Product Description
Complete concise guide to writing fiction that sells.Get a master's competitive edge in the writing business. Bestselling writer, editor and renown writing teacher Algis Budrys has distilled 50 years of success into "Writing to the Point."This is the book you need to be a better, and more successful, author.Write better stories. Fix mistakes in your present stories!Algis Budrys's Writing to The Point contains all the writing articles that appeared over the first ten issues of tomorrow Magazine, re-edited and expanded. It has an introduction by the author, and an appendix containing three separate essays:"Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy"Ideas, How They Work And How To Fix Them"What a Story Is."In this book you will find, in permanent form, everything an aspiring amateur needs to know in order to become a published author. Algis Budrys has taught hundreds of people at scores of workshops, and edited not only tomorrow Magazine but many books and other magazines. The methods he describes in Writing to The Point are methods that have worked repeatedly. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Worth it's Written Weight
I purchased this book from Algis himself just before he passed away earlier this year at the suggestion of Dave Wolverton. I also purchased Robert McKee's Story. And one advantage Writing to the Point enjoys over Story is its brevity. While McKee's book goes into greater detail of story creation than Budrys' text, Budrys' gives the great information of a successful story broken down (as another reviewer posted). But, what makes this text so wonderful is that he doesn't bandy words. He uses a short, simplistic example to drive his point home and then makes sure we understand the point. I actually now use his seven points to plot my fiction and am having great success using it.

Well-done, Aligs, rest in peace knowing that those of us who were blessed to buy this book from you were blessed in more than just writing.

Good, but limited
Mr. Budrys claims to have the secret to writing fiction that will sell.His secret is very useful but short enough to include here:
Beginning: Must consist of introducing a character, in a particular context, with a problem.And if there are important yet unique/unusual aspects of the character that will be revealed later in the story they must be foreshadowed in the beginning.
Middle: Must involve the character attempting to solve the problem and encountering unexpected failure.During this attempt he begins to learn more about the problem and himself.The character must undergo stress which causes hitherto concealed facets of him to be revealed-that must fit in.The character must try to overcome the problem a total of 3 times on a rising scale of effort, commitment, and depth of knowledge of the problem and one's self.At the last possible moment, with maximum effort and staking everything, he achieves victory.This must be done by wagering everything in a do-or-die situation.Conversely the villain, coming closer to his goal experiences defeat snatched from the jaws of victory-because of some flaw in character.
End: Validation and foreclosure by someone who has no other vested interest in the story.They step forward and say "He's dead, Jim" or "Who was that masked man?"This serves to close the story in the reader's mind.

This short book repeats this pitch over and over and includes some unrelated info that is marginly useful but unrelated to the above points.

A Wonderful Little Book
This book is to short story writing what Strunk and White's THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE is to writing, in general, and grammar, in particular. You'll not soon find another book that speaks to this subject with such clarity and forthrightness. It breaks through the clichés of formulating the story problem and a story's construct (beginning, middle, and end) in a way that is easily understood. This book is *more* than worth its price, and well worth the wait.

EDIT (19 Aug 2009): It's been several years since I wrote this review, and I've read the book several times. I'm currently reading the book again, and I felt that this review needed updating.

I still give the book 5-stars. HOWEVER,...

The appendix entitled "Ideas... How They Work and How to Fix Them" is, in my opinion, the most annoying part of the book. It is over-intellectualized into near meaninglessness. A couple of short excerpts will suffice:

"Exactly what happens immediately beyond Gate C is something so complex that we have had to found the entire science of psychology in a thus far only partially successful effort to understand it. But observation indicates that many organisms have been educated to process all data at this point only into storage bins with lawful values. This is 'sinful,' that is not; this is 'good,' that is 'bad'; this is 'allowed,' that is not; etc. A few organisms, however, appear to move data into a different set of processing gates, and the sign over that establishment reads Conditionally Valid. In other words, artists have a Gate Da and, in addition--blush to admit it--Gate Db."

...and...

"Different prescriptions suggest themselves for different causes of Gate X failure. Taking the causes in the order of simplicity--and thus working our way toward the situation of the beginning writer--these include:

(1) Death.

(2) Organic defects in the brain short of death, which require the intervention of a neurologist. These may produce (...)"

And so the appendix goes, ad infinitum, ad nauseum. For a book entitled WRITING TO THE POINT, Budrys belabors ALL his points in this appendix, and strikes a manner that even Strunk and White would've excoriated. The end result is that this appendix is very laborious reading and incredibly tiresome.

