Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores, ostensibly
because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running series she
reads, but of course, while I was there...

Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's Journey
to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said "complete
and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own is neither.

In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite books,
and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came around on TV.

So this afternoon, I hesitantly[1] decided to start reading it, and I
noticed a few things:

- This version is published by Tor![2,3]
- It starts with a two-page essay called "The Life of Jules Verne",
written by Andre Norton.
- Then there's a four-page Foreword, written by Andre Norton.
- The book ends with a two-page Afterword, written by Andre Norton.
- Nowhere else does Andre Norton's name appear in, or on, this book,
except at the very end of the three essays I just mentioned.

And now I'm gonna start reading - I hope it's still good!
Tony

[1] 'Cause, y'know, the Suck Fairy may have visited during the 40+ years
since I last read this.
[2] First Tor edition, October 1992, labeled "TOR classic" on the spine
[3] Yes, I generally don't check who the publisher is when I buy a book.

On 20/03/2024 15.33, Tony Nance wrote:

> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth,

> - This version is published by Tor![2,3]
> - It starts with a two-page essay called "The Life of Jules Verne", written by Andre Norton.
> - Then there's a four-page Foreword, written by Andre Norton.
> - The book ends with a two-page Afterword, written by Andre Norton.
> - Nowhere else does Andre Norton's name appear in, or on, this book, except at the very end of the three essays I just mentioned.

That is strange. I would think that in 1993, Norton's name on the cover
would increase sales of anything SFnal, and I would think that Tor,
being a genre publisher, would also think that. Sounds like somebody
in Marketing messed up here.

--
Michael F. Stemper
I feel more like I do now than I did when I came in.

On 3/21/24 3:20 PM, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 20/03/2024 15.33, Tony Nance wrote:
>
>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>> Journey to the Center of the Earth,
>
>> - This version is published by Tor![2,3]
>> - It starts with a two-page essay called "The Life of Jules Verne",
>> written by Andre Norton.
>> - Then there's a four-page Foreword, written by Andre Norton.
>> - The book ends with a two-page Afterword, written by Andre Norton.
>> - Nowhere else does Andre Norton's name appear in, or on, this book,
>> except at the very end of the three essays I just mentioned.
>
> That is strange. I would think that in 1993, Norton's name on the cover
> would increase sales of anything SFnal, and I would think that Tor,
> being a genre publisher, would also think that. Sounds like somebody
> in Marketing messed up here.
>

My thoughts as well.
- Tony

On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>
> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
> is neither.
>
> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
> around on TV.
>

Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?

On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>
>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>> is neither.
>>
>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>> around on TV.
>>
>
> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?

Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
looking for.

And to my knowledge, nobody has done Journey to the Centre of the Earth
with Werewolves, or the like. (Yet?)

Tony

In article <uu75qn$flsn$2@dont-email.me>,
Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com> wrote:
>On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>
>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>> is neither.
>>>
>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>> around on TV.
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>
>Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
>with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
>looking for.
>
>And to my knowledge, nobody has done Journey to the Centre of the Earth
>with Werewolves, or the like. (Yet?)
>
>Tony

It's been done as a Saturday morning cartoon, the (only so far) place
I encountered it.
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Fri, 29 Mar 2024 15:46:31 -0400, Tony Nance <tnusenet17@gmail.com>
wrote:

>On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>
>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>> is neither.
>>>
>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>> around on TV.
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>
>Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
>with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
>looking for.

Some of the books may be hard to get through. One of the "extras" on
the /20,000 Leagues Under the Sea/ DVD had the scriptwriters whining
about how ... sparse ... the plot was compared with the endless
amounts of oceanography (as understood in the 19th century). I have
heard similar reports about other books.

Of course, /Moby Dick/ contains a /lot/ of cetalogy, so this isn't
exactly unique to Verne.

This ties into the assertion that science fiction was originally
written/tolerated because it taught /science/ while at least
pretending to tell a story.

>And to my knowledge, nobody has done Journey to the Centre of the Earth
>with Werewolves, or the like. (Yet?)
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"

On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:
> On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>
>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>> is neither.
>>>
>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>> around on TV.
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>
> Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
> with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
> looking for.

Roberts is an authorial chameleon! I have been disappointed with his
mimicing pastiches mainly because of content. My favourite of his own
style, (if he has one), is the first of three parts of Jack Glass. It
reflects the characters and the background as do the different styles in
parts 2 and 3. Part 1 is dark, part 2 is more refined being about an
upper class, part 3 is brilliant physics fun.

