[TML] Plants, animals and characters

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 4/5/08 11:45 AM, "Bruce Johnson" <johnson at pharmacy.arizona.edu> wrote:

> On Apr 5, 2008, at 3:58 AM, Knapp wrote:
> 
> (Of course, the occasional oddball is good to throw in there: cf "Adv
> 13:Signal GK", there's a non-traditional life form (non-organic, uses
> electrical fields for an energy source) that had a very major impact...)

I assume you mean the chips... p.42 clearly says it's basically a solar
cell, not electrical fields.

> However, go look for some of Issac Asimov's Analog science column
> collections; there were two or three book-length compilations, and
> several of his short works collections have them along with the short
> stories.
> 
> He's got several that deal with 'life in weird places' and examines
> replacing carbon with sulfur, ammonia or silicon, for example...I
> cannot lay my hands on the collections i have at the moment, or else
> I'd be able to provide a title.
> 
> It MIGHT be in the Ballantine one issued in the 70's with a Whelan
> cover of a guy in a purple skin suit and ray gun squaring off against
> a wizard; the story was a long pelude to a truly horrid pun involving
> Asimov's name. I can get no farther than that; I haven[t laid hands on
> the book in over a decade, I'm sure. Someday I'll live in a house with
> a real library...:-/

The cover you describe sounds like a Boris from Larry Niven and David
Gerrold's "The Flying Sorcerers".  Originally from 71, but with a different
cover.  

I really should get more of Isaac's non-fiction.  And fiction, for that
matter.