Status
Available
Series
Collection
Publication
DAW Books (1988), Edition: Book Club (BCE/BOMC), 244 pages
User reviews
LibraryThing member bragan
I read the 1983 and 1984 volumes of this series not long ago, having picked them up along with this 1988 installment at a library sale a while back, and I'm finding it interesting to compare them. Both the '83 and the '84 versions had a mixture of two very different kinds of SF stories. On one
A breakdown of the specific stories:
"The Pardoner's Tale" by Robert Silverberg: The story of a computer hacker who alters people's records for a fee, in a world that's been occupied by aliens. It's decently written, in a breezy sort of way, and I kind of like the way the lightly sketched worldbuilding deliberately leaves a lot to the imagination. But it's very slight, and the vaguely cyberpunky elements feel almost quaint now. (Hey, remember when "megabyte" was an impressive-sounding word?)
"Rachel in Love" by Pat Murphy: A scientist imprints the memories and personality of his dead teenage daughter onto a chimpanzee. Then he dies, and the chimp is sent to a primate research facility. The result is a quiet, understated little story about identity and adolescence and the fuzzy dividing line between humans and animals.
"America" by Orson Scott Card: A strange story about a repressed and rather sanctimonious Mormon kid, a middle aged Indian woman from the Brazilian rainforest, prophetic dreams, some kind of mystical force or god, and a ruler destined to reclaim the Americas from the Europeans. Well-written, but it's debatable whether it's more science fiction or fantasy, and there's something about it that makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable, and not in a good way. Although that may have as much or more to do with what I know of Card and the fact that I sort of expect to dislike any political or religious statement he might be making than with anything inherent in the story itself. It's really hard to say.
"Crying in the Rain" by Tanith Lee: A quietly disturbing little story about everyday life -- short, sad, limited everyday life -- in a world so contaminated by poison and radioactivity that even walking in the rain is deadly.
"The Sun Spider" by Lucius Shepard: The story of a scientist obsessed with the idea of finding life on the sun, and his wife, and... well, I'm honestly not entirely sure. It was interesting, taking ideas that could have been handled in a pulpy fashion and doing something much more complicated with them, but ultimately it was a little too abstract, and I had difficulty connecting with it.
"Angel" by Pat Cadigan: The story of an alien exiled to Earth, and the humans he bonds with, in his strange, alien way. The basic concept has an almost too-familiar sort of feel to it; the idea of a creature who is in some way beyond human who comes among us and has a profound effect on the people he encounters is older than science fiction itself. But the execution isn't bad.
"Forever Yours, Anna" by Kate Wilhelm: A graphologist is asked to analyze the handwriting on some letters, and discovers an unexpected connection with the letter-writer. A very short story with a Twilight Zone-ish twist ending that works better than it really ought to.
"Second Going" by James Tiptree, Jr.: Humanity encounters some seemingly friendly aliens, and discovers that they've also brought their gods along to Earth with them. Kind of an odd story, and far from Tiptree's best, but, like most Tiptree stories, it's weirdly thought-provoking.
"Dinosaurs" by Walter Jon Williams: A nicely chilling glimpse of the far-future descendents of humanity, who are much, much more alien than the aliens they're trying to have diplomatic relations with. This one is definitely my favorite of the anthology. It's disturbing in some subtle and effective ways.
"All Fall Down" by Don Sakers: Humanity is suffering from a devastating plague, and a race of sentient trees debates whether or not to help. This is actually a sequel to a story that was included in the 1984 volume. That wasn't one of my favorites in that collection, and I can't say I felt any happier with this one. There's just something about the wise, mystical, "like, totally in touch with the natural harmony of the universe, man!" alien tree people that rubs me the wrong way.
Rating: I'm going to give this one a slightly generous 4/5. Even if there aren't that many stand-outs, it's a worthwhile collection, overall.
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hand, there were a smattering of very old school-style works, with scientific ideas (or, occasionally, adventure plots) taking firm precedence over character and prose, and on the other were stories with more of a literary sensibility, ones that were more inclined to be emotionally evocative and maybe a little experimental. Although that's something of a false dichotomy, of course; a lot of the stories actually come somewhere between those two ends of the spectrum. Well, I don't know whether it's a statistical fluke, an indicator of a trend in the history of SF, or simply a result of the editor's evolving tastes, but this installment features only the more soft/literary/experimental stuff and some of those in-between kinds of stories, with none of that real old school SF sensibility at all. Which, honestly, is fine by me. I like good classic SF as much as the next geek, but I just didn't think the examples in those previous volumes were all that great; they often had a stale, backwards-looking feel about them. With this batch, even the ones I didn't care for that much were reasonably well-written, free of clunky exposition, and at least trying to do something creative.A breakdown of the specific stories:
"The Pardoner's Tale" by Robert Silverberg: The story of a computer hacker who alters people's records for a fee, in a world that's been occupied by aliens. It's decently written, in a breezy sort of way, and I kind of like the way the lightly sketched worldbuilding deliberately leaves a lot to the imagination. But it's very slight, and the vaguely cyberpunky elements feel almost quaint now. (Hey, remember when "megabyte" was an impressive-sounding word?)
