Feb 17
Click for full imageGood Show Sir Comments: Look out Jeff, we’ve got a T-Rex… and he doesn’t look impressed with my one-piece body suit.
Published 1975
Many thanks to Erin for sending this in!
(Average: 6.46 out of 10)
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Good Show Sir Comments: Look out Jeff, we’ve got a T-Rex… and he doesn’t look impressed with my one-piece body suit.
Published 1975
Many thanks to Erin for sending this in!
(Average: 6.46 out of 10)Loading...
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February 17th, 2014 at 10:44 am
“Unrivalled not only in its class, but in a class by itself.”
At first I thought this was nonsense but then quickly realised it became a derived class.
The correct name of the book is actually:
class Dinosaur: public Beach
February 17th, 2014 at 11:11 am
I see a rock hard pinnacle thrusting skyward…and I see Rock Hudson with a weak grip on his own staff. But as far as I can tell, Derpysaurus doesn’t have teeth but badly chapped lips instead.
February 17th, 2014 at 12:00 pm
@rev – is that the first object-oriented joke on GSS? Impressive.
February 17th, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Is there an earth tremor going on? They all look unsteady on their feet.
February 17th, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Although it is in a class by itself, this class has two members:
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/?p=8005
“All blurb writers are liars!” — Gordon R. Dickson
February 17th, 2014 at 12:44 pm
There’s a weird optical thing going on with that T-Rex. Is it big and far away, or tiny and right behind them?
February 17th, 2014 at 12:46 pm
Man, do these people look like they hurt when they walk!
HERNIA BEACH
February 17th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
Tag Wizard …look out … there’s a T. Rex … BEHIND YOU!
February 17th, 2014 at 1:35 pm
@Biblio: Thanks for tracking down that pull quote. I originally thought “Shennanigans, we’ve seen that blurb before!”
I wonder if ol’ Gordon R. Dickson just sent people this blurb whenever he was asked for one. It’s notable that this phrasing could be interpreted to be somewhat backhanded.
February 17th, 2014 at 1:56 pm
The young lady appears to be cobbled together by some amateur Dr Frankenstein: the right breast is enormous, the left merely large; whilst the legs have clearly come from different bodies.
The model for the male lead appears to have been Benedict Cumberpatch on a bad day.
The dinosaur is clearly drunk – it can’t stand up straight and appears to be trying to hide behind that palm tree.
ISFDB reveals the artist to be Michael Whelan in a one-off printing with that cover: previous & subsequent DAW editions had a Kelly Freas cover http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?10164
Looking the DAW editions on ISFDB I note the Dickson quote is the full version up to the Whelan cover only, but after that becomes just “unrivalled”: presumably because someone at DAW realised that being unrivalled in a class of one is not actually praise – and nor is being in a class by yourself! Dickson should probably win a prize for that quote.
February 17th, 2014 at 2:37 pm
@Tom Noir: The late editor and critic Don Thompson often used the line, “If you like this sort of thing, this is the sort of thing you’ll like.”
February 17th, 2014 at 2:58 pm
that ‘dinosaur’ has the largest, most muscular arms ever. far more so than when compared to its legs. perhaps they landed at the dino version of venice beach. or perhaps the standard beach dino is a beer swilling, iron pumping, roid popping ‘bro-asaurus dix’. all he needs is a tribal tattoo and it would be all but certain.
February 17th, 2014 at 3:57 pm
@Don: I believe that the quote has been attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and possibly also Samuel Johnson, if you like attributing quotes to people, that is.
@fom: those aren’t muscular arms per se so much as muscular shoulders…goodness, that dinosaur has a double rotator cuff!
February 17th, 2014 at 4:14 pm
Yes, the blurb is familiar from our attempt to rationalise it on its last appearance. I notice, however, that it is punctuated differently here… and makes even less sense than it did the first time.
Sorry, Gordon Dickson, you can’t fix your logic with punctuation.
February 17th, 2014 at 4:38 pm
The quote’s even more incomprehensible if one has read the book. What, exactly, one asks oneself, *is* this class of which “Dinosaur Beach” is the unrivalled sole member? It can’t very well be “time travel stories” or “books with dinosaurs in them”.
February 17th, 2014 at 4:50 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8oGz0mxwks
Because the cover of a book that’s in a class by itself needs a cover song that’s in a class by itself.
February 17th, 2014 at 5:38 pm
“Odyssey” is a Baen compilation that includes “Dinosaur Beach” among others. So really the Gordon Dickson quote only applies to part of that volume. So apparently the other stories are in a lesser and/or different class.
February 17th, 2014 at 9:19 pm
Yeah I thought about Dinosaur Beach for my holidays this year, but the TripAdvisor rating was only 2 stars.
