1.) Thorns (Robert Silverberg)
"Duncan Chalk is a monstrous media mogul with a vast appetite for toher people's pain. He feeds off it and carefully nurtures it in order to feed it to the public. It is inevitable that Chalk should hone in on Minner Burris, a space traveler whose body was taken apart by alien surgeons and then put back together again... differently."
2.) Titan (John Varley)
" It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling -- because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers...and transforms all who enter."
3.) CIRCUS WORLD (Barry Longyear)
"Two hundred years earlier, a circus starship is stranded on the Planet Momus. Recently discovered by the rest of the galaxy, the population of Momus -- the remaining descendants of the original circus performers -- must deal with interstellar power politics and war... and they do so in their own special way."
4.) WILD CARDS (George R. R. Martin, various)
"There is a secret history of the world — a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces — those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers — cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story."
"Duncan Chalk is a monstrous media mogul with a vast appetite for toher people's pain. He feeds off it and carefully nurtures it in order to feed it to the public. It is inevitable that Chalk should hone in on Minner Burris, a space traveler whose body was taken apart by alien surgeons and then put back together again... differently."
2.) Titan (John Varley)
" It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling -- because it is a mind. A mind that calls out to explorers...and transforms all who enter."
3.) CIRCUS WORLD (Barry Longyear)
"Two hundred years earlier, a circus starship is stranded on the Planet Momus. Recently discovered by the rest of the galaxy, the population of Momus -- the remaining descendants of the original circus performers -- must deal with interstellar power politics and war... and they do so in their own special way."
4.) WILD CARDS (George R. R. Martin, various)
"There is a secret history of the world — a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II, endowing a handful of survivors with extraordinary powers. Some were called Aces — those with superhuman mental and physical abilities. Others were termed Jokers — cursed with bizarre mental or physical disabilities. Some turned their talents to the service of humanity. Others used their powers for evil. Wild Cards is their story."
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"If it was priggish for an older generation of reviewers to be ashamed of what they enjoyed and to feel they had to be contemptuous of popular entertainment, it's even more priggish for a new movie generation to be so proud of what they enjoy that they use their education to try to place trash within the acceptable academic tradition." -- Pauline Kael
"If it was priggish for an older generation of reviewers to be ashamed of what they enjoyed and to feel they had to be contemptuous of popular entertainment, it's even more priggish for a new movie generation to be so proud of what they enjoy that they use their education to try to place trash within the acceptable academic tradition." -- Pauline Kael