George Alec Effinger, Live! From Planet Earth (Golden Gryphon Press, 2005)

Now where was I? Oh, that's right -- rummaging through the offerings that came in the post today. So what have we got? CDs? Lots -- many of which should never have been created. DVDs? A few, some very cool. And books. Don't ask how many came in, but it was a lot. Among the many books was a lot of dross -- some clearly as bad as anything PublishAmerica has let loose on an unsuspecting reading market -- and a few that sound sort of worth reviewing, but only a few that only stood out as being truly great. One of them is George Alec Effinger's Live! From Planet Earth, a collection of a few of his superb stories published by Golden Gryphon Press. What? You don't know who he was? As I said in my review of Effinger's Budayeen Nights:

Curse whatever gods you believe in for taking George Alec Effinger from us far too soon. And curse them if you will for making him suffer for most of his life in pain far more severe than you want to even imagine. He deserved better, much better, as he was without doubt one of the most brilliant writers that ever graced our presence.

(Effinger, according to Marty Halpern in his Editor's Note to this collection, said in an e-mail to Halpern that he 'imagined a hefty collection of [his] 200 stories, with introductions to each one, calling it George Alec Effinger: The White Album or George Alec Effinger Live! At the Village Gate or something.' What I think Effinger was thinking of, in musical terms, was really one of those fat boxed sets that are so common these days. One can only speculate on what Effinger, who lived in New Orleans much of his life, would have wanted in that box set for extras -- gris gris perhaps, certainly something from his beloved Bourbon Street. What that would be I'll leave to your imagination.)

Now before we get to this collection, a few words about Golden Gryphon Press. It goes without saying that any publication, be it hard- or softcover, from GPP will be of the finest quality possible -- and sold at a price which won't cause you to mortgage your favorite possessions to pay for owning it. (Live! costs a mere $25.95!) Incredible cover art, tastefully selected quotes (me in this case), and a great printing job mean a work which you will treasure for years. I have a number of GGP publications here, which are among the finest books in my library. On its Web site, GGP calls them 'Archival Quality Hardcovers' and I certainly wouldn't disagree with that claim.

So what do we have here? Again quoting the GGP Web site:

George Alec Effinger Live! From Planet Earth, the author's second book from Golden Gryphon Press, contains a hearty selection of Effinger's critically acclaimed short fiction. This collection features twenty-two tales handpicked by those who knew him best -- among others fellow writers and editors Neil Gaiman, Mike Resnick, Michael Bishop, Barbara Hambly, and Howard Waldrop. Then, as a tribute to Effinger, who passed away in April 2002, these friends each contribute commentary about their favorite story, offering insights into its writing, as well as personal anecdotes about the author himself.

Indeed that's just what we have here -- and more importantly, it's a loving tribute to George by those who knew him best, including his wife, Barbara Hambly. Whereas Budayeen Nights did a nice job of showing Effinger as writer, Live! From Planet Earth gives us a better look at him as a human being, as the stories here show him as a storyteller quite like no other storyteller you'll encounter.

Each of the stories here, while worth reading in and of themselves, is considerably enhanced by the introductions that preface each tale. Just consider Neil Gaiman's intro to 'Seven Nights in Slumberland' where he, author of the now legendary Sandman graphic novel series, recalls how the very young Neil, age fourteen, first encountered Effinger in 'a Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser comic -- he wrote an eight page origin story for the Mouser, I remember. That was before I read any of his books or stories, so for me he was always a comics guy.' Read the rest of his intro to see how their conversation over Chinese food in a vast and empty restaurant went! Likewise read Mike Resnick's intro to 'From Downtown at the Buzzer' to get a feel for Effinger as a basketball fan. Effinger was such a good writer that one forgets he was really interested in many other aspects of life.

Likewise, Effinger is shown at his best as a storyteller in the eight previously uncollected pieces -- seven stories and a poem -- that he wrote under the pseudonym O. Niemand. (Niemand, a German word, is often translated as no one or nobody, though the literal translation is 'one who does not exist'.) In the intro, Gardner Dozois, former editor of Asimov's Science Fiction, does an excellent job of detailing how Effinger was as a storyteller. These SF tales, not quite shaggy dog stories as Clarke did in Tales from the White Hart, are homages to authors, and written in their style, such as Hemingway, Steinbeck, and Twain. Now let's admit that does not always work -- the back cover of the advance copy of one novel I have describes it 'As if Toucqueville had been rewritten by Mark Twain (with a deep bow to Harpo Marx). . . .' -- but Gardner thinks it does, and I concur. Oh, to have sat in some Bourbon Street bar with Effinger and have him tell stories late into the night -- that would have been an experience worth remembering! Memories of Effinger are given by Neal Barrett Jr., Michael Bishop, Jack Dann, Bradley Denton, Gardner Dozois, Neil Gaiman, Richard Gilliam, Barbara Hambly, Lawrence Person, Mike Resnick, Pamela Sargent, Howard Waldrop, and George Zebrowski. What more more could you want?

There's not a bad story, not a rememberence not worth hearing, and I suspect that you too will be both sad and happy that you read Live! From Planet Earth, as it will show you how good a teller of tales he was, and how sad it is that he's passed on. Let's hope that Effinger is now hanging out on the the train headed to Hell. As Bloch noted in his story, 'The Hell-Bound Train,' the most interesting folks -- the whores, the gamblers, the rogues -- go to Hell on that ever-so-special train. I just hope Efiinger caught the Hell-bound Train before it left the station, as I hear the drink is free-flowing and the that a good storyteller is always welcome aboard!

[Cat Eldridge]