Book Review: Other Edens

Book Review: 'Other Edens' edited by Christopher Evans and Robert Holdstock

1 / 5 Stars

'Other Edens (237 pp.) was published in the UK in 1987. The cover artist is uncredited.

The two follow-up editions in the series are 'Other Edens II' (1988), and 'Other Edens III' (1989).

In their Introduction, editors Evans and Holdstock state that they intend 'Other Edens' to be a showcase for new and imaginative short fiction, in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, by British authors (the American contributor Lisa Tuttle is included because she lives and works in the UK). 

The editors note that the contemporary British market for science fiction short stories has been anemic, and see 'New Edens' as critical to addressing this problem.

My capsule summaries of the contents: 

Crying in the Rain, by Tanith Lee: life is bleak in a future UK where the environment is steeped in toxic chemicals. An effective tale from Lee, although it is so downbeat it almost veers into parody.

The Facts of Life, by Christopher Evans: on a low-tech colony planet, misogyny is the law of the land. This story works as a polemic, but as a sci-fi tale, it's underwhelming.

Small Heirlooms, by M. John Harrison: Kit travels to her late brother's house, reads his unpublished manuscripts, and has some metaphysical moments. Meh. A disappointing entry from Harrison.

The Emir's Clock, by Ian Watson: a medieval time piece has a message for modern man. An unremarkable tale, made tedious by overwriting.

The Price of Cabbages, by Brian Aldiss: a novelette that combines faster-than-light space travel, time dilation, and .........deliveries of interstellar produce ?! 

Aldiss is not in very good form here. Why a story this bad was selected for 'Other Edens' is a mystery. One piece of dialogue consists of the phrase 'Fecundate me !', while elsewhere, for reasons unexplained, Aldiss uses the word 'ubianter' in place of 'computer'. Amplifying the mediocrity is Aldiss's Old-Man creepy portrayal of a young girl, a theme that was not all that unusual by the standards of sci-fi written in the second half of the 20th century (when editors and authors were less Woke).

Fullwood's Web, by Graham Charnock: a mathematician and an engineer team up to do some research into a very novel 'field effect'. There are consequences. A traditional sci-fi tale that would have been at home in Analog in 1963.

Scarrowfell, by Robert Holdstock: a charming village in rural England, a festival to celebrate Lord's Eve, quaint Aulde Tyme customs involving Morris dancers, processions, and pagan ceremonies...........what could possibly go wrong ?! 'Scarrowfell' takes its time unfolding, but it's the best story in the anthology and a touchstone entrant in the nowadays-popular sub-genre of 'Folk Horror'. 

The Frozen Cardinal, by Michael Moorcock: on a distant planet, a team exploring ice formations makes a startling discovery. Here, Moorcock tries to present a mystery, wrapped in the trappings of outward absurdity. As a 'speculative fiction' piece it might have worked in 1965, but not in 1987....... 

Triptych: The Black Wedding; Murderer's Walk; Hogfoot Right and Bird Hands, by Garry Kilworth: three short, unrelated exercises in 'speculative fiction'. One of them deals with marital frictions. Yawn. They may have made sense in 1977, but in an anthology published in 1987, they seem like re-warmed leftovers...........leftovers that should have been discarded a long time ago.

Sanctity, by R. M. Lamming: in a near-future UK, church and religion are outlawed. An interesting premise, but the denouement is too oblique to be effective.

Moonlighter, by David S. Garnett: frustrated husband Alan discovers a unique strategy for getting into his reluctant wife's knickers. The sci-fi element in this story is pretty much a thin coating, applied to a tale satirizing marital relations. 

In A Land of Sand and Ruin and Gold, by David Langford: in a far future utopia, two lotus eaters discover the pain of Real Love. Sigh. A precious tale exploring humanism in a manner that would have been entirely at home in a New Wave anthology published in 1972.

Piper's Wait, by Keith Roberts: I confess I didn't have big expectations for this piece from Roberts, anticipating it to be well-written in terms of characterization, setting, and atmosphere, but with indifferent plotting. And that's exactly what 'Piper's Wait' is: a fable about medieval England, and quasi-mythical personalities, that never really goes anywhere once you get past the heavily poetic, lyrical prose style.

The Wound, by Lisa Tuttle: two divorced / separated schoolteachers enter into a close friendship in a near-future world where, strangely, people involuntarily change their gender in response to affection. Author Tuttle plainly intended this story to be a thoughtful, perhaps even provocative, exploration of love, and humanism, and gender. But 'The Wound' is so devoid of any science fiction sensibility, that it simply reads as a rather contrived melodrama. 

I finished reading 'Other Edens' aware that the anthology is utterly and completely devoid of any cyberpunk sensibility. 

For an anthology published in 1987 this is a major quirk. In 1984 Neuromancer was nominated for a British Science Fiction Award, and in 1985 it won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in the USA. So, presumably every contributor to 'Other Edens' well was aware of the revitalizing effect cyberpunk had brought to sci-fi in the US. And yet, 'Other Edens' reads as a collection of New Wave tales that somehow missed out on being included in anthologies issued in the early 1970s.

Perhaps 'Other Edens' disinclination to address cyberpunk, and that genre's renewed emphasis on plotting, and the integration of 'street level' sci-fi elements into stories, is a reflection of the editor's choice of contributors, many of whom were established during the New Wave era (and presumably were too cool to be found jumping on the latest fads and fancies in the genre). However it may be, the entries in 'Other Edens' did not strike me as particularly impressive.

Summing up, this is an entirely forgettable anthology of UK sci-fi from the mid-80s. I can state with complete and utter confidence that any story in the coeval anthologies Mirrorshades and Burning Chrome is far and away superior to any of the entries in 'Other Edens'.