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Murder In The Gunroom

Piper, H. Beam
A mystery story by an author I thought just did science fiction.
A gun hobbyist is shot while cleaning his new pistol. Is it an accident, or is it...MURDER??
I read the Project Gutenberg e-book edition.
If you are not familiar with General Semantics you can look it up, it is mentioned five times in the story.

Quote:

"My colored boy, Buck" -- Well, that's not offensive!

Quote:

"like Bill Nye's Puritans' -- Not THAT Bill Nye, this one was an American humorist, Edgar Wilson "Bill" Nye.

Quote:

"and a Woolworth store with a red front that made it look like some painted hussy who had wandered into a Quaker Meeting. " -- Paints a picture in my mind!

Quote:

"The women seemed to have erected a temporary tri-partite Entente-more-or-less-Cordiale. " -- The sisters don't get along...

Quote:

"pull a Russ Columbo on himself." -- A famous musician that was shot accidently by his friend.

Quote:

" Skinner was working on the rifle with an insufflator." -- A squeeze bulb to blow air, I guess.

Quote:

"What started the hostilities this time?" Rand asked, going up the stairway with her. "Oh, Geraldine lost Nelda's place-marker out of the Kinsey Report, or something." She shrugged."

Quote:

"a monstrous ululation " -- The act of ululating; a long, loud, wavering cry or howl.

Read:

7/2022

Space Viking

Piper, H. Beam
Read the Project Gutenberg edition. A guy seeks revenge on the psycho who killed the guy's new wife. Searches the universe for him!

Quote:

How would you like to be my girl on Marduk?" Myrna thought that over carefully. "I'd like to, but I couldn't. You see, I'm going to have to be Queen, some day." -- Myrna was maybe my favorite character.

Quote:

"You are quite the cynosure..." -- a person or thing that is the center of attention or admiration.

Read:

7/2022

Crocker

Dorothy Springer Clark meets the unorthodox and beautiful Crocker Bundy on his first day attending her high school. I rather like this book.

Read:

2/2016

Alternating Currents

I read this collection of stories before, but it does not seem to be in the database. Nothing distinguishes these stories to me. I noticed the publisher cheaped-out by running one story into another, no blank space between stories. I guess The Ghost Maker was the best story.

Read:

4/2009

Platinum Pohl - The Collected Best Stories

Thirty-odd stories, most of which I liked a lot, and most of which are not too long. I was surprised to learn he is still, at this writing, alive. A grand old man!

Quote:

One hundred and thirty-one men, women, and children simultaneously were converted into maltreated chunks of barbecued meat falling through the sky. their roster included the pilot, the copilot, the third pilot, and eight other members of the flight crew; plus, among the passengers, mothers, infants, honeymooning couples, nonhoneymooning but equally amorous couples who did not happen to be married to each other, a middle-aged grape picker returning home after a five-days-four-nights all-expense tour of Sin City (which he had found disappointing), a defrocked priest, a disbarred lawyer, and a congressman from Oregon who would never now achieve his dream of dismantling NASA and preventing the further waste of the taxpayer's funds on space, which he held to be empty and uninteresting.
Whoever they had been when whole, the pieces of barbecue all looked pretty much alike now. It did not matter. Not one of the passengers or crew had died unhappy, since they had all been touched by the comet. (Some Joys Under The Star, pg. 240.)

Words I Had To Look Up:

Winterhilfe (pg. 353) -- A Nazi Germany program to help poor Germans.

Read:

9/2009

Galaxy thirty years of innovative science fiction

This is a great book I picked up from the free books box at the library. It has some wonderfull stories. My favorite was "The model of a judge" by William Morrison.

