Why is Waldrop so ignored? His short stories are brilliant, but difficult to classify-- he heads off into a completely new direction every time. There isn't a genre he won't twist to his own ends, frequently with large dollops of genuinely witty humor thrown in. The miracle is that he succeeds each time with even the most improbable concepts and premises. So track this down along with his other collections (Strange Monsters of the Recent Past, Howard Who?, anything else you can get your hands on) and enjoy. You'll become a fan, I guarantee it.

I'm completely mystified why Howard Waldrop's books are out of print - they should be required reading for everyone! Although it's easy to assume this guy is seriously crazy, he possesses the most imaginative mind I've ever come across. His stories often take a historical event, and give it such a neat little twist, you end up wishing it had happened that way. Whatever the subject, you just find yourself thinking, "Hey! What if ....." and surely that can only broaden your mind. Isn't that what the art of short story writing is all about? To get us thinking?

Although I'm responding to this excellent collection (which I've owned for many years), my favourite of his short story collections, "Strange Things in Close Up" is not even listed here! Among 19 wonderful stories, it contains "The Ugly Chickens" which has to be one of the best short stories ever written (most of the rest of my personal top ten short stories are also by him). You'll really believe dodos were alive (in America, no less) into this century - after all, Paul Linberl saw the photo. This story also made me find out what on earth Pachelbel's "Canon in D" was and was instrumental in changing my taste in music forever!

From far-off Australia, I urge all Americans to rise up and demand Howard Waldrops books are reissued so they can rush to log on to Amazon and buy them! This guy should be revered as one of your greatest authors, not languishing among the "Out of Print"!

No matter what crazy or malign things Howard Waldrop may have done in his life, these stories or his will pay for his entrance into Heaven! This is a short story collection which takes "What if..." ideas and twists them around until the reader says, "What the HELL?!?!" Waldrop's fiction is a smorgasboard of delightful details. It activates circuits in your brain you didn't realize you had. Waldrop's characters are so deftly rendered that you can SEE them in your imagination - the man would have made a great casting director. He knows old movies better than Connie Willis (who took an entire book to do something Waldrop did in a handful of pages). He knows comics and H.G. Wells and music and ... heck, if I ever meet the guy, the beers are on me. This sonuvagun can WRITE!!!

Coming as I do from a culturally impacted area (the lands behind the Iron Curtain were no greenhouse for writers or publishers, I can tell you - they still aren't), I only read a few of Mr. Waldrop's stories before hitting on that book and its prequel of sorts, "The Texan-Israeli War: 1999". Pure accident, that. And while the TIW1999 was a badly aged concoction, "Them Bones" simply blew me away. The story moves fast, and moves you deep, and even if I saw some similarities between it and Silverberg's "House of Bones", the dates of publishing are unequivocal: if at all,it was Silverberg who was influenced by Waldrop.
Every tale of Waldrop's that I've read afterwards just reinforced my feelings - this is a man to watch. And it's a pity indeed there aren't as many of us watchers as the man deserves.

i am not sure where i obtained this book from, perhaps a school fete? i was interested by the nice artwork on the front, the contrast of colours, and i know u shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but it was on sale and in a rush so i didn't have time? who knows. Anyway, i've read this book at least 5 times since getting it several years ago, and i just love it love it love it! Altho a little sad, i am yet to read a book that moves me as much as this one. Very enjoyable, and yes, as you can tell, i've never written a review before. if u can get this book, get it!

Why Howard Waldrop isn't revered as one of America's greatest authors is something I'll never understand. I guess it just could be that the way he rewrites history is just not to everyone's taste, but I can't believe this book is "Out of Print" when so many other less worthy tomes litter the shelves and bargain boxes of our bookstores. I was lucky enough to find this in a secondhand bookshop while on a trip to Melbourne almost six years ago.

In 1929, a horse skeleton is found in a mound on a dig in the Louisiana swamp. No problem with that, you might think, but the mound pre-dated the accepted time when horses were introduced to America. However, the mound contained something even more anachronistic; the thing that killed the horse - corroded by time - a brass rifle cartridge!