Why Budrys felt the need to take what starts off as a direct, nearly dogmatic, approach to writing instruction, and then to devolve into this mind-numbing morass, I'll never understand. What he said in this appendix on ideas could have been said much more easily.

The Best!
There is simply no other guide that cuts through the jargon and gets to the point like this one does.Budrys, one of the greats in the writing/editing/teaching arena of speculative fiction, gives you what you *need* to tell a compelling story and leaves the rest where it belongs--fermenting in the jargon barrels of the critics.And don't let his focus on speculative fiction dissuade you.Though I started writing in the speculative genre, I now write mostly crime fiction, but the tenants in Budrys' book apply the same to all genres.*Writing to the Point* is about storytelling...period.Get this guide.Read it.Read it again.Memorize it.And write...and write...and write...

Start selling your fiction.
This must be the best book on writing that I've read. I remember clearly the first time I encountered it. I bought it one day on impulse, when I was down after having a story rejected. I gave the first couple of sentences aquick look, and I was hooked. This book has such insight, it changed mywhole perception of fiction. What Budrys does, is teach you not how tobecome a writer, but how to become a *storyteller*. You will find in thisbook no talk of dialogue, or tenses, or sentence structure, only ofcreating a good *story*. Algis Budrys is a great writer, and he's anamazing teacher of writing. Right after I bought this book, I sold my firststory. I sold two more the following month. Algis, thank you! ... Read more

Product Description
Martino was a very important scientist, working on something called the K-88. But the K-88 exploded in his face, and he was dragged across the Soviet border. There he stayed for months. When they finally gave him back, the Soviets had given him a metal arm...and an expressionless metal skull. So how could Allied Security be sure he actually was Martino ? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Budrys' best novel
In this 1958 novel, Dr. Lucas Martino is abducted by the Soviets (back in the days when there was still a Soviet Union).After some months, Martino is returned -- or is he?The repatriated scientist is wearing a metal mask that is bonded to his head -- the result, supposedly, of surgical intervention to save his life after an experiment went awry.He's also been endowed with a mechanical arm and artificial organs.So is Martino the real deal or is he a cleverly disguised Soviet spy, sent to infiltrate the super-secret Allied project known as K-88?It becomes Shawn Rogers' job to solve that mystery and the novel follows Rogers in his attempt to discover the truth.

Budrys alternates chapters that address Rogers' investigation with chapters that take the reader through Dr. Martino's life.That technique enhances the story as the reader wonders whether the man we're coming to know and understand is actually the man behind behind the mask.If he is the masked man, we feel sorry for him, because the "good guys" don't trust him and won't let him resume work on K-88, the job for which he is best suited.The novel's satisfying ending lets us in on the secret of what happened while Martino was with the Soviets.In all, this is a well-structured novel that allows Budrys to explore interesting questions of trust and the meaning of identity:what is it, finally, that makes a man?That's a question with which Martino (or is it Martino?) must wrestle as he resumes his life.

WHO? is perhaps less technically satisfying than Michaelmas, which benefits from a stronger writing style, but I think it is a more intriguing novel, and the best of this fine writer's work.

Excellent flashbacks
In a future where 2 coalitions have been formed, capitalism VS communism, a scientist is abducted by the Soviets and then returned to the West with head and limb prosthetics that make his identity questionable. The story is told in the present and flashbacks.

Now, the flashbacks are absolutely brilliant. If one tries to read the book, skipping the "now" parts (and to be honest, the "now" is by far the inferior part of the novel) the story of Lucas Martino, physicist and owner of a Supermensa brain, unfolds in an engrossing, poignant and vivid narration. Just the part of the 18 year old Lucas Martino having a clumsy first date, will stay with you, long after you`ve read the book. Personally, I was reminded of Stephen King's more exceptional passages (and this is of course praise for King and not for Budrys).

On the downside, the western head of intelligence is quite clichéd, a man who is a chain smoker, does not sleep, etc and the same thing applies for his Soviet counterpart.

4 stars.

Hard SF for the Literati
I "found" Algis Budrys courtesy of my mother, who, after reading his bio and one of his stories in the October issue of Technology Review, scoured the internet for copies of his books. This was no easy feat because, lamentably, his novels are now largely out-of-print: science fiction is a niche market at the best of times (notwithstanding Michael Chabon's recent acquisition of BOTH the Hugo and Nebula awards for The Yiddish Policeman's Union), and Budrys' style is AT LEAST two standard deviations away from "mainstream." However, in my opinion, Budrys falls squarely on the leading edge of the literary bell curve - perhaps not the best place for sales, but leading the pack nonetheless.

