee Pollard 301-839-0705 P
Del Ches Systems Exton,PA Peter Rucci 215-363-6625
Diversified Prog PacPalisadesCA Jean-Pierre Denis 213-459-6053 P
Farmington Valley Hartford,CT John Walko 203-676-8920 P
Future Tech Boston,MA Napier & Moran 617-720-3600 P
Futzer Avenue Issaquah,WA Stan Symms 206-391-2339 P
Gentleman Loser Laurel,MD Robert West 301-776-0226 P
HeavenSoft Dayton,OH John Wampler 513-836-4288
House of Illusions Louisville,KY Pittman/Schardein 502-458-7666
IBMNew CompuServe Library #0
Inn on the Park Scottsdale,AZ Jim Jusko 602-957-0631 P
Invention Factory New York,NY Mike Sussell 212-431-1273 P
JETS Philadelphia T.A. Hare 215-928-7503 P
JForum CompuServe Library #8
KCSS BBS Seattle,WA Bob Neddo 206-296-5277 P
()Lensman() BBS Denver,CO Greg Bradt 303-979-8953 P
Litforum CompuServe Library #12
Lost Paradise Washington,DC 202-370-7795 P
Magpie HQ New York,NY Steve Manes 212-420-0527 P
NiCK at NiTE Salt Lake,UT Nick Zahner 801-964-1889 P
Nostradamus Los Angeles,CA Al Menache 213-473-4119 P
Oak Lawn Oak Lawn,IL Vince & Chris 708-599-8089 P
Poverty Rock PCB Mercer Is.,WA Rick Kunz 206-232-1763 PS
Quantum Connec. PacPalisadesCA Richard W. Gross 213-459-6748 P
Riverside Premium Lyons,IL Don Marquardt 312-447-8073 P
Science Fiction GEnie Library #3
SF & Fantasy CIS Hom-9 Library #1
Shallow's Fontasy Alexandria,VA Mark Shallow 703-683-7981 P
Suburban Software Chicago,IL Chuck Valecek 312-636-6694 P
Sunwise Sun City W.,AZ Keith Slater 602-584-7395
Technoids Anon. Chandler,AZ David Cantere 602-899-4876 P
Writers Happy Hr Seattle,WA Walter Scott 206-364-2139 P
Writers' RT GEnie Library #1
Your Place Fairfax,VA Ken Goosens 703-978-6360 P
RFP Home Board (all issues available all the time):
Baudline II Frederick,MD the Bartorillo's 301-694-7108
(RFPs downloadable on first call; 9600 HST)
Any board that participates in the RelayNet (tm) email system can
request RFPs from BAUDLINE.
P = PC Pursuit-able
S = StarLink-able
NOTE: Back issues on CompuServe may have been moved to a
different library.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
What's News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
On The Horizon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Bestsellers of the Christmas Season . . . . . . . . . . . 307
Obscenity Ruling Reversed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Good Reading Periodically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 363
Some Mysteries by Barbara Paul . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Time Travel (Darryl Kenning) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Featured Author: Jack Finney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 510
Time Travel Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 638
New From Carroll & Graf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1054
Redshift Rendezvous (advertisement) . . . . . . . . . . . 1133
Memory Blank by John E. Stith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1180
Births and Other Important Dates . . . . . . . . . . . . 1208
Random Reviews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1320
New From Meadowbrook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1738
Tom Clancy Speaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774
The Turner Tomorrow Awards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1797
Roc Books . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1860
Time Passes For Baby Boomers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1949
New From Simon & Schuster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2035
Dvorak's Guide to PC Telecommunications . . . . . . . . . 2174
Number One Fan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2222
Back Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2263
Bestsellers Trivia Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Bestsellers Trivia Quiz Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2321
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There are three rules for writing the novel.
Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.
--Somerset Maugham
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EDITORIAL
Welcome to our Time Travel Issue. Somewhere here you'll find a list of
novels and short stories about Time Travel, a list that's no where
near complete but will at least give you a lot of material for your
next trip to the library or bookstore. This is one particular area
where the SF section of your used-book store will be most helpful.
Good luck to you in your hunt.
It doesn't take a genius to realize why we like Time Travel stories so
much--time is our one big enemy, the one we can never beat and who
will ultimately have victory of us. All those things you did and said
yesterday are permanently in the log books, never to be altered or
deleted. Would it help if we considered, each morning as we get out of
bed, that this will be our last chance at this day? That this one
particular day will never come again and that we'd better make the
very best of it we can? Yeah, you're right. Probably not. There's the
invincibility of time and then there's human nature. The irresistible
force meets the immovable object. A clash of titans.
Check the heading on this issue and you'll notice that RFP no longer
has a month on it. It's not that we plan to significantly change the
frequency, it's just that we're all tired of racing the calendar. A
magazine that I just started getting, called ANYTHING BUT MONDAY (more
on this in a future issue), declares itself published not "monthly" or
"quarterly" but "chaotically". I like that. Actually, we hope RFP will
be more regular than "chaotically", but perhaps a bit less regimented
than "monthly". Whatever.
Please notice we have another new reviewer appearing in this
issue--Marsha Via. We hope to hear more from Marsha in upcoming months
too. Speaking of RFP contributions, let's shape up out there! I mean,
congratulatory letters are very, very nice, but let's not forget that
something printable is even better than nice. For instance, can I get
a little help with the Distribution Directory? If you call a BBS on
our Directory and can't find RFP, let us know about it. Also be sure
to let us know if you find a BBS carrying RFP that ISN'T on our list.
Any board that would like to carry RFP (and be listed) can get it from
any place already on our list, or, if their BBS is reachable with PC
Pursuit, they can contact me for Personal Delivery (I'll upload RFP
each month myself).
I particularly would like to hear from authors. If you've gotten
something published, let me know so I can pass the word around. It
couldn't hurt.
In any case, thanks for all the nice letters, and accept my apology if
you've gotten no response. My desk here is...well, it's a good thing
you can't see it, because it's disgusting. And whatever falls on the
floor generally winds up getting thrown out, which must be where a
number of addresses have gone lately. Just keep sending anything you
have to say to one of the addresses listed on the masthead--it's all
read and appreciated. See you next month, or whenever.
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WHAT'S NEWS
* Are you ready for Ted Turner Books? There's a new company called
Turner Publishing Inc. which is a subsidiary of Turner Broadcasting
System Inc. of which Ted Turner is the chairman and president. The new
company will take advantage of shows produced for Turner's four TV
stations (WTBS, CNN, Headline News, TNT). The first book will be
arriving this spring to coincide with a miniseries called PORTRAIT OF
GREAT BRITAIN, and the second will be "drawn on" SEASON OF GIANTS, a
series on TNT dealing with the lives of Michelangelo and Leonardo da
Vinci, and will be released in the fall.
* Bookish types shouldn't miss: THE DIARY OF H.L. MENCKEN edited by
Charles A. Fecher (Knopf, $30, ISBN 0-394-56877-X).
* From Publishers Weekly (Nov. 24, 1989): "The November issue of Barry
R. Levin's Science Fiction & Fantasy Literature, a rare book
newsletter, has a listing for what is unquestionably the rarest
edition of THE SATANIC VERSES. It's part of an English first edition,
a numbered set of 12 copies of the Salman Rushdie novel; bound in full
Morocco leather with gilt lettering, printed on vellum antique laid
paper and signed by the author. And if that's not rare enough, the
publisher, in a weirdly prophetic gesture, had the late Ayatollah
Khomeini's autograph tipped into one copy before the controversy over
the book began. Rare and notorious--an expensive combination--it sells
for $6750."
* A company called Xiamax has made electronic books a reality. They
have complete multi-volume reference books stored in electronic form
on a "smart card" which is about the size of a credit card. A
hand-held device called the Xiamax-2 is used to read the cards, and
allows the reader to highlight, search, and cross-reference with ease.
Future enhancements will involve voice modules, graphics and color.
Look for the Xiamax-2 to be released this spring.
* Steven Spielberg has optioned FADE THE HEAT by Jay Brandon, soon to
be a Pocket Books hardcover. It's a courtroom drama about a district
attorney whose son is accused of rape (Brandon is a D.A. in Texas). I
suppose legal plots are back "in" now, probably because of Scott
Turow's PRESUMED INNOCENT.
* Remember THE READER'S CATALOG I told you about? It's a huge catalog
of books currently in print that you can buy for $24.95. It also
includes an 800 number to call and order any book your local
bookseller can't provide. Well, you'll never guess what the top
sellers are on their 800-number order service. They average 35 orders
a day and the hottest titles by far are the Loeb editions of the Greek
and Latin classics, followed by the works of Hegel and Theodore
Dreiser.
* Remember AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN by Tracy Kidder that we mentioned in
RFP #somethingorother? It's about a dedicated teacher in a town beset
with problems, and the news is that it's supposedly going to be made
into a movie for Universal by Steven Spielberg's Amblin' Productions.
More movie news: Carol Burnett's company at Disney, Kalola, has
optioned THE SENSITIVES by Herbert Burkholz, a psychic spy story. And
Sylvester Stallone's White Eagle Enterprises has exercised its option
on the thriller THE MIDNIGHT CLUB by James Patterson.
* Still more movie news: Lawrence Gordon Productions has exercised its
option on Walter Wager's thriller 58 MINUTES (Macmillan). The movie
version will be called DIE HARD 2 and will star Bruce Willis.
* For Baby Boomers Only: Grace Metalious' daughter, Cynthia Geary, is
writing a sequel to PEYTON PLACE from notes left by her mother. 20th
Century-Fox plans to produce a pilot for TV with a possible series
spinoff.
* Ballantine has won the reprint rights to the Christmas season's big
hit: FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM by Umberto Eco.
* For Ripperologists, there's a good-sounding book just out: JACK THE
RIPPER: The Uncensored Facts by Paul Begg (Robson/Parkwest, $19.95,
ISBN 0-86051-528-1). I've heard that this is an in-depth, unbiased
account, with good coverage of 1888 London and the people involved in
the case, and it includes material on all of the popular suspects.
* The Sci-Fi Channel looks like it's going to become a reality. It's
going to be a 24-hour basic cable network for SF, Fantasy, and Horror
programming, and will be transmitted throughout the U.S. from GE
Americom's SATCOM C-4 satellite. Nothing really definite seems set
yet, but it's due to begin broadcasting "later this year". They'll
start with vintage TV shows, movies, sitcoms, and game shows, with
more and more original programming as they get rolling.
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ON THE HORIZON
This information is early and therefore tentative, and is for the
obsessive reader only.
Greg Bear: Anvil of the Stars (sequel to Forge of God)
Moving Mars
Mayer Alan Brenner: Spell of Intrigue (second in the "Dance of
the Gods" fantasy series)
J.M. Dillard: Specters (horror)
Elizabeth Hand: Aestival Tide (second in the Winterlong series)
Patricia A. McKillip: The Sorceress and the Signet (adult fantasy)
Kim Newman: Bad Dreams (horror/fantasy)
Jago (horror/fantasy)
Andre Norton & Mercedes Lackey: The Elvenbane (A fantasy
collaboration and, of course, the first of a series.)
Jerry Oltion: Isaac Asimov's Robots and Aliens #6: Humanity
William Sanders: Pockets of Resistance
The Hell-Bound Train (sequel to Pockets of R.)
