A decade's worth of prolific short stories are showcased in this compilation of Robert Reed's best work. Among the dozen thought-provoking tales is the never-before-published "Abducted Souls," about a college student who becomes increasingly unsure of himself and his self-worth when the alien abduction he experienced as a child is questioned. Also included is the Asimov's Science Fiction Reader's Choice Award–winning "Savior," about a military commander who is held accountable for tortuous acts that may have saved the human race. The hot topic of cloning is discussed in futuristic terms in the title tale, "The Cuckoo's Boys," which tells of a lonely genius who clones himself, not once, but millions of times, and of a teacher who tests and challenges three of these clones. Two ageless aliens become friends with Ash, an immortal human, as he strives to help them recover lost memories in "Night of Time," a selection taken from the popular Marrow book. The collection closes with an afterword by the author, in which he details the genesis of each story.
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From Publishers Weekly
The dozen stories in Reed's second Golden Gryphon collection (after 1999's The Dragons of Springplace) showcase this prolific author's ability to put a fresh spin on traditional SF themes. A dazzling variant on Harry Bates's classic Farewell to the Master is the spell-binding "Night of Time," in which the apparent servant is actually the master. Whereas the discovery of a message from an alien world would once have been story enough, in the ironically titled "On the Brink of That Bright New World" that revelation allows a man to get away with murdering his unfaithful wife and her lover. Sometimes, though, Reed's soaring imagination drops too easily into cloying preciosity and self-conscious wordplay, as in "River of the Queen" (a sequel of sorts to "Night of Time") or into didacticism, as in "Coelacanths." Still, Reed at his best ranks high in the SF firmament.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The subjects of the stories in Reed's new collection range from an unexpected side effect of first contact in "On the Brink of That Bright New World," in which a man describes a crime of passion he got away with because everyone was distracted by the news, to a virtual projection of the president visiting every household in the nation on "First Tuesday." In between are more stories of first contact, including "The Children's Crusade," the titular subject of which is, depending on point of view, either much more hopeful or vastly more terrible than its namesake, for in it the income and enthusiasm of children are used to fund space missions. Reed turns to alien civilizations living together on an unimaginably vast ship in "River of the Queen" and "Night of Time" (the latter, Reed says in the afterword, may be the seed of a novel). Reed's stories afford mysterious and occasionally creepy glimpses of futures that are sometimes strange, sometimes totally familiar. Regina Schroeder
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Outstanding Collection,
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This review is from: The Cuckoo's Boys (Hardcover)
Most collections of short stories such as this contain one or two good ones and several stinkers. The overall quality of these stories by Robert Reed is amazing. Highly recommended.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Appropriate Sampling of Reed's work,
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This review is from: The Cuckoo's Boys (Hardcover)
If you haven't read Robert Reed before, and are simply interested in him, this is a good place to start - or as good as it gets for him. Reed's prose takes some getting used to, in that his stories are usually intricately plotted and etched with atmosphere, and his narrative comes together like a jigsaw puzzle. The payoff is in substance - his short works come off as meaty as a novel in many cases, with vivid characters and weighty dilemmas.
Much of the work in this volume deals with familiar Reed themes - flawed belief systems and hidden agendas abound - but his style makes most of them satisfying reads. For fans of his "Marrow" planet-ship mythology, 2 stories are included here, including "Night of Time," one of my favorites. The titular story is a satisfying tale of childhood and loss, and it along with "Winemaster" ranks at the top of the pile. The story "Coelocanths" reads like a narrative experiment, new readers might find it just a little too cryptic (I did), and the story "First Tuesday" comes off (to old fans, anyway) as a rehash of the theme of his earlier "Birth Day." But Reed treats us to an informative and insightful Afterword that makes for an entertaining read. Overall, a great sampling of Reed's short work for newcomers, and a satisfying collection for longtime fans. If it prompts more people to read his best works, such as Beyond the Veil of Stars and Marrow, all the better.
4.0 out of 5 stars
he sees your monsters now,
By
This review is from: The Cuckoo's Boys (Hardcover)
Robert Reed excels at the human side of science fiction, looking at how regular folks would be affected by space-faring, alien contact, or time travel. While there are occasionally mysterious aliens or ultra-futuristic science in Reed's stories, his most important characters are the very real humans with ordinary lives who must learn to cope with those phenomena. In this short story collection, winners include "On the Brink of That Bright New World" in which a murderer uses humanity's greatest breakthrough to cover his ignorant crime; "The Children's Crusade" in which kids make a mockery of adults' false idealism toward space travel; and "One Last Game" in which current people have their lives shaken up by a visit from the future. Some other stories here with great humanistic themes include "The Cuckoo's Boys" and "Abducted Souls." Unfortunately this collection is rather uneven, with several stories failing to develop their thematic ideas or resolve the travails of the characters (for example, "Savior"); while some are merely thin philosophical ruminations latched onto poorly-plotted stories that go nowhere interesting (for example, "Coelacanths"). Another problem is the two stories that are add-ons to Reed's novel series, which do not function as stand-alone entities and hold little narrative interest for those not familiar with the novels. But despite some missed opportunities for deep thematic breakthroughs, Reed's works are very readable and stick with what's really most important, even in science fiction - real people. [~doomsdayer520~]
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