br@cstvax.UUCP (Brian Ritchie) (12/18/85)
*** is there or is there not a line-eater lurking around?? ***
Many years ago, I borrowed two (or maybe three) books by Mark S. Geston
from my (small) home town's (very small) library, and rather enjoyed his
sombre little tales.
"Out of the Mouth of the Dragon" (which may be an approximation to the real
title) pleased me most. It is set in a post-Armageddon world where everyone is
wishing the Universe would hurry up and end properly instead of lingering on
in a grey half-life, and follows the life of a boy who goes off to fight in
yet another War To End All.
MSG also wrote a book about a generations-long attempt by a nation to
build a spaceship to remove the entire population to another planet, with
struggles amongst various factions favouring or opposing the plan. This
sounds rather like a hum-drum standard plot, but as with the Dragon book,
the world is a strange place: beyond the mountains lies another nation,
which these people never see or communicate with, yet we are given the
impression that their purpose is malign. Nothing more is told of this other
nation, but its darkness casts a shadow over the entire novel, and hearkens
back to my own childhood fears of unknown places. Furthermore, the ending
is far from standard (or seemed so to me at that time), and has stuck in my
mind ever since. Unfortunately, the same has not happened with the title;
perhaps because it was something dead boring like "The Rocket"...?
There may have been another book whose theme was vampire-like, but I'm
not entirely sure.
The point of all this is that I'd like to know if Mark S. Geston has
writtem anything else, and whether or not he still writes. Of course,
proper titles for the above books (plus publishing details(*)) would be
nice as well.
-- Brian Ritchie.
(*) The folk in the Edinburgh SF Bookshop told me that his work was out of
print, but they didn't say whether or not more was forthcoming.boyajian@akov68.DEC (JERRY BOYAJIAN) (12/24/85)
> From: cstvax!br (Brian Ritchie) > The point of all this is that I'd like to know if Mark S. Geston has > writtem anything else, and whether or not he still writes. Of course, > proper titles for the above books (plus publishing details(*)) would be > nice as well. Geston has, unfortunately, only written four books: LORDS OF THE STARSHIP (Ace, 1967) OUT OF THE MOUTH OF THE DRAGON (Ace, 1969) THE DAY STAR (DAW, 1972) THE SIEGE OF WONDER (Doubleday, 1976) None of them were ever reprinted, except the last, which had a DAW paperback edition. I don't know about British publication. Your best chance of finding them is in used book stores. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Acton-Nagog, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...} !decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.DEC.COM <"Bibliography is my business">
hester@ICSE.UCI.EDU (12/26/85)
From: Jim Hester <hester@ICSE.UCI.EDU> Geston also wrote "The Siege of Wonder", involving the final battle between scientists and magicians. Unlike most such stories, this is not set in the past, when magic is dying out and science is just being ddiscovered. Instead, Magic has long been forgotten by most of the civilized world, and science is somewhere slightly superrior to our level today. Sudennly the magicians come out of the closet, and the war begins. Magic doesn't have a chance, since the scientists use their techniques to learn how to control magic most efficiently (wthout understanding exactly why it works), and build machines to manipulate magic in a big way. A great premise and beginning, but a weak and depressing ending.