HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: IQTI400@INDYCMS.IUPUI.EDU ("Slow-Children@Play")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Star Trek "Novels"
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:20:35 GMT

Concerning ST:TOS Novel #59, _The Disinherited_...

Here is early cause for concern:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
p. 35

"Well" -- and Wesley smiled broadly -- "that will be up to the
lieutenant, now, won't it?  Lexington out."  Wesley's image vanished as
the Lexington reappeared.

{skip three very small paragraphs}

Uhura and Commodore Wesley materialized side by side on the Lexington's
main transporter platform....
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any time a continuity error this glaring slips through, you should go
to red alert.

And when the remainder of a 261 page novel can be reasonably
predicted by page ninety-four when the last clue necessary to
decipher an already weak plot is made apparent, the entire Federation
should be ready to sound the alarm.

Finally, if you expect two unrelated plots to exist because a
senior member of the crew is separated from the Enterprise, you
won't find it here (again).

This "novel" is merely another piece of evidence demanding the
Star Trek novel series to be considered nothing more than pulp
fiction at best as the quality continues to slide rapidly downhill.

If anyone knows of a reasonably accurate means to communicate
with one or more of the three authors (esp electronically),
I'd be glad to hear of it.

P.S.
Does anyone happen to have an inside story as to why _Probe!_ suddenly
appeared a year after the initial schedule and after being cancelled (not
delayed) three or four times?  Is this another case of ghost-writing
after-the-fact, weakening an already slack plot?

P.P.S.
Please don't take these ravings as that from one who normally reads
anything from a critical perspective.  That, and the fact I own all of the
ST novels, including the Bantam-published ST novels from the 70s...
From: fjb@druwa.ATT.COM (Jeff Bogart)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Saberhagen's Book of Swords
Date: 6 Apr 92 15:54:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: drutx.15117

in article <9204031632.AA05473@csd4.csd.uwm.edu>, nanner@CSD4.CSD.UWM.EDU (Diane Susan Palme) says:
> his/her thoughts are on the subject.  I plowed through the first three books
> over the weekend and was sorely disappointed.  With all the joking going on

I was also disappointed in Saberhagen's trilogy but bit on the Lost Swords and
found them a little better.  I've been thinking about going back and re-reading
the original trilogy to see if they make any more sense now.
--
                               ~               *******    
    Jeff Bogart         ~                    ***********    
    (303) 538-4268     __      _   _!__     *************   
    att!druwa!fjb _   /  \_  _/ \  |::| ___ *************     ~
From: dant@logos.wr.tek.com (Dan Tilque)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: "Blood's a Rover" by H.Ellison, what's the deal?
Summary: Another TTUB
Keywords: Confusion, frustration, general annoyance
Date: 7 Apr 92 01:34:36 GMT
Organization: Upper Left Coast Liberation Army

lozanoj@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (Jones) writes:
>
>Is Harlan Ellison *ever* gonna get "Blood's a Rover" out?
>It seems like we (his fans) have been promised time and time
>again that the book will be released, but when it comes down
>to actual *publishing*, he chokes in the clutch and delays
>it's release date for another month/year/decade.

This has been discussed on the net before but I've forgotten the
details.  From the title, it sounds like a sequel to "A Boy and His
Dog".

>
>Fer chrissakes, its been over twenty years!

Sounds like another candidate for the Top Ten Unpublished Books.  I
think maybe I should put in a section in the FAQ on these.  Right now
there's only an entry about the fourth Anthony Villers book.  Others
would be _The Last Dangerous Visions_ and the sequel to _Architect of
Sleep_.

Anyone have any more for this list?  Please, only books that are many
years overdue.

---
Dan Tilque	--	dant@logos.WR.TEK.COM
From: bkekesi@uceng.UC.EDU (Jealous Knight)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Death of Issac Asimov
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:10:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: uceng.1992Apr6.231054.7802
Organization: College of Engineering, University of Cincinnati

>
>Isaac Asimov died this morning. I am a great fan of his work, and he will
>be missed in the worst way.
>
IMHO, the two greatest writers in the realms of fantasy & science fiction are
J.R.R. Tolkien and Isaac Asimov...   
                                     now both of them are dead.    
                                                                   _sigh_

                                                - B.A. Kekesi
From: williamsk@gtephx.UUCP (Kevin W. Williams)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: New Releases
Date: 15 Apr 92 23:06:26 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: This variable implies that we ARE organised

In article <1992Apr15.140118.29097@news.iastate.edu>, SG.MML@isumvs.iastate.edu (M. Loughin) writes:
> Thanks for the list!  But I noticed the title
> _Ring Around the Sun_, by Clifford Simak.  I didn't recognize
> this one.  Is it another new book by a dead author, a reprint,
> a biography, or what?
> 
>    Thanks

It's a reprint. In fact, its a reprint of the second science
fiction novel I ever read (first being "Alien Planet" by
Fletcher Pratt). It's a parallel universe story. Not
one of Simak's best, but pretty readable.


