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Re: H. G. Wells
Posted By: koalamom, on host 4.33.109.61
Date: Thursday, September 21, 2000, at 22:16:55
In Reply To: Re: H. G. Wells posted by Grishny on Thursday, September 21, 2000, at 11:52:34:

> That scenario brings to mind a short story I read once. A scientist had invented a device that accelerated time within a certain radius of the machine. When he activated it, it killed him, because of course he was inside the area that the machine affected when he turned it on, and it acclerated his aging process. He died of old age in a matter of seconds. His assistant lost an arm trying to rescue him when she reached into the field to try to pull him out. There was also something about a hole burned through the wall of the lab due to a flashlight that entered the effect of the time-accelerating field. The entire energy output of the flashlight was drained from it in a microsecond, causing a burst of light that incinerated the spot it was pointing at.
>
> I know there was more to the story than that, but I can't remember the details. The police were investigating it, and it was one of the detectives who finally peiced together what happened in the end.
>
> Gri"Gri"Grishny"shny"shny

I remember this story. I believe it was part of an anthology edited by Isaac Asimov. The premise of the anthology was Asimov's challenge to mystery and/or sci-fi writers to combine the two generes. The classic mystery formats--i.e., the "locked room mystery", the "hardboiled gumshoe", etc, were set in a science fiction/futuristic setting and/or had a science fiction element (like time travel) as key point in the plot or the solution of the mystery. It was very interesting; some stories worked better than others.

koala"now if I could only remember the name of the book"mom