Dogged Persistence

Rating:
Summary: Dark and Luminous
Review: Dogged Persistence is a collection of stories with mostly disutopian themes. All are well-written, but the accumulative effort is somewhat depressing. No wonder Anderson was selected to write X-Files novels.

Like all good SF authors, Anderson sees more than the obvious in new technology and scientific speculation. While many of the basic themes in these stories have been used by other authors, Anderson adds new directions and possibilities.

For example, the first story, "Fondest Memories", employs the themes of cloning and induced memories to bring us a quietly, subtly horrible tale. And the title story is a conspiracy tale that was later expanded to the X-Files novel "Antibodies", yet it is also a very private story of love and betrayal. The Dune story portrays the trapping of Atreides soldiers in the shield wall caves by Harkonnen troops, yet is really a story of homesickness and a miracle.

As Kristine Kathryn Rusch implies in the Introduction, the best story in Anderson's career may well be "The Ghost of Christmas Always". At least Dean Smith thought so. While next to last in the book, this fantasy of Charles Dickens and the ghost of his sister-in-law has a luminous presence that lingers. Like "A Christmas Carol", this story may well become a classic. Sometimes an author gets it exactly right.

Kevin J. Anderson can write a great short story. Don't just take my word for it; read these stories and see for yourself. By the way, his novels are pretty good too.

Rating:
Summary: A "must" for all Kevin Anderson fans!
Review: Dogged Persistence is Kevin Anderson's first book-length collection of short stories and provide a range of fine fantasies which cover everything from nanotechnology and questions of humanity to a horror story set in Africa. Whether it's hard science fiction or fantasy, Anderson's many talents and ability to weave an engrossing tale are aptly displayed in this collection.

Rating:
Summary: A splendid anthology
Review: Kevin J. Anderson is a seasoned and gift writer whose science fiction novels have won him a wide recognition in the genre and a very loyal readership. Now the Golden Gryphon Press (itself an outstanding small press publisher specializing in fantasy and science fiction) has published Anderson's Dogged Persistence, a splendid anthology of his short story writings that will prove to be a "must read" for the legions of his fans, and send those encountering his work within these pages for the first time on an enthusiastic search for the rest of his novels. The original stories comprising this superb compendium include: Fondest of Memories; Music Played on the Strings of Time; Tide Pools; Reflections in a Magnetic Mirror (with Doug Beason); Entropy Ranch; Dogged Persistence; Human, Martian -- One, Two, Three; Scientific Romance; Canals in the Sand; Dune: A Whisper of Caladan Seas (with Brian Herbert); Prisoner of War; Much at Stake; New Recruits; Final Performance; The Old Man and the Cherry Tree; Sea Dreams (with Rebecca Moesta); The Ghost of Christmas Always; and Drumbeats (with Neil Pearl).