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Virtual Unrealities
''Virtual Unrealities'' is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Alfred Bester with an introduction by Robert Silverberg. Contents

* "Disappearing Act" * "Oddy and Id" * "Star Light, Star Bright (short story), Star Light, Star Bright" (originally published in 1953, used as the title for two other compilations of Bester's short stories) * "5,271,009" (originally published in 1954) * "Fondly Fahrenheit" (originally published in 1954) * "Hobson's Choice (short story), Hobson's Choice" (originally published in 1952) * "Of Time and Third Avenue" (originally published in 1952) * "Time is the Traitor" (originally published in 1953) * "The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" (originally published in 1958) (Hugo Award Nominee) * "The Pi Man" (originally published in 1959) (Hugo Award Nominee) * "They Don't Make Life Like They Used To" (originally published in 1963) * "Will You Wait?" (originally published in 1959) * "The Flowered Thundermug" (originally published in 19 ...
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Alfred Bester
Alfred Bester (December 18, 1913 – September 30, 1987) was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. He is best remembered for his science fiction, including ''The Demolished Man'', winner of the inaugural Hugo Award in 1953. Science fiction author Harry Harrison wrote, "Alfred Bester was one of the handful of writers who invented modern science fiction." Shortly before his death, the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) named Bester its ninth Grand Master, presented posthumously in 1988. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame inducted him in 2001. Life and career Alfred Bester was born in Manhattan, New York City, on December 18, 1913. His father, James J. Bester, owned a shoe store and was a first-generation American whose parents were both Austrian Jews. Alfred's mother, Belle (née Silverman), was born in Russia and spoke Yiddish as her first language before coming to A ...
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The Men Who Murdered Mohammed
"The Men Who Murdered Mohammed" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in ''The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' in October 1958. It has been translated into French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and German, and has been reprinted nine times, most recently in ''Virtual Unrealities'' (1997). Synopsis When mad scientist Henry Hassel discovers his wife in the midst of committing adultery, he decides that simple murder would be intellectually unsatisfying; he therefore builds a time machine with the intention of killing his wife's grandparents in their youth, so that she will never have existed. When he returns to the present, however, nothing has changed. In a desperate attempt to alter history, Hassel begins killing historical figures of greater and greater significance (eventually including Mohammed, thus the story's title), only to learn that the nature of time is very different from what he had thought. Critical recepti ...
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The Devil Without Glasses
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pr ...
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Galatea Galante
Galatea is an ancient Greek name meaning "she who is milk-white". Galatea, Galathea or Gallathea may refer to: In mythology * Galatea (Greek myth), three different mythological figures In the arts * ''Aci, Galatea e Polifemo'', cantata by Handel * ''Galatea'' (Raphael), or ''The Triumph of Galatea'', a 1512 fresco of Ovid's sea-nymph * ''Gallathea'', a late sixteenth-century play by John Lyly * '' Galatea, or Pygmalion Reversed'', an 1883 musical comedy by Henry Pottinger Stephens, W. Webster and Meyer Lutz * ''Galatea'', a 2009 play by Lawrence Aronovitch * ''La Galatea'', a sixteenth-century pastoral novel by Miguel de Cervantes * ''Galatea'' (novel), a 1953 novel by James M. Cain * ''Galatea'', a 1976 novel by Philip Pullman * ', a 1977 ballet film with Ekaterina Maximova and Māris Liepa * ''Galatea 2.2'', a 1995 novel by Richard Powers * ''Galatea'' (video game), released in 2000 * Galatea, a main figure in the ''Pygmalion and the Image'' series of four paintings b ...
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And 3 1/2 To Go
or AND may refer to: Logic, grammar, and computing * Conjunction (grammar), connecting two words, phrases, or clauses * Logical conjunction in mathematical logic, notated as "∧", "⋅", "&", or simple juxtaposition * Bitwise AND, a boolean operation in programming, typically notated as "and" or "&" * Short-circuit ''and'', a short-circuit operator, notated "&&", "and", "and then", etc. * Ampersand, the symbol "&", representing "and" * AND gate, in electronics Music albums * ''And'' (John Martyn album), 1996 * ''And'' (Koda Kumi album), 2018 * ''A N D'', a 2015 album by Tricot * ''And'', a 2007 album by Jonah Matranga Businesses and organizations * Alberta New Democrats, now Alberta New Democratic Party * Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, US * Automotive Navigation Data, digital map supplier * AND Corporation, biometrics * AND CO, software subsidiary of Fiverr Transportation * Anderson Regional Airport, South Carolina, US, IATA airport code * Anderston ...