Kevin Wayne Williams
     UUCP : ...!ames!ncar!noao!asuvax!gtephx!williamsk

               Remember : Brute force has an elegance all its own.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: farrell@coral.cs.jcu.edu.au (John Farrell)
Subject: "Islands in the Net" by Bruce Sterling
Organization: James Cook University
Date:  9 Apr 92 00:23:46 GMT

For some reason I am of the belief that Bruce Sterling the SF author is the
same as Bruce Sterling the TinyMud player on this here net. I wonder if I am
right.
  Anyway, I just finished reading the monolithic "Islands in the Net". Only
446 pages, but each one weighs a kilogram. I hate trade paperbacks. I found
that the story itself started off slowly, and damn boring in fact for a few
hundred pages, with just ages spent describing boats and houses and changing
the baby's nappy, but eventually the action got up to a fast crawl and I could
concentrate long enough to read more than 30 pages in a sitting.
  I decided on about page 250 that this book was just a waste of paper and
that I would only slog through to the end if I had nothing better to do. But
sometime about then I realised that the world Sterling had created was pretty
damn real and suddenly I wanted to know more about it.
  Without writing major spoilers, the book is set in 2023. By then, all major
communication channels across the world have amalgamated into a giant,
tightly-coupled network call "The Net". One of the themes of the book is the
way that "The Net" has evolved from the victories of the Cold War, the power
of multinational companies, the airline network, the United Nations, the
media, and of course, Usenet as we know it. "The Net" has come to symbolise
all of the power of the developed world, while the undeveloped world treats it
with contempt.
  This impressed me a lot. Sterling has not just invented this "Net", it is
here already, it's just not as tightly woven. The media, the multinationals,
the airline system... they are not independent entities, they are all just
life support systems for people like you and me. And the yuppies. Other
prominent members of this alliance of developed world interests are the United
Nations, the oil companies, and the U.S. nuclear deterrent. Margaret Tutweiler
is our God. When Saddam Hussein threatens our Net, our Net reaches out and bops
him on the head. Our Net throws its tentacles out past the edge of the solar
system with Voyager. Our Net examines atomic particles, the earth's core,
crowd behaviour patterns, and dumps it all in libraries so within minutes we
can find out just about anything we want. We are told that the extended use of
Wide Area Information Servers will make it even faster. More and more it looks
like there is nowhere we cannot see, nothing we cannot hear, and nothing we
cannot know. After the Gulf War, I don't need to convince you of this.
  What about the places that aren't on our net? Most of Africa, much of South
America, nearly all poor people. What power do they have? You might say that
they have the power to vote, or they have rights in the United Nations, but
without the media and the oil companies and the U.S. nuclear deterrent working
for them, what does it matter how they vote or how they are represented? I
feel I should say something profound, but I don't know what.


Friendless
From: IRH%A1@UTRC ("Irene R. Harrison 8-446-7415")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: McCaffrey's Pern question
Date: 15 Apr 92 12:09:00 GMT


Back in March Robert Turner had the following question
>I have just re-read the early Pern books, and have a question about an
>inconsistency between my versions.  I have an old (1970s) DragonFlight,
>and a new (1987) DragonQuest.  In the former, Lytol was the ex-rider of
>Blue Larth, whereas in the latter, he was the rider of Brown Larth.
>
>Was this deliberately changed? If so, are there other alterations that
>have been made over the years to this series?

It has taken me a month to read my way through by book stack to McCaffrey's
Dragon books.  Yup, you're right the color of Lytol's dragon does change.
(Double page references are for different editions.)

