Hotel Andromeda

by Jack L. Chalker

At the grandest hotel in the universe, star-crossed lovers cross paths with the woman who rules the earth, a shape-shifting madame fulfills the needs of extraterrestrials, and a thin-skinned human fights cosmic assassins.

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Fiction, Short Stories

248 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 1994

About the author

Besides being a science fiction author, Jack Laurence Chalker was a Baltimore City Schools history teacher in Maryland for a time, a member of the Washington Science Fiction Association, and was involved in the founding of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society. Some of his books said that he was born in Norfolk, Virginia although he later claimed that was a mistake.

He attended all but one of the World Science Fiction Conventions from 1965 until 2004. He published an amateur SF journal, Mirage, from 1960 to 1971 (a Hugo nominee in 1963 for Best Fanzine).

Chalker was married in 1978 and had two sons.

His stated hobbies included esoteric audio, travel, and working on science-fiction convention committees. He had a great interest in ferryboats, and, at his wife's suggestion, their marriage was performed on the Roaring Bull Ferry.

Chalker's awards included the Daedalus Award (1983), The Gold Medal of the West Coast Review of Books (1984), Skylark Award (1985), Hamilton-Brackett Memorial Award (1979), as well as others of varying prestige. He was a nominee for the John W. Campbell Award twice and for the Hugo Award twice. He was posthumously awarded the Phoenix Award by the Southern Fandom Confederation on April 9, 2005.

On September 18, 2003, during Hurricane Isabel, Chalker passed out and was rushed to the hospital with a diagnosis of a heart attack. He was later released, but was severely weakened. On December 6, 2004, he was again rushed to hospital with breathing problems and disorientation, and was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a collapsed lung. Chalker was hospitalized in critical condition, then upgraded to stable on December 9, though he didn't regain consciousness until December 15. After several more weeks in deteriorating condition and in a persistent vegetative state, with several transfers to different hospitals, he died on February 11, 2005 of kidney failure and sepsis in Bon Secours of Baltimore, Maryland.

Chalker is perhaps best known for his Well World series of novels, the first of which is Midnight at the Well of Souls (Well World, #1).

Reviews

[Michel Clasquin-Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hitchhiker's Guide ripoff, but fun, anyway.

[Kelly Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up this 1994 anthology at a used book sale. The stories are all original to the anthology. Most of the stories are pretty good, though in a few one can tell that the idea for the story was not originally intended for the anthology and needed a bit of patchy retconning to fit it into the theme.

[bluetyson]

Hotel Andromeda by Jack L. Chalker (1994)

[John E · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good collection of stories. Only one clunker in the whole batch.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun little book. It contains several short stories that all take place in a hotel in outer space. All the stories are written by different authors and have different characters/plots, but they all have a nice similarity to them; the writing styles flow well together and the similar location of the stories gives them a nice connection. I enjoyed every story in this collection, which is quite a feat!