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Wednesday 30 December 2020

GYRO 2020 SCHEDULE



2020
JANUARY
1)  Integral Trees, The (by Larry Niven)
    A gigantic torus of air circling a star seemed an ideal place for a starship mutiny.  Now, 200 years later,  the expedition's descendants are still learning to survive in this strange place.

February 4 weeks
Out of the Silent Planet (by C.S. Lewis of Narnia fame)
    A university don on holiday is shanghaied to an expedition to Mars.  His concepts of both science and religion are turned on their heads as he flees what he thinks is certain death from "Martian monsters."

March 5 weeks
The Ugly Little Boy (by Isaac Asimov)
    A woman takes a job to be a nanny.  Her charge is strange, lonely and by our standards homely.  With a large head, brow ridges and sloping brow and muscles like a five year old weightlifter he's a perfect example of Homo neanderthalensis.

April 4 weeks
Higher Space (by Jamil Nasir)
    A corporate lawyer gets involved with a custody case that pulls him into a world of computers, magic and an ancient Native American Shaman.

May 4 weeks
Illusions (by Richard Bach)
    Richard meets the former "Mechanic Messiah" who shows him that the world might (or might not) be however he perceives it.

June 5 weeks
Spock's World (by Diane Duane)  various excerpts from this very long novel.
    A history of Vulcan as seen during a debate on Vulcan to secede from the Federation.


July 4 weeks
Colossus (by D.F. Jones)
In a grandiose measure to end the cold war, the USA turns over its entire defense to a super-computer codenamed Colossus.

August 5 weeks
Voyage to the City of the Dead (by Alan Dean Foster)
    On a world nicknamed Horseye a man and wife geologist and sociologist team explore the world from its steam room environment at the sea up to the frozen wastes at the top of the world.

September 4 weeks
Anything You Can Do (by Darrel T. Langart)
    A powerful alien stranded on Earth cannot believe the slow weak humans are the top species. His search for the true people results in death and destruction until a genetically enhanced "superman" confronts him.

October 4 weeks
Running from the Deity (Alan Dean Foster)
    A young man with psychic abilities tries to help people and learns to his dismay that they now consider him a god.

November 5 weeks
The Dark Bright Water (Patricia Wrightson)
    A spirit woman from Northwestern Australia is separated from her sisters.  Trapped in another 'country,' she causes havok.  Wirrun (from The Ice is Coming) is tormented with her howling songs in his head.  He searches for the cause so he can end the torture.

December 3 weeks, or possibly ending on Jan 4th 2021
The Puppet Masters (by Robert A. Heinlein)
    The first agents to investigate reports of a downed flying saucer fail to report back. The second team finds a fake saucer but believes it might be a cover-up.


postponed
The Stone God Awakens (by Philip Jose Farmer)
    Ulysses Singing Bear a modern Native American suddenly wakes to find himself on a throne, worshiped and fought over by tribes of humanoid cats and dogs.  He learns how he'd slept as a stone figure for eons and now tries to deal with a bizarre world of the future.