In DRAGONFLIGHT (1968, Ballantine pap; 1969 Walker hc and 1981 Ballantine
pap) Lytol is said to be "L'tol...a green rider from S'lel's wing" (p16 or
p17). The Dragondex, in recent editions, lists Lytol with a "dragon brown
Larth(dies)" (p299)

In DRAGONQUEST (1971 Ballantine pap; 1973 UK:Rapp&Whiting hc; and 1981
Ballantine pap) Jaxom refers to "Lytol who had once ridden a Beden dragon
and lost his Larth" (p5 or p19) and later with "Lytol's dragon had been a
brown"(p86 or p92)

Was this deliberate? I doubt that it was.  DRAGONFLIGHT is only Anne
McCaffrey's second full novel.  The short story "Dragon Rider" originally
appeared in ANALOG, Dec 1967 & Jan 1968. A guess is that Lytol was
originally a secondary character, his dragon's color was thrown in.  Later
he became an important character,  the color of his dragon was brown, a
prestigious color.  After all, who would remember one word from an earlier
book. (Hmmm...in DRAGONQUEST we learn that green dragons are female...)

I personally had never noticed the color of Lytol's dragon until I read the
book looking for that information.  One of my friends once suggested that
Anne McCaffrey could use a 'continuity director'. If you read these books
for the details you might notice animals such as the 'spit dogs' at Ruatha,
the 'ship fish' or the'wild cat' (that caused the plague in MORETA). Where
do these animals go when they are no longer needed for the plot?

Then again these could be part of the 'rereading text errors'. Errors
appear in the text DUE to your rereading and wearing out the text. (I wish
I had saved a copy of that article.)

Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: csmith@onetouch.COM (Craig Smith)
Subject: Re: Zelazny/Amber
Organization: MCS/OneTouch, Inc.
Date: Tue, 07 Apr 92 19:50:57 GMT

I also am somewhat disturbed by the slowness of the second series, and
have not started reading it yet.

Why? Several reasons.

1) My bookstore does not have them all, and I have no assurance that
   they will.
2) I do _not_ want an endless series. Any series that goes on and on
   is one that does not have then end in mind when the beginning is
   written. The Courts of Chaos shows clear indications that he had
   the ending in mind when he wrote Nine Princes. I do not want
   Zelazny writting Xanth novels.
3) I have a friend that is reading them, and when the last novel comes
   out, he will let me know if it is worth it.
-- 
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::Craig Smith                                             csmith@onetouch.COM::
::Columbus, OH                                      ...!uunet!onetouch!csmith::
::"Life is a fulltime occupation."--Gene Kalman                              ::
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: sef@kithrup.COM (Sean Eric Fagan)
Subject: _Wizard's Bane_ riddle
Organization: Kithrup Enterprises, Ltd.
Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1992 08:30:29 GMT

In _Wizard's Bane_, by Rick Cook, there is the following riddle:

	Black as night, white as snow
	Red as blood from the death-wound flow
	Precious as gold
	Worthless as dross
	Cold beyond cold
	Gained without loss
	Higher and deeper and wider than all
	At fingertips always, gone beyond call
	What am I?

Any ideas?

-- 
Sean Eric Fagan  | "One form to rule them all, one form to find them, one
sef@kithrup.COM  |  form to bring them all and in the darkness rewrite the
-----------------+  hell out of them" -- sendmail ruleset 3 comment from DEC.
Any opinions expressed are my own, and generally unpopular with others.
From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Chris Claremont's _First_Flight_
Date: 15 Apr 92 23:36:00 GMT
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <11289@gazette.bcm.tmc.edu>, albert@chain.ssctr.bcm.tmc.edu (Rick Jones) writes...
>In article <1992Apr15.210402.17160@acsu.buffalo.edu> v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>>     (BTW, what's he doing now that Marvel canned his ass?  (Which
>>     is too bad because after years of crap, he was just starting
>>     to churn out some decent stuff...))

>	Actually, he wasn't canned.  He quit because he was tired 
>of the editorial bullsh*t that Marvel was pulling.  He's supposedly
>going to write some stuff for DC and some independant outfits.
>And write more novels.

     Rick,
     He was definitely canned by Marvel.  The accounts of it were
     all over the industry, and Comics Buyers Guide, when it
     happened.  And Claremont was _pissed_.  
     He was tired of the editorial bullshit Marvel was pulling,
     I'll give you that, but the whole fracas apparently started
     when Jim Lee wanted co-writer credit and Claremont wouldn't
     budge.
     (Longtime X-Men and Claremont readers will remember the same
     situation cropping up with _many_ of the artists illustrating
     Claremont's books.  John Byrne, in particular, holds that he
     was responsible for coming up with the detailed plots to the
     Dark Phoenix, Kree-Skrull, Brood and other classic and 
     incredibly successful X-Men storylines, and that Claremont
     merely diaglogued but was given full writer credit.  Byrne
     was credited only as "artist.")
     It's just that in this case, Marvel considered artist Jim Lee
     a more indispensible talent than Claremont.  He lost and was
     fired for it.  (Ironically, I believe Lee has now left the
     book, though I'm not sure about this).