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Adam And No Eve
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Book of Genesis, Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as "mankind". tells of God's creation of the world and its creatures, including ''adam'', meaning humankind; in God forms "Adam", this time meaning a single male human, out of "the dust of the ground", places him in the Garden of Eden, and forms a woman, Eve, as his helpmate; in Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge and God condemns Adam to labour on the earth for his food and to return to it on his death; deals with the birth of Adam's sons, and lists his descendants from Seth to Noah. The Genesis creation myth was adopted by both Christianity and Islam, and the name of Adam accordingly appears in the Christian scriptures and in the Quran. He also features in subsequent folkloric and mystical elaborations i ...
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The Flowered Thundermug
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with nouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of the archaic pr ...
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Will You Wait?
Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and will People and fictional characters * Will (comics) (1927–2000), a comic strip artist * Will (given name), a list of people and fictional characters named Will or Wil * Will (surname) * Will (Brazilian footballer) (born 1973) Arts, entertainment, and media Films * '' Will: G. Gordon Liddy'', a 1982 TV film * ''Will'' (1981 film), an American drama * ''Will'' (2011 film), a British sports drama * '' Bandslam'', a 2008 film with the working title ''Will'' Literature * ''Will'' (novel), by Christopher Rush * ''Will'', an autobiography by G. Gordon Liddy Music * Will (band), a Canadian electronic music act * ''Will'' (Julianna Barwick album), a 2016 album by Julianna Barwick * ''Will'' (Leo O'Kelly album), a 2011 album by Leo O'Kelly * ...
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They Don't Make Life Like They Used To
In Modern English, ''they'' is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject. Morphology In Standard Modern English, ''they'' has five distinct word forms: * ''they'': the nominative (subjective) form * ''them'': the accusative (objective, called the ' oblique'.) and a non-standard determinative form. * ''their:'' the dependent genitive (possessive) form * ''theirs'': independent genitive form * ''themselves'': prototypical reflexive form *''themself'': derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of "himself or herself" as a reflexive epicenity for ''they'' in pronominal reference to a singular referent) History Old English had a single third-person pronoun '' hē'', which had both singular and plural forms, and ''they'' wasn't among them. In or about the start of the 13th century, ''they'' was imported from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse ''þeir'', Old Danish, Old Swedish ''þer'', ''þair''), where it was a masculine plural demo ...
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The Pi Man
"The Pi Man" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester. It was first published in ''Fantasy and Science Fiction'', in 1959. Bester subsequently revised it extensively for his 1976 collection ''Star Light, Star Bright'', changing the characters' names, "develop(ing) minor scenes", modifying the typographical "word pictures", and deleting several "stale references to beatnik culture".Alfred Bester' by Jad Smith, published December 1 2016 by University of Illinois Press Synopsis Peter Marko's superhuman abilities of pattern recognition have allowed him to make a fortune in forex arbitrage; however, they also compel him to balance out the behaviors of the rest of the world by constantly performing seemingly-random acts of good and evil. This draws him into conflict, first with his secretary, and then with the FBI. Reception "The Pi Man" was a finalist for the 1960 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
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Hugo Award
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention and chosen by its members. The Hugo is widely considered the premier award in science fiction. The award is administered by the World Science Fiction Society. It is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine ''Amazing Stories''. Hugos were first given in 1953, at the 11th World Science Fiction Convention, and have been awarded every year since 1955. The awards were originally given in seven categories. These categories have changed over the years, and the award is currently conferred in seventeen categories of written and dramatic works. The winners receive a trophy consisting of a stylized rocket ship on a base; the design of the trophy changes each year, though the rocket itself has been standardized since 1984. The Hugo Awards are considered "the premier award in th ...
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Time Is The Traitor
"Time Is the Traitor" is a science fiction short story by American writer Alfred Bester, originally published in '' The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction'' in September, 1953. It is included in the Bester collections ''The Dark Side of the Earth'' (1964), ''Star Light, Star Bright'' (1976) and ''Virtual Unrealities'' (1997) and has been extensively anthologized. Synopsis John Strapp is a business consultant whose savant-like intuitive genius makes him so valuable that his support staff indulges all his eccentricities — including homicidal fugue states. Critical response The story was selected for ''Isaac Asimov Presents The Great SF Stories 15 (1953)'' ( DAW books, 1986) and for '' The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1954'' (Fredrick Fell, 1954), as well as for The NESFA Core Reading List of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Rich Horton described "Time Is the Traitor" as "glorious" and "madly odd". Fiona Kelleghan considered that John Strapp's name ""suggests both punishmen ...
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