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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Introduction to Sci-Fi or Sample of Best Works, September 29, 2003
The Nebula awards showcase, 2003 edition, actually highlights award winners from the 2001 Nebula awards (which were actually held in 2002), with many of the pieces having year 2000 publication dates. Even with the dramatic events that have occurred in these last three years, the Sci-Fi stories remain as relevant as ever. The book also includes commentary from various Sci-Fi field luminaries on various seemingly un-related topics of their choosing which may serve to introduce the novice Sci-Fi reader to various sub-genres. The anthology (dont let the word scare you, this book is about 1/6th the size of a Nortons anthology with much bigger print!) contains six short stories, the first three chapters of the novel The Quantum Rose and two Sci-Fi poems. As these all are discrete works, unified only by their award or runner-up status, I will look at each separately:The Cure for Everything Maria is an administrator at the Xingu forest preserve, a reservation for displaced Amazon natives whose home-lands have been assimilated by civilization. A group of natives arrive from the Hiller project, which Maria learns is a drug-company front, using the natives unique biology to develop cures for diseases like Marias. Maria learns that with the right husband, called by the author The Cure for Everything she can have children. She quickly resolves her ethical dilemma The Ultimate Earth Set in the far-future, The Ultimate Earth presents a utopian society where birth and death are carefully controlled. Since humans never die, only when people leave for colonization can others breed. Most of the story takes place on a moon base which is being restored. The moon base was developed by old humanity (before the genetic modifications) as a refuge from which to re-start the species if the unthinkable happened. Though it appears to have been used once for that purpose in the past, it has since crumbled. Now it remains as the only record of old-humanity. The children-turned-young-adults are told that there is no place for them now on earth, but sneak to the surface by lying to a shuttle (the ability to deceive has been eliminated by new humanity). They learn first-hand that there really is no place for them there, where they are regarded as savages. When a colony ship surprisingly returns and, due to population control, must leave immediately for another destination, the moon-children leave on it and find a planet where a plague is wiping out new-humanity Louises Ghost In a story that illustrates the problem with labeling and shows us how well we can recognize others not by their name but by what they say and do Louises ghost deals with two women named Louise and ones daughter Anna When Louise (the one without the daughter) finds that a ghost of a naked man is haunting her house, Louise (the one with the daughter) brings over her musician friends to try to convince the ghost to inhabit their instruments. Louise (without daughter) accidentally sleeps with Louises current love, which causes a feud between them until she dies a Louise finds that she has been designated as Annas guardian. Then she wishes that she could be haunted by Louises ghost Undone What if you could go back and forward in time on command? What if you could alter your biology on whim? These three fundamental rights are guaranteed to all of the Trueborn: The right to remain individual, the right to manipulate your physical structure and the right to access the timeline. Their foe, the utopians, though seek to provide harmony through homogeny. They have blockaded the planet and placed an identity mine, which strips anyone who travels back in time more than five minute of being able to remember their identity. To flee the Utopians attack, Mada commands her ship to travel forward in time she just doesnt specify how far. The ship travels two-tenths of a glactic rotation or about twenty-million years. Her Trueborn society is gone, and the Utopians appear to be as well. What she does find is a new society where attention is the only currency. The only think that is expected of her is to comment on every experience eating, listening, etc. She meets a poet who writes about death but like everyone else in this society suppresses all bad memories by checking them into the library. The two go off to another planet and have children. Mada prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice for them her identity but is saved when the ship gains consciousness and creates something of a paradox My Wife Returns as She Would Have It and January Fires These two poems (both under two pages in length) both comment on the human condition. The former discussing the desire for life after death, the latter questioning whether a dream is worth dying for. The Elephants on Neptune Men land on Neptune (who knew it was solid!) and meet a pack of Neptunian elephants. They discuss the long-time relationship between men and elephants (who not surprisingly are now extinct on earth). As the men try to convince the elephants (who have not forgotten how their species was eliminated) that they are friendly, they start turning into elephants and the elephants turn into men The Quantum Rose In this full-length novel, of which only the first few chapters are presented here to wet readers appetite, we discover a planet which has evolved far beyond modern earth, but forgotten how to make the technology, thus reverting to the stone age in many ways. The frame work of the present economic system remains, though, but due to a loss of understanding of the language, it has become somewhat perverted, thus forming an odd commentary on the present corporate culture. When Kamoj is forced to marry a man she has never seen (and who remains cloaked at their wedding), we are left in suspense as she goes to remove the cloak while he sleeps Overall, if you like Sci-Fi, this book will introduce you to a variety of sub-genres and excellent long-time and new Sci-Fi writers. This is a must-own for any Sci-Fi addict.
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