Here's another installment of my reactions to sci-fi short stories appearing in the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fourteenth Annual Collection, and featuring the editor's selections from 1996. That year I'll always remember, with mixed feelings, about the Major League Baseball World Series pitting American League champ New York Yankees against the defending champion, "my" Atlanta Braves from the National League. I wanted Atlanta to repeat in '96 but the Yanks were too tough, riding on their momentum, and overpowered the Braves. I was, however, happy to see New York's manager Joe Torre, the Atlanta manager in the early 1980s, receive his due recognition...his team would win more titles in ensuing years. But as I like to say, back to those stories...
THE WIND OVER THE WORLD by Steven Utley
Leveritt, a geologist. prepping for her inaugural visit to the distant past...the Silurian Period, that is...has at her side a talkative man, Ed Morris, who says he's gone through the natural time Portal before and tries to assure her of the process' safety. But when they make the jump through time, he never arrived, and the investigation is on about what happened to him. As the story progressed it reminded me of that great old Twilight Zone episode where two astronaut buddies, just returned from a difficult mission, are out in a bar...and one suddenly vanishes...
CHANGES by William Barton
Hopping from one generation to another within a family, it starts in 1944 during World War II and ends sometime in our near future. I'm only saying that the author, in 1996, perfectly captured the essence of what is going on right now with our social media, gaming, and virtual reality...I think he's right on target about where we're headed, sad to say. Also, he predicted here that our space program would flounder with one setback after another...yes, indeed...
COUNTING CATS IN ZANZIBAR by Gene Wolfe
A widowed woman is traveling across the world from country to country in a struggle to evade her pursuers, yet is discovered on a ship in the Philippine Sulu Sea. It's not a matter of crime or revenge, but rather a secret she holds that those after her, including the "man" on board who identifies her, covet. This tale from 28 years ago puts the finger right on what many in our present 2024 world are concerned about: the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence, whether those so imbued are capable of true consciousness, and what their rise holds in store for humanity...
HOW WE GOT IN TOWN AND OUT AGAIN by Jonathan Lethem
Another prescient tale about an ongoing trend, projected into the future a few decades. In an America...and, presumably as well, the rest of the world...is social decline amidst the explosive development of virtual reality. Two young people, Gloria and her friend (the narrator) Lewis go from town to town seeking enough food and money to get by. They encounter a crew of "scapers" who, as traveling entertainers, go from one locale to another selling shows involving people undergoing extreme virtual reality experiences. There's a lot of humor in this story, but it's sad as well to consider that, as a society, we seem to be heading down the same road...
Next week I continuing reviewing sci-fi stories from 1996...
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