RE>One more 'Best of' Request                5/4/98
Doug Mitchell wrote:
>>There seems to be an edge or sense of urgency when the story involves
our world connecting with another. Without limiting myself too much, for
example, beings from our world or the other are compelled for various
reasons to migrate to the foreign world and forced to make alliances
with individuals of that world but still try to keep their identity
secret from most of the indigenous population.<<

Zenna Henderson wrote a series of stories about a group of humanoid alien
castaways on Earth with telekinetic and telepathic powers that were
collected in two books published by Avon (I think) in the late 60s. They
were titled The People and The People: No Different Flesh if I remember
correctly. I doubt if they're still in print but a used book store might
have them. They're excellent stories, somewhat pastoral or at least
rural, and are illuminated by a very humanistic spirituality. As a young
adolescent they really got to me on an emotional level and in rereading
them a few years ago in my late thirties I still found the stories very
moving though not maudlin or overly sentimental.
  I recommend also, R.A. Lafferty's The Reefs of Earth, which is about
nearly human aliens on Earth passing themselves off as Earth people.
Deliciously weird, funny and scary.
  Be forewarned that these books are exceptional in that they don't bear
many of the usual (cliched) trappings of SF, as their settings are rural,
rustic versions of America. Lafferty in particular is more
phantasmagorical than SFnal, but the story is great, definitely
possessing the above mentioned "edge or sense of urgency."
Carey Wilson
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