Tales of Old Earth

Found this short story after watching the Love, Death, and Robots adaptation, and I'm really glad I did. Martha appears to be an unreliable narrator, but through the hours she trudges through Io alone with the body of her crewmate, we get a significant glimpse into her mind and the tragic beauty of her perceptions and worldview. It was hard to be sure whether Io was a figment of her imagination, a product of her tired and sometimes drug-amped mind, or whether the moon was truly sentient and helping her in the only way it knew how. I would like to think it was the latter, because whether we're among our own on Earth or stranded in an alien landscape, there is always some comfort in believing we're not truly alone.

Also, the concept of Io show more as a living machine composed of various physical and chemical processes is both slightly creepy and strangely alluring. It does hold the title of being the most volcanic object in the solar system, and produces a plasma torus surrounding Jupiter which is not fully understood (and which I think is what the title refers to). Reading about how all these things came together, and seeing the austere, wild beauty of the Io landscape through Martha's eyes, reminds me how so much of our universe, or even the backyard of our solar system, contains ongoing mysteries. Perhaps some of these are meant to be solved and others aren't, possibly beyond the scope of human understanding, but there is also beauty in mystery. And there is also a sort of beauty when considering that even in our final moments, it may not truly be the end, as we are rejoining the universe from which we were created. show less

More masterful stories by Swanwick, some horrifying, some funny, all brilliantly realised and at least a little bit disturbing and mindblowing. Highlights are the utterly terrifying Radiant Doors and the Tolkeinish Changeling's Tale, but they're all damn good.

Swanwick is an evil genius. He is exquisitely good at creating the effect the wants to create. Actually, that's not totally true: His rare attempts to write happy endings, as opposed to ambiguous or depressing ones, usually don't come off as well. It's as if he has a deeply pessimistic worldview and can't get it out of his head.

Still, he's a genius: Most of these stories are so tight that you couldn't take out a single sentence without weakening them in some important respect: plot, characterization, or mood. Overall: Wow.

A strong collection of 19 short stories. The Frog Ltd edition does not include original publication but ISFDB shows that almost all were published between 1995 and 1999. The majority appeared in the Asimov SF magazine. A few were for anthologies. One is original: The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy-O.

Although there was a strong common auctorial voice throughout, the stories range from very classic SF tropes to the kind of genre bending Swanwick became famous for with The Iron Dragon's Daughter. Scherzo with Tyrannosaur for example calls out to Bradbury but even more to Heinlein (I won't say which story because that would be a spoiler). Microcosmic Dog obviously calls out the Sturgeon. I'm sure there are homages I missed. The weakest are readable show more and the best deserve the awards they received.

Highly recommended. show less

Dinosaur-themed SF short stories, if I remember correctly. Worthwhile, but not Swanwick's best work.

A collection of nineteen excellent short stories. Nick Gevers said it all better than I could, so read his review instead. The stories are haunting and fantastically well written, and if they are not exactly uplifting then neither are they overly pessimistic.

A great place to start on Swanwick's short fiction. Read it all.