I read two of Budrys' novels - Who? and Rogue Moon - and one of his collections of short stories, Budrys' Inferno. Based on this sample of his work, I think that Budrys was an unusually talented genre fiction author. His writing is undeniably entertaining, though the style is now a bit dated - his action and dialog are stylized to the same degree as a film noir movie, though the specifics are different.

Uniquely for an author of his generation, Budrys does not shy away from issues of love and sex. This, however, is merely a consequence of what I see as a deep understanding of psychology and interpersonal dynamics. Budrys' characters are not usually complete unto themselves. Instead, they are stylized representations of specific human traits, and Budrys' talent emerges when his characters interact: through their communication, he explores truths about us.

Thus: if you're a fan of SF, if you're fascinated by the way that people get along with one another, or if you're simply looking for a good read, try 'em. It's thought-provoking science fiction.

Over rated
I bought this on strength of very favorable review in nov/dec 2008 Technology Review by Mark Williams.He said Budrys was a major SF writer who had been seriously overlooked but "showed that the genre can produce literary art." I strongly disagree with this judgement.There are many fine SF writers, CJ Cherry being at the top of my list.I found the earlier book, Michaelmas, badly written and was unable to finish it.Who? is better but hardly qualifies Budrys as major figure.He has been properly forgotten.

Norman Kurland

Who, What, When, Where?
This is a thoughtful and engrossing novel. It deals with many issues: cold war paranoia, memory loss, identity, loyalty. The cold war premise may not resonate with younger readers reared on GRAND THEFT AUTO but for those of you who still retain higher brain functions, WHO, is an intelligent and thought-provoking novel well worth checking out. The questions it raises about identity and memory and its rather subdued atmosphere of existential melancholia place it in the ranks of the novels of Philip K Dick. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

A view of the re-making of civilization
In Some Will not Die, A.J. Bydrys created a dark world existing after a plague kills off most of humanity.The core of the story focuses on a few survivors in Manhattan and their efforts to survive, at first, then to re-build an America in which the creation of technology has ended.Those who remain can only use what was left, including armaments and the few vehicles that will still run.Man hunts man for food, killing without asking question until one two men and their families decide to work together.

Eventually people living in an apartment building work together, followed by a whole block of buildings, then an entire community.Their authority spreads until all of New York City is under their sway.They discover that other cities have managed to organize, possibly posing a threat should they decide to move outward.In the center of the country, farm communities form, becoming armed camps.They grow enough food to sustain themselves.

The story becomes a study of how far a person might go in an effort to spread authority and what choices can be made.The one choice not made in this story is to explore the technologies and attempt to re-establish such things as power plants, farms in all possible locations, trade with other groups - all of the things that lead to civilization and nation-hood.

Surrounding the story of the past in the novel is the story of their future, of a band of men looking for a legend that will not die.Of the two families that first joined together in Manhattan, the son of the Berendtsens became a military leader of great power.He formed an army that conquered other cities and became a threat to the new political organization perhaps in the same way Caesar was deemed a threat by the Roman senators.Even though they are certain he was eliminated, however, his legend remains a threat to the republics that follow.

Many post-apocalyptic novels were written in the same time period as this one.Those who enjoy the sub-genre might also enjoy such books as Malevil, Earth Abides, or On the Beach.

where are the last 5 chapters?
Lasting impressions? This book was over too soon!After a lengthy intro into a fascinating world of urban survival reflected in the high plains hunker-down mode that it bred after years of conflict, the book just ends abruptly.The theme of a single man representing a civilizations ideals is very well placed and explored, as is the backlash from said single man's actions to bring these ideals back to the people of post bio-plague America.Unfortunately the last 100 pages or so of the book seems to be missing.Riding off into the sunset saying 'all's well that end's' is just not enough for me.

Some Should Not Read
If you love novels about the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) then you may be able to wring enjoyment from this dry crust of story. What should you expect? Main characters who kill everyone they meet or see in order to either eat them or steal from them. Main characters who slaughter whole families, including women and children who refuse to bow to their will, their demands, their "organization." These, keep in mind, are the heroes of the story. If you enjoy this military adventure, then read on, but expect no pay off at the end. There is none. The ending is so disjointed that many readers are convinced there are separate stories in the book. In fact, these are the "end" of the novel, such as it is. If it's a great TEOTWAWKI story you want, read Earth Abides or Alas, Babylon or The Furies. This story honestly makes me question the sanity of those who published it. If ever a novel deserved a descent into obscurity, this is one.

