Terry CarrRecensioni

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

F/SF

ISFDB 55366.

ISFDB 35902. OCLC 5537162. LCCN 80642131.

ISFDB 197017. OCLC 17343325.

ISFDB 4171. OCLC 7357018.

ISFDB 52838. OCLC 1948605.

ISFDB 262715. OCLC 3085455.

ISFDB 4169. OCLC 4432989 for paperback w/ ISBN 0345273389. OCLC 154120501 for hard cover w/ ISBN 0575025239.

Great selection. Would have been better without the small "quips" that spoil some of the stories.

Read these:

Press Enter by John Varley - 4* - I liked spending time in his story. Likely the first story I've ever read by him and will seek out more.

Blued Moon by Connie Willis - 4* - 2nd story I've read by this author, will seek out more.

Instructions by Bob Leman - 4* - 2nd story I've read, will seek out more.

The Lucky Strike by Kim Stanley Robinson DNF

Bloodchild by Octavia E. Butler - 4* - 1st story I've read by this author will seek out more.

Nancy Kress - did not read, changed my mind when I saw the subject

Read contributions by:

~ Stephen King - The Monkey 3* Toy monkey seems broken but symbols clang and someone dies. Boy senses evil and tries to get rid of the monkey but eventually it shows up again. He took it out to the deepest part of the lake but knows it will be fished out someday.

~ Thomas M. Disch - The Brave Little Toaster 2* It's a children's story. I saw the movie many times with my children and enjoyed it so I was curious about the source material. I didn't really enjoy it and if I hadn't seen the movie or enjoyed the movie, I would have quit.

~ Suzy McKee Charnas - Unicorn Tapestry 2*

~ Bob Leman - Feesters in the Lake 3*
(a nod to Lovecraft)

~ Pat Murphy - Don't Look Back 2*

I think the cover is suppose to be of the Feesters if so, they got it wrong. I didn't read all the stories in the book so it could represent another story.

Only read:

~ A Way Back by Leanne Frahm - 4*
Dinosaurs are starting to be seen. They are kind of foggy and not solid but they are slowly becoming more real. The environment is changing to constantly raining and even though it is winter, it is hot. The humans are becoming less solid. The main character ends on wondering how the dinosaurs ret'd and where they'd been and where he was going. "But most of all, he wondered if humanity would be given a 2nd chance too."

It is nice to read an old anthology with very good to excellent stories. I just wish there were more of them in here. Terry Carr selected eleven stories from 1976 that includes one of the better stories Isaac Asimov ever wrote. He writes a nice introduction for each story.

The included material is:
ix • Introduction • essay by Terry Carr
1 • I See You • (1976) • short story by Damon Knight
18 • The Phantom of Kansas • (1976) • novelette by John Varley
64 • Seeing • (1976) • novelette by Harlan Ellison
93 • The Death of Princes • (1976) • short story by Fritz Leiber
115 • The Psychologist Who Wouldn't Do Awful Things to Rats • (1976) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr.
145 • The Eyeflash Miracles • (1976) • novella by Gene Wolfe
217 • An Infinite Summer • Dream Archipelago • (1976) • novelette by Christopher Priest
243 • The Highest Dive • (1976) • short story by Jack Williamson
258 • Meathouse Man • (1976) • novelette by George R. R. Martin
291 • Custer's Last Jump • (1976) • novelette by Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop
332 • The Bicentennial Man • (1976) • novelette by Isaac Asimov
380 • Recommended Reading - 1976 • essay by Terry Carr
382 • The Science Fiction Year (1976) • essay by Charles N. Brown

As the editor points out in his introduction, reading short stories is harder work than most novels. The reader has to figure out a lot that is not written. The first story here, Damon Knight's "I See You" is one of those. At first I couldn't figure out what was going on. Slowly the reader realizes that some sort of viewer that can see through time is being used - it can see anywhere and any time, even as is done in the story to see each moment of the assassination of JFK. The ramifications of the invention of such a device is left open but the suggestion is that it will lead to world peace and little crime because everything can be found out via the viewer. Disturbing but thought provoking story.

