From archive (archive) Subject: Author Lists: Simon Hawke From: JWenn.ESAE@XEROX.COM Date: 20 Feb 89 11:37:20 GMT Someone asked me for the list of books by Simon Hawke. Little did they probably realise that that Simon Hawke was just a pseudonym for Nicholas Yermakov (he's done books under both names). Once again I don't have anything insightful to say since I haven't read any of his stuff. as == Originally published using this pen name /John arpa: JWenn.ESAE@Xerox.com ---------------------------------------------------------------- Yermakov, Nicholas Boomerang Series: The Last Communion [1981] Epiphany [1982] Jehad [1984] Journey from Flesh [1981] Fall Into Darkness [1982] Clique [1982] [as Simon Hawke] The Time Wars Series: [time travel] The Ivanhoe Gambit [1984] The Timekeeper Conspiracy [1984] The Pimpernel Plot [1984] The Zenda Vendetta [1985] The Nautilus Sanction [1985] The Khyber Connection [1986] The Arbornaut Affair [1987] The Dracula Caper [1988] Psychodrome Series: Psychodrome [1987] The Shapechanger Scenario [1988] Wizard Series: The Wizard of 4th Street [1987] The Wizard of Whitechapel [1988] Friday the 13th Series [movie novelizations] Friday the 13th, Part 1 [1987] Friday the 13th, Part 2 [1988] Friday the 13th, Part 3 [1988] Larson, Glen & Yermakov, Nicholas Battlestar Galactica books: The Living Legend [1982] War of the Gods [1982] From rec.arts.sf.written Mon Jan 17 20:34:33 1994 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Path: liuida!sunic!EU.net!howland.reston.ans.net!agate!library.ucla.edu!csulb.edu!csus.edu!nextnet!gharlane From: gharlane@nextnet.csus.edu (Gharlane of Eddore) Subject: Re: "Time Wars" series...any fans... Message-ID: <1994Jan16.013022.25150@csus.edu> Followup-To: alt.dev.null Summary: "TIME WARS" / "Simon Hawke" Keywords: magnificent stuff..... Sender: High Council of Eddore Organization: Evil Beings from Planet Eddore, Inc. Date: Sun, 16 Jan 1994 01:30:22 GMT Lines: 102 In <2h8j74$40j@harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au> els323d@fawlty8.eng.monash.edu.au (Mr W.A. Tall) writes: > Hi there... > Are there any fans of the "Time Wars" series by Simon Hawke out there, > or am i alone in my appreciation of this mind blowing and thoroughly > captivating science fiction series....????? > I would like to know...hopefully you are all out there somewhere. > Oh yeah...and if so, does would anyone have a mailing address for Mr Simon > Hawke...the aouthor of the time wars...I would like to write to him and > express my graditude for writing such an original and enjoyable series. >-- "Simon Hawke" is actually Nick, or Nicholas, Yermakov. Despite the name, he's not some furrin commie scum, but a relatively goodoleboy home-grown amurrican. Some years agone, he noticed his books weren't selling too well, and had an attack of good sense; this resulted in him using several names on different books and series, and experiencing enjoyable benefits thereby, in that more people bought his books; when they weren't expecting yet another tedious translation of some plodding Russian SF effort (which, in truth, could well have been magnificent in Russian and ruined by the translator, as is often the case!) ... they were willing to take a closer look at his stuff. The "TIME WARS" books, with major framing milieux, are: THE IVANHOE GAMBIT (Ace, 1984) (Ivanhoe, Robin Hood) THE TIMEKEEPER CONSPIRACY (Ace, 1984) (The Three Musketeers) THE ZENDA VENDETTA (Ace, 1985) (Prisoner of Zenda) THE NAUTILUS SANCTION (Ace, 1985) (20,000 Leagues) THE KHYBER CONNECTION (Ace, 1986) (Gunga Din) THE ARGONAUT AFFAIR (Ace, 1987) (Jason & the Argonauts) THE DRACULA CAPER (Ace, 1988) (Dracula, H.G. Wells ) THE LILLIPUT LEGION (Ace, 1989) (Gulliver's Travels) THE HELLFIRE REBELLION (Ace, 1990) (american revolution) THE CLEOPATRA AFFAIR (Ace, 1990) (Caesar & Cleopatra) THE SIX-GUN SOLUTION (Ace, 1991) (Tombstone--OK Corral) What Yermakov did was make a list of every adventure novel he'd ever really loved, and then design a series format that would allow him to dump his characters into the middle of it. Further, he rationalized this format in such a way that he could justify using both REAL and FICTIONAL characters and events. (The idea is that, after time travel is discovered, researchers discover that the fluidity of history, and embedded errors in historical information, have hidden the fact that some myths are closer to what actually happened...) In places where there was a chance of confusion between reality and fiction, he punctiliously provided a detailed afterward, discussing where he'd taken liberties, and giving his research sources. And he did a *lot* of research. Since he's imaginative, creative, and possessed of a manic sense of humor, bits of movies, TV shows, known history, apocryphal history, novels, tall stories, and four-thousand- year-old myths found their way into the stories. Then, when he got bored, he added more plotlines... parallel universes, deus ex machina characters, custom-made life forms, nanobot viruses that turn normal people into werewolves, duplicates of slain heroes, several varieties of kitchen sinks, and danged near every SF yarn ever written, with the possible exception of "ROCKY JONES, SPACE RANGER." As a result of this, the series got so loose and uncontrolled for a few novels that I don't think it's too much to say that it got completely away from him in the years '87-'89. Fortunately, even when he had his underlying plotlines going in nine directions at once, the books were STILL fun to read. By the last couple, he'd tightened things back down again, and things were a bit more coherent as he wound up the series. The last three books seem to owe a bit more to historical research than to fiction. Unfortunately, in his windup, he missed out on several neat ideas that would have made the series resolution vastly more satisfying and amusing. However, "THE SIX-GUN SOLUTION" is definitely a nice job. One of the fun things about TSGS is that, when I got into an argument over the historical accuracy of the movie, "TOMBSTONE," all I had to do was go to TSGS, and look up the reference books Yermakov had used as his sources, and been kind enough to list in his afterward. So the book paid for itself many times over; not only did I get my money's worth out of reading it, but it saved me a couple of days' time in the library winning a fifty-dollar bet on a couple of minor details the moviemakers played loose with. If you have any fondness at all for the classics of adventure and imaginative fiction, these twelve books are the most joyous homage to them you'll ever encounter. I hope they stay in print a long time, and pay off Yermakov's castle, or whatever. -- "The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference -- they deserve a place of honor with all that's good" George Washington