HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: torkel@sics.se (Torkel Franzen)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Author Polls, voting systems (and Jack Vance)
Date: 13 Aug 92 12:09:09 GMT
Organization: Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Kista

In article <urf.713511054@sw2001> urf@icl.se (Urban) writes:

   >(OK, what did I find strange: That _The Gray Prince_ should
   >get such low results, when I like it quite a lot. I guess there
   >are people who don't like the political view put forward in it.

   No doubt disagreement with Vance's political views enters into
one's view of The Gray Prince (not to mention the Wyst book). However,
I think it's clear enough that the book, although it contains a lot
of good Vance, is a failure as a novel because it is too much of a political
tract. Vance, in fact, agreed when I put this to him in 1976.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: xtifr@netcom.com (Chris Waters)
Subject: Re: Yet Another Misleading Cover
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 06:37:26 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 

In <w+8mmkk@quantum.on.ca> dagibbs@quantum.on.ca (David Gibbs) writes:

>In article <ELIZ.92Aug11101316@peduncle.ai.mit.edu> eliz@ai.mit.edu (Elizabeth Willey) writes:
>>Pally Hoffstein pleads:
>>   Can anyone think of a book that had a promising, well-done cover where the
>>   contents of the book lived up to promise of the cover and the cover proved
>>   accurate?

>The first few Vlad Taltos novels by Steven Brust -- Jhereg, Yendi, Teckla,
>Taltos.  (Then came Phoenix, with a totally different artist.)

NOT!!  Nice art, although I tend to doubt that Jhereg look anything like
that (in fact, I doubt if any aerodynamic critter could look like that).
The anatomy is questionable, but my *biggest* complaint about the covers
of these books is that Vlad is depicted as clean shaven!!  These fail
the accuracy test big-time!!  Worst of all, they seem like covers for
standard run-of-the-mill high-fantasy stuff, not for something like
Brust's eccentric hard-boiled style of fantasy.

>The covers of Terry Pratchet's disc world novels.  They are not neccessarily
>accurate, but they do suggest the right style.

The early ones (first four, I believe) had *excellent* covers. 
Reasonably accurate, and done in a highly detailed, completely off-the-
wall style that strongly reflected the style of the books.  Then (in the
US at least), starting with _Pyramids_, a new, cheesy artist, who should
be condemned to making covers for Anthony's latest pot-boilers, rather
than blighting better works like Pratchett's.  IMO, OC.  :-)
-- 
Chris Waters    | the insane don't | NOBODY for President!
xtifr@netcom.COM| need disclaimers | Because Nobody's perfect!!
From: dac@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au (Andrew Clayton)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Bester & Banks
Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 11:08:44 GMT
Reply-To: munnari!labtam!eyrie!prolix!dac
FollowUp-To: rec.arts.sf.written
Keywords: 
Organization: More like Dis~, really.

In article <16ooqlINNmvm@agate.berkeley.edu>,  writes:

> In article <1992Aug9.035636.6916@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu> dave@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Schaumann) writes:
> 
> [THE STARS MY DESTINATION is like CONSIDER PHLEBAS, revenge plotlines
> summarized]
> 
> THE STARS MY DESTINATION (as Randall Garrett once pointed out) takes its
> plot from THE COUNT OF MONTE CRISTO.  I haven't read CONSIDER PHLEBAS,
> but since you have, you might try matching up the stories and see if
> they match.


I haven't read _The Count ..._, but I saw a serialization of it
innumerable times [this was before the advent of the household
VCR, call me a TV junkie]. _Consider Phlebas_ is in NO WAY
comparible to that story. Not even a little bit.

You may as well juxtapose _The Cat In The Hat_ and _Wuthering
Heights_.

