Time, imagination and mountains

kw: book reviews, story reviews, continued review, science fiction, fantasy, anthologies

Continuing the review of Kevin J. Anderson's stories in Landscapes, we have four more science fiction stories, seven of fantasy, and three items grouped under "The Great Outdoors", two of which are essays.

• Paradox & Greenblatt, Attorneys at Law –Should time travel become practicable, it will of course result, as all new things do, in sundry legal conundrums. It is only by being just a bit sloppy that this client escapes conviction on charges of attempted murder by time paradox.
• Collaborators – The ultimate virtual reality device is expected to be something that directly jacks into the nervous system. Once people get direct access to one another's total mentality, this cautionary tale postulates one possible result.
• Prisons – "Iron bars do not a prison make", and a grudge can be just as confining.
• Mammoth Dawn – Anderson reports that his friends often ask why he writes so many sad endings. While he is able to write happy endings, this sideways prequel to "Jurassic Park" is one of his sadder ones.
• Sea Wind – This first of the "fantasy" stories has no fantasy elements; it is a straightforward tale of growing up just a little too fast.
• Frog Kiss – A little fantasy here, in the form of a sorcerer who has turned the royal family into frogs, then conveniently died. Is it worthwhile finding the appropriate frogs?
• Short Straws – One of the happier dragon tales (OK, it is sad for all but one dragon slayer).
• Special Makeup – One of the better lead-ins to a classic actor's dilemma. Stanislavski should have had it so good!
• Redmond's Private Screening – The first half is an unutterably sad story of Japanese honor and sacrifice, the second half a new look at the Japanese view of ghosts.
• Splinter – A fresh treatment of Catholic relic-fantasy: what powers, if any, might a genuine sliver of the True Cross bear?
• Santa Claus Is Coming to Get You – There is no fantasy here, except in the minds of some over-imaginative children. Yes, Kevin, I could have done without reading this one.
• False Summits – A ruminative essay that likens the attaining of successive false peaks on the way to a real summit, to the progress of a successful career. It is harder to know when you've peaked in real life, except in retrospect. [Near where I live, the "Ebright Azimuth" is the highest point in Delaware, but is actually the spot where a rising ridge crosses into Pennsylvania, much of which is at a higher elevation yet. Sometimes you gotta get into a different environment to find higher peaks.]
• Landscapes – A lovely story of getting one's head clear (while seeking a sublime, majestic view), to see what is right in front of your face. In that, it is like "Frog Kiss".
• Above the Crowds – An essay based on one real ascent of the 54 the author undertook to belong to the "All 14000-plus" club in Colorado. When he described Knife-Edge Ridge on the flank of Capitol Peak, I realized I am just not the type to take risks at that level.

Well, I am sure sorry to have Landscapes come to an end. It takes a whole stable of idea factories like Anderson to keep me in reading material!