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The Big Book of Science Fiction

Page 221

by The Big Book of Science Fiction (retail) (epub)


  Edmond Hamilton: “The Star Stealers” by Edmond Hamilton, copyright © 1929 by The Estate of Edmond Hamilton. Originally published in Weird Tales (February 1929). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and The Spectrum Literary Agency.

  Han Song: “Two Small Birds” by Han Song, copyright © 1988 by Han Song. Translation copyright © 2016 by John Chu. Originally published in Chinese in 1988. This first English-language translation published by permission of the author and translator.

  Alfred Jarry: “Elements of Pataphysics” by Alfred Jarry. Translation copyright © 2016 by Gio Clairval. Originally published in French as part of Gestes et opinions du docteur Faustroll, pataphysicien (Exploits and Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician) (Fasquelle, 1911). This new translation published by permission of the translator.

  Gwyneth Jones: “The Universe of Things” by Gwyneth Jones, copyright © 1993 by Gwyneth Jones. Originally published in New Worlds 3, edited by David Garnett (Gollancz, 1993). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Langdon Jones: “The Hall of Machines” by Langdon Jones, copyright © 1968 by Langdon Jones. Originally published in New Worlds 180 (March 1968). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Kajio Shinji: “Reiko’s Universe Box” by Kajio Shinji, copyright © 1981 by Kajio Shinji. Translation by Toyoda Takashi and Gene van Troyer. Originally published in Japanese in Hayakawa’s S-F Magazine (February 1981). This translation originally published in Speculative Japan: Outstanding Tales of Japanese Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Gene van Troyer and Grania Davis (Kurodahan Press, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Gérard Klein: “The Monster” by Gérard Klein, copyright © 1958 by Gérard Klein. Translation by Damon Knight. Originally published in French in Fiction Magazine 59 (1958). This translation reprinted by permission of the author.

  Damon Knight: “Stranger Station” by Damon Knight, copyright © 1956 by Damon Knight. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (December 1956). Reprinted by permission of Infinity Box Press LLC.

  Leena Krohn: “Gorgonoids” by Leena Krohn, copyright © 1992 by Leena Krohn. Translation by Hildi Hawkins. Originally published in Finnish in Matemaattisia olioita tai jaettuja unia (1992). This translation originally appeared in Books from Finland 1 (1993). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  R. A. Lafferty: “Nine Hundred Grandmothers” by R. A. Lafferty, copyright © 1966 by R. A. Lafferty. Originally published in IF (February 1966). Reprinted by permission of the Locus Science Fiction Foundation.

  Kojo Laing: “Vacancy for the Post of Jesus Christ” by Kojo Laing, copyright © 1992 by Kojo Laing. Originally published in The Heinemann Book of Contemporary African Short Stories, edited by Chinua Achebe and C. L. Innes (African Writers Series, 1992). Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

  Geoffrey A. Landis: “Vacuum States” by Geoffrey A. Landis, copyright © 1988 by Geoffrey A. Landis. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (July 1988). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Tanith Lee: “Crying in the Rain” by Tanith Lee, copyright © 1987 by Tanith Lee. Originally published in Other Edens, edited by Robert Holdstock and Christopher Evans (Unwin Paperbacks, 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s estate.

  Ursula K. Le Guin: “Vaster Than Empires and More Slow” by Ursula K. Le Guin, copyright © 1971 by Ursula K. Le Guin. Originally published in New Dimension 1: Fourteen Original Science Fiction Stories, edited by Robert Silverberg (Doubleday, 1971). Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

  Stanisław Lem: “Let Us Save the Universe” from Memoirs of a Space Traveller by Stanisław Lem, translated by Joel Stern and Maria Swiecicka-Ziemianek. Translation copyright © 1981, 1982 by Stanisław Lem. Reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

  Cixin Liu: “The Poetry Cloud” by Cixin Liu. Translation by Chi-yin Ip and Cheuk Wong. Originally published in Chinese in Kehuan Shijie (March 1997). This translation originally published in Renditions 77 (Spring 2012) and 78 (Autumn 2012). Reprinted by permission of the Research Centre for Translation, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

  Katherine MacLean: “The Snowball Effect” by Katherine MacLean, copyright © 1952, 1980 by Katherine MacLean. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction (September 1952). Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agents, The Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.

