In article <60ee3101-3619-442b-b3af-932e813d2ef8n@googlegroups.com>,
William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 10:19:48 PM UTC-5, Moriarty wrote:
>> On Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 1:54:06 PM UTC+11, Ted Nolan
><tednolan> wrote:
>> > In article <1ba826c6-fa44-41fa...@googlegroups.com>,
>> > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> > >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 7:21:05 PM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
><tednolan> wrote:
>> > >> In article <ecddd432-7243-4ca7...@googlegroups.com>,
>> > >> peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> > >> >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 8:47:03 AM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
><tednolan> wrote:
>> > >> >> In article <tkb3ii$3jm2r$1...@dont-email.me>,
>> > >> >> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > >> >> >I just remembered the existence of _The Weathermakers_, by Ben Bova.
>> > >> >> ><https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?12113>
>> > >> >> >
>> > >> >> >Unfortunately, it has been over thirty years since I read it, so I
>> > >> >> >don't really remember anything about it. Can anybody else chime in?
>> > >> >> >
>> > >> >> This is unhelpful, but going by Google, I can see this is apparently
>> > >> >> *not* related to his first series, which had hostile weather machines
>> > >> >> on Titan, which threw Earth into an ice-age, taking down the
>Neanderthals,
>> > >> >> who apparently had already achieved space travel, iirc.
>> > >> >
>> > >> >Isn't that the series that started with _The Star Conquerors_. one
>> > >> >of the original Winston juveniles?
>> > >> >
>> > >> I believe so, yes. To me, that was up there with _Space Cadet_,
>> > >> _Raiders From The Rings_ &_The Zero Stone_. I've never had the courage
>> > >> to re-read as an adult given the abuse (including from Bova iirc)
>it gets.
>> > >
>> > >Ben Bova is criticizing his own story? I thought is was a good,
>young adult
>> > >space opera. What doesn't he like about it?
>> > >
>> > I could be wrong, but I thought he was on record as being kind of
>> > embarrassed by its first-novelness.
>> Fairly common I would have thought. I recall Lawrence Watt-Evans
>saying something similar about an early novel of his.
>
>And Clarke rewrote "Against the fall of night" as "The city and the
>stars". Later, though, he was not entirely sure
>which was better.
>
>Outside the field, Stephen Jay Gould mused about buying up and burning
>all copies of his first collection of
>essays.

(Hal Heydt)
Heh... I once presented Randall Garrett with a used copy of a
real pot boiler he'd written with someone else called "Pagan
Passions". He looked at it, said "I thought we'd managed to get
rid of all the copies of that." Then he signed it in a way to
get back at me. The inscription is "To Hal, Who at least knows
what a pagan is."

The plot of the book is really weird. The Greek gods have
returned and taken over (the Empire State Building is now the
Tower of Zeus, this being back when that was the tallest building
in NYC). Turns out, they're a bunch of criminal aliens with a
machine that gives them god-like powers and they've been in
hiding from the equivalent of the interstellar policce for the
2500 years or so. Our Hero has to figure all this, why they're
"recruiting" him, and then how to turn them in.

In article <rL5JyI.14DF@kithrup.com>,
Dorothy J Heydt <djheydt@kithrup.com> wrote:
>In article <60ee3101-3619-442b-b3af-932e813d2ef8n@googlegroups.com>,
>William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 10:19:48 PM UTC-5, Moriarty wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 1:54:06 PM UTC+11, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > In article <1ba826c6-fa44-41fa...@googlegroups.com>,
>>> > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 7:21:05 PM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > >> In article <ecddd432-7243-4ca7...@googlegroups.com>,
>>> > >> peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >> >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 8:47:03 AM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > >> >> In article <tkb3ii$3jm2r$1...@dont-email.me>,
>>> > >> >> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >> >> >I just remembered the existence of _The Weathermakers_, by
>Ben Bova.
>>> > >> >> ><https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?12113>
>>> > >> >> >
>>> > >> >> >Unfortunately, it has been over thirty years since I read it, so I
>>> > >> >> >don't really remember anything about it. Can anybody else chime in?
>>> > >> >> >
>>> > >> >> This is unhelpful, but going by Google, I can see this is apparently
>>> > >> >> *not* related to his first series, which had hostile weather
>machines
>>> > >> >> on Titan, which threw Earth into an ice-age, taking down the
>>Neanderthals,
>>> > >> >> who apparently had already achieved space travel, iirc.
>>> > >> >
>>> > >> >Isn't that the series that started with _The Star Conquerors_. one
>>> > >> >of the original Winston juveniles?
>>> > >> >
>>> > >> I believe so, yes. To me, that was up there with _Space Cadet_,
>>> > >> _Raiders From The Rings_ &_The Zero Stone_. I've never had the courage
>>> > >> to re-read as an adult given the abuse (including from Bova iirc)
>>it gets.
>>> > >
>>> > >Ben Bova is criticizing his own story? I thought is was a good,
>>young adult
>>> > >space opera. What doesn't he like about it?
>>> > >
>>> > I could be wrong, but I thought he was on record as being kind of
>>> > embarrassed by its first-novelness.
>>> Fairly common I would have thought. I recall Lawrence Watt-Evans
>>saying something similar about an early novel of his.
>>
>>And Clarke rewrote "Against the fall of night" as "The city and the
>>stars". Later, though, he was not entirely sure
>>which was better.
>>
>>Outside the field, Stephen Jay Gould mused about buying up and burning
>>all copies of his first collection of
>>essays.
>
>(Hal Heydt)
>Heh... I once presented Randall Garrett with a used copy of a
>real pot boiler he'd written with someone else called "Pagan
>Passions". He looked at it, said "I thought we'd managed to get
>rid of all the copies of that." Then he signed it in a way to
>get back at me. The inscription is "To Hal, Who at least knows
>what a pagan is."
>
>The plot of the book is really weird. The Greek gods have
>returned and taken over (the Empire State Building is now the
>Tower of Zeus, this being back when that was the tallest building
>in NYC). Turns out, they're a bunch of criminal aliens with a
>machine that gives them god-like powers and they've been in
>hiding from the equivalent of the interstellar policce for the
>2500 years or so. Our Hero has to figure all this, why they're
>"recruiting" him, and then how to turn them in.

