donn@utah-gr.UUCP (Donn Seeley) (11/08/84)
[This is re-posted from the ARPA sf-lovers list, since net.sf-lovers appears to be cut off from it.] Here's a second recommendation. Waldrop is the author of 'The Ugly Chickens', an amazingly amusing story (science fiction about ornithology?!) which won the Nebula and World Fantasy awards, and if you haven't read it, you're really missing something. THEM BONES has the same wit and style and is a lot of fun to read. As Mark Feber points out, the book is a little disappointing at the end, since we don't get to follow up the consequences of the interesting parallel universe (universes?) which Waldrop has constructed, but the book mostly makes up for it by giving careful attention to the setting and characters. If you want to see Waldrop find a parallel universe and extend it to its wacky limits, find the story he wrote with Stephen Utley called 'Custer's Last Jump'; it's an insanely funny tale of how the Battle of the Little Big Horn was fought with dirigibles and biplanes, containing all the necessary supporting documentation... 'Nunc audite verbum dei', Donn Seeley University of Utah CS Dept donn@utah-cs.arpa 40 46' 6"N 111 50' 34"W (801) 581-5668 decvax!utah-cs!donn