From Publishers Weekly
In his introduction, Nebula and Hugo winner Bear makes some grand declarations about SF as "a pretty lofty pulpit from which to scream and shout and dance out semaphores of warning" to society. Questions of cultural clout aside, however, this is a solid anthology of original SF stories. The book opens with Mary Rosenblum's "Elegy," a tale of biomedical research and squid. "A Desperate Calculus," published under physicist and writer Gregory Benford's Sterling Blake pseudonym (coyly described as "a new name with the vigorous voice of a seasoned writer") sketches a sinister relationship between a superflu and the politics of global population control. As Benford, he also has an article, "Old Legends," which is both a reminiscence about scientists such as Edward Teller and a speculation about SF's influence on?and possible responsibility for?atomic research. The piece is rendered even more poignant by Carter Scholz's brilliant "Radiance," which precedes it. These two pieces, along with Poul Anderson's "Scarecrow," a story that hypothosizes a God out of Chaos Theory, are the gems of the collection. Veterans Ursula K. Le Quin, Robert Silverberg and Robert Sheckley contribute new tales, too, rounding out a collection that often exhibits what editor Bear calls the "Sense of Wonder" that fuels the best SF writing.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Ingram
A collection of original hard science fiction works includes the writings of such authors as Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Benford, Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, George Alec Effinger, Mary Rosenblum, and Greg Egan.
