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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Old Voices,
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This review is from: Nebula Award Stories 10 (Paperback)
A good many of these writers are now dead, and the rest are quite old, which is a shame. Some voices leave us too soon.
Silverberg's "Born With the Dead" is a disturbing commentary and travelog. If you've ever had to let go against your will, this will reach you. LeGuin's "Day Before the Revolution" talks about waiting and wondering, as life passes one by. Grant, Zelazny, Benford, even editor Gunn. All these writers are now (and most of them even then) recognized for the brilliant evocations they can create. But besides that, these anthologies are a time capsule, a period piece of the art. Reading these reveals the character of the year in question, as seen through the eyes of society's futurists. Some predictions pan out, some fall flat, but through it all, you see the human condition set against the world.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good collection, fair year,
By
This review is from: Nebula Award Stories: 10 (Paperback)
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Roger Zelazny (1937-95), "The Engine at Heartspring's Center", Nebula short-story nominee. The Bork, a semi-immortal cyborg, saves pretty Nora from an ill-considered euthanasia request. They don't live happily ever after. Decent but unmemorable, except for the cool title. Gordon Eklund & Gregory Benford, "If the Stars are Gods", Best Novellette award, 1974. The first alien starship has come to visit. The aliens aren't too interested in us -- they've come to interview, and worship, our Sun. Reynolds, a semi-retired astronaut-astronomer, tries to figure out what the hell these weird, giraffe-like aliens really want. Very nicely done. I'd forgotten what a good story this is. Tom Reamy (1935-77), "Twilla", novellette nominee. The newest student at the Hawley, Kansas High School catches Miss Mahan's attention. The brutal murder of Yvonne Wilkins, another ninth-grader, reveals that Twilla is not what she seems. Miss Mahan is introduced to Dazreel the djinn. It's been too long since I've read Tom Reamy's stories. This dark (but cozy) rural fantasy is one of his better ones. It's included in San Diego Lightfoot Sue, his posthumous (and only) collection, which is well-worth looking for. Philip Jose Faremer, "After King Kong Fell", short story nominee. The 'true' story of King Kong's Manhattan adventure, which isn't quite what the movie showed. Elegaic and well-written, but slight. Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Day Before the Revolution", Best Short Story, 1974. This is a short prequel to (or outtake from) THE DISPOSSESSED, which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards for best novel of 1974. It's a nicely-done vignette that I've never much cared for. Charles L. Grant, "The Rest is Silence", novelette nominee. Odd sort-of-fantasy about English teachers who hate their boss, and a toga party that gets seriously out of hand. Not to my taste. Robert Silverberg, "Born With the Dead", Best Novella, 1974. By the early 1990's, well-off dead people are routinely 'rekindled'. The rekindled dead have organized a parallel society, and live in isolated, newly-built Cold Towns. They don't associate much with the warms, the living. Jorge Klein has lost his young wife, Sybille. She died in 1990 and was rekindled, but now refuses to see him. He pursues her literally to the ends of the earth. She and her dead companions are not pleased with his obsession. This is a well-written story in Silverberg's cool, mature style, rather self-consciously arty here. Where it fails is in credibility -- there is absolutely no way that the rekindling technology could have been developed by the mid-80's, and this would have been perfectly obvious in 1974. Setting this aside, and treating "Born With the Dead" as alternate-history, or science-fantasy, the story fails in that no other detail of human life has been changed by this revolutionary technology. Bah. CONCLUSIONS: All of these stories are well-written, as one might expect for a writers' award anthology edited by a writing teacher. "If the Stars are Gods" and "Twilla" are my clear favorites. The rest, eh.... Happy reading-- Peter D. Tillman
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