Lost Pages [Paperback]

This is the finest work of original fiction that I have read in a decade or more. In fact, the whole time that I was reading this collection I kept asking myself how one writer could have come up with so many original, fresh ideas. Not only that, but the ideas are just so well fleshed out with humor, intelligence, and scholarship.

The overall theme of the book is alternate timelines and realities. In fact, Rudy Rucker, the mathematician famed for his popular explorations of alternate dimensions and universes, is co-author of one of the component tales. I just couldn't get over the plausibility, or in the case of my favorite story "Campbell's World", the desirability of some of these alternate realities. Indeed, if you are like me you will be amazed that so many of your favorite writers and literary figures have been woven into them with such intricate knowledge and believability.

First of all, the introduction is written from the perspective of a world where science fiction totally died out in the mid-60's. It really gets you to thinking what today's world might be like without the genre- or the imagination and belief in the future that fuels it.

The first tale explores a world where Franz Kafka escaped his existential despair by becoming a costumed crime-fighter in 1920's Manhattan.

The second deals with a world where Anne Frank escaped occupied Europe to replace Judy Garland in Hollywood after the latter's early and tragic death.

The third chronicles Antoine Saint-Exupery's (the Little Prince) desperate flight from a plague depopulated northern hemisphere to bring H.G. Well's vision of Wings Over the World to actual life in colonial Kenya.

The fourth demonstrates the natural outcome of a world where Robert Heinlein succeeds FDR as our first post-war president.

The fifth, my favorite, is a deeply thoughtful and moving tale of a world where the shaman Joseph Campbell decided not to teach at Sarah Lawrence, but went on to run "Astounding Stories" instead.

The sixth, written with Rudy Rucker, deals with a world where Burroughs, Kerouac, and Cassidy detect a profound imbalance in the dimensions and unite to rid the world of the H-Bomb and the monsters responsible for it.

The seventh tells of a time traveler from a future where WWIII is fought with nuclear weapons - who exterminates Einstein only to see WWIII fought out with conventional weapons instead.

The eight story tells of a hell-world where Rush Limbaugh is absolute dictator of the U.S. and Phillip K. Dick must cross over into an alternate reality to set things right.

Finally, the ninth tale envisions Theodore Sturgeon as the head of an alien-worshipping cult in San Francisco- where aliens have become an all too real reality.

I literally couldn't put this book down, and I haven't been able to get that worked up over a work of fiction in a long time.

This bunch of previously published stories present a number of alternative visions of the 20th century.

Anne Frank emigrates to America, just ahead of the Nazis, and eventually becomes a famous movie star. She falls in love with Mickey Rooney, and later marries him. Anne divorces him after a few years, citing physical abuse. While a plague is ravaging the Northern Hemisphere, a man attempts to re-create Wings Over the World (from "Things to Come" by H.G. Wells) with help from a few surviving pilots in southern Africa. There is a tale about Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and the 1945 Trinity atomic bomb test.

In a Hamburg bar in the middle of World War III, a soldier listens to a very strange story. An average-looking man tells of a world destroyed by nuclear weapons in an all-out war. He happens to find a time machine and takes a one-way trip back to the early 20th century. Pretending to be a reporter, he systematically, and discreetly, kills any scientist involved in atomic physics, from Einstein to Oppenheimer. The atomic bombing of Japan is replaced by the American invasion of Japan, with heavy American casualties. The man realizes, to his dismay, that he may have taken nuclear weapons off the table, but he has done nothing about the forces that periodically push humanity to war.

A young Native American writer travels to 1930s New York City to meet the editor of a famous science fiction magazine, Joseph Campbell. In post-war America, a handful of people are sent on a private rocket ship to the Moon. Told that the Nazi High Command is there plotting a comeback, when they arrive, they don't find any Nazis. Then they are informed (by President Robert Heinlein) the real reason they are there.

Here are some memorable and imaginative stories. They are well-done and interesting from start to finish, and will give the reader plenty to think about.

Ever wished you could go back in time and change one crucial point in history? Ever thought what the world would be like if, say, Lincoln was not assassinated? This book is a compilation of what ifs where what is changed is the life of some famous writer.

The introduction, "What Killed Science Fiction" is an absolute hoot. Detailing the various things that went wrong with real science and the flops that Hollywood made, the fun is finding all the references to things as they are in our world, while it makes a perfect case for just how and why the dreams of science fiction died. And of course, this is a parody of "Who Killed Science Fiction" of SF fan fame.

The first story, "The Jackdaw's Last Case", is told in typical early 1900 style, with a large amount of description and flowery phrases, as it looks at Franz Kafka as a super-crime fighter. The story is somewhat slight, its interest is in the style and the odd situation, not quite coming off as a parody of the early scientifiction pulp stories.

"Anne" is bittersweet, following a very different life path for Anne Frank. Its conclusion is almost an acidic put down of Hollywood and the American dream.

"The Happy Valley at the End of the World" is, perhaps, the weakest story here, as we enter a world depopulated by a hemorrhagic plague, with a daredevil pilot convinced that H. G. Well's Wings Over the World is the blueprint for how to return the world (and fliers) to glory. Overly long and without much of either the humor or parody that suffuses most of the other stories.

"Mairzy Doats" is my favorite of this bunch, as we find Robert Heinlein, through an odd combination of circumstances (though highly believable - showing just how close to reality some of these alternate histories can be), as President of the United States, and mounting a manned mission to the moon. Heinlein is one of my favorite authors, but I could really appreciate just how well this story extrapolates some of Heinlein's political and social ideas to their extreme, deflating both the ideas and the man in a thoroughly delightful way.

"Campbell's World" is one that any science fiction fan can relate to, showing just what would have happened if Joseph Campbell, rather than John W. Campbell, became editor of Astounding magazine in 1938. The results are literally astounding.

"Instability", written with Rudy Rucker, is one I did not care for, probably because I've never cared for Kerouac, Cassady, Ginsburg and the other `Beats'. But as a story of the ultimate meeting of the Physicist with the Poet, it certainly belongs in this collection.

"World Wars III" is a nice little tale of the world as it would be without Einstein or any of the other physicists who made the A-bomb possible. The added charm of this one is the weird skewing of musical personalities, from the Beatles and Elvis Presley to Barry Sadler and Dionne Warwick.

Philip K. Dick married to Linda Ronstadt? "Linda and Phil" is a quiet tale of alternate realities that Dick (naturally) has to set right. Doesn't quite have the head-splitting wackiness of a Dick original, but good for a quick read.

"Alice, Alfie, Ted, and the Aliens" is one for science fiction aficionados only. The fun is catching who all the people are and which characterizations of them really fit the person. Alfred Bester doesn't come off so well here, but `Chip' Delany is marvelously satirized.

Most of these stories have a very strong `in-crowd' element - those who are not steeped in the world of fantastical literature may miss many of the sly, underhanded references scattered throughout. I've been reading this stuff for 45 years, and even so I have the suspicion that I missed a few of them. But there is some good parody, some biting social comment, and a good sense of style throughout these stories. Not perfect, and some of the stories are much weaker than the others, but a good light read, with an occasional laugh.

--- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

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