For some reason, neither the DH nor myself had read any of the Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld books. I am in the middle of the first and he has moved onto the second. They are great fun so far!

I emailed Terry Bisson (who wrote "Fire on the Mountain" which I consider the greatest alternate world book ever to ask him to sign an email petition for a cause I was pretty sure he would support. In the course of the email I demonstrated love for and knowledge of his work, including some short stories of his that are a bit obscure. I gave him my meatspace address, just so this email from a stranger was at least not from an anonymous source.

And, in addition to signing the on-line petition, he mailed an autographed copy of his latest book to my home address! That is one hell of a generous gift to a stranger who you just heard of due to his bugging you to sign an on-line petition. I mean its not like I'm even an acquaintance, let alone a friend, or that he's had occasion to hear of me before.

I can't find that one at the library, so what else should I read by bisson?

Talking Man is also great.

Also hard to find.

Bears Discover Fire collection may be available.

Also, online: "They're Made out of Meat!" [link]

"Fire on the Mountain" and "Talking Man" are completely different from any other work of Bisson, poetic where most of what he writes is absurdist. Fully drawn charactes where his usual style is to mix realistically drawn people with cartoons. I like most of Bisson's stuff. But his other books will won't even give you a clue as to what "Fire on the Mountain" is like. His other stuff reads as though it was written by a completely different writer than FOTM.

Read the other things , enjoy them (or not). But nothing else by Bisson will tell your whether or not you will like "Fire on the Mountain".

Here is his website, from which you can get titles of his other books. In addition to writing the stuff he really wants to write, he also does movie novelizations, and editing and as-told-to and basically whatever he can get for money. The way he describes is he writes what he wants to write mornings, and writes whatever pays best afternoons.

Oh one last thing. Fire On The Mountain is back in print thanks to PM press. So it might be worth ordering.

There is a $5.12 Kindle edition: [link] though if you order through Amazon, better to use the Buffista link so the Buffistas get their share.

For some reason, neither the DH nor myself had read any of the Philip Jose Farmer Riverworld books. I am in the middle of the first and he has moved onto the second. They are great fun so far!

Sadly, at some point, they just get random, but I can't remember exactly what that point was. Probably midway through The Dark Design.

Oh, I remember "They're Made Out Of Meat!". Cool story.

I know I ended up really disliking the Riverworld books, but I can't remember exactly why. I had to finish reading the series because, well now I don't remember if that was me being completist or if that's all I had to read, but I think I started out liking them and gradually grew to not at all.

I wonder if Bradbury got the idea for The Illustrated Man from Queequeg.

I'm having a huge blank spot, and maybe someone can help me. I'm trying to remember the name of a white African female author and am having a total brainfart. She's southern African, I'm pretty sure, prolific, highly critically regarded, and has written a little sci fi, but is primarily mainstream.

Yes, I could be vaguer if you pressed me, but it would be difficult.

This gap in my memory is just so frustrating!