Dimension X: Hello Tomorrow (George Lefferts)

Hello Tomorrow

Two thousand years after nuclear war scorched the Earth, subterranean survivors exist in a tightly regimented society obsessed with genetic purity. A forbidden romance forced one couple to flee but the only place they can run to is the surface!

Yeah, I was not the target market for this tale of radiation-soaked romance.

I was going to say it was odd the biological revelation near the end of this was not made beforehand but in fact I don't we can say for sure that it was not, only that people making it chose not to share it. Which could be quite plausible.

Dimension X: Dr. Grimshaw's Sanitorium (Fletcher Pratt, adapted by George Lefferts))

: Dr.Grimshaw's Sanitorium

Intrigued by the fact that the "body" someone is removing under cover of night is not a body at all, living or dead, an ambitious PI convinces the supposedly dead man's father to pay him to look into this. The trail takes him to the sanitorium where the man supposedly died, where the PI soon finds himself in over his head.

Huh. Fletcher Pratt. Haven't read much by him, at least not solo work by him. Oh, it dates from 1934. I thought it felt a little pre-Golden Age.

I guess the upside for Hugh Howey

Is that a lot more people know who he is now than did a few weeks ago. There may be better ways of getting known.

A game everyone can play!

When Paul Cook says

I’ll go ahead and say it: this is as close to an unpublishable novel as I’ve ever seen that’s actually achieved print.

he is talking about Niven and Benford's Bowl of Heaven. I deduce from this that he has never read the Tor edition of Norman Spinrad's He Walked Among Us or (oddly, also Tor) Ken Shufeldt's Genesis, which attracted reviews like

You want an example of how NOT to write a book? This is it. And every author who sold his soul to include a quote on the cover should be ashamed.

and

Quite possibly the worst book ever published. A couple of hours of my life that I'll never get back. Amazon, is there a reason I am forced to give it one star? It presumes that this book has some redeeming qualities.

What would be your candidate for the novel that is as close to an unpublishable novel as you've ever seen that actually achieved print?

True Facts about the Sea Pig

Nicked from klgaffney

FASS is looking for Producer, Director, and Tech Director candidates

Official call for Producer, Director, and Tech Director for FASS 2014!

Hello everyone! FASS is looking to fill these three important committee positions. We're looking for a Producer, Director, and Tech Director for FASS 2014, The End of the World / Armageddon / Disasters.

If you're interested, email an application to prez@fass.uwaterloo.ca before 11:59pm on Sunday, April 28, 2013.

Seen elsewhere

This is not a criticism of the author or her stores: isn't it time publishers stopped using that sort of "we can see her boobs so who needs to see her head" cover art?

A very belated question about Star Wars

In the first movie (the one from the 1970s), how is it Leia happened to be in the close vicinity of Tatooine, the very planet where her long-lost twin happened to be living?

Before we find out Luke and Leia are Vader's kids, it's not so significant if one kid with a crush teams up with a embittered veteran to rescue a political prisoner. After it's established Luke and Leia are related, not only does it kind of spoil the whole crush thing - don't anyone feel the need to link to the Sexy Losers strip that deals with this - but it makes me wonder if it's just an outrageous coincidence that Leia and her chums picked Tatooine to pass by or if something more was going on.

(yeah, yeah,proto-Jedi dancing to the Force's tune)

And now, in honor of Niven's thesis that herbivores are naturally cowardly

Nicked from the weasel king.

Nick Pollotta (1954 - 2013)

Author Nick Pollotta (b.1954) died on April 13.

Dimension X: And The Moon Be Still As Bright (Ray Bradbury, adapted by Ernest Kinoy)

And The Moon Be Still As Bright

The first three missions to Mars reached that world and then vanished (if I recall correctly, one was bamboozled by Martians and killed, one got attacked by a jealous husband and killed, and one was taken for a group of madmen and killed) The fourth mission arrives to discover that one of the previous three gave the Martians chicken pox; lacking any resistance, the entire population has apparently died.

Many of the crew are happy to discover they are on what amounts to a latch-key planet but one crewman, upset at this accidental genocide and the lack of respect shown to the Martians, decides to adopt the identity of a Martian and take the vengeance the dead Martians cannot.

This is a cousin to Dances with Wolves, isn't it?

Dimension X: The Professor was a Thief (L. Ron Hubbard, adapted by George Lefferts)

The Professor was a Thief

An embittered scientist, armed with a device based on an absurd understanding of Relativity, takes revenge on a city that refuses to acknowledge him.

The news paper editor who has to unravel the situation sounds like an old 70 and is in fact two years older than I am.