I’ve always been a fan of Science Fiction. I don’t remember what sparked my interest. Perhaps it was my older brothers, listening to Star Wars and Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy on the radio and watching Dr. Who on television. My father gave me a copy of Dune when I was around seventh or eighth grade because my oldest brother had introduced him to it, and he thought I might like it. It became one of my favorites.
When I went to college, I found that the local public library had a wonderful collection of science fiction and fantasy. I think it was there that I discovered Steven Brust’s Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grill and Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon series.
There are a wide variety of sub genre’s when it comes to Sci-fi. Some science fiction deals with hard sciences and soft sciences, like physics and anthropology respectively. Time travel and alternate histories may comprise some of the earliest science fiction, with H.G. Wells The Time Machine. There are space westerns like Joss Whedon’s Serenity, based on the short lived Firefly series. Apocalyptic fiction has always been of intense interest and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down, particularly as we are now in 2012, the end of the longest cycle in the Mayan calendar.
My reading interests have expanded and I don’t read as much science fiction these days. There’s less time in my schedule for reading and what I do read is spread over more genres. I decided to go for a browse through our library’s science fiction and fantasy section to see if something leapt off the shelf at me.
A series of books that I remember fondly from my time in college is the Nebula Award series. Each book offered up a feast of different science fiction and fantasy stories. They nourished me then and continue to influence me in subtle ways. The Night We Buried Road Dog by Jack Cady, the 1993 novella winner, lives on in my memory almost like a ghost. At the Rialto by Connie Willis, 1989 best novelette, plays like a wisp of music in my mind. Bears Discover Fire by Terry Bisson, 1991 best short story, chuckles gently somewhere in the night.
I picked up the Nebula Awards 27, edited by James Morrow, which offers a selection of the award winners and nominees for 1991. Some titles jumped out at me, though I don’t remember much about the stories. Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly, They’re Made out of Meat by Terry Bisson, Precessing the Simulacra for Fun and Profit by Bruce Sterling and Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, all jogged a memory.
Standing in Line with Mr. Jimmy by James Patrick Kelly introduces Chip. He’s a small time junkie with a yen for flash but he’s been caught on a parole violation and is being sent to work on a road gang in Mexico. A mysterious man offers him a way out but can’t tell him what’s at the other end of the line. Can Jimmy think fast enough to find an alternative to Mexico and the end of the line?
They’re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson is a funny little story told entirely in dialogue between two space exploring beings discussing the fact that humans (a.k.a. “sentient meat”) want to make contact. They quickly decide against it and leave.
Precessing the Simulacra for Fun and Profit by Bruce Sterling is not actually a science fiction story at all, but rather an essay about the author’s experiences with literary criticism as a member of the outcast science fiction writing crowd.
In Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress, genetic engineering makes it possible to choose many facets of a child before they are even born, including turning off the need to sleep. There doesn’t seem to be a down side to the difference, but as Leisha grows up, a significant divide develops between the “sleepers” and “sleepless.” Is mutant too strong a word?
The wonderful thing about the Nebula Award books is that they let you experience different writers and different sub-genres of science fiction in a compact format, and an award winning one at that. This, theoretically, is the cream of the crop. It is called speculative fiction for a reason. Pick one up and give your brain some food for thought.
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