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| Cover art by John Schoenherr |
| THE BIRD OF TIME Wallace West New York: Ace Books, 1959 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-0-441-? | ||||
| ISBN 0-441-? | 224pp. | SC | $0.40 | |
| Page 5: | "As the long low light of sunset washed through the transparent plastic roof of the Agan Theatredrome at Croton, capital of the Martian Anarchiate, a princess sat in her preening room and shed two precious tears." |
| Spelling: S/B "Crotan". |
| Page 23: | " 'Ulp!' The telegrapher-psychologist looked horrorstruck at such an invasion of perfidy." |
| Word choice: S/B "invasion of privacy". It may have been a perfidious invasion... |
| Page 34: | "Gold is in a different column of the atomic tablet—the one containing copper, silver, and other non-fissionable metals." |
| Spelling: S/B "atomic table" — meaning periodic table. |
| Page 45: | "It was an eyrie such as she had seen only in metal foil tomes recording the birth of her race . . . books so old, so worn, so alien that they antedated the time when Martians became mammals . . . marked the era when they still were oviparous!" |
| West bends biology here, I think. Intelligent birds choosing to become mammals? Even if such were possible, what would be gained? |
| Page 64: | "Yahna and Mura lifted wingtips to the singing throngs..." |
| Mura has wings? |
| Page 77: | "...the ship has to be coasted down on her hydrazine braking jets..." |
| Hydrazine is an odd choice to fuel such a major propulsion system. |
| Page 86: | "...two white objects flashed out from the tower, struck the grounded vessels, and spread like flaming wounds over the magnesium hulls." |
| Another odd choice. Magnesium is light, but entirely too combustible for a structural material. |
| Page 88: | "You can't say French jungled fighters are moving on Nirvana..." |
| Spelling: S/B "jungle". |
| Page 95: | "...but ever so often something slips through..." |
| Spelling: S/B "every so often". |
| Page 135: | " 'So you're a ganster?' Jeanne shot." |
| Spelling: S/B "gangster". |
| Page 138: | "Yahna clapped sparkling fingertips to her lips. 'Oh, no,!' " |
| Punctuation: There should be no comma following "no". |
| Page 135: | "The censor had spend a bad night..." |
| Spelling: S/B "had spent". |
| Page 143: | "The censor walked downstaris and his braincast walked with him." |
| Spelling: S/B "downstairs". |
| Page 151: | " 'No time for details,' Brown barked as he shepherded them in 'Secretariat agreed...'" |
| Punctuation: There is no period after "in". |
| Page 152: | "...you might call it a museum at the North Pole..." |
| Continuity: S/B "South Pole". It was previously established that the Avron's domain was there. |
| Page 163: | " 'Instellar has a Triple-A priority,' Brown told the trio..." |
| Spelling: S/B "Interstellar". |
| Page 169: | ""With Jack around..." |
| Punctuation: This sentence should not begin with a quotation mark. |
| Page 177: | "Folks are getting so used to these atomic energizers that I'd almost forgotten the uproar they made when they were first introduced." |
| It's a real stretch to imagine atomic energizers light and safe enough to be worn on the wrist like bracelets. |
| Page 181: | "There's a way out. don't let your electronic slip show..." |
| Capitalization: S/B "out. Don't let". |
| Page 186: | "The more dust there was in the atmosphere, the dried it got and the harder the wind blew." |
| Spelling: S/B "the drier it got". |
| Page 196: | "Then, like the conger ell, which always gives its drowning victim just one chance..." |
| Spelling: S/B "conger eel". |
| Page 206: | "The id, which might be compared either to a child genius or..." |
| Capitalization: S/B "Id". Super-ego and Ego are capitalized, after all. |
| Page 221: | "They opened the door and helped the occupants out of the fetid compartment." |
| There's no reason for the teleport compartment to be fetid (smelly); it's only occupied for a few moments. (Unless, perhaps, it induces a certain intense fear in certain individuals...) |
| Page 221: | "The Psycho's agate eyes slitted..." |
| Is it not remarkable that the unusual color of these eyes was never noticed? Perhaps that was part of the illusion. |
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