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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 |
Paul McAuley: Reef
Paul McAuley (for biographical information see the story note on his "Gene Wars," above) was in the late 1980s the most important hard SF writer to emerge from the UK since Ian Watson in the 1970s. At a time when the influence of Ballard, Moorcock, and Aldiss was a dominating force in UK SF, McAuley appeared to be writing in the earlier tradition of Arthur C. Clarke, in Four Hundred Billion Stars (1987) and others of his early works. But he was indeed writing also in reference to cyberpunk and to the political sensibilities of the left. His work later moved into many forms of SF. Yet his early work and his public stance marked him as an ally of hard SF, and he has continued to write important hard SF stories and to be a leading figure in UK SF circles.
"Reef" is an excellent hard SF story from the ambitious illustrated hard SF anthology, Skylife, edited by Gregory Benford and George Zebrowski (about visions of life in space and on other planets). This story is an instant classic of hard SF. It is dense with wonderful technological and scientific images, but also fast paced, and sufficiently rounded in characterization that many readers will remember the unlikely heroine for a long time.