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Birthday Reviews: Paul Levinson’s “The Protected”

Birthday Reviews: Paul Levinson’s “The Protected”

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Cover by Billy Tackett
Cover by Billy Tackett

Paul Levinson was born on March 25, 1947.

Levinson served as President of SFWA from 1998 to 2001, originally serving as Vice President, but succeeding to the Presidency when Robert J. Sawyer resigned. He has published a series starring detective Phil D’Amato beginning with The Silk Code as well as several short stories. His other series, starting with The Plot to Kill Socrates, concerns time travel. In addition to his fiction, Levinson has published several non-fiction books.

Levinson’s novel The Silk Code won the Locus Poll for Best First Novel in 2000. His story “The Chronology Protection Case” was nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, the Nebula Award, and won the HOMer Award. He received a second Nebula nomination for “The Copyright Notice Case,” and his third Nebula nominee, “Loose Ends,” was also nominated for the Sturgeon and the Hugo Award. His third Sturgeon nomination was for “Advantage, Bellarmine.” In 2004, Levinson’s novel The Pixel Eye was nominated for the Prometheus Award.

“The Protected” may have been published originally in Paul Levinson’s collection Bestseller: Wired, Analog, and Digital Writings in 1999. Two years later, it was definitely included in Martin H. Greenberg and Larry Segriff’s Silicon Dreams.

Levinson tackles the rights of androids in “The Protected,” a topic which has a long history in science fiction as evidenced by many of Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws stories. “The Protected” is less about the rules that govern androids, but rather the struggle between those who support androids’ rights against a group of Human firsters known as the Blood Party.

As an android who has a robotic brain inside a flesh body, Shara’s protector/lover is responsible for her security. When her creator Mark Wolfson agrees that she should be allowed to attend a conference which puts her in danger, her protector argues against it, but in the end he is forced to watch as she puts herself in danger.

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Walk a Mile in My Paws: The Valley of Creation by Edmond Hamilton

Walk a Mile in My Paws: The Valley of Creation by Edmond Hamilton

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valley-of-creation-edmond-hamilton-lodestone-coverWhat I’ve learned from my still inadequate reading of pulp science-fiction legend Edmond Hamilton is his mastery of pushing his stories in expected directions but in unexpected ways. I’ve developed enough of a sense of how Hamilton viewed his characters and his attitude toward humanity that I can anticipate the direction he’ll flip a tale in the middle — but I’ll never anticipate how he’ll do it. Almost every time, he exceeds expectations by taking the most daring path, both for his narrative and his prose.

The 1948 novel The Valley of Creation follows a theme the author explored in his cliché-battering short story “A Conquest of Two Worlds” (Wonder Stories, 1932), where a human turns against the colonial tyranny of his own race to side with oppressed aliens. Hamilton often used a cynical, bleak approach in his short fiction, turning to a lighter adventure mode for his novels. The Valley of Creation falls into this pattern. It challenges readers with a protagonist who discovers he’s on the wrong side of a conflict — the side of racial supremacists — and switches allegiance. But it’s done as a science-fantasy adventure with the zip expected of the pulps and a heavy dose of A. Merritt’s “Lost World of Super Science!” explorations.

The Valley of Creation was published in Startling Stories for the July 1948 issue, sharing a table of contents with stories from Jack Vance and Henry Kuttner. Lancer published the paperback version in 1964, a time when the paperback market was mining for the gold spread throughout the pulp era that might otherwise have flaked away with the rough paper. Hamilton did revisions for the ‘64 version, updating the timeline so its protagonist, mercenary Eric Nelson, is a veteran of the Korean War.

At the opening of the novel, Nelson is in the position of many characters from noir movies and books of the late ‘40 and ‘50s: a disaffected military man who’s seen too much and has now lost his way. Nelson and his four mercenary partners are stranded in Central Asia at the end of their tether after their Chinese warlord employer is killed. They then receive a strange offer from a man named Shan Kar — he’ll pay them in platinum if they come to his valley of L’Lan and fight “the enemy of his people.”

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Birthday Reviews: Edward Page Mitchell’s “The Clock That Went Backwards”

Birthday Reviews: Edward Page Mitchell’s “The Clock That Went Backwards”

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Cover by Will Staehle

Edward Page Mitchell was born on March 24, 1852 and died on January 22, 1927. Mitchell wrote early science fiction stories for the New York Sun in the 1880s, including stories of invisibility, time travel, computers, and teleportation, predating the works of H.G. Wells. From 1897 to 1926 he served as editor for the Sun. While he was the Sun’s editor in 1897, the newspaper published Francis Pharcellus Church’s famous essay “Yes Virginia.”

