<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome selection of SF stories from underappreciated author
Review: The Retrieval Artist and other stories is a wonderful collection of shorts that originally appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - all by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, editor. The title story is apparently a forerunner to a later series of novels involving the gumshoe-styled hero, Miles Flint. If this was an accurate predictor of the style and quality of writing to come later, then I can see why Flint has so many fans. As much as I loved that retro take on a very futuristic tale, however, it was not the strongest one in my opinion. Dancers like Children and its sequel, Alien Influences struck a stronger chord with me because of Rusch's valiant attempt to create and explain a radically different alien psychology. Many other novelists have tried to do that and only ended up anthropomorphizing them in the end. These two stories contain some of the more original ideas in SF today. The rest of the selections are worthy, although one or two seem more like filler material. In my opinion the cover price was a little steep for this collection, and it didn't need to be published in trade paperback form. On the whole though I think The Retrieval Artist passed my litmus test: now I want more. And thanks to Rusch's later works, I will have it.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
Rating:
Summary: Welcome selection of SF stories from underappreciated author
Review: The Retrieval Artist and other stories is a wonderful collection of shorts that originally appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction - all by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, editor. The title story is apparently a forerunner to a later series of novels involving the gumshoe-styled hero, Miles Flint. If this was an accurate predictor of the style and quality of writing to come later, then I can see why Flint has so many fans. As much as I loved that retro take on a very futuristic tale, however, it was not the strongest one in my opinion. Dancers like Children and its sequel, Alien Influences struck a stronger chord with me because of Rusch's valiant attempt to create and explain a radically different alien psychology. Many other novelists have tried to do that and only ended up anthropomorphizing them in the end. These two stories contain some of the more original ideas in SF today. The rest of the selections are worthy, although one or two seem more like filler material. In my opinion the cover price was a little steep for this collection, and it didn't need to be published in trade paperback form. On the whole though I think The Retrieval Artist passed my litmus test: now I want more. And thanks to Rusch's later works, I will have it.
-Andrea, aka Merribelle
<< 1 >>
| 