(both the above to be listed as by "Will Sundown")
William Shatner: TekLords (sequel to TekWar)
Brad Strickland: Wizard's Mole (3rd in "Jeremy Moon" series)
Dragon's Plunder (for "Dragonflight" series)
Robert Weinberg: The Black Lodge (contemporary occult novel)
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THE BESTSELLERS OF THE CHRISTMAS SEASON
Hardcover Fiction: FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM by Umberto Eco; THE DARK HALF
by Stephen King; CARIBBEAN by James Michener; STRAIGHT by Dick
Francis; TALES FROM MARGARITAVILLE by Jimmy Buffett; CLEAR AND PRESENT
DANGER by Tom Clancy; and DADDY by Danielle Steel.
Hardcover Nonfiction: LIAR'S POKER: RISING THROUGH THE WRECKAGE ON
WALL STREET by Michael M. Lewis; WONDERFUL LIFE by Stephen Jay Gould;
MY TURN by Nancy Reagan with William Novak; AMONG SCHOOLCHILDREN by
Tracy Kidder; A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME by Stephen J. Hawking; and ALL I
REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum.
Trade Paperbacks: LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA by Gabriel Garcia
Marquez; RADIANT SILHOUETTE by John Yau.
Mass Market Paperbacks: BREATHING LESSONS by Anne Tyler; SANDS OF
TIME by Sidney Sheldon; ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN
KINDERGARTEN by Robert Fulghum; CAT'S EYE by Margaret Atwood; THE
SHELL SEEKERS by Rosamunde Pilcher; ANYTHING FOR BILLY by Larry
McMurtry.
Children's Books: THE GREAT WALDO SEARCH by Martin Handford; THE
POLAR EXPRESS by Chris Van Allsburg; SWAN LAKE by Mark Helprin; THE
ELEVENTH HOUR by Graeme Base; CARL GOES SHOPPING by Alexandra Day; AMY
THE DANCING BEAR by Carly Simon; THE WAY THINGS WORK by David
Macaulay.
Gift Books: THE WAY TO COOK by Julia Child; THE NEW BASICS by Julee
Rosso & Sheila Lukins; MARTHA STEWART'S CHRISTMAS by Martha Stewart; I
DREAM A WORLD: PORTRAITS OF BLACK WOMEN WHO CHANGED AMERICA (Stewart,
Tabori & Chang); BRUCE WEBER (Knopf); THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DESK
REFERENCE (Prentice-Hall).
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OBSCENITY RULING REVERSED
In December of 1986, the manager of Friendly Frank's Comics store in
Illinois, Michael Correa, was arrested for selling 15 comics that
included scenes of nudity and sexual conduct to an undercover police
officer. The trial judge decided that 3 of the comics were obscene,
and Correa was sentenced to a year's supervision and $750 in fines and
costs for selling obscene material.
Recently, however, the First District Appellate Court of Illinois
reversed the conviction, and the three-judge panel stated that
sexuality is "not synonymous with obscenity" and that they would not
attempt to further define obscenity. The opinion continued with,
"However, we know it when we see it," and the 3 comics in question
"are not hard-core obscenity". The panel also ruled that the lower
court erred by disregarding evidence of the literary and artistic
value of the comics.
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GOOD READING PERIODICALLY
MENTOR is dedicated to the idea of mentoring, the passing along of
information, skills, and knowledge. It's a forum for the exchange of
ideas, methods for learning, and methods of teaching. You get book
reviews; information on seminars, conferences, workshops, and other
publications; articles on teaching and mentoring; news items on
mentoring. It seems to be half Learning Resources and half
Inspiration. MENTOR is published quarterly by Watermarks, PO Box 4382,
Overland Park, KS 66204. Subscriptions are $14.50 per year and they
just might send you a sample issue if you ask nicely. A large SASE
(self-addressed, stamped #10 envelope) probably wouldn't hurt, either.
AFRAID is subtitled "The Newsletter for the Horror Professional",
which seems to get the point across very well. If you are a writer in
the horror field (or want to be, or are interested in), you should try
this out. I'm not a "Horror Professional", but I've seen an issue of
AFRAID and I've seen the Horror Writers of America Newsletter--and it
seems to me that AFRAID is the more informative and useful of the two.
That's not entirely fair since HWA may (and probably does) perform
services for its members behind the scenes of the newsletter. But
there's much more to the AFRAID newsletter, anyone can subscribe, and
there's not a whole lot of insider political talk. The issue I saw was
loaded with news, it had an article on forming a writers group, book
reviews, articles of writers' personal experiences and opinions,
entertainment pieces, and market reports. One year of AFRAID (12
issues) is $20, two years $40. Make your check payable to AFRAID and
mail to: AFRAID, 2170 S. Harbor Blvd., #270, Anaheim, CA 92802.
If you have a publication that our readers would be interested in
hearing about, send a sample issue and all relevant information to
Cindy Bartorillo, c/o Reading For Pleasure, 1819 Millstream Dr.,
Frederick, MD 21701.
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Some Mysteries by Barbara Paul
The Fourth Wall (Doubleday, 1979)
Liars and Tyrants and People Who Turn Blue (Doubleday, 1980)
First Gravedigger (Doubleday, 1980)
Your Eyelids are Growing Heavy (Doubleday, 1981)
The Renewable Virgin (Scribner's, 1984)
A Cadenza for Caruso (St. Martin's, 1984)
Kill Fee (Scribner's, 1985)
Prima Donna at Large (St. Martin's, 1985)
But He Was Already Dead When I Got There (Scribner's, 1986)
A Chorus of Detectives (St. Martin's, 1987)
He Huffed and He Puffed (Scribner's, 1989)
Good King Sauerkraut (Scribner's, 1989)
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BESTSELLERS TRIVIA QUIZ
A. Here's the January 12, 1990 Publishers Weekly Hardcover Fiction
Bestsellers list, if you can figure it out:
1) D. by D.S.
2) C.a.P.D. by T.C.
3) T.D.H. by S.K.
4) C. by J.A.M.
5) F.'s P. by U.E.
6) T.f.M.: F.F.a.F.F. by J.B.
7) S. by D.F.
8) T.P.o.t.E. by K.F.
9) J.S.a.H.P. by J.S.
10) C.G. by J.J.
11) T.E.H.: A.C.M. by G.B.
12) T.J.L.C. by A.T.
13) S.L. by L.D.
14) T.S.o.D. by D.E.
15) M. by P.S.
B. And here's the January 12, 1990 Publishers Weekly Mass Market
Paperback Bestsellers list. The 15 titles below have been translated
with a simple substitution cypher, meaning that each letter of the
alphabet has been replaced by another letter. Hint: Each group of five
titles uses a different substitution cypher (#1-#5 uses the same code,
#6-#10 uses another code, #11-#15 uses a third code).
1) Frr B Wpfrrv Gppa Km Ngmc B Rpfwgpa Bg Nbgapwefwkpg
2) Kxp Dfgad Mh Kbup
3) Kxp Afwn Kmcpw: Kxp Awfcbge Mh Kxp Kxwpp
4) Dkmrpg Qrpddbged
5) F Kxbph Mh Kbup
6) Yjr Djraa Drrlrtd
7) Yjr Nappfomh
8) Ntrsyjomh Arddpmd
9) S Yeody Om Yjr Ysar
10) Vsy'd Rur
11) Buxvjauxpr
12) Ewgwyc Bumjrcv
13) W Ecwexj Zj Ucpp
14) Lcwfubvcc Vxwr
15) Ela Uxxo
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TIME TRAVEL
by Darryl Kenning
Time travel has been a subject that has fascinated the human species
for as long as we could wonder, "what if I could change what
happened..?...". I think the first TT book I read was Mark Twain's A
CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR'S COURT. I was in the 6th grade, and
my teacher let me read it on the bench next to me (well heck, I wasn't
bothering anyone and she probably thought it was a classic) for
however long it took me to finish it. I remember that it was a story I
just couldn't put down, as Mr. Twain's magic with words transported me
to a particularly American view of our particular timeline in history.
What has fascinated me for years is the multitude of ways authors have
found to either make TT a major part of their stories, or have had it
fade so far into the background that you can't even see it. A lot of
mainstream fiction uses TT without anyone even noticing it. Even more
interesting is the fact that Time Travel, into the future, is already
a real possibility using Einstein's theory, a spaceship, and a small
atomic engine for thrust. WOW..That's the stuff dreams are made of!
Unfortunately, I rather think that going backward in time is
altogether unlikely (my personal view is that we may well be able to
SEE back, but not GO back). Of course, that's where we all would
really like to go to undo past mistakes, and just enjoy living in what
seem to be simpler times. And I suppose that's the REAL appeal of it
all.
It is also a lot of fun to try to unravel the Gordian Knot of going
backwards in time and setting up an unresolvable puzzle. This aspect
alone provides a major amount of grist for the imaginations of
authors.
If you haven't really tried Time Travel as a genre, you should. It
will give you the opportunity to let your imagination really SOAR, and
maybe, just maybe, we can learn some real life lessons from what might
have been.
Darryl can be contacted through RFP, on CompuServe (76337,740), on the
ANNEX Bulletin Board (513-274-0821 -- J 3 to join the Science Fiction
conference), or by writing to him directly at: 6331 Marshall Rd.,
Centerville, Ohio 45459.
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JACK FINNEY
Jack Finney often wrote about time travel, making him entirely
suitable as this month's Featured Author. Indeed, he wrote one of the
genuine classics in the subgenre--TIME AND AGAIN--as well as the
well-known short story, "The Third Level". Like Stanley Ellin, Jack
Finney's writing is gratifyingly consistent: his style is simple and
clear, and his stories are always fascinating. Scour the bookstores
and the libraries and I can pretty well guarantee that if it has Jack
Finney's name on it, you'll have a good time reading it.
Finney's most common theme was The Perfect Crime, the most elegant way
to accomplish the seemingly impossible. Even when the goal is not
technically a crime, it's always something that's not entirely
socially acceptable--like the desire to just get up and leave your
current life, with all its baggage and responsibilities, and start
again with no penalties to pay. By its very nature, this theme lends
itself to witty and unconventional treatments (like Time Travel).
I decided to perform a valuable public service in this space by
providing you with a brief biographic rundown on Jack Finney, so I sat
down amidst my large library of literary reference volumes armed with
a pencil and a large pad of paper. First I checked the giant American
Literature-type books for a Finney, Jack entry. No luck. Then I
searched the American Science Fiction-type books, but only found that
Finney was the author of the book from which the famous INVASION OF
THE BODY SNATCHER films were made. That's not exactly hot news. So
then I turned to my small cache of Finney books, looking for a
biographical preface. Nope. It wasn't until I was reduced to reading
dust jacket blurbs that I finally struck pay dirt:
"He lives near San Francisco."
That's it, folks. That's the biography. It now remains for some
industrious reader to produce a new analysis of the Finney canon in
the light of this startling information. I'm afraid I'll have to leave
it to you to accomplish, however. I'm completely worn out by my
research.
5 AGAINST THE HOUSE (Doubleday, 1954): A great suspense novel about a
group of college kids that decide to rob a casino, a supposedly
impossible job. It was made into a film in 1955, directed by Phil
Karlson and starring Kim Novak and Brian Keith.
THE BODY SNATCHERS (Dell, 1955): The basis of the Don Siegel film in
1955 and the Philip Kaufman film in 1978. Finney, and the following
movies, touched on a lot of sore spots: the menace from within, the
menace from the sky, the enemy who's not interested in negotiating.
And what if Uncle Ira really isn't Uncle Ira? This story (once again,
book and movies) has provided more material for intellectual
interpretation than almost any other this century. Just ask someone
about the Red Scare aspect of the Siegel film--you'll get a complete
lecture (or is that you giving the lecture?). This story is also the
source of a now-worn gag: Whenever someone tells you that so-and-so
isn't acting like themselves, the correct response is, "Have you
checked the basement for pods?"
