Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 18:13:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Drew Bittner <drewbitt at yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Algis Budrys, 1931-2008
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

That is really sad news.
I met Algis Budrys at a Writers of the Future award ceremony in 1988, I believe, in the World Trade Center. We were chatting over breakfast when Roger Zelazny came over and sat down to say hi to Algis. Needless to say, it was a very memorable breakfast.
He'll be missed.
Drew

--- On Tue, 6/10/08, Michael Walsh <mjw at press.jhu.edu> wrote:

> From: Michael Walsh <mjw at press.jhu.edu>
> Subject: [WSFA] Algis Budrys, 1931-2008
> To: "'WSFA members'" <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>, WSFA-forum at yahoogroups.com
> Date: Tuesday, June 10, 2008, 9:31 AM
> http://locusmag.com/2008/2008NewsArchive.html#budrys
> http://sfwa.org/news/2008/ajbudrys.htm
>
> I recently reread his novel "Michaelmas". Of
> which this bare description:=
>
> "The eponymous protagonist is an ex-hacker who had
> early in the computer =
> era left "back doors" in many key pieces of
> software which run vital =
> government and commercial computers. As a result, by the
> turn of the =
> millennium, he has become one of the most powerful men on
> earth, because =
> of his ability to spy and influence through the world wide
> computer =
> network."
>
> from Wiki only scratches the surface.  Oh, it was published
> in 1977.
>
> As of Balticon there are apparently plans afoot to reissue
> his work.  No, =
> not by me.
>
> Here's an interview from 1997:
> <http://www.sfsite.com/08a/alg14.htm>
> "Science fiction didn't predict the home computer
> and it sure as hell =
> didn't predict the Web. It just backs up my feeling
> that science fiction =
> isn't really science fiction, it's technology
> fiction. It doesn't have =
> much to do with science."
>
> mjw