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Gå med i LibraryThing för att få reda på om du skulle tycka om den här boken. ▾Diskussioner ("Om"-länkar) Det finns inga diskussioner på LibraryThing om den här boken. » Se även 1 omnämnande » Lägg till fler författare Författarens namn | Roll | Typ av författare | Verk? | Status | Friesner, Esther | Redaktör | primär författare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Greenberg, Martin H. | Redaktör | huvudförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | bes Shahar, Eluki | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Betancourt, John Gregory | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Boston, Bruce | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Brin, David | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Brunet, James | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Cox, Greg | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Daniel, Kate | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | DeChancie, John | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Drake, David | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Dutcher, Roger | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Effinger, George Alec | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Feeley, Gregory | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Foster, Alan Dean | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Frankos, Laura | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Gilliam, Richard | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Haber, Karen | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Hecht, Jeff | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Lewis, Anthony | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Malzberg, Barry | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | McKiernan, Dennis | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Monteleone, Thomas F. | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Nye, Jody Lynn | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Resnick, Laura | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Resnick, Mike | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Rusch, Kristine Kathryn | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Sherman, Josepha | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Smith, Dean Wesley | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Steele, Allen | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Tiedemann, Mark | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Turtledove, Harry | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Vierling, David | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Watt-Evans, Lawrence | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Winter-Damon, t. | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Wunder, Deborah | Bidragsgivare | medförfattare | alla utgåvor | bekräftat | Warren, Jim | Omslag | medförfattare | vissa utgåvor | bekräftat |
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Information från den engelska sidan med allmänna fakta. Redigera om du vill anpassa till ditt språk. This book is dedicated to the Gentlefolk of the Press and also to Bigfoot, Nessie, Elvis, Marilyn and all the Little People (from Mars, or wherever) without whom the best tabloid journalism would not be what it is today. | |
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”Introduction: Alien Pregnant By Elvis”, Esther M. Friesner -- Standard introduction, written in tabloid fashion of course.
”The Source of It All”, Dennis McKiernan -- A humorous story around an obvious idea for this theme anthology: that all those tabloid stories are based on the denizens of a very strange town.
”The Bride of Bigfoot”, Lawrence Watt-Evans -- Story about Bigfoot searching for a bride. Humorous but nothing special.
”Close-up Photos Reveal JFK Skull on Moon!”, Barry N. Malzberg -- A rather pointless story involving JFK (of course, it’s a Malzberg story), Marilyn Monroe, (both on the moon), Elvis (he faked his death and is an obscure entertainer), and a new mother at 102. To further puzzle its inclusions (other than its title which has little to do with its content) here, it isn’t even written in a tabloidish style though it has moments of wry humor.
”Marilyn Elvis, and the Reality Blues”, James Brune -- A clever story and well suited to this theme anthology. Protagonist Henry Kizmik lives in a tabloid world. Marilyn Monroe and Elvis live in his apartment (JFK stops in to see Marilyn every now and then). Atlanteans give stock market tips, and Hitler is a dj in Argentina. It’s a strange, irrational world, and that’s what bothers Kizmik. He’s trying to write an article – for this world’s alternative press – on logic and it’s uses. Kizmik is baffled by the irrationality of his world. His girlfriend just thinks he’s a conspiracy mongerer obsessed with theories of logic. He’s on the fringes of this world. A nicely done role reversal.
”Those Rowdy Royals”, Laura Resnick -- Absolutely pointless, unfunny story that think it’s enough to recast the history of King Henry II of England as newspaper articles. (July 8, 1994)
”My Husband Became a Zombie and It Saved Our Marriage”, Karen Haber -- This is a one joke story, and the joke is that of the Adams family movies – the aesthetics of everything are inverted. The protagonist lives in a town where tabloidish events are normal, and she is horrified by the aerobus glasses, hairdressers, and – especially – the Girl Scouts she finds in another town. Like the Adams Family, funny at times, but the illogical humor wears thin sometimes.
”Rock Band Conjures Satan as Manager – Group Claims ‘Good Business Move’”, Deborah J. Wunder -- The one joke (too long of a story at 5 pages) of this Faustian is revealed in the title.