  Geoffrey Maloney: “Remnants of the Virago Crypto-System” by Geoffrey Maloney, copyright © 1995 by Geoffrey Maloney. Originally published in The Silver Web 12 (Summer 1995). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  George R. R. Martin: “Sandkings” by George R. R. Martin, copyright © 1979. Originally published in Omni (August 1979). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Michael Moorcock: “The Frozen Cardinal” by Michael Moorcock, copyright © 1987 by Michael Moorcock. Originally published in Other Edens, edited by Robert Holdstock and Christopher Evans (Unwin Paperbacks, 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Pat Murphy: “Rachel in Love” by Pat Murphy, copyright © 1987 by Pat Murphy. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (April 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Misha Nogha: “Death Is Static Death Is Movement” from Red Spider White Web by Misha Nogha, copyright © 1990 by Misha Nogha. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Silvina Ocampo: “The Waves” by Silvina Ocampo, copyright © 1959 by Silvina Ocampo. Originally published in Spanish as “Las ondas” in La Furia (Sur, 1959). Translation copyright © 2016 by Marian Womack. This first English-language translation published by permission of the author’s estate and the translator.

  Chad Oliver: “Let Me Live in a House” by Chad Oliver, copyright © 1954 by Chad Oliver. Originally published in Universe Science Fiction (March 1954). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  Manjula Padmanabhan: “Sharing Air” by Manjula Padmanabhan, copyright © 1984 by Manjula Padmanabhan. Originally published in New Delhi in The New Sunday Express Magazine (1984) and subsequently published in slightly different form in Kleptomania (Penguin Books India, 2004). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Frederik Pohl: “Day Million” by Frederik Pohl, copyright © 1971 by Frederik Pohl. Originally published in Rogue (February 1966). Reprinted by permission of Curtis Brown, Ltd.

  Rachel Pollack: “Burning Sky” by Rachel Pollack, copyright © 1989 by Rachel Pollack. Originally published in Semiotext(e) SF, edited by Rudy Rucker, Peter Lamborn Wilson, and Robert Anton Wilson (Semiotext(e)/AK Press, 1989). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Robert Reed: “The Remoras” by Robert Reed, copyright © 1994 by Robert Reed. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (May 1994). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Kim Stanley Robinson: “Before I Wake” by Kim Stanley Robinson, copyright © 1989 by Kim Stanley Robinson. Originally published in Interzone 27 (January/February 1989). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Joanna Russ: “When It Changed” by Joanna Russ, copyright © 1972 by The Estate of Joanna Russ. Originally published in Again, Dangerous Visions, edited by Harlan Ellison (Doubleday, 1972). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  Josephine Saxton: “The Snake Who Had Read Chomsky” by Josephine Saxton, copyright © 1981 by Josephine Saxton. Originally published in Universe 11, edited by Terry Carr (Doubleday, 1981). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Paul Scheerbart: “The New Overworld” by Paul Scheerbart. Translation copyright © 2016 by Daniel Ableev and Sarah Kassem. Originally published in German as “Die neue Oberwelt” in Die Aktion 1 (1911). This first English-language translation published by permission of the translators.

  James H. Schmitz: “Grandpa” by James H. Schmitz, copyright © 1955 by Street & Smith Publications, copyright © 1983 by The Estate of James H. Schmitz. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction (19
55). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  Vadim Shefner: “A Modest Genius” by Vadim Shefner, copyright © 1963 by Vadim Shefner. Translation by Matthew J. O’Connell. Originally published in Russian as “Скромный гений” in Nedelya 41 (1963). This translation originally published in View from Another Shore, edited by Franz Rottensteiner (Liverpool University Press, 1973). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and representative.

