Here again are some more reviews from editor (and science fiction writer in his own right) Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Eleventh Annual Collection, covering the year 1993 in this genre. Bill Clinton was starting his eventual two-term tenure as US Presidents. I supported him the previous November, in large part because his predecessor, George (Papa) Bush, vetoed the Family and Medical Leave Act, a cruel gesture that exemplified the often-contemptuous attitude of Republican elites against working Americans...Clinton promptly signed it into law. But enough of politics, how about those stories...
A VISIT TO THE FARSIDE by Don Webb
A tale that curiously reminded me of a South Park episode about a whale, the Soviet Union has far surpassed the US in space and is a position to grant temporary asylum to Americans on the moon when their own base (on the far side) blows up. The author, I knew as I was reading, had to be perfectly aware that the USSR had broken up in 1991, so what gives here? Rest assured, all is explained at the end, with a little Romeo and Juliet thrown in for full measure in this loaded brief story...
ALIEN BOOTLEGGER by Rebecca Ore
Dozier tends to stick a lot of lengthy novellas in his anthologies...this one didn't work for me as I couldn't connect with any of the characters. It centered around a ruthless Virginia bootlegger/international investor who is fighting competition from, of all parties, a diplomatically protected insect-like alien setting up its own distilling in the area. I don't think I've read a tale this long without bonding with at least one of the characters...the changing viewpoint of the narrative didn't help any...
DEATH ON THE NILE by Connie Willis
This story's title should be familiar: it's also that of Agatha Christie's famous murder mystery novel featuring Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Poirot is nowhere to be found here, but the venue is similar with three couples traveling together by plane to tour in Egypt. Told by one of the women, they encounter sudden turbulence in the plane...and afterward everything seems a bit out of kilter. Our narrator suspects something dire has happened while the others...including another woman trying to seduce her husband...don't seem aware of anything different. Ever have the feeling that you're in a dream but it's supposedly real? Yes, I think that's from The Matrix...this story kind of reminded me of that...
Next week I continue with my reactions to stories from this 1993 retrospective anthology...
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