Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies [Paperback]

Matthew Rossi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2003

From Sodom and Gomorrah to the Siberian taigo, from Roanoke Island to lost cities in Africa populated by ape-men in Elizabethan garb, this book is a travelogue of mental expeditions to weird and imaginary places. In this book, demons caper, dinosaurs are dismayed and bewildered, vampires walk in our hospitals and gods dies at the hands of men.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book is amazing. It's a collection of speculative non-fiction: the old "What if" game played to perfection. -- RevolutionSF

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Monkeybrain (August 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932265058
• ISBN-13: 978-1932265057
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,818,633 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Universal Unhistory, July 10, 2004

By 

Luís Rodrigues "blackgoblin" (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies (Paperback)

Ever wondered what boy scouts are really up to? Where all the dinosaurs went? How Robert Heinlein halted the Mongovian invasion of 1938? Who Genghis Khan's spies in Europe were? And what the heck is wrong with California?

Matthew Rossi, who may share a psychic link with people like Avram Davidson, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, Charles Fort and H.P. Lovecraft, endeavours to answer these and other perplexing questions in the 35+ strange short essays collected in _Things That Never Were_. It is fun and clever and disconcertingly insane; and no matter how erudite the subject matter may be, Rossi's tone remains informal and unassuming throughout this guided tour of the ten dimensions of the Sephiroth. If the 10,000 volts you've been passing through your head are no longer enough to get you off, this frantic weaving of fact and fiction may just be the ticket to deliver that extra jolt you've been craving for.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent work of...?, October 21, 2003

By 

Julianna J. Rossi "odd one out" (Edmonton, AB) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies (Paperback)

Any discussion of Matt Rossi's book invariably includes some discussion of categorization; where do we place a book which leaps from Tunguska to the hollow earth and back again via express tesseract? The essays contained herein might seem disparate to the casual observer - but if read with an eye to comprehension, one can see a common, nascent thread linking them all- something along the lines of a ley line burning brightly in the darkness. In and of themselves, the works stand alone and stand as plainly informative or as speculatively imaginative as the reader can bring to them. There is simply no end at the end of Rossi's story - only more dimensional vortices to fall through.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A staggering stagger through contradictory worlds, February 24, 2004

By 

Sarris Delapore (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Things That Never Were: Fantasies, Lunacies & Entertaining Lies (Paperback)

The introduction by Paul Di Filippo sums it up best - "Rossi's several incompatible mindchildren aren't fighting. they're violently screwing, and out of this brain-intercourse is going to arise an unpredictable hybrid of startling portent."

I've never enjoyed a book more. I've never been more confused by one. It's not a simple book, but it is a good one. If you enjoy odd writing, this is one of the best I've come across.