This is a story of time shifting, what could have happened and what the consequences could have been. From the bombed-out, radiation drenched 21st century (this book was written in 1989), Madison Yazoo Leake, a member of the Special Group, is transported back in time in an attempt to stop the human species dying out completely. Leake thought he was entering 1930's Louisiana, but instead journeyed to a world where Arabs explored America, the Roman Empire never existed, and the Aztec empire extended to the Mississippi. And his back-up never arrived.

Although the concept of future humans backstepping in time to save the human race has been handled many times by many authors (the last one I read was Orson Scott Card's "Pastwatch"), Howard Waldrop gives it the spin only he can.

I live in an ancient country which accepted history tells us was only recently (212 years ago) settled by Europeans, but where someone thinks he's discovered ruins of a thousands-of-years old Phoenician harbour in Queensland (maybe he's a nut, who knows?), where people in Victoria are seaching for the "Mahogany Ship", supposedly the wreck of a Portuguese ship, that when documented by white settlers in the early 1800's was already more than 200 years old. Maybe they're all nuts, but the story is now almost 200 years old itself. The latest excavation in the area revealed a piece of several hundreds of years old European oak "driftwood" 12 feet under the dunes - anachronistic enough in itself to be further investigated, I would have thought.

Howard Waldrop had nothing to do with either of these stories, but they are almost worthy of him. This world is a strange place, and it gets stranger with every discovery. Who knows what could have happened, what really happened? Howard Waldrop is the very best at asking and answering these questions. That's why I love this type of speculative fiction.

No one--and I mean no one at all--writes a short story like Howard Waldrop. If you like Howard's stories, that's unfortunate, because that means that you have to wait for your next fix from the single source rather than being able to rely on multiple suppliers. But them's the breaks when you're talking about a writer who has a unique style and voice.

This collection from 1987 showcases seven of those wonderful stories, bracketed by an introduction from Gardner Dozois and an afterword by Lewis Shiner, and in conjunction with some original artwork by people like Tim Kirk, Terry Lee, and Hank Jankus (at least in this version, the signed, limited and slipcased edition; YMMV). The stories are reprinted from both Shayol, a fanzine produced by Pat Cadigan and Arnie Fenner (someone once said that the most important thing for Howard's career was for him to send his stories to the highest paying market first rather than starting with the semi-pro magazines), to OMNI (the highest paying market; hmm, someone must have finally told Howard). The stories are:

* "All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past" -- His second story ever sold, but one that took years to actually see print. What makes a Howard Waldrop story? A Grade B monster movie plot treated as if it actually occurred from the viewpoint of the national guardsman called in to help fight it. The difference is point of view. Howard's able to make the story unique by establishing a unique focus on it.

* "Helpless, Helpless" -- A perfect little tale of disease and civilization, trading off that adage that he who forgets history is bound to repeat it and Alfred Bester's tale of the android and the heat. Short, but to the point.

* "Fair Game" -- Another of Howard's signatures is that he does his research, almost to the point of absurdity given the economics of scale. But in science fiction, it tends to pay off, because readers are trained in watching the minutia, and if you can carry it off, they will be pleased. Here, it is Hemingway and the hunt is on.

* "What Makes Hieronymous Run?" -- Hieronymous, of course, is Bosch, and the research also includes Brueghel the Elder and a number of other warped Renaissance painters, whose fevered imagination comes to life in this tale.

* "The Lions Are Asleep This Night" -- As Howard tells it in the introduction, he walks a fine line between telling a subtle story and a rarefied one. There have been many times that I've felt that he crossed the bounds, just because my knowledge of history, culture, or mythology wasn't enough to keep up him. This is one about a different Africa, but there are enough clues here for most anyone to understand the differences.

