Today I continue looking through 1983 science fiction short stories as they appeared in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1984 Annual World's Best SF, featuring his picks of the choice works from the preceding year. In 1984 another sci-fi anthology series began, this one edited by Gardner Dozois and it would last through 2018. Like with Wollheim, his books also spotlight stories published the year before. I intend to include it as well in my reviews...there's not much overlap between Wollheim and Dozois, so my weekly advance through the years is necessarily going to slow down as I go through more material. Here are my reactions to the next three tales in Wollheim's book...
IN THE FACE OF MY ENEMY by Joseph H. Delaney
Kasioma, or Casey as others commonly call him, is an American Indian man who works on a crew for a space development company. He has a secret, though...at a distant time in his past...hundreds of years before...an alien culture rescued him from a violent death and not only resuscitated him to life but modified his body so that he is virtually immortal. On the planet Campbell they've discovered an alien structure and want to keep the authorities ignorant and distant...Kimberly Ryan (the narrator) has been sent to investigate but her flight is sabotaged and crashed. She and her bodyguard, who just happens to be Casey...survive and solve the mystery. The story's plot was a little too convoluted for my tastes...
THE NANNY by Thomas Wylde
Humanity has foolishly blown itself up in war and its last dying hope is a ship dispatched from Earth orbit to Alpha Centauri, carrying wo astronauts and many eggs that carry the future of the human race. An explosion midtrip awakes one of the crew, who discovers the other is dead and that the eggs must be unfrozen and incubated. What follows is a race against time and a lesson in the positive, sacrificial virtues that people can demonstrate...often from those one would never suspect. The ending was unexpected and encouraging. I was also impressed with the hard science used to drive the plot...
THE LEAVES OF OCTOBER by Don Sakers
Unlike on Earth, tree life in the cosmos, the Hlut, is not only sentient but also telepathic, and the story's narrator is one such life form, describing its odyssey of assignment to Earth to assess for the "others" the intentions and possible threats of humans as they explore space and ultimately establish a military-based empire. This story stood out by depicting things from a plant's viewpoint...pretty intriguing...
Next week I conclude my look at the 1983 stories from Wollheim's book before I start with those from Dozois...
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