Words I Had To Look Up:


meretricious --pg. 32.: like or relating to a prostitute; brassy: tastelessly showy; gilded: based on pretense; deceptively pleasing; Found at: wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

adiabatic--pg. 142: Changes in temperature caused by the expansion (cooling) or compression (warming) of a body of air as it rises or descends in the atmosphere, with no exchange of heat with the surrounding air.

spieltier--pg. 132: [“The Lady Who Sailed the Soul” by Cordwainer Smith] shapeshifting pet

Quote:

"Hitler had once said that the true victory of the Nazis would be to force its enemies, the United States in particular, to become like the Third Reich - i.e. a totalitarian society - in order to win. Hitler, then, expected to win even in losing. As I watched the American military-industrial complex grow after World War Two I kept remembering Hitler's analysis, and I kept thinking how right the son of a bitch was. We had beaten Germany, but both the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were getting more and more like the Nazis with their huge police systems every day." -- Philip K. Dick, Notes on Oh to be a Blobel! (1979)

Read:

8/2005

SFWA Grand Masters Vol. 3

Stories by Lester Del Rey, Frederik Pohl, Damon Knight, A.E. Van Vogt, and jack Vance. I'd say my favorites were The Miracle Workers by Jack Vance, and Day Million by Frederick Pohl.

Read:

12/2006

The Perilous Gard

Kate Sutton is sent off to live in the odd fortress of Elvenwood Hall when her sister Alicia (the pretty one) innocently sends a critical letter to Queen Mary. Good story! A Weeded Copy.

Read:

4/2013

Lark

A high school girl is abducted and left to die in the woods. The story is told alternately by herself and two girls she knew. I really enjoyed reading this, but I wonder who the other girls in the trees were, and why Eve and Nyette (and Ian) went to the island. I guess I'll have to read it again! I read the Uncorrected Proof edition.

Words I Had To Look Up:

fauxhawk (pg. 44) -- A type of hairstyle, a fake mohawk.

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2/2011

Gringos

Some guy in Mexico is looking for some other guy.

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2/2005

Norwood

Some guy named Norwood goes to New York to recover seventy bucks some guy owes hiim.

Read:

2/2005

The Dog Of The South

Some guy goes to Belize via Mexico to retrieve his Ford Torino and maybe his wife.

Read:

2/2005

Playing With Trains

The former race car driver talks about his hobby of model railroading.

Read:

2/2005

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen

Julie acknowledges she has a potty mouth, which I could have done without, but I liked the book rather much. I felt ashamed of myself for judging Julia Child (and others) so superficially on looks and, in Julia's case, her raucous laughter. I hereby acknowledge that I am an ass, and I know it.

Read:

12/2010

Expiration Day

In a time when humans are having great difficulty conceiving babies, a teen girl finds out she is actually a robot. Nicely written story.

Read:

2/2015

Bahamas Blue

Tiller Galloway is shanghaied by a former boss.

QUOTE:

"To San Rasario in the fall, the ganja came down from the mountains in two-hundred-poiund bales. Even covered with ripe bananas in the backs of the trucks, it sweetened the dusty air with the autumnal aroma of marijuana."

BONUS QUOTE:

"Ought to learn some Spanish, he thought. No, to hell with that. If he got out of this, he wasn't even going to Taco Bell anymore."

Read:

7/1999

Hatterass Blue

Tiller Galloway is hired to find a nazi submarine.

QUOTE:

"To San Rasario in the fall the ganja came down from the mountains in two-hundred-poiund bales. Even covered with ripe bananas in the backs of the trucks it sweetened the dusty air along the roads with the autumnal aroma of marijuana."

Read:

7/1999

As The Wolf Loves Winter

Old timer C.T. Halverson finds corruption in oil-country Pennsylvania.

QUOTE:

"That was the worst part of getting old. You got so goddamned setimental. Nobody cared about the stuff he remembered. It wasn't important, just people who worked and had kids and got old and died. So why did it feel important, precious and irreplaceable, and as if somehow it must mean something?"

Read:

7/1999

Black Storm

Dan Lenson goes into Baghdad during the Gulf War looking for Saddam's ultimate weapon. The Laws Of Patrolling 1. Look cool. 2. Don't get lost. 3. If you get lost, remember to look cool.

