Today concludes my examination of 1987 sci-fi short stories as they appeared in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifth Annual Collection. For me in '87, I changed jobs three times and moved twice, radical behavior for someone as tied to routine as myself. But I will always cherish that brief time we lived in Leesburg...I felt good vibes about that place and the surrounding area with their five big lakes and moderate-size towns like Eustis, Taveres and Mount Dora, all connected by good old US-441. And it was but a short drive to the beach or big city Orlando...as well as to Gainesville, for that matter. But let's get back to the final stories in the book...
ALL THE HUES OF HELL by Gene Wolfe
Kyle is on the crew of a space mission in a peculiar system, with their ship seeming to orbit empty space when it is really an invisible, "shadow" world hosting a sentient alien life form they are assigned to capture and study. One of the crew, Skip, becomes unhinged, thinking himself dead. And a woman on board is pregnant, somehow a significant part of the narrative. But as the story grinds on, Kyle's cyborg nature starts to become the standout issue. I'd be less than honest in claiming I understood this story or what the author was trying to say: maybe he was trying to say too much in too little space...
HALLEY'S PASSING by Michael McDowell
A truly impressive horror story ranking up there with Stephen King's best, as a mysterious man transforms like a chameleon, stealthily traveling from one place to another as he continually changes his outward identity while adhering to an obscure personal formula for decision making. Along the way he randomly murders people. Yes, I said that...didn't I say this was horror?
FOR THUS DO I REMEMBER CARTHAGE by Michael Bishop
As this story progresses the reader can pick up on what the author is doing here. He is writing an alternative history of the world while resourcing and renaming important scientific discoveries and technological innovations. East meets West as a Chinese astronomer, knowledgeable about his own colleagues' advanced knowledge, encounters the story's protagonist Augustine in a besieged city whose walls are threatened by invading barbarians...
MOTHER GODDESS OF THE WORLD by Kim Stanley Robinson
If you are a mountain climber and knowledgeable or interested in the detailed topography of Mount Everest, this story is for you as two different climbing teams race against an opportunistic publicist to the site on the world's tallest mountain where two famous earlier climbers met their demise in the 1920s. More a novella than a short story, it's a funny tale and probably one for which you might consider slowing down your reading in order to more fully appreciate. Like Moby Dick with 19th century whaling, there are lots and lots of little details here about how to scale mountains as well as the various sides of Everest, also called Chomolunga, "Mother Goddess of the World". There's also a lot about the native people in this amazing part of the world, especially the Tibetan Sherpas...and Buddhism. Good read...
Next week I begin looking at science fiction short stories from 1988...
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