”2,437 UFOs Over New Hampshire”, Allen Steele -- A good story (and probably the best one in this anthology) that puts Steele’s journalistic background to good use. In a certain sense, this story is not even fantasy or science fiction. It’s written in a straight-forward style, a piece of reporting that would not be out of place in many mainstream magazines. Steele matter of factly describes Giddings, New Hampshire, a town protected by its own air force, where several citizens are under around the clock surveillance, a town with an unusually robust interest in UFOs for Giddings is populated heavily with people who claim to be UFO abductees. They and their immediate families have relocated to Giddings where they are protected and supported by the wealthy and anonymous individual known as Number One. As many a good reporter would, Steele tells his story through a series of interviews and character sketches (with humor that would not be out of place in a journalism piece). There’s the ex-intelligence analyst who administers the Astra Trust activities Giddings, an artist and self-proclaimed UFO abductee, the ex-Brazilian Air Force captain who flies cover over Giddings, the gun-toting paranoid (and who bitches about that “bitch Marilyn … and her little friends”, the liberal conspiracy-mongeror from South Carolina who owns the town’s video store and doesn’t believe in UFOs, the ex-New York cop who patrols Giddings, and a couple that are very reminiscent of the Mitchells in the documentary Farewell Good Brothers. (They’re convinced the tv show The Invaders ripped off their story.) It’s a fun, thoughtful, very plausible seeming piece that has the ring of truth.
”Pulitzer Kills Publishing Maggot”, Mark W. Tiedemann -- An unremarkable story based on a joke from The Far Side (at least that’s where I first saw it): aliens coming to Earth to scare us for fun.
”Elvis at the White House”, Kristine Kathryn Rusch -- A story that tries unsuccessfully to be funny with a mixture of Elvis impersonators, the spirit of Elvis, and a psychic investigator trying to stop the murder of a child.
”De Gustibus”, Anthony R. Lewis -- A short, one joke story about cannibalism at Harvard and on Wall Street.
”The Number of the Beast”, Jeff Hecht -- A detailed, technical expansion of the conspiracy-mongeror notion (usually of certain Christians) that UPC barcodes could be tattooed on foreheads and palms to become the Mark of the Beast without which one can’t “buy or sell”. A good enough story for its use of a fairly old notion.
”Is Your Coworker a Space Alien?”, “Bob” bes Shahar -- A nicely done set of inversions and variations on one of the most famous and best tabloid stories of the same title. In this humorous story, the narrator works with a weird bunch of co-workers at a graphics company. But, to her, the weirdest character of all is Clifford Mutton-Jones. He eats his food (and his choices are normal) normally, knows all sorts of obscure bits of trivia, and dresses normally – in other words, the exact opposite of his co-workers. (The signs of being a space alien, according to the tabloid article, are eating food “wrongly”, not knowing certain “common” bits of knowledge, or asking about “Earth’s defenses”.) He reveals he’s an ethnographer studying space aliens and deliberately maintains his cultural distance by being a normal person. This leads to the narrator to wonder if she and her co-workers are normal or if reality – or, at least, the consensus view (Philip K. Dick is mentioned in the first paragraph of it – is changing. After all, enough scholars take Mutton-Jones seriously enough to grant a doctorate for his study and publish it.
”A Beak for Trends”, Laura Frankos -- A humorous story about a parrot who can read the newspaper put in the bottom of his cage, makes brilliant stock investments for his owner, and suffers some fatal stress when his worldview is shattered by new owners papering his cage with tabloids.
