Below are my final reviews of 1986 sci-fi short stories as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Fourth Annual Collection. In juxtaposing this series with that of Donald A. Wollheim, my general take is that Wollheim's picks are more readable and of higher quality. Had he not died in 1990 and kept on with his anthology series, I probably would have just focused on it alone. As it is, I'm planning to cover both series each year through 1989, then focus on Gardner's collections which continued afterwards for decades. Now about those final stories for '86...
SALLIE C. by Neal Barrett, Jr.
A bizarre alternative history story set in the late nineteenth century in the American southwest, combining three different historical narratives and characters as they interrelate because of personal decisions that shifted the flow of history into a different direction. The Wright Brothers, Billy the Kid and, of all people, Erwin Rommel of WWII infamy are seen in an entirely different light here. What might have happened instead...
JEFF BECK by Lewis Shiner
This is a great little tale about someone who got their wish to go beyond playing air guitar to their rock hero and actually attain his talent and skill...yet Felix, Jeff Beck's ardent admirer, was missing one crucial element of his aspirations as he works through the unsought consequences of his fulfilled dream...
SURVIVING by Judith Moffett
A very deep, moving story of two women: a girl who survived her missionary parents' fatal African plane crash in the wilderness by being adopted for nine years by a group of wild chimpanzees before her "rescue" by humans and subsequent reeducation, and the scholar who studied her case and wrote a book about it. Their tumultuous relationship forms the core of this narrative and brings up the question of what truly constitutes one's humanity. A story that hangs around long after finishing it...
DOWN AND OUT IN THE YEAR 2000 by Kim Stanley Robinson
Set in Washington, D.C....more precisely, in the Mall and the city blocks north of it, the nation's capital has severely run down, most likely from recent civil unrest and neglect. A former federal employee is now destitute, living on the pot he scrapes up to sell in order to support himself and his ailing woman. His plight and those of many around him stand in sharp contrast not only to the protesters that still frequent the crumbling city center, but also the still-well-to-do upper class people who treat him with disdain. Robinson's detail at describing city blocks by their actual streets made me wish I'd spent more time and attention there on my 2017 visit with Melissa, but you can only do so much when you travel...
SNAKE-EYES by Tom Maddox
A soldier, slated for combat duty in the ongoing war in Thailand, has been surgically, neurologically implanted with a computerized network that enhances his fighting abilities. But the war has ended, and his services are rendered unnecessary...yet they cannot remove the "snake" within him that from time to time dictates his behavior in unwanted directions. He avails himself of an opportunity to go to an orbiting corporate space station where an Artificial Intelligence seeks his company, and he is promised relief. Complicated...
THE GATE OF GHOSTS by Karen Joy Fowler
A young girl has a secret place she visits from time to time...well, time actually stops while she is gone. Her mother is overprotective and fearful, not helped a bit by the grandmother on her father's side with her old Chinese superstitions about a dangerous type of child. This tale is about childhood trauma and its causes, with some paranormal elements tossed in. The ending, which on the surface seemed to be good, actually was chilling...
THE WINTER MARKET by William Gibson
A cyberpunk story, not exactly my favorite science fiction subgenre. One main reason is that I personally am more slow-paced and routine-oriented...these characters are impulsive and all over the map with their behavior. In the future, naturally, consumption of the "arts", combined with technological innovation, has degenerated to the point that movies and music have been supplanted by the recording and selling of people's direct thoughts and dreams. One such artist is a terminally ill woman with an artificial "exoskeleton" holding her body together. The narrator is her admirer and technician. The question posed here: can human identity transfer to computer systems as the body dies, or is what we see there only a soulless imitation?
Next week I return to the Wollheim sci-fi anthology series as I begin looking at short stories from 1987...
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