Time Travelers

In the 1970's I read science fiction novels but I grew away from science fiction of that era. I was enjoying some of the fantasy of the time such as Watership Down and other Richard Adams stories and Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, a lot of Moorcock frankly, but the new wave of science fiction had left me adrift. Most of my reading became mainstream novels, Once an Eagle, Rich Man Poor Man, blockbuster types like Shogun, Winds of War, etc. I also dabbled in some older science fiction but not much. I did read some short fiction in anthologies and year's best collections from the library. At our county library I encountered Asimov's science fiction magazine, probably about 1982 or 1983. I was initially rather dismissive until I rather show more randomly read a back issue with Barry Longyear's "Enemy Mine" which was made into an excellent film, and several other very good stories in the magazines. By the time 1984 arrived I was avidly reading the magazine of fantasy and science fiction and more and more of the Asimov's magazine issues, having subscribed to both.

So I come to this book which I just finished. It is a 1989 anthology of some stories from Asimov's magazine from 1977 to 1986 and each one has a time travel element. I have read several of these stories in the past, but long enough in the past that the stories were just fine for a revisit. Of the 11 stories there are just two such as "The Comedian" that didn't charm me. The other story I didn't care for was "The Pure Product" by John Kessel. If Quentin Tarantino had been writing science fiction in the mid 80's it would look like this I think. Overall the stories here are good and some I really liked such as Lewis Shiner's "Twilight Time".

I have read Silverberg's award winning novella "Sailing to Byzantium" several times before, including when it was originally published in 1985. Parts of this story such as the visit to the Lighthouse of ancient Alexandria still dazzle me a little and make me smile. I recall being somewhat stunned by the story the first time I read it. Now, after all these years I can still appreciate what an imaginative creation it was. Lucius Shepard was one of my favorite short story writers in the 1980's. "Aymara" is pretty good and was nominated for a Nebula award. Pretty good is an understatement. This one feels like one of Shepard's best, at the peak of his powers, and it is very moving. Shepard would win the nebula for another of his stories in 1986 but this story deserved an award too.

My interest in recent science fiction has been really fading so I was glad to be reminded of stories and authors I like in the field. The included stories are:

1 • Air Raid • (1977) • short story by John Varley
17 • The Small Stones of Tu Fu • (1978) • short story by Brian W. Aldiss
29 • Time and Hagakure • (1977) • short story by Steven Utley
39 • The Comedian • (1982) • short story by Tim Sullivan
61 • Twilight Time • (1984) • novelette by Lewis Shiner
85 • Sailing to Byzantium • (1985) • novella by Robert Silverberg
155 • Ghost Lecturer • (1984) • short story by Ian Watson
175 • Hauntings • (1985) • short story by Kim Antieau
189 • Klein's Machine • (1985) • short story by Andrew Weiner
207 • The Pure Product • (1986) • novelette by John Kessel
231 • Aymara • (1986) • novelette by Lucius Shepard show less