From archive (archive) Subject: TALKING MAN, by Terry Bisson Keywords: contemporary fantasy, now in paperback From: howard@utastro.UUCP (The Duck) Organization: V645 Cyg Date: 26 Aug 87 04:15:12 GMT A recommendation. Terry Bisson's second novel, TALKING MAN, is out in paperback. Do yourself a favor and read it. TALKING MAN is a contemporary fantasy - that is, it has no dragons, elves, furry-toed folks, wiz- Oops. Well, it *does* have a wizard. More like a god, actually, Talking Man is the wizard who created the world, then fell in love with his creation. He runs a junkyard on a hillside in Kentucky; his taciturnity has earned him his name from his neighbors. Talking Man's disappearance at the hands of his lover/sister/nemesis Dgene leads to a pursuit by his daughter, Crystal, and her boyfriend, William Hendricks Tilden Williams, which starts off in a beautifully described "normal" Kentucky and ends up in a *very* different place, indeed. The book is about Crystal and Williams, growing up. It is also about the hidden beauty of junkyards, and cars, and even farm machinery. (Point of reference: when not under this book's spell, I consider cars at best a necessary evil and at worst a royal pain. Bisson can overcome that.) You will learn about growing tobacco plants and you will see the unforgetable triple bridge across the vast Mississippi Canyon . . . You will have a good time. In this book, as in his first (a science fiction novel called WYRLDMAKER), Bisson displays strikingly originality. Were it not for the lurking Wolfe, TALKING MAN just might have been 1986's best fantasy. Give it a try. Howard Coleman / ut-sally!utastro!howard / U. Texas Astronomy Dept - Austin From rec.arts.sf-reviews Fri Aug 23 02:01:11 1991 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!know!mtgzy.att.com!ecl From: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-reviews Subject: TALKING MAN by Terry Bisson Message-ID: <31618@know.pws.bull.com> Date: 20 Aug 91 19:31:00 GMT Sender: wex@pws.bulL.com Reply-To: ecl@mtgzy.att.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf-lovers Lines: 37 Approved: wex@pws.bull.com Original-From: mtgzy!ecl (Evelyn C Leeper +1 908 957 2070) TALKING MAN by Terry Bisson Review Copyright (c) 1991 Evelyn C. Leeper This review may be futile: the book in question is four years old and, while not out of print, not extremely easy to find either. But it's a good book, a fun book, and maybe you'll run across it someday. Who knows? Now that Bisson has won a Nebula and may win a Hugo (for "Bears Discover Fire"), they may even reprint it. TALKING MAN starts out in Kentucky, as many of Bisson's works do. Bisson is one of the new authors who have discovered that the rural South makes an excellent setting for fantasy. If the plot of TALKING MAN is a little too much like the plots of other fantasies full of wizards and spells of un-being and all that folderol, Bisson makes up for it in the setting. And his setting keeps changing. As the spells begin to work, things change. The Mississippi becomes wider, flows through a deep canyon, flows north. Bisson's characters deal with all this change using their ingenuity, but there is also a fair amount of luck (meaning convenient auctorial intervention). The cover, by the way, is reminiscent of the cover of Jack Womack's TERRAPLANE! Womack is the "other" Kentucky science fiction writer. It makes one wonder if everyone in Kentucky drives an old maroon car with white sidewalls and funny white lights around it. %T TALKING MAN %A Terry Bisson %C New York %D August 1987 %I Avon %O paperback, US$2.95 [copyright 1986] %G ISBN %P 192pp Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | att!mtgzy!ecl or ecl@mtgzy.att.com From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Feb 22 12:55:00 1994 Xref: liuida rec.arts.sf.reviews:487 rec.arts.books:77319 alt.books.reviews:2555 Path: liuida!sunic!aun.uninett.no!nac.no!ifi.uio.no!sics.se!eua.ericsson.se!ericom!cnn.exu.ericsson.se!convex!cs.utexas.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!udel!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: Evelyn.Chimelis.Leeper@att.com () Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews,rec.arts.books,alt.books.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: BEARS DISCOVER FIRE by Terry Bisson Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <9402211246.ZM3211@mtgpfs1.mt.att.com> Date: 22 Feb 94 00:39:16 GMT Lines: 53 BEARS DISCOVER FIRE by Terry Bisson Tor, ISBN 0-312-85411-0, 1993, 254pp, US$19.95. A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper Copyright 1994 Evelyn C. Leeper Many authors have an interchangeable style. Maybe they learn it in writing workshops or something. Some do more with it than others, but if you took a random paragraph from one, you'd never be able to identify the author. Not so with Bisson. When you read, "For the first two hours out of Hazard it's nothing but clouds. Flat Mountain's not flat yet and you're riding an 8-percent switchback patched together out of old highways," you *know* it's Terry Bisson's writing. Bisson writes about trucks and guns and cars and Kentucky. Given today's jargon, I wouldn't be surprised to hear it described as redneckpunk. (Not that there's anything punk about it, but that wouldn't stop anyone.) Many of Bisson's stories are set in Kentucky or environs, and even those that aren't seem to be populated by Kentuckians-- even, God help us, "England Underway." The nineteen stories here range from science fiction to fantasy to horror. Many of Bisson's science fiction stories are in a non-realistic future in which some trend has been exaggerated beyond belief ("Next," "The Toxic Donut," "Partial People," "By Permit Only," and even perhaps "Carl's Lawn & Garden"). These stories are oddly similar to some of Connie Willis's humorous "if-this-goes-on" pieces, and they may be the two leading practitioners of this artform today. Others assume some totally unlikely development ("The Two Janets," "Over Flat Mountain," "Are There Any Questions," "England Underway," and of course the title story "Bears Discover Fire"). And maybe it's just my background, but I see a certain "Twilight Zone" influence in "The Coon Suit," "The Message," "Two Guys from the Future," "Necronauts," and "Press Ann." I've had the opportunity to hear Bisson read several of these on WBAI radio, and so when I read these stories, it's as if I am hearing him read them, with his slow Kentucky cadences and accent. That's the best way, but even without that I'd recommend this book. %B Bears Discover Fire %A Terry Bisson %C New York %D November 1993 %I Tor %O hardback, US$19.95 %G ISBN 0-312-85411-0 %P 254pp -- Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | ecl@mtgpfs1.att.com / Evelyn.Leeper@att.com "Remember, high-tech means breaks down next week, while cutting edge means breaks down this afternoon. -Bruce Sterling