Here is the first page of Jack Glass.
This narrative, which I hereby doctorwatson for your benefit, o reader,
concerns the greatest mystery of our time. Of course I’m talking about
McAuley’s alleged ‘discovery’ of a method of travelling faster than
light, and about the murders and betrayals and violence this discovery
has occasioned. Because, after all – FTL! We all know it is impossible,
we know every one of us that the laws of physics disallow it. But still!
And again, this narrative has to do with the greatest mind I have known
– the celebrated, or infamous, Jack Glass. The one, the only Jack Glass:
detective, teacher, protector and murderer, an individual gifted with
extraordinary interpretive powers when it comes to murder because he was
so well acquainted with murder. A quantity of blood is spilled in this
story, I’m sorry to say; and a good many people die; and there is some
politics too. There is danger and fear. Accordingly I have told his tale
in the form of a murder mystery; or to be more precise (and at all costs
we must be precise) three, connected murder mysteries.

But I intend to play fair with you, reader, right from the start, or I’m
no true Watson. So let me tell everything now, at the beginning, before
the story gets going.
One of these mysteries is a prison story. One is a regular whodunit. One
is a locked-room mystery. I can’t promise that they’re necessarily
presented to you in that order; but it should be easy for you work out
which is which, and to sort them out accordingly. Unless you find that
each of them is all three at once, in which case I’m not sure I can help
you.
In each case the murderer is the same individual – of course, Jack Glass
himself. How could it be otherwise? Has there ever been a more
celebrated murderer?
That’s fair, I hope?
Your task is to read these accounts, and solve the mysteries and
identify the murderer. Even though I have already told you the solution,
the solution will surprise you. If the revelation in each case is
anything less than a surprise, then I will have failed.
I do not like to fail.

On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:
> On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:
>> On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>>
>>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>>> is neither.
>>>>
>>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>>> around on TV.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>>
>> Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
>> with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
>> looking for.
>
> Roberts is an authorial chameleon!

Yes, exactly! Well said. This is a significant part of my
(minor) puzzle in picking something to read by him.

> I have been disappointed with his
> mimicing pastiches mainly because of content.

And this touches on two other parts of the puzzle. The content
matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely - my brain
turns reading such things into a parallel comparison exercise,
and I can't/don't simply enjoy reading the story. (Of course,
if I'm unfamiliar with what's being paralleled, that actually
works better for me.)

> My favourite of his own
> style, (if he has one), is the first of three parts of Jack Glass. It
> reflects the characters and the background as do the different styles in
> parts 2 and 3. Part 1 is dark, part 2 is more refined being about an
> upper class, part 3 is brilliant physics fun.

Thank you for the excerpt below. I have no doubt he is a skilled
writer, capable of setting mood, tone, etc. I have no doubt I
would greatly enjoy some of his works - and greatly dislike
others. It's hard right now to see which might be which.

Thanks,
Tony

>
> Here is the first page of Jack Glass.
> This narrative, which I hereby doctorwatson for your benefit, o reader,
> concerns the greatest mystery of our time. Of course I’m talking about
> McAuley’s alleged ‘discovery’ of a method of travelling faster than
> light, and about the murders and betrayals and violence this discovery
> has occasioned. Because, after all – FTL! We all know it is impossible,
> we know every one of us that the laws of physics disallow it. But still!
> And again, this narrative has to do with the greatest mind I have known
> – the celebrated, or infamous, Jack Glass. The one, the only Jack Glass:
> detective, teacher, protector and murderer, an individual gifted with
> extraordinary interpretive powers when it comes to murder because he was
> so well acquainted with murder. A quantity of blood is spilled in this
> story, I’m sorry to say; and a good many people die; and there is some
> politics too. There is danger and fear. Accordingly I have told his tale
> in the form of a murder mystery; or to be more precise (and at all costs
> we must be precise) three, connected murder mysteries.
>
> But I intend to play fair with you, reader, right from the start, or I’m
> no true Watson. So let me tell everything now, at the beginning, before
> the story gets going.
> One of these mysteries is a prison story. One is a regular whodunit. One
> is a locked-room mystery. I can’t promise that they’re necessarily
> presented to you in that order; but it should be easy for you work out
> which is which, and to sort them out accordingly. Unless you find that
> each of them is all three at once, in which case I’m not sure I can help
> you.
> In each case the murderer is the same individual – of course, Jack Glass
> himself. How could it be otherwise? Has there ever been a more
> celebrated murderer?
> That’s fair, I hope?
> Your task is to read these accounts, and solve the mysteries and
> identify the murderer. Even though I have already told you the solution,
> the solution will surprise you. If the revelation in each case is
> anything less than a surprise, then I will have failed.
> I do not like to fail.

On 29/03/2024 19:46, Tony Nance wrote:
> On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>
>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>> is neither.
>>>
>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>> around on TV.
>>>
>>
>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>
> Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
> with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
> looking for.
>
> And to my knowledge, nobody has done Journey to the Centre of the Earth
> with Werewolves, or the like. (Yet?)