Dac
--
munnari!labtam!eyrie!prolix!dac      David Andrew Clayton.           // _| _  _
  prolix!dac%eyrie@labtam.oz.au      Canberra, Australia           \X/ (_](_](_
        dac@prolix.pub.uu.oz.au      I post .
prolix!dac@sserve.cc.adfa.oz.au            . . I am.             +61 6 290 2215
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: goodwin@orionsci (Ben Goodwin)
Subject: Re: Go to alt.fan...we don't want you(was Re: rec.arts.sf.written FAQ)
Reply-To: goodwin@orionsci.UUCP (Ben Goodwin)
Organization: Orion Scientific, Inc.
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 14:49:50 GMT

In article <4978@blue.cis.pitt.edu.UUCP> seawasp@vm2.cis.pitt.edu (Sea Wasp) writes:
>>>ever was!  I nominate aaron@space.ualberta.ca to be the moderator
>
>	And proceeds to flame, flame, flame, having completely missed
>the point of Aaron's post. Then Bill Blum:
>
>>Well said, Eric.  Very well said.
>
>	And proceeds to agree wholeheartedly with Eric...
>
>
>	WHAT? Are the readers of this newsgroup THAT dense, that they
>can't see a JOKE when it's posted? Aaron, my deepest sympathies for the
>unwarranted flames you're drawing from the humor-blind philistines out
>here...


Gee Wasp, these morons must be fans of Eddings and McAffry. :)

Ooh, couldn't resist.  Sorry.

Really, I like Eddings and McAffry.
-- 

-Ben
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Conspiracy among Book Reviewers?
From: demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man)
Date: 17 Aug 92 16:36:13 EST
Organization: Demonic Possesions, Inc.

In article <1992Aug17.125442.1@vaxa.strath.ac.uk>, ciar04@vaxa.strath.ac.uk writes:
> A couple of months ago, there was an article in The Times on
> a 'cartel' among reviewers of literature.  Apparently, as the story
> goes, there exist 'families' (in the Mafia sense) of authors.  If
> an author belongs to a particular 'family', it is highly likely that
> his/her book will receive favourble reviews.
> 
> Does this occur in SF and Fantasy literature as well?

	It occurs wherever there are critics.  Dis the critics and you will
find your releases ignored, no matter what you do: write, sing, etc.

	This isn't a problem if you are famous, like Madonna ;).  But it can
ruin a fledgling career, or seriously hurt a rising one (like Tom Clancy's).

	Critics are usually accurate at the extreme ends of the scale.  They
can tell very good from very bad.  But anywhere in between and you'll get mixed
reviews.  I prefer my own analysis and those of people who like the same
general categories as I do.

	Our local food critic is good for contrarian advice.  We go to
restaurants she doesn't like :).

	As far as them getting to together and deciding what passes and what
fails, that is probably more to lazy-plagiarism than anything else.  I've seen
a lot of reviews that look like carbon copies of wire-service/famous critic 
reviews.  If the critic isn't sure of what they just read :), they may just
punt and read someone else's review.

	I've also seen critics retract reviews that were grossly off the mark. 
I guess enlightenment by peer pressure is better than none at all.

Brett                                                      
_______________________________________________________________________________
Proconsul Computer Consulting                                        CHA-CHING!
Better, Cheaper, Faster					       (Pick any two :)
Disclaimer:								   NOT!
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: World Out of Mind
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 19:32:40 -0600

 CK> The book is  "WORLD OUT OF MIND," by J. T. M'Intosh.   
 CK> (This is often spelled as "J.T. McIntosh," and you can 
 CK> find copies of the same book with different 
 CK> writer-names pasted on the spine, depending on 
 CK> publication date and country of origin; JTM is a 
 CK> Brit/Scotsman.)  

According to my WHO'S WHO IN SCIENCE FICTION (a British publication), J.T.
McIntosh is the pseudonym of the Scottish writer James Murdoch MacGregor.

 * Origin: Beth's Point: Minneapolis, MN (1:282/341.5)
From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Unfair Tests (mild spoiler for Jaran)
Date: 22 Aug 92 00:03:54 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

Tests whose right answers depend on the author's whim are among my
least favorite plot devices.

In "Jaran", the heroine sips the water and finds it bitter.  It was
a test, she's told:  It's poisoned, and dishonest types tend to gulp enough
to kill themselves.  Of course, without changing anything else about
the book, the author could have had her gulp the water, and be told
that it was a test:  It kills unless it's gulped quickly, and untrusting
and untrustworthy types tend to sip slowly.

It happens all the time.  In one book the heroine passes a test by
having enough faith to place her hand in an apparently hot fire.  In
another book, the heroine passes a test by having enough brains not to.
In one book the hero is put to a test which will result in his death
if he fails to obey orders under pressure.  In another, the same hero
triumphs by ignoring orders.  

