Sep 17
Sarah B Comments: I’m actually quite fond of the James H. Schmitz. I’m mildly obsessed and hope to find more out in the wild to tame for my collection.
Published 1979
Sarah B Comments: I’m actually quite fond of the James H. Schmitz. I’m mildly obsessed and hope to find more out in the wild to tame for my collection.
Published 1979
September 17th, 2013 at 11:07 am
I had to squint to see that, yes, there are demons on the cover. Maybe they want to stay hidden, though. Maybe they’re breeding, and they wish to be left alone, thank you so very much.
September 17th, 2013 at 11:07 am
The Demon Breed appears to be a meerkat.
Simples.
September 17th, 2013 at 12:01 pm
You know she’s a brilliant scientist because she’s donned a bikini for running through undergrowth and engaging in combat. Oh wait. I take back the sarcasm. She’s out there like that so the planet’s dominant species can hump her leg. Perfectly sensible attire for that.
September 17th, 2013 at 12:23 pm
So *that’s* what became of Ursula Andress!
September 17th, 2013 at 12:25 pm
All things considered, perhaps a silly question, but what exactly is that huge leather belt for? To hold up her bikini bottom?
September 17th, 2013 at 12:56 pm
“If you go down in the woods today …”
September 17th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
@FearofMusic — In the future women won’t carry purses so they will need giant utility belts on their bikini bottoms, wrists and calves to hold all their lady things.
I think the meerkat person should be holding the gun because this girl looks more accustomed to working the pole.
September 17th, 2013 at 1:56 pm
Ooh. Tag Wiz has given us a brand new one: otter people! I approve.
September 17th, 2013 at 2:11 pm
“Another classic to match The Witches of Karres …’
Classic. You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
September 17th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Yeah, the old song goes, “Strike a pose, there’s nothing to it” but I don’t think they meant the same pose for a couple of hours.
September 17th, 2013 at 3:17 pm
With tree-dwelling demons and an otter person at her elbow, it kind of makes me wonder what’s so interesting off in the distance that she’s staring at.
Also, someone should tell her that she loses all element of surprise if she doesn’t wear anything over her hidden weapon leg holster…Or maybe the demons just stole her clothes! It all makes sense now…
September 17th, 2013 at 3:25 pm
Coming soon to a pedigree dog breeder… the demon breed!
Yes… that’s the best I can come up with…. sometimes I just shouldn’t try!
September 17th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
@Bibliomancer: Ahhh.. the future! A wonderland for those who accessorize! Screw the flying cars, let’s go shop!
September 17th, 2013 at 4:42 pm
Is that a tail just above the left leg? If so…….damb.
September 17th, 2013 at 4:48 pm
1. I’d argue that the little feller looks a lot more like a
three-toed sloth than an otter, except he has five toes. Then again, maybe that’s not a fatal flaw.
2. The way her right leg is placed, cleverly shielding his party zone, makes me shudder at the implications of the “demon breed” title.
September 17th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Yes, I like it when Admin foresee a future trend and devise a new tag. Otter people – this will definitely come in handy.
September 17th, 2013 at 8:32 pm
Almost before Nile could climb out of the aircar, half a dozen men in swimming gear, muscular naked backs glistening in the slashing rain, had the small vehicle strapped securely against the sled’s deck beside a plastic shrouded object which might be an oversized harpoon gun. It was a disciplined, practiced operation.
!
September 17th, 2013 at 9:07 pm
Judgement call, Phil — perhaps wrongly, I felt that Schmitz’ preferred term of “mutant hunting otter” was too exclusionary.
I shed a wizardly tear upon deleting Meerkat People and Sloth People from this post’s tags, but they live on in the tag database for use another day.
September 17th, 2013 at 10:59 pm
Dearest, Tag Wizard, Keeper of the Label, Knight of the Order of the Catalogue, Defender of the Accessioned.
Now that you (in your great wisdom) have added a both a Sloth People and a Meerkat People tag to the files, it will put the greatest pressure upon all those speculative fiction writers who visit this site. Now we need to get busy writing a book that includes members of those said species.
What am I saying? Since when does a cover illustration have any relationship to the actual contents of the book.
September 17th, 2013 at 11:23 pm
@Kripslod:
Gilbert W. Izard, Art Director Extraordinaire and Buckler of Swashes, bustled in to the Long Conch, durnmagic dripping from his greatcoat. His path took him to the back corner and a table swathed in shadow. A figure in cloak and cowl waited there, saying nothing. Its three toes drummed a tattoo on the side of its triclinium.
Izard slammed the pommel of his bastarde sword onto the table top. ‘Two tankards of ale, reputable wench!’ he bellowed, his bellow resounding around the inn’s walls, scattering durnmagic like drops of dew. He flopped heavily onto the stool opposite the figure.