THE HOUSE OF NUMBERS (Dell, 1957): Another suspense novel in the
Finney fashion, this time about married couple Ben and Ruth who are
going to help Ben's brother Arnie escape from San Quentin. An
ingenious plot.
THE THIRD LEVEL (Rinehart, 1957): This is a collection of short
stories, and the title story is probably his most famous, about an
unknown part of Grand Central Station that transports people to the
year 1894.
ASSAULT ON A QUEEN (Simon & Schuster, 1959): Yes, Jack Finney wrote
the original book that was made into the famous 1966 Frank Sinatra
movie (directed by Jack Donohue). The screenplay was written by
somebody named Rod Serling.
I LOVE GALESBURG IN THE SPRINGTIME (Simon & Schuster, 1963)
GOOD NEIGHBOR SAM (Simon & Schuster, 1963): You're probably more
familiar with the 1964 movie, directed by David Swift, that starred
Jack Lemmon; but Jack Finney wrote the novel in the first place.
THE WOODROW WILSON DIME (Simon & Schuster, 1968): Ben is a struggling
advertising copywriter, stuck in a dull marriage. Then one day he
finds a Woodrow Wilson dime, which leads him into a parallel world of
his dreams where he runs his own ad agency and shares life with a
dazzling red-haired bombshell.
TIME AND AGAIN (Simon & Schuster, 1970): Jack Finney's masterpiece.
Did illustrator Si Morley really step out of his 20th-century
apartment one night--and right into the winter of 1882? The U.S.
Government believed it, especially when Si returned with a portfolio
of brand-new sketches and tintype photos of a world that no longer
existed--or did it? A terrific mystery story.
MARION'S WALL (Simon & Schuster, 1973): Nick and Jan move into an old
San Francisco house only to find it possessed by a screen queen of the
twenties who takes over Jan's body and wreaks marvelous comic mayhem.
With a nostalgia for old movies, this mysterious tale of lost destiny
is touched with the spirit of flappers, Fitzgerald and lost innocence.
Made into a movie starring Glenn Close.
THE NIGHT PEOPLE (Doubleday, 1977): Lew Joliffe is a hip San
Francisco lawyer who lives with his girl, Jo. They share parties,
ambition and lovemaking with friends Harry and Shirley. Then the four
try a new game: late at night they roam the deserted streets playing
pranks. Suspense mounts as the consequences of their increasingly
bizarre tricks take a decidedly dangerous turn.
FORGOTTEN NEWS: THE CRIME OF THE CENTURY AND OTHER LOST STORIES
(Doubleday, 1983): Jack Finney did much research on the 19th century
and read many magazines and newspapers of the period. This is a
collection of some of the most mysterious, lurid, and fascinating
stories he uncovered.
ABOUT TIME: TWELVE STORIES (Simon & Schuster, 1986): These are
stories that were originally published in THE THIRD LEVEL and I LOVE
GALESBURG IN THE SPRINGTIME. Includes "The Third Level", "Such
Interesting Neighbors" (you may know where your neighbors are from,
but what about when they're from?), "Of Missing Persons" (a travel
agency for people who need a new start somewhen else), "Where the
Cluetts Are" (a Victorian house becomes a time machine), "Second
Chance" (a vintage car is the time machine), and "The Face in the
Photo" (another time travel detective story).
THREE BY FINNEY (Simon & Schuster, 1987): (contains: The Woodrow
Wilson Dime / Marion's Wall / The Night People)
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TIME TRAVEL BOOKS
compiled by Darryl Kenning & Cindy Bartorillo
annotated by Cindy Bartorillo
When I mentioned to Darryl that we'd be doing a Time Travel Issue, he
sent me a personal database of book titles. I added a few titles of my
own, plus a bit of research, and here is the result. I had planned to
send the whole thing back to Darryl for a final check, but, as usual,
time ran out on me and I never got around to it, so any typos and
inaccuracies are mine.
The integers that appear after some titles are the Kenning Rating
System (0-5, 0=worthless, 5=classic).
Aldiss, Brian: Cryptozoic! (1968)
Frankenstein Unbound (1973). Possibly more enjoyable
than the original.
Anderson, Poul: Brain Wave (1954). The intelligence of all mammals
increases suddenly.
The Dancer From Atlantis (Signet, 1972) 2
The Guardians of Time (1960) 5
"The Man Who Came Early" (1956). A man gets
transported to 10th-century Iceland.
Past Times (Tor, 1984) 4
There Will Be Time 5
Time Patrolman (Tor, 1983) 4
Anonymous: Missing One's Coach (1838). The narrator falls through a
hole in time and winds up back in the days of the
Venerable Bede. This story was reprinted in August
Derleth's anthology, Far Boundaries (1951).
Anthony, Piers: Orn 1
Appel, Allen: Time After Time (Carroll & Graf, 1985). Are they just
nightmares, or is history professor Alex Balfour
really travelling back to the time of Tsar Nicholas,
Anastasia, and Rasputin?
Asimov, Isaac: "The Dead Past" (1956)
The End of Eternity (1955). Andrew Harlan makes
Reality Changes, rearranging past and future
according to the dictates of the Allwhen Council.
Ballard, J.G.: Hello America
Barr, Robert: The Hour Glass (1898). A man from the past shows up to
claim a recently purchased and now antique hour
glass.
Bayley, Barrington J.: Collision Course (DAW, 1973) 2
The Fall of Chronopolis (DAW, 1974) 1
Benford, Gregory: Timescape (Pocket Books, 1981). Once we've
destroyed our planet, how could we send a
warning message to the past? Would they believe
us? Includes fairly heavy passages on
theoretical physics.
Bester, Alfred: Extro (1974)
"The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (1964). An unusual
perspective on how time works.
Bishop, Michael: No Enemy But Time
Blish, James: Midsummer Century (1972)
Blumenthal, Curley & Williams: The Complete Time Traveler (Ten
Speed, 1988, 2038). A guide to time travel,
written in standard travel book style and
originally published in 2038. A lot of fun.
Bond, Nelson: Exiles in Time (Paperback Lib., 1965) 2
Bradbury, Ray: "A Sound of Thunder" (1952). A classic about parallel
universes.
Brunner, John: Quicksand (1967)
The Tides of Time (Del Rey, 1984) 1
Chalker, Jack L.: Downtime (Tor, 1985) 3
Cook, Glenn: A Matter of Time (Ace, 1985) 3
Cummings, Ray: The Exile of Time (Ace, 1964) 1
Darney, Arsen: The Purgatory Zone (Ace, 1981) 3
Davies, L.P.: Genesis Two (1970)
DeCamp, L. Sprague: Lest Darkness Fall (1941) 5. An anthropologist,
who gets transported back to 6th-century Rome,
tries to circumvent the Dark Ages.
Del Rey, Lester: The Scheme of Things (Belmont, 1966) 3
Dick, Philip K.: Counter-Clock World (1967)
Dr. Futurity (Berkley, 1984) 2
Dickson, Gordon R.: Time Storm (1977)
Dorn, Frank: Appointment With Yesterday (Manor, 1978) 4
Dozois, Gardner, ed.: Time Travellers (Ace, 1989). Stories by John
Varley, Brian W. Aldiss, Steven Utley, Tim
Sullivan, Lewis Shiner, Robert Silverberg,
Ian Watson, Kim Antieau, Andrew Weiner,
John Kessel, and Lucius Shepard.
Drake, David: Bridgehead (Tor, 1986) 0
Edmondson, G.C.: The Ship That Sailed The Time Stream (1965)
Eklund, Gordon: Serving In Time (Laser, 1975) 4
Elder, Michael: The Alien Earth (Pinnacle, 1971) 4
Farmer, Phillip Jose: Time's Last Gift (Del Rey, 1977) 3
Fearn, John Russell: The Intelligence Gigantic (1933)
Finney, Jack: (see article elsewhere in this issue)
About Time (Simon & Schuster, 1986)
Marion's Wall (Simon & Schuster, 1973)
The Night People (Doubleday, 1977)
Time and Again (Simon & Schuster, 1970) 5
The Woodrow Wilson Dime (Simon & Schuster, 1968)
Fox, Gardner F.: The Hunter Out of Time (Ace, 1965) 4
Frankowski, Leo: The Cross-Time Engineer (Del Rey, 1986) 5. Modern
man in medieval Poland.
Garner, Alan: Red Shift (Del Rey, 1981) 4
Gerrold, David: The Man Who Folded Himself (1973) 3. The classic
book about time looping, where you visit yourself
at various ages and create a time containing
numerous "copies" of you.
Gordon, Rex: First Through Time (1962)
Gordon, Stuart: Time Story (DAW, 1973) 3
Goulart, Ron: The Panchronicon Plot (DAW, 1977) 3
When the Sleeper Wakes (DAW, 1975) 3
Green, I.G.: Time Beyond Time (Belmont, 1971) 3
Greenhalgh, Zohra: Trickster's Touch
Hamilton, Edmond: City At World's End 3
Return to the Stars 3
Harrison, Harry: A Rebel In Time (Tor, 1983) 5
The Technicolor Time Machine (1967). How to make a
movie with the help of a time machine. Don't
recreate a period, GO there! Don't hire an actor
to pretend to be a Viking, get a REAL Viking!
Don't waste today on something that can be done
yesterday!
West of Eden (Bantam, 1985) 2. An alternate past
where mankind must battle intelligent dinosaurs.
Hawke, Simon: The Timekeeper Conspiracy (Ace, 1984) 2
Heinlein, Robert A.: "All You Zombies" (1959). A man becomes his own
mother and father.
"By His Bootstraps" (1941). Famous story about
the problems of time loops.
Hogan, James P.: Thrice Upon A Time (Del Rey, 1980) 5. Another story
about using the past to change the present. More
technical than most.
Hoyle, Fred: October the First is Too Late (Harper & Row, 1966).
What if each area of the world was currently
experiencing a different section of the time stream?
England is in the 1960s, Western Europe is in World
War I, Greece is in the Golden Age of Pericles,
America is thousands of years in the future, and
Russia and Asia are a lifeless, glasslike plain. What
has happened? Whose time is "correct"?
Hoyle, Trevor: The Gods Look Down (Ace, 1982) 4
Through The Eye Of Time (Ace, 1982) 4
Jones, Raymond: Renegades of Time (Laser, 1975) 2
Kilian, Crawford: The Empire of Time (Del Rey, 1978) 3
Rogue Emperor (Del Rey, 1988) 4
Kilworth, Garry: Split Second (Popular Lib., 1985) 3
Kipling, Rudyard: Puck of Pook's Hill (1906)
Klein, Gerard: The Day Before Tomorrow (DAW, 1972) 3
The Mote in God's Eye (DAW, 1975) 3
Kurland, Michael: Tomorrow Knight (DAW, 1976) 4
The Whenabouts of Burr (DAW, 1975) 3
Laumer, Keith: The Day Before Forever (Dell, 1969) 4
Dinosaur Beach (DAW, 1971) 4
The Great Time Machine Hoax (1964) 3
The Long Twilight (Berkley, 1970) 4
Time Trap (Baen, 1987) 2
Leiber, Fritz: Changewar (Ace, 1983) 4
Leinster, Murray: "Sideways in Time" (1934). An examination of
parallel universes.
The Time Tunnel (Pyramid, 1967) 3
Lewis, Hilda: The Ship That Flew (1939)
Lionel, Robert: Time Echo (Uni, 1964) 2
Lymington, John: Froomb! 2
McCollum, Michael: A Greater Infinity (Del Rey, 1982) 3
Maddock, Larry: The Time Trap Gambit (Ace, 1969) 2
Maine, Charles Eric: Timeliner (Bantam, 1956) 2
Malzberg, Barry: Scop (Pyramid, 1976) 3
Manning, Laurence: The Man Who Awoke (Ballantine, 1975) 3
Matheson, Richard: Bid Time Return (1975). Good book that was made
into a so-so movie with Jane Seymour and
Christopher Reeve.