* "Flying Saucer Rock and Roll" -- This is probably one of my top three favorite Waldrop stories, and one of my top 20 favorite short stories. The reasons are two-fold: number one, it's that good; number two, I heard Waldrop read it out loud. If you ever get the chance to hear Waldrop read a story, do take it. The only other reading I can think of offhand that I thought was any better than this reading was Dan Simmons reading "Entropy's Bed at Midnight."

* "He-We-Await" -- A little bit of Ancient Egypt and the return of an awaited messiah, but not quite the type you might have been thinking of.

This collection appeared in paperback a few years back, but is likely out of print now. If you are a fan of alternate history or the short story, you owe it to yourself to check the used book racks for this or one of Howard's other collections. You won't be sorry.

You Americans are a lucky bunch! Lucky to have a real life magician living among you. Who, you ask? Howard Waldrop, that's who! In today's science fiction, no, make that today's literature there is no one like him, and very few as good as him. His short stories, some of the best of them are collected here, are quite simply way beyond description. They are fantastic, yet realistic, bizarre, yet down to earth, funny, yet able to bring tears to your eyes. This is science fiction, and fantasy, yet at the same time something else, something way beyond classification, something completely different. This is Howard Waldrop. Waldrop is American to the bone, and at the same time very, very international, he's the foremost exponent of magical realism north of the Rio Grande. And he's mostly out of print! What a shame! Don't you Americans know how good he really is!

The title does not lie. This is a collection of 12 outstanding stories. Each story is a tiny gem, a short 13-25 page story that makes a large impact.

Waldrop's stories have to be read to be believed. He is able to turn the mundane into the spectacular. Take 'Man Mountain Gentian' about sumo wrestlers with telekinetic powers. Or 'Heirs of the Perisphere' about intelligent Disney robots that are mistakenly activated years after humanity mysteriously disappeared. 'Mary Margaret Road-Grader' is a fascinating story about Native American Tractor pulls. World-Fantasy-Award winning story 'The Ugly Chickens' is about a possible rediscovery of the supposedly extinct Dodo. 'God's Hooks': a story about a fishing expedition for Leviathan and the consequences thereof.

There is not a bad story in this collection. Waldrop is a towering talent in the speculative fiction scene. Unfortunately most of his works are out-of-print. He's written a lot of stories but it takes an effort to track them down. Trust me, it's worth it. Highly recommended.

The problem with books likes this is that publishers always try to squeeze them into some kind of recognizable category. In this case, the usual well-worn descriptions of "fantasy" or "science fiction" were avoided, but only in favor of the ambiguous genre of "speculative fiction." It's still a rough fit for Waldrop. This guy has an imagination that defies imagination. All of these are true short stories, worthy of any contemporary analysis. "Ike At The Mike" is *the* best alternative history story I've ever read. "The Ugly Chickens" is nothing short of brilliant and startling in its examination of lost possibilities. "Heirs Of The Perisphere" is heartrending in its utter simplicity. Perhaps the best recommendation of all, I met Waldrop in San Antonio in 1988, and I was duely impressed by his genuine humility and straightforwardness. He wrote this on the title page of my copy: "Thanks for finding the book. Hope you enjoy it." I pass that recommendation on to you.

Compiled by Howard Waldrop (a renowned writer of deftly researched alternate-history stories and winner of both the Nebula and World Fantasy awards), Custer's Last Jump And Other Collaborations is an enthralling anthology of original short stories in which Howard Waldrop combined his talent with other skilled wordweavers such as George R. R. Martin, Bruce Sterling, and others. From a unique perspective on the saga of Troy; to a distant future in which Mankind is nearly extinct; to an alternate history when Crazy Horse uses Confederate monoplanes against Custer; Custer's Last Jump And Other Collaborations is a dazzling display of literary imagination, and a very strongly recommended read for science fiction fans enthusiasts everywhere.

