Help Me Identify a Short Story?

[calliann]

Some years ago I read a short story in the <b>Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</b> that I'm trying to relocate. I can't remember the title but I'm thinking the author might have been Pat Cadigan, though I wouldn't swear to it. Anyway --<br /><br />The story was about a band of time travelers who went back in time to snatch selected people from their time line and bring them to the future. The people were taken right before their deaths so as not to screw up the time line and were carefully chosen as being those with talent or genius but who had died "before their time," before fulfilling their promise. The idea was to rescue them from death and give them a second chance to live out their potential. Of course, things don't work out quite the way they were planned!<br /><br />Does anybody recognize this story?<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[tom_hobbes]

It's a common theme and I can think of at least two offhand which are very similar but not your story. Sorry. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[calliann]

Will you tell me what they are anyway? It's highly likely I've gotten some details wrong! Even if neither is the story I'm looking for, I'd still like to look them up.<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[tom_hobbes]

One is <i>Air Raid</i> by John Varley. A very nice little tale which really couldn't support being worked up into the movie <i>Millennium</i>. The story (not the final screenplay) was then novelized by Varley under the same name as the film. Don't make the mistake of watching it!<br /><br />The other one is a recent story, I'll have to rummage around to find the author and title. I'm trying to recal a few others as well...<br /><br />On another note, I was looking for one of them just now and chanced across an online version of a Bob Shaw story. Bob was a much under appreciated writer who's work is currently mostly out of print but who is remembered fondly by those who knew him and read his books. I knew him for the last seven or eight years of his life (he used to give me a lift every few weeks to our local science fiction group.)<br /><br />This perfect and very short little story allows it's protagonists a unique view across time as you'll see, and contains many of of the ingredients which made him so very readable. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[calliann]

Thank you for the info. I appreciate it very much!<br /><br />What's the title of the Shaw story? Can you post the link?

 

[tom_hobbes]

Completely forgot to post that link! Doh! <img src="/images/icons/blush.gif" /><br /><br />Remembered one of the other stories with a similar theme but it is absolutely not the story you're describing. <i>The Will</i> by Walter M Miller.<br /><br />Can't locate the more recent one yet.<br /><br />The Bob Shaw story is <i> Light Of Other Days. </i><br /><br />Many more here: http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/archive.html <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[calliann]

I read "Light of Other Days" and really enjoyed it.<br /><br />There's something else I remember about the story I'm looking for. For the life of me, I can't remember if Mozart was in the story or if he was mentioned or if I just compared the idea to his life. But the idea presented was that people who live lives of dissipation and burn out young will do that again, even if given a second chance. <br /><br />Does that ring any bells?

 

[tom_hobbes]

Makes it even more interesting. Still don't know who it is but I'm as eager to find it now as well! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font size="2" color="#339966"> I wish I could remember<br /> But my selective memory<br /> Won't let me</font><font size="2" color="#99cc00"> </font><font size="3" color="#339966"><font size="2">- </font></font><font size="1" color="#339966">Mark Oliver Everett</font></p><p> </p> </div>

 

[calliann]

<font color="yellow">Still don't know who it is but I'm as eager to find it now as well!</font><br /><br />Good! Maybe with both of us looking, we'll turn up something. It was such a good story and, for the life of me, I don't know why I didn't save the issue it came out in. I have a whole row of one of my bookshelves filled with old issues of the <b>Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction</b> because each contains one or more stories I wanted to save and reread. Why, oh, why didn't I save that one? <img src="/images/icons/frown.gif" /> <font color="orange"><moaning and gnashing of teeth></font>/safety_wrapper>

 

[calliann]

Okay, you will not believe it but after buying every short story collection from here to yon containing a story which seemed like a possibility, I finally located the story. Or rather, a sharp reader on another message board suggested it and after many, many misses, I got a hit. The story is "Gianni" by Robert Silverberg. It was originally published in Playboy and is also in a short story collection entitled "The Conglomeroid Cocktail Party."

 

[jmilsom]

Well done on finding it. This particular story search shows just how difficult it can be. You've piqued my interest with the story and I love Silverberg's writing. I'll put that collection on my second-hand hunting list as well. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[hracctsold]

Tom,<br /><br />In thinking of your comments on the movie, Millennium,(?), what did you think about the idea of timequakes? Where, if any where outside of the storyline, did they come from?