At least back when you got turned to stone if you didn't help the
old lady with her pack, or if you didn't feed the animals first,
the 'right answer' was a matter of what was generally considered
good behavior at the time, not of which side of the bed the author
got up from.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

   If you're going to write, don't pretend to write down.  It's going to be the
   best you can do, and it's the fact that it's the best you can do that kills
   you! -- Dorothy Parker
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: mimir@milton.u.washington.edu (Al Billings)
Subject: Re: K. Kurtz' Deryni series
Organization: The Friends of Loki Society
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 06:30:17 GMT

In article <1992Aug18.161055.4490@kth.se> tomas_e@LINK.Physchem.KTH.SE writes:
>Does anyone know if any new books in Katherine Kurtz Deryni series have 
>been published in the last two years? Book 1 of the "Heirs of Saint 
>Camber" trilogy ("The Harrowing of Gwynedd") was published in 1989, and 
>"Deryni Magic" in 1990, but I've found no later books. Anyone know if 
>there's a preliminary publication plan for book 2 & 3, and what it looks 
>like? Any further books planned for those who can wait a decade or more?

 I talked to a book seller friend of mine about the books a few weeks ago.
PRince Javan's Year is due out within the next few months in hardcover.

Wassail,
Al Billings

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Al Billings - Anthropology Undergrad - Admin for the Troth-l Mailing List | 
| SysOp of The Sacred Grove BBS (206)634-1980 -=- mimir@u.washington.edu    |
------------------------------ Cut Here -------------------------------------
begin 644 GRENDEL.PUB
MF58``1%^*@Q":6QL:6YG<RP@06S^`2N`$7JAHA^YG*D:W0:>,_,\N<XL-]7BN
LV+1/'DT4SH3V2$'*(9NAE_,+VB9R.4=@$9R.J1?CL3H!9@HR8+7DD3@%`!$%E
``
end
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

From: tgg@otter.hpl.hp.com (Tom Gardner)
Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 09:56:07 GMT
Subject: Re: Author Polls -- Cordwainer Smith (REPOST)
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written

|curtis@cory.Berkeley.EDU        YARVIN at University of California, at Berkeley

notes that he as read "Instrumentality of Mankind" and didn't like it. A couple
of points:
	- it is the short stories that didn't make it into "The Best of...",
	a collection which actually _does_ contain his best work. Thus IoM is
	less good.

	- Cordwainer Smith has a unique style and universe. He skates very 
	close to the edge (both in terms of "science" (ha!) and style), and,
	for the most part, is stays just on the right side. For me this makes
	his stories exciting and different. I quite accept that others will 
	have a different opinion. Summary: you either love him or hate him,
	you can't shrug and say "he's OK, I suppose".
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov ( Scott Dorsey)
Subject: The Soldier
Originator: kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center and Reptile Farm
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 00:27:38 GMT

Yep, it's one of these again.  I read a story a few years back and don't
recall the title or the author, and am appealing to the net for help.

The story is about a bar called the Soldier, which is owned and kept by
a cyborg.  He lives on for decades, and the long-transport ships come and
go, all crewed by women.  They stop by every few decades, their crews
only seeing a few months of relative time, and the bar remains the one
unchanging thing from one visit to the next.  The cyborg falls in love
with one young crewemember, and.... I'm not going to tell the rest.

If this sounds even remotely familiar, please mail me, and I will summarize
to the net.
--scott
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Orson Scott Card quoted in PCWeek
From: jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
Date: 17 Aug 92 15:55:29 GMT
Organization: Searle, Skokie, IL
Nntp-Posting-User: kvitek

The August 17 PC Week magazine has a Window & OS/2 supplement, whose "END PAGE"
column has a "Celebrity Check:  Who's Doing Windows"

Orson Scott Card is quoted, "The old DOS screen always looked like a plan for a
story, but with WordPerfect for Windows it feels like that is the story."  The
article also says that "his whole family uses the interface."

Also quoted in the column are F. Lee Bailey (pro Windows), Roger Ebert (pro
Mac), Dee Brown ("... Windows is nothing new to me.  Windows is just a copy of
what Macintosh has been doing for years").

