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Old 09-10-2020, 05:30 PM   #1
J. Durr
 
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Default Autoduel Tales Appreciation Thread

Got my copy some weeks ago - what a trip down memory lane! Thanks to everyone at SJG for putting this together. The early ADQ stories really impressed me as a young'un: I was amazed at how many phrases and images were still clear in my mind, decades later.

Here follow some comments in no particular order:

- Typographical errors:

p59: "I skidded to a stop less than ten feel" - should be "feet" obv
p87: "Roberts" should not be italicized
p96: I have a note that "modem" should be "modern" but I can't find it on this page now, perhaps a ctrl-f would find it.
p116: "complementing" should be "complimenting"
p164: "For the second time in as many days, be went down" - should be "he" obv
p165: "...about a Samaritan down here, get it?" is closed with the wrong type of quote mark. There's another wrong quote close earlier in the book but I forgot to write it down.

- Obvious perhaps but it struck me that the Car Wars world is a cyberpunk setting. High tech low life. Never noticed it at the time.

- Equally obvious, it's a Western setting. Steed and sixgun combined into one, bandits, lawmen, renegades with hearts of gold, tough floozies, betrayals, vengeance - classic Western tropes abound.

- Was struck by how amateurish much of the art and writing was, and I reflected that that's how it was in those days. Whippersnappers won't understand this, but back in the Before Times, if you were interested in a thing that only people who lived in other towns were interested in, you had to put small black marks on flat bits of dead Bäume then engage an outfit to physically transport these things to the other town(s). Sometimes those other people would collate a number of these missives then send them back out in compiled form. This is what ADQ was.

- Lol that the vaunted "elmay" is just faxing, the deadest of modern telecom media.

- p151 What does "sharp as the best Japanese hole" mean?

- Unfortunate that "Street Legal" couldn't have been included. Just means I need to get that issue of TSG.

- You could get a good 6 or 12 episode TV miniseries out of these and other Car Wars stories. Maybe a loose framing story, or just a "this is another tale of the Car Wars world...". CGI's good enough now that the combat could look pretty good.

- Was astounded that Alkahest featured a highly skilled hacker named Weev. Publication date lines up with date of birth too. I'll say no more on this but it's certainly an odd coincidence.

- Being reminded of Combat Football, it occurred to me the country might enjoy the variety originally described by Spinrad: ethnic/political teams, total carte blanche for spectator violence - like European soccer hooliganism on crack. Might safely vent some currently simmering tensions! (Note: I am joking). Speaking of the urtexts of autoduel, I discovered that Ellison's "Along the Scenic Route" was also (originally?) entitled "Dogfight on 101".

- At the end of the day I have to say that "Effie" is the classic autoduel tale for me. Sure, it's the first one I read, but it was also first out of the gate hands down and set the tone for much of what was to come. Doesn't look like Jim Lowerre did much else, apart from a couple computer game articles. Jim, if you're out there, I thank you.
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Old 09-11-2020, 02:06 PM   #2
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Default Re: Autoduel Tales Appreciation Thread

Quote:
Originally Posted by J. Durr View Post
- Was struck by how amateurish much of the art and writing was, and I reflected that that's how it was in those days.
It wasn't *that* bad -- I suspect time, and space, constraints entered into it. (Submission guidelines did appear in _ADQ_, didn't they?)

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Originally Posted by J. Durr View Post
- Lol that the vaunted "elmay" is just faxing, the deadest of modern telecom media.
Not-so-sure on that -- it sounds like e-mail to me (including the sort of person who insists on printing out all his e-mails... :) ).

I wouldn't mind seeing one of the SF anthology shows take up the Bialy Trilogy....
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Old 09-13-2020, 02:11 PM   #3
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Default Re: Autoduel Tales Appreciation Thread

Amateurish doesn't mean bad! :)
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