After skipping a week with this Wednesday blog feature whereby I post my reactions to short stories (and novellas) I've just read, here I am again with another installment. I'm currently in the middle of reading the Gardner Dozois-edited anthology series The Year's Best Science Fiction. This particular volume covers stories published in the year 1998 and is subtitled Sixteenth Annual Collection. So without further ado, let's discuss the next two stories I read from it...
THE HALFWAY HOUSE AT THE HEART OF DARKNESS by William Browning Spencer
This story came out in 1998, comfortably after video games and the Internet had been established as features of our culture. But this tale about rehab from virtual reality addiction seems sadly to be right on track with its timeline set in the immediate future. A mega-corporation selling the virtual product...like a dope pusher...is trying to kidnap a recovering virtual addict, and only her counselor bravely stands in her way as he tries to lead her to safety and recovery. In a way, this is a hopeful story but you have to read it to find out how...
THE VERY PULSE OF THE MACHINE by Michael Swanwick
This story is about the extraordinarily seismologically active volcanic Io, one of Jupiter's major moons. We're a few decades into the future when humans travel to the outer planets. Martha, the survivor of a crash on Io that killed her companion Julie and put herself on a survival trek on the dangerous surface to safety, begins to pick up her deceased partner's voice on the radio. Where is it coming from? This is an exploration about the nature of consciousness and whether it is limited to functioning, living brains...or maybe instead encompasses a much wider range of reality...
Next week: more stories from 1998...
No comments:
Post a Comment