At the Planned Parenthood Book Sale last year, I found two groups of science fiction and fantasy magazines tied together, for sale for a few dollars per bundle. This week I pulled out one of those and read some stories from it.
These stories come from the October/November 2000 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.
"Dreamseed" by Carolyn Ives Gilman
This is a novelette about the discovery of a young man found in a box in a warehouse, hidden there for fifteen years, placed in a induced state of perpetual sleep. His name is Aspen, and he is the son of Dr. Semic, who developed a theory of dreams and how people could share dreams and develop realities in their sleep. But while Aspen has been dreaming all these years the world has been taken over by a contagion that has caused conflict between different groups.
This was my first story by Gilman, but I am definitely interested in reading more by her. Per Goodreads, in her professional career, "Gilman is a historian specializing in 18th and early 19th-century North American history, particularly frontier and Native history."
"The Devil Disinvests" by Scott Bradfield
A very fun short story in which the Devil decides to leave his business of torturing and bartering for souls and live a normal life in a beachfront cottage in California. He falls in love, marries, and has two kids. One of his disgruntled ex-employees comes back for revenge.
"Earth's Blood" by Kate Wilhelm
This is the story I was most interested in. Kate Wilhelm has written two mystery series and many stand alone novels in the mystery and science fiction genres. She was married to Damon Knight, also a very well-known author of science fiction. Yet this is the first piece of writing I have read by Kate Wilhelm. Kate Wilhelm's fiction was first recommended to me by Todd Mason at Sweet Freedom.
"Earth's Blood", a novelette, did not disappoint. The protagonist is a down on his luck photographer who picks up a low-paying job to scout for a suitable location for a low-budget horror story. He is looking for a ghost town with a good setting. The build-up seems like the story will be about ghosts and horror, but the plot goes in a different direction. The story has lots of depth and detail and a great ending.
"Magic, Maples and Maryanne" by Robert Sheckley
This was another humorous short story, about a man who worked in a department store and practiced magic at night, alone in his home. The floor manager at the department store catches him doing some magic at work, and persuades him to let a few friends make some money on the magic.
"Auspicious Eggs" by James Morrow
This is a much darker story, a novelette that mixes technology, religious beliefs, and reproductive rights and ends up being a very uncomfortable story. Interesting but I would not want to read it again.
6 comments:
I'm very glad you found most of these to be good stories, Tracy. I'm going to have to tell my husband about this; he's our family speculative fiction fan, and I'm pretty sure he'll be interested.
F&SF has been publishing for 75 years; the first issue was dated Fall, 1949. Over the years it has consistently published high-quality, literate stories and has been a leader in its field. It has published many classic and award-winning stories and won the Hugo Award for Best Magazine many times back when that category of the Hugos still existed. The decline in magazine readership overall has hit the magazine; current circulation is well below 15,000, from a high of over 60,000. With the latest issue F&SF has been forced to go to a quarterly publication (it had gone from a monthly to a bimonthly publication in early 2009). Over its 75-year history the magazine has seen 771 issues (the one you are reading is issue 600), with nearly forty anthologies taken directly from its pages. I my opinion, the magazine still offers the most varied content in the field. I hope you enjoy the rest of the stories in the magazines you picked up.
Always like Kate Wilhem's writing.
I've read THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION for over 60 years. I agree with Jerry that F&SF is a quality magazine who publishes a variety of stories. You've got a lot of Good Reading from buying that bundle!
Kate Wilhelm. I haven't thought about this writer in I don't know how long. Always meant to read her and Earth's Blood sounds like a good story to begin with.
I've never read this magazine, but it sounds like a fun way to learn about new authors. I've read most of the Sci-Fi anthologies published by the British Library and edited by Mike Ashley. They're filled with Golden Age/Classic stories, many of which were published in magazines like this.
Did you read the Ray Bradbury story? He's always been a favorite of mine.
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