My thoughts
Different people have different views. I've been reading science fiction for over 40 years. I won't comment on the technical side of the writing involved or the character development. What I will say is that if I could only have one book to read for the rest of my life, this book would be it.

This book haunts me. It is exquisite. I read it too many years ago to count and I reread it at least once a year. I'll probably be reading it on my deathbed.

Interesting concepts, wonky delivery
There were some really tantalizing concepts to this book, but you have to overlook the mechanical faults of the story.Algis should keep on writing, SWND was a worthy effort. ... Read more

Product Description
After crashing on Earth, four stranded aliens must try to blend into the primitive society they find, but when one of them sells technological secrets to an influential congressman, they are all suddenly in grave danger. Reprint. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Interesting and enjoyable
Written in the form of a research journal, Hard Landing contains interviews, personal accounts, and other documentation about five ETs who find themselves in exile on earth during the Cold War.

Unlike so many books, Budrys was able to make the format work while telling the story of what became of the ETs following the crash of their ship right up to their deaths.I've given this book a fifth star, just because the author was masterful enough to make the format work without making his readers crazy.

Each of the characters, even those just briefly in the story, are given good development, which makes this short book very good as well.

Welcome Back
Algis Budrys' first novel to appear in fifteen years, Hard Landing begins with report of an electocuted man found lying on the tracks of the Burrow Street station in Shoreview, Illinois.The story Budrys goes on to tell is a tale ripped from the pages of a supermarket tabloid.A starship crash lands in a New Jersey swamp, its passengers, human in appearence, scatter, each forced to find their own way in an alien world, living the rest of their lives among the human race.

Like much of Budys' best work of the 1960s, Hard Landing expounds on the nature of identity, following its cheif protagonist, Jack Mullica, through a series of adventures after his initial crash landing.

Hard Landing is a welcome addition to Budrys' small but impressive collection of work.Hopefully Budrys, who has never been the most prolific of writers, will not go another fifteen years before releasing his next. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

Michaelmas runs the world
Michaelmas is a journalist who secretly runs the world with the help of his supercomputer.Although science fiction requires the willing suspension of disbelief, that premise is a bit hard to swallow.Moreover, as you might expect from someone who feels it's his right to run the world, Michaelmas is a bit pompous and is accordingly, his good intentions aside, a difficult character to like.Nonetheless, Budrys does some interesting things with the character and with the story, which surrounds the discovery that a beloved astronaut, long presumed dead, actually survived a crash and has been secretly rehabilitated at a Swiss Clinic -- or has he?Michaelmas tackles the story in both his role as a reporter and as the Earth's self-appointed savior.

Budrys creates an intelligent plot that challenges Michaelmas with an interesting alien race and some unsavory bad guys. Michaelmas is a memorable character although the surrounding characters are less so.The intriguing ideas presented in Michaelmas, together with the strong writing, might make this Budrys' most satisfying novel, although in the end, I was more taken with WHO?Still, Michaelmas is a rewarding read.I would give it 4 1/2 stars.

Kindle, PLEASE!
I read this book when it first came out and was stunned and gratified by its challenge to pay attention in order to follow the story. Great story, great characters, great writing. Brilliant! My vision has deteriorated, so I would LOVE to be able to find it on Kindle's list. (And then I'd love to be able to afford Kindle. So far as I know, Amazon STILL refuses to give a break to the visually challenged who could most use it and least afford it. When I inquired, I was unceremoniously blown off. But I digress...)

Outdated now, boring ever
It's the year 2000 and an the appointed leader of a, wait for it, joint soviet-US space mission goes missing. But, low and behold, he shows up in a Swiss sanatory, of all places, and this represents a mystery for Michaelmas, a self-appointed leader of tne no-longer-free world, who through his gadget Domino (get the pun? as in world domin-ation! I'm still laughing!) is able to hear and act on anything electric anywhere in the world. No lost signal problems, bro! No screen either, even as a screen-on-a-wristwatch would have been way more retrocool.
The thing goes on and on, through boring descriptions, a bit of technobabble, remembered conversations with this or other character, and so on and so for until it arrives to a fuzzy and confuse end. There's very little tension, no likeable characters (Michaelmas himself is a bore, and domino is like HAL being channeled by a sports commentator), and, at the end of the day, it's a novella unduly stretched to novel size. So don't commit the same error I did: if you find it boring after the first few pages, drop it. It does not get any better.

A diamond.......
This book seems to come alive by being uncovered. I found a copy recently in a 2nd hand sale at my children's school. What a find. Having read cyberpunk books since the late 80's this one stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of Gibson and Stephenson. It isn't as 'techie' as either of those; but it captures the essence of the hidden forces which guide our mediocratic world driven at the speed of technology. It exists to be uncovered, ironically like the strands of the plot. If you get it, enjoy it.

