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| "This colossal anthology covers the return of sf to themes based in the hard sciences. . . . A very satisfactory overview of a major portion of contemporary sf and a sterling achievement by Tor and the Hartwell-Cramer team."
Booklist
From Paul McAuley's tale of runaway technology ("Gene Wars") to Gregory Benford's story of evolution and murder ("Immersion"), the 41 stories in this annotated anthology provide a strong argument for the revival of hard sf as a major force in the genre in the 1990s. Library Journal |
Gregory Benford: Immersion
Gregory Benford (see earlier note), wrote an essay, "Old Legends," in the New Legends anthology, on the continuing relationship of SF to science and through science to politics in the real world since the 1940s. He discusses being a graduate student; knowing Freeman Dyson; working with Edward Teller -- "throughout all this, politics was not an issue. I was a registered Democrat, others were Republicans, but our positions did evolve from our politics." And speaking of the link between politics and SF writers, Benford mentions Teller enlisting SF allies in his policy battles. He then goes on at length to describe Jerry Pournelle's Citizen's Advisory Council on National Space Policy (see our Introduction and the earlier note on Benford). This is the kind of anecdotal story not often told. It is worth noting, too, that Benford does not present it as simply a booster.
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The faction grouped around Jerry Pournelle had provided crucial ideas and prose, but now others moved, looking askance. President Reagan hailed 1985's Mutual Assured Survival by Pournelle and Dean Ing, another science fiction writer, as "addressing with verve and vision the challenges to peace and to our national security." When science fiction was less prominent, writers pushed together for space development; now the entanglement of space with nuclear war divided them. Though still a research project, SDI touched deep wellsprings of the imagination. Isaac Asimov quit the board of governors of the L-5 Society, a pro-space lobbying group, because it would not take a firm stand against SDI. Heinlein reacted to this with stark disbelief. Asimov, who was born in Russia, stuck to his guns. He said "Star Wars?" It's just a device to make the Russians go broke. |
Benford, as we remarked earlier, enjoys political engagement, and a good argument.
In "Immersion," a mathematician and his girlfriend take a vacation in which they immerse themselves into the minds of chimpanzees. However, the man running the amusement has been recruited by the hero's enemies to kill him. It is an utterly convincing work of politically incorrect wish fulfillment sociobiology that shows deep research and meditation on the chimp point of view.