Here are my reactions to the four remaining stories from the late Gardnois Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, First Annual Collection, which spotlighted the editor's picks from 1983. I generally like the stories in this book, although they tended to cross over at times into other genres such as fantasy, horror and even historical fiction...I welcome it all. So, without further ado, let's discuss these works of short fiction...
HEARTS DO NOT IN EYES SHINE by John Kessel
In a future society in which marriages are a much looser contractual arrangement, Connie leaves Harry after discovering that he's repeatedly lied to her. But Harry suggests that the two of them go to one of the companies that can selectively wipe out those pesky memories of betrayal and dishonesty from both their minds. Connie reluctantly consents, and they begin their "cleansed" life together anew. What happens next...guess you'll have to read it to find out. Let me just say that this tale has a bit more psychological depth to it than I had expected...
CARRION COMFORT by Dan Simmons
Three telepathic psychic vampires who maintain their youth by entering the minds of others to perform murder by proxy are "friends" and meet one day in one of their hometowns...Charleston, South Carolina...to compare notes and renew their ties. But one of them has decided to give up her lifestyle and has begun to noticeably age...leading to her fears that the other two might come after her. I have recently visited Charleston and could visualize their boat tour to Fort Sumter, as well as the streets of the Old City. I wonder if Stephen King got the premise for his novel Doctor Sleep from this story...
GEMSTONE by Vernor Vinge
You get a good sense of the geography of woody northern California from this story of a girl staying one summer there at her widowed grandmother's house. It seems haunted, especially a strange skull-sized smooth stone with regular markings. A violent burglary precipitates the story's climax, which I thought was pretty "cool" in spite of the heat. Also, Antarctic exploration figures strangely in this tale, which reminded me of a certain 1982 blockbuster hit movie directed by Steven Spielberg...
BLACK AIR by Kim Stanley Robinson
Dozois regarded this story as his favorite of the anthology, yet I failed to discover anything science fiction about it...the fifth one in the book that, in my opinion, strays from the genre. On the Spanish Armada in the late sixteenth century, a boy from a Franciscan monastery, impressed into sailor duty on one of the fighting ships destined to England, has spiritual experiences that directly affect his fate and that of his shipmates. A great story...I agree with Gardner on that...but sci-fi? Still, I got more knowledge about ships to add to what I picked up (and mostly forgot) from reading Moby Dick a few years ago...
Next week I move on to the year 1984 with my science fiction short story reviews, returning to Donald A. Wollheim's anthology series...
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