Today I continue my look at short stories from 1992 as they appeared in Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Tenth Annual Collection. 1992 was a presidential election, and just a year earlier it looked as if incumbent George H.W. Bush (known back then as just George Bush) would glide to an easy reelection, his poll numbers being so high after the successful Persian Gulf War. But the economy tanked into a recession, and the entry of populist businessman H. Ross Perot most likely took away more votes from Bush than from his Democratic Party opponent Bill Clinton...the later easily won election although he only garnered some 43% of the popular vote. But back to more of those stories from that year...
TWO GUYS FROM THE FUTURE by Terry Bisson
The security guard at an art museum has no idea of her destiny until "two guys from the future", as they call themselves, suddenly materialize one night in her presence...just like on Star Trek. This is a funny satire on time travel stories...yes, they're overripe for satire if not outright ridicule...
THE MOUNTAIN TO MOHAMMED by Nancy Kress
This story, even from 31 years ago, is an apt indictment of the deplorable state of health care in this country, showing the potential nightmare scenario of society split between the insurable and unisurable, depending on one's gene scan. One physician with a conscience decides to buck the system and treat those refused insurance...in this case no good deed goes unpunished. Yet the ending reveals an underlying logic to his suffering...
THE COMING OF VERTUMNUS by Ian Watson
A struggling young art critic and author, living in a near-future when envionmentalism threatens to curb technological and industrial development, is offered a chance by a Texas magnate to enter an incredibly contrived conspiracy involving discoveries of pornographic paintings from the Austrian Hapsburg late sixteenth century. I learned quite a bit of history here, unless of course the author made it all up. The story also delves into counter-conspiracies, false flag actions, and the effects of mind-alterning drugs on people's perspectives. Very disturbing but wonderfully written...
Next week: more from '92...
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