Wow!
I am completely in agreement with my single fellow reviewer here.I read about this book in a recent Gene Wolfe reprint and decided to take a look.I found a beaten up copy at a local used book seller.That's the only place I've been able to locate it.

I won't go into details of plot because the other review already did, but WOW!This novel will knock your socks off.It never insults the readers intelligence.It makes you work for it.I don't like to be hit over the head by the novelist and Budrys never does that.He forces you to pay attention to the words and the action, to draw your own conclusions about some things.

This book made me feel hopeful.The character of Michaelmas felt so real, that I couldn't help but look out at our planet and breathe a sigh of relief that such wonderful people are not beyond our imagination.

Thank you Algis Budrys.One of the greatest experiences I've had in reading. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

A great idea, less than perfectly executed
Rogue Moon is built on a great idea:to explore a newly discovered construct on the moon -- a thing that keeps killing those who enter it -- scientists make a duplicate human who is kept on Earth while the original enters the construct.The original and duplicate stay in a sort of telepathic contact until the original's death, so the duplicate can chart the course up to the moment of death.The duplicate then becomes the new original, is duplicated again, and the new original makes his way a bit further before dying.In this way, a map through the construct can be created.

The execution is less satisfying than the concept.The lead scientist (Hawks), with the help of a rather disreputable personnel guy, finds a daredevil (Barker) who is capable of withstanding the psychological trauma of dying repeatedly.I wish the novel had focused more on that trauma, but the burden of dying over and over, as well as the mystery of the construct's purpose, receive little attention.The well written story instead focuses on the relationships between Hawks, the personnel guy, and Barker's girlfriend.There's nothing wrong with writing about relationships -- indeed, successful novels are about people, not just about ideas -- but I never got a good feel for Barker, for what it would be like to die again and again and again.That disappointed me a bit.

While this book is intriguing and merits the four stars I gave it, I think it is less developed than Budrys' other work, particularly Michaelmas and WHO?, both of which do a better job of combining well developed characters with intriguing ideas.

Novella available cheaper elsewhere
Writing is top notch, subtle and terse in this novella in the Raymond Chandler style. Also, like Chandler, the story is more about character and human nature than science.

Available here with some other classics: The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two B: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SF Hall of Fame)

Thanks
Only thing unknow binding should have said book club copy but nice book Thank you

Character studies and science philosophy in a fictional setting.
Pre-dating Arthur C Clarke's alien monolith in "2001: A Space Odyssey" by almost a decade, "Rogue Moon" tells of an equally bizarre alien construct on the moon called simply "the Formation". Dr Edward Hawks, a ruthless scientist is determined, at any cost, to plum the depths of the Formation and to puzzle out its origin and purpose, by sending a steady stream of hapless volunteers on a deadly one-way mission of exploration to the moon. Dr Hawks' recently built matter transmission device is capable of sending an exact duplicate of someone to the moon and into the Formation. The "original" of these intrepid explorers is held on earth in a type of stasis - a state of deep sensory deprivation - until the duplicate is killed in the maze inside the Formation. This frequently happens within minutes of their arrival on the moon. Although the nature of the process of matter duplication and transmission allows the original to share the experiences of his duplicate, the experience is so powerful as to drive every volunteer to hopeless insanity when they awake after the death of their doppelgänger.

Al Barker is an adventurer and utterly self-centered thrill-seeker - one might almost say, a sociopathic A-personality suicidally driven to ever greater heights of physical achievement regardless of the potential cost to himself and those around him. Hawks realizes that Barker may be the only person in the world with the physical strength and the ability to negotiate the intractable puzzles of the Formation combined with the mental strength to retain his sanity in the doing. Sure enough, a string of repeat missions ends in the death of Barker's duplicate but each trip finds him delving deeper and deeper into the mysterious path through the Formation. Likewise, against all odds, the original Barker remains sane and when he awakes, he is able to pass on the intelligence of his foray into the Formation to Hawks.

For this reader, it was a matter of some frustration to discover that even at the end of the story, the nature and purpose of the Formation remained undisclosed. While the hypothesized scientific nature of Hawks' matter-transmission device was discussed at considerable length, it became clear by the end of the novel that aliens, the Formation and science were not really the main themes of Budrys' "Rogue Moon" at all. The story was really an extended essay probing the nature of the ethics of scientific discovery and exploration. In addition, Budrys spent considerable effort talking about the philosophy of matter transmission and the possible meaning of a relationship between humanity and an alien species capable of creating a device like the Formation.

