Today I continue examining short science fiction from 1983 that were selected by the late Gardner Dozois to be in his anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection, published in 1984. While reading it so far, I have found a number of tales...admittedly very good stories...that nonetheless don't seem to fit within the genre of science fiction. I think Dozois may have included some of them on the science fiction-writing merits of their respective authors...the story below by George R.R. Martin is an example of this, although I also believe that Gardner was a little partial to fantasy fiction as well: Gene Wolfe's entry fits the bill with that. The stories Blood Music by Greg Bear and Knight of Shallows by Rand B. Lee appeared in both this anthology and that of Donald A. Wollheim, which I already reviewed. And now here are my takes on the next four stories from Dozois' book...
HER FURRY FACE by Leigh Kennedy
Douglas, a man with the duty of training orangutans to practice sign communications with humans on a sophisticated level, has gone a step further in his workplace, a special school to educate primates: his project, Annie, can write to the point where she has composed a book! Unfortunately for Douglas, he is finding himself romantically smitten with her and starts to think and act like a complete dumbass...bad for him but good for the story and its very funny outcome...
THE CAT by Gene Wolfe
This story is an offshoot of Wolfe's Book of the New Sun fantasy series, so some of the characters and settings would be more familiar had I first read the four-volume series...which Dozois touted as possibly becoming as significant as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (I don't know about that, Gardner). Father Inire, a sinister, mysterious and powerful advisor to the ruler, one day befriends a young girl, who has her pet cat with her. While displaying some of his magic to her, the cat accidentally gets caught up in it...leading to the story's subsequent events. It's a good story but I'm sure it would have meant more to better know its context within Wolfe's fictional universe...
THE MONKEY TREATMENT by George R.R. Martin
A thoroughly brilliant, readable and hilarious tale much more reminiscent of Stephen King's horror fiction than of anything science fiction, it makes the notion of a "monkey on your back" vividly unforgettable. I haven't yet finished reading this anthology, but The Monkey Treatment is my favorite one so far as it deals with an obese overeater's errant strategy for kicking his food addiction...
NEARLY DEPARTED by Pat Cadigan
Another story based on the author's series, this one Pathosfinder, future psychoanalyst "Deadpan" Allie uses the age's technology to enter the minds of others and mentally interact with them. In this story it's a bit more problematic since the person she's probing, Kitta Wren...a renowned poet...has just died. Her assignment: go in and retrieve any unrealized works the deceased had conceived of. A major obstacle: Wren had incorporated through drug therapy a psychotic personality she thought would aid her creativity...not something to look forward to dealing with, dead or alive...
Next week I conclude my look at 1983 sci-fi short stories appearing in the Dozois anthology...
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