                ^She's My Cousin But Doesn't She^
                      ^Look Almost Exactly^
           ____________^Like Laura Palmer^____________
          ^Scott Gorcey, v075q5fr@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu^
From: amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Patricia Kennealy (was Re: Irish/Celtic Fantasy)
Date: 13 Apr 92 13:04:49 GMT
Organization: University of Texas at Austin


In article <1992Apr10.150218.10866@dptg.att.com> rkh@ucs.att.com
(Robert Halloran) writes:

>If you want to stretch things, you could look at Kennealy's Keltiad
>books; pre-Xian Celts in space.  If you can get past the plot device
>used to create the setting, they're a pretty good read.  And does
>anyone know when the next one's due out?!?!?

Hey.  I think the plot device (the Danaans being led by Brendan the
Navigator to another universe when Patrick comes instead of going to
the "Hollow Hills") is *great*.  Allows for all sorts of cool
departures from the usual.  But, that's my opinion.  Either way, they
are indeed well-written.

As for The Oak Above the Kings, Patricia is gearing up right now for
the promo tour for her book about her relationship with Jim Morrison,
and is thus behind on Kelts.  At the rate things are going right now,
I would expect to see Oak about December or January.

>	Bob Halloran
>	AT&T Universal Card
>	Jacksonville FL

-- 
-----Susan Harwood Kaczmarczik-------------------------------*<:-)-------------
"Queens never make bargains."  -- The Red Queen, _Through the Looking Glass_
-----amadeus@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu--------------The University of Texas @Austin---
From: cozzlab@garnet.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM--thanks to all who answered
Date: 9 Apr 92 16:43:17 GMT
Article-I.D.: agate.s1s75INN1g7
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: garnet.berkeley.edu

In article <s07reINNpct@agate.berkeley.edu> rknowles@garnet.berkeley.edu () writes:
>
>I far as I know, which is from knowing some of the old Pennyfarthing people, ar
>Wilmar was her real name.  Neither the book itself or any of the standard 
>references says otherwise. 

Her name was Wilma, with no R.  An accepted female name,  There was a girl
named Wilma at my elementary school and another at my high school (neither
of them wrote anything, though...)  I met the lady once, as I mentioned
a few postings back, and she said, "Hello, I'm Wilma Shiras, only the book
said 'Wilmar'..." and about that point the name "Shiras" hit my cerebral
cortex and I froze into Fan Position #1*.  When I came out of it she
introduced her husband and showed me pictures of her kids and grandkids.
A very nice lady, now gone to her reward.

While I believe John Campbell had his faults,
>he wasn't quite that foolish.
>
Dianetics.  "Magic is really psi."  The Hieronymus Machine. "Slaves are  
better off than free men."  The Dean Drive.  "Northern Europeans are
smarter than anyone on Earth, and by expansion, Earthmen are smarter
than anybody in the Galaxy."

John Campbell was a Truly Great Mind, but don't try to tell me he wasn't
capable of Truly Great Foolishness when he felt like it.

Dorothy J. Heydt
UC Berkeley
Disclaimer: This is the Cozzarelli Lab's account, not mine--but I don't
think anybody else ever reads it.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: maxson@cerl.uiuc.edu (K R Maxson)
Subject: Re: Zelazny/Amber
Organization: UIUC Computer-based Education Research Lab
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 16:15:14 GMT

In article <6APR199208290060@zeus.tamu.edu> slh5087@zeus.tamu.edu (Steve Hayes) writes:
>the tenth book is out now in hardcover (as I understand).  Is it the last
>book to the second series, is this thing open-ended, or what?  I'd like to
>see Zelazny keep turning these out since they do read very fast and are
>quite entertaining, but they are so inextricably connected, usually, that
>I have a hard time keeping my patience dangling from a cliff for 1-2-3 years.

I don't remember if there was a promisory note at the end of the tenth
book, but it certainly implies another sequel.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: amorgan@Xenon.Stanford.EDU (Crunchy Frog)
Subject: Re: Poetry in Lem's Cyberiad
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University.
Date: Sat, 11 Apr 1992 05:12:08 GMT

In article <1992Apr10.021643.3429@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us> 
  cpf@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us (Courtenay Footman) writes:

... discussion about Cyberiad and poem deleted ...