  Robert Silverberg: “Good News from the Vatican” by Robert Silverberg, copyright © 1971 by Agberg, Ltd. Originally published in Universe 1, edited by Terry Carr (Ace Books, 1971). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Clifford D. Simak: “Desertion” by Clifford D. Simak, copyright © 1944, 1972 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction (November 1944). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  Johanna Sinisalo: “Baby Doll” by Johanna Sinisalo, copyright © 2002 by Johanna Sinisalo. Translation by David Hackston. Originally published in Finnish in Intohimosta rikokseen (2002). This translation originally published in The SFWA European Hall of Fame, edited by James Morrow and Kathryn Morrow (Tor Books, 2007). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Cordwainer Smith: “The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith, copyright © 1955 by Paul Linebarger. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction (October 1955). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and The Spectrum Literary Agency.

  Margaret St. Clair: “Prott” by Margaret St. Clair, copyright © 1985 by Margaret St. Clair. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction (January 1953). Reprinted by permission of McIntosh & Otis, Inc.

  Bruce Sterling: “Swarm” by Bruce Sterling, copyright © 1982 by Bruce Sterling. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (April 1982). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Karl Hans Strobl: “The Triumph of Mechanics” by Karl Hans Strobl. Translation copyright © 2016 by Gio Clairval. Originally published in German in 1907. This first English-language translation published by permission of the translator.

  Arkady and Boris Strugatsky: “The Visitors” by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, copyright © 1958 by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Translation copyright © 2016 by James Womack. Originally published in Russian in Tekhnika Molodezhi (Technology for the Youth) 1 (January 1958). This new translation published by permission of the authors’ estate and the translator.

  Theodore Sturgeon: “The Man Who Lost the Sea” by Theodore Sturgeon, copyright © 1959, renewed 1977 by Theodore Sturgeon. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (October 1959). Reprinted by permission of The Theodore Sturgeon Literary Trust.

  William Tenn: “The Liberation of Earth” by William Tenn, copyright © 1953 by Philip Klass. Originally published in Future Science Fiction (May 1953); “The Ghost Standard” by William Tenn, copyright © 1994 by Philip Klass. Originally published in Playboy (December 1994). Both reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and The Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.

  James Tiptree Jr.: “And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill’s Side” by James Tiptree Jr., copyright © 1972 by Alice B. Sheldon, copyright © 2000 by Jeffrey D. Smith. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (March 1972). Reprinted by permission of Jeffrey D. Smith and The Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.

  Tatyana Tolstaya: “The Slynx” originally published as chapter 1 of the novel The Slynx by Tatyana Tolstaya, copyright © 2003 by Tatyana Tolstaya. Translation copyright © 2003 by Jamey Gambrell. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency LLC.

  Yasutaka Tsutsui: “Standing Woman” by Yasutaka Tsutsui, copyright © 1974 by Yasutaka Tsutsui. Translation copyright © 1979 by Dana Lewis. Originally published in English in Omni (February 1981). Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.

  Lisa Tuttle: “Wives” by Lisa Tuttle, copyright © 1979 by Lisa Tuttle. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (December 1979). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Miguel de Unamuno: “Mechanopolis” by Miguel de Unamuno. Translation copyright © 2016 by Marian Womack. This new translation published by permission of the translator.

  Élisabeth Vonarburg: “Readers of the Lost Art” by Élisabeth Vonarburg, copyright © 1987 by Élisabeth Vonarburg. Translation copyright © 1996 by Howard Scott. Originally published in English in Tesseracts 5, edited by Robert Runté and Yves Meynard (Tesseract Books, 1996). Reprinted by permission of the author and translator.

  Kurt Vonnegut Jr.: “2 B R 0 2 B” from Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., copyright © 1999 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Originally published in IF (January 1962). Reprinted by permission of G. P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC.

  James White: “Sector General” by James White, copyright © 1957 by James White. Originally published in New Worlds Science Fiction 65 (November 1957). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  Connie Willis: “Schwarzschild Radius” by Connie Willis, copyright © 1987 by Connie Willis. Originally published in The Universe (November 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author.

  Gene Wolfe: “All the Hues of Hell” by Gene Wolfe, copyright © 1987 by Gene Wolfe. Originally published in The Universe (November 1987). Reprinted by permission of the author and The Virginia Kidd Agency, Inc.

