LAUGH LINES, Ben Bova, Baen Books, 2009, 677pp, $7.99

A welcome repackaging of stories from a premier writer of hard science fiction as he sallies into science fiction humor. Included are two books (he insists on calling them novellas) and a handful of short stories.

The centerpiece is the lead book, “The Starcrossed,” based on the notorious syndicated, Canadian-filmed TV show, Starlost, offered to ill-prepared viewers in a time long before Star Trek the Next Generation set a quality standard for syndication in general. Bova was the science adviser, fantasist Harlan Ellison was the creator and story editor. Not only were both routinely ignored but the suits additionally disemboweled Ellison’s prize-winning story. The results were well-documented in Ellison’s revenge essay that led off the novelization of his script for the planned mini-series  (casually turned into an open-ended series consulting telling him).  “The Starcrossed” is Bova’s own entertaining act of revenge.

“The Starcrossed” is set in the near future with a proposed science fiction story pitched for three- dimensional television by a brilliant, courageous, skirt-chasing writer resembling Bova’s partner-in-TVland, Harlan Ellison. Bill Oxnard has developed the perfected three-dimensional television technology that will make The Starcrossed the flagship for Titanic Productions. When Titanic executives get involved, the result is the same as for the company’s sea-going namesake. No accident on Bova’s part.

The other book in this collection is “Cyberbooks.” Think of it as an alternate world story of the introduction of what we call ebooks, written in 1989. Carl Lewis invents a device that lets people download books that will make literature available to everyone everywhere and even teach the illterate to read. Then there’s the response by maniacal publishers and fearful salesmen and distributors. In the real world, ebooks have eased into the public consciousness, aided by the internet, without a sweeping conversion from print to cyberspace as Bova postulates in his story. Of course, Bova admits that isn’t the point, as he skewers New York book publishers, in the style of “The Starcrossed,” working real nightmare anecdotes into the fiction.

Of the short stories, “The Great Moon Hoax” is my favorite, telling the story of aliens who landed in Roswell in 1948 and how they have worked to hide their origins by making sure we never get a clear vision of populated Mars, Venus, the Moon, and the other planets. (The story could be viewed as a skeptic’s interpretation of the gargantuan hurdles that would have to be overcome to explain why there are so many UFO’s, assuming all those UFO’s are truly flying saucers.)

This is long enough to keep you tied up for awhile and it’s good stuff. Definitely one to grab.