By Peter David – COMBO #1 – It\u2019s difficult for me to single out a book or books that have had a major impact on my life. Certainly the bodies of work of various authors have; but is it possible to select one particular book and say, \u201cThis was it. This really shook things up, and sent my life in a particular direction?\u201d<\/p>\n
Three come to mind, I suppose. None of them is particularly the best written books, nor will they make anyone\u2019s top 100 (or even 1000) list of great literature. But one can\u2019t argue with The Way Things Are, I guess.<\/p>\n
\u2018Star Trek III\u2019 by James Blish<\/strong> \u2018Tunnel Through Time\u2019 by Lester Del Rey<\/strong> \u2018Tarzan Alive\u2019 by Philip Jose Farmer<\/strong> By Peter David – COMBO #1 – It\u2019s difficult for me to single out a book or books that have had a major impact on my life. Certainly the bodies of work of various authors have; but is it possible to select one particular book and say, \u201cThis was it. This really shook things up, and sent my life in a particular direction?\u201d Three come to mind, I suppose. None of them is particularly the best written books, nor will they make anyone\u2019s top 100 (or even 1000) list of great literature. But one can\u2019t argue with The Way Things Are, I guess. \u2018Star Trek III\u2019 by James Blish No, not the movie adaptation. The third collection of short stories adapting epi\u00adsodes of the series. It was my \ufb01rst genuine exposure to the series (I hadn\u2019t seen it in its original run) and it hooked me. Perhaps I would have gotten into Star Trek in later years\u2026but perhaps not. I got the previous two books, started watching the series in syndication\u2026and eventually got into\u00a0Trek fandom; made friends, whom I have to this day; met a girl at a\u00a0Trek con, whom I eventually made my wife (to this day); made some kids with her, who\u2014it can be said\u2014owe their lives to Star Trek; and wrote a bunch of Trek books and comic books of my own that have garnered me thousands of fans and helped build my career. \u2018Tunnel Through Time\u2019 by Lester Del Rey Probably not even by Del Rey but ra\u00adther by someone ghosting it for him, nevertheless it was a juvenile science-\ufb01ction novel that I read and reread and re-re-read. Some\u00adthing about it hooked me into Sci-Fi\u2026for good. \u2018Tarzan Alive\u2019 by Philip Jose Farmer A detailed, straight-faced biography that totally buffaloed me (at a tender young age, admittedly) into believing that Tarzan genuinely existed. It literally took me years to realize I\u2019d been snookered (hey, I never said I was quick). It made me realize just how thoroughly people can be convinced of things through the power of the written word. If someone had said to me, \u201cThere really was a Tarzan,\u201d I would\u2019ve \ufb01gured they were kidding. But here someone had written it all down and it had been published\u2026it had to be true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":258,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[32,33,34],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-recommended-reading","tag-combo-1","tag-february-1995","tag-peter-david"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/260"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eacottdesign.com\/combo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nNo, not the movie adaptation. The third collection of short stories adapting epi\u00adsodes of the series. It was my \ufb01rst genuine exposure to the series (I hadn\u2019t seen it in its original run) and it hooked me. Perhaps I would have gotten into Star Trek<\/em> in later years\u2026but perhaps not. I got the previous two books, started watching the series in syndication\u2026and eventually got into\u00a0Trek<\/em> fandom; made friends, whom I have to this day; met a girl at a\u00a0Trek<\/em> con, whom I eventually made my wife (to this day); made some kids with her, who\u2014it can be said\u2014owe their lives to Star Trek<\/em>; and wrote a bunch of Trek<\/em> books and comic books of my own that have garnered me thousands of fans and helped build my career.<\/p>\n
\nProbably not even by Del Rey but ra\u00adther by someone ghosting it for him, nevertheless it was a juvenile science-\ufb01ction novel that I read and reread and re-re-read. Some\u00adthing about it hooked me into Sci-Fi\u2026for good.<\/p>\n
\nA detailed, straight-faced biography that totally buffaloed me (at a tender young age, admittedly) into believing that Tarzan genuinely existed. It literally took me years to realize I\u2019d been snookered (hey, I never said I was quick). It made me realize just how thoroughly people can be convinced of things through the power of the written word. If someone had said to me, \u201cThere really was a Tarzan,\u201d I would\u2019ve \ufb01gured they were kidding. But here someone had written it all down and it had been published\u2026it had to be true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"