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%T Tales From Planet Earth
%A Arthur C. Clarke
%I Bantam Spectra
%D May 1990
%O trade paperback, US$9.95
%P 307
%G 0-553-34883-3
Here's another retrospective anthology of short fiction by one of
the giants of the Golden Age, the man who invented the comsat and
supplied the now-common name for the geosynchronous "Clarke Orbit" The
b&w interior illos by Michael Whelan are disappointing, though the
content certainly isn't. I'd suggest waiting for the mass-market pb.
%T The Compleat Bolo
%A Keith Laumer
%I Baen Books
%D June 1990
%O paperback, US$3.95
%P 314
%G 0-671-69879-6
Every once in a while Baen's fondness for repackaging the tried and true
produces a pleasure for the collector. This is one of those; a collection of
all of Keith Laumer's stories about his "Bolo" cybernetic supertanks. Some of
these (most notably The Last Command) are minor classics, but
they've been scattered through reprintings in half-a-dozen anthologies. Even
if you have a few of them, buy this one for your shelf and to enjoy them all
together.
%T The Fantastic World War II
%E Frank McSherry Jr.
%I Baen Books
%D June 1990
%O paperback, US$3.50
%P 281
%G 0-671-69881-8
Well, it was a passable idea -- an anthology of alternate-history
short stories centered on World War II. The stories aren't too bad;
they include several curios of historical interest, Cyril Kornbluth's
minor classic Two Dooms, and one of the better stories
from the Kaleidoscope anthology I reviewed in RR#31. The biggest problem is that they remind
one irresistably of much better stories that should have been here but
weren't, from Phillip K. Dick's The Man In The High
Castle to David Brin's Thor Meets Captain
America.
BOOKS RECEIVED BUT NOT REVIEWED:
Countdown, Jack D. Hunter (TOR, June 1990); and Tailspin, David Hagberg (TOR, July 1990). Two alleged `technothrillers' without enough odor of SF content to interest me in reading them.
Dayworld Breakup, Phillip Jose Farmer. It's a sequel, and I don't review sequels unless I can get the earlier books, and TOR can't send me those because it doesn't own them, and the premise is an obvious take on Lafferty's Slow Tuesday Night anyhow.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Thu May 31 18:22:27 EDT 1990 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>