Live! from Planet Earth: Stories

by George Alec Effinger, Michael Bishop (Introduction), Mike Resnick (Introduction)

George Alec Effinger was a true master of satirical Science Fiction. Before his death in 2002, he gained the highest esteem amongst his peers for his pitch-perfect stylistic mimicry and his great insight into the human condition. Despite a life filled with chronic illness and pain, Effinger was a prolific novelist and short story writer, earning multiple Nebula and Hugo Award nominations.

LIVE! FROM PLANET EARTH represents a very special look at the many works of this unique genius. These 22 short pieces have been specifically selected and introduced by his fellow writers and editors, from Michael Bishop to Jack Dann, Mike Resnick to Neil Gaiman. Each writes about his or her memories of Effinger and his legacy.

Included are "The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything" in which Earth is visited by benevolent aliens who happen to have annoying opinions about everything. "Everything but Honor" goes along as a black physicist time-travels to 1860 to murder a Civil War general. Also included here are Effinger's O.Niemand stories, which perfectly mimic the styles of Steinbeck, Hemingway and Twain. The results are a tour de force sure to please existing fans and make new fans of anyone who reads them.

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Fiction, Short Stories, Science Fiction Fantasy

363 pages, ebook

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very interesting and unusual book. It is a collection of short Science Fiction stories by Effinger with each one introduced by a noted author. The introducing authors tell stories about George Alec Effinger, their relationship to him, and something about the story you are about to read.

Prior to this book I was not familiar with Effinger. Apparently, while a very gifted author he was plagued through his life by debilitating illnesses. In addition, as his illnesses were all listed as "preconditions", his insurance did not cover his treatments and hospitals stays and all of the writing profits went to cover his bills.

Despite what was clearly a difficult life, Effinger wrote with wit, humor, and incredible insight. While I cannot say that I understood each of these twenty-one tales, each were well written and entertaining. Each story has a dark side, a humorous side, and a very unique perspective on the world. It seems that Effinger looked at the world from a slightly different angle and, despite his troubles, managed to laugh at the world and himself at the same time.

I enjoyed reading this book. If you are up for a journey down the side streets of Science Fiction I believe you will enjoy the trip Effinger takes you on.

[Andrew Brooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was on the fence on whether to give this one three or four stars... There were a lot of story introductions, so I had to look back to see how much was actual story. This worked out, as in doing so I discovered an interesting point: the stories with introductions were good, then there was about a hundred pages of short stories without, all of which concerned a "Springfield Dome" on an asteroid somewhere. Those 7 stories were just horrible IMO. Then there is one more introduced story at the end that is worthwhile if you are a fan of Neil Gaiman's The Endless.

[Adam Meek · Rating 4 out of 5]

A posthumous collection of Effinger's most memorable stories, as chosen by his colleagues. Features introductions by genre stand outs like Neil Gaiman and Barbara Hambly.

[Stef · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a huge fan of When Gravity Fails since it came out, and I recently read and enjoyed the other Marîd Audran books. So I wanted to find out if Effinger's short fiction was as good as those novels.

My overall impression was "mostly not." But even though I disliked a number of the stories for one reason or another, I found it interesting to read a set of stories that had been written over such a long period of time (between 1971 and 1997).

This book was published after Effinger's unfortunately early death and each story (or set of stories) is introduced by a different writer. Do skip the introductions until afterward if you aren't familiar with the stories, because some of them contain spoilers.

One thing I found interesting was that although all the stories are skillfully written, stories written later (generally but not universally) brought up more complex emotions for me than stories written earlier.

Of particular interest are the seven stories and one poem that Effinger wrote under a pseudonym, O. Niemand. Each of the pieces was written in the style of a different American writer (O. Henry, Ernest Hemingway, etc.), and they all more or less take place in the same sfnal world. The gimmick itself is pretty clever, and he pulls off effectively, but I thought most of the stories also worked well as science fiction in their own right. (I read them without knowing the gimmick, and the only one I recognized the style of was the poem.)

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Live from Planet Earth by George Alec Effinger came pretty highly regarded - this is a posthumous collection of his short stories, introduced by other authors. I did not like it very much. The stories tended to drag, and seemed to me to have the JG Ballard-style affliction of the author being convinced of his own cleverness. Many of the introductions by other authors went on at length about Effinger's humor and brilliance, but it didn't come through to me.

[Darren · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story about aliens who knew, like, everything was pretty good, but I didn't like the next few (World War 2 with cars was just stupid, and the chess game had no plot and no story - total grey goo). I just don't like much 70s scifi. Abandoned.