Apparently nobody asked Harlan Ellison, eh? ;^)

Joel
-- 
jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Portions of the preceding were recorded.  As for the rest, I quite fear that
 it was all in your mind" -- Alfred Hitchcock
From: ciar04@vaxa.strath.ac.uk
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Recommendation on Fantasy Epic Novels
Date: 12 Aug 92 12:20:44 GMT
Organization: Strathclyde University VAX Cluster

In article marcy@sqwest.wimsey.bc.ca (Marcy Thompson) writes:

> I really resented reading a series of books which had clearly been
> written because the author thought the ending of the Arthur-Guinivere-
> Lancelot triangle should be rewritten as a happy menage a trois.

I actually bought only the first book of the Fionvar Tapestry - The Summer
Tree - to 'test' the series.  I like it enough to buy the second and third
book.  However, it seems that the 2nd and 3rd books were not quite like
the first.  Like you I don't care much about Arthur-Guinivere-Lancelot
triangle.

#----------------------------------#-------------------------------------------#
|  W.H.Watt                        #  JANET:                                   |
|  Dept. of Accounting & Finance   #           w.h.watt@uk.ac.strath.vaxa      |
|  University of Strathclyde       #  Rest of the World:                       |
|  Glasgow                         #           w.h.watt@vaxa.strath.ac.uk      |
|  United Kingdom                  #                                           |
#----------------------------------#-------------------------------------------#
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: qvortrup@inf.ethz.ch (Michael Qvortrup)
Subject: Re: Recommendation on Fantasy Epic Novels
Organization: Dept. Informatik, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich, CH
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 06:51:49 GMT

In article <1992Aug11.143115.1@vaxa.strath.ac.uk> ciar04@vaxa.strath.ac.uk writes:
>Dear fellow netters
>
>Greetings everyone!  I am new to this newsgroup.  Recently, I have acquired
>this (bad?) habit - actually more of an obssession - of reading epic
>fantasy bookss. 

Don't I know the feeling!

>                I wonder if anyone out there can give me some recommendation
>AS to some *good* books.

Well, have you tried Katherine Kerr's Deverry books? (Not to be confused
with Kurtz's Deryni books.) First book is "Dagger Spell", next is "Dark
Spell" and from then the books tend to have more than one title, depending
on where the edition was published. Good ideas with a liberal spread of
Celtic mythology/way of life, they especially deal reincarnation. They are
more an evolved series than a planned one. A second thread was recently
started, thus leading to something one could call a second series.
(e-mail me if you want all the titles.)

Then there are Louise Cooper's Time Master Trilogy and Chaos Gate Trilogy.
The first one is very good, the second one slightly less so.

"The Magic of Recluse" (can't remember the author) also seems very promising
but only the first volume is out.

Greetings,
--Mike

-- 
#include <std-disclm.h>--"... and there is a small flaw in my character."---
Real Life: Michael Christian Heide Qvortrup      A Dane         ETH, Zuerich
e-mail   : qvortrup@inf.ethz.ch                  abroad         Switzerland
Institut fuer wissenschaftliches Rechnen  /  Inst. of Scientific Computation
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: HADCUJEK@admin.uh.edu (Julia Ellan Kosatka)
Subject: Looking for 2 poems from Asimov's
Organization: University of Houston Administrative Computing
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 04:16:23 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.20

I remember a couple of poems that were published in Asimov's SF mag in the 
early 80's and now that I've found this group, maybe I can get some help.  
I've misplaced most of my issues from that period and would love to find 
these poems again.  Here's what I remember of them:

Title: don't remember
Tone: humorous
1)	Beware the sentient chili
	burbling away on your stoves.
	The vegetables plot insurrection
	with [something, something] and cloves.
	[there's something later on about 
	...generals whose lunches were odd...]

Title: Doppelganger [I think]
Tone: at the time, it was kinda chilling
2)	On Brompton Road I chanced to see
	a man who looked the same as me
	in every facial crease and line
	his clothes were of the same design,
	but how could such things be?
	[the two talk and the 'man' explains
	that with a touch]
	...You will vanish away
	and I will take your place, sir.
	[more...ending with the doppelganger
	showing up on the, now, old man's 
	door step]

If you know the issues these came from or if they've been reprinted in an
anthology somewhere, I'd appreciate e-mail.  Even just the correct titles
and authors would be a help.  If somebody's got them online, that would be 
nice, too (but it would probably be in violation of copyright laws).

