A World Beneath the Stars

Before We Left Home... Join noted hard science fiction author G. David Nordley on a World Beneath the Stars in this collection of his stories previously published in Analog and other science fiction magazines. A Hundred Miles From Reno The setting sun and the cool, clear evening sky lent a slightly magic air to the simple setting. The real Venus was high and bright. Well, all right! she thought. It would be a good performance, if she could get him outside. She liked to show Venus what she did, and the rest of the universe. . . Democritus' Violin "Come to my concert," Stevens droned on, "and I will show you, or," he gave a slight chuckle of phony self deprecation, "try anyway. And listen to my Stradivarius, if not to me or to Schoenberg. People have picked apart and tried to analyze his violins for over four centuries, and they can't duplicate them. No, they can't. Not all the analysis in the world will make another Stradivarius, and I'll give an A in this course to anyone who can prove otherwise!"