Continuing in the Halloween “spirit,” the next book on my October reading list has also been in my collection since high school. In fact, like Great Ghost Stories (reviewed last week), The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Wan Winkle was purchased from the Scholastic Book Club.
Washington Irving’s stories are classics of American literature. Both are set in the Catskill Mountains of southeastern New York state where Irving was born and raised.
In the quaint, isolated village of Sleepy Hollow—where fables and superstitions abound—locals are all too happy to regale newcomers with the legend of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a cannon ball during the Revolutionary War. Ever since, he prowls the woods atop his steed in search of his head. When meek but socially ambitious schoolmaster Ichabod Crane comes to the village, he courts Katrina Van Wessel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. This immediately puts him at odds with local ruffian, “Bram Bones” Van Brunt. After Katrina turns down Crane during a party at her family home, he storms out, but his disappointment turns to fear when he confronts the Headless Horseman along a dark country road…
Hen-pecked husband Rip Van Winkle avoids gainful employment—and his wife’s nagging—through daytime jaunts in the woods with his dog, Wolf, and helping his fellow villagers with odd jobs. One morning, Rip ventures a bit farther up the mountain than usual and begins to hear thunder. He is soon beckoned by a man in outdated Dutch clothing struggling to carry a keg. Rip lends a hand and together, they enter a nearby cave where other such men are playing nine-pins (bowling). After drinking heavily from the keg, Rip falls asleep and awakens 20 years later, having completely missed the Revolutionary War…
In the spirit of Halloween, I decided to re-read a book I’ve had in my collection for nearly 30 years. This anthology of six supernatural tales, published by Watermill Classics, gathers works by such famous scribes as Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood, Guy de Maupassant, and Bram Stoker. My favorites in the book are “Keeping His Promise” by Algernon Blackwood and “The Hand” by Guy de Maupassant. There are two in the collection that I would not consider ghost stories but were no less eerie— “Caterpillars” and “The Squaw.”
In 2084, sexually promiscuous college student Marianne O’Hara leaves her off-world colony of New New York (one of many known as the Worlds) to attend university in New York City on Earth, where she meets a Bohemian poet and artist named Benny and an FBI agent named Jeff Hawkings.
During the interstellar war with the Taurans, William Mandella climbs the ranks from private to major. While the war itself only lasts a few years from the perspective of the troops—since much of their time is spent traversing wormholes well beyond the speed of light—nearly 1,200 years passes on Earth.
When time travel was discovered in the 24th century, it became apparent that events could be manipulated both in the past and the future. The responsibility to make corrections and alter time fell under the purview of the Eternals, a group comprised of Computers, Life-Plotters, Technicians, Maintenance, Timers, and Cubs. The Computers are the highest-ranking members of Eternity and form the Allwhen Council.
To his chagrin, Detective Elijah Baley must leave Earth to investigate a murder on the sparsely populated outer world of Solaria where crime is practically nonexistent and robots far outnumber their human masters. In fact, humans on Solaria have evolved into isolationists, communicating with one another solely by holographic projection, otherwise known as “viewing.” The mere suggestion of physical contact or even close proximity is taboo—even for married couples.