james_davis_nicoll | Dec. 24th, 2012

Dec. 24th, 2012

How Love Came To Prof. Guildea

The rationalist Professor Guildea comes to believe that he is being stalked by some unseen admirer, an entity who offers Guildea that which he least desires: love!

An alternate interpretation is that Guildea can sense the condition that eventually fells him but not in a way that allows him to take appropriate steps (not that the medicine of 1900 would have helped him much.

Robert Hichens (Robert Smythe Hichens, 14 November 1864 – 20 July 1950) was an English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic and collaborated on successful plays. He is best remembered as a satirist of the "Naughty Nineties".

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4114623.html

The Cave

An autobiograhical tale in which a Canadian man learns that his long-estranged girl-friend is dead; this leads into a discussion of their history and an explanation for why she left.

William Dempsey Valgardson (born 7 May 1939) is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, and poet. Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and raised in Gimli, Manitoba, he completed his BA at United College, BEd at the University of Manitoba, and his MFA at the University of Iowa. He was a long-time professor of writing at the University of Victoria in British Columbia and a professor of English at Cottey College in Nevada, MO.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4114744.html

The Lost Door

A commuter discovers that he has taken a very wrong turn, one into a world where his history, if he has a history here, is very different. He doesn't really deal with this very well but then he isn't given much of a chance to before he gets shot full of Thorazine.

Either the condition is contagious or there are a lot more cases like him than we appreciate.

A perfectly acceptable reworking of ideas seen in such stories as "For a Foggy Night" and "He Walked Around the Horses".

I think this is by Steven E. Petch but I cannot seem to find his bio online.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4115078.html

Although I am very intrigued by the Le Guin serial and suitably impressed by the range of authors, I am finding Vanishing Point a little Canadian. I was thinking of taking a break by listening to this. Although it's probably quite horrible.

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4115248.html

Crossposts: http://james-nicoll.livejournal.com/4115558.html

A Lifetime Achievement Hugo, one whose nominees must have died in the previous year. This on the one hand avoids the issues with e.g. the Campbell where some winners turned out, generally through no fault of their own, not to have had the careers they looked like they were going to have when they won but on the other sets grieving factions at each other's throats.