Message-ID: <330@lzmi.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 3-Mar-85 20:06:02 EST
Article-I.D.: lzmi.330
Posted: Sun Mar  3 20:06:02 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 4-Mar-85 20:36:02 EST
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Yes, WAY STATION is a good novel, and greatly underdiscussed.
I haven't read it in a long time, but I still remember enjoying
it when I was twelve, and several times since then.  If any of
you have read "The Big Back Yard" (see THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL
OF FAME, volume 2B), let me tell you that WAY STATION has the
same kind of quietly escalating dramatic power, except better.

From THE LION OF COMMARRE/AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT ((c) 1968?):
Clarke write AGAINST THE FALL OF NIGHT between 1937 and 1946.
He wrote and sold several other stories, then (after John W.
Campbell turned it down), got it published in the November 1948
STARTLING STORIES.  It appeared in hardcover (Gnome Press) in
1953, and has been reissued since than, more than once, by
Pyramid.  THE CITY AND THE STARS was published by Harcort,
Brace, and World in 1956,
    and has remained in print since then.
    All the time, I assumed that the new version would
    completely replace the older novel, but AGAINST THE
    FALL OF NIGHT showed no tendency to fade away;
    indeed, to my slight shagrin, some readers preferred
    it its successor, and it has now been reissued several
    times in paperback (Pyramid Books).  One day I would
    like to conduct a poll to discover which is the more
    popular version; I have long ago given up trying to
    decide which is the better one.  [Clarke]
I like 'em both.

A note on hardcover prices in general, and the Science Fiction
Book Club in particular:  The slim volume (209 pages) with these
two short novels listed (according to the SFBC) for $4.75.  This
was back around 1973, when paperbacks were going for $.95.  As a
SFBC member, I got the book for $1.49.  (And Ben Bova was editing
Analog.  Boy, those were the good old days.)
-- 
	-Paul S. R. Chisholm
	...!{pegasus,cbosgd}!lzmi!psc   The above opinions are my own,
	...!{hocsj,ihnp4}!lznv!psc      not necessarily anyone else's.