Part two of three
by John Bolton (art) and Doug Moench (story)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 26, May 1981
Thursday, September 24, 2015
Demon in a Silvered Glass Part Two
Demon in a Silvered Glass
Part two of three
by John Bolton (art) and Doug Moench (story)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 26, May 1981
Part two of three
by John Bolton (art) and Doug Moench (story)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 26, May 1981
Monday, September 21, 2015
Demon in a Silvered Glass Part One
Demon in a Silvered Glass
Part one of three
by John Bolton (art) and Doug Moench (story)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 26, May 1981
As he states in his Introduction (below) titled 'Of Bolton and Barbarians', in the early 80s Marvel editor Ralph Macchio was paging through an issue of The Comics Journal magazine when he saw artwork by the British artist John Bolton, and was stunned by the quality of what he saw.
Macchio subsequently hired Bolton to illustrate a 54-page King Kull story, which appeared in May 1981 in the Curtis black-and-white magazine Bizarre Adventures.
A compelling argument could be made that, while Bizarre Adventures featured some outstanding art from outstanding artists throughout its lifetime (i.e., 1975 - 1983), Bolton's work for this King Kull story was the best to appear in the pages of the magazine.
Doug Moench's script, while essentially a re-working of the very first two Kull stories Robert E. Howard published, 'The Shadow Kingdom' (1929) and 'The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune' (1929), does a competent job of giving Bolton some worthwhile material to work with.
Bolton, who was of course well-known to U. K. readers through his work for the comics The House of Hammer and Warrior, went on to illustrate other Marvel stories during the 1980s, most notably the series Marada the She-Wolf for Epic Illustrated magazine, and The Black Dragon series for Epic Comics.
Bolton's work is particularly impressive when you consider that Bizarre Adventures was a lower-tier magazine in terms of print quality. According to former contributor Steve Bissette:
Bizarre Adventures did not sell particularly well. It was definitely a lower echelon Marvel publication. Depending on what part of the country you live in, the print jobs were atrocious. As an artist, I was really exploring what I could do with black & white half-tones. I was really pushing the envelope with that story as well as with ‘The Blood Bequest’, for what the printing methods of the time could reproduce. I saw after the fact, when I was at conventions signing issues, that with some of the issues that were distributed out there—well, the printing was just awful. The grays would coagulate into patches of black. Marvel’s printing of Bizarre Adventures was just not at the level of what I was enjoying over at Scholastic. So, I abandoned that approach to my art, which is too bad. I was doing some solid work, but it wasn’t appropriate for the venues available to me.
Maybe Titan Books / Titan Comics (U. K.) will publish a remastered version of this story in a well-made hardbound book, much as they did with Bolton's Marada and Black Dragon work.....we will have to see.
Part one of three
by John Bolton (art) and Doug Moench (story)
Bizarre Adventures (Marvel / Curtis) No. 26, May 1981
As he states in his Introduction (below) titled 'Of Bolton and Barbarians', in the early 80s Marvel editor Ralph Macchio was paging through an issue of The Comics Journal magazine when he saw artwork by the British artist John Bolton, and was stunned by the quality of what he saw.
Macchio subsequently hired Bolton to illustrate a 54-page King Kull story, which appeared in May 1981 in the Curtis black-and-white magazine Bizarre Adventures.
A compelling argument could be made that, while Bizarre Adventures featured some outstanding art from outstanding artists throughout its lifetime (i.e., 1975 - 1983), Bolton's work for this King Kull story was the best to appear in the pages of the magazine.
Doug Moench's script, while essentially a re-working of the very first two Kull stories Robert E. Howard published, 'The Shadow Kingdom' (1929) and 'The Mirrors of Tuzun Thune' (1929), does a competent job of giving Bolton some worthwhile material to work with.
Bolton, who was of course well-known to U. K. readers through his work for the comics The House of Hammer and Warrior, went on to illustrate other Marvel stories during the 1980s, most notably the series Marada the She-Wolf for Epic Illustrated magazine, and The Black Dragon series for Epic Comics.
