Nov 12
Tom Herring Comments: In space, no one can hear you scream. And why are you screaming? Because in space, you CAN hear THESE fingernails on a chalkboard!
Published 1981
Tom Herring Comments: In space, no one can hear you scream. And why are you screaming? Because in space, you CAN hear THESE fingernails on a chalkboard!
Published 1981
November 12th, 2013 at 9:11 am
“Damn it! Five lightyears from Earth and I forgot my nail clipper! Arrrrghh!!”
November 12th, 2013 at 9:12 am
“The Vespers Solar System” — try and say that ten times real fast.
November 12th, 2013 at 9:38 am
In the Vespers Solar System, you’re never more than twenty yards from a nail bar.
November 12th, 2013 at 10:12 am
Boots #7: makes your hands able to withstand hard vacuum AND look good riding a Raleigh Chopper in space. Ta-daaa!
November 12th, 2013 at 11:22 am
His nails are in the way of his driving. Look at the cover, there’s Children of Night splattered all over the windscreen.
November 12th, 2013 at 12:58 pm
Is that Ting! coming off of his engagement ring? Who’s the lucky fellah?
Each day I check in hoping “Will this be Cover #1000?” The suspense is almost unbearable.
November 12th, 2013 at 1:17 pm
Is that Leonard Nimoy?
November 12th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
While this is not the oddest instance of TING I’ve ever seen, it still IS odd. Like they wanted to make sure you noticed that our Vesperian, spike nailed hero was already married. He also has such a weird, staring look on his face. Yet another instance of something apparently more interesting than what’s on the cover going on just out of sight.
November 12th, 2013 at 3:01 pm
GRAMPAS IN SPAAAAAAAACCCEEE!
Episode 5: “In Space No One Can Hear Your Dentures Slip”
November 12th, 2013 at 3:07 pm
“In the Vespers Solar System the awesome struggle for power continues
..but only til sunset.”
November 12th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
Yes what is going on with his mouth? Was his jaw dislocated from the sheer crappiness of the cover art? Or did it dislocate when he read the blurb “the awesome struggle for power continues…”.
Carefull when scratching that itch!
November 12th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Not only is his mouth weird, not only do the nails beg for explanation, not only is his ring so tight it threatens to cut off all circulation, but his eyes have no common focal point. I guess the awesome madness of space has just—gotten to him all over.
November 12th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
In the Vespa Solar System, the awesome struggle to not look daft on a mini-motor-bike continues!
November 12th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
It looks for all the world like he has a little, tiny, pink speech balloon coming out of his mouth. I wonder what he’s trying to say? Maybe “Help Meeeeee….”
November 12th, 2013 at 6:31 pm
Maybe the length of those fingernails indicate he is actually dead…
November 12th, 2013 at 6:38 pm
@Adam Roberts: It might be Martin Landau, hence the ring to keep us from forgetting Barbara Bain. As if we could.
November 12th, 2013 at 6:52 pm
Push buttons. Gotta be push buttons. The nails give him that crucial split second edge at pushing buttons.
November 12th, 2013 at 7:14 pm
Every time we have a cover with a number, Mambo #5 drifts in to my head.
‘A little bit of Children, lined in blue
‘A little bit of Michael, just that hue
‘A little bit of Vespers, struggle for power
‘A whole lot of fingernails, add to the glower.’
November 12th, 2013 at 7:39 pm
Nail-biting suspense. Not.
November 12th, 2013 at 9:29 pm
His thumb has a normal sized nail, now i am confused….
November 12th, 2013 at 9:44 pm
The immortal line from AIRPLANE! springs to mind:
“It could be worse. At least I’m married.”
November 13th, 2013 at 1:09 am
It’s a MAGIC ring!
“A subterranean race, a powerful dictatorship, an ancient space ship embalmed in coal. All these and more await space mavericks Fripp Enos and Kohn Tarkosz on the planet Vespers, as they continue their search for the source of Fripp’s magic ring. Drawn against their will into the rebellion of the Children of the Night against the forces of the tyrant Haivs, Fripp and Kohn realize that even the ring’s mighty powers might not be able to save them, as they battle for their very lives!”
November 13th, 2013 at 4:35 am
Do you think because they are only the # 2 children they try harder? Do the #1 children get all smug and lord it over them? “Go ahead, keep at it, L’il Bro, someday you’ll get those nails just right.” Do the Space Mavericks who spawned these devil children wish they’d done it during the day?
November 14th, 2013 at 8:16 pm
@B.Chiclitz:This shows my age a bit, but now you have planted this in my head.(Curse you sir!)
#2 Children: “Why yes, we are Maverick’s #2 children of the night.:Who are you?”
#1 Son: “I am Number One Son! My father is the famous detective Charlie Chan! Ha ha! Sucks to be you, you’re number two!”
#2 Children: (in unison): “Your father was an offensive stereotypical Asian patriarchal symbol who was derivative and a poorly masked imitation of Hercule Poirot.”
#1 Son: “You take that back! My Pops was a swell detective! We’re famous! We’ve been in more movies…everybody knows him!”
#2 Children: “Nobody knows him. His fan base is largely deceased. Like your career.”
#1 Son: “You better just shut up, or I’m gonna slug ya!”
#2 Children: “You don’t scare us. You don’t even have a name.And your father being portrayed by an occidental with a mockery of an accent was an insult to every struggling Asian-American actor.Additionally he also perpetuated the image of Chinese immediately immigrants as quaint poorly assimilated figures spouting Confucianisms.”
#1 Son: “Yeah? Oh yeah? Well…you’re number two, and that means poo! Ha! Ha ha ha!”
#2 Children: “How very mature.”
November 14th, 2013 at 8:30 pm
What is an “immediately immigrant”? Thanks for tossing that extra word in for me grammar check. It didn’t make sense before .
November 18th, 2013 at 9:36 am
I owned this with that cover.
The nails are extendable cybernetic type claw thingies. IIRC he also had teeth that did the same thing.
Basically he’s Space Wolverine.
November 19th, 2013 at 4:54 pm
@FoM—Brilliant! I wanted to make some sort of Charlie Chan connection, but couldn’t think of a way to do so without crossing PC lines. You, mon ami, have finessed it beautifully. Good Show, Sir!!
Sidney Toler, RIP
December 2nd, 2013 at 7:52 pm
The Vespers solar system? A whole solar system dedicated to evening prayer?
July 7th, 2015 at 3:44 pm
In the Vespers solar system, where everyone rides a Vespa.
July 7th, 2015 at 6:15 pm
In the Vespers solar system, everyone drinks Vespers and looks like Charles Bronson with extremely long fingernails.
I’m wondering, though, how can there be a Venusian solar system or how can a solar system have an evening star or if the people there are simple very religious in the afternoon.
September 10th, 2016 at 6:42 pm
I love these books. I’ve tried searching for the author but all leads have so far hit dead ends. Any fans out there still? I created a FB page for the books.