Joseph.Ginder@CMU-CS-SPICE.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (10/15/83)
Anyone heard the rumour about the new novel which Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Frank Herbert are collaborating on? It's called "2020: Dune Robot Odyssey". Robbie the Robot is wisked through a Star Gate to Dune where he finds that the Fourth Foundation was established by Harry Seldon on Dune amoung the Fremen. He discovers that Sand Worms are, in reality, gigantic, self-reproducing gate arrays containing all of Man's accumulated knowledge. Paul Atreides was just the first post-Seldon person to build a Sand Worm decoder. Next on the publisher's list of collaborations: "The Nth Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, the DragonRider of Dune Ringworld", "The Lord's Little Fuzzy Right Hand of Light", and "The Amber Riverworld Berserker's Dangerous Visions" (which contains a story called "I Have a Mote in My Eye and I Must Scream") by .... well, you can guess. Plots to be determined at a later date. It is also rumoured that Harlan Ellison is negotiating a contract to write a Harlequin Romance. (Yeah, you guessed it, the main character, a clock maker, repents.)