Once again here we are, another Wednesday and time to reflect on some sci-fi from 1997, as presented in the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Fifteenth Annual Collection. Truth be told, in recent trying weeks I've not exactly been in a reading mood...not too keen on writing, either. So this is indeed for me an exercise in personal self-discipline. And it would help if I liked all the stories I encountered...but I guess that would be unrealistic...
HEART OF WHITENESSE by Howard Waldrop
It's an excessively stylized tale of alternative history set in around the turn of the sixteenth century in an England run by crime bosses. A professional assassin from Cambridge sets out on his assignment, to silence (permanently) an outspoken free-thinker (and free-speaker) from Oxford. I detect a lot of intended humor in this tale, but here a clear case can be made for clear writing...
THE WISDOM OF OLD EARTH by Michael Swanwick
This one's set in the far distant future when humanity's evolution has made it more diverse. Countless generations of space dwellers have developed to adapt to those conditions while Earth natives themselves have become differentiated...with the spacer dwellers regarded as "higher": in some ways humanity hasn't changed, especially with their pecking orders. A space-dweller has come to Earth and a native guide is there to take him to old Philadelphia to look for a fabled ancient bell (obviously the Liberty Bell). The guide, a Canadian, takes a dim view of her crew from south of the border. Her client for his part is, due to his life in reduced gravity, feeble and breaks his leg, causing a crisis of sorts with two of the guide's Canadian colleagues. But it's the story's ending that seals it: human nature can be pretty uncaring and expedient...
Next week...more from 1997...
No comments:
Post a Comment