While much of this philosophical navel-gazing is delivered via stiff-necked dialogue between characters who would now seem very dated and out of place in this century, "Rogue Moon" does deserve kudos for having the courage to place theme over plot in a genre that is much better known for its guns ablaze space opera approach. I don't think I'd go quite so far as to call it the masterpiece that some have labeled it but "Rogue Moon" is worthy of a sci-fi fan's time and effort and deserves a place in any well-stocked library of classic science fiction.

Recommended.

Paul Weiss

A disappointment
This book has a very high reputation, so I was surprised by how weak it was.Maybe the original story upon which it is based is better.

The SF premises at the core of Rogue Moon are compelling: teleportation, the duplication of human beings, and the exploration of a structure on the moon that is so alien that the human mind can only dimly comprehend it and human photography can only capture the most vague image of it. However, these issues take up rather little of the book's 176 pages; the actual exploration of the deadly alien structure takes up less than 10 pages.Mostly, Rogue Moon consists of long soap opera conversations between passionate, driven men and women who are trying to psychologically manipulate each other.Budrys isn't writing an adventure story here, but using the SF elements to explore what a "man" is, in the physical sense (if a computer scans your body and makes a duplicate perfectly identical down to the last molecule, is it as much a man as you, the original, are?) and the macho sense (one of the characters is a daredevil who takes insane risks in order to prove to himself and others that he is a "man.")

Unfortunately, the characters and their dialog are all way over the top; every character is insane or on the very edge of sanity, prone to making a long histrionic speech or punching a wall or bursting into tears at any moment.The characters and their relationships thus ring false, and, because every conversation is supposed to be tense (even buying gasoline in this novel is a psychological battle between gas station attendant and motorist) the novel has only one tone and the reader feels none of the tension Budrys was trying to convey.

I read the 1960 Gold Medal paperback.If you like the idea of an alien death trap that must be explored I recommend Robert Silverberg's Man in the Maze.
... Read more

Product Description
This historic 20th anniversary edition of the L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future anthology, the bestselling and most widely influential anthology of its kind, brings you 15 exciting, strikingly original stories--by the best new creative talent in speculative fiction, all winners of the Writers of the Future Contest--that are guaranteed to ignite your imagination with strange new worlds, untraveled galaxies and bizarre dimensions and the mysteries of a universe of infinite size where somewhere out there, everything that is possible is real.

Created by L. Ron Hubbard out of his lifetime commitment to helping new writers and artists, and judged by Hall-of-Fame rosters of top professionals, the Writers of the Future anthology has provided a spectacular launching pad for fledgling writers who over the past two decades have gone on to publish more than 250 novels--many of them international bestsellers--and some 2,500 short stories and to help shape the field of contemporary speculative fiction and the literary future. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

great read
As a truck driver I like short stories. This is one of many in the series I read and I enjoyed it. Josehf Lloyd Murchison author of "Tails of a Gay Incubus" sold at Amazon.Tails of a Gay Incubus: The Memoirs of Divine Turin

Visions of wonder, danger, and adventure
"L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future, Volume XX," edited by Algis Budrys, collects 15 tales from the Writers of the Future contest for 2003.The collection is illustrated by winners of the Illustrators of the Future International Illustration Program.Interspersed among the stories are essays on writing, art, and science fiction by L. Ron Hubbard, Robert A. Heinlein, Robert Silverberg, Vincent di Fate, and Kevin J. Anderson.The stories fall into the genres of science fiction and fantasy.The selections that impressed me the most are as follows.

"Monkey See, Monkey Deduce," by Jonathan Laden: a powerful story about an experiment in scientifically enhanced intelligence.This story gripped me from its great opening line: "He screamed from all his mouths, then covered all his ears.""Bottomless," by Luc Reid: follows a hero in his travels through a world that exists along the edges of a seemingly bottomless pit, lit by a "Sun Thread" suspended in the center of the pit and running its length.It's a richly imagined world, with compellingly rendered geography and culture."In Memory," by Eric James Stone: about a brilliant mathematician whose consciousness is duplicated and projected into a supercomputer.This is a powerful, disturbing story that deals with memory, time, and family ties.