”Hitler Clone in Argentina Plots Falklands Reprise or Death and Transfiguration”, John DeChancie -- DeChancie takes a popular tabloid notion – that certain celebrities are still alive and plays it both for laughs and something more serious. The title alludes to the tabloid claim that Hitler advised the Argentineans in the Falklands War. Here, Hitler keeps calling newspapers with the news that he’s still alive. They never believe him. The celebrities, besides Hitler, are Jimmy Hoffa, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, the Perons, Elivs Presley, JFK, and Marilyn Monroe. Most of the story concerns these characters trying to decide what has happened to them. Are they kept alive by a longevity drug supplied by the mysterious Dr. Cabeza de Vaca who replaced their bodies with clones? Is the island they’re on heaven, hell, Asgard, Valhalla, or the Elysian fields? Are they charismatic archetypes that exist only in humanity’s mind? The ruminations on their status is not the main thrust of the story though. It is on the transfiguration of the title. While Marilyn Monroe has the same intellectual pretensions she always had, JFK has ceased being a politician and doesn’t follow world affairs. Hitler spends a lot of the story ranting about their coming back to rule the world. While he no longer justifies his rule on racial grounds (indeed, he has changed to the point where he sees himself as belonging to the “brotherhood” of man), he thinks they are an elite destined to rule the world. At the story’s most humorous and serious moments, Elvis Presley says “Jesus Christ, ‘Old ol’ Buddy. Ain't it about time you gave it a rest?” Hitler laughs at his pretensions, abandons them, and his transfiguration is complete. )
”Group Phenomena”, Thomas F. Monteleone -- Monteleone takes a couple of ideas (one, the fairly old idea that disasters happen in clusters; the second the fiction idea of tracking an immortal/alien via historical documentation – here old newspaper photographs) and combines them neatly. A newspaper reporter stumbles on the alien causing disasters and accidents for the last fifty years. He meets the alien who reveals a contempt for humanity analogous to how we view slugs. His race uses Earth to train its members in reality control. That part is intriguing and metaphysically scary but the end – where it is revealed that Earth will have a series of man-alien bar brawls – didn’t do much for me.
”Unextinctions”, Bruce Boston and Roger Dutcher -- Essentially this is a short, poetical exercise (actually it’s a prose poem but both authors are noted sf poets) in the old revenge-of-nature idea beloved by bad 1970s sf movies. Nature is put upon so extinct animals start showing up to cause trouble.
”How Alien He Really Was”, Bruce Boston -- A cross between a character sketch and a short story. This is one of those alien stories dedicated to showing how bad man is. Here an alien finds out, after almost a year, that the people who managed him and his ex-adoring public really were just interested in the novelty of his presence and not warm friendship.
”NASA Sending Addicts to Mars! Giant Government Coverup Revealed!”, Alan Dean Foster -- Humorous story involving astronauts taking marijuana on a trip to Mars to alleviate medical problems due to weightlessness and also to smooth out crew relations. The story ends with a pun on the “High Frontier”.
”Vole”, John Gregory Betancourt -- One of the few stories in this anthology that attempts a tabloid style -- here complete with a facsimile of a tabloid layout. The story concerns the marketing and sale of “animalform” modifications to human bodies, specifically the alterations marketed by D. Ferret.
”In Search of the Perfect Orgasm or Doing it with a Big Lizard Can Be Fun”, Dean Wesley Smith -- A bizarre and humourous tale that lives up to its fun title. This story juxtaposes a teenage girl's first sexual (in terms of being with someone) experience with Godzilla facing alien invaders. At the climax (in every sense of the word) of the story, an alien ray bounces off Godzilla and hits the girl as she has her “first real orgasm”. Her smile is permanently welded on her face. A weird conclusion. The only flaw I saw in the story given its object and subject matter is the headlines covering the Godzilla sections. They were a bit too self-consciously humorous and needed to try more for the “serious” tone of tabloid journalism.
”Savings Sam’s Used UFOs”, Kate Daniel -- Humorous story about a man who runs a thriving business with aliens trading cars for flying saucers. A reporter unfortunately stumbles on this and is deported with the aliens.
”Danny’s Excellent Adventure!”, Greg Cox -- A fun time travel story involving a renegade time traveler named Dan Quayle and his expunging from the time stream. He’s supposed to just observe our time (as one character notes, what better place to observe and not interfere than as Vice-President?).
”Royal Tiff Yields Face of Jesus!”, Esther M. Friesner -- An ok story set in a future where Britain's royal family has forcibly brought back paganism in England. The King tries to sacrifice the Queen (who holds on to Christianity) but is foiled by the Loch Ness monster. The faces of Elvis and Jesus (both have rarely used additional names) appear on certain objects.
”Magnetic Personality Triggers Nail-biter’s Near-death Ordeal!”, T. Winter-Damon, Special Correspondent -- A story which actually – unlike most in this anthology – takes the tabloid theme seriously. A metal eating man has a run-in with a giant electromagnet on a crane. It’s all narrated in good old boy, Southern style.
