Today concludes my examination of some of the choice 1981 science fiction short stories as they appeared in editor Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1982 Annual World's Best SF, featuring his selections from the preceding year. One of these days I'm going to need to make up a list of my all-time favorite short stories...most of them I think will be either from Wollheim's series, which covered the years 1964-89, or that of Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenberg, which featured tales from 1939 through 1963. Well, here are my reactions to the final two '81 stories from the book...
THROUGH ALL YOUR HOUSES WANDERING by Ted Reynolds
This novella consists of a man's succession of telepathic communion with other species across vast expanses of space as his consciousness enters their bodies and experiences how they live their respective lives...each time for two hours before briefly returning to his laboratory. His colleagues are skeptical of his recollections, some thinking that he has gone insane. But at the end he puts it all together, and with an unexpected twist on astrology. Funny, but this story reminded me of an old SpongeBob SquarePants episode where the title character invades the dreams of his fellow ocean-bottomers...
THE LAST DAY OF CHRISTMAS by David J. Lake
An interesting story written by an Australian, centered around that country. A mysterious young Australian man has developed a special perfume that brings out sexual urges from anyone smelling it...the resulting complete transformation of human society horrifies him and he works to remedy his mistake. But who is this guy really and what is his agenda? The ending reminded me of Agent Smith's conversation with Morpheus in the Matrix movie...
Next week I begin my look at science fiction short stories from the year 1982...
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