>    Which is pretty impressive. However,  what is fascinating is the fact that
>Lem wrote in Polish, and that the book is translated by Michael Kandel.  Were
>the poems originally in English, or was this masterpiece written by Kandel?
>If so, what did Lem originally write?

I don't have any idea what contortions Kandel had to go through to translate
the book, but I consider it to be one of the finest translation jobs ever
done.  Not only did he have to translate the poetry, but he had to invent
new words every few paragraphs and match Lem's idiosyncratic style.  This
is one of the few non-English works I have read where I felt that nothing
was lost in translation.

(A library here has The Cyberiad in the original.  Maybe I should check
it out and hunt for the poems).

>(Quotes from Stanislaw Lem , "The Cyberiad", Avon books, New York 1976.)

>Courtenay Footman			I finally got back on the net.
>cpf@alchemy.ithaca.ny.us		Now I will never get anything done

C Frog
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: aaron@space.ualberta.ca (Alfvaen)
Subject: Re: Do you have a towel?
Organization: University Of Alberta, Edmonton Canada
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 21:40:25 GMT

Ray Charbonneau writes
> In article <iB8wiB5w164w@batpad.lgb.CA.US>, iasimov@batpad.lgb.CA.US  
(Isaac Asimov) writes:
> |> 
> |> 
> |> 
> |>    IS IT JUST ME, OR IS IT HOT IN HERE????????
> |> 
> |> 
> |> 
> |> 
> |> 
> |> i.
> |> 
> 
> Warning - this jerk set followups to misc.test, a simple trick, but one  
that
> usually catches someone.  Anyone want to find out who really posted  
this?

I'm betting on Roger Carasso.  The crosspost to talk.bizarre and the  
followup to misc.test are his trademark.  And I read talk.bizarre enough  
to know.

> -- 
> Ray Charbonneau              | The fifth dentist makes all the money.
> rcharbon@athena.mit.edu      |             -- me
> MIT and the Library Systems Office are glad that I'm posting my opinions
> here so that they don't have to listen to them anymore.

--

---Alfvaen(a.k.a. Aaron V. Humphrey)
Canadian Network For Space Research, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
If you stand on your head, you will get footprints in your hair.
Current Album--Heart:Brigade
 "Don't leave me like this--don't leave me stranded."
From: marotta@hannah.enet.DEC.COM ("I'm gonna wake up in Heaven on the cold, cold ground...  06-Apr-1992 1516")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Jurassic Park
Date: 6 Apr 92 22:50:33 GMT

I also recently finished this fine book.  I loved the idea
of a dinosaur land with real dinosaurs.  It was a great concept,
and could be a great movie, if they can include some of the 
messages about genetic experimentation and and the larger
issue of man's attempt to dominate nature.

One of  theories in the book was very interesting, and critical
to the plot: that used by the mathematician; Chaos Theory.
It seems to take into account the degenerative aspects of
any order, and relies on the notion that the only permanent
thing is change.

Is this a real theory used by real mathematicians?  Any examples
of where is is applied?
From: JBAIRD@rm42.ucc.uconn.EDU ("James Baird")
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Receipt confirmation
Date: 10 Apr 92 12:02:26 GMT

Confirmation: message read at 8:02, 10 Apr 92
Subject: SF-LOVERS Digest   V17 #156
**********************************************************************
*  James Baird                               *        REMEMBER:      *
*  Data Communications Department            * If you see the Buddha *
*  University of Connecticut Computer Center *      in the road,     *
*  Internet: JBAIRD@rm42.ucc.uconn.edu       *        KILL HIM.      *
**********************************************************************
From: Jyri.Virkki@bbs.oit.unc.edu (Jyri Virkki)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: In Memorium
Date: 14 Apr 92 00:03:50 GMT
Article-I.D.: samba.1992Apr14.000350.923
Organization: Extended Bulletin Board Service

In article <1992Apr8.224436.16327@linus.mitre.org> jon@cyclone.MITRE.org (J. E. Shum) writes:
>
>Isaac Asimov 1920-1992
>
>Ike, I miss you already.

Ever since I have been reading SF, I think the only constant has been 
that I have always been waiting for Asimov's next book. Now, there will
be no more...

So long Isaac, and thanks for everything!

Jyri J. Virkki - DoD#561 - j_virkki@upr2.clu.net

--
   The opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University of
     North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Campus Office for Information
        Technology, or the Experimental Bulletin Board Service.
           internet:  bbs.oit.unc.edu or 152.2.22.80