Bolton's work is particularly impressive when you consider that Bizarre Adventures was a lower-tier magazine in terms of print quality. According to former contributor Steve Bissette:
Bizarre Adventures did not sell particularly well. It was definitely a lower echelon Marvel publication. Depending on what part of the country you live in, the print jobs were atrocious. As an artist, I was really exploring what I could do with black & white half-tones. I was really pushing the envelope with that story as well as with ‘The Blood Bequest’, for what the printing methods of the time could reproduce. I saw after the fact, when I was at conventions signing issues, that with some of the issues that were distributed out there—well, the printing was just awful. The grays would coagulate into patches of black. Marvel’s printing of Bizarre Adventures was just not at the level of what I was enjoying over at Scholastic. So, I abandoned that approach to my art, which is too bad. I was doing some solid work, but it wasn’t appropriate for the venues available to me.
Maybe Titan Books / Titan Comics (U. K.) will publish a remastered version of this story in a well-made hardbound book, much as they did with Bolton's Marada and Black Dragon work.....we will have to see.
Anyways, I will be posting the entirety of 'Demon in a Silvered Glass' as a series of three consecutive Posts here at the PorPor Books Blog. Part one is posted below. The two additional posts will soon follow.
[If you want to acquire the original magazine, copies can be had from your usual online retailers for around $10.
Another option is to pick up the trade paperback from Dark Horse, The Savage Sword of Kull Volume One, a compilation of the Kull stories from the black and white Curtis magazines of the 70s and early 80s, which contains 'Demon' - although reproduced at a reduced size.]
Saturday, September 19, 2015
Book Review: The 1980 Annual World's Best SF
Book Review: 'The 1980 Annual World's Best SF' edited by Donald A. Wolheim
1 / 5 Stars
‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ (284 pp) is DAW Book N0. 384, and was published in May, 1980. The cover artist is Jack Gaughan.
All of the entries in this anthology were published in 1979.
Traditionally I approach these DAW ‘World’s Best’ anthologies with modest expectations. However, ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ is one of the worst I have yet read.
Maybe this is because the pickings of quality sf stories in 1979 were slim. Or maybe it’s because Donald A. Wolheim simply wasn’t a very good editor. Or maybe it’s both. But the truth is, sf at the end of the 70s was a genre in profound creative decline, still clinging to the passé prose stylings of the New Wave movement, mainly because there was nothing else around to take its place.
Here are my brief summaries of the stories in ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’:
The Way of Cross and Dragon, by George R. R. Martin: Inquisitor Damien Har Veris travels to the planet Arion, where a heretical sect is winning followers and posing a threat to the Church Eternal. But what Har Veris learns about the sect’s true beliefs shakes his own convictions. Here, Martin attempts to use sf themes to address larger philosophical issues, but the ending is underwhelming, rather than revelatory.
The Thirteenth Utopia, by Somtow Sucharitkul: Another tale featuring an Inquisitor investigating a heresy; this time it’s a seeming utopia on the planet Shtoma. The utopia, it turns out, is real…….. I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that the agency nurturing the utopia is more than a little contrived.
Options, by John Varley: No late-70s sf anthology was complete without at least one entry from John Varley. Here, it’s a novelette, set in a socially progressive colony on the Moon. Sex-change is a relatively simple, affordable, and reversible procedure; bored housewife Cleo decides to explore assuming the male gender. I’m sure that this story is a powerful, insightful, humanistic examination of gender roles and the nature of self-identity, but it’s not really sf. Just how bad was it in 1979, that this story was selected as one of the ‘Year’s Best’ ?!
Unaccompanied Sonata, by Orson Scot Card: in the near future, a musical prodigy is persecuted by the minions of a regimented and unyielding world government. This labored allegory also has little ‘genuine’ sf content.
The Story Writer, by Richard Wilson: William Ross, a retired pulp fiction writer, is hired by a man named Street – who may or may not be in fact a member of the alien race of the Uxu – to write the alien’s story. Strangely, whatever Ross writes, actually happens – or will happen – or has happened.
This is the worst story in the anthology; not only is the plot utterly contrived, but the excessively chatty and self-indulgent prose style – which seeks to examine profundities in the Life of A Writer – makes reading it an exercise in self-flagellation.
Daisy in the Sun, by Connie Willis: incoherent tale of a young girl who experiences the end of the world as a series of particularly vivid hallucinations. This premise is as unconvincing as it sounds.
The Locusts, by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes: After a 25-year journey through deep space, the starship Orion establishes Earth’s very first extraterrestrial colony on the seemingly idyllic planet of Ridgeback. But even the most idyllic planet has its risks……
‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ (284 pp) is DAW Book N0. 384, and was published in May, 1980. The cover artist is Jack Gaughan.
