Genre: Short
Story Collection/Science Fiction
Description:
“In these nine stories of determination, seemingly ordinary people
find themselves in extraordinary circumstances as they confront their fears and
embrace their challenges on a near-future Earth or an alternate-history past or
even on a far distant alien world.
• A single parent with a Down-syndrome daughter considers what his
life and career might have been as a parent and a pro football player in some
alternate reality.
• A young girl on an isolated Florida island discovers that her quirky
grandparents are even stranger than she thought.
• A high-school basketball player confronts the ghosts of her past.
• A young woman struggles to make peace with the horrors of her
forgotten childhood.
• An elderly woman slides into dementia even as she finds some
essential truths that were lost in the hazy mists of her memory.
• A baseball player becomes a spy during an alternate-history version
of World War II, where he plays a pivotal role in stopping the Nazi war
machine.”
Author:
“Novelist and editor Rick Wilber has published several novels and
short-story collections, several college textbooks on writing and the mass
media, a memoir about his father’s life in baseball, and more than fifty short
stories…”
Appraisal:
Each of the stories in this collection has three things in common.
The first thing is each of the stories has some science fiction as
part of the story. However, while always there, if you’re like me and prefer
your science fiction not be too far out there, whether that means too far in
the future or into the vast reaches of the universe from Earth to be able to relate
to, that wasn’t an issue here. Instead the science fiction aspects enhanced and
emphasized the more important parts of the story.
Second, each of these stories was originally printed elsewhere, whether
a magazine or a short story anthology of some kind. While I don’t know what the
other stories Wilber had published over the thirty-year period these were drawn
from, I know there were others that didn’t make the cut for whatever reason, and
these felt like a “greatest hits” collection to me.
Which leads me to the third comment. Each of these stories was
excellent. Sometimes a short story can feel like a bigger story that got cut
short or that important details were dropped. Sometimes a short story leaves me
wondering what the point was. These were all excellent, fully formed stories
that would each be a satisfying read by itself. If you’re into short stories,
especially if a taste of science fiction appeals to you, definitely grab a copy
of this collection.
Format/Typo
Issues:
My review is based on a pre-release ARC and I
can’t judge the final product.
Rating: *****
Five Stars
Reviewed
by: BigAl
Approximate
word count: 80-85,000 words
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