Today, while keeping my emphasis on 1983, I am switching to the first book in a different science fiction short story anthology series: The Year's Best Science Fiction, First Annual Collection, edited by Gardner Dozois and featuring stories that for the most part do not overlap the concurrent "year's best" series edited by Donald A. Wollheim that I have been examining. My intention is to review stories from both books until Wollheim's anthology series concludes after 1989. Here are my reactions to the first five tales appearing in Dozois' book...
CICADA QUEEN by Bruce Sterling
I recently discussed a 1982 short story by Bruce Sterling titled Swarm...this one belongs to the author's same fictional universe in which the solar system is divided between two competing human factions: the Mechanists who tend to be cyborgs and populate the Asteroid Belt and the Reshaped, who alter their makeups through biology and dwell around Saturn's rings. They trade with an alien reptilian race called the Investors. In this tale an Investor queen has defected and established her own independent zone between the Mechanists and Reshaped...one of the latter in turn defects with his own agenda, that of terraforming Mars for human habitation. Lots of political maneuvering here...
BEYOND THE DEAD REEF by James Tiptree, Jr.
At a Mexican resort by an underwater reef, a man hears another's tale of adventure and near-death, beyond a dead zone in the water. This is one of those stories citing humanity's abuse of the environment...in this case the pollution and despoiling of the ocean floor...and a possible if rather fanciful defensive response from nature...
SLOW BIRDS by Ian Watson
The best story of today's lot, on an island in Earth's future, generation after generation of the population...spread out among country towns...there is a racing sport involving skates and small sails, played on the round glass surfaces generated by explosions created by "Slow Birds", which are slow-moving missiles that randomly crop up from time to time, occasionally exploding and destroying whole areas, including cities. One of the sport's athletes crosses his opponent after a race and the chain of revenge threatens his family, leading ultimately leading to the truth about the Slow Birds. I'd love to see this story adapted to the big screen...
VULCAN'S FORGE by Poul Anderson
This is one of those stories about a computer taking on personality characteristics of humans, to the point where it is treated as sentient, intelligent life with feelings. The setting is Mercury as a project is underway to study an asteroid, Vulcan, that is so close to the Sun that its metal surface is molten...an unmanned ship has been sent there to gather data, and it contains one of those computers whose memory history deeply bond it with its owner...
MAN-MOUNTAIN GENTIAN by Howard Waldrop
This is a peculiar take-off on the Japanese sport of Sumu wrestling, in this tale popularized into the 21st century with a special spin in which Zen and paranormal elements enter the ring between the two contestants. And the wrestlers have funny names, like in our popular phony pro wrestling: Man-Mountain Gentian, Killer Kudzu, Ground Sloth Ikimoto, Typhoon Takanaka, to name a few. My one personal point of reference with Sumo wrestling is the scene early in the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice...had I not seen it I probably would be lost in this story. Still, I didn't quite get its ending...
Next week I'll continue looking at 1983 short science fiction from the Gardner Dozois anthology ...
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