Howard Waldrop

Human competition is eternal. We thrill to victory, we suffer the agony of defeat. No matter what the future brings, sports will be a part of it. But what forms will these games take? Who will be the spectator, who will play? Will aliens be our opponents or machines? Will physical competition even exist? What rules will we play by? What will be at stake? What rewards will be reaped by the victors? What fates await the defeated? Will the entire universe be our arena or will our world be smaller than today? Visionary authors speculate on what swifter, higher, stronger, and winning will mean in the near and distant future.

Journeys Beyond the Fantastical Horizon offers a fresh exploration of the magical and the otherworldly. From sentient spaceships to anxiety goblins, this anthology explores the breadth and depth of speculative fiction originally published in Galaxy’s Edge magazine, including Aurora, British Fantasy, BSFA, Hugo, Nebula and Nommo nominated and winning stories. No two pieces are alike, yet all these tales best represent the diversity and range of the genre, challenging readers to question societal norms and reality, igniting the imagination. Let each story transport you to unseen worlds, to places and times that exist beyond the boundaries of the familiar, beyond the fantastical horizon. Your journey awaits.

The idea of time travel has been with us since ancient times; now, the concept of time travel seems almost... plausible. Today, tales of chrononauts are more imaginative and thought-provoking than ever before: new views, cutting-edge concepts, radical notions of paradox and possibility — state-of-the-art speculative stories collected from those written in the twenty-first century. Forward to the past, back to the future — get ready for a fascinating trip!

"If Philip K. Dick is our homegrown Borges (as Ursula K. Le Guin once said), then Waldrop is our very American magic-realist, as imaginative and playful as early Garcia Marquez or, better yet, Italo Calvino...You never know what he'll come up with next, but somehow it's always a Waldrop story."--Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "Waldrop subtly mutates the past, extrapolating the changes into some of the most insightful, and frequently amusing, stories being written today."--The Houston Post "The most startling, original, and entertaining short story writer in science fiction today."--George R. R. Martin "It always feels like Christmas when a new Howard Waldrop collection arrives."--Connie Willis Howard Waldrop's stories are keys to the secrets of the stories behind the stories ...or perhaps the stories between the stories everyone else knows. From "The Wolfman of Alcatraz" to a horrifying Hansel and Gretel, from "The Bravest Girl I Ever Knew" to the sixth Marx brother's story of a vaudeville act tracking down the Holy Grail, this new collection is a wunderkammer of strangeness. Howard Waldrop, born in Mississippi and now living in Austin, Texas, is an American iconoclast. His highly original books include Them Bones and A Dozen Tough Jobs, and the collections Howard Who?, Night of the Cooters, Other Worlds, Better Lives, and Things Will Never Be the Same. He won the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards for his novelette "The Ugly Chickens."

Introducing stories of circuses traditional and bizarre, futuristic and steeped in tradition, joyful and heart-breaking! And among the actors you will find old friends, be they sad clowns or free-spirited gymnasts, as well as new ones — mammoths, mechanical piano men, and things best not described at all. Come in, come all, and enjoy the literary show unfolding!

Omaperäisen ja runsaasti palkitun scifi-kirjailijan novellikokoelma. Waldropin tarinoille on ominaista vallaton mielikuvitus, perinpohjaisesti tehty taustatyö, lukuisat yleissivistystä vaativat kulttuuriset viittaukset, populaarikulttuurin ilmiöiden ja vaihtoehtoisten historioiden käsittely sekä hienovarainen huumori. Jokainen Waldropin tarinoista on omanlaisensa. Tähän kokoelmaan on koottu helmiä hänen uransa alkupuolelta, mm. tarinoita zen-sumopainijoista, mustista katulaulajista, intiaanien traktorivetokilpailuista ja afrikkalaisista näytelmäkirjailijoista. Mukana on myös Waldropin tunnetuin teos, Nebula- ja World Fantasy -palkittu Rumat kanat.

"If this is your first taste of Howard, I envy you."-From the Introduction by George R.R. Martin Acclaimed cult author Waldrop's stories are sophisticated, magical recombinations of the stuff our pop-culture dreams are made of. Open this book and encounter jazz singers, robotic cartoon ducks, nosferatu, angry gorillas, and, of course, the dodo. The first paperback (and twentieth anniversary) edition of a landmark debut collection. Waldrop's capacious, encyclopedic knowledge of superheroes, baseball players, world wars, long-dead film stars, Mexican wrestlers, pulp serials, and fairy tales is put to good use in these sophisticated re-combinations of oddball television shows, radio plays, scientific expeditions, extinct species, knock-knock jokes, and questions like these: * What if the dodo wasn't extinct after all? * What if sumo wrestlers could defeat their opponents with the power of the mind? * What if Izaak Walton and John Bunyan went fishing for Leviathan in the Slough of Despond? Never published in paperback, long out of print, and extremely collectible, Howard Who? was Waldrop's seminal debut collection. If you haven't read Waldrop before, you're in for a treat. "The best Waldrops tend to mix the humorous and wistful...Italo Calvino once said that he was "known as an author who changes greatly from one book to the next. And in these very changes you recognize him as himself." Much the same could be said of Howard Waldrop. You never know what he'll come up with next, but somehow it's always a Waldrop story. Read the work of this wonderful writer, a man who has devoted his life to his art -- and to fishing." -Michael Dirda, Washington Post "A charming collection." -Los Angeles Times "Back in print after so many years, Howard Who? remains a terrific collection of short stories. There is nobody else alive writing stories as magnificently strange, deliriously inventive, and utterly wonderful as Howard Waldrop." -Metrobeat Table of Contents Introduction by George R. R. Martin. The Ugly Chickens Der Untergang des Abendlandesmenschen Ike at the Mike Dr. Hudson's Secret Gorilla ...the World, as we Know't Green Brother Mary Margaret Road-Grader "Save A Place in the Lifeboat for Me Horror, We Got Man-Mountain Gentian God's Hooks Heirs of the Perisphere Praise for Howard Waldrop: "Clever, humorous, idiosyncratic, oddball, personal, wild, and crazy. " -Library Journal "Wise and funny." -Publishers Weekly "An authentic master of gonzo sf and fantasy." -Booklist "Erudite and gonzo." -Science Fiction Weekly "Waldrop subtly mutates the past, extrapolating the changes into some of the most insightful, and frequently amusing, stories being written today, in or out of the science fiction genre." -The Houston Post/Sun "The man's a national treasure!" -Locus "The resident Weird Mind of his generation, he writes like a honkytonk angel." -Washington Post Book World About the Author: Howard Waldrop, born in Mississippi and now living in Austin, Texas, is an American iconoclast. His highly original books include Them Bones and A Dozen Tough Jobs, and the collections All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past, Night of the Cooters, and Going Home Again. He won the Nebula and World Fantasy Awards for his novelette "The Ugly Chickens."

For the first time, the greater part of Waldrop's media-related tales are brought together in one volume. TV, radio, and movie stories--they're all here, plus a never-before-published novelette.