Description:
In 1988, readers of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine were treated to a collaboration between Paul Di Filippo and Rudy Rucker called "Instability," in which Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady were sent on a crash-course trajectory hurtling into John von Neumann and Richard Feynmann (a.k.a. "Doctor Miracle" and "Little Richard," portrayed as two wild and crazy "atomic wizards, quantum shamans, plutonium prophets, and be-boppin' A-bomb peeaitchdees"). Lost Pages brings "Instability" together with eight other Di Filippo stories that apply the what-if premise to writers' lives. You'll also find a hilarious introduction that credits a George Pal-produced Star Trek with the destruction of SF. Di Filippo lets his imagination run wild, creating worlds in which Franz Kafka stalks the streets of nighttime Manhattan as a costumed avenger known as the Jackdaw, or in which Anne Frank, having been sent to live with relatives in America, becomes part of MGM's galaxy of stars. Science fiction writers such as Robert Heinlein, Alice (James Tiptree, Jr.) Sheldon, Alfred Bester, and Ted Sturgeon are given chances to save the world. In what turns out to be one of the most gimmicky and at the same time touching premises, Astounding Science Fiction is edited in its golden age by Joseph Campbell. Telling you any more would spoil the dozens of quirky surprises this collection has in store for you. --Ron Hogan
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