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Better Together
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Landis's first short story collection (after his well-received first novel, 2000's Mars Crossing) contains 16 distinguished stories published between 1984 and 2001, with an author's afterword providing valuable insights into the genesis of individual stories as well as Landis's attitudes toward his work. In balancing his expertise as a working scientist against his obvious love of language and emotional sensitivity, Landis consistently achieves striking characterizations within the confines of ingenious futuristics. Because he feels that SF ought to offer hope that the future will be better than what's past, most of these stories end, if not happily, at least positively. In the Hugo-winning "A Walk in the Sun," a marooned spacewoman saves herself by walking 11,000 kilometers around the moon, and, in the enormously moving "Beneath the Stars of Winter," starving zeks in Stalin's bitter gulag create a hymn sub voce to the indomitable human thirst for freedom. Many of the author's central figures are outcasts, like the wry narrator of "Outsider's Chance," who outwits (or does he?) space pirates; the lesbian heroine of "Across the Darkness," who will help found a world that will never forget the dreams that made it; and the unforgettable Sarah of "Snow," a homeless prostitute and a gifted mathematician. Landis's preference for the scientific puzzle story is also evident in "Into the Blue Abyss," a startling exploration of the enigmatic planet Uranus, and in "The Singular Habits of Wasps," a stunner of a Sherlock Holmes story hinging on entomological life cycles. Landis's finest success, though, transcends mental acuity and dazzling storytelling; he gives "hard" science fiction a heart.
From Booklist
Here are 16 stories by award-winning hard-science sf writer Landis, who works for NASA, cogently introduced by Joe Haldeman, and informatively discussed in an afterword by their author. Some of the stories are classic cases of a scientific premise turned into a tale. The Hugo-winning "A Walk in the Sun," for instance, takes the protagonist across the moon's surface, for she has to stay in the sun to keep her solar cells charged. "Into the Blue Abyss" works from the proposition that the planet Uranus consists entirely of ocean and has no solid core. Others are more abstruse--"Rorvik's War," for example, with what it does with computer simulations. There is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, "The Singular Habit of Wasps," and two extraordinarily powerful pieces with minimal sf content, "Beneath the Stars of Winter" and "Winter Fire." A matter of an author putting his best foot forward, this collection is very good indeed, and not only for hard-science sf fans. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
Landis's first short story collection (after his well-received first novel, 2000's Mars Crossing) contains 16 distinguished stories published between 1984 and 2001, with an author's afterword providing valuable insights into the genesis of individual stories as well as Landis's attitudes toward his work. In balancing his expertise as a working scientist against his obvious love of language and emotional sensitivity, Landis consistently achieves striking characterizations within the confines of ingenious futuristics. Because he feels that SF ought to offer hope that the future will be better than what's past, most of these stories end, if not happily, at least positively. In the Hugo-winning "A Walk in the Sun," a marooned spacewoman saves herself by walking 11,000 kilometers around the moon, and, in the enormously moving "Beneath the Stars of Winter," starving zeks in Stalin's bitter gulag create a hymn sub voce to the indomitable human thirst for freedom. Many of the author's central figures are outcasts, like the wry narrator of "Outsider's Chance," who outwits (or does he?) space pirates; the lesbian heroine of "Across the Darkness," who will help found a world that will never forget the dreams that made it; and the unforgettable Sarah of "Snow," a homeless prostitute and a gifted mathematician. Landis's preference for the scientific puzzle story is also evident in "Into the Blue Abyss," a startling exploration of the enigmatic planet Uranus, and in "The Singular Habits of Wasps," a stunner of a Sherlock Holmes story hinging on entomological life cycles. Landis's finest success, though, transcends mental acuity and dazzling storytelling; he gives "hard" science fiction a heart.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Here are 16 stories by award-winning hard-science sf writer Landis, who works for NASA, cogently introduced by Joe Haldeman, and informatively discussed in an afterword by their author. Some of the stories are classic cases of a scientific premise turned into a tale. The Hugo-winning "A Walk in the Sun," for instance, takes the protagonist across the moon's surface, for she has to stay in the sun to keep her solar cells charged. "Into the Blue Abyss" works from the proposition that the planet Uranus consists entirely of ocean and has no solid core. Others are more abstruse--"Rorvik's War," for example, with what it does with computer simulations. There is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche, "The Singular Habit of Wasps," and two extraordinarily powerful pieces with minimal sf content, "Beneath the Stars of Winter" and "Winter Fire." A matter of an author putting his best foot forward, this collection is very good indeed, and not only for hard-science sf fans. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
See all Editorial Reviews
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