Thanks in advance!

Julia Kosatka
University of Houston
I Do Computer Things
(Since we were reorganized on Friday,
I don't know who I work for or what I do anymore)

Julia Kosatka                                      Just in case...
University of Houston                              alternate e-mail address
Administrative Computing                           adus13@jetson.uh.edu
User Services
*******************************************************************************
* "It is far better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it * 
* and remove all doubt." -- Mark Twain                                        *
*******************************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written,rec.arts.sf.science
From: ins450m@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au (T.F. Eccles)
Subject: Re: Are the Moties us?
Organization: Monash University, Melb., Australia.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 09:36:50 GMT

jrbd@craycos.com (James Davies) writes:

>In article <gapdrr.713727865@gsusgi1.gsu.edu> gapdrr@gsusgi2.gsu.edu (Daniel R T Rothman) writes:
>>evolution IS catching up with us...  The upper echelons of the industrialized
>>societies have a non-replacement birth rate. The majority of population 
>>growth in first-world countries is coming from lower-income large families,
>>and many of these are relatively immune to economic pressures, because these
>>large families are subsidized by governments.

>This isn't evolution.  Income isn't genetically determined; just
>because you're poor doesn't mean that your children will be poor.  Also,
>the current events are happening over much too short a time scale to
>constitute a real change in the human race.  The relative proportions of
>different ethnic groups might be changing, but that's different than saying
>that the human race is evolving.

Hmmmm. I think the origianl posting made the all-too-common
mistake of confusing trends in society with evolution....
there is a simple, but easy to find difference.... if you come
back in a million years, one of them will have made a 
noticible change.

Eccles
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:11196 rec.arts.sf.science:2547
From: jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Elric Chronicles
Date: 13 Aug 92 14:58:30 GMT
Organization: Searle, Skokie, IL
Nntp-Posting-User: ferro

In article <BsvwHL.HLL@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, aak50740@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Count Zero ) writes:
> 	Has anyone read Michael Moorcock's 'Elric Chronicles'? It looks
> fascinating but maybe someone can tell me if it is a waste of time...
> 
> Count-Zero@uiuc.edu
> 

You've hit the nail on the head:  Moorcock's eternal champions _are_ a
fascinating waste of time.

If you have access to digests of this forum, look a couple weeks ago on
the "Eternal Champion" and "Corum" threads.

-- 
jjfink@skcla.monsanto.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Portions of the preceding were recorded.  As for the rest, I quite fear that
 it was all in your mind" -- Alfred Hitchcock
From: whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: >>>>SEX<<<< and Tolkien
Date: 14 Aug 92 23:36:19 GMT
Reply-To: whheydt@PacBell.COM (Wilson Heydt)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA

In article <1992Aug14.130918.3469@desire.wright.edu> demon@desire.wright.edu (Stupendous Man) writes:
>In article <15129@suns6.crosfield.co.uk>, jc@crosfield.co.uk (jerry cullingford) writes:
>> 
>> (3) Sex isn't particularly essential to the plot.. Tolkein's stuff is good
>> enough to sell without it..
>
>	3) is the best reason.  Tolkien wanted to create a mythological type of
>realm.  When was the last time you read something like: "Thor took the mortal
>woman in his arms and pumped her full of molten lava..."

There's always Poul and Karen Anderson's _A Feast for the Gods_, where
we learn that the embrace of a god is ALWAYS fertile . . .

	--Hal

-- 
Hal Heydt                    |    "Boycott Time-Warner"
Analyst, Pacific*Bell        |         --J. Danforth Quayle
510-823-5447                 |    "... kill all the lawyers."
whheydt@pbhya.PacBell.COM    |         --William Shakespeare
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
From: T_ADAMS@unhh.unh.edu (Tiffany   Adams)
Subject: Melanie Rawn:  Next book?
Organization: University of New Hampshire
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 13:39:57 GMT
X-News-Reader: VMS NEWS 1.12

Hi,

	I've just finished "The Dragon Token" and am once again left
hanging on the edge of my seat.  Does anyone know when the next book
is due to be out?  
	Thanks in advance...

			@>-->--- Tiffany
				 t_adams@unhh.unh.edu
Xref: sparky rec.arts.sf.written:10972 rec.arts.sf.science:2451