This issue of The Wonder Spyglass - Retrospective Reviews of Science Fiction and Fantasy will cover the stories published around a decade ago: in October 1996 and 1995.
The idea of these time trips is to highlight the particular stories throughout SF&F history (all 100 years of it). Each Spyglass issue will give selective reviews to stories, collections, original anthologies and novels, with the emphasis on the short fiction. We will be taking jumps of 10 years in SF history, making it a fun perspective on the development of the genre. Please keep in mind that these notes reflect only my personal reading experience and do not necessarily correspond with the impact a story had on SF field in general, or with the generally accepted verdict from the critics.
David Langford
"The Spear of the Sun"
(Father Brown series)
© Interzone, October 1996
There are many "alternate history" SF stories, but this one is about an alternate history of science fiction itself. An unusual pastiche on G. K. Chesterton's Father Brown series, it positively glows with invention and wit. "Written in the world where G.K. Chesterton's 'Father Brown' stories somehow mutated into SF, thousands of stories have been set in the shared 'Father Brown' universe, and G.K. Chesterton's Science Fiction Magazine is more or less the only genre magazine..." I was not awfully impressed, however. The story reads well as a novelty, but otherwise quickly wears off. It's light fare that's good to read on a sunny afternoon with a soft breeze in your hair.
Allen Steele
"The Death of Captain Future"
(Captain Future series)
© IASFM, October 1995
--novella : 1996 Hugo Award Winner
--novella : 1996 Locus Award /6th place
--novella : 1996 Asimov's Reader Poll /7th place
--novella : 1996 SF Chronicle /2nd place
--novella : 1997 Nebula Award runner-up
--foreign short fiction : 1998 Seiun Award Winner
A noble effort. This is genuinely heart-warming! Somebody not only remembers Captain Future, but sets out to write a tribute to the old "salty dog of the spaceways." On top of that, this somebody is not some novelty or one-shot-parody producer like Silverberg or Mike Resnick or such, but a toughened space fiction professional Allen Steele. No wonder I started to read this novella with pleasant goosebumps of expectation, waiting to lap up the successful entry like a grateful puppy.
But this was not to be. I was disappointed. The adventure is there, the aliens and villains are more sophisticated and street-smart, the polit-correctness (in the form of pervading cynicism) is there as well, and the charm is irrevocably gone. I am not even speaking of yellowed pulp pages charm and cheesy dialogue and primitive plot charm, which would be a good riddance after all, but the romance of the spaceways and the gleam in the eye of an intrepid space explorer are gone... Suppressed by smooth (and quite unexciting) story-telling, run-of-the-mill "reality show" dialogue and the general contemporary feel - which in its "Ikea" enthusiasm did away with the fancy baroque embellishments of Forties pulp fiction.
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