"Rachel in Love" by Pat Murphy: A scientist imprints the memories and personality of his dead teenage daughter onto a chimpanzee. Then he dies, and the chimp is sent to a primate research facility. The result is a quiet, understated little story about identity and adolescence and the fuzzy dividing line between humans and animals.
"America" by Orson Scott Card: A strange story about a repressed and rather sanctimonious Mormon kid, a middle aged Indian woman from the Brazilian rainforest, prophetic dreams, some kind of mystical force or god, and a ruler destined to reclaim the Americas from the Europeans. Well-written, but it's debatable whether it's more science fiction or fantasy, and there's something about it that makes me feel vaguely uncomfortable, and not in a good way. Although that may have as much or more to do with what I know of Card and the fact that I sort of expect to dislike any political or religious statement he might be making than with anything inherent in the story itself. It's really hard to say.
"Crying in the Rain" by Tanith Lee: A quietly disturbing little story about everyday life -- short, sad, limited everyday life -- in a world so contaminated by poison and radioactivity that even walking in the rain is deadly.
"The Sun Spider" by Lucius Shepard: The story of a scientist obsessed with the idea of finding life on the sun, and his wife, and... well, I'm honestly not entirely sure. It was interesting, taking ideas that could have been handled in a pulpy fashion and doing something much more complicated with them, but ultimately it was a little too abstract, and I had difficulty connecting with it.
"Angel" by Pat Cadigan: The story of an alien exiled to Earth, and the humans he bonds with, in his strange, alien way. The basic concept has an almost too-familiar sort of feel to it; the idea of a creature who is in some way beyond human who comes among us and has a profound effect on the people he encounters is older than science fiction itself. But the execution isn't bad.
"Forever Yours, Anna" by Kate Wilhelm: A graphologist is asked to analyze the handwriting on some letters, and discovers an unexpected connection with the letter-writer. A very short story with a Twilight Zone-ish twist ending that works better than it really ought to.
"Second Going" by James Tiptree, Jr.: Humanity encounters some seemingly friendly aliens, and discovers that they've also brought their gods along to Earth with them. Kind of an odd story, and far from Tiptree's best, but, like most Tiptree stories, it's weirdly thought-provoking.
"Dinosaurs" by Walter Jon Williams: A nicely chilling glimpse of the far-future descendents of humanity, who are much, much more alien than the aliens they're trying to have diplomatic relations with. This one is definitely my favorite of the anthology. It's disturbing in some subtle and effective ways.
"All Fall Down" by Don Sakers: Humanity is suffering from a devastating plague, and a race of sentient trees debates whether or not to help. This is actually a sequel to a story that was included in the 1984 volume. That wasn't one of my favorites in that collection, and I can't say I felt any happier with this one. There's just something about the wise, mystical, "like, totally in touch with the natural harmony of the universe, man!" alien tree people that rubs me the wrong way.
Rating: I'm going to give this one a slightly generous 4/5. Even if there aren't that many stand-outs, it's a worthwhile collection, overall.
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LibraryThing member EmScape
This collection is stuffed with something for everyone. "The Pardoner's Tale," set in a future where people's jobs are conscripted and everyone has to do a turn at backbreaking labor no matter what your health condition is, The Pardoner could give you a break, for a price. "Rachel in Love" is a
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sweet story about a sentient simian. Personally, I found "America" by Orson Scott Card disturbing and a little sexually graphic. I believe "Crying in the Rain" was my favorite story in the book, I was so fascinated I couldn't lift my eyes from the page. I didn't fully understand "The Sun Spider" but it was interesting how the perspective shifted from the husband to the wife. "Angel" might be an angel or he might be something else, but he's sure nice to have around. I liked "Forever Yours, Anna" a lot because the science fiction-y twist didn't come until the end, and up until then it was kinda like a regular mystery. "Second Going" introduced us to a race of aliens called Angli, who seem very benevolent, but what exactly is their purpose here? Why did they choose to contact us? "Dinosaurs" was heartbreaking, and author Williams did a great job causing the reader to identify not with the humans in the tale, but with the aliens. The final tale, "All Fall Down" is somewhat of a sequel to a story in the 1984 collection called "The Leaves of October." It was fascinating to revisit the Hlutr, many years in the future, and see how they once again have to make a decision about whether the humans live or die. Show Less