From: Nigel Price <NigelPrice1@compuserve.com>
Subject: (urth) A Haunting Similarity?
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 19:54:30 

"Talarican" wrote...

>>Even if "One-Two-Three" isn't a New Sun story, I think we can still agree
>>that its extinct peoples of Earth have much in common with the
inhabitants
>>of the nearly forgotten decadent stellar empire ages before Urth. And
that
>>enigmatic story title suggests selfishness. (yes, I remember that Bugs
Bunny
>>cartoon, too...)

Sorry, I haven't been concentrating for the last, um... well, about nine
months, I suppose.  Has anyone else suggested yet that "One-Two-Three for
Me" is in some rather tenuous respects a science-fictional retelling of M R
James' classic ghost story, "Oh, whistle, and I'll come to you, my lad"? 
Instead of the antique whistle in James' story, the vindictive "ghost" is
summoned by a call on an ancient cell phone, and instead of a thing of wind
and cloth, the "ghost" is a drug dealer.  Both stories feature minor
excavation and archaeology, and if the titles aren't really that similar,
they do at least share the common feature of being the sinisterly seductive
promises of the mysterious evil figures summoned in each story.

Nigel

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