“The dinosaurs are so old they’ve got dodgy hips and no teeth, and the resort staff are unfriendly and have inconsistent uniform codes. Male staff dress like they’re in Zardoz and the women in saggy crotched one pieces. Centre Parcs for us next year.”
February 17th, 2014 at 9:54 pm
Researchers are still debating what kind of sounds dinosaurs made.
When it comes to this particular dinosaur however, my bet is on an inquisitive “Gwrrroinnk?”.
February 18th, 2014 at 12:25 am
@RachelJ – I agree that this book can’t be the best of all “time travel stories†or “books with dinosaurs in themâ€. Maybe it’s the specific class of “books about mutant dinosaurs who live only on beaches”? Still doesn’t explain away the “in a class by itself” bit, though, since the dino in the other book with this quote also seems to live by the shore…
February 18th, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Thank you, CyborgAbeLincoln.
February 19th, 2014 at 1:24 pm
I’m guessing what happened is that all requests for a blurb receive this email:
“Unrivalled not only in its class, but in a class by itself.”
– Gordon R. Dickson is currently out of the office and is expected to return next Tuesday.
Gordon R. Dickson
Blurb Writer
ph: (69) 699696
@Tag Wizard – Thankyou. I was concerned it was maybe too nerdy. Can I have an OOP tag? Please?
February 19th, 2014 at 9:29 pm
Ah yes, I can already see the blurbs on the good Dr. J.R. Asimov’s next book.
“If there’s not a sequel to Good Show Sir – The Book, I’m going to be so %@$$# off!”
– Orson Scott Card
“Discerning people have always read Dr. J.R. Asimov for a lot of reasons (…)”
– David Weber
“Gordon R. Dickson is currently out of the office and is expected to return next Tuesday.”
– Gordon R. Dickson
February 20th, 2014 at 8:26 pm
If there was ever a need to justify, proudly, the existence of GSS, it’s the calling out of this double-blurb racket. Otherwise, we’d all be out there in the world walking up to random strangers, sweaty, google-eyed, grabbing them by the sleeve, pleading
“L-look, look, it-it’s the same blurb but two different books! How can that be, plus, WTF does it mean in the first place?” We’d be putting ourselves at serious risk of bodily harm. But thanks to GSS, we can all nestle by the fire in our snuggies with a hot pipe and a hot toddy, basking in the glow of fellow travelers who get it . . . .
February 20th, 2014 at 9:15 pm
@ B. Chiclitz — You sir, are in a class by yourself! Which must mean your schedule got messed up again.
February 20th, 2014 at 9:32 pm
@Biblioboy—Ah, how well I remember being just a wee, wee lad and you taking me under your wing and explaining how I could be “outstanding in my field.” After twelve hours of standing out in that meadow I finally realized what it meant to be in a class by oneself. Cheers to you, Good Sir!
February 20th, 2014 at 9:39 pm
@B.C. — All farmers are great because they are out standing in their field. And all Siamese twins are exasperated because they are standing there beside themselves.
March 22nd, 2014 at 9:36 pm
Sixty-Five Million Years Ago, When Well-Tempered Tuning Ruled the Earth…
DINOSAUR BACH
March 24th, 2014 at 6:19 pm
Inspired by “Jurassic Park” scientists try to recreate ancient great lizards from DNA traces, but when filling in the gaps one of the researches accidentally spills their fruit juice, resulting in the creation of the…
DINOSAUR PEACH
March 20th, 2015 at 10:10 pm
When the dinosaur’s girlfriend arrived to the party, there was suddenly a…
DINOSAUR EACH
April 29th, 2015 at 4:23 pm
If it’s not the Germans, it’s the bloody dinosaurs..
August 27th, 2015 at 3:00 am
*whispering* “Psst . . . hey, don’t look . . . but there’s a dinosaur back there . . . and there’s something VERY WRONG with its head . . .”
October 31st, 2015 at 4:59 am
If you think this beach is random, the adjacent island has Dracula, Tattoo and The Saint fighting over a laser pointer!
October 31st, 2015 at 2:37 pm
Mystery solved (sort of) of the infinitely recursive Gordon R. Dickson quote both here on Dinosaur Beach and later on Baen’s Odyssey
From the Baen website:
Publishers Note: Odyssey has previously appeared in parts as Galactic Odyssey, Dinosaur Beach, and in the volumes Once There was a Giant, Greylorn and Alien Minds. This is the first combined edition.
I’m curious if those other books are also sporting the Dickson blurb.
November 3rd, 2015 at 5:22 am
Necks!
November 4th, 2015 at 8:55 am
“Asha, dino cuber” by Keith Mauler