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Beast of the Heartland
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$ 10.51
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$ 10.95 |
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492579 |
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Item Description...
Product Description
The fiction of Lucius Shepard has more to do with Joseph Conrad than Isaac Asimov. Fascinated by deception and decay, and generally labeled a cyberpunk writer, his work transcends the limits of genre fiction. Beast of the Heartland contains seven tales that explore the darkside where science fiction meets horror. Headed by the award-winning "Barnacle Bill the Spacer," a story of high-space mutiny, the book includes "A Little Night Music," a gothic tale of insanity; "All the Perfumes of Araby," where an adventurer in the Middle East links up with an ancient entity; "Human History," a postapocalyptic chiller; "Sports in America," a noir tale in the Chandler tradition; "The Sun Spider," a mini space opera; and the title story -- an ingenious picture of a battered boxer on the decline.
Outline Review
If you're already familiar with Lucius Shepard, you won't need any encouragement to pick up Beast of the Heartland, a collection of short works that leads with the Hugo-winning novella "Barnacle Bill the Spacer." In addition to the Hugo, Shepard has bagged the Nebula, Locus, and World Fantasy Award (twice), and when he came into sci-fi and fantasy back in the '80s, he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer. All this acclaim just confirms the obvious--Shepard is an artist of extraordinary skill. He draws from the forms of both sci-fi and horror, but he ultimately surpasses them with his dark, compact, literary style. The seven stories in this collection are solid Shepard. "Barnacle Bill the Spacer" is in fine company with a few other real gems: "A Little Night Music," the creepy tale of a music reviewer writing up some jazz zombies; "All the Perfumes of Araby," a mystic, Middle Eastern opium trip; and "The Sun Spider," a dark take on classic SF. The collection is rounded out by "Human History" and "Sports in America," but the best-of may have to go to the title piece, "Beast of the Heartland," a moving portrait of a boxer on the outs. --Paul Hughes
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Item Specifications...
Pages 304
Dimensions: Length: 7.95" Width: 4.96" Height: 0.87"
Weight: 0.75 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Mar 30, 1999
ISBN 1568581262
EAN 9781568581262
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Availability 100 units.
Availability accurate as of May 30, 2012 05:04.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
Orders shipping to an address other than a confirmed Credit Card / Paypal Billing address may incur and additional processing delay.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Not Free SF Reader Aug 11, 2007 |
Another good collection of stories from Lucius Shepard. Not that that will surprise anyone I suppose. A combination of sf, crime, sport and supernatural. The sf stories are again the highlight for me, including the excellent Human History and the wild Barnacle Bill the Spacer.
Beast of the Heartland : All the Perfumes of Araby - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : Barnacle Bill The Spacer - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : Beast of the Heartland - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : Human History - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : A Little Night Music - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : Sports in America - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : The Sun Spider - Lucius Shepard
Beast of the Heartland : How Lonesome Heartbreak Changed His Life - Lucius Shepard
Four legs an eye and an ear to be the six million dollar pair.
3.5 out of 5
Brainless boy blows up because space station sucker beasts despise coming crazed cult conflict in C.
4 out of 5
Boxing tart.
3 out of 5
Programmed postapocalyptic people enact punitive pogrom on decadent twisted hi-tech hypnotists.
4.5 out of 5
Music zombies.
3 out of 5
Baseball arguments, with guns.
3 out of 5
Sunbeast seeker shags separately from spouse, summons super maths.
3 out of 5
Japanese Roy Rogers guitar smash hit enables Vietnamese gangster staged shooting.
4 out of 5 | | |  | This Writer is a one-of-a-kind Dec 23, 2000 |
| This book is a collection of short stories, and although I liked them all, the one entitled Barnacle Bill the Spacer took my breath away. Lucius Shepard writes with such beautiful, unique precision, and expresses himself in such an uncommon and thought provoking manner that I found myself reading many of his sentences over and over just to savor their flavor and texture. His words linger, and his plots won't leave you alone. His uncommon writing gave me an uncommon pleasure-highly recommended. | | | | Not his best, but the guy's an underappreciated genius. Jul 24, 2000 |
| I'm sorry that I wasn't as impressed with this particular collection of Shepard's stories as I was with some of his other work. There are a couple of gems in here, however; "Barnacle Bill the Spacer", winner of the Hugo Award, is alone worth the price of admission. However, if by chance fate has you perusing this page and wondering whether or not to take a chance on Shepard, do it. I first randomly ran across his 'Life During Wartime' in an airport, and I've read everything else of his that I could get my hands on since. This collection is a fairly mild intro to some of the awe-inspiring concepts that Shepard constructs with the ease of Legos; and not only that, this guy can put words together like nobody's business. Borges would be proud. It's a crying shame that a lot of his other work is now out of print or otherwise difficult to find; "The Jaguar Hunter", "The Ends of the Earth", and "The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter" I would all rate as superior to this particular collection, but don't let that stop you. Shepard is worthy of your reading time, and his full-length novels are equally astonishing. | | | | Lucius Shephard deserves to be read. May 14, 2000 |
| I love short stories, and it is clear to me that anyone else that loves short stories will love this collection, regardless of whether they condsider themselves sci-fi fans or not. In fact, two of the stories are completely devoid of anything fantastical, and two more only touch upon the surreal. In all seven, you do find the clear and descriptive writing that carries with it an insight into human beings all across the world - or universe. Shephard is able to portray the humanity and inhumanity as they battle within each of his primary characters, and over all, you might say that this is really what this collection is about. Each story has a clear and entertaining plot, but underneath, each focuses on a character that is struggling with his desires or angers or impulses that often lead to self-destructive life patterns; vivid and recognizable as elements of our own lives. The genre sci-fi stories work the best for me. "Barnacle Bill, the Spacer" and "Human History" make my top five list of the best short stories ever. "Sun Spider" is interesting, but without the punch. And the remaining three straight stories were good, but less so than the others. However, in that "Barnacle Bill, the Spacer" and "Human History" are practically short novels, the book is well worth having just for these two stories alone. Consider the others bonus stories. Collections as a general rule are spotty. There are always pages you want to rip out and sometimes pages you want to hang on the wall. This is the first I've read in a long time that has no rip out material. Everything here is good. And some of it is truly amazing. Enjoy. | | | | Wonderful stories Jun 10, 1999 |
| I liked some of his other short story collections better, but this is still great work. You simply can't miss with Lucius Shepard. He has great insight about love and the human condition, and it's obvious he has travelled and seen much along the way. In each of these stories he deals with the nature of love and the stories we tell ourselves about relationships and sexual encounters. The stories are diverse and can't be pigeonholed into one genre. I would say Shepard is a magical realist as much as anything, but he does very diverse work. | | | Write your own review about Beast of the Heartland
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