Translate the twelve labors of Hercules into the cultural climate of Northern Mississippi in the 1920s, and while you're there make some true insights into human society of any time--why, only Howard Waldrop would attempt such a thing, and only Waldrop could have the panache to pull it off. A Dozen Tough Jobs should have been written 200 years ago so that it could have received the treatment it deserves: that being carved into stone. Waldrop proves that less is more, by condensing magic, bigotry, love, checkers, guitars, romance, and everything else that makes life...well, life, into a novella that is easily read in one night.

I.O. Lace is a young black boy who works for Boss Eustis. Well, work is hardly right. Work for blacks in Mississippi at the time was only a step removed from slavery, and Boss Eustis is a man to be feared. Joining I.O. in his life-once-removed-from-slavery is a man who is a slave: a convict named Houlka Lee, remanded into Boss Eustis' service for one year.

This novella is both subtle and not at the same time. For those unfamiliar with the Greek myths and classics that this is based on, the novella is an interesting view into 1920s Mississippi life. But for most of us, it is filled with little treasures that would make some annotator leap up and click his heels. Waldrop works in every aspect of the Hercules myth with such ease that you wonder if he rewrote all the Bullfinch's Mythology of the world so that they fit his novella, instead of the other way around.

Waldrop is a special writer, and one who deserves far more attention then he's ever gotten. Unfortunately, he is not very prolific, so when a new Waldrop story arrives, it is indeed a time of joy. A Dozen Tough Jobs is a time of ecstasy. Missing this book will only make your life sadder.

Since this is the 4th Waldrop collection I've read, one might think praise would be effusing from me. Yet, I confess I don't get it. His stories are well-written, if lacking in narrative tug. The are well-researched and he pays readers the compliment of assuming they are intelligent, yet none of this doesn't matter since he changes the facts to suit his alternative-reality urges. Of all I've read in the past, only one story - "The Ugly Chickens" - has the feel of a classic. Anybody can rearrange the past (including the literary/mythic past) - in Waldrop the point that's missing is "Why?"

I'm another dyed-in-the-wool Waldrop fan. If you search elsewhere, you'll see that I've reviewed another of his books with very high praise. But this one has troubled me somewhat. Some of the stories are utterly remarkable, with some truly outstanding writing. Well, *all* of them are quite well-written, researched to the hilt, and then laid out for the reader to grapple with. And grapple we do.

I can't help but compare this Waldrop with the one I met in 1988. This one is far more cynical. This one has withdrawn into his own interests completely. This one is much harder to relate to. If anything, he's an even better writer than he was before. (When you do get what he's writing about, it's a knock-out blow!) Perhaps I should say, he's more eccentric?

But, I think I agree with another reviewer here, in that I wondered several times...WHY was this story written? Does it stand alone, if one is unfamiliar with the research? Some of them do, yes! Others maybe do, maybe don't. Still, his senarios remain completely convincing, and one feels compelled to see them through. Overall, well worth the read (definitely!), but not as classic as his earlier stuff.

Howard Waldrop is an American treasure, and like most, seriously overlooked. Although considered a "science fiction" writer, Waldrop isn't so easily categorized (a likely reason for his not being well-marketed). Anyone who has read and enjoyed the works of Kim Newman, Christopher Moore, Bradley Denton, William Browning Spencer and Terry Bisson will find something to like in Howard Waldrop and "Going Home Again" is a good place to start. Actually, it's the _only_ place to start unless you search for the classic, but sadly out of print, collections such as "Howard Who?", "Night of the Cooters" and "Strange Monsters of the Recent Past." Get this one now before it joins those titles.

[...]P>The Texas-Israeli War: 1999 is an adventure novel. These days it would probably be published by Baen rather than Del Rey, because of its focus on military equipment and maneuvering. While the story stays within the Baen military style, it contains that inspired spark that I associate with Waldrop. The descriptions of military things reads true because Howard probably read about it in Jane's Fighting something-or-other. The story fails, however, in its portrayal of certain "political" aspects. The intrigue surrounding the SS-like Sons of the Alamo; the President Pro-Tem, and his motivations, ring tinny.

A friend who knows that I research the Arab-Israeli conflict recommended this fun little Sci-fi novel and I'm very glad she did. I enjoyed reading this novel very much. It was very nice light entertainment.

