Old Venus
Edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Stories by Allen M. Steele,
Lavie Tidhar,
Paul McAuley,
Matthew Hughes,
Gwyneth Jones,
Joe Haldeman,
Stephen Leigh,
Eleanor Arnason,
David Brin,
Garth Nix,
Michael Cassutt,
Tobias Bucknell,
Elizabeth Bear,
Joe R. Lansdale,
Mike Resnick,
Ian McDonald
ISBN: 9780345537287
Short Story Collection:
Read June 2015
This collection asks modern fantasy and sf authors to imagine that Venus was actually the
steamy jungle (or water) world it was imagined to be in the pulp sf years, and write new stories set in that mythical world. And did they ever deliver!
Allen M. Steele's Frogheads takes us to an ocean world where the locals are very fond of chocolate, and the Russian bureaucracy is still shaking off the accumulated inertia of failed communism. We follow a jaded and taicturn PI searching for the missing son of a rich shipping magnate, and he finds that the son isn't exactly missing.
Lavie Tidhar then gives us the seriously creeptastic and more-than-slightly-Lovecraftian The Drowned Celestial, where our hero is dragooned into a sinister cult, but on the flip side, manages to find a lover! Bonus points for the Aztec link.
Paul McAuley's Planet of Fear pits a tenacious scientist against a war-mad general who is convinced that the evil Americans are plotting against him. And of course a science outpost filled with evidence of crazy people, and lots of dead pigs.
We get my favorite story of the collection, Greeves and the Evening Star, from Matthew Hughes. This was a Jeevsian romp through the most politest of society gentlemen as they attempt to wrap their heads around the amorous advances of a most persuasive and persistent Venusian. Hughes language nearly killed me in this story, and it's the only one that I've gone back and re-read. Just as enjoyable the second go round.
A Planet Called Desire, by Gwyneth Jones, was strange. It had the bones of a white colonial "Crocodile Dundee" sort of story, but the lead driver of the action was an enigmatic scientist mired in regnal red tape, and it resolves itself with a lingering creepy hope. Extra points for being one of the only stories to delve into teleportaton.
Joe Haldeman gives a short creepy first-contact sort of story set in a truly nasty jungle Venus. Living Hell is a perfect descriptor of a place where everything seems designed to do horrible damage to humans. We arrive mid-crisis, as our rescue pilot attempts a desperate rescue of a science outpost that has been cut off due to a giant solar flare. Our pilot is about to get real close and uncomfortable with the biota.
Bones of Air, Bones of Stone, is Stephen Leigh's contribution to oceanic Venus lore, with a strange tale of a pair of ex-lovers united and driven apart by the urge to conquer the extreme - do what's never been done. Here, it's the Great Darkness, a huge pit of deep black water that laughs at the Marianas Trench. Complicating matters is the lore of the locals, who believe that oceanic darkness to be their sacred resting place, and forbid anyone from diving there.
Eleanor Arnason also likes the idea of Communists on Venus, and Ruins gives us a National Geographic meets Washington Post intrigue featuring a team of scientists and explorers, and yes, a National Geographic photography team, complete with "Autonomous Leica. My model name is AL-26. My personal name is Margaret, in honor of the twentieth-century photographer Margaret Bourke White. You may call me Maggie." which juust about killed me. They're headed into the back country in search of a persistent rumor about ancient ruins, but they discover something a lot more sinister.
The Tumbledowns of Cleopatra Abyss by David Brin was my second favorite story, and also the second-best serious tale in the bunch. I was in awe of this story the whole time I was reading, and I'm still in awe at how well it all flowed. I can't say much without destroying the impact, but the tale reminds me that even when things go badly wrong, life finds a way. So very very good.
Garth Nix gives military sf a whirl with By Frogsled and Lizardback to Outcast Venusian Lepers, which, really, that title is just about all you need to know about this story. Oh, and clones. And military draft rules. And really colorful personal fungi.
The Sunset of Time didn't quite work well for me. Michael Cassutt gives it a good shot, and the story is interesting, but the weird parentheticals took too long to be explained, and the characters never quite gelled for me. Earth has gone all Handmaid's Tale, and deviants are shipped out to exile on sinful Venus. The natives are prepping for their regularly scheduled End Times, but humanity just keeps tootling along, although our protagonist Jor is beginning to have his concerns.
We follow that one up with a gut-punch of a story, beautifully and hauntingly told by Tobias S. Buckell. Pale Blue Memories has a light-skinned black member of the exploratory astronaut team narrate the horrible, but oh-so-human consequences of his team's ill-fated Venus landing. Painful to read, but so very well done.
Elizabeth Bear follows this one up with a tale of a bruised spirit who takes refuge in death-defying exploration - far away from her perfect and overbearing co-worker and lover. The Heart's Filthy Lesson balances the pain of jealousy with the overwhelming ecstasy of discovering new places and pushing your limits.
The Wizard of the Trees is John Carter of Venus, and god bless Joe R. Lansdale for giving him to us. Unlike Carter, our hero is plucked from his world by a slimy glowing thing, and chucked into a muddy hot pool. Things don't get much prettier from there, but Jack Davis, our intrepid US Buffalo Soldier, isn't afraid of a challenge. He even has a kick-ass princess encounter of his own!
Mike Resnick works from the same basic story structure as Tidhar, but The Godstone of Venus is a lot less Lovecraft and a lot more Indiana Jones. A merc and his partner are picked up by really strange clients in a run-down bar. The partner can't read the lady's mind, which is odd, because he can read anything's mind. They're on a quest for an artifact that can't exist, and things only get weirder from there.
Our last story is, in my opinion, the absolute best. Ian McDonald delivers to us Botanica Veneris: Thirteen Papercuts by Ida Countess Rathangan. It was absolutely and incontrovertably perfection. I loved the conceit, I loved the execution, the story was gripping, and the mystery was lovely. Utterly, utterly delightful.
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