Terra Incognita: Three Novellas

Although I no longer read much science fiction, I do make an exception for Connie Willis, whose entertaining stories display remarkable imagination, skill, humor and a willingness to do extensive research. Each of these is evident in “Terra Incognita” (2018), a collection of three previously published novellas.

In "Uncharted Territory," explorers from Earth trying to map the planet Boohte are joined on an expedition by an expert on mating habits who decides that the odd activity of their aborigine guide is just that — mating behavior. But who is he trying to impress?

"Remake" was written in 1995 and has almost come true already. Willis imagines a Hollywood that has ceased making movies — or at least real movies with real actors. show more Instead everything is done on computers, and old movies and long-dead actors are recycled in new ways. Cigarettes and booze are being scrubbed from old movies. Marilyn Monroe stars in a remake of “Pretty Woman.” “Gone With the Wind” gets a happier ending when Rhett Butler says, "Frankly, my dear — I love you, too."

Into this world comes Alis, a young woman who dreams of dancing in movies, preferably with Fred Astaire. Then the man who loves her discovers her actually dancing in “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers” and several other films? Is it time travel, or is something else going on?

Finally "D.A.," the shortest, newest and most amusing of the stories, finds a student accepted into Space Academy and whisked into orbit against her will. She never even applied for the academy and doesn't want to be in space. To explain what the title means would require a spoiler alert.

Each of these tales is great fun and full of surprises. The research I mentioned earlier is especially evident in "Remake," in which Willis goes into detail about a host of movies, even to the point of knowing at which point in a film a certain action occurs. show less

I found this collection of three stories to be very unbalanced. I loved one story, DNF'd another, and was semi-indifferent toward the third. I'm not sure I was the real target audience for all of them, though, so your milage may vary.

"D.A." is the winner here. It was a lot of fun, with great characters, and I wanted more. (But I also think that it was the perfect length; too much more, and it could have gotten bloated.)

I enjoyed "Remake" as well, though I could have done without quite so much of the slang. It did set the tone, but it got old after a while. In some ways, I feel this novella would have been better if trimmed down to a punchier short story. But... I am also not quite the target audience for this one, I think. To properly show more enjoy this story, you need to love classic movies and movie-musicals. I love musicals, but a lot of the other classic movie references went over my head.

The one I liked the least was "Uncharted Territory." I'm not sure how much of that was timing in when I read this book and how much was a genre disconnect, but I did not enjoy this story enough to finish it. I think a large part of that is it felt like a Space Western to me, which is not a genre I enjoy. show less

Terra Incognita is a convenient source for three entertaining novellas by Connie Willis. "Uncharted Territory" (1994) is a clever rom-com that mashes up Western movie tropes with alien planet adventure. "Remake" (1995) is a cautionary speculation about the impact of technology on the movie industry. Brush up on your film history because Willis drops names with gleeful abandon. Finally, "D.A." (2007) offers a wry, gender-swapped commentary on the space station military academy subgenre epitomized by Ender’s Game (1985).

2 Novellas, Terra Incognita and Remake and one short story D.A. Terra Incognita is strongest in moments where the landscape takes over and weakest when dealing with the emotional struggles of Carson and Findriddy. Remake still has it's memorable moments, but suffers because, although not in any golden age, movie musicals are still being made. D.A. is cute, not in a good way really. Still it's Connie Willis, though frothy.

A collection of 3 stories, 2 novellas and 1 short story. I liked Uncharted Territory and D. A. but I hated the middle story, Remake. It was so confusing and full of jargon that I couldn't really follow what was going on. I didn't like the MMC and it was too long. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this one or not.

Not my favorite of Connie Willis by a long shot. I found the first story dragged, the second was frothy but enjoyable, and the third was too short for me to develop any real interest.

"I thought the Boohteri were a simple two-sex species," Evelyn said.
"They are," Carson said, "only we can't tell which one's which."