Maxim, John R.: Time Out of Mind (Houghton Mifflin, 1986). Whenever
it snows, Jonathan finds himself in the 1880s,
about to kill someone, and he doesn't know why.
But when he's in the 1980s, someone's trying to
kill HIM and he doesn't know why. Obviously,
Jonathan had better figure out what's going on
before it's too late.
Maynard, Richard: The Return
Meredith, Richard C.: Run, Come See Jerusalem! (Ballantine, 1976) 3
Merwin, Sam, Jr.: The Time Shifters 3
Mitchell, Edward Page: The Clock That Went Backward (1881). Possibly
the first story to use a machine to travel
through time. Was reprinted in a Mitchell
collection, The Crystal Man (1973).
An Uncommon Sort of Spectre (1879). A man is
visited by the ghost of his son from forty
years in the future.
Mitchell, Kirk: Never the Twain (Ace, 1987) 2. No matter how hard
you try to change the past, history will manage
to stay consistent.
Montana, Ron: The Sign of the Thunderbird 4
Monteleone, Thomas F.: The Time Connection (Popular Lib, 1976) 4
Moorcock, Michael: Dancers at the End of Time (series started in
1972)
Behold the Man (1970)
Moore, C.L. & H. Kuttner: Earth's Last Citadel 2
Moore, Dan Tyler: The Terrible Game (Signet, 1969) 3
Moore, Ward: Bring the Jubilee (1953). A parallel universe where
the South won the Civil War.
Nesbit, E.: The Story of the Amulet (1906)
Norton, Andre: The Defiant Agents 5
Galactic Derelict 5
Key Out of Time 3
Operation Time Search (Ace, 1973) 3
The Time Traders 5
Norwood, Warren: Time Police (Lynx-Omega, 1988) 3
Trapped (Omega, 1989) 2
Padgett, Lewis: "Mimsy Were the Borogoves" (1943). (Lewis Padgett
was the pseudonym used by Henry Kuttner and C.L.
Moore for their collaboration.) Two boxes of toys
from the future get sent back to the past.
Paul Barbara: Pillars of Salt (Signet, 1979) 2
Pearce, Philippa: Tom's Midnight Garden (1958)
Powers, Tim: The Anubis Gates (Ace, 1983)
Preuss, Paul: Re-Entry (Bantam, 1981) 2
Priest, Christopher: Indoctrinaire (Pocket, 1971) 0
The Perfect Lover (1977)
Randle, Kevin & Cornett: Remember the Alamo! (Charter, 1986) 3
Reynolds, Mack: After Utopia (Ace, 1977) 3
"Compounded Interest" (1956)
Equality: In The Year 2000 (Ace, 1977) 4
Looking Backward, From the Year 2000 (Ace, 1973) 4
Perchance To Dream (Ace, 1977) 4
Reynolds, Mack & Dean Ing: The Other Time (Baen, 1984) 5
Saberhagen, Fred: After the Fact (Baen, 1988). Time travellers
trying to save the life of Abraham Lincoln.
Saberhagen, Fred, editor: A Spadeful of Spacetime (1980)
Schmidt, Stanley: Sins of the Fathers (Berkley, 1976) 1
Shaw, Bob: Who Goes Here (1977)
Sherred, T.L.: "E For Effort" (1947). About movies made with real
footage of past events.
Shupp, Mike: With Fate Conspire (Del Rey, 1985) 2
Silverberg, Robert: Hawksbill Station (Berkley, 1978) 5
"Many Mansions" (1973). A clever murder puzzle.
The Masks of Time (1968)
Time Gate (created by R.S.) (Baen, 1989).
Stories about computer simulations of
historical figures; by Robert Silverberg,
Robert Sheckley, Poul Anderson, Gregory
Benford, and Pat Murphy.
The Time Hoppers 4
Up The Line (Ballantine, 1969) 5. The rippling,
domino effects of time travel illustrated
with humor and intricate detail.
Silverberg, Robert, editor: Trips in Time (1977)
Voyagers in Time
Simak, Clifford D.: Mastodonia 3
Time And Time Again 3
Smith, Dean Wesley: Laying the Music to Rest (Pop Lib, 1989). A
college professor seeks the answers to
mysteries and gets caught in a time warp. He
meets a gang of mutant time bandits and finds
himself on the deck of the R.M.S. Titanic.
Smith, L. Neil: The Gallatin Divergence (Del Rey, 1985) 2
The Probability Broach (Del Rey, 1980) 2
Snyder, Guy: Testament XXI (DAW, 1973) 1
Sohl, Jerry: The Time Dissolver (Avon, 1957) 2
Stephenson, Andrew M.: The Wall of Years (Dell, 1980) 3
Taine, John: Seeds of Life (1931)
Tenn, William: "The Brooklyn Project" (1948)
Tiptree, James, Jr.: "The Man Who Walked Home" (1972). Haunting
post-holocaust story.
Tucker, Wilson: The Lincoln Hunters (1957) 3
The Time Masters 5
Year of the Quiet Sun (Ace, 1970) 2
Twain, Mark: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).
I was going to describe the plot, but all you have
to do is read the title.
Uttley, Alison: A Traveller in Time (Ace, 1986) 2
Vonnegut, Kurt: Slaughterhouse Five (1969)
Waldrop, Howard: Them Bones (Ace, 1984) 1
Weinbaum, Stanley G.: The New Adam (1939)
Wellman, Manly Wade: Twice In Time (1940) 4
Wells, H.G.: "The New Accelerator" (1901). What would happen if
you drank an "accelerator" that causes time, for
you, to move more quickly?
The Time Machine (1895). Don't expect to find the
movies here. The genuine original is a sober and
philosophical story.
Wessel, Johan Hermann: Anno 7603 (1781). A comedy. A young couple
are transported to a future where the
genders have changed places.
White, Ted: Spawn of the Death Mac (Warner, 1974) 2
Whyte, H. Walter: Deep Freeze (Manor, 1977) 2
Williamson, Jack: The Legion of Time (1952) 0
Wyndham, John: "Pawley's Peepholes" (1956). A small town in the
past becomes a tourist attraction for time
travellers.
Yulsman, Jerry: Elleander Morning (St. Martin's, 1984). The first
two-thirds set up a fascinating plot about going
back to the past and shooting a young painter
named Adolf Hitler. It's unfortunate that the
last third is a fizzle.
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NEW FROM CARROLL & GRAF
PATTERN FOR TERROR
by Hugh Pentecost
Hugh Pentecost, a founding member of Mystery Writers of America, has
long been recognized by both critics and his legion of fans as one of
the most consistently entertaining of mystery writers. He has created
several successful series detectives, one of the most popular of whom
is Uncle George Crowder, hero of PATTERN FOR TERROR. A former county
prosecutor, he has become a town character. "Uncle George" to everyone
and highly respected for good advice as well as his skill in solving
curious crimes.
Uncle George is aroused one morning by calls for help from his young
nephew Joey, who has found the body of the new teacher from the local
private school lying in a water-filled ditch. The teacher is dead of
drugs contained in a ruptured pouch he had swallowed to conceal.
Crowder gets involved in the investigation but is warned off when Joey
is kidnapped. But clever Joey gets a message through. "Friday on
Saturday." And only Uncle George knows what that means. The whole
community is drawn into the search, from the starchiest of faculty
members to the coolest of jazz sidemen, but the denouement is as
startling as it is logical.
ISBN 0-88184-519-1 Cloth 128 pages $14.95
QUARTET
by Jean Rhys
This powerful psychological novel set in Paris between the wars is
Jean Rhys' most compelling work.
Stranded and alone after her Polish husband is mistakenly jailed,
Marya Zelli is befriended by an English couple who take her home with
them. Slowly they overwhelm her; the man by his uncontrollable
passions, the woman by using her as a foil against the husband.
QUARTET was made into a motion picture starring Alan Bates and Maggie
Smith.
ISBN 0-88184-538-8 Trade Paper 186 pages $7.95
DEATH OF MY AUNT
by C.H.B. Kitchin
In DEATH OF MY AUNT the erudite novelist C.H.B. Kitchin turns for the
first time to detective fiction, producing a witty and charming gem of
a story--with a leavening dose of the sardonic.
One of the most beautifully developed and quietly amusing characters
in detective fiction, Malcolm Warren is a fastidious, even eccentric,
young stockbroker, summoned by his very rich and very autocratic aunt.
Her sudden and horrible death by poison--at Malcolm's inadvertent
hand--plunges our hero into a fevered search for the real killer.
Selected by H.R.F. Keating as one of the "100 Best" crime and mystery
novels.
ISBN 0-88184-549-3 Mass Market 159 pages $3.50
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THE FIVE BEST MYSTERIES
according to Dilys Winn
1) THE DAUGHTER OF TIME by Josephine Tey
2) THE THIRTY-FIRST OF FEBRUARY by Julian Symons
3) TIME AND AGAIN by Jack Finney
4) WHO IS LEWIS PINDAR? by L.P. Davies
5) THE GLASS KEY by Dashiell Hammett
(from MURDER INK by Dilys Winn; Workman, 1977)
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WARNING TO PASSENGERS
The environment aboard a hyperspace craft is quite safe
as long as you are careful. Very careful.
The management reminds you that THE SPEED OF LIGHT ON BOARD THIS
CRAFT IS TEN METERS PER SECOND. Be ready for relativistic effects
and optical illusions.
*NEVER* TAMPER WITH YOUR LIFE BELT.
THE FIELD IT GENERATES ALLOWS YOUR NEURAL
TRANSMISSIONS TO OPERATE AT NORMAL SPEEDS,
AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL TO YOUR HEALTH.
1. Use only the ship's master clock displays. Do not rely on
your personal timepiece; it will accurately record your
personal subjective time, but it will never agree with other
timepieces until you reset it when you leave the ship.
2. Remember that everything you see and hear is at least
slightly in the past, due to the time it takes sound and
light to travel. The closest things to you are the most
current.
3. Trust what your hands tell you rather than believing your
eyes. Bending light can make you think a convex floor is
concave. Colors may shift, and shapes may distort.
4. Go slow. Limit your speed to a fast walk until you are
familiar with the environment. Please heed the traffic rules.
By running fast, it is possible to exceed the speed of sound,
which is only 6.7 meters per second.
5. Never assume anything.
6. Have a nice trip.
REDSHIFT RENDEZVOUS
by John E. Stith
author of DEEP QUARRY
Ace Books, June 1990
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MEMORY BLANK
by John E. Stith
(Ace, 1986)
This is an earlier novel by the author of DEEP QUARRY (see RFP #3) and
the upcoming REDSHIFT RENDEZVOUS, and is well worth digging up. It's
another of the suspense/sf/mystery amalgams that Stith is so good at,
and, as usual, with a heavy focus on character development.
Cal Donley wakes up with total amnesia and some pressing problems. He
seems to have been seriously beaten, suggesting that he's not beloved
by all, but on the other hand he is also covered with someone else's
blood, indicating that he might have given even better than he got.
When he hears that a construction worker was recently killed, Cal
fears that he is a murderer. But why? And why are the people around
him suddenly having "accidents"? Cal, along with his impertinent wrist
computer Vincent, must solve the mystery before his enemies, or the
police, get him.
