Starwater Strains: New Science Fiction Stories

by Gene Wolfe

Book Overview

Gene Wolfe follows his acclaimed all-fantasy short story collection, Innocents Aboard, with a volume devoted primarily to his science fiction. The twenty-five stories here amply demonstrate his range, excellence, and mastery of the form. A few tantalizing samples:
"Viewpoint" takes on the unreality of so-called "reality" TV and imagines such a show done truly for real, with real guns. "Empires of Foliage and Flower" is in the classic...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765312034
• ISBN13: 9780765312037
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: Orb Books
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Short stories that hold my interest

I also own "Strange Travelers," a previous short story collection, and I thought it was very inconsistent. One story would be fascinating, the next would be ho-hum. I'm pleased to report that Starwater Strains is extremely consistent, and almost every story in this thick volume was a joy to read. The topics covered are all nominally "science fiction," but within this grouping Wolfe manages to cover a wide range of topics, and the tone of his stories run the gambit, from more classic-style hard, cold space science fiction, to dreamlike tales that could be set almost anywhere, at any point in history, the future, or the present. As is usually true with Wolfe, there are also tinges of horror throughout - not Steven King style gore, but subtle, horrifying little twists that will burrow into your mind and stay there, rising to the surface every so often, long after you're finished reading. Many of his stories concern a speculative near future, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that several of these had a strong social or political message about our modern lives, always elegantly included so that without the message the story is still interesting if you don't agree with his stance or don't care for politics in your fiction. I'll finish by saying that after I received this book for Christmas, I had several mornings at work where I could barely stay awake because I'd been up until 4am the night before, reading "just one more story" over and over again. It's a fine collection.

One of Science Fiction's Best Literary Stylists Is Back With A Superb Short Story Collection.....

Calling Gene Wolfe a great science fiction writer is a mere literary understatement, since he ranks, along with Ray Bradbury, not only as one of the premier elder statesmen of American science fiction, but more importantly, as one of the finest literary stylists in American fiction of any genre. "Starwater Strains", his new short story collection, merely reaffirms his splendid literary gifts for writing brilliant, evocative prose and marvellous storytelling. Most of these stories in this collection were written in the past decade, ranging emotionally from horrific to suspenseful to tranquil, covering themes as vast as contemporary fantasy to space opera harkening back to his "The Book of The New Son" series of novels. My own personal favorite is "In Glory like Their Star", which is an absolutely refreshing, polished literary gem of a tale about the religious connotations of First Contact by space travelers visiting a primitive planet inhabited by pastoral, devout believers. But it is not the lone gem, which I think also includes such diverse tales as "Of Soil and Climate", "The Fat Magician", "The Boy Who Hooked the Sun", and "The Seraph from its Sepulcher". The ones I've omitted citing are, in their own way, almost as riveting as those cited above. "Starwater Strains" will certainly delight those unfamiliar with Wolfe's impressive body of work, as well as his long-time fans and admirers.

I can't believe my good fortune

to have a writer like Wolfe *consistently* writing great stories. If you like thinking for fun, if you enjoy inventive storytelling, if you enjoy the feeling of being in hopelessly over your head, but in the hands of a chuckling, mostly benign master of his art, then by all means read Wolfe. This collection contains: Viewpoint Rattler In Glory Like Their Star Calamity Warps Greylord Man's Last Words Shields of Mars From the Cradle Black Shoes Has Anybody Seen Junie Moon? Of Soil and Climate The Dog of the Drops Mute Petting Zoo Castaway The Fat Magician Hunter Lake The Boy Who Hooked the Sun Try and Kill It Game in the Pope's Head Empires of Foliage and Flower The Arimaspian Legacy The Seraph from Its Sepulcher Lord of the Land Golden City Far Some notes: Wolfe has some typically intriguing and all-too-brief comments on each story. Each! Story! which excited me. "The Arimaspian Legacy" is linked to, and evidently happens *before* the short story "Slow Children at Play from Wolfe's _Innocents Aboard_. Hint: Wolfe likes Herodotus. "Lord of the Land," as Wolfe notes, is Wolfe doing a Lovecraft story; it was first published in _Cthulu 2000_ and also appeared in a Tor anthology, _Lovecraft's Legacy_ (1990).

Great Stuff

Gene Wolfe is the perfect short story author. His stories are accessible to fans of any genre, but will be especially rewarding to fans of fantasy, s f, or magical realism. The stories in this book, although supposedly "new science fiction stories" really fall into all three of the above categories. I also purchased Wolfe's other fairly recent collection, "Innocents Aboard" and found it to be excellent also. Each book features a good mix of very short (2-3 page) stories, and longer, not quite novella length stories. Wolfe's settings are diverse, ranging from a far off desert planet to a short story set on the far future "Urth" of his Book of the New Sun Series, to places as seemingly mundane as Houston, TX, or the set of a present dayish reality tv show. Of course, Wolfe's stories are never mundane, and it is in taking a place that holds no magic and twisting our perceptions so that we come away with a sense of wonder that Wolfe really excells.

As always, an excellent collection!

Wolfe once again provides SF/fantasy stories that range from gentle to horrific to speculative and does a great job on all of them. One story, 'The Boy Who Hooked The Sun' concerns a boy who actually does have the sun on the end of a fishing line and wards off the rest of the villagers by flinging gemstones of Atlantis at them. A near perfect metaphor for this collection with Wolfe the writer merged with Apollo, flinging bright gemstones of stories at the reader. Finding stories like these will make you wealthy beyond your years, so go do it. Go read them. If it's your first encounter with the stories of Gene Wolfe, how I envy you!