Hoka! Hoka! Hoka!  by Poul Anderson & Gordon Dickson

 

This is a collection of stories dealing with the Hoka species.  The stories all work on the premise that the Hoka species tends to respond to human fiction by take on the lifestyles of the fictional characters.  The Hokas start behaving as if their world was that described in the fiction - and where it's necessary to have, for instance, one of their planet's animals rather than a terrestrial horse, they act oblivious to the difference.  There's at least one exception: they generally recognize Alex, the human assigned to head the human agency working towards including the Hokas in the galactic civilization.  The Hoka's role-playing leads to complications which Alex is dragged into.

 

Each of the stories is based on its own additional premise - what work of fiction has led the Hokas into what kind of role-playing.  Below is a list of the stories and the kind of role-playing the Hokas are doing.

 

1) The Sheriff of Canyon Gulch

     Roles: The Old West)

 

2) Don Jones

    Roles: The opera Don Giovanni [Don Juan]

 

3) In Hoka Signo Vinces

     Roles: Old SF "Space Patrol" adventure stories

 

4) The Adventure of the Misplaced Hound

    Roles: Sherlock Holmes

 

5) Yo Ho Hoka!

    Roles: Pirates

 

6) The Tiddlywink Warriors

    Roles: French Foreign Legion

 

7) Joy in Mudville

    Roles: Casey at the Bat

 

8) Undiplomatic Immunity

    Roles: Spies

 

The stories are entertaining, humorous reading.  Because each of the stories is based on the same premise of Hoka role-playing / Alex entangled in their (mis)adventures, reading them all at once made the latter stories feel somewhat less unique.  Still, good light reading.

 

 

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