Weekly Short Stories: 1996 Science Fiction, Part 7

Here is another of my weekly installments whereby I review science fiction short stories I've read that have been written over the years...continuing with 1996.  The two tales for today come from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection.  1996 was the year of the Atlanta Summer Olympics, which Melissa and I enjoyed watching.  The highlight for me was the finale in the women's gymnastic competition with the American team gold medal on the line until Kerri Strug's courageous final running vault jump with a painful ankle injury sealed it.  On the down side, though, a bomb went off outside during the Games, killing two and casting undue suspicion on the heroic security guard who had reported the bomb and helped evacuate the park, doubtless saving several lives...it's an example of the cynical concept "no good deed goes unpunished".  But back to those stories...

THE LAND OF NOD by Mike Resnick

Apparently this is the final story in Resnick's Kirinyaga series, set off in the future featuring Koriba as the shaman/leader of a resurrected Kikuyu culture in space...in a virtual setting.  Koriba, disenchanted with how the experiment has progressed, has returned to his native Kenya and suffers further disappointment. The notion that the traditional past of our famous ancestors was somehow "pure" and that we have strayed from it with the need to return to the old ways is a thread throughout many world cultures, not just that of Koriba.  I also think that it is a faulty notion that leads to a lot of trouble...

RED SONJA AND LESSINGHAM IN DREAMLAND by Gwyneth Jones

In a fantasy-like world young, voluptuous Sonja meets up with a tough rogue of a man to survive in the wild and combat the bad guys prowling around...as they get to know each other.  But as the title suggests, it ain't exactly real...and the reason is a brutal commentary on people's need for control over others and how it poisons just about every relationship to an extent.  A cynical view, but sadly too often a true one...

Next week: more from 1996, with a hopefully less cynical take on it all...