Short Reviews: L. Sprague de Camp

"The Emperor's Fan" [permanent link]. A humourous story set in an Oriental Empire that never was, the Emperor of Kuromon wants to be protected from assassins. He finds it in the form of a magical fan that makes things that are fanned disapper. Recalling them requires a series of coded taps with the fan. But trouble will surely come for the Emperor is short-tempered and absent minded. Throw in a plot to overthrow him and you get a wonderful story.
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"A Gun for Dinosaur" [permanent link]. A fascinating story that combines big game hunting and the ultimate prey; dinosaurs. A hunting party sets out into the past to hunt for trophy dinosuars but things start to go wrong when one of the hunters starts to do things his way instead of listening to his guides.
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"Language for Time Travelers" [permanent link]. An interesting and humourous look at something that is always taken for granted in a 'time-travel' story: why the time traveler is always able to communicate with people hundreds of years in the future. In this speculative article, de Camp applies what is known about linguistics and how languages change in the past to offer a very good look at the kinds of linguistic trouble a time-traveler can get into.
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"The Merman" [permanent link]. An interesting tale about a man who, in an accident, inhales a chemical that transforms him into a man who can only breath underwater. The discovery and his attempts to understand what happened to him makes up the major part of this fascinating story.
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"Nothing in the Rules" [permanent link]. A pretty funny story about what a swimming coache would do to ensure that his side wins a swimming meet. In this case, he enlists the helps of a very unusual swimmer, causing a lot of hilarious shouting and referring to rules between the coaches and an escalating war of swimmers.
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"The Reluctant Shaman" [permanent link]. An amusing tale about a Native American who suddenly finds himself having to take care of eight Native American 'spirits.' When he doesn't like what he sees, the spirits decide to go off and have some fun of their own, wracking havoc in the town. So, he has no choice to but to go and find a way to control them.
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