The Outpost

In a book that reads more like an anthology than a novel, Mike Resnick tells the kind of tall tales in which history isn't necessarily written by the winners. It's written instead by the best human, alien, and mutant storytellers this side of the Galactic Core, with a little embellishment from Willie the Bard. At the edge of an enormous black hole on the planet Henry II, one of the Eight Henrys, rests the Outpost tavern, owned by Tomahawk. It's so far out that only heroes, villains, and adventurers "three times as big as life and twice as wide" can manage to find it. But once they do they've earned bragging rights to tell their story. It's the kind of place where characters like Catastrophe Baker, Bet-A-World O'Grady, Cyborg de Milo, and Hurricane Smith come to hang around, swap tales, and wait for the approaching alien invasion to get close enough to bother with. However, once the aliens decimate the Navy and start to take over the Henrys, the adventurers reluctantly set off to save the universe one tall tale at a time. Hugo and Nebula award-winner Resnick spins the stories into a novel that examines the way legend and history are created, and the philosophy that you shouldn't let the facts stand in the way of a good yarn. Fans of tall tales will love the vivid characterizations and the way Resnick shows how each character's real adventure is embellished into an even better story. --Kathie Huddleston