Customer Reviews

Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a collection of short (often very) stories. Many, like the title story are based on a single conceit -- everything else is the same, except, well, bears discover fire. And instead of hibernating, they're camping out in the medians of interstates. Or in "England Underway," England starts moving around Ireland, swings past Bermuda and comes to rest off the East Coast of the U.S. The best comparison I can make is to Steven Wright jokes. "Press Ann" can't really be described here, but is now one of my all-time favorites. Bisson admits he sometimes writes "odd mainstream works" that get passed of as fantasy and SF. While only a handful of his works "count" as true fantasy or SF, they are no less enjoyable.

I'm surprised there are so few reviews here. This book deserves to be wider read.

I first read a Bisson story ten years ago in Omni -- "They're Made of Meat." I loved it. Very short, all dialogue, a great ending line... It's still one of my favorites of all time.

To be honest, all of these stories are not fantastic. Some kind of leave you rubbing your head, like "The Coon Suit." What the heck was that?! But there are about ten very good stories in here that are worth the price of the book. Bisson writes in a way that is easy to read, even if the ideas don't always grab you. His snappier, dialogue-heavy stories are my favorite.

Give this one a try.

The title of this review is Terry's Bisson's own description of his short stories (as found in this collection's Afterword). Many reviews of Bisson's works contend that he has a unique and unconventional outlook. While reviewers are hard-pressed to define such terms, it is certainly true that Bisson's stories are just a little off-kilter and intriguingly semi-surreal. But in the end, his strange settings and plot developments are all in service to solid stories of human relationships and universal struggles. A few of the stories in this collection stick with the unexpected simply for comic relief, most notably "The Coon Suit." But otherwise we get non-linear looks at social problems that Bisson sets up with bizarre near-future dystopias, taking on racism in "Next" and pollution in "By Permit Only" and "The Toxic Donut." In fact, Bisson tackles environmentalism in several tales here, with the most interesting being "Carl's Lawn and Garden" in which people somehow increase pollution, and its human costs, while surreally trying to save the natural world.

Meanwhile, Bisson uses weird sci-fi mishaps to study how very human characters would cope. For instance, in "England Underway" the absurd happenstance of England floating across the sea and crashing into America allows a separated family to reunite; while the spooky "Over Flat Mountain" does nearly the opposite as a severe environmental disaster tears human communities apart. To top off the collection we get the extended sci-fi novellas "Necronauts" and "The Shadow Knows" in which Bisson explores how people would really deal with contacting worlds beyond our own. It's true that Bisson has a unique and unconventional vision, and you can dispense with trying to figure out what exactly that means by experiencing this unique and unconventional collection for yourself. [~doomsdayer520~]

Bisson's imagination is truly on a slant with the real world, but he's even on a slant with the world of sci fi and fantasy. Not really sci fi, not really fantasy, not really mainstream. What kind of writer is this guy? Really, really good. That's what kind.

Terry Bisson became one of my favorite fantasy authors from the first time I read "Bears Discover Fire" in Asimov's -- before it won the Hugo and Nebula. Many of the other stories in this collection I consider to be classics ... though others I never want to read again! The themes Bisson explores in these short stories are the same ones that emerge in greater detail in his novels, so this is an ideal primer to his work.

"Bears Discover Fire" is an intoxicating collection of short stories. Themes from the stories have stuck with me years after first reading it. It's also a book that proves that great literature transcends gender -- many of the stories show a handling of detail and sensibility (I'm grasping for words here) that only a woman could have written. Reminds me a bit of "The Sixteen Pleasures".

Terry Bisson is a master of the short form, and these are some of his best stories. His sense of place and his gift for dialogue make him one of the most important writers working today. The simple beauty of the title story alone, a multiple award winner, is worth the price of admission. If you have an imagination and an appreciation for the absurd, buy this book.

I found this book after watching a youtube video of the story "They're Made Out of Meat". That story got me hooked. His writing is very much like that of Ray Bradbury's and if you're a Bradbury fan I think you'll enjoy this book.

This collection is a veritable black hole of concepts; pulling you in and not letting you go. Few authors use this many original ideas in a single novel, and even fewer manage to work them out into this wonderful kind of detail, all the while grounding them solidly in back-story that makes sense.
Some of his novel-length works suffer from weak spots here and there, but this collection is as near to perfect as I've seen.

This is a wonderful book of short stories that makes for wonderful, intimate moments with your partner. Drift off to the sound of that special voice...