Other standouts: "The Weapons of the Lord Are Not Carnal," by Andrew Tisbert: follows a cyborg whose spiritual quest takes him to a friary on Mars."SunRunners," by Matthew Champine: an exciting adventure that imagines Earth's moon as a sort of wild west frontier."Last Days of the Mahdi," by Tom Pendergrass: Set in Egypt, this suspense tale involves genetically engineered spies.It's a vividly written story that draws on Islamic culture and prophecy.Among the essays, I particularly enjoyed Kevin J. Anderson's "False Summits," which uses mountain climbing as a metaphor for a writing career.Overall, I found this to be a fine anthology.The collection as a whole features truly compelling themes and characters and takes the reader to some truly fantastic places.I especially recommend this collection to those who love science fiction.

Featuring 15 amazing, original stories
Writers Of The Future: Volume XX is the 20th anniversary edition of the L. Ron Hubbard presents Writers of the Future anthology. Featuring 15 amazing, original stories showcasing rising creative talent in speculative fiction, all winners of the Writers of the Future contest, Writers Of The Future: Volume XX is an anthology that transcends imagination and transports the reader into the most mind-blowing and exciting new worlds. All the pieces within have never before been published, and the professional judges who screen the submissions include such well-known story weavers as Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, Frederik Phol, and much more. Award-winning black-and-white illustrations, also judged for their expertise, enhance the mass-market edition of this world-spanning and immensely entertaining collection.

Weapons of the Lord are not Carnal
Hope we hear more from Andrew Tisbert in the future.Real ingenuity, great writer.

Great read - a strong collection of stories by new writers
Enjoyed all of the stories in this collection - there were no duds. Most were engrossing, well written, and had novel ideas as any good sci-fi story should. Primarily, they were good reads.My disclaimer, I am married to one of the writers (the last story), so I may be somewhat biased in my judgment

Monkey See, Monkey Deduce - Starts with a bang and is a great first story in the series.Fun, charming, and packed with action (like E.T.).Presents the world through the eyes of a young, male, monkey very well. I especially liked the passage where a woman scientist introduces herself. "His noses sniffed... His Alpha nose picked up the sure sign of estrus.He puffed out his chests to impress her... 'Hi, Caps.' She bared her teeth, but he did not feel threatened."

Bottomless - An engrossing story about a simple goat herding boy who happens to live in a world that appears to be a bottomless pit. The boy is in for multiples shocks of a lifetime when he falls... A very well told yarn with strong character development and smooth transitions.

Flotsam - An extremely well told story about an alien race that resembles an amphibian.Their leader is enslaved to humans out of his feelings of moral obligation.This is a very sensuous story.I can feel his keen longing for the water under my fingernails as he sits marooned on a human ship resenting his bondage.

Kinship - Although well written, was not one of my favorites.Extended scenes where Alexander is jacked into the net and approaches a bright light source (as in Nuromancer, Snow Crash) seems to have been overdone.Also did not agree with the seeming moral of the story, that physical existence was more important than cerebral existence.

In Memory - Presents an interesting world where a person can scan-in his entire brain along with his personality and memory into a computer.A geek who has uploaded himself is presented with an interesting problem when he discovers his memory bank is faulty... but then the story seems to end abruptly just as it was getting good. Please, I am waiting for a little bit more!

The Key - still reading this one. Reminds me of Talisman.

Cancilleri's Law - about a young man entranced by a woman frozen in time.This also seemed too short.The story behind the woman that will explain her reaction and her fate when she is brought into the future may need more development.

Sleep Sweetly, Junie Carter - a feminine story about the wife of an officer, who suffers through long waits (or sleeps) during her husband's trips.There are catty scenes and fashion screams.But my favorite part was Junie's junkie like addiction to the sleep chamber.I almost think that the exquisitely physical longing described might be modeled after the writer's real-life experience with a drug stronger than pot -- but I think it's just being a good writer.

Conversation with a Mechanical Horse - really enjoyed this story. Reminds me of Princess Bride.

The Weapons of the Lord Are Not Carnal - I am still puzzling over the moral of this story.Is the monk's soul really dammed or does he just think he is dammed.(He may not be dammed because he has become the "incorruptible seed" that will spread God's good works.)It's humorous that the monk suspects his soul may be dammed when he stops feeling emotional torment.FYI, the writer plays in a heavy-metal band.

Sunrunners - a good, clean, fun in the tradition of Asimov's short stories.There are pockets of rich minerals to mine, moon rovers to romp around in, and a beautiful girl to win.No complicated emotions, and not too much danger.

Shipwoman -one of my favorite stories.It is really sad the author did not live to see her story published.It conveyed the world-view according to humans who have evolved on an oceanic world very well.I liked the people's names.At first I thought they all had odd names, and then realized why.The final scene, where the newly adapted shipwoman desperately tries to escape the huge air bubble descending ominously upon her, is very moving.

