Night of the Cooters

by Howard Waldrop

Contents:
Night of the Cooters (1987)
French Scenes (1988)
The Passing of the Western (1989)
The Adventure of the Grinder's Whistle (1977)
Thirty Minutes over Broadway! (1987)
Hoover's Men (1988)
Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance? (1988)
Wild, Wild Horses (1988)
Fin de Cyclé (1990)

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections, Anthologies, Speculative Fiction

231 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Howard Waldrop was an American science fiction author who worked primarily in short fiction, with shorties that combined elements such as alternate history, American popular culture, the American South, old movies, classical mythology, and rock 'n' roll music. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2021.

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Waldrop's short fiction doesn't contain his best-known stories, but it has some very good ones. His subjects are always amazingly varied and entertaining, and his writing is very highly polished though he projects an effortless and natural tone. He can also be amusing to an unsurpassed level. This one contains the very first Wild Cards story, Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!, along with an interesting W.C. essay. (There are story notes throughout the book, many of them almost as entertaining as the stories themselves, and a nice introduction by Chad Oliver.) My favorite is Do Ya, Do Ya, Wanna Dance?, an excellent 1960's piece, but all of the stories are worth reading. Waldrop, along with Bradbury and Ellison, is one of the writers in the genre who's known almost exclusively for his short fiction, a station that's well-earned.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ignore the cover and enjoy. One of Waldrop’s better collections(though all are good) and whether its about Texans fighting Wells’s Martians, Herbert Hoover taking over the airwaves, the bizarre ideas and clear writing makes these stories terrific. My favorites are “French Scenes” a looking at the future where everyone can make their own movie that reminds of Cory Doctorow and includes the most hilarious one off line about the French New Wave learning all its romanization of American B-movies from mistranslation, “Passing of the Western” written in the form of an article about films from an alternative history where terraforming transformed the American West, “Thirty Minutes over Broadway” a tribute/parody of the pulp era that manages to be as entertaining and suspenseful as a great pulp story(Waldrop can throw down an action scene when he wants) off course with Waldrop’s comic and doomy touch(he provides annotations for it showing the sheer density of allusion and research put into his work), and a grand steampunk fantasia(bikepunk?) “Fin de Cycle” which lovers of Francophiles will drool over as it combines Rosseau, Jarry, and Proust making a film to protest the Dreyfuss affair, a bike duel on the Eiffel tower, helicopters, futurism, augury of the world war and age of air, steam stilts, machinegun trikes, anarchist’s bombs, Jarry’s hallucinations, Pablo Picasso, and Erik Satie

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Night of the Cooters is an anthology consistently featuring fantastic stories. It even included some Wild Cards material I had never seen before, a real bonus for me. I loathe using catchphrases like "a true original" but that phrase actually applies to Howard Waldrop. His writing is trenchant and can be very very funny, though the humor is more of a side effect than the main thrust. Each story here is a little gem. If I had to pick a favorite? Night of the Cooters and yes I did "hear" the voice of Slim Pickens throughout. Excellent stuff. (Sidebar: I read this book in a slightly out of the ordinary way. After each book I finished I read one of Waldrop's short stories-each one served a a sort of palate cleanser before I started another book. In this way I have whittled this collection down over time and I am thinking this may be the only way to fly from now on.)

[David Claughton]

Some of this (like the last novella in the book - A Dozen Tough Jobs) deserved five stars, most of the rest a four. The first Waldrop I've read, but not the last

[David H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always, Waldrop gives us a selection of fantastic and bizarre stories, many of which worked very well for me, and some that confused the hell out of me. My favorite was the novella "A Dozen Tough Jobs" which retells the story of the Twelve Labors of Hercules into 1920s Mississippi in a great manner. I also really enjoyed "Night of the Cooters," "Wild, Wild Horses," and "Do Ya, Do Ya Wanna, Wanna Dance?" which I think reflect a lot of Waldrop's research skills, sense of humor, and ability to just tell a story.

[Adriane Geronimo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow…of course, you read it for the Texan War of the Worlds, but then you get a prescient generative AI story, Sherlock Holmes, and then it gets kind of Mario Vargas Llosa. He mentions Daniel Pinkwater in his introductions, and his writing is like Pinkwater for adults. I’m already hooked on Waldrop's flavor of speculative fiction, and regret that I learned of him only upon his death. Great piece on the Texas Standard that piqued my interest.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

I only read the titular story

[Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Howard Waldrop's writing is divine. His prose is gorgeous, a joy to read. That being said, while I enjoyed reading every story in this book, I wasn't really impressed with some of them at a fundamental level. Night of the Cooters and Fin De Cycle are probably my favorites of the bunch, some of the others are ultimately too gimmicky for me. Every story is very well written, even the ones I don't really care for. I love reading his story introductions as well, he is a very funny and interesting man. I don't know where this ranks among his work, hopefully I'll find a little more meat to go with the pretty prose in some of his other books.

[William Dymock-Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the funniest SF tales out there. Waldrop's tale of how a small town in Texas fends off the Martians unlike that silly British Empire gets a pass because it's so funny.