All of this takes place on an orbital colony called Daedalus, and the
futuristic details are very nicely worked out. But this is not hard
science fiction and will not bother those readers who are interested
only in the mystery. As I mentioned before, Stith's concentration on
character ultimately surpasses all genres, making MEMORY BLANK a fine
novel of suspense for all.
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BIRTHS AND OTHER IMPORTANT DATES IN FEBRUARY
01 1874 Hugo von Hofmannsthal; Austrian dramatist, poet, essayist
01 1902 Langston Hughes; American writer and poet
01 1904 S.J. Perelman; American humorist
01 1918 Muriel Spark; Scottish writer, poet, critic
02 1859 Havelock Ellis; English psychologist and essayist
02 1882 James Joyce; Irish writer and poet
02 1905 Ayn Rand; Russian-born American novelist
03 1468 Johannes Gutenberg; German printer and inventor, died
03 1811 Horace Greeley; American journalist
03 1874 Gertrude Stein; American poet, novelist, critic
03 1907 James Albert Michener; American novelist
04 1688 Pierre Marivaux; French playwright and novelist
04 1900 Jacques Prevert; French poet and screenwriter
04 1921 Betty Friedan (Betty Naomi Goldstein); author of THE
FEMININE MYSTIQUE
05 1626 Madame de Sevigne; French letter writer
05 1848 Joris-Karl Huysmans; French novelist
05 1914 William Burroughs; American writer
06 1564 Christopher Marlowe; Elizabethan dramatist
06 1778 Ugo Foscolo; Italian writer and poet
07 1612 Samuel Butler; English poet
07 1812 Charles Dickens; English writer
07 1867 Laura Ingalls Wilder; American writer
07 1885 Sinclair Lewis; American novelist
08 1577 Robert Burton; English writer
08 1819 John Ruskin; English writer and critic
08 1828 Jules Verne; French writer
08 1906 Chester F. Carlson; who invented xerography
(AKA photocopying, AKA Xeroxing)
09 1866 George Ade; American humorist and playwright
09 1874 Amy Lowell; American poet, critic, biographer
09 1914 Gypsy Rose Lee; "author" of THE G-STRING MURDERS that was
actually ghostwritten by Craig Rice
09 1923 Brendan Behan; Irish humorist and playwright
09 1944 Alice Walker; American writer and poet
10 1775 Charles Lamb; English essayist
10 1868 William Allen White; U.S. newspaper editor
10 1890 Boris Leonidovich Pasternak; Russian poet and writer
10 1898 Bertolt Brecht; German poet and playwright
11 1657 Bernard Fontenelle; French writer
11 1917 Sidney Sheldon; American novelist
12 1567 Thomas Campion; English poet and musician
12 1828 George Meredith; English writer, poet, critic
13 1886 Ricardo Gueiraldes; Argentinian writer and poet
13 1903 Georges Simenon; French writer
13 1914 American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers
(ASCAP) established at Hotel Claridge, New York City
14 1864 Israel Zangwill; English writer
14 1882 George Jean Nathan; American drama critic and editor
14 1944 Carl Bernstein; American journalist
15 1883 Sax Rohmer; English writer Arthur Henry Sarsfield Ward,
who created arch villain Dr. Fu Manchu
16 1838 Henry Adams; American historian and writer
16 1886 Van Wyck Brooks; American critic and biographer
16 1893 I.A. Richards; English critic, linguist, poet
17 1879 Dorothy Canfield Fisher; American novelist
17 1929 Chaim Potok; American novelist
18 1859 Sholem Aleichem; Yiddish humorist Solomon J. Rabinowitz
18 1896 Andre Breton; French artist, writer and poet
18 1909 Wallace Stegner; American writer
18 1930 Gahan Wilson; American cartoonist and writer
18 1931 Johnny Hart; American cartoonist
18 1931 Toni Morrison; American novelist and editor
19 1917 Carson McCullers; American writer
20 1888 Georges Bernanos; French novelist and essayist
21 1801 Cardinal John Henry Newman; English writer
21 1907 W.H. Auden; English poet and playwright
22 1819 James Russell Lowell; American poet, critic, editor
22 1892 Edna St. Vincent Millay; American poet
22 1900 Sean O'Faolain; Irish writer and biographer
23 1633 Samuel Pepys; English diarist
23 1821 John Keats died at 25
23 1868 W.E.B. Du Bois; American writer and historian
23 1904 William L. Shirer; American journalist and historian
24 1786 Wilhelm Carl Grimm; German folklorist (a Brother Grimm)
24 1852 George Moore; Irish writer, poet, critic
25 1707 Carlo Goldoni; Italian playwright
25 1908 Frank Slaughter; American writer
25 1917 Anthony Burgess; English writer, critic, and composer
26 1802 Victor Hugo; French writer and poet
27 1807 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; American poet, translator
27 1902 John Steinbeck; American writer
27 1912 Lawrence George Durrell; English writer and poet
27 1913 Irwin Shaw; American writer and dramatist
28 1533 Michel de Montaigne; French essayist
28 1909 Stephen Spender; English poet
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
WILD CARDS #6: Ace In The Hole edited by George R.R. Martin & Melinda
Snodgrass (Bantam Spectra, February 1990, ISBN 0-553-28253-0, $4.50,
385 pages, cover art by Tim Truman). Hope you didn't miss this one.
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
TOP FICTION BESTSELLERS OF THE '80s
1) CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER by Tom Clancy (1,607,715)
2) THE DARK HALF by Stephen King (1,550,000)
3) THE TOMMYKNOCKERS by Stephen King (1,429,929)
4) THE MAMMOTH HUNTERS by Jean M. Auel (1,350,000)
5) DADDY by Danielle Steel (1,321,235)
6) LAKE WOBEGON DAYS by Garrison Keillor (1,300,000)
7) THE CARDINAL OF THE KREMLIN by Tom Clancy (1,287,067)
8) TEXAS by James A. Michener (1,176,758)
9) RED STORM RISING by Tom Clancy (1,126,782)
10) IT by Stephen King (1,115,000)
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
RANDOM REVIEWS:
THE EIGHT
by Katherine Neville
(Ballantine, 1988)
Have I got a book for you! Here's what Susan Isaacs said about THE
EIGHT:
"This is a Quest with something for everyone: ancient curses
from the Fertile Crescent; Russian chess masters; sexy, savvy
American computer whizzes; Napoleon and Robespierre; brave
nuns; valiant Jewish diamond merchants; magic numbers; secret
hiding places; the music of the spheres. In other words,
Katherine Neville's big adventure novel is great fun!"
From the moment the mysterious Gypsy fortune-teller says, "You are in
great danger", Catherine Velis tumbles down the rabbit hole into The
Game. The Gypsy says, "On the fourth day of the fourth month, then
will come the Eight." Deciphering that message is just one of the many
puzzles in this delightful novel: there are poems with hidden
messages, symbolic diagrams, and many chess positions to work out. The
whole story is a chess game, though you don't need to understand chess
to enjoy THE EIGHT. But let's back up a minute.
You see, ancient Moors crafted a very special chess set and gave it to
Charlemagne. He realized that there was something very wrong about the
set and had it hidden in an abbey at Montglane, where it lay in rest
until 1792. THE EIGHT is told on two time lines: the 1790s when
political unrest causes the Montglane Service (as the chess set is
called) to be scattered around the world, and the 1970s when Catherine
Velis and the other players in the game are tracking the pieces in an
attempt to reassemble the set.
On another level, THE EIGHT is a fascinating historical drama,
complete with real-live people. The following are some of the
characters who pass through the story of the Montglane Service:
Jacques-Louis David Voltaire Maximilien Robespierre
William Wordsworth AndrePhilidor Marat
Charlotte Corday Casanova Cardinal Richelieu
Napoleone Buonaparte Talleyrand Leonhard Euler
Muammar Khaddafi Charlemagne Sir Isaac Newton
Benedict Arnold Rousseau James Boswell
William Blake Diderot Madame de Stael
Johann Sebastian Bach Casanova Catherine the Great
What is so special about the Montglane Service that people will kill
(and die) for it? Who is the mysterious Russian chess player Solarin
and why is he following Catherine? And just who is the Black Queen? If
you like games, puzzles, or high adventure, you'll thoroughly enjoy
THE EIGHT.
Don't blame me if you miss out on The Game.
GRUMBLES FROM THE GRAVE
Robert A. Heinlein
edited by Virginia Heinlein
(Ballantine Del Rey, 1990, ISBN 0-345-36246-2, $19.95)
review by Darryl Kenning
As a general rule I do not buy hardback books. In fact, it is a rare
treat for me to get a large format softbound book. I just couldn't
resist getting this one though.
GRUMBLES offers a number of fascinating insights into Robert A.
Heinlein, his life, his writings, and most of all, a lot of the
frustrations of writing Science Fiction, especially in the early years
when his material was sold mainly to librarians. The book is divided
into sections, each one starting from the 1940s and proceeding
chronologically through the 1980s. Ranging from juveniles to fan mail,
and from travel to building several homes, the text is letters to
editors and agents culled and edited by his wife and partner.
For those of you into originality, the appendix includes the text cut
from RED PLANET and the original postlude to PODKAYNE OF MARS. For us
bookaphiles, a bibliography in order of production is also included.
I felt I knew RAH just a bit after reading this book, and wished I
could have known him and Virginia together. If you are a fan of SF
generally and/or a fan of his you will want to have this book. It is a
must for the serious student of SF and writing SF. I recommend it
highly.
Thanks Virginia
and
Thanks Bob, for all the GREAT stories
Rating 5 *****
RULES OF PREY
by John Sandford
(Putnam, 1989)
Here's yet another game, this one more of the Cat And Mouse variety.
The players are instantly recognizable: the brilliant, eccentric,
maverick Cop and the Psycho Killer with an inability to relate to
women. After the first 50 pages you'll probably feel that you not only
could write the last 250 pages yourself, but that you could do so with
almost any number of plot variations. Luckily for the reader of RULES
OF PREY, John Sandford (a pseudonym for a "Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist") has some variations for you that you probably wouldn't
have thought of.
The trouble is, the characters didn't work as well for me as the plot
did. For instance: because of the sudden and repeated underlining of
certain points in the last 50 pages I assume that The Point of the
novel is that good guys can often be as bad, if not worse, than bad
guys. I don't think I've spoiled anything for you, because this
"point" is perfectly obvious from the beginning of the story. The Cop
character is defined from the start as being without morals, ethics,
or scruples of any kind. The ONLY admirable quality he possesses is
that he's a very cunning game-player. The Psycho Killer, on the other
hand, surprises at several points, and always by his objectivity and
rationality.
On this level, the ending is a disappointment. The major character
revelations are NOT major revelations at all, merely more evidence of
what we've known all along. The saving grace for RULES OF PREY is that
when you take away the character development that misfires, you're
still left with a breathtaking suspense story, an intricate game
between two men, neither of whom feels bound by any principles of fair
play. It makes for an exciting read, and should not be missed by fans
of Psycho Killer stories.
The Thomas Harris Problem: Having read the Thomas Harris novels RED
DRAGON and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, I found it impossible not to
compare RULES OF PREY to them at every juncture. This really isn't
entirely fair, but the two Harris novels are widely regarded as the
standard of excellence in Psycho Killer stories, a position I agree
with. So let this commentary be put in perspective, and let me state
again that the level of suspense and the appealing gamelike qualities
of RULES OF PREY put it several ranks above most stories of this kind.
A good read.
DEEP TIME
by David Darling
(Delacourt Press, 1989, ISBN 0-385-29757-2, $17.95)
Review by Fred L. Drake, Jr.
Dr. Darling, who has written science books for children and many
articles for ASTRONOMY magazine, has now published his first book on
cosmogony for the adult lay reader. DEEP TIME is an entertaining and
thoughtful look at how the universe came into being and how it
operates.
