Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities [Hardcover]

Mary Rosenblum (Author), Elizabeth Lawhead Bourne (Illustrator)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Deserts, oceans, Antarctic wastelands?the locales in Rosenblum's first short-story collection and hardcover debut (after three paperback novels, most recently, The Stone Garden) tend to be extreme. Her characters, not surprisingly, live on the edge. Farmers struggle to survive in a drought-stricken future America. Sailors work to bring a captured iceberg to port. Virtual-reality artists throw everything into their work. Several of the nine stories are set in the arid universe of Rosenblum's widely praised first novel, Drylands. "Water Bringer," for instance, concerns a disabled child who can work small miracles but who finds his talent rejected by his embittered father until a stranger brings temporary hope to their parched farming community. Moving from the desert to the ocean, "Flood Tide" concerns a father and son who argue bitterly over the son's decision to leave Earth for Tau Ceti. Also noteworthy is "Synthesis," which involves a virtual-reality artist torn between his art and his loyalty to an aging, tyrannical father. Rosenblum writes about people caught up in painful conflicts, often intergenerational. Her characters usually achieve some form of reconciliation?with their parents, with their children or, at the very least, within themselves. Her prose is strong and her insights true; although more than one story here deals with virtual reality, the pleasures afforded by this collection are very real. Illustrations by Elizabeth L. Bourne.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Rosenblum's early story "The Water Bringer" and tales subsequently published in such popular sf periodicals as Asimov's Science Fiction attracted a large fandom almost immediately. The reasons for that success are readily apparent in her first collection, which showcases her uncanny knack for grounding unusual premises in thoughtfully explored themes. "The Centaur Garden," for instance, describes the meeting between a latter-day Don Juan and a genetically engineered female centaur while it probes the credibly rendered intricacies of their relationship. "Second Chance" chillingly focuses on an astronaut-in-training whose discovery of a crystalline sphere reawakens her forgotten identity as an alien trapped in human form. "Synthesis" brilliantly recounts the story of an artist whose painstakingly crafted virtual-reality tableaus are threatened by a young computer hacker. Whether her medium is fantasy or cutting-edge sf, Rosenblum demonstrates a solid command of character development that makes her tales irresistibly compelling and distinguishes her as a major new voice in science fiction. Carl Hays

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 280 pages
• Publisher: Arkham House Pub; 1st edition (May 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870541706
• ISBN-13: 978-0870541704
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,717,011 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Collection by an Author Deserving Wider Publication, October 9, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Orion Nebula) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities (Hardcover)

Rosenblum is an excellent author that does not get the wider attention many lessor talents recieve.

This collection displays the best of her gritty, distopian style. I personally prefer the more (do I say it?) "cyberpunkish" stories over the eco-disaster "Drylands" stories.

If I can find any fault with the author, it is in her slow production of novels. Recommended.

0 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Stories, April 30, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book - Mary please write more books soon