Last Days of the Mahdi - a spy thriller set on the throes of a religious war.The descriptions in this story are just beautiful.The spy who uses myriad of disguises, his subconscious religious responses caused by his training (and part of his disguise), the sites and sounds, are wonderfully done.In the end, I felt as if I can see with my own eyes the sunrise in the holy city that could be the fulfillment of the Prophecy.

Asleep in the Forest of the Tall Cats - clearly more of a fantasy than science fiction.It has a lot of dream sequences that later blend in with reality.The descriptions are pleasing, languid, and sensuous as well as modestly erotic.

The Plastic Soul of a Note - a strong story with a poignant ending and therefore a good last story in the series.At its best when describing how the pianist experiences his music.His description of idée fix as like an elusive lover that goes away but keeps on returning, each time a little transformed; his visceral reaction to the beauty of a Bosendorfer; his agonizing doubts about whether his music can still soar; and his final performance of Chopin Preludes where he describes his hand movements and the different mood and phrasing of the pieces -- were beautiful.Having played both piano and violin during my college days, I could readily feel what the pianist was feeling and feel my fingers move involuntarily during parts of the story. ... Read more

Product Description
Four stories from a master of Science Fiction.

"Algis Budrys is that rarity, an intellectual genre writer" John Clute from The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

Blood on My Jets — Ash had been working for the Earth agency in a covert way for a long time. If there was an area that was classified, that needed cleaning up, that operated in the gray areas even when those gray areas that went black—Ash was their man. Ash had blood on his hands, but it was in the service of the good, he hoped. But then Pat McKay walked into his life again. A beautiful girl with cooper hair and brown eyes. She turned the head of every man she passed. And now she wanted Ash for a job, a dirty job—but why had she chosen him?

Die, Shadow! — After being asleep for many millenniums, Greaves is awakened. Worshipped and needed, he now must face the Shadow People.

The Burning World — The government knew what was best for its citizens, didn't it? And it could go on doing what was best for it's people, if they wanted it or not.

Firegod — Some are born to greatness, others achieve the rulership of system―but Merssu wanted to be a god. All he needed was a million years and a little luck!


... Read more

Product Description
The Stoker and the Stars is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Algis Budrys is in the English language. If you enjoy the works of Algis Budrys then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. ... Read more

Product Description
The earth had been captured by The Invaders.A generation later, Michael Wireman had come back from the Centaurian colony...and found very little that he expected.For one thing, most Earthmen were perfectly contended.The fighting was between factions of outlaw Earthmen, hidden in the mountains, barely taken note of by the invaders.And Wireman found he didn't like the outlaws.Could he become assimilated by the tame Earthmen?Could he, in other words, surrender? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

interesting SF with perhaps new relevance
My comments are for the audiobook version, which I assume is basically the same.
The book starts describing in some detail the Earth at a time after the Invaders were defeated and then backtracks to the "past" of how this came about.The portrayals of the characters and politics are excellent.
The resolve of the exiled Earth president sets his son into action to return to Earth and help the ongoing resistance to the Invaders.The Invaders are portrayed as benefactors rather than aggressors by the Earth people who have grown accustom to their rule.Yet some human "exiles" raise a resistance of sorts, but primarily just fight among themselves.When the main character arrives he sets into motion events that lead to the attack against the Invaders at a critical time.

The themes have to do with what an ordinary and initially highly moral person can accomplish when put into extreme circumstances. The psychology of his conflict between moral standards against murder versus survival and freedom are brought out well if not fully explored.Interestingly the Invaders play a similar role in bringing out this theme but more in the background.

My biggest dissappointment with the book is that these themes are not explored further.The ending seems abrupt, but I suppose, if I'm left wanting more that may also be a sign of a good book.

Story of a man who finds his cause
Falling Torch is one of those stories that you, or at least I, can connect with.This is due in no small part to the fact that Michael Wireman, the main character is a believable person.He's not superman and he's not Jojothe idiot circus boy.He's just a guy in the right place at the righttime.The right ancestry couldn't have hurt.Wireman's the son of thepresident of the solar system., not that it means much on Alpha Centaur. It seems Earth and the solar system are under "Invader" control.The onlything his father presides over is a government in exile that the centurianscould care less about. Then one day the situation changes...

since Ididn't see a synopsis provided by Amazon (unusual) I'll copy it down here: Wireman came back to a vanquished Earth ona mission to save it.What helearned was that the guerrillas were corrupt and the average citizen wouldjust as soon be left alone.And he wasn't in very good shapehimself.

1991 paperback synopsis ... Read more