Customer Reviews

Eating Memories

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

 

 

This collection of short stories is worth reading for several reasons: First, Mrs Anthony covers a wide range of topics with these stories - it's not the same theme repeated over and over again. You are thrown from a boy who remembers the future to a pilot captured by aliens to a ghost story to a virus infection on Mars to your neighbor, the alien, to a city-kid "imprisoned" in a redneck town with Torku to.... do you get the picture? And every time, it's fresh. Creative. The ideas are new. Second, this is not SF where problems are solved with science. No "beam me up, Scotty.", sorry. Most of these stories explore the human condition, human behaviour, human reasoning. Third, P. Anthony has a way with characters and with language - both seem very alive, and she does it with very little words. Fourth, the stories get you (or at least me) thinking. They're not very happy stories, so if you need happy endings, then this book is not for you. But the stories grip you, and they stay with you after you read them. I couldn't stop reading. It was one of these books I finish in a few hours. After reading it, I got Cradle of Splendor, one of her novels, which I didn't really like much. I'll try again with Brother Termite, but what I really wish for is more short stories.

As I write this, I am only part way through this book, but the stories are remarkable. Patricia Anthony is astounding. I can't wait to read everything else she has written.

I love Patricia Anthony for her unique, gentle literate approach to fiction. She has been woefully largely ignored by those who continue paying money for some of the worst crap ever set to paper. Anthony has been called the male "Ray Bradybury" and indeed, her stories remind one of Bradbury and his tales of real humans. You will not find nanotech, quantum theory, weird genetically enhanced homo sapiens, Singularity-oriented gods of the AI machine or non-human futures. No, both Bradbury and Anthony are firmly in the second phase of Science Fiction, the first being the "invasion from Mars" type. The third "movement" involved robotics, bio-engineering. The current could be called the quantum/nano Singularity catastrophic future phase with nihilism, post-humans and non-human relations.

Paradoxicaly, the presence of ET's has dwindles but whether this is due to the increasingly doubtful likelihood of alien intelligence, a dirth of ideas on the subject or a wave of hip cyber-punk smartass writing is unknown. What is known is that theis collection of stories - many no more than a few pages - both invoke and evoke emotions that were once called "human". The stories - setting, dialogue and character - are set in mostly rural America with solid country folk, farmers, workers and a rare "city" worker, usually a computer programmer or the like. Imagine a swath from Georgia to Iowa and this is Anthony Land.

Space travel is pure 1950's - hibernation, atomic rockets, human crews, slower than light speed. Computers and robots also seem imported from that era. An occasional android, alien, ghost, apparition, or spirit person makes an appearance. Rising above the constant humor (some would say irony), memorable characters and interesting plot, one notes the purely literary aspects. Each saga has been ruthlessly edited - sometimes for financial reasons at the time - leaving episodes that are sharp and beautiful and searing and sometimes shocking.

EATING MEMORIES (one of the stories) is one of those rarities that can be enjoyed on multiple levels without compromise on any. My Grade - A+

This omnibus of some of Pat Anthony's shorts clearly shows her having a versatile imagination. At times she borders on being witty, but seems to forget how to carry the ascerbic wit through to a satisfying conclusion. And like many of today's modern female authors, he seems unable to resist bashing men in some of her short stories, something which is patently adolescent, hence why Pat lost one star from my overall rating.