There may be no other author who I can sincerely say has had a direct influence on me as a writer through as few works as Eric Frank Russell. While I have since read quite a few of his works – the Jay Score stories, "MacHinery", "Now Inhale", and others – his actual influence on me comes from two short stories: "Legwork" and "Hobbyist". "Hobbyist" is the story of Steve Anders, an exploration pilot whose ship encounters a spatial disturbance of immense power, throwing him so far from home that by the time he finds a [ Continue reading... ]
STORY: To Duel the Gorgon
March 22, 2013 By 11 Comments
This is a very short story (about 2400 words, or roughly the length of one of my average chapters in a book) which was originally written just as a spinoff of a Usenet discussion. The context was that we were trying to decide if there were any magical effects which could not be duplicated by technology -- i.e., whose presence immediately signaled we were dealing with magic, not science (even Sufficiently Advanced Science). One of the participants put forward the Gorgon/Basilisk/Medusa effect of "turn to stone when you look at [ Continue reading... ]
What You’re Saying