”They’d Never – “, Harry Turtledove -- A competent Turtledove story built on an obvious idea for this theme anthology: tabloid reporters actually meet a real version of the bizarrities they cover. Here aliens “take a sample” of humans at the offices of tabloid paper. As the aliens rightly predict, no one believes the account the two reporters abducted by the aliens write. However, through a limited telepathic contact during their abduction, the man and woman become aware of the other’s true affection for them and love ensues. A typical example of a craftsmanlike melding of large plot with a subplot of personal change.
”Loch Ness Monster Found – in the Bermuda Triangle!”, David Vierling -- Silly story about the Loch Ness monster on vacation.
”Racehorse Predicts the Future”, Josepha Sherman -- Humorous story about an alien inhabiting, much to its distress, the body of a horse. His predictive abilities are exploited by a man who keeps promising to free him from the horse and the disturbing efforts of its sex drive.
”Printer’s Devils”, Gregory Feeley -- Forgettable story about software causing problems at a tabloid.
”Cannibal Plants From Heck”, David Drake -- This story proves that Drake, better known for military sf, is versatile. It’s a detailed, well-done story about a man learning a lesson about priorities in life. A man obsessed with growing plants, certified plants thank you, largely ignores his daughter and her modest requests (for things like a basketball hoop). But, after an encounter with some nasty plants, supplied by a black man whom the man snobbishly snubs because his plants aren't certified, he pays his daughter more attention. (July 14, 1994)
”Psychic Bats 1000 for Accuracy”, Jody Lynn Nye -- Story written in a tabloid style about a fantastically accurate psychic who turns out to be a time traveler. It’s a funny story and my favorite prediction is “Scientists will figure out what cats … are really saying.” It turns out cats recite the chemical formulae for what they want. Dogs just demand food, water, and unviolated territory.
”Frozen Hitler Found in Atlantean Love Nest”, G__r G__n -- A rather incomprehensible story, if a plot with a conflict and resolution even exists in this piece. First, it’s written in a very poetical style using two elements: an Anglo-Saxon emphasis on alliteration and coined compound words and technology, and science described in poetical terms. Second, the full title – “Frozen Hitler Found in Atlantean Love Next (An Excerpt from her forthcoming The Wild Hunt for Gray November)” suggests (along with a blurb mentioning other alleged novels by the author – Moonwisecracker, and Day of the Tiggy, suggestive of The Hunt for Red October, Moonraker, and Day of the Jackal respectively) a certain playfullness and parody not found in the very humorless story. However, that story has tabloid and suspense novel elements in Hitler and a Russian submarine. Third, is the copyright holder – Rosemary Edghill – the author? If so, I’d like to read more by her just because of her style and not her incomprehensible plot.
”Those Eyes”, David Brin -- Perhaps the best story in this book. Brin has his cake and eats it with a plot that celebrates rationality while celebrating the supernatural and mysterious. The story has a physicist on the radio debunking UFOs – intercut with passages narrated by man’s ancient foe – the elves. The elves here are symbols of ignorance and superstition, pushed back by man’s science and rationality, relegated to the shadows like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster. They are seen fostering the UFO legend and hurt by man’s increasing skepticism. In the end, the elves lament that humans can no longer be easily incited to war (Playing in to the foolish notion that wars are always rooted in irrationality), that the frail creatures they created are now so strong. I liked the physicist’s idea that ancient aliens should have set up a “trade college” or taught us how to pour cement rather than allegedly build primitive landing pads in Peru.
”Stop Press”, Mike Resnick -- Humorous letter story between the descendants of two famous writers – Mike Resnick and and Esther Friesner.
”Martian Memorial to Elvis Sighted”, George Alec Effinger -- A humorous, oddly appropriate story featuring – and narrated by – Elvis Presley. He’s recruited by Dean Rusk to go to Mars because John Carter isn’t available. (The Secret Service finds Presley under his alias John Carpenter. I have no idea if that was a real Presley alias.). His swordplay, helped along by studying for a movie role, proves brilliant, and he becomes a Martian hero along with Carter’s friend Antor Thon. Presley, for his part, is happy to be a king “to the little people who needed him”. ( )