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Nebula Award Stories 5
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="95%" align="center"> <tr bgcolor="#234c6f"><td> <table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tr bgcolor="#234c6f"> <td colspan="2" align="left"> <font size="3" color="#FFFFFF" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>T O P I C ��� R E V I E W</b> </font></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#A3B9CC"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Sol System</b> <br /><small>Member # 30</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2003,5,2,13,54,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">June 02, 2003</span> <span class="timeformat-0">01:54 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> This one was published in 1970, collecting the stories published in 1969, and there isn't a single mention of Apollo 11 anywhere in the book. Which I thought was very interesting.<br /><br />The introduction, by editor James Blish, is all about disspelling the rumor of a conspiracy to hand out Nebulas only to New Wave writers, and is interesting if you care about the thirty year old politics of a particular science fiction organaztion.<br /><br />Best novella: "A Boy and His Dog," by Harlan Ellison. Look, science fiction has discovered swearing and sex! A vicious but oddly compassionate story about, well, a post-apocalyptic boy and his sentient dog, invented to fight the Chinese during World War III, as I recall. Blish describes it as being "Jacobian," but I know less about old and bloody English plays than him. Turned into a movie starring a young Don Johnson.<br /><br />"Nine Lives," by Ursula K. Le Guin. In the eyes of some mainstream critics, the only writer of worth ever produced by the genre. This story is a sort of mediation on the meaning of family and friends, told from the perspective of two coworkers and friends, alone on a prospecting mission on some distant planet, who get sent a group of clones that all work and think together. I'm not describing it very well. It's really good.<br /><br />Best short story: "Passengers," by Robert Silverberg. Aliens, or maybe ghosts (no one knows, or by this point particularly cares) have come to Earth to hijack the bodies of random people for a few hours or days or months. A story about the difficulties of starting new relationships when at any moment you might disappear.<br /><br />"Not Long Before the End," by Larry Niven. I used to really like Niven, but it's been ages since I've read anything by him, other than a recent novel I found pretty disappointing. This is a more or less typical Niven story, with a crazy science twist at the end, despite the fact that it is about a sorcerer fighting a sword-wielding barbarian. Hint: not even sorcerers can escape the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Fun.<br /><br />Best novelette: "Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones," by Samuel R. Delany. On the surface, a very ephemeral (in that the plot kind of floats away from you while reading) story about a futuristic thief and the circles in which he travels. Really beautifully written, however. In his little essay later in the book, Alexei Panshin declares it isn't really a story at all, but just a fragment from a life. Well, whatever. Recommended.<br /><br />"The Man Who Learned Loving," by Theodore Sturgeon. A hippie invents a perpetual motion machine, and has to give up being a hippie to ensure it ends up being used for the greatest good. Not a very good description, but the story is not essentially about either hippies or perpetual motion, instead being about the tension between two kinds of love.<br /><br />Essays:<br />"The SF Novel in 1969," by Darko Suvin. Uh, a better year than the last is basically his conclusion. Notable for the claim that, with <i>Macroscope</i>, Piers Anthony has become an author to watch. (To be fair, I understand that lots of people thought this, only to be horrified at what came later.)<br /><br />"Short SF in 1968," by Alexei Panshin. Is the date a typo? I'm really not sure. Notable for claiming that the short story was dead everywhere but within science fiction, which is interesting because today it is dead everywhere, science fiction included.<br /><br />Best Novel: <i>The Left Hand of Darkness</i>, by Ursula K. Le Guin. I haven't read it. <br /> </font> </td></tr> </table></td></tr></table> <br /> <br />
© 1999-2024 Charles Capps
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