Read:

7/2002

Deep War

Dan Lenson #18. The war continues, a massive Chinese AI dominates.

Read:

9/2023
20 books displayed
[Abadzis - Akers, pseud.] [Akers, pseud. - Anderson] [Anderson - Arngrim] [Arnow - Avi] [Avi - Baen Publishing Enterprises] [Baker - Barnard] [Barnard - Barnes] [Barnes - Barr] [Barr - Beanton] [Beanton - Beaton] [Beaton - Beaton] [Beaton - Bennett] [Benrey - Block] [Block - Block] [Block - Bosch] [Bosch - Breslin] [Brillant - Bryson] [Bryson - Bujold] [Bujold - Butler] [Buzzell - Card] [Card - Carr] [Carrere - Chambers] [Charles - Clancy] [Clancy - Coben] [Coben - Cole] [Coleman - Collins] [Collins - Connelly] [Connelly - Connelly] [Connelly - Cook] [Cooper - Cornwell] [Cornwell - Crais] [Crais - Crichton] [Crichton - Curry] [Curry - Cussler] [Cussler - Davis] [Dean - Dionne] [Disilverio - Dowd] [Dowell - Duncan] [Duncan - Elkins] [Elkins - Evanovich] [Evanovich - Fairstein] [Fairstein - Ferris] [Ferris - Flanagan] [Flanagan - Follett] [Ford - Fox] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Francis] [Francis - Freedman] [Frey - Gantos] [Garcia - Gidwitz] [Gidwitz - Gores] [Gores - Granger] [Granger - Greenleaf] [Greenleaf - Grimes] [Grisham - Haddix] [Haddix - Hall] [Hall - Hallinan] [Hallinan - Hassman] [Haugaard - Heinlein] [Heinlein - Heller] [Heller - Hepler] [Herbert - Hess] [Hess - Hiaasen] [Hiaasen - Hobb] [Hobb - Hoose] [Hopkinson - Huff] [Huff - James] [Jemisin - Jones] [Jones - Kaminsky] [Kaminsky - Kellog] [Kellog - King] [King - Klise] [Klise - Kowal] [Kraft - Lampman] [Landry - Lawrence] [Lawrence - Lee] [Lee - Lescroart] [Lescroart - Linsdau] [Linville - Lowry] [Lowry - Lynch] [Lynch - Magnuson] [Maguire - Marshall] [Martin - Mass] [Mass - McBain] [McBain - McCrumb] [McCrumb - Mcmanus] [McNab - Mikaelsen] [Mikaelsen - Moon] [Moon - Morressy] [Morris - Myers] [Myers - Nimmo] [Niven - Novik] [Novik - O'Brian] [O'Brian - Oppel] [Oppenheim - Paretsky] [Paretsky - Parker] [Parker - Parker] [Parker - Patterson] [Patterson - Paulsen] [Pavesi - Perez-Reverte] [Perez-Reverte - Piper] [Piper - Poyer] [Poyer - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pratchett] [Pratchett - Pronzini] [Pronzini - Pynchon] [Pynchon - Reeves] [Reeves - Ringo] [Ringo - Rohmer] [Roll - Rucka] [Rucka - Rylant] [Saberhage - Scalzi] [Scalzi - Schweikher] [Science Fiction DAW 30th Anniversary - Scottoline] [Scottoline - Shapero] [Sharenow - Silverberg] [Silverberg - Smith] [Smith - Spinelli] [Spinelli - Stead] [Stead - Stewart] [Stockett - Stross] [Stross - Tapply] [Tapply - Thurber] [Thuy - Turtledove] [Turtledove - Van Draanen] [Van Draanen - Veglahn] [Villasenor - Weber] [Weber - Wells] [Wells - Westerfeld] [Westerman - Westlake] [Westlake - Willis] [Willis - Wodehouse] [Wodehouse - Yates] [Yates - Zusak] 

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