Customer Reviews

Terminal Visions

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

 

 

Terminal Visions is an outstanding anthology showcasing fourteen short story writings of Richard Russo. The compelling selections include science fiction themes (eleven set on Earth). The themes run from alien encounters to the human condition to triumph over seemingly overwhelming conditions. Terminal Visions very nicely documents why Russo, who has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award and been nominated for the Arthur C. Clark Award, is considered on of the best of today's speculative fiction authors.

Russo's novels (at least the ones I've read, Carlucci's Edge and Carlucci's Heart) offer a dark, Blade-Runneresque vision of a near-future San Francisco in which chaos rules the streets and cops keep their heads down.

Terminal Visions is both wider and narrower -- wider in that these short stories are set in a variety of locales with differing casts, different premises, and different tones (although 'noir' seems to be the prevailing one). Narrower in that, like John Varley's short stories, these are miniature universes unto themselves, sketching out in a few hundred words an entire scenario for a possible future. Russo's spare use of language, and haunting ideas, make this one of the best and most thought-provoking collections of shorts I've read since The Barbie Murders.

Wonderful stuff.

Russo's stories are grim and gritty, stark and bleak glimpses into the dark dystopia of the near future. His vision is powerful and haunting, darkly perceptive and prophetic in the terminal rites of passage...

Gary S. Potter Author/Poet

Enjoy fourteen fine stories which are set on Earth and which paint very different stories of men who dream of space, other worlds, and salvation. From urban gun scenes to solar contemplation, the backgrounds are different but the visions - ultimately of hope - are similar and moving. Highly recommended, haunting.