Today I finish my look back at short science fiction from the year 1973 as presented in the anthology Donald A. Wollheim Presents The 1974 Annual World's Best SF, featuring selections from the previous year. Of the three I review below, the first and last are relatively brief while the middle one may be the lengthiest novella I've discussed in this year-by-year blog feature. I remember back then watching the Senate Watergate hearings in the springtime at school in my morning Chemistry class...my teacher, a Nixon-hater who wanted to see him go down...constantly showed it during class while commenting profusely: what a character. I had a revived interest in astronomy that year as well, but it seemed that at different points I was rebuffed in reaching out to others regarding it. Oh well, that how it goes...here are my reactions to those final three tales...
MOBY, TOO by Gordon Eklund
A story of apocalypse for both whales and humanity...presented in the first person by a intelligently-mutated whale...goes way off into the "future" to 1986 when he discovers he's alone in the sea and the people seem to be all gone, too. Or is he all alone? A strange story of hope and the replacement of hatred with mercy...
DEATH AND DESIGNATION AMONG THE ASADI by Michael Bishop
On an exploratory research mission to a distant world occupied by only one animal form, the intelligent Asadi, the scientist inserts himself right in the midst of their strange, inexplicable society and finds himself both repulsed by it and inexplicably attracted at the same time. The story is presented in the form of different journal entries by the protagonist, an interesting literary device that I've enjoyed in other stories I've read...still, I thought it was way too long...
CONSTRUCTION SHACK by Clifford Simak
As humans first start landing on Mars and exploring other worlds, a manned mission to Pluto is sent to follow up on a puzzling find of an earlier probe, showing it with a smooth, undifferentiated surface only distinguished by some dots appearing around its equator. And the "planet" mysteriously proves to be much, much smaller than previously thought. When the team gets there, they are astounded at their discoveries, which completely changes what they thought they knew about the origins of everything...
Next week I begin reviewing science fiction short stories from 1974...
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