All of the entries in this anthology were published in 1979.
Traditionally I approach these DAW ‘World’s Best’ anthologies with modest expectations. However, ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ is one of the worst I have yet read.
Maybe this is because the pickings of quality sf stories in 1979 were slim. Or maybe it’s because Donald A. Wolheim simply wasn’t a very good editor. Or maybe it’s both. But the truth is, sf at the end of the 70s was a genre in profound creative decline, still clinging to the passé prose stylings of the New Wave movement, mainly because there was nothing else around to take its place.
Here are my brief summaries of the stories in ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’:
The Way of Cross and Dragon, by George R. R. Martin: Inquisitor Damien Har Veris travels to the planet Arion, where a heretical sect is winning followers and posing a threat to the Church Eternal. But what Har Veris learns about the sect’s true beliefs shakes his own convictions. Here, Martin attempts to use sf themes to address larger philosophical issues, but the ending is underwhelming, rather than revelatory.
The Thirteenth Utopia, by Somtow Sucharitkul: Another tale featuring an Inquisitor investigating a heresy; this time it’s a seeming utopia on the planet Shtoma. The utopia, it turns out, is real…….. I won’t disclose any spoilers, save to say that the agency nurturing the utopia is more than a little contrived.
Options, by John Varley: No late-70s sf anthology was complete without at least one entry from John Varley. Here, it’s a novelette, set in a socially progressive colony on the Moon. Sex-change is a relatively simple, affordable, and reversible procedure; bored housewife Cleo decides to explore assuming the male gender. I’m sure that this story is a powerful, insightful, humanistic examination of gender roles and the nature of self-identity, but it’s not really sf. Just how bad was it in 1979, that this story was selected as one of the ‘Year’s Best’ ?!
Unaccompanied Sonata, by Orson Scot Card: in the near future, a musical prodigy is persecuted by the minions of a regimented and unyielding world government. This labored allegory also has little ‘genuine’ sf content.
The Story Writer, by Richard Wilson: William Ross, a retired pulp fiction writer, is hired by a man named Street – who may or may not be in fact a member of the alien race of the Uxu – to write the alien’s story. Strangely, whatever Ross writes, actually happens – or will happen – or has happened.
This is the worst story in the anthology; not only is the plot utterly contrived, but the excessively chatty and self-indulgent prose style – which seeks to examine profundities in the Life of A Writer – makes reading it an exercise in self-flagellation.
Daisy in the Sun, by Connie Willis: incoherent tale of a young girl who experiences the end of the world as a series of particularly vivid hallucinations. This premise is as unconvincing as it sounds.
The Locusts, by Larry Niven and Steve Barnes: After a 25-year journey through deep space, the starship Orion establishes Earth’s very first extraterrestrial colony on the seemingly idyllic planet of Ridgeback. But even the most idyllic planet has its risks……
This novelette is the best entry in the anthology. It served as the basis for the 1987 novel The Legacy of Heorot by Niven, Barnes, and Jerry Pournelle.
The Thaw, by Tanith Lee: in 2193, Tracy Brice, who earns a modest living writing about flying saucers, discovers that her distant relative Carla Brice, who was cryogenically preserved in 1993, is in fact being thawed out as part of a government-sponsored study. Tracy reluctantly agrees to be friend and mentor to Carla. But Carla, as it turns out, is hardly the distressed soul everyone expects her to be……veering unconvincingly between satire and mild horror, this story never really gels.
Out There Where the Big Ships Go, by Richard Cowper: vacationing at an exclusive resort in the near-future Mediterranean, a young boy named Roger discovers that the alien religion that has swept the Earth - and brought with it an all-encompassing change in humanity – is not without its drawbacks. While this story is a good example of Cowper’s well-crafted and thoughtful prose, it really is more of a treatment of metaphysics, than science fiction.
Can These Bones Live ?, by Ted Reynolds: a young woman awakes from being dead to discover she has been reborn as the sole human on an idyllic Earth. The race of omnipotent aliens who have arranged for her rebirth have given her one responsibility: to ask that the rest of humanity be reborn to join her. There is much psychological angst over this assignment. This story, meant to be a Profound Allegory about Humanism, is instead…. Profoundly Boring.