Jake Saunders and Howard Waldrop, the authors, have fashioned an extremely entertaining post-holocaust action novel in the rebellious remnants of the United States. It's obvious that both spent a lot of time reading and researching before the novel was written because there a quite a few disparate elements successfully rolled together in this light entertaining novel. Among the elements are: Wild West Texas Rangers cowboy story elements, an interest in the Arab-Israeli wars, an interest in W.W.II military hardware, an interest in Cold War politics, and probably, above all else, a projected post-nuclear Armageddon scenario.

The novel was written in 1974 and parts of the novel cobbled together into a novelette previously appeared in Galaxy Magazine in July, 1973. This story was probably written during the height of the 1973 Yom Kippur War and probably the authors drew much inspiration from what appeared in the newspapers, magazine, and other media of the time.

The authors built an alternate history in which 1992 a limited nuclear exchange and widespread use of biological and chemical weapons has killed nine out of every ten people in the world. The two coalitions were a Chinese-Irish-Afrikaaner versus a Russo-British coalition that eventually allies with the United States. Europe waffles and is mostly destroyed in the crossfire. The Israelis stood neutral and their sworn Arab enemies attacked Israel, but with little result. Egyptians bombers managed to hit Tel Aviv, but after that brief attack, the Arab world was all but destroyed by Israeli military might. As neutrals, Israel managed to avoid all but the lingering effects of the WMD (weapons of mass destruction) exchange and stands as one of the last prospering enclaves of humanity. In fact, Israel is so prosperous that they have an overpopulation problem. Enter story plot element one, Israel now hires out its excess population as mercenary soldiers to the rest of the world.

Meanwhile, in the shattered remnants of the USA, Texas declares independence and a second US civil war develops, with a Second Lone Star Republic arising driven by oil interests and the SA, Sons of the Alamo, a white supremacy Gestapo-like group holding the power behind the throne. Israeli mercenaries have been hired out to both sides of the war and the book's protagonists are a mixed unit of Israeli tankists and reinforcements from the federal government. Their mission is to penetrate the heart of Texas and rescue the kidnapped president of the USA.

However, the World War has not only destroyed the world's population, but along with that population went the many technicians who maintained the technology that not only drove high-tech societies, but their military machines as well. Any weapon surviving is thrust onto the field including W.W.II museum pieces, M-4 Shermans, M-3 Grants, and even a Stuart tank. The federal Israelis start out in updated British Chieftain and Centurion tanks, but are quickly moved into vintage armor as they take losses. A little high technology exists such as main gun cannons replaced with laser weaponry, but most of the weapons are conventional arms from the 1970s and before.

Several historical personages are written into the story including Israeli generals Yoffe and Sharon. Sharon, in this alternate future, is a general hired out to the Second Lone Star state instead of being a future president of Israel. The cameos were fun to read. The authors seem to be a little prescient as well since they predict a 1982 Arab-Israeli war that did occur.

The story very much reminds me of the Steve Jackson Games universe called Car Wars or the movies Mad Max and The Road Warrior. All of the popular apocalyptic background is there including the particular character of Texas that all writers from that state seem to imbue their work with. Among my favorite humorous elements were giant cockroaches the size of small dogs that are now hunted for sport and in one Texas cantina; the protagonists find one mounted over a bar.

I highly recommend this fun little sci-fi novel. It's not art or high literature, but it is a great read!

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

I read this book when I was much younger and I just re-read, again. I love it. this is an anti war war book.

Waldrop is one of the few truly original voices working in science fiction or fantasy today. Stories like his Nebula Award winning "The Ugly Chickens" display his combination of a regional voice, traditional tall tale telling and a wildly unique imagination to their best advantage. This paperback collection brings together his second collection, All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past, with A Dozen Tough Jobs in a readily affordable edition. If you're looking for something original, something different or just something funny and weird this is for you. The man is, as the Japanese would have it, a living national treasure