Thursday, May 8, 2008

word from Golden Gryphon

Email rec'd:
Greetings from the Gryphon: 

NANO COMES TO CLIFFORD FALLS AND OTHER STORIES, by Nancy Kress, is now
available!

Multiple award-winning author Nancy Kress is well known for her novels,
but all of her awards were for her short fiction, and she is at her best
in the short form. Most of the stories in this collection have been picked
for various “Year’s Best” and Reader’s Choice lists. The title story is
typical of Kress; nanotechnology brings every wish to everyone, and yet
on the human level problems of a dire nature are created. This is always
the case with Kress: typically, you get two stories in one: a focus on
cutting-edge technology and the emotional effects of such technology. In
many of her stories the pathos of the human condition is explored, where
humans plant seedlings and have to decide to weed or not weed—that is, to
play God or let natural selection progress (“My Mother, Dancing”).
Interfering with a culture, even to save lives, is not so straightforward
in “”Ej-Es.” Not all of Kress’s stories end seriously; in “First Flight”
a Space Cadet shines, in homage to a 50s TV program. Artificial intelligences
also show in several of the stories, as a persecuted slave of man (“Computer
Virus”), or as the controlling force of the universe (“Mirror Image”), or
even as one indifferent to humans at all (“Savior”). There is also hidden
horror in Kress’s stories, in the method used to handle a sassy sixteen-year-
old (“To Cuddle Amy”). From the center of the galaxy, to explore the nature
of matter itself (“Shiva in Shadow”) to the swamps of Earth (“Wetlands
Preserve”) you always get the trademark mix of hard science fiction
interacting with humanity, with all the resulting emotions. These thirteen
stories will satisfy old fans of Kress and breed new ones.

NANO COMES TO CLIFFORD FALLS AND OTHER STORIES, by Nancy Kress
Cover art by Thomas Canty
ISBN 978-1-930846-50-0 / $24.95 (Trