Terry Carr (1937–1987)

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.… (més)

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.… (més)