The vehicle for the story of creation is a fictional saga of the
journey of a single proton through time beginning some time after
genesis. After a short while spent observing our particle "hero", as
the proton is described by Darling, we are swept dramatically backward
through time to find the origin of what we are watching, seeking to
understand the how's and why's of it all. Darling provides a dramatic
narrative of all that befalls his selected subatomic particle all
through this portion of the book; his descriptions are filled with
vital energy in which the reader is swept up with great abandon. Yet,
Darling does not take us all the way back to "Time Zero" at this time.
Science has not yet discovered all there is to know about about the
origins of the universe, and Darling is, gracefully, not ashamed to
admit the limits of current knowledge and accepted theory.
We, as readers, are then whisked back to the point at which our
watchful vigil began. As the foundations for the "conventional"
universe are laid before our eyes, Darling brings forth new
understandings of the nature of the physical universe in
straight-forward, though sometimes energetic, terms. We see the great
cosmic strings of primal matter organize and, in fact, spawn the
creation of galaxy clusters. Great feats of atomic bonding then change
the simple proton we started with to an atom of gold flying forth from
a forming star, hurled into a nearby cloud mass, which eventually
forms a most familiar planet, our motherworld, the Earth. We watch
closely as the molecules on this planet grow in complexity and learn
to control each other, and even to replicate themselves. Evolution is
a theatrical production at which we, for a moment, are spectators.
Then the nature of our journey changes. Less is left to simple chance;
indeed, chance itself becomes a very complex matter. Our gold atom is
mined from the bowels of the Earth and formed into a part of a disk
made all of gold, and attached to the outside of a spaceship: Voyager
II, which left Earth in 1977. Our journey slows at this point, though
the gold atom is now travelling as fast as it was prior to being
imbedded in the dust cloud which was to become the Earth and its home
for a few billion years. Darling has been measuring time not by the
conventional increments which we are familiar with and use in our
daily lives, but as a function of how much happens. The greater the
distance of a moment from the moment of genesis, Time Zero, the
smaller the number of things that happen in a given length of time,
and the less meaning that length has. So we are given a new way to
look at time itself, and are brought to perceive a new meaning in
time. Yet our journey does continue. As Voyager II travels through our
solar system, we are given glimpses of the asteroid belt and outer
planets, and then the journey to the far end of Deep Time begins.
During the first of Voyager II's orbits through our galaxy, we watch
the human race burgeon forth from our home planet and move into the
galaxy, meeting other races of beings and growing in many other ways
as well. Technology changes in wondrous ways, until the fabric of
space itself becomes raw material to work with and machines the size
of complete star systems are the products of human toil. But
eventually, the human race dies out. The universe continues to expand
as it has since the beginning, and energy becomes more and more
valuable. The space between particles grows to vast distances. Single
atoms take the space that the entire universe does now. Atoms of
positronium; a bond of a single positron (a part of a proton) and a
single electron. A rudimentary atom analogous to hydrogen.
And so the universe has moved through many states during our journey.
We began with a high energy universe smaller than the point of a pin
where no particle could retain its identity--for the succession of
collisions with other particles was so rapid--a universe where there
was only one form of energy; to a universe with a great atomic
complexity and a moderate level of energy, where a great level of
differentiation could take place and have meaning, that our mortal
minds call home. Ending with a universe so sparse that we would not
recognize that such could be called a universe. Thus we are brought
through Deep Time to witness the future of our universe: desolate, but
highly intricate, for each and every change has great meaning, for
there will not be another for many millennia.
Such is the story of a subatomic particle in the "open" universe. This
universe which never ceases to expand. Darling, however, does propose
another possibility of what may happen should the universe prove
"closed", if it will at some point cease to expand and eventually even
begin to compress once more toward its original state. This is a
scenario often proposed and which some consider to hold more hope; the
universe, once compressed into the ultra-dense pin-prick of matter and
energy, can burst forth once more, and go through its paces in all
their glory. Yet Darling is still not satisfied, though the reader
will likely be amazed at his telling of the story.
Darling reminds us then of several things, and brings forth a rather
fantastic hypothesis on the event of genesis. He lets us know that we
are not separate from the cosmos, as our analytical left brain would
have us believe, but that we are very much a part of the universe;
that when we think, a part of the universe is thinking. We are
reminded of the relationship of the observed and the observer; that
the universe could not exist without some measure of observation, even
if we know nothing of the observer. Darling points out throughout the
book how contrived the universe can seem, and that perhaps it seems
contrived because it IS, since it is, by nature, a product of
observation, and no observer can avoid imposing patterns upon the
observed.
The most stupendous event described in the book is very simple and,
yet, more complex than any other. To describe it simply, the universe
begins to think. Not parts of it, embodied matter in the shapes of
humans or other beings, but the whole of the thing itself, grown from
smaller organisms, such as people. The universe acquires, BECOMES, a
single mind. Yes, this is Darling's hypothesis; his grand revelation.
A theory which no Western religion will willingly accept. That the
universe perceived the necessity of watching, of observing. Of seeing
its own creation and, by observing that event, creating itself.
DEEP TIME is a truly fantastic work, both scientific in manner and
content, and prophetic at a truly amazing scale. Darling leads us
through great events which are truly difficult for the now-emerging
human intellect to comprehend, showing us all the amazing facets of
existence.
ASIMOV ON SCIENCE FICTION (1981)
and
ASIMOV'S GALAXY: Reflections on Science Fiction (1989)
by Isaac Asimov
Here you have two of Asimov's essay collections (there are more), both
more or less limited to discussions of the world of science fiction.
The earlier volume collects essays from all over, and GALAXY is
limited to his essays from Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine.
The first thing you'll probably notice about Isaac Asimov's writing is
its artlessness; he is the patron saint of no-frills clarity. It's the
kind of writing liable to make you say, "Why, even I could do that."
Soon afterwards you will discover that, most likely, you CAN'T do
that, because clarity isn't easy. To begin with, clear writing
requires clear thinking, which is itself alarmingly rare.
I grew up with Victorian novels; long, leisurely books of culture and
delicacy. They often took 600 pages to make one social statement --
Asimov, by contrast, would express the same idea with a paragraph. The
next paragraph will continue on, making another point. So when you
read these two books of essays (over 600 pages), you're getting more
than your money's worth of ideas.
Use Asimov's essays as I do, as a breath of fresh air in between more
convoluted volumes. I always feel encouraged and revived after reading
Isaac Asimov, and these two collections are nice to have on the shelf
when needed.
MRS, PRESUMED DEAD
by Simon Brett
(Scribner's, 1988)
Best known for his Charles Paris series of mysteries, Simon Brett here
presents the second outing of amateur sleuth Melita Pargeter, a modern
incarnation of Christie's Miss Marple. But whereas Miss Marple's
knowledge of the seamier side of life came from watching people in her
small village, Melita's education came from her late husband, who
operated on the wrong side of the law and made many, many friends.
Mr. Pargeter left Melita very well off, and she buys a home in the
tiny 6-house community of Smithy's Loam, a standard yuppie preserve.
The other inhabitants prove to be pretty odd, but the oddest of all
are Rod and Theresa Cotton, the former owners of Melita's house. Did
Rod really get transferred up north? If so, why did Theresa give a
fake address? What is the Church of Utter Simplicity and what does it
have to do with anything?
The comparison with Miss Marple is apt, and this mystery falls well
within the "cozy" classification. A typically fine effort by Simon
Brett--I am definitely going to be looking up the first Melita
Pargeter novel, A NICE CLASS OF CORPSE.
MRS, PRESUMED DEAD is now a mass market paperback from Dell ($3.95,
ISBN 0-440-20552-2).
"F" IS FOR FUGITIVE
by Sue Grafton
(1989)
If you haven't tried one of Sue Grafton's alphabet mysteries ("A" Is
For Alibi, "B" Is For Burglar, "C" Is For Corpse, "D" Is For Deadbeat,
"E" Is For Evidence), now would be a good time to catch up. Grafton's
detective is Kinsey Millhone, a tough private investigator working out
of Santa Teresa, California.
Each mystery seems better than the last, and most plots seem to center
on the modern incarnation of The Family. As foil, Kinsey has no
family. She was orphaned early, has been married and divorced twice,
and now lives alone. Her only real friend seems to be her landlord
Henry, who's in his eighties. She has little time to regret her lack
of family, though, since she spends her working hours prowling around
in the dirty laundry of the families of others. And mighty dirty it
is, too.
This mystery series reminds me just a bit of Ross Macdonald's Lew
Archer mysteries--the lifestyles (and mores) of California's rich and
famous. In my opinion Sue Grafton has improved on the premise, though:
Kinsey is emotionally tougher than Lew was, and spends less time
whining about the lack of morality and justice in the world. Not that
it matters, but Sue Grafton also gives great interviews; she seems as
smart and charming as Kinsey.
Pick up any Sue Grafton mystery and you won't be sorry.
THE STARSHIP AND THE CANOE
by Kenneth Brower
review by Marsha Via
The Starship and The Canoe is a delightful double-biography of two
fascinating people; Freeman Dyson, a renowned and respected physicist
and mathmetician, and his son, George Dyson, a rather eccentric,
virtually reclusive young man.
Although the two men are not close, and are in many ways very
different, each is seeking to escape the madness of modern
society/civilization in his own peculiar manner.
Freeman dreamed of space colonization in the the 1950s, when such an
idea was quite futuristic. He worked on the Orion project for several
years, until the limited-test-ban treaty of 1963, which put a stop to
nuclear explosions in the atmosphere. The treaty made it impossible
for further research, as the Orion was to be a spaceship propelled by
nuclear explosions.
George also sought to escape the conventions of society, but unlike
Freeman wanted to remain on this planet. He accomplished his goal by
living in the wilderness of British Columbia, ninety-five feet above
the ground to be exact, in a Douglas fir. His mode of transportation
was a kayak, in which he travelled the coastline of British Columbia
north to Alaska and back. Later, George designed and constructed a
50-foot kayak.
The book describes a number of intriguing and humorous adventures
which each man experiences in their respective "projects", culminating
in a reunion of the two after many years.
I found The Starship and The Canoe to be well worth reading.
Marsha Via can be contacted at the Blacksburg Information Service BBS
(703) 951-2920
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
BOX SCORES
by Darryl Kenning
Subterraneann Gallery, R.P. Russo.......2
The Lizard War, J. Dalmas...............3
The 97th Step, S. Perry.................3
Orbital Decay, A Steele.................2
Emerald Eyes, D Moran...................5
The War Machine, Drake and Allen........4
(scale is 0 to 5, with 5 highest)
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
If you can't annoy somebody, there's little point in writing.
--Kingsley Amis
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NEW FROM MEADOWBROOK:
STRANGE BUT TRUE FACTS ABOUT SEX
The Illustrated Book of Sexual Trivia
by David Smith & Mike Gordon
Finally, a book about sex that even Doctor Ruth can learn from. It's a
humorous guide for trivia buffs and anyone fascinated by sexual facts.
The book contains strange but true and often hilarious facts from
history, anthropology, medicine, literature, and Hollywood gossip. It
includes naughty quotes and lascivious anecdotes, such as:
* Until the 20th century, Egyptian men preferred not to deflower their
brides, instead they paid a servant to do it for them.
* All of the members of the "20,000 Club" have had sex in an airplane
at more than 20,000 feet above ground.
* In Victorian times, some women would bathe in fresh strawberries to
shrink flabby breasts.
* The women of northern Siberia are reputed to show their affection
toward men by throwing slugs at them.