John Varley's novelette 'The Phantom of Kansas' I thought I had read before but I didn't remember it. I have read a number of his shorter works over the years in the science fiction magazines and in best of the year collections. This is one of his earliest stories, and quite intriguing as a sci fi mystery of a woman who is murdered again and again ... I liked it a lot and this was full of a lot of ideas. It was a finalist for the 1977 Hugo award which was won by Asimov's 'Bicentennial Man' that appears at the end of the collection.

The third story, Harlan Ellison's 'Seeing' is a science fiction horror story. Ellison's stories have always been a little hard to digest, but he was one of the most influential writers for a reason. That said, he could be a nasty person and some of his stories seem to reflect that nastiness. This is a dark future story about kidnapping people to harvest their special gray-blue eyes. Unsettling to put it mildly. Having a dictionary helps - when was the last time you used anemophilously in a sentence? Well if you were a dandelion, say, you would know about throwing anemophilously into the wind. Despite the skill in creating this story, it is one I would prefer to have not read.

Rather than a lengthy blow by blow of the remaining stories I'll quickly mention a few highlights. There were a couple stories were uncomfortable or that didn't impress me and I got rather bored with the strangeness of Gene Wolfe's novella and skimmed the latter half of it.

Christopher Priest's 'An Infinite Summer' intrigued me. I think it had a happy ending but I was slightly unsure. In the story people from the future come visiting the past and for unknown reasons (presumably they are artists of some sort) they use a device to freeze people in moments of time. There are consequences to this which the story shows us. I liked the whole thing.

George R R Martin's story Meathouse Man is an incredibly dark horror story about a man who works with reanimated corpses. I didn't finish it. I skimmed. I wish I could unread it.

I skipped Custer's Last Jump because I read it before and didn't think I needed to revisit.

The final story in the collection won the Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards for best novelette. It is one of my favorite stories by Isaac Asimov and I've read it more than once before including when it first came out and I bought the Asimov collection that included it. I was avidly reading a lot of fiction and science fiction in the mid 70's, fresh out of college. Perhaps because Alex Haley's 'Roots' was out and so popular at the time I couldn't help but think that the 'Bicentennial man' was at least in part an allegory for slavery. It is the story of a robot who yearns to be a free man and it takes 200 years for that to happen. More than an allegory however it looks at the meaning of being human. Robin Williams did an excellent job in the film adaptation which made me like the story even more. It had probably been 20 years since I last read this story and I enjoyed it almost as much as the first time.

So, in sum, there were four stories I liked and a few too many that I did not.

Robert Silverberg: Cuando fuimos a ver el fin del mundo; Gene Wolfe: La quinta cabeza de Cerbero; Frederick Pohl y C. M. Kornbluth: La Reunión; Robert Silverberg: Caliban; Ben Bova: Gravedad cero: Naomi Mitchison: Miss Omega Cuervo; Alexei y Cori Panshin: Cielo azul; William Rotsler: Mecenas; James Tiptree Jr.: Sabio en dolor.

The included material is:

•9 • Introduction • (1985) • essay by Terry Carr
•11 • Press Enter • (1984) • novella by John Varley
•73 • Blued Moon • (1984) • novelette by Connie Willis
•108 • Summer Solstice • (1984) • novelette by Charles L. Harness
•153 • Morning Child • (1984) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois
•160 • The Aliens Who Knew, I Mean, Everything • (1984) • shortstory by George Alec Effinger
•176 • A Day in the Skin (or, The Century We Were Out of Them) • (1984) • shortstory by Tanith Lee
•194 • Instructions • (1984) • shortstory by Bob Leman
•203 • The Lucky Strike • (1984) • novelette by Kim Stanley Robinson
•240 • Green Hearts • (1984) • shortstory by Lee Montgomerie
•258 • Bloodchild • (1984) • novelette by Octavia E. Butler
•278 • Trojan Horse • (1984) • novelette by Michael Swanwick
•312 • Fears • (1984) • shortstory by Pamela Sargent
•325 • Trinity • (1984) • novella by Nancy Kress
•375 • 1984, the SF Year in Review • (1985) • essay by Charles N. Brown
•383 • Recommended Reading (Best SF of the Year 14) • (1985) • essay by Terry Carr

