Customer Reviews

Gravity Wells: Speculative Fiction Stories

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

 

 

There's no doubt who is the best Canadian writer of short science fiction: it's long been James Alan Gardner: Hugo finalist, Nebula finalist, Aurora winner, and Writers of the Future Grand Prize Winner. This collection was announced some time ago, and at last it's finally here -- and well worth the wait. All of Gardner's stories are excellent, but the standout in this volume is probably "Three Hearings on the Existence of Snakes in the Human Bloodstream," which just totally kicks butt. Gardner is a brilliant stylist, a sly social commentator, and extremely witty in a clever, mordant Douglas Adams or Monty Python sort of way. Truly a wonderful collection; stands beside Ted Chiang's STORIES OF YOUR LIFE as one of the best single-author collections of the last decade.

A young girl tells her brother that everything is falling into place and that the universe will arrive where it's going--next week. An art critic visits a planet which somehow had no children. An author tries to write something meaningful about Kent State, from a science fiction perspective. A vampire tries to deal with ethics. A rock star discovers remains of a long-ago war. A slave seller goes bankrupt. A grim reaper tries to beat the game. The tarot speak. A fog threatens magic-wielding explorers. A love scene in a virtual world. A high priest deals with forbidden love. A strange organism visits the solar system. Are there snakes in the human bloodstream? And two boys discuss girls, sentient Dyson spheres, and basketball.

Author James Alan Gardner brings a fairy-tale style of story-telling to a series of interesting and sometimes fascinating topics. For me, the first story, 'Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large,' was especially strong, reminding me of the very best Ray Bradbury. But there were plenty of other treasures here as well. 'The Last Day of the War, With Parrots,' managed several twists and a great combination of action and character. 'The Young Person's Guide to the Organism,' the longest of the stories, combined first contact with a look at mankind's nature.

Gardner's uniformly strong writing, together with his often intriguing and always slanted way of approaching topics, makes GRAVITY WELLS an important read. If you're a fan of SF short stories, you'll definitely want to pick up Gardner's collection.

I enjoyed most of these stories, but Gardner didn't seem to have quite enough first-rate stories to fill a book. "Sense of Wonder" (1999), a Bisson-style short-short, was my favorite. Quite a few dusty workshopped-to-death pieces -- though all were previously bought by someone. Amazing Stories, for many of the weaker ones. Caveat lector. YMMV, of course, and anyway I'm lukewarm about Gardner.

Happy reading--
Pete Tillman

This is quite a collection of short stories here. I think the most awesome thing about it is how it displays Gardner's gift of creativity. Some of the ideas behind the stories are just brilliant. And it was a very nice touch to add in comments by him about each of the stories. My only complaint in that is that those comments were all located at the beginning of the book - separated from the specific story each was a bout. So I spent a decent amount of time flipping back and forth from comments to short story.

Of the stories, I think "The Children of the Creche" is one of my favorites. Not so much because of the twists, but because in the end, the would-be hero becomes almost a greater villain. "Muffin Explains Teleology to the World at Large" is by far the funnest of the stories included. And I would have to include "Reaper" as another of my favorites for its insight, as well as just some of the repartee included.

So would I recommend it? Absolutely. Gardner doesn't flinch from sexual themes or tones, but for the most part he doesn't delve too deeply into that vein. And for any aspiring writers out there, this is another excellent collection of short stories to dig into.

This anthology is a must read for science fiction fans as each of the fourteen tales are incredible yet different in content and format. The tales display how talented award winning James Alan Gardner truly is as he runs the gamut whether it is an ordinary little girl explaining how things work or the media rewriting history as they "neutrally" observes events or just a simplistic debate between science and faith following the invention of the microscope. Genre fans will want to read this collection soonest and once started feel compelled to complete GRAVITY WELLS in one sitting with several tales rereads immediately as Mr. Gardner is at his RADIANT best with this fabulous compilation.

Harriet Klausner

I bought this story collection after reading the rave reviews. What a disappointment. When I think of sci-fi, I think of creative geniuses such as Isaac Asimov, Philip Dick and Greg Bear. Gardner's stuff is so boring, dumb and childish, I could only suffer through about half of it before I left the book on a park bench for some other poor sap to find. Maybe some homeless guy could use it for toilet paper.

This is a conglomeration of short science fictions, fantasies, and myths. Mr. Gardner is very creative and purely imaginative in concocting bizarre situations in his tales. The main characters' ages and backgrounds vary. Each is equipped with enough strangeness to lure the reader into reading the next story. There is also a preface written by the author explaining his reasons behind writing some of his creations. All in all the narration from start to finish is so interesting that it invokes one's mind to question each story subject and the characters' behavior.

the stories are not what you called good nor imaginative. do not waste your money.