* Gandhi slept with naked women in order to test his celibacy.
Although authors David Smith and Mike Gordon know everything there is
to know about sex, they still have trouble getting dates. Smith is a
freelance writer and Gordon is a popular British cartoonist. They both
live in London, England.
ISBN 0-671-70080-4 64 pages $6.95
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
TOM CLANCY SPEAKS
(The author of CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER, THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER,
etc.)
Why were my books popular? With all due modesty, because they were
pretty good books! When I write, I do not think "market", I think
book. I write the kind of book I want to read and if other people want
to buy it, fine. Success for any writer is as much accident as it is
art. The trick to being successful is being noticed, and there are a
whole lot of good writers out there who haven't been noticed.
I will not be writing for awhile; I am presently unemployed. But in
terms of what is going on in Eastern Europe, I believe espionage
activity between the East and West is going to increase, not decrease.
As the Soviets decrease the offensive power of their military, they
will increase their intelligence-gathering abilities just to hedge
their bets. It's the intelligent thing to do.
(From Publishers Weekly, January 5, 1990.)
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
THE TURNER TOMORROW AWARDS
The Turner Broadcasting System's new division, Turner Publishing Inc.
(see What's News), is sponsoring a contest for SF writers with a
$500,000 first prize and four merit prizes of $50,000 each. Winning
entries will be published in hardcover by Turner Publishing, and TBS
will make movies and/or TV series of as many winners as possible.
It has been stated that the first prize winner will receive $500,000,
plus hardcover publication, plus the royalties from the hardcover, so
apparently the $500,000 is not an advance but is in addition to any
and all royalty payments.
THE BASICS: The contest runs from January 15 to November 20, 1990.
All contestants must be 21 or older. Each entry must be between 50,000
and 100,000 words in length. All stories are to be set in the near
future, 1991-2021, and depict a practical, positive solution to some
world problem that ensures the survival and prosperity of all life on
the planet. Any work that has been previously published in any form,
or even previously submitted, is not eligible (they don't even want
any simultaneous submissions). Obviously they are after material
written specifically for this contest. Each entry will be acknowledged
by postcard, but manuscripts will NOT be returned.
THE FINE PRINT: All entries must be accompanied by a signed official
entry form where the author accepts that Turner Publications "shall
own outright, without further compensation, and Author hereby grants
unlimited motion picture, TV and all other audio visual rights in the
Work or any part of the Work, in any and all modes of distribution
including, without limitation, theatrical and TV motion picture, home
video, radio, merchandising, dramatic stage and phonograph record
purposes, and the right to produce, exploit, publish and perform
prequels, sequels, and remakes of the Work in any media now existing
or hereafter created, throughout the world, for the life of the
copyright and all renewals thereof. 'Work' as used herein includes,
without limitation, the title of the work and the themes, ideas,
formats, characters, interplay of characters, characterizations,
locales, [and] storyline..." Whew! For any winning manuscript that is
deemed not suitable for film adaptation, the movie rights will revert
to the author after two years.
The current plan is for an editorial group to weed the entries down to
the best 150 manuscripts by February 20, 1991, and then to the top 40
by March 20, 1991. At that point the judges will show up (May 10-15,
1991) and the winners will be announced May 20, 1991. The judges will
be: Ian and Betty Ballantine, Ray Bradbury, Peter Matthiessen, William
Styron, Wallace Stegner, and others still to be named.
For the complete rules and your official entry form, write to:
The Turner Tomorrow Awards
One CNN Center
Box 105366
Atlanta, GA 30329
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Thank you for sending me a copy of your book.
I'll waste no time reading it.
--Moses Hadas
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ROC BOOKS
New American Library (NAL) and Penguin USA have started a new
SF/Fantasy imprint--ROC BOOKS. The roc, as of course we all remember
from our reading, was a legendary bird encountered by Sinbad and Marco
Polo; a bird so huge that it supposedly feeds elephants to its young.
This choice of name allows it to fit with the other international
imprints of Penguin Books (Penguin, Puffin, Pelican, etc.). For those
of you who can't wait to find out what ROC BOOKS has in store for you,
here is the entire 1990 lineup:
April 1990
----------
Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov
The Warrior Lives by Joel Rosenberg
Project Solar Sail edited by Arthur C. Clarke
Among Madmen by Jim Starlin & Daina Graziunas
Barrow by John Deakins
May 1990
--------
The Hawk's Gray Feather by Patricia Kennealy
The Lost Regiment #1: Rally Cry by William R. Forstchen
Dread Brass Shadows by Glen Cook
The Abraxas Marvel Circus by Stephen Leigh
Pshrinks Anonymous: The Mysterious Cure and Other Stories by
Janet Asimov
June 1990
---------
Ancient Light by Mary Gentle
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett
Royal Chaos by Dan McGirt
The Best of Trek #15 edited by Walter Irwin & G.B. Love
July 1990
---------
The Best of the Best of Trek edited by Walter Irwin & G.B. Love
The Chronicles of Galen Sword #1: Shifter by Garfield & Judith
Reeves-Stevens
The War Years #1: The Far Stars War featuring David Drake, edited
by Bill Fawcett
Night of Dragon by R.A.V. Salsitz
Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates by Stephen Goldin & Mary Mason
August 1990
-----------
Threshold by Janet Morris & Chris Morris
Starcruiser Shenandoah #2: Division of the Spoils by Roland J.
Green
Gossamer Axe by Gael Baudino
The Varayan Memoir #1: Son of the Hero by Rick Shelley
Isaac Asimov's Wonderful Worlds of Science Fiction #10: Invasions
edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh
September 1990
--------------
Hero by Joel Rosenberg
Echoes of the Fourth Magic by R.A. Salvatore
Fire on the Border by Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
Game's End by Kevin J. Anderson
Dreams of Life and Death by W.T. Quick
October 1990
------------
Buffalo Gals and Other Animal Presences by Ursula K. LeGuin
Chicago Red by R.M. Meluch
Everything But Honor by George Alec Effinger
The Boy From the Burren: The First Book of the Painter by Sheila
Gilluly
November 1990
-------------
Mountain Made of Light by Edward Meyers
Vampires by John Steakley
Time Warrior #1: The Hour of the Fox by Matthew J. Costello
King of the Scepter'd Isle by Michael Greatrex Coney
Seti by Fred Fichman
December 1990
-------------
Pyramids by Terry Pratchett
Blue Moon Rising by Simon Green
Newer York edited by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Sunder, Eclipse & Seed by Elyse Guttenberg
The Best of Trek #16 edited by Walter Irwin & G.B. Love
:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:=:
TIME PASSES FOR BABY BOOMERS
Those of us born in the exuberant decade following World War II are
(to our surprise) getting older. Luckily we live in a capitalistic
country, which means that the growing ranks of the Rapidly Decaying
will NOT be ignored. In addition to an ever- increasing supply of
old-age aids and panaceas, we can look forward to an array of books to
help us cope with the inevitable. We at RFP thought you might like a
look at a couple of early volumes that mix horror and humor to cover a
very important subject.
THE OVER-THE-HILL SURVIVAL GUIDE
How to keep young people in their place,
get back at your kids, and go out with a bang.
by Bob Feigel & Malcolm Walker
(Meadowbrook Press, 1989)
The GUIDE covers all of the major disadvantages of being among the
elderly, and suggests methods of dealing with them--some silly, some
comically (and frighteningly) practical. The humor here is broad and
very definitely black (one chapter is called "Creative Cooking With
Pet Foods"). As is so often true of comedy, there's a great deal of
truth hidden among the jokes, but the tone maintained throughout is
high-spirited, with a great zest for living.
I admit to being a fan of black humor, and my favorite chapter was
"The Last Laugh", a cornucopia of suggestions on how to make your
inevitable death more meaningful for you. My favorite funeral hint
was: "For the last word in burials, have a tape player hidden in your
casket. Get a friend to set the remote control to activate your voice
just as the casket goes down." An accompanying illustration shows the
horror on the faces of minister and mourners as screams come from the
hole in the ground. Now THERE'S a funeral they'll be talking about for
the rest of their lives.
There are also some suggestions for getting revenge on your family.
Feigel and Walker realize that there's nothing like your near-and-dear
for driving you over the edge. There are many ways to annoy them now
as well as after you're gone, and I believe all are covered in this
GUIDE. You'll probably recognize a few tactics that your parents and
grandparents have used on you. Now you're going to get your chance to
have some fun.
THE OVER-THE-HILL SURVIVAL GUIDE is a monument to the feisty, a hymn
to the unquenchable human spirit. May we all have as much gusto at
eighty as the elderly in this GUIDE. Happy reading.
TIME FLIES
by Bill Cosby
(Doubleday, 1987; Bantam, 1988)
This was my first Bill Cosby book (I missed FATHERHOOD), and I was
very surprised. Most importantly, I didn't find TIME FLIES to be very
funny. I'm a long-time fan of Bill Cosby The Comedian and was prepared
for him to be as devastatingly funny about the elderly as he always
has been about the very young. Not here.
The problem seems to be that Bill Cosby isn't very comfortable about
aging himself. Over and over again we are told about his inability to
run the hundred as fast as he used to, and his supposedly comical
inability to deal with this fact emotionally. It would be funnier if
it was obvious that he HAS finally come to terms with his aging--but
it's not obvious at all. I don't know Bill Cosby, so I have no idea
how he really feels about old age, but in TIME FLIES the tone is
wistful and resigned. Personally, I found TIME FLIES to be faintly
depressing.
What is the audience for this book? I'm not sure. If you're expecting
Cosby The Comedian, as I was, you're in for a disappointment. This
might be considered a serious book of commiseration and solace for the
aging, but there are other books that cover that ground better. In the
final analysis, I'd tell Bill Cosby fans to skip this book and rent a
videotape of one of his stand-up concerts.
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This book fills a much-needed gap.
--Moses Hadas
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NEW FROM SIMON & SCHUSTER:
EMPEROR OF AMERICA
by Richard Condon
An incisive and uproarious satire on American politics by the author
of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and PRIZZI'S HONOR.
In his new novel, Richard Condon turns his wicked eye on the "Imperial
Presidency"--with a REAL emperor ruling America in the not too distant
future. When a nuclear accident (or WAS it an accident?) destroys
Washington, D.C., an army colonel named Caesare Appleton assumes
command of the nation--or at least he THINKS he's in command. While
battling the Evil Empire of Nicaragua and plotting to convert
Nantucket into a landing field for CIA planes carrying Colombian
cocaine, Caesare becomes both the master and the pawn of the
omnipresent media. And the higher he rises, the more he falls prey to
his own uncontrollable urges for unavailable women, to his avaricious
advisers, to his scheming siblings--and his manipulative mother. With
the keen wit that has made him a best-selling author for 30 years,
Condon spins a political fable that is both hilariously fantastic and
bitingly real.
ISBN 0-671-68643-7 320 pages $19.95
THE FULL CATASTROPHE
by David Carkeet
A highly entertaining satiric novel about marriage and language.
Jeremy Cook--the bemused academic linguist first introduced in
Carkeet's DOUBLE NEGATIVE--has just taken a new job with The Pillow
Agency, an unusual marriage counseling firm. His assignment: to move
in with a troubled couple, Dan and Beth Wilson, analyze their verbal
interactions, and save the marriage. As Dan and Beth become hyperaware
of both Jeremy's presence and the hidden innuendoes in their everyday
speech, a series of increasingly hilarious complications ensues. The
result is a howling sendup of marriage in all its catastrophic
permutations.
