In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories [Hardcover]

Terry Bisson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2000

In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories is the new collection of sixteen fantastic, ironic tales by Terry Bisson. Terry Bisson uses the fantastic genres as do Kurt Vonnegut or Harlan Ellison, and like them, he is one of the strikingly original voices in short fiction today, with an audience that transcends genre. "Particularly delightful," said The Christian Science Monitor of his first collection. Bisson writes entertaining and moving stories in a strong and unique voice. They are sharp, witty, subversive, and stylish. For instance:

An Office Romance: a story of the private lives of icons on a computer desktop.

First Fire: a scientist discovers a way to date burning flame's and tries it on one in an ancient temple, with astonishing results.

Macs: clones of murderous criminals, with no human rights, are sent to be the property of their victims' families.

From the author of "Bears Discover Fire," one of the most anthologized American short stories of the last decade, this is a collection of stories that originally appeared in sources as diverse as Asimov's SF, Playboy, Southern Exposure, and Crank! They are clever, slick, memorable, occasionally profound, and always surprising.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Terry Bisson was already an established and acclaimed SF-fantasy novelist when he began publishing short stories in 1990. He immediately demonstrated his promise as one of the short-SF giants of the '90s with "Bears Discover Fire" (1990), which won the Nebula, Hugo, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards, and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Unsurprisingly, this story provided the title of Bisson's first collection, Bears Discover Fire (1993). His second collection, In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories, assembles sixteen lean, sharp, literate fictions. A few selections are short-shorts; some of these are slight. A few others describe lingerie in enough detail to make you wonder if you've wandered into a text-only Victoria's Secret catalog, which gets as eye-glazing as a baseball story if you don't share the interest. The stories from Playboy will also annoy some readers (especially women), since three of the four feature women characters who are software and the fourth story's female narrator is a male fantasy in drag.

Among the collection's many strong stories are "The Edge of the Universe" and "Get Me to the Church on Time," featuring the reality-bending adventures of the brilliant physicist-mathematician-meteorologist Wilson Wu. "There Are No Dead," the collection's lone fantasy, is a thoughtful, Bradbury-esque examination of childhood, change, loss, and the American dream. With a series of terse and increasingly disturbing interviews, "macs" traces the demand for victim's rights to its ironic logical extreme. "First Fire" pays tribute to Arthur C. Clarke and examines the amorality of laissez-faire capitalism in a tale of archaeological discovery, obsession, hubris, and the corruption of science. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly

Bisson offers up a wide-ranging second story collection (after Bears Discover Fire) of cutting-edge SF. The future of virtual reality comes under his gaze here and there--as in his Orwellian "An Office Romance," in which, for office temp Ken678, even a furtive love affair with co-worker Mary97 is less compelling than the reassuring predictability of Microserf Office 6.9. Or the title piece of the collection, which offers week-long online vacations to the lonely, courtesy of Inward Bound, and for one pair of lovers, virtual eternity together. On an equally sinister note, "Macs" presents the ultimate Swiftian solution for victims of terrorism, with the opportunity to legally murder a cloned copy of the terrorist who killed their loved one ("Mac" for copies of "the real McCoy). In a lighter vein, there's "The Edge of the Universe," a tale delivered with a sugary dose of Southern charm that shows how a lovesick law student reverses universal entropy through one good whack with a big stick--or "an anti-entropic field reversal device." Those who relish presidential embarrassment will savor "Tell them they are full of sh*t and they should f*ck off," in which an obtuse future chief exec somehow manages to overlook a first contact with an annoyed group of aliens. In its promo, the publisher compares Bisson to Vonnegut and Harlan Ellison; that's not too much of a stretch.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (May 5, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312874049
• ISBN-13: 978-0312874049
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,856,640 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Formerly ('75-'02) a Kentuckian living in New York,
currently a New Yorker living in California.

Known mostly for SF short stories (Hugo, Nebula awards),
also writes novels, screenplays, comics and non-fiction.
Biographer of Mumia Abu Jamal. Former automechanic,
wrote CAR TALK with 'Click and Clack'. Produced and
edited NO FRILLS Books back in '80s. Completed ST
LEIBOWITZ AND THE WILD HORSE WOMAN for Walter M Miller
estate. Lives in Oakland. Rides a KLR650.

Hosts monthly author reading series in San Francisco (SFinSF).
Edits 'Outspoken Author' series for PM Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty, Lovely, Sad, November 3, 2001

By 

David J. Schwartz (St. Paul, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (Hardcover)

Terry Bisson is a treasure. He writes hopeful stories about the value of childhood dreams, as in the bittersweet "There Are No Dead," where three boys find a way to literally start over. He writes subtle and depressing stories about how technology can smother modern life ("In the Upper Room," "An Office Romance," "He Loved Lucy"). His dialogue is sharp and can carry entire stories ("10:07:24," "Smoother"). And at his best he has the ability to look at our world from a slightly skewed angle that allows him to see deep and disturbing truths, as he does in the chilling "macs." These stories are lovely, funny and sad, and they will make you think. If you haven't heard of Terry Bisson, this is a good entry point into his unique point of view.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not This Virginia, September 5, 2000

By 

"whittp" (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (Hardcover)

The stories in this collection vary from the profound to the wistful to the grandly comic. Among the more highly mentionable are "macs", "The Player" and "First Fire", all of which will linger in the mind long after the last page has been turned. But for me, the one that reached me the most was "Not This Virginia". Anyone who has ever had to deal with an elderly parent in decline will find something in this story. It touches the soul and says no, you are not alone. Thank you, Terry.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of our best living writers, August 17, 2000

By 

Peter Coyote (Mill Valley, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Upper Room and Other Likely Stories (Hardcover)

(The disclaimer): I've known Terry Bisson for 40 years and admired him all that time.The review): He is, hands down, one of our best writers and finest minds, and were it not for the ignorant bias that places "fantasy" literature in a sub-set of lower status, he would be recognized for what he is: an imaginative wizard, a technical genius, a superb stylist and one of the funniest guys around. I've never understood why John Updike or Saul Bellow's "fantasies" are treated as high-art and Terry's are consigned to small publishers, but hell I've never understood why athletes and movie actors make lots of money and teachers and the people who feed us, don't. This is a great book. Don't ever miss the opportunity of reading Bisson and remembering just how exhilerating a conversation with a fine mind can be.