Today I finish looking at science fiction short stories from the year 1985, as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Third Annual Collection. I'm glad I'm going through the Dozois books (along with the concurrent anthologies edited by Donald A. Wollheim)...seems like his selections were very interesting, for the most part. And now here are my reactions to the final four stories in the book...
MAGAZINE SECTION by R.A. Lafferty
This clever little story lampoons those old-time dubious magazine articles that boast of strange occurrences...but what if they really happened? A traveling journalist keeps coming up with really weird "scoops" but can't hold a job since the magazines he works for are embarrassed by his outlandish articles. Very funny...
THE WAR AT HOME by Lewis Shiner
This sobering story, more social commentary than science fiction, lays out the claim that traumatic wars never truly end as long as those who fought them have to live on with the consequences for themselves. And this affects all of society. Here the author literally brings home the war even into the lives of people who were never involved...
ROCKABYE BABY by S.C. Sykes
A young man, Mac, is left a paralyzed quadriplegic following an auto accident. He finds himself in community with fellow "quads", including Sharkey, a very colorful character. But Sharkey is going to assent to special secret experimental treatment in the hopes of regaining control over his body. The consequences present to Mac an interesting dilemma...
GREEN MARS by Kim Stanley Robinson
This ambitious novella, a forerunner to Robinson's trilogy of Martian novels in the 1990s, deals with one man's regret over the successful terraforming of Mars to accommodate a breathable atmosphere and a sustainable ecosystem. Roger is several hundred years old, as are many of his friends and associates. Although longevity in this author's future universe is common, it usually involves the consequential loss of memory from one's early years. Roger is an exception, remembering most everything, which feeds into his unhappiness. Along with several other climbing enthusiasts...including Eileen, an old flame of Rogers who doesn't remember anything of their earlier romance, Roger engages on a climbing expedition to the top of the staggeringly large Olympus Mons volcano on the now not-so-red planet. This is a story focused on climbing with a lot of technical stuff that was way over my head. Still, Robinson's descriptions of the volcano and the evolving Mars of this story were captivating and impressive...
Next week I advance to 1986 and begin to review science fiction from that year...
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