‘I say, sirrah…know you that Nibbles Underbra, whose flatulence makes it nigh impossible to support her undergarments, is coming this way?’
‘…’ replied the mysterious figure.
‘Indeed! And she brings with her Ivar the Impenetrable, her stalwart lustrine companion. Mark you well what I propose.’
A pair of green eyes slowly opened underneath the cowl. Izard smiled. His contact understood!
‘Why should not two adventurers seek out the purpose of others? Why should not you and I ride forth from here, hot on their trail? If they have squandered their energies, they will be weak and muddle-minded, and set upon by estate agents looking for someone to sublet a tree stump. Why should not their success…become ours?’
There was no reply.
‘Stout fellow!’ cried Izard, shaking the walls, the ceiling, the chandeliers, the pictures, the drinks, the durnmagic, the bodices, the naughty bits, the not so naughty bits, and his companion with his cry. ‘The trail to fame and fortune shall be like narwhals upon the vestry. To horse!’ And without another word, Izard bustled back out into the dark night’s weather, leaving two untouched drinks for his companion to pick up the cheque.
Fully fifteen minutes later, Reunion the Sloth finished raising his chin and inquiring, ‘Eh? Owzzat then?’
September 18th, 2013 at 3:41 am
@Phil: Hell is otter people.
September 18th, 2013 at 4:00 am
@Don Hilliard – Does this story take place in the Otter-man Empire?
September 18th, 2013 at 5:00 am
@Dead Stuff With Big Teeth
Well done, Good Being.
As I found no reference to Gilbert W. Izard on All-Mighty-Google, I will have to assume you created that piece off the cuff.
It takes me three or four days just to work out the details of a sympathy-card for someones deceased hamster– Golden Hamster of course, not Campbell’s dwarf hamster. That would be quite a different matter entirely.
I would only add one thing to your tale—and I know you’re certain to remind me that the males nearly always and the females mostly remain hidden within the fur of their host—except of course in the case of the impregnated females at those periods of each day when their host passes excrement– Anyway, I would have your protagonist (Gilbert W. Izard, Art Director Extraordinaire and Buckler of Swashes) stop his dialogue at least twice to shoo away sloth moths. It would get a terrific laugh.
If you feel the need to describe the moths in more than a superficial way, I would certainly suggest our old friend, Cryptoses Waagei.
I thought there was some real talent lurking about this place. FéarofMusic almost made me choke on my coffee with his comment on http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/2013/04/space-ship-x-s-22/#comments
Respectfully, Kripslod
September 18th, 2013 at 5:34 am
@Dead Stuff—Player of the Month, hands down.
September 18th, 2013 at 9:57 am
Dear Dead Stuff with Big Teeth,
As Good Show Sir’s solicitor; Gaylord, Cockburn & Winterbottom, it has come to our attention that you have been posting copyrighted material online.
Gilbert W. Izard, is a registered trademark to my client and he wishes all your fan fiction and in particular the excellent erotic fan fiction you have been posting online, to be removed.
Although after reading your material, I believe it to be superior to the original and in fact if you felt inspired I would be honoured to be included, even as a small side character, in your next breach of the common law… sorry I digress. Please desist or else I won’t get any money, of which I need to live.
Yours Faithfully,
William J Winterbottom, LLB – BSc(Hons) Ethnomusicology
September 18th, 2013 at 11:43 am
@WJW:
Although ignorance is no excuse, please accept my most prone apologies. I shall have my own solicitor, Anita Squirt-Nowanagain, vet all future work.
Ta,
DSWBT
September 18th, 2013 at 11:26 pm
There’s a distinctly jaded undertone to the cover blurb, almost as if the editor is muttering under his breath: “Ho-hum, yet another ‘classic’…”
September 19th, 2013 at 12:06 am
@Dead Stuff: “narwhals upon the vestry”
…..
er, um…
….
WHAT?!?!?!?
September 19th, 2013 at 12:09 am
So, if I missed “THE WITCHES OF KARRES”, I should just skip this one, too?
September 19th, 2013 at 6:55 am
BTW, should the magazine “Analog” switch name to “Digital” when it goes to digital-only format…?
September 19th, 2013 at 7:00 am
It takes a cover-artist with vision to take a character described as being a talking otter, and turn it into a nightmare.
September 20th, 2013 at 4:12 am
Does this cover need a “Behind You” tag for those creepy faces hiding in the undergrowth?
September 20th, 2013 at 7:40 am
Ian… Ian! Turn around slowly. Real, real slowly. The tag… it’s already there! I think it might have seen you!
/cinema audience erupts in screams
October 16th, 2013 at 6:48 pm
This could be a commercial for Wonder Bra.
October 16th, 2013 at 9:31 pm
The things some women will do for even cheaper car insurance.
October 3rd, 2018 at 4:11 am
Dammit, its been five years and I still haven’t seen any narwhals on the vestry.