Stable Strategies and Others by Eileen Gunn

Published by Tachyon Publications on September 1, 2004

I found Stable Strategies and Others after reading the story "Contact" in the anthology Proteus: Voices for the 80's. The story was so superior to the others in the collection that I decided to look for other works by Eileen Gunn. Stable Strategies and Others is what I found, and all that I found in book form. She does have some other stories, available to read at no charge, on her website.

Stable Strategies and Others collects Gunn's stories through the date of the book's publication in 2004. It also includes a short introduction by Gunn's friend and fellow sf writer William Gibson; a short poetic ode to Gunn by Michael Swanwick; and an afterward by Howard Waldrop. Gunn follows each story with a brief description of its origin.

Gunn shows her amazing range in these stories. Some are wildly funny. The Hugo-nominated "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" is reminiscent of Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" with a comic twist: the narrator wakes up with certain attributes of an insect courtesy of a bioengineering experiment designed to make employees into "a more useful corporate organism." In the alternate history described in "Fellow Americans," Richard Nixon is a game show host, Geraldo is "a respected PBS commentator," and former President Goldwater ... well, you can guess how that turned out. Gunn's uncanny ability to write in Nixon's voice is spooky. To find humor in a bleak future where children grow up to have very close relationships with computer networks or don't grow up at all, Gunn wrote the Hugo-nominated "Computer Friendly" from the perspective of a precocious child. In Gunn's first commercially published story, "What Are Friends For?," alien invaders investigate porn.

Two stories are deeply moving. "Coming to Terms" examines death through the post-it notes the deceased left behind. "Contact" is a beautiful story about first contact with a bird-like alien who is preparing to die.

Two stories are co-authored. "Nirvana High," written with Leslie What, is a funny yet poignant look at the paranormal students attending the Kurt Cobain Magnet School. Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, and computer whiz Grace Hopper all star (L. Sprague de Camp appears in a cameo role) in "Green Fire," written with Andy Duncan, Pat Murphy, and Michael Swanwick. The story begins as an alternate history taking place aboard a naval vessel during World War II before morphing into a tale of time/space/dimensional travel that brings the crew face to face with Quetzalcoatl. That story alone is worth the price of the book.

Gunn's other stories are harder to categorize. "The Sock Story" is "the story of a woman who lost her sock at the laundromat and discovered it contained part of her soul." A girl named Lichen learns how to change a world that has been altered by carp-eyed creatures in "Lichen and Rock." The least successful story, "Spring Conditions," is a horror story that might make you think twice about cross-country skiing. Gunn also included a deconstructed, politically correct recipe for fruit crisp; it's not sf and not a story so I'm not sure what to make of it, but it's amusing.

This is a first-rate collection by one of sf's masters of the short story. I recommend it not only to sf fans, but to fans of quality writing.

RECOMMENDED

The Weight by Andrew Vachss

Published by Pantheon on November 9, 2010

Sugar is a professional. He's a thief, he's good at his job, and he's proud of his adherence to the rules of the game. Sugar has just finished a jewelry store heist planned by his friend Solly when he's picked up for a rape. He couldn't have committed the rape but he can't give the cops an alibi without admitting that he was stealing jewels when the rape was committed. Eventually he takes a deal, doing time for a sexual assault but skating on the jewelry store job. When he gets out of prison, Solly gives him his cut but sends him to Florida to tie up some loose ends. The bulk of the novel focuses on Sugar's actions in Florida, his attempt to puzzle out what Solly really wants, and his relationship with the woman Solly sends him to meet.

Getting into the heads of society's outcasts is one of Vachss' greatest talents. Few writers match his ability to create authentic criminal characters. Sugar is a big guy, bulging with muscle mass acquired from lifting weights -- and weight (or wait) becomes an important metaphor in the novel (hence the title). Sugar learned an early lesson about the life of a thief: it isn't how much weight you can lift, it's how much weight you can take. Sugar has a reputation as a stand-up guy, an exception to the axiom that there's no honor among thieves. He could have saved himself from prison time and sex offender registration by giving up the planner and the rest of the crew on the burglary, but he elects instead to keep his mouth shut and do his time.

Some readers don't like novels unless the hero is morally stalwart or the novel delivers a morally uplifting message. I admired Sugar's integrity -- his refusal to be a rat -- but a thief's integrity (and Sugar's reluctant use of violence to secure his safety) won't appeal to some readers. Those readers might want to avoid The Weight. I give Vachss credit for creating a sympathetic character who plays by the rules, even if the rules that govern his world contravene society's rules. Readers who can appreciate a thoughtful examination of the criminal mind will probably enjoy The Weight as much as I did.

The Weight isn't as tightly plotted as Vachss' best work. Sugar spends a lot of time thinking out loud or engaging in meaningless arguments, particularly with the woman in Florida. He also seems oddly sensitive to perceived slights. The strongest parts of the novel come from Sugar's prison experiences. Vachss writes with an authentic voice; he obviously understands how prisons work and how inmates survive in a dehumanizing environment. The main storyline is unfortunately written with less intensity. Still, the plot works well enough and it comes to a satisfying resolution. It isn't as good as Vachss' best non-Burke novel (the chilling Shella) but it's still a fun read.

RECOMMENDED

Kingfisher by Gerald Seymour

First published in 1977

To make a political statement about the plight of Ukrainian Jews, four individuals conspire to murder a police officer in Kiev. Moses Albyov, chosen by lot to pull the trigger, botches the killing, leaving the wounded officer alive to describe him. After his arrest, the remaining cell members, David, Isaac, and Rebecca, fearful that Moses will identify them, decide to hijack a plane and flee to Israel. Charlie Webster, an analyst for the SIS who tracks Soviet dissidents, plays a central role in communicating with the hijackers.