As Locus editor Charles N. Brown discusses at the end of the book, the big news of 1984 was George Orwell's then 35 year old novel '1984' which was back on the best seller lists. I think even I re-read it then. Brown thought 1984 would be quickly forgotten again as we got to the coming '90s. I don't think it has been forgotten, and here we are now 35 years later than then. It is deja vu all over again.

A few comments. Press Enter is one of the great early computer hacker stories. If this doesn't make you paranoid, nothing will. Excellent story. I also liked Kim Stanley Robinson's "The Lucky Strike" which imagines a different scenario for the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. This really isn't a science fiction story - it is one of those "what if" alternate history stories that wonder what might happen if some moment in history changed. "Summer Solstice is a piece of historical fiction set in ancient Egypt in the time of Ptolemy - but it does very much have a science fiction elemnt put into it.

Connie Willis's humorous stories were always hit or miss with me. Some I loved, some not. The one here is a miss for me at this point in time.

'Green Hearts' by Lee Montgomerie is the only story I have ever read by this author and I don't think I will forget it very soon.

Besides 'Press Enter', the other story that makes this a must read is Octavia Butler's 'Bloodchild'. Bloodchild won the Hugo, The Nebula and the Locus award for best novelette. It is undoubtedly one of the most important science fiction stories of the 80's, and probably the story that first established Octavia Butler as an author to be reckoned with. If this story doesn't creep you out and make you think about thngs, then you are not human.

Overall this was a good collection of longer length stories from 1984. Dated in places with the advancements of technology, but not dated with the ideas and issues it addresses.½

There are 10 stories in this book. Many are worth the couple of minutes they take to read. A few are disappointing. A couple are memorable and stick with you long after reading them.

My favorites are:

The Cat From Hell (Stephen King) - of course anything from King is memorable. I am a cat lover, so this was great. A cat gets revenge for wrongs done to his kind.



Jeffty Is Five (Harlan Ellison) - The story of a boy who refuses to grow up, literally. Interesting tale of the supernatural, mind over matter and time. Ended by stupidity of another.

Growing Boys (Robert Aickman) - 2 young mischievous boys? 2 boys without parental structure? 2 monsters? You decide!!

My least favorites are:

Black As The Pit, From Pole To Pole (Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop) - Too long, didn't hold my interest. The senseless journey of Frankenstein's monster.

Manatee Gal Ain't You Coming Out Tonight (Auram Davidson) - Boring, uninteresting. I couldn't take the lousy Jamaican accent that was supposed to be portrayed.

I would be remise if I didn't mention Probability Storm by Julian Reed. The story of a disembodied gentleman in a bar. The tale is weird and confusing, but interesting and likable.

liked this better than I expected. does sci fi still exist? fantasy seems to have taken over.

Old science fiction and fantasy anthologies don't get much attention, at least from me. I picked this up because it has a short story by Avram Davidson that I seen before. Fantasy in 1971 was quite different from today - the influence of Tolkien in these stories is mostly absent, and these are fantasies in the traditional sense of having elements are are not pretended to be the result of scientific development. This made the anthology more interesting to me. There is an early Peter Beagle, a Fritz Leiber story totally not in the swords and sorcery mode, an early Zalazny, Borges (which makes perfect sense), and so on. My favorite is a longish story by Edgar Pangborn set in my stomping ground of Maine - not a common locale for fantasy. All the stories are good.