The Silence of the Langford

by David Langford

The Silence of the Langford is a collection of humorous essays, book reviews, short stories and computer colums by British SF Fan, SF Writer and all-around wit, David Langford. This volume is the latest collection from Dave Langford, one of the most erudite and certainly the wittiest British SF writer of our day. The essays, reviews, and stories in this book show why Langford has been awarded so many Hugos by the membership of the World Science Fiction Convention. He has been rated tops by most of the major British SF writers—and not a few American ones also. For example:

Brian Aldiss said, "Deaf maybe, but he's the seeing eye of SF humour. In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eared Man is King." and John Clute's comment sums up the science fiction community's opinion of Langford—"There is wit here, and great jokes, and a sharp mind. But there's more, David Langford makes us feel welcome in the house of science fiction. By being here, he graces us."

The Silence of the Langford incorporates all the contents of the Hugo-nominated chapbook Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man except for "Starts and Stop" which was withdrawn at the author's request. "Follies of '88" appeared in Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man as "Conventional Wisdom". "The Reader is Warned" is a revision of "Crimewatch" which appeared in Let's Hear it for the Deaf Man. The Silence of the Langford contains more than 200 pages of additional material, never before collected.

An excerpt (Ansible Review of the Year) is available.

Table of Contents

• Introduction by Teresa Nielsen Hayden
• The Dragonhiker's Guide to Battlefield Covenant at Dune's Edge: Odyssey Two
• Untrue Names
• Contrivances
• What Are They Doing in There?
• This Does Not Compute
  • 100 Years Ago
  • Nebulous Statistics
  • Hack's Quest
  • Misleading Cases
  • Another Useful Review
• Trillion Year Sneer
• Follies of '88
• Endless Loops
• Some Informal Remarks Toward the Punctuational Calculus
• Fun with Senseless Violence
• Best Foot Forward
• Ansible Review of the Year
• Somewhere Near Penrhyndeudraeth
• Hugos and Critical Mass
• The Moving Accident
• The Leaky Establishment: The Final Drips
• Fizz! Buzz!
• Slightly Foxed: The Million Columns
  • 1: Thud & Blunder
  • 2: Banned in New York
  • 3: Bound & Gagged
  • 4: The Worst Crime in the World
  • 5: Ancient Images
  • 6: The Reader Is Warned
  • 7: On the Twilight Edge
  • 8: Gorey Stories
  • 9: The Rest of Chesterton
  • 10: Notes & Queries
  • 11: The Missing Bits
  • 12: Owl Stuffing Time (89)
• Me and Whitley and the Continuum
• Tell Me the Old, Old Story
• Foodies of the Gods
• You Do It with Mirrors
• The Great Con
• The Arts of the Enemy
• Wisdom of the Ancients
• Leaks
• If Looks Could Kill -
• Lies, Damned Lies and Ansible
  • Obituary, 1979-1987
  • The Ansible Review of the Year: 1992
  • The Ansible Moose of the Year: 1994
  • Ansible Hyperlink, 2010
• What the Black Holes Foretell
• Our Lady of Pain
• Highballs!
• Inside Outside
• Bio-Bibliography
  • Langford in Exactly 100 Words
  • Books and Chapbooks
  • Short Stories
  • Regular Columns and Miscellaneous
  • Selected Fanzines

Praise — and other things — for David Langford

Only Dave Langford knows the meaning of the word "fear."^* — Neil Gaiman

*The other words only Dave Langford knows the meaning of are "Labile", "Glabrous" and "Scrotiform".

David Langford writes like a pixie with sharp teeth. Perhaps rabies. — Joe Haldeman

Of all the science fiction writers living within a stone's throw of the cemetery on the east side of Reading, Dave Langford is undoubtedly the deafest — and, it pains me to admit, the funniest. (It also pains me to admit that I can't throw a stone quite as far as the cemetery.) — Brian Stableford

Dave Langford: Wit, slightly deaf person, raconteur and finest swordsman in all of Christendom. — Terry Pratchett

Deaf maybe, but he's the seeing eye of SF humour. In the Country of the Blind, the One-Eared Man is King. — Brian Aldiss

Bad! Bold! Brazen! No Apologies and No Prisoners! But, enough about me! David Langford is so witty that someday, I might let him make jokes about me. Maybe. (The dog.) — Pat Cadigan

For me, Dave Langford has always represented the highest and definitely the most virulent strain of fandom. — Bruce Sterling

There is wit here, and great jokes, and a sharp mind. But there's more. David Langford makes us feel welcome in the house of science fiction. By being here, he graces us. — John Clute

Filled with wild rumor, suspect speculation, gross exaggeration, dirt and innuendo ... Unputdownable. — Harry Harrison

It is a tragedy to readers of serious fiction that David Langford has recklessly chosen to squander so many of his splendid talents on demagoguery aimed at science fiction fandom, the street people of the literary world. His inflammatory rhetoric may stimulate and madden the great unwashed, but it's hardly art. — Peter Nicholls

Awards, etc.

• Six further Fanwriter Hugo awards, 1998-2003, for a total of 17.
• Two more fanzine Hugos for Ansible, 1999 and 2002, for a total of 5.
• Ansible published its 194th issue in September 2003.
• Best Short Story Hugo in 2001 for "Different Kinds of Darkness" (Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 2000).
• Skylark Award from NESFA, 2002.
• British Science Fiction Association Award (Best Related Work), 2003, for the introduction to Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek.
• Cloud Chamber reached issue 144 in September 2003.

More Books

• A Cosmic Cornucopia with Josh Kirby (text commentary on art book, 1999)
• The Complete Critical Assembly (2001, omnibus edition of the two earlier books)
• Guts with John Grant (spoof horror novel, 2001)
• The Wyrdest Link (a second Discworld quizbook, 2002)
• Up Through an Empty House of Stars: Reviews and Essays 1980-2002 (collected criticism, 2003)
• He Do the Time Police in Different Voices (collected parody and pastiche, incorporating The Dragonhiker's Guide, 2003)
• Wrath of the Fanglord (editor, 1998)
• Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek (editor, 2002)