How do you get a full moon underground?

IIRC there is a small underground sea in
the story which does have tides. But that's
not the same thing. In media, werewolves
tend to happen when the moon comes out
from /clouds/. One major fantasy setting
seems to portrays a particular werewolf as
O.K. at night if they are indoors.

On 3/31/24 6:33 PM, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On 29/03/2024 19:46, Tony Nance wrote:
>> On 3/29/24 12:56 AM, Titus G wrote:
>>> On 21/03/24 09:33, Tony Nance wrote:
>>>> Last week I managed to visit a couple of used book stores,
>>>> ostensibly because my wife wanted the next books in two long-running
>>>> series she reads, but of course, while I was there...
>>>>
>>>> Anyhow, part of the haul included a nice MMPB version of Verne's
>>>> Journey to the Center of the Earth, which I picked up because it said
>>>> "complete and unabridged" on the cover, while the one version I own
>>>> is neither.
>>>>
>>>> In my tweens and early teens, this was one of my very favorite
>>>> books, and I enjoyed the 1959 movie several times whenever it came
>>>> around on TV.
>>>>
>>>
>>> Perhaps you would enjoy Twenty Trillion Leagues Under the Sea, an
>>> imitation of Verne in style and content by Adam Roberts?
>>
>> Maybe! I do want to read something by him sometime. I'd probably start
>> with something that wasn't a pastiche or homage or whatever word I'm
>> looking for.
>>
>> And to my knowledge, nobody has done Journey to the Centre of the
>> Earth with Werewolves, or the like. (Yet?)
>
> How do you get a full moon underground?
>

Yes! I pondered this very question when deciding what to add to the
title.[1] I figured Verne would have come up with something
entertaining, whatever it was.

> IIRC there is a small underground sea in
> the story which does have tides.

That is correct.

> But that's not the same thing.  In media, werewolves
> tend to happen when the moon comes out
> from /clouds/.  One major fantasy setting
> seems to portrays a particular werewolf as
> O.K. at night if they are indoors.
>

No doubt - I can think of several series that have a range
of differences in how werewolves "work".

Tony
[1] Sea Monsters and Ghosts were out. Vampires were a maybe, etc.

On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:
> On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:
>> On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:

> matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
> in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely

Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.

One star for Swiftly, where the British Empire exploits Lilliputian
slaves for great wealth but the French might invade with their
Brognagnian? giants. The SF element is enhanced with the Lilliputian
slaves exploiting slaves the same degree smaller than themselves and so
on, same with the giants.

Solid 3 stars for the non-patiches, By Light Alone, nutrients by
photosynthesis through hair for poor, through eating by the wealthy some
of whom demonstrate conspicuous consumption through baldness,(Surprise,
there is conflict), and Stone, mainly about quantum physics.

Those four, the Verne and Jack Glass are those that I have read and Jack
Glass is my clear favourite. The titles when he copies literary giants
usually have a pun in them identifying the book or author.

On 1/04/24 17:42, Titus G wrote:

> Those four, the Verne and Jack Glass are those that I have read

And 3 star Yellow Blue Tibia.

and Jack
> Glass is my clear favourite. The titles when he copies literary giants
> usually have a pun in them identifying the book or author.

In article <uuddut$2a3re$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
>On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:
>> On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:
>>> On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:
>
>> matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
>> in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely
>
>Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
>Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.

Don't forget Godzilla vs. The Thing, in which the Thing referred to was
actually Mothra.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On 1 Apr 2024 12:50:44 -0000, kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

>In article <uuddut$2a3re$1@dont-email.me>, Titus G <noone@nowhere.com> wrote:
>>On 1/04/24 01:32, Tony Nance wrote:
>>> On 3/30/24 10:59 PM, Titus G wrote:
>>>> On 30/03/24 08:46, Tony Nance wrote:
>>
>>> matters. Bigger problem (for me) is that I'm not interested
>>> in pastiche/homage/mimics that follow too closely
>>
>>Four stars for Roberts' The Thing Itself, which solves the Fermi
>>Paradox, but I was not familiar with John Carpenters' The Thing.
>
>Don't forget Godzilla vs. The Thing, in which the Thing referred to was
>actually Mothra.

Ah -- an edited version of /Mothra vs. Godzilla/.

Which introduced a trope -- Mothra /herself/ isn't effective, but her
newly hatched youngling(s) defeat Godzilla by encasing it in the silk
they /should/ be using for their cocoons. This turns up in at least
two other movies.

The question this raises, of course, is: how is it that Godzilla
always knows when Mothra is old and weak and only appears then?
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"