  Alicia Yánez Cossío: “The IWM 1000” by Alicia Yánez Cossío, copyright © 1990 by Arte Público Press, University of Houston. Translation by Susana Castillo and Elsie Adams. Originally published in Spanish in the collection El beso y otra fricciones (1975). This translation originally published in Short Stories by Latin American Women: The Magic and the Real, edited by Celia Correas de Zapata (Modern Library Classics, 1990). Reprinted by permission of Arte Público Press, University of Houston.

  Valentina Zhuravlyova: “The Astronaut” by Valentina Zhuravlyova, copyright © 1960 by Valentina Zhuravlyova. Translation copyright © 2016 by James Womack. Originally published in Russian as “Astronavt” in Destination: Amaltheia, edited by Richard Dixon (Foreign Language Publishing House, 1960). This new translation published by permission of the author’s estate and the translator.

  Yefim Zozulya: “The Doom of Principal City” by Yefim Zozulya. Translation copyright © 2016 by Vlad Zhenevsky. Originally published in Russian in 1918. This first English-language translation published by permission of the translator.

  THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION PARTNERSHIP

  As noted in the introduction, John Clute, David Langford, and Peter Nicholls, creators of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, have kindly allowed us to partner with them to use general biographical facts and literary analysis from SFE author entries. Most entries were written by John Clute; additional credits are given in parentheses as necessary. We are very grateful to have had access to this wellspring of research.

  Major excerpts have been used for the following authors: Paul Ernst (Peter Nicholls and John Clute); Edmond Hamilton, Clare Winger Harris (Jane Donawerth); Gwyneth Jones, Tanith Lee, A. Merritt (John Clute and Peter Nicholls); Leslie F. Stone (John Clute and Peter Nicholls); and James White (David Langford and John Clute). For three authors, the information in the Encyclopedia was so complete and essential that almost the entire entry has been used with minimal changes: Jon Bing (John-Henri Holmberg), Han Song (Jonathan Clements), and Yasutaka Tsutsui (Jonathan Clements).

  Selected excerpts of entries for the following authors were also used in preparation of the author notes, usually forming the nucleus of biographical information. Parentheticals indicate authorship other than John Clute; Clute collaborations are also noted: J. G. Ballard (David Pringle with John Clute, descriptions of his work); Iain M. Banks (John Clute and David Langford, especially analysis of the Culture novels); Greg Bear (especially analysis of Eon and Blood Music); Dmitri Bilenkin (Vladimir Gakov); Michael Blumlein (“Tissue Ablation” and discussion of his collection The Bra
ins of Rats); Jorge Luis Borges (John Clute and Peter Roberts, especially discussion of Borges tropes that became universal); Ray Bradbury (Peter Nicholls); Pat Cadigan (especially general observations about the author’s work); Angélica Gorodischer (John Clute and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán, for career facts and signature settings); Geoffrey A. Landis (Graham Sleight); Chad Oliver, Rachel Pollack, Robert Reed, Kim Stanley Robinson (especially analysis of his Mars novels); Josephine Saxton (John Clute and Peter Nicholls, for career facts); Vadim Shefner (Vladimir Gakov); Margaret St. Clair, Élisabeth Vonarburg (LP and John Clute, for career information); Bruce Sterling (Colin Greenland and John Clute, especially about his Swarm universe); F. L. Wallace; and Connie Willis (time travel discussion).

  Any text deviating from the Encyclopedia represents the fruits of other research. The opinions and emphasis expressed in each author note that reference the story itself are most often that of the editors of this anthology. Any errors should be placed at our door.

  ADDITIONAL THANKS

  We are also grateful to Sara Kramer and New York Review of Books Classics for allowing us to use biographical material and quotes from their books for entries on Silvina Ocampo, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Tatyana Tolstaya. Many thanks to Takayuki Tatsumi for his help compiling the entry on the writer Yoshio Aramaki; in addition to direct quotes from Tatsumi, the rest of the entry is taken, sometimes lightly paraphrased, from Tatsumi’s introduction to Aramaki’s Collected Works. Finally, many thanks to Adam Mills for his assistance in researching and compiling the notes for this book.

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