psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (10/22/85)
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SF fans will most likely remember Tevis for THE MAN WHO FELL TO
EARTH, or possibly MOCKINGBIRD. Movie fans will remember THE HUSTLER,
based on Tevis's earlier (mainstream) novel. His stories were painted
from a palette of greys, mostly dark, with an occasional flash of light
or bright color.
FAR FROM HOME is a collection of stories, set near and far away,
all with SF or fantastic elements. This isn't a book for a single
sitting, not so much because its depressing, but because there's so
little variety between the tales. And the older, harder SF stories are
uniformly predictable.
Tevis passed away recently; there will be no more of his dark
prose, dammit. He was never very prolific, and this may be all the
short fiction that could be brought together. It has become a eulogy
for a writer far more powerful than this collection suggests.
--
-Paul S. R. Chisholm The above opinions are my own,
{pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc not necessarily those of any
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NOMINATE MARK LEEPER: HUGO AWARD FOR BEST FAN WRITER IN 1986