Betcha Can't Read Just One

by Alan Dean Foster (Editor/Introduction/Contributor), George Alec Effinger (Contributor), Jack McDevitt (Contributor)

A collection of funny and strange fantasy tales

Introduction (Betcha Can't Read Just One) • essay by Alan Dean Foster
The Wicked Old Witch • [Sandor Courane] • shortstory by George Alec Effinger
Talk Radio • shortstory by Jack McDevitt
Deal with the Devil • shortstory by Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Final Solution • (1992) • shortstory by Mike Resnick
Rainy Day in Halicarnassus • (1988) • shortstory by R. A. Lafferty
You Should Pardon Me, I'm Not Making This Up • shortstory by Tobias Grace
When the Ego Alters • shortstory by Laura Resnick
Sikander Khan • novelette by Margaret Ball
Betcha Can't Eat Just One • shortstory by Alan Dean Foster
New Hope for Denture Wearers • shortstory by Ron Goulart
Small Miracles, Part II: That's the Way the Golem Crumbles • (1989) • shortstory by Mel Gilden
The Smart Sword • novelette by Edward Wellen
Yeti • (1990) • shortstory by Wolfgang Jeschke (trans. of Yeti 1980)
Demons Aren't a Girl's Best Friend • novelette by Greg Costikyan
The Broad in the Bronze Bra • novelette by Esther M. Friesner
The Final Apprentice • shortstory by Steve Rasnic Tem

Genres: Fantasy, Anthologies, Fiction

246 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published December 1, 1993

About the author

Bestselling science fiction writer Alan Dean Foster was born in New York City in 1946, but raised mainly in California. He received a B.A. in Political Science from UCLA in 1968, and a M.F.A. in 1969. Foster lives in Arizona with his wife, but he enjoys traveling because it gives him opportunities to meet new people and explore new places and cultures. This interest is carried over to his writing, but with a twist: the new places encountered in his books are likely to be on another planet, and the people may belong to an alien race.

Foster began his career as an author when a letter he sent to Arkham Collection was purchased by the editor and published in the magazine in 1968. His first novel, The Tar-Aiym Krang, introduced the Humanx Commonwealth, a galactic alliance between humans and an insectlike race called Thranx. Several other novels, including the Icerigger trilogy, are also set in the world of the Commonwealth. The Tar-Aiym Krang also marked the first appearance of Flinx, a young man with paranormal abilities, who reappears in other books, including Orphan Star, For Love of Mother-Not, and Flinx in Flux.

Foster has also written The Damned series and the Spellsinger series, which includes The Hour of the Gate, The Moment of the Magician, The Paths of the Perambulator, and Son of Spellsinger, among others. Other books include novelizations of science fiction movies and television shows such as Star Trek, The Black Hole, Starman, Star Wars, and the Alien movies. Splinter of the Mind's Eye, a bestselling novel based on the Star Wars movies, received the Galaxy Award in 1979. The book Cyber Way won the Southwest Book Award for Fiction in 1990. His novel Our Lady of the Machine won him the UPC Award (Spain) in 1993. He also won the Ignotus Award (Spain) in 1994 and the Stannik Award (Russia) in 2000.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these stories were amusing and some were actually kind of dull. I loved the one about the fairy godmother, the one about the Jewish legends, and the one about the employment agency. Otherwise, nah.