kw: book reviews, science fiction, anthologies, short stories
The local library, from which I get most of the books I read and review here, has been doing things quite differently since pandemic struck nearly a year ago. Nobody but workers and a few volunteers are allowed in the building, so browsing the New Books section is out. The county library system has a good online catalog, although I could wish for a few more features in their Advanced Search section, but that's a story for another essay. Anyway, once I have located a few books I'd like to read, I can put a Hold on them. What next? Over the past few months they tried an experiment or two in outside pickup. They have settled on this: Once the books have been taken from the shelves, the library sends an email and/or a text message; I then drive to the library parking lot, where a row of spaces are marked with numbers and instructions; I call the library desk to tell them my name and space number, and open the trunk; finally a masked worker brings the book(s) out to put into the trunk. I wonder when we'll return to in-building browsing…
In the Advanced Search section I was trying to find the newest Nebula Awards volume. The Nebula folks (Science Fiction [and Fantasy] Writers of America, SFWA) permit the editor to modify the volume's title each year, so it's harder to find than one might imagine. As I sit here, it occurs to me I could find the book in Amazon (which has very robust searching), so I have the correct title. Anyway, I wound up putting a Hold on Nebula Awards Showcase 2005: The Year's Best SF and Fantasy selected by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America®, edited by Jack Dann (SFWA formerly didn't include the words "and Fantasy"). So reading it turned into a blast from the past. Heck, in 15 years, I've slept a few times, so even the stories I'd read before were practically new to me.
About a quarter of any Nebula volume consists of essays, including a "year in review" or something similar, and a brief bio of any newly-awarded Grand Master; in 2005 the Grand Master was awarded to Robert Silverberg, and his story "Sundance" places an American Indian on a far planet, helping carry out extermination on the seemingly cattle-like "eaters" there. He descends into a fugue because he thinks they may be smarter than he was told, and that he is participating in genocide, such as that perpetrated against his ancestors. At story's end, the reality of his experience is in question.
I was quite taken by "Knapsack Poems" by Eleanor Arnason, in which the central figures are "persons" with multiple bodies. They are not telepathically connected, as we find in many multi-body stories. The narrator uses "I" and "me" to refer to the ensemble, and the scenes of argumentation amongst his/her/itself (these folks have male, female, and neuter sexes) is quite fascinating. Following Campbell's Dictum, the narrator is presented with a potentially fatal dilemma, and must solve it with grace and finality. A lovely story.
A Nebula volume also contains a few poems by winners of the Rhysling Award (named for the blind poet in "The Green Hills of Earth" by Robert A. Heinlein). I looked through the selections quickly, hoping some would have pleasing scansion. Sadly, not a one. I don't require rhyme in a poem, but I do require rhythm, or I don't count it poetry. Only a rare talent such as Ogden Nash can produce rhyming lines without the rhythm, that nonetheless evoke the thrill of good poetry. In general, if you can't sing it, I don't call it a poem.
Comparing the stories and their general tone with those in the recent volume I reviewed nearly three weeks ago, there was more hope and optimism in 2005 than there was in 2019 and early 2020. Dystopian fiction wasn't nearly so common. Considering that the stories for the 2021 volumes of all the "Best of" series, including Nebula, were written during the Pandemic Year (let's hope it isn't the first of several!), I expect a great divide, between stories of dystopian hopelessness and "so-what-we-are-still-alive-in-spite-of-it-all" optimism. The latter ones will interest me the most.
I now return to reading mostly nonfiction, for a half year or so.
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