The Extraordinary Voyages of Amelie Bertrand, by Joanna Russ: according to Editor Wolheim, this story is not included as one of the Year’s Best, but rather, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jules Verne, which took place in 1978 and was otherwise ignored in the U.S.
The Thaw, by Tanith Lee: in 2193, Tracy Brice, who earns a modest living writing about flying saucers, discovers that her distant relative Carla Brice, who was cryogenically preserved in 1993, is in fact being thawed out as part of a government-sponsored study. Tracy reluctantly agrees to be friend and mentor to Carla. But Carla, as it turns out, is hardly the distressed soul everyone expects her to be……veering unconvincingly between satire and mild horror, this story never really gels.
Out There Where the Big Ships Go, by Richard Cowper: vacationing at an exclusive resort in the near-future Mediterranean, a young boy named Roger discovers that the alien religion that has swept the Earth - and brought with it an all-encompassing change in humanity – is not without its drawbacks. While this story is a good example of Cowper’s well-crafted and thoughtful prose, it really is more of a treatment of metaphysics, than science fiction.
Can These Bones Live ?, by Ted Reynolds: a young woman awakes from being dead to discover she has been reborn as the sole human on an idyllic Earth. The race of omnipotent aliens who have arranged for her rebirth have given her one responsibility: to ask that the rest of humanity be reborn to join her. There is much psychological angst over this assignment. This story, meant to be a Profound Allegory about Humanism, is instead…. Profoundly Boring.
The Extraordinary Voyages of Amelie Bertrand, by Joanna Russ: according to Editor Wolheim, this story is not included as one of the Year’s Best, but rather, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jules Verne, which took place in 1978 and was otherwise ignored in the U.S.
It’s a mild pastiche about a French housewife who discovers a portal in time and space, and proceeds to have some adventures. It has value as an early example of Steampunk fiction.
Summing up, well, there's not much worthy content in ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’.
The truth of the matter is that you can take any first-generation cyberpunk short story: ‘The Belonging Kind’ (1981), ‘Burning Chrome’ (1982), '400 Boys' (1983), ‘Dogfight’ (1985), ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ (1985), and it is far, far superior to anything in this anthology.
‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ is for DAW completists only.
Summing up, well, there's not much worthy content in ‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’.
The truth of the matter is that you can take any first-generation cyberpunk short story: ‘The Belonging Kind’ (1981), ‘Burning Chrome’ (1982), '400 Boys' (1983), ‘Dogfight’ (1985), ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ (1985), and it is far, far superior to anything in this anthology.
‘The 1980 Annual World’s Best SF’ is for DAW completists only.
Thursday, September 17, 2015
The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane
The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane
by Philippe Druillet
'The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane' (72 pp) was published by Titan Books (UK) in September, 2015.
[I was alerted to the release of this book by a Comment from PorPor Books Blog reader Eodred Van Cataclysm.]
Philippe Druillet created the Lone Sloane character in 1966 in a comic book titled Le Mystère des abîmes (The Mystery of the Abyss). From 1970 - 1974, Druillet published ongoing episodes of the character in the French comic magazine Pilote; these episodes, which were assembled into 'The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane', have since been compiled in a number of French- and English-language graphic novels, all of which are out of print and selling for rather steep prices.
by Philippe Druillet
[I was alerted to the release of this book by a Comment from PorPor Books Blog reader Eodred Van Cataclysm.]
Philippe Druillet created the Lone Sloane character in 1966 in a comic book titled Le Mystère des abîmes (The Mystery of the Abyss). From 1970 - 1974, Druillet published ongoing episodes of the character in the French comic magazine Pilote; these episodes, which were assembled into 'The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane', have since been compiled in a number of French- and English-language graphic novels, all of which are out of print and selling for rather steep prices.
Fortunately, U. K. publisher Titan Books has acquired the rights to reprint Druillet's works, starting with this graphic novel, which compiles the Pilote material in a large (9 3/4 inch by 12 3/4 inch) hardbound book with quality paper stock and very good image reproduction.
'The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane' is a fun read, one that epitomizes Druillet's unique and imaginative approach to graphic art, an approach influenced by the psychedelic art of the late 60s. There also are echoes in the pages of 'Lone Sloane' of the 'cosmic' artwork of Jack Kirby during his time at Marvel comics, and the meticulous and intricate technique of the French artist Gustave Dore.