“The Clock that Went Backward” first appeared anonymously in the Sun on September 18, 1881. Because it didn’t include Mitchell’s byline, for many years the story was ignored and not reprinted until Sam Moskowitz included it in The Crystal Man: Stories by Edward Page Mitchell, a collection of Mitchell’s science fiction published in 1973.

Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh included it in Isaac Asimov Presents the Best Science Fictio of the 19th Century and it also appeared in Edel Brosnan’s The SF Collection and Peter Haining’s Timescapes: Stories of Time Travel. More recent reprints include in Chad Arment’s About Time, The Tachypomp and Other Stories, a collection of Mitchell’s science fiction, The Wordsworth Collection of Science Fiction, the audio anthology Short Science Fiction Collection 50, and Swords and Steam Short Stories, edited by Laura Bulbeck.

It is also available on Project Gutenberg. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer included the story in The Time Traveler’s Almanac, noting that it may be the first published time travel story, predating both “The Chronic Argonauts” and The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. The story has also been translated into Romanian.

Harry and the narrator are cousins who have spent considerable time with their Aunt, Gertrude. The most notable thing about Gertrude, beside her antiquity, is a stopped clock that she owns, which was made in 1572 in the city of Leyden in the Netherlands, where the family came from before immigrating to the United States. Following Gertrude’s death, when she willed the clock to Harry, the two travel to Leyden, with the clock, to attend university.

Naturally enough, with the guidance of one of their professors who could have been a distant ancestor, they use the clock to travel back to 1574 and the Siege of Leyden, where Harry rescues the daughter of Mayor Pieter Adriaanszoon Van der Werf and Professor van Stopp takes a key role in lifting the siege. The narrator returns to his native time, alone, and possibly the descendent of his cousin Harry.

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Birthday Reviews: Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Part of Us That Loves”

Birthday Reviews: Kim Stanley Robinson’s “The Part of Us That Loves”

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Cover by Peter Stallard
Cover by Peter Stallard

Kim Stanley Robinson was born on March 23, 1952.

Robinson won the Hugo Award for his novels Green Mars and Blue Mars. He won the Nebula for Red Mars, the first novel in the series, as well as for 2312 and for his novella “The Blind Geometer.” Red Mars also won a British SF Association Award, the Ignotus Award, and the Seiun Award. Green Mars won the Ignotus Award, the Italia Award while Blue Mars won the Prix Ozone. He won a World Fantasy Award for the novella “Black Air” and his novel Pacific Edge received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award.

“The Part of Us That Loves” was originally published in Full Spectrum 2, edited by Lous Aronica, Shawna McCarthy, Amy Stout, and Pat LoBrutto in 1989. Robinson included the story in his 1991 collection Remaking History and that same year it was translated into French.

The city of Zion, Illinois was founded in 1901 as a religious community. Although it has become a more traditional community over the years, Robinson uses its religious background as an effective setting for “The Part of Us That Loves.” The tale feels like two completely separate stories, though the first half provides the means of understanding the second.

The first half focuses on Naomi and Tom, two teenagers in the community band preparing for a concert in honor of two residents who are both celebrating their one hundredth birthday. The two are interested in each other, although they aren’t sure how to pursue that interest.

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Birthday Reviews: Terry Dowling’s “The Last Elephant”

Birthday Reviews: Terry Dowling’s “The Last Elephant”

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Cover by Nick Stathopoulos
Cover by Nick Stathopoulos

Terry Dowling was born on March 21, 1947. Most of Dowlings fictional output is at short story length, although the stories about Tom Rynosseros are connected and have been collected in four volumes. Dowling has also published the novel Clowns at Midnight. He edited the anthology Mortal Fire: Best Australian SF with Van Ikin and worked with Richard Delap and Gil Lamont to edit The Essential Ellison.

Dowling has received four Aurealis Awards and twelve Ditmar Awards. In 1988, he won the Ditmar for Best Long Fiction for his story “For as Long as You Burn” and the Ditmar for Best Short Fiction for “The Last Elephant.” His collection Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear won an International Horror Guild Award and the collection Wormwood received a Readercon Award. Basic Black was also nominated for the Bram Stoker Award, and Dowling has three World Fantasy Award nominations.

