Date: 8 Jun 1983 01:04:11-EDT
From: csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX
Subject: Re: Libertarian SF? - (nf)

     Anything by F. Paul Wilson, although he tends to cast
stereotypical statists as villains in extremely improbably situations.

     L. Neil Smith's THE PROBABILITY BROACH and THE VENUS BELT---fast
action.  HER MAJESTY'S BUCKETEERS probably too, although I couldn't
get more than a few pages into it.

     J. Neil Shulman, ALONGSIDE OF NIGHT---best of the lot.

     Note that there is an award ("Prometheus"---x$ in gold) given to
what is judged the best libertarian SF of the year. David Friedman
(son of the Chicago economist and a rising L econ. himself) suggested
that they should consider literary merit as well as political purity,
in which case MERCHANTER'S LUCK would be a shoo-in (his opinion).

Date: 10 Jun 83 5:44:50-PDT (Fri)
From: decvax!cca!ima!inmet!nrh @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Re: Libertarian SF? - (nf)

     Some Libertarian SF:

     By L. Neil Smith:

          The Probability Broach
          The Venus Belt
          The Nagasaki Vector

     By J. Neil Schulman:

          Alongside Night

     By F. Paul Wilson:

          Healer
          Wheels within Wheels

Date: 16 Jul 83 21:28:58-PDT (Sat)
From: harpo!seismo!hao!cires!nbires!ut-ngp!ables @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: additional SW stories

     Well, it was bound to happen.  I was in a local bookstore today
and saw "Lando Calrissian and the Mindharp of Sharn" by L. Neil Smith,
published by Del Rey.  Wonder if it's any good, it's brand new,
anybody read it?  I also saw a children's tape and book set entitled
"Mission (or maybe Rebel Mission) to Ord Mandell."  Of course, we
remember Han referring to Ord Mandell in TESB where they had run in to
a bounty hunter.  The script for the tape was written by Brian Daley
(who wrote the Han Solo books and the SW and TESB radio series).  Does
anybody know anything about the information in this thing?  Is it
going to be a forthcoming book?  I'd like to know what happens between
SW and TESB even if it's just Daley's imagination, but I'm not willing
to pay for the kids' tape (not to mention not wanting to be seen
buying it!).  Responses to me, please, if there's anything worth
forwarding, I'll post a summary...

Thanks,

-king

Date: 24 Aug 83 23:29:55-PDT (Wed)
From: decvax!linus!utzoo!utcsrgv!perelgut @ Ucb-Vax
Subject: Alternate time zones

     All this talk of alternate worlds has got me re-reading
"Paratime" by H. Beam Piper.  There is a very good introduction by
John Carr, and the stories are concerned with what happens when small
(or large) changes occur in what we consider "history".  For example,
what if Benedict Arnold is shot in Quebec and this results in the 1776
revolution failing.  And this in turn doesn't exist to excite European
political sentiments which means that there is no French revolution
and thus Napoleon remains a gunnery officer.

     Other interesting stories have been written by Robert Silverberg
(Spanish Armada wins); Harry Harrison (American Revolution fails); L.
Neil Smith (American revolution succeeds but results in a Libertarian
state); Fletcher Pratt (deals more with how to change history).

  --
Stephen Perelgut
Computer Systems Research Group
University of Toronto
{ linus, ihnp4, allegra, floyd }!utcsrgv!perelgut