Druillet's distinctive handling of the comic book format is also on display in the pages of 'The 6 Voyages'........those readers accustomed to having their comic book pages neatly divided into panels are going to need to re-adjust after seeing Druillet's 'no-boundaries' layouts.
Although Druillet's artwork deservedly takes center stage, his writing is also noteworthy for adopting an offbeat attitude towards space opera, one that mingles sci-fi, psychedelia, and horror influences into something that remains unique among this genre of comics and graphic art.
The lasting influence of Druillet's art and storytelling are readily apparent in contemporary 'psychedelic' science fiction comics, such as Alexis Ziritt's Space Riders from Black Mask comics, and Christian Ward's ODY-C from Image.
Summing up, if you are a fan of sf comics, European comics, or just a fan of great graphic art, then you need to get a copy of 'The 6 Voyages of Lone Sloane', which can be had from your usual online retailers.
And be sure to bank away some additional funds, for in the coming year, Titan will be releasing Philippe Druillet's other epic Lone Sloane saga, Delirius, as a two-volume set !
Monday, September 14, 2015
Book Review: Future Net
Book Review: 'Future Net' edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff
‘Future Net’ (315 pp) is DAW Book No. 1037. It was published in October, 1996, and features cover artwork by Peter Gudynas.
At the time it was published, the Net – i.e., the online world – was starting to become a pop culture phenomenon and an essential part of American life. I remember back then that several times a month I would receive a garishly colored envelope containing a CD from America Online. If you didn’t like AOL, you could look to companies like Mindspring and Earthlink. And if you really wanted to go big, you’d upgrade from a 56K phone modem to something called 'broadband'...........
‘Future Net’, like all other Martin Greenberg-edited anthologies, was comprised of newly commissioned short stories all tailored to deliver on the title theme. And, needless to say, like just about every other Greenberg anthology DAW issued, the contributors sent in stuff that was never their most innovative or imaginative work, but rather, pedestrian efforts that were aimed at paying the bills.
The stories in ‘Future Net’ all feature the Net as a post-Cyberpunk entity; in other words, it’s no longer an immense black space filled with rotating, colored, 3-D geometric objects like in Neuromancer, but a ‘virtual reality’ as depicted in the film The Matrix. Many of the protagonists in these stories are crippled physically or mentally, and see VR as a route to salvation, self-fulfillment, or a kind of quasi-supernatural permanence…..
My brief summaries of the contents:
Zoomers, by Gregory Benford: overwritten tale of stockbrokers who search Cyberspace for the Next Big Thing.
Someone Who Understands Me, by Matthew Costello: dark doings on the part of a feuding couple. The plot is not original, but it is well-handled.
The Coyote Virus, by Josepha Sherman: a young female faculty member finds an unusual ally in her struggle against..........sexual harassment.
Prometheus Bringing Fire, by Robin Wayne Bailey: an alien who clandestinely monitors the Net develops a conscience; unconvincing.
Freedom, by Mickey Zucker Reichert: an elderly woman, confined to a wheelchair, investigates the Net. It's exactly as boring as the premise would indicate.
Redemption Inc., by Gary A. Braunbeck: a Girl Dying Young arranges to be reincarnated in cyberspace. Mawkish and overwought; one of the less impressive entries in the anthology.
O ! The Tangled Web, by John DeChancie: a web surfer finds an Internet Service Provider like none he’s ever seen before.
Jarvik Hearts, by Wil McCarthy: a spinster and a rumpled detective team up to find an AI that targets other AIs on the Net.
Lover Boy, by Daniel Ransom (Ed Gorman): Gorman recycles a common crime novel / detective novel trope in this tale of cyber-porn gone awry.
Cyberspace Cadet, by Paul Dellinger: this tale borrows from the 1990 movie Total Recall by featuring yet another VR Trip to Mars.
Shining On, by Billie Sue Mosiman: more a horror story than sf, so much so it seems really out of place in this anthology. A severely handicapped mutant makes the wrong kind of online friend....creepy enough to be among the better entries.
Souvenirs and Photographs, by Jdy Lynn Nye: in the far future, some too-clever kids find a way to hack teleporters.
Ghost in the Machine: a quadriplegic man volunteers to walk again….as his avatar in VR; he meets his deceased wife. Another maudlin, overly sentimental entry.
