The Lunatics of Terra


Book Description

A collection of John Sladek's hilarious SF satires, including: The Last of the Whaleburgers Great Mysteries Explained!Red Noise Guesting Absent Friends After Flaubert The Brass Monkey White Hat The Island of Dr Circe Answers Breakfast with the Murgatroyds The Next Dwarf An Explanation for the Disappearance of the Moon How to Make Major Scientific Discoveries at Home in Your Spare Time The Kindly Ones Fables Ursa Minor Calling All Gumdrops!




A Checklist of John Sladek


Book Description




Starcombing


Book Description

Starcombing contains eighty-five newly collected pieces of David Langford's witty commentary on the SF/fantasy scene - columns, articles, reviews, essays, even a few short-short stories from the famous 'Futures' page in Nature. Compulsive reading, crammed with insights and laughs.




Up Through an Empty House of Stars


Book Description

At last, _Up Through an Empty House of Stars_ brings together the best of the never before collected SF reviews and articles that helped build David Langford's towering reputation since 1980. Complementing the review columns collected in _The Complete Critical Assembly_ and the knockabout essays and squibs in _The Silence of the Langford_, this volume's 100 glittering selections mix serious critical insight with the inimitable Langford wit. In 2002 David Langford won his sixteenth Hugo award as Best Fan Writer, for critical and humorous commentary on SF. In the same year his occasionally scandalous SF newsletter _Ansible_ won its fifth Hugo. Langford also received the 2001 Hugo for best short story, and the 2002 Skylark Award. Here he shines a unique light on classics like Ernest Bramah, G.K. Chesterton, Robert Heinlein and Jack Vance, and analyses major SF -- and major clunkers, and minor eccentrics -- of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, continuing to the latest by such current stars as Gene Wolfe and China Mi, ville. Plus witty asides on crime fiction and its SF links, gleeful examination of writing so bad it's almost good, and (even at his most serious) turns of phrase to make you laugh aloud







Full-Moon above the Vosges


Book Description

Full-Moon above the Vosges gives us a dynamic perspective of human life, which unfolds through growth and change. Starting with adolescence, we move on to the events that most mark a man during his growth and maturation. Historical and classical anecdotes give us a perspective of the Earth and humanity through the eyes of the author. The world of personal characters from the author’s life is combined with that of classical and historical culture to which each of us can refer. The work is a perfect blend of personal and collective events that intertwine to narrate the author’s life and personal experiences. The reader is taken on a journey that begins with the writer’s childhood and passion for writing, moves on to his growth and medical career and culminates in his maturity, denoted by his reflections on man and his nature, while the common thread is the feeling of solitude that only the moon can give us. Cosmin Stefan Georgescu has been fascinated by words ever since his childhood, when he used to read and recite poems encouraged by his parents. Both of them being teachers, they were his first model during this early period of life. However, he later decided to become a doctor, graduating in 1997 from Carol Davila University of Medicine in Bucharest. During his career, he didn’t let down his passion, organizing cultural events and subscribing to the Society of Physician Writers in Romania. In 2015 he moved to France, where he has been living ever since. He published books in Romania, UK and France. He was awarded the Romanian “Sentimental Twilight” Prize in 2020 and the Critics’ Prize for his work Letters to God return to sender in 2021.




Wholly Smokes


Book Description

Wholly Smokes was the last book completed by one of the most original, brilliant and under-rated American writers of the 20th century. Like so many of John Sladek's earlier books, this is almost impossible to categorize. It's the non-fiction or non-fact history of General Snuff and Tobacco, a very American tobacco company which seems to have been present at, or had bizarre influence on, many great and not-so-great moments of history. John Sladek provides his own indescribable clip-art illustrations. As he says in the Introduction: "The story of GST is also the story of the Badcock family, who owned and operated the company throughout its magnificent history. This book follows that history, stopping to explore a few of its more dazzling events. You will meet the Badcock who kidnapped Pocahontas, the Badcock who burned London, the Badcock who started the American Revolution, the Badcock who almost killed a president, the Badcock who delivered the real Gettysburg address, the Badcock who wanted to prolong World War One (because he was doing so well out of it), the Badcock who tried to bribe Roosevelt, the Badcock who tried to kill Fidel Castro, and many others . . ."




Encyclopedia of Science Fiction


Book Description

Presents articles on the science fiction genre of literature, including authors, themes, significant works, and awards.




Anatomy of Wonder


Book Description

This classic work is an essential tool for collection development, research, reference, and readers' advisory work."--BOOK JACKET.




BattleTech: Shrapnel, Year One


Book Description

Strap into the Cockpit! Proudly carrying the battle standard for BattleTech short fiction, the first year of Shrapnel: The Official BattleTech Magazine continues the tradition of explosive, hard-hitting stories set in the war-torn, BattleMech-dominated interstellar future of the 31st century. In this collection of issues #1–4, you will attempt to escape from a bandit king’s stronghold, ally with longtime enemies on the front lines of the swift and merciless Clan invasion, and fight brutal arena duels on the game world of Solaris VII. You will defend your home in the Deep Periphery from opportunistic invaders, share tales of victory and woe at a popular MechWarrior bar, and discover a long-abandoned ’Mech that helps build an idealistic young woman’s sense of purpose. Then go beyond the story and forge your own legend with in-universe articles, conspiracy theories, technical readouts, unit and planet digests, playable scenarios, role-playing adventures, weapons catalogs, social commentaries, and much, much more! This collection also includes the entire four-part Kell Hounds serial novel, If Auld Acquaintance Be Forgot… by New York Times-bestselling author Michael A. Stackpole. Tighten your safety harness, thumb off your weapon safeties, and march into battle to see where it all began, with heart-wrenching stories and powerful game features penned by long-time BattleTech luminaries and exciting new authors. Note: this is the same file that all Kickstarter Mercenaries backers have already received. If you backed the campaign at any level, you have already received this file as part of your pledge.