Below are my reviews of three more science fiction short stories from the year 1984 as they appeared in Donald A. Wollheim's anthology The 1985 Annual World's Best SF, presenting his choices from the preceding year. Seems like I watched a lot a CNN in '84 as the presidential campaign heated up, incumbent Ronald Reagan suddenly enjoying the benefits of the country's big economic turnaround from recession to boom...the Democrats had a vigorous primary season with candidates like former vice-president Walter "Fritz" Mondale, civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, and upstart Colorado senator Gary Hart. I thought Mondale, who won his party's nomination, did very well in the debates against Reagan...didn't help him, though, in the general November election that year when Reagan swept to reelection in a landslide. Oh well, I liked Walter, who passed away just three weeks ago, and thought he would have been a good president. But back to those stories...
SALVADOR by Lucius Shepard
Sent into a Vietnam-like jungle quagmire of a guerrilla war, this time in Central America, a young soldier has to survive not only the enemy and his own platoon's sadistic leader, but the jungle as well when its own consciousness arises against the carnage inflicted on its people. Except for the supernatural element, this story reminded me greatly of the movie Platoon in a number of ways. It also reflected ongoing concerns among many in the 1980s that the U.S. would soon be fighting down there against the leftists...
PRESS ENTER by John Varley
In one of the greatest stories from the 1980s, long before the Internet revolution with all of its ramifications...both for good and for evil...Varley depicts a world wide web with hackers and software algorithms that seem to be able to exert control over the user's mind to the point of brainwashing...any of this remind you of our own day and age, 38 years later? Chilling: if you already have paranoid tendencies, maybe you should pass on this novella as Big Brother is freaking scary...
THE ALIENS WHO KNEW, I MEAN, EVERYTHING by George Alex Effinger
Human-like aliens land on Earth to help us all...and to tell us what's good and what isn't, even to the point of which movies to watch or music to listen to. They are solving all our major problems like hunger and war, even providing us with interstellar travel technology. That's great, but no one can stand them with their superior, critical attitude. A very funny story that made me wonder if it had anything to do with how others in our real, present world think of Americans...
Next week I conclude my look at Wollheim's book of short science fiction from 1984 before moving on to the Gardner Dozois anthology covering the same year...
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