To Choke an Ocean by Jesse F. Bone, Science Fiction, Adventure - Hardcover

Reseña del editor

He was a brave man who first ate an oyster. Brave alien, too, the way it happened.

The alien potentate looked at me with an expression of disgust. "The first decent food thus far," he said, "and you attempt to send it away!"

"Huh?" I exclaimed stupidly. "I didn't want to make you miserable."

"Miserable! Hah! This dish is wonderful! What in the name of my First Ancestor is it?" His pleased grin was enough like a snarl to make Hartmann cringe in his chair. Since Kron and I were both speaking Niobian rather than Confed, he didn't understand what was happening. I suppose he thought that Kron was about to rip my throat out. It was a natural error, of course. You've seen a dog smile, and wondered what was going on behind the teeth? Well, Kron looked something like that. A Niobian with his dog-headed humanoid body is impressive under any conditions. When he smiles he can be downright frightening.

Biografía del autor

Jess F. Bone (1916-2006) US veterinarian, in the US Veterinary Corps for many years until 1976; subsequently a professor of veterinary medicine and author who began publishing sf with "Survival Type" for Galaxy in March 1957. His first science fiction novel, The Lani People (1962), is his most memorable, perhaps especially for the guilty and/or atavistic pleasures afforded male readers through his depiction of the Alien Lani, human-like females only happy when naked and when pleasing males; in the end, his account of the costs to this folk of human exploitation is graphically related. Later works, including three contributions to Roger Elwood's Laser Books imprint, are more routine. Bone's short fiction - about thirty stories in all - remains uncollected; his most-anthologized tale is "Triggerman," in which World War Three is narrowly averted after the destruction of Washington by, as it emerges, a meteor impact.