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kilroyPrint date: 1980 (20s: 1, 50s: 2, 60s: 4, 70s: 9, 80s: 8, 90s: 7, 00s: 21, 10s: 1)
This collection was sponsored by the Sierra Club, and you can tell. They're not exactly trying to hide the environmental agenda. The stories cover topics from extinction to pollution to overpopulation, all from a variety of angles. Most of the stories were written in the 70s, too, which provides a certain period flair. Certainly there was a lot more weed per page than I'd expect out of modern science fiction.
It's not a bad collection. It's thoughtful, diverse, and has a good heart. None of the stories are complete bombs, very few of them are complete gems either-- mostly middle-range workman-like sci-fi where the author is trying to work out an idea rather than tell a character's story. No sprawling novellas either, which is good-- I find those annoying in a book of stories. I'm definitely keeping it; there are stories here that I will want to reference again.
Random comments on individual stories (in book order):
* "People's Park" by Charles Ott is an interesting little short piece. Public parks are actually forbidden to humans as the last natural preserves and can only be used via floating robotic cameras. And are defended by park rangers with guns.
* It's okay to have a science fiction black box in a story as long as your story isn't based around that particular idea. If it is, you need to explain it a little. This means you, Frank Herbert. And you, Susan Janice Anderson.
* Ted Sturgeon: still funny.
* Yup, still hate Ursula K. LeGuin.
* Yup, still hate stories in future-Ebonics.
* "Whale Song" by Terry Melen is interesting in an Uplift kind of way (good story too). There's a family of a killer whale, a human, and a herd of dolphins who are actually a family and trying to decipher the mysteries of the language of the whales.
* Just need to make a note of the idea for "Under the Generator" by John Shirley-- extracting energy from the death of humans. So we prolong them as long and as painfully as possible in hospitals because one death powers an entire apartment complex.
* The last story, "Virra," is an absolute gem. It's a romance set after the sun goes dark and humans have turned into trees struggling to survive in an ever-colder world.
Verdict: Keep. (34.5/87)
Page count: 311 (18318 total)
Completed: 53 (24 female authors, 26 male authors, 3 anthology)
Rejected: 34 (20 male authors, 14 female authors)
Next book due: Tuesday, June 28th.
This collection was sponsored by the Sierra Club, and you can tell. They're not exactly trying to hide the environmental agenda. The stories cover topics from extinction to pollution to overpopulation, all from a variety of angles. Most of the stories were written in the 70s, too, which provides a certain period flair. Certainly there was a lot more weed per page than I'd expect out of modern science fiction.
It's not a bad collection. It's thoughtful, diverse, and has a good heart. None of the stories are complete bombs, very few of them are complete gems either-- mostly middle-range workman-like sci-fi where the author is trying to work out an idea rather than tell a character's story. No sprawling novellas either, which is good-- I find those annoying in a book of stories. I'm definitely keeping it; there are stories here that I will want to reference again.
Random comments on individual stories (in book order):
* "People's Park" by Charles Ott is an interesting little short piece. Public parks are actually forbidden to humans as the last natural preserves and can only be used via floating robotic cameras. And are defended by park rangers with guns.
* It's okay to have a science fiction black box in a story as long as your story isn't based around that particular idea. If it is, you need to explain it a little. This means you, Frank Herbert. And you, Susan Janice Anderson.
* Ted Sturgeon: still funny.
* Yup, still hate Ursula K. LeGuin.
* Yup, still hate stories in future-Ebonics.
* "Whale Song" by Terry Melen is interesting in an Uplift kind of way (good story too). There's a family of a killer whale, a human, and a herd of dolphins who are actually a family and trying to decipher the mysteries of the language of the whales.
* Just need to make a note of the idea for "Under the Generator" by John Shirley-- extracting energy from the death of humans. So we prolong them as long and as painfully as possible in hospitals because one death powers an entire apartment complex.
* The last story, "Virra," is an absolute gem. It's a romance set after the sun goes dark and humans have turned into trees struggling to survive in an ever-colder world.
Verdict: Keep. (34.5/87)
Page count: 311 (18318 total)
Completed: 53 (24 female authors, 26 male authors, 3 anthology)
Rejected: 34 (20 male authors, 14 female authors)
Next book due: Tuesday, June 28th.