The Outpost - Hardcover

Resnick, Mike

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312854854 ISBN 13: 9780312854850

Publisher: Tor Books, 2001

Synopsis

Award-winning writer Mike Resnick takes us back to his wild and wooly Inner Frontier in this tall-tale of an adventure novel.

On the planet Henry II, orbiting the twin suns of Plantagenet and Tudor, at the very edge of the great black hole at the center of the Milky Way, there is a tavern called The Outpost. Through the doors of The Outpost have come the greatest heroes, villains, and adventurers of the galaxy - to drink, to brag, and to swap tales.

The Outpost is neutral territory where fighting is forbidden and blood enemies can have a drink together and tell stories of battles past. After all bounty hunters, con men, itinerant preachers, thieves, and assassins have more in common with each other than they do with the rest of the mundane galaxy.

But their pleasant life of recalling murder and mayhem is interrupted by an alien invasion, and to save their way of life these rugged individualists must try to work together for a change.

About this title

Review:

In a book that reads more like an anthology than a novel, Mike Resnick tells the kind of tall tales in which history isn't necessarily written by the winners. It's written instead by the best human, alien, and mutant storytellers this side of the Galactic Core, with a little embellishment from Willie the Bard.

At the edge of an enormous black hole on the planet Henry II, one of the Eight Henrys, rests the Outpost tavern, owned by Tomahawk. It's so far out that only heroes, villains, and adventurers "three times as big as life and twice as wide" can manage to find it. But once they do they've earned bragging rights to tell their story.

It's the kind of place where characters like Catastrophe Baker, Bet-A-World O'Grady, Cyborg de Milo, and Hurricane Smith come to hang around, swap tales, and wait for the approaching alien invasion to get close enough to bother with. However, once the aliens decimate the Navy and start to take over the Henrys, the adventurers reluctantly set off to save the universe one tall tale at a time.

Hugo and Nebula award-winner Resnick spins the stories into a novel that examines the way legend and history are created, and the philosophy that you shouldn't let the facts stand in the way of a good yarn. Fans of tall tales will love the vivid characterizations and the way Resnick shows how each character's real adventure is embellished into an even better story. --Kathie Huddleston

About the Author:

Mike Resnick is the author of dozens of SF novels. He has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his short fiction. He lives in Orlando, Florida.

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Books
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0312854854
• ISBN 13: 9780312854850
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384