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Waldrop's stories combine elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American south, old movies (and character actors), classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. The elements are sometimes obscure or elliptical but, like buried treasure, there is excitement when they are discovered by the reader. And the stories are always entertaining: "Night of the Cooters" is The War of the Worlds told from the perspective of a Texas sheriff (an homage to Slim Pickens); "Heirs of the Perisphere" involves robotic Disney characters waking up in the far future; "Fin de Cyclé" describes the Dreyfus affair from the perspective of bicycle enthusiasts.
Waldrop's work is invariably out of print and routinely hard to find.
Some of these books have been reprinted in omnibus editions.
"Night of the Cooters" can be found in War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches, edited by Kevin J. Anderson.
Several of his stories have been nominated for awards; " The Ugly Chickens " (1980) -- about the dodo -- won a Nebula.
Born in Mississippi, Waldrop spent most of his life in Texas. He moved to WashingtonWashington is a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. It should not be confused with Washington, DC, the nation's capital. To avoid confusion, the state is often called Washington state . Although the state capital is Olympia, the largest c for a few years but has since returned. He is, to put it mildly, an avid fly fishermanFly fishing is an ancient and distinct angling method, developed primarily for trout and now extended to other surface-oriented species such as grayling as well as a wide range of marine species. Artificial flies are constructed — "tied" onto a hook with.