“The Last Elephant” first appeared in Australian Short Stories issue #20, published in 1987 and edited by Bruce Pascoe. In 1994, Paul Collins included it in his Metaworlds: Best Australian Science Fiction and Dowling has reprinted the story in three collections, An Intimate Knowledge of the Night, Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling, and Make Believe: A Terry Dowling Reader.

Dowling tackles endangered species in “The Last Elephant,” describing the festivities and hoopla around Terrence Harm, whose job it is to inspect Caza, believed to be the last living elephant. While Harm cares about the creature and understands the importance of preserving it for as long as possible, he also understands the quality of life issues that come into play and realizes that the more humane course of action may be to announce that Caza is ready to die.

However, when Harm finally visits the last elephant, it is not quite the situation Dowling has prepared the reader for. The questions of ecology Dowling appeared to be setting up are not the issues that Harm actually faces, and Caza is important to the culture in a very different way. Dowling’s story shows that while preservation is important, it can be achieved in different ways, and although they may not be entirely satisfying, they carry their own significance.

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Vintage Treasures: A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

Vintage Treasures: A Midsummer Tempest by Poul Anderson

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A Midsummer Tempest Poul Anderson-small A Midsummer Tempest Poul Anderson-back-small

Cover by Luis Bermejo

Poul Anderson formed a pretty consistent part of my paperback SF diet in the late 70s and early 80s. Novels like Mirkheim (1977) and classic tales like the Hugo Award-winning “No Truce with Kings” (1963) made me an early fan. But I always thought of Anderson as an SF writer, and as a result I never paid much attention to his fantasy. It wasn’t until my fellow writers here at Black Gate educated me that I learned what I was missing:

Ryan Harvey on The Broken Sword
Fletcher Vredenburgh on The Whole Northern Thing: Hrolf Kraki’s Saga by Poul Anderson
Gabe Dybing on Poul Anderson and the Northern Mythic Tradition: An Introduction
Gabe Dybing on Chaotic and Lawful Alignments in Poul Anderson’s Three Hearts and Three Lions
Gabe Dybing on Northern Matter in Poul Anderson’s “Middle Ages” of The Broken Sword and in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-Earth
Gabe Dybing on Sex and Violence in Poul Anderson’s Rogue Sword

I’ve recently started exploring more of Anderson’s fantasy back catalog, and last month I purchased a copy of A Midsummer Tempest, an alternate world fantasy in which William Shakespeare was an historian, rather than playwright, and the events he recorded were all factual. While the plot draws from multiple Shakespearean plays, as the name implies it is chiefly based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest. It was nominated for both the World Fantasy Award and a Nebula, and won the 1975 Mythopoeic Award for Best Novel.

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Birthday Reviews: Marcos Donnelly’s “As a Still Small Voice”

Birthday Reviews: Marcos Donnelly’s “As a Still Small Voice”

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Full Spectrum 2-small Full Spectrum 2 flap-small

Cover by Peter Stallard

Marcos Donnelly was born on March 18, 1962. He has published a handful of short stories, mostly dealing with religious themes and three novels, Prophets for the End of Time, Letters from the Flesh, and The Mostly Weird Chronicles of Steffan McFessel, the last in collaboration with Ted Wenskus.

Donnelly’s debut story, “As a Still Small Voice,” appeared in 1989 in Full Spectrum 2, edited by Lou Aronica, Shawna McCarthy, Amy Stout, and Pat LoBrutto. It has never been reprinted.

Father Jim is a priest at a small seminary where the rumors that one of the students, Danny, actually hears God’s voice. Jim has mixed views about Danny’s gift and sees him as an innocent child who needs to be protected, particularly from one of the other students, Bob, an older man who has come to the seminary after servicing in the marines. Jim can only see Bob as a bad influence on Danny, although the reasons for Jim’s mistrust don’t seem to be fully justified by anything aside from Jim’s own biases.

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Birthday Reviews: James Morrow’s “The Fate of Nations”

Birthday Reviews: James Morrow’s “The Fate of Nations”

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Cover by John Picacio
Cover by John Picacio

James Morrow was born on March 17, 1947. In addition to the novels in his Godhead trilogy, beginning with Towing Jehovah, Morrow has written several other books, including Galápagos Regained and The Last Witchfinder.  Many of his works deal with the role of religion in a rational society.  He has also edited three volumes of Nebula Award anthologies as well as the SFWA European Hall of Fame, the last with his wife, Kathryn Morrow.