And now it's online forever...

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/22767/22767-h/22767-h.htm
--
columbiaclosings.com
What's not in Columbia anymore..

On Thu, 10 Nov 2022 22:03:54 GMT, djheydt@kithrup.com (Dorothy J
Heydt) wrote:

>In article <60ee3101-3619-442b-b3af-932e813d2ef8n@googlegroups.com>,
>William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com> wrote:
>>On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 10:19:48 PM UTC-5, Moriarty wrote:
>>> On Tuesday, November 8, 2022 at 1:54:06 PM UTC+11, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > In article <1ba826c6-fa44-41fa...@googlegroups.com>,
>>> > peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 7:21:05 PM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > >> In article <ecddd432-7243-4ca7...@googlegroups.com>,
>>> > >> peterw...@hotmail.com <peterw...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >> >On Monday, November 7, 2022 at 8:47:03 AM UTC-6, Ted Nolan
>><tednolan> wrote:
>>> > >> >> In article <tkb3ii$3jm2r$1...@dont-email.me>,
>>> > >> >> Michael F. Stemper <michael...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > >> >> >I just remembered the existence of _The Weathermakers_, by Ben Bova.
>>> > >> >> ><https://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?12113>
>>> > >> >> >
>>> > >> >> >Unfortunately, it has been over thirty years since I read it, so I
>>> > >> >> >don't really remember anything about it. Can anybody else chime in?
>>> > >> >> >
>>> > >> >> This is unhelpful, but going by Google, I can see this is apparently
>>> > >> >> *not* related to his first series, which had hostile weather machines
>>> > >> >> on Titan, which threw Earth into an ice-age, taking down the
>>Neanderthals,
>>> > >> >> who apparently had already achieved space travel, iirc.
>>> > >> >
>>> > >> >Isn't that the series that started with _The Star Conquerors_. one
>>> > >> >of the original Winston juveniles?
>>> > >> >
>>> > >> I believe so, yes. To me, that was up there with _Space Cadet_,
>>> > >> _Raiders From The Rings_ &_The Zero Stone_. I've never had the courage
>>> > >> to re-read as an adult given the abuse (including from Bova iirc)
>>it gets.
>>> > >
>>> > >Ben Bova is criticizing his own story? I thought is was a good,
>>young adult
>>> > >space opera. What doesn't he like about it?
>>> > >
>>> > I could be wrong, but I thought he was on record as being kind of
>>> > embarrassed by its first-novelness.
>>> Fairly common I would have thought. I recall Lawrence Watt-Evans
>>saying something similar about an early novel of his.
>>
>>And Clarke rewrote "Against the fall of night" as "The city and the
>>stars". Later, though, he was not entirely sure
>>which was better.
>>
>>Outside the field, Stephen Jay Gould mused about buying up and burning
>>all copies of his first collection of
>>essays.
>
>(Hal Heydt)
>Heh... I once presented Randall Garrett with a used copy of a
>real pot boiler he'd written with someone else called "Pagan
>Passions". He looked at it, said "I thought we'd managed to get
>rid of all the copies of that." Then he signed it in a way to
>get back at me. The inscription is "To Hal, Who at least knows
>what a pagan is."
>
>The plot of the book is really weird. The Greek gods have
>returned and taken over (the Empire State Building is now the
>Tower of Zeus, this being back when that was the tallest building
>in NYC). Turns out, they're a bunch of criminal aliens with a
>machine that gives them god-like powers and they've been in
>hiding from the equivalent of the interstellar policce for the
>2500 years or so. Our Hero has to figure all this, why they're
>"recruiting" him, and then how to turn them in.

Any known link to "Percy Jackson & the Olympians"? If found the first
(only?) film a bit ... overly cute, but it did put the Greek Gods in
pretty much the same location.

In retrospect, it may be the best /Aquaman/ live-action film I ever
saw, if only because it's not the same old origin story all over
again. And it lacks the intense seriousness of most of the DC
live-action movies.
--
"In this connexion, unquestionably the most significant
development was the disintegration, under Christian
influence, of classical conceptions of the family and
of family right."