Memories of Marie’s Shoes, by Brooks Peck: in a futuristic prison, a trustee uses the Net to solve a homicide. Offbeat, and one of the better entries in the anthology.
Web-Surfing Past Lives, by Jane Linskold: mild tale of an AI who investigates odd happenings in the Net.
Fatal Error 1000, by Barbara Paul: less sf, than a Whodunit transposed to cyberspace. Competent, if not particularly inventive.
The verdict ? ‘Future Net’ displays the blandness and homogeneity that characterized the Greenberg anthologies. The stories that show some imagination are too few to allow me to nominate this as a 'must-have' volume, even for the most dedicated cyberpunk fans.
2 / 5 Stars
At the time it was published, the Net – i.e., the online world – was starting to become a pop culture phenomenon and an essential part of American life. I remember back then that several times a month I would receive a garishly colored envelope containing a CD from America Online. If you didn’t like AOL, you could look to companies like Mindspring and Earthlink. And if you really wanted to go big, you’d upgrade from a 56K phone modem to something called 'broadband'...........
‘Future Net’, like all other Martin Greenberg-edited anthologies, was comprised of newly commissioned short stories all tailored to deliver on the title theme. And, needless to say, like just about every other Greenberg anthology DAW issued, the contributors sent in stuff that was never their most innovative or imaginative work, but rather, pedestrian efforts that were aimed at paying the bills.
The stories in ‘Future Net’ all feature the Net as a post-Cyberpunk entity; in other words, it’s no longer an immense black space filled with rotating, colored, 3-D geometric objects like in Neuromancer, but a ‘virtual reality’ as depicted in the film The Matrix. Many of the protagonists in these stories are crippled physically or mentally, and see VR as a route to salvation, self-fulfillment, or a kind of quasi-supernatural permanence…..
My brief summaries of the contents:
Zoomers, by Gregory Benford: overwritten tale of stockbrokers who search Cyberspace for the Next Big Thing.
Someone Who Understands Me, by Matthew Costello: dark doings on the part of a feuding couple. The plot is not original, but it is well-handled.
The Coyote Virus, by Josepha Sherman: a young female faculty member finds an unusual ally in her struggle against..........sexual harassment.
Prometheus Bringing Fire, by Robin Wayne Bailey: an alien who clandestinely monitors the Net develops a conscience; unconvincing.
Freedom, by Mickey Zucker Reichert: an elderly woman, confined to a wheelchair, investigates the Net. It's exactly as boring as the premise would indicate.
Redemption Inc., by Gary A. Braunbeck: a Girl Dying Young arranges to be reincarnated in cyberspace. Mawkish and overwought; one of the less impressive entries in the anthology.
O ! The Tangled Web, by John DeChancie: a web surfer finds an Internet Service Provider like none he’s ever seen before.
Jarvik Hearts, by Wil McCarthy: a spinster and a rumpled detective team up to find an AI that targets other AIs on the Net.
Lover Boy, by Daniel Ransom (Ed Gorman): Gorman recycles a common crime novel / detective novel trope in this tale of cyber-porn gone awry.
Cyberspace Cadet, by Paul Dellinger: this tale borrows from the 1990 movie Total Recall by featuring yet another VR Trip to Mars.
Shining On, by Billie Sue Mosiman: more a horror story than sf, so much so it seems really out of place in this anthology. A severely handicapped mutant makes the wrong kind of online friend....creepy enough to be among the better entries.
Souvenirs and Photographs, by Jdy Lynn Nye: in the far future, some too-clever kids find a way to hack teleporters.
Ghost in the Machine: a quadriplegic man volunteers to walk again….as his avatar in VR; he meets his deceased wife. Another maudlin, overly sentimental entry.
Memories of Marie’s Shoes, by Brooks Peck: in a futuristic prison, a trustee uses the Net to solve a homicide. Offbeat, and one of the better entries in the anthology.
Web-Surfing Past Lives, by Jane Linskold: mild tale of an AI who investigates odd happenings in the Net.
Fatal Error 1000, by Barbara Paul: less sf, than a Whodunit transposed to cyberspace. Competent, if not particularly inventive.
The verdict ? ‘Future Net’ displays the blandness and homogeneity that characterized the Greenberg anthologies. The stories that show some imagination are too few to allow me to nominate this as a 'must-have' volume, even for the most dedicated cyberpunk fans.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
.jpg)