James Morrow won the Nebula in 1989 for his Short Story “Bible Stories for Adults No. 17: The Deluge” and again in 1993 for the novella City of Truth. His novel Towing Jehovah and novella Shambling Towards Hiroshima were nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula.  Towing Jehovah and Only Begotten Daughter both received the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel and Shambling Towards Hiroshima won a Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. A translation of Towing Jehovah received the Grand Prix de l’Imaginaire.

“The Fate of Nations” was originally published in Ellen Datlow’s Sci Fiction on May 14, 2003.  Morrow included it in his 2004 collection The Cat’s Pajamas & Other Stories and it was also reprinted by Paula Guran in Future Games.

Morrow produces a short, clever conspiracy story in “The Fate of Nations.” It’s written as a diary entry by Carlotta, who explains something she’s just learned that has surprised her.  Her husband has developed an avid interest in sports, cheering on all sorts of teams and watching games to the detriment of their relationship. When she asks him to attend a marriage counselor, she learns the truth about a conspiracy of all men with interstellar ramifications.

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Birthday Reviews: P.C. Hodgell’s “Knot and the Dragon”

Birthday Reviews: P.C. Hodgell’s “Knot and the Dragon”

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Cover by Tom Wood
Cover by Tom Wood

P.C. (Patricia Christine) Hodgell was born on March 16, 1951. She has written the eight volume Chronicles of the Kencyrath, which began with God Stalk and continued most recently with The Gates of Tagmeth in 2017. God Stalk was nominated for the Mythopoeic Award as was its follow-up, Dark of the Moon.

“Knot and the Dragon” was originally published in Esther Friesner’s Chicks and Balances, the most recent addition to her long-running Chicks in Chainmail series. The story has not been reprinted.

One of the common tropes in fairy tales is the step-daughter whose father has died, leaving her with an unloving mother. Hodgell uses this set up for “Knot and the Dragon,” with Knot living with her step-mother, Marta, and her two step-sisters. Everyone in town makes it clear to Knot that she doesn’t fit in with them.

Knot’s character comes across as a mixture of a Cinderella-type mixed with Belle from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, for Knot is constantly striving to learn more about the world in which she finds herself, lamenting the death of her father, with whom she had things in common, but also accepting her current life.

Reports of nearby dragon attacks further bring out the town’s character, with the villagers firm in their belief that since they haven’t done anything wrong, there is no reason the dragon would punish them. Naturally enough, this conviction is enough (narratively) to bring a dragon down on their village, and they decide that Knot should essentially be a sacrifice to the dragon.

Rather than do as she was instructed, Knot seeks out the witch who lives nearby ever since she was forced from her home by the dragon. Although the witch’s first inclination is to flee with her son, who was accidentally turned into a pig during her last encounter with the dragon, the witch agrees to offer (dubious) help to Knot.

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Vintage Treasures: Maske: Thaery by Jack Vance

Vintage Treasures: Maske: Thaery by Jack Vance

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Maske Theary-small Maske Theary-back-small

Here’s a Jack Vance novel I haven’t read: Maske: Thaery, a science fiction adventure first published in hardcover in 1976. The Wikipedia entry does a fine job of summarizing how the book fits into Vance’s catalog, I thought.

Maske: Thaery is a science fiction novel by American writer Jack Vance, set in his Gaean Reach milieu… Maske: Thaery marks the beginning of the period when Vance’s novels were published exclusively straight to paperback, whereas prior to this the majority had first appeared in science fiction magazines, the last such examples being Durdane trilogy, serialised in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction from 1971 to 1973, The Gray Prince, serialised in Amazing Science Fiction in 1974, and Marune: Alastor 933, also serialised in Amazing Science Fiction in 1974. The twofold title of Maske: Thaery, with its separating colon, would suggest that it was originally intended to be part of a serial, similar to the Alastor novels (Trullion: Alastor 2262, Marune: Alastor 933, and Wyst: Alastor 1716), although no further volumes were written… Maske: Thaery continues Vance’s interest in richly textured, strongly xenological settings, in which an outsider protagonist comes into conflict with a bewilderingly complex social hierarchy, other examples being Emphyrio (1969) and the Durdane trilogy.

Maske: Thaery placed 12th on the annual Locus Award list for Best SF Novel in 1976. After Jack Vance’s death in 2013, I read the following tribute/review at Speculation…, which called the book “one of his best.”

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