What does the kingfisher have to do with any of this? "She is fast and swift, and she holds the initiative in her world. None can catch her, few even see her, she is devastating in her attack." That description of the kingfisher comes from the old soldier who provides arms to David for use in the hijacking. David, a naive young man who pictures himself as heroic until doubt and his conscience begin to trouble him, announces on the plane's radio that he is a Jewish Resistance Commando and names the flight "the Kingfisher."

Kingfisher is a solid thriller. Through much of the novel, the perspective is that of the hijackers, who justify their actions (at least initially) as a necessary response to oppression. At other times the reader sees the hijacking through different eyes: the passengers, European and Israeli politicians, German veterans who watch the plane overfly the Hanover airport, European Jews who once lived in Russia, and Webster are among those who contribute opinions about the hijackers. Kingfisher makes the point that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter -- an observation that may have been clichéd even when the novel was published in 1977, but that nonetheless remains salient. In any event, the shifting perspectives add complexity and interest to the story.

Readers who prefer novels that feature morally pure heroes defeating cartoonishly evil bad guys will probably dislike Kingfisher. Gerald Seymour's strength is his ability to dramatize moral ambiguity. In Kingfisher, the reader understands and sympathizes with the hijackers despite their repellent actions. Similarly, the reader sympathizes with Webster, who is forced to make a difficult moral choice at the end of the novel. The difference between right and wrong is rarely clear in Seymour's novels. I like that reflection of reality, but readers who prefer the kind of escapist fiction that draws a distinct line between good and evil should probably avoid Seymour.

A minor quibble: the dialog spoken by Americans sounds very British. Other than that, Seymour's writing is strong, his characters are believable, and the pace is perfect. Seymour is an under-appreciated writer whose novels deserve a wider audience. Although Kingfisher is a bit dated (the hijacking described in the novel probably couldn't happen today, even in Kiev), the reader will quickly be drawn into the story, captivated by the mounting tension and the evolving personalities of the hijackers.

RECOMMENDED

The Prisoner by Thomas M. Disch

First published in 1967

Puzzling over their differing memories of their lives before arriving in the Village, Lorna (or is her name Liora?) asks: "What is real? Who am I? Do I wake or dream?" Those questions are at the heart of The Prisoner: both the original television series and Thomas Disch's novelization of the cult classic.

The television series can be viewed as anti-authoritarian, as a tribute to individuality and free thought, as an existential exercise in futility, as a statement about the nature of liberty and as a condemnation of secrecy and bureaucracy. It can be seen as a fable or an allegory. The great and maddening beauty of The Prisoner is that the audience was never given definitive answers: the location of the Village, the identities of the Village masters, the information the prisoner possessed and the reason for his resignation as a clandestine agent, whether the prisoner finally escaped ... we'll never know, and that's exactly what Patrick McGoohan wanted. (You don't have to believe me about this; you can read McGoohan's interview in The Prisoner: A Televisionary Masterpiece, a coffee table book that also includes a detailed episode guide.) Thomas Disch's novel captures the spirit of the television series, if not its scope.

That the book is a novelization of the show seems to have escaped some of the reviewers who gripe that the novel is too much like the show. What did they expect from a novelization? To be fair, the novel is not a scene by scene replay of the television series: it begins differently; the location of the prisoner's capture is altered; the prisoner's escape attempts in the first and second episodes are carried out more ingeniously in the novel; the woman who (supposedly) escapes in the second episode is replaced by an entirely new character in the book, a love interest who appears early in the novel. There are enough differences to make the novel fresh and appealing to the show's fans while remaining true to McGoohan's vision. And of course, with only 242 pages, the novel cannot cover all 17 episodes of the show; it wisely makes no attempt to do so.

Some reviewers complain that that the book doesn't answer the questions left unanswered by the series. Why would it? This is, again, a novelization of the series (it says so on the back cover). Why would the novel destroy the careful ambiguity of the original?

My only complaint is that a 242 page novel can't do justice to the television series. As I said, Disch captured the spirit but not the scope of the original work. The novel is nonetheless well worth reading, for fans of the show and for those who have never seen it.

RECOMMENDED

Final Notice by Joe Gores

Published by Random House in 1973

Reading a DKA novel is like spending a few days shadowing a repo man to learn the ropes of the repossession business, except that it's more fun (and less dangerous). In a DKA novel, you know that you'll meet interesting characters, encounter plenty of action, and exercise your brain as you try to solve whatever puzzle Joe Gores has in store for you.

Final Notice takes place six months after Dead Skip. In that novel, Bart Heslip was hospitalized after being hit with a sap outside the DKA offices. Final Notice gets off to a similar start as Ed Dorsey is hospitalized after being beaten by two thugs outside the DKA offices. The beating seems to be tied to the repossession of a Cadillac belonging to an aging beauty named Chandra, whose delinquent payments are suddenly and mysteriously made good. Thanks to Heslip's intervention, one of the thugs who beat Dorsey is captured and identified as a mob henchman. DKA's founder, Dan Kearny, makes it his business to find out why Dorsey was beaten, and solves a couple of murders along the way.

The plot of Final Notice isn't quite as ingenious as that of Dead Skip, but it ties together nicely at the end. The pace is swift and the process of detection is fascinating. Characters come to life, particularly Giselle, a DKA employee whose ill-advised affair with a banker is a central focus of the story. Gores' prose is tight and suitably hard-boiled without becoming a parody. It's unfortunate this novel is out of print. Seek it out if you like first rate detective fiction.

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