ISBN 0-671-64319-3 288 pages $18.95
LUNCHEON AT THE CAFE RIDICULOUS
by Alice Kahn
From the syndicated columnist Vogue has called "the best pulse- taker
in the business" comes a veritable smorgasbord of stylish satirical
pieces about the generation who worships at "The Temple of Lifestyle".
Like a saucy anthropologist with old-fashioned, down-home wit and
wisdom, Alice Kahn has visited some of the most absurd outposts of
nouvelle American culture. At once witness to and participant in the
trendy new fashions in food, fitness, art, and relationships, she
always manages to find the funny bone, tweak the sensibilities, and
leave us filled with laughter and recognition. From "The Valley of Art
Psychosis" to "Channeling for Dollars", Alice Kahn explains her "Life
as a Piece of Data", her near miss with "Biff, a Celebrity Drug
Abuser", and how she became "The Number at the Top of Dustin Hoffman's
Dashboard". She provides a scintillating guide to "Love in the Time of
Diet Cola", while also offering poignant reflections on "The Family
that Shabooms Together".
Whoopi Goldberg calls her "The Empirin with Codeine for the menstrual
cramps of life". The San Francisco Chronicle dubs her "The voice of
our generation..." Born in the Midwest, schooled in New York, and
living in the West, Kahn is a self-proclaimed "broad with a broad
perspective".
Poseidon Press
ISBN 0-671-69150-3 224 pages $17.95
THREE-FISTED TALES OF "BOB"
Short Stories in the SubGenius Mythos
edited by Reverend Ivan Stang
Outrageous tales by some of today's hippest writers, SF storytellers,
and underground heroes--all based on the bizarre creed of the Church
of the SubGenius, America's most popular (and hilarious)
counter-religion.
Farcical, sardonic, and wickedly funny, the Church of the SubGenius
has attracted national media attention and a growing grassroots
following since the publication of the cult's first two works, THE
BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS and HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL (both highly
recommended by RFP). This original anthology, featuring stories by
William S. Burroughs, Robert Anton Wilson, John Shirley ("Max
Headroom") and DEVO's Mark Mothersbaugh, among other celebrated
apostles of weirdness, is sure to thrill loyal followers and win over
new believers. Background on the birth of the church makes this book
accessible to the uninitiated, and each tale gives insight into the
heretofore elusive personality of J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, legendary
SubGenius holy man.
For SubGenius cultists, cyberpunk aficionados, SF fans, and anyone who
enjoys humor at its most biting and irreverent, here is a masterpiece
of all-American weirdness.
A Fireside Original
ISBN 0-671-67190-1 352 pages $10.95
Also:
THE BOOK OF THE SUBGENIUS (ISBN 0-671-63810-6 $10.95)
HIGH WEIRDNESS BY MAIL (ISBN 0-671-64260-X $10.95)
PARALLEL UNIVERSES
The Search for Other Worlds
by Fred Alan Wolf
The author of the American Book Award-winning TAKING THE QUANTUM LEAP
explains the mind-boggling theory of parallel universes--a lively book
for scientists, science fiction fans, students, and anyone interested
in our world and beyond.
IS science fact stranger than science fiction? In an "outrageous ride
along the frontiers of science" (New Age Journal), physicist Fred Alan
Wolf explores the startling concept of parallel universes--worlds that
resemble and perhaps even duplicate our own--and puts a refreshing and
illuminating spin on the complex theories challenging our perceptions
of the universe. Through such lively examples as a superspace theater
and zero-time ghosts, Wolf deftly guides the reader through the
paradoxes of today's physics to explore a realm of scientific
speculation in which black holes are gateways of information between
universes, and alter egos spring into existence at the flip of a coin.
Wolf explores a future when time travelers will make history--and
alter the past--while testing Earth's first time machine; when lucid
dreaming and schizophrenia may mark the overlap of parallel universes;
when quantum computers may predict the stock market.
Touchstone
ISBN 0-671-69601-7 320 pages $9.95
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DVORAK'S GUIDE TO PC TELECOMMUNICATIONS
by John C. Dvorak & Nick Anis
foreword by Peter Norton
(Osborne McGraw-Hill, $49.95)
two disks, one book
Telecommunications just got simple----
Plug into the world of electronic databases, bulletin boards, and
on-line services. All you need is your computer, a modem, and
this outstanding book and disk package by internationally
acclaimed columnist John C. Dvorak and programming wiz Nick Anis.
With this book and software package you can:
* Send and receive electronic mail, memos, and reports to and
from your office, hotel room, beach resort, or home.
* Set up an efficient home-office.
* Schedule airline reservations electronically.
* Download over 10,000 software programs right into your computer
over regular phone lines.
* Get instantaneous stock quotes.
* Tap into most major newspapers and newsletters electronically.
For your $49.95 you get a comprehensive, easy-to-read guide on
everything you ever wanted to know about telecommunications plus
two diskettes loaded with outstanding free programs. This book is
written for experts and novices alike.
Includes:
* Two 5-1/4" disks (3-1/2" disks available through a coupon
offer)
* A modem tutor
* TELIX/SE--the complete Telecommunications Software
* Over $1500 in discounts and services
* 13 important utilities for your computer
See your local bookstore or order by calling 1-800-262-4729.
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NUMBER ONE FAN
by Annie Wilkes
Why is there so little coverage of the written word on television? The
two media are not mutually exclusive--I read AND watch TV, and so do
all my friends. As my final proof, I point to all the books about
television, a healthy section of the bookstore. So why aren't there TV
shows about books? I'm not talking about some small local PBS show, or
a 5-minute segment of a daytime news show. I mean a full half hour of
prime or semi-prime time devoted to the world of books.
And what about TV drama? For a country that's just discovering the
hazards of illiteracy, television still acts like reading doesn't
exist. How are we supposed to convince our kids that being able to
read is a valuable life tool if NOBODY on TV reads?
Every once in a while we get an illiterate character worked into the
plotline of a TV drama, and we get to see how pathetic the
illiterate's life really is. That's OK as far as it goes, but it's so
negative. Being able to read is not just the avoidance of the problems
of illiteracy, it's a positive joy. How about an occasional teenage
character that says, "No, I don't think I want to go cruisin' with the
guys tonight, get drunk, and puke in the back seat--as attractive as
that sounds. I think I'll relax in my room with a bottle of
sugar-water, a bag of high-sodium crunchies and a good book." How come
that never happens?
The point here is: reading is a part of life. A fun part. I'll admit
that driving around Oahu in a red Ferrari is also a fun part, and
needs to be shown, but let's have a little equal time, you know? You
network guys don't even have to show someone actually reading, just
mention it from time to time, have a character carrying a book around,
maybe sit with a book open in his lap, that kind of thing. Is it so
much to ask that the definition of "cool", "rad", or whatever the
appropriate terminology is today, be expanded to include the concept
Literate? And would it hurt TV to occasionally acknowledge that?
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BACK ISSUES
ELECTRONIC EDITION: Check the BBSs in the Directory first. If what
you want isn't available, send $5 to us for a disk containing ALL
available issues. Disk will be formatted using PC/MS-DOS (for IBM
clones). Specify 3-1/2" or 5-1/4" floppy.
PRINT EDITION: Send $1.50 for each issue requested.
Checks: Make checks payable to Cindy Bartorillo.
Address: See masthead on Table of Contents page.
ISSUES AVAILABLE:
#1: Premier issue: 1988 World Fantasy Awards; Books I'm Supposed to
Like, But Don't; Pronunciation Guide to Author's Names; Christie
Characters on Film; Featured Author: Richard Matheson; Baseball &
Cricket Mysteries; Stephen King Checklist; Time Travel Books
#2: Summer Reading Issue: Award Winners & Nominees; Beach Bag Books;
Featured Author: Stanley Ellin; Splatterpunk; Murderous Vacations; The
Psychology of Everyday Things; The Shining; SF Fan-Lingo; Pseudonyms
#3: Books About Books Issue: Two-Bit Culture; Christopher Morley; 84
Charing Cross Road; Assorted References; Bibliomysteries; Deep Quarry;
Featured Author: Harlan Ellison
#4: Hollywood Issue: Recent Awards; About Hollywood; Silver Scream;
Death of a Salesman; Joe Bob Briggs; The Hollywood Mystery; Featured
Author: Fredric Brown; The Dark Fantastic; Darryl Kenning Reviews
#5: Halloween Issue: Hugo Awards; Year's Best Horror Stories XVII;
Tracy Kidder; Supernatural Mysteries; Thomas Harris; Falling Angel
Heart; Ray Garton; New From Underwood-Miller; Featured Author: Robert
R. McCammon; The Modern Halloween Shelf; Darryl Kenning Reviews; The
Ultimate Stephen King Character Quiz
#6: Computers & Robots Issue: 1989 World Fantasy Award Nominations;
Donald M. Grant, Publisher; Cyberpunk & Neuromancer; Computer Books;
Digital Delights; Nightmare On Elm Street, The Comic; Banned Books;
Featured Author: Josephine Tey; Mystery Terminology; Darryl Kenning
Reviews; Books On A Chip; New From Carroll & Graf; Computer Cowboy
Reading; and the usual
#7: Happy Holidays Issue: New From Carroll & Graf; Featured Author:
Charles Dickens; A Christmas Carol; Religious Reading; An Incomplete
Education; Great Endings; New From Simon & Schuster; New From
Underwood-Miller; Christmas Mysteries and Other Yuletide Reading; On
Line With Steve Gerber; The Last Christmas Trivia Quiz; and the usual
#8: True Crime Issue: New Age Books; Amazing Stories; True Crime in
Paperback; Steve Gerber; Bluffers Guides; The Onion Field; Mysterious
Press; Lizzie Borden; John E. Stith; Darryl Kenning; Bestselling
Children's Books; Awards; Carroll & Graf; and more
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BESTSELLERS TRIVIA QUIZ ANSWERS
A.
1) Daddy by Danielle Steel
2) Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy
3) The Dark Half by Stephen King
4) Caribbean by James A. Michener
5) Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
6) Tales from Margaritaville: Fictional Facts and Factual Fictions by
Jimmy Buffett
7) Straight by Dick Francis
8) The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
9) Jimmy Stewart and His Poems by Jimmy Stewart
10) California Gold by John Jakes
11) The Eleventh Hour: A Curious Mystery by Graeme Base
12) The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
13) Spy Line by Len Deighton
14) The Sorceress of Darshiva by David Eddings
15) Mystery by Peter Straub
B.
The "real" A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
thing
Code 1 f q l a p h e x b y n r u g m t j w d k z o c s v i
Code 2 s n v f r g h j o k l a z m p q w t d y i b e c u x
Code 3 w h f r c t y u z i o p k j x l n v e b m g q d a s
1) All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten (Robert
Fulghum)
2) The Sands of Time (Sidney Sheldon)
3) The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three (Stephen King)
4) Stolen Blessings (Lawrence Sanders)
5) A Thief of Time (Tony Hillerman)
6) The Shell Seekers (Rosamunde Pilcher)
7) The Blooding (Joseph Wambaugh)
8) Breathing Lessons (Anne Tyler)
9) A Twist in the Tale (Jeffrey Archer)
10) Cat's Eye (Margaret Atwood)
11) Thornyhold (Mary Stewart)
12) Savage Thunder (Johanna Lindsey)
13) A Season in Hell (Jack Higgins)
14) Peachtree Road (Anne Rivers Siddons)
15) Spy Hook (Len Deighton)
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If you were a member of Jesse James's band and people asked you what
you were, you wouldn't say, "Well, I'm a desperado." You'd say
something like, "I work in banks," or "I've done some railroad work."
It took me a long time just to say "I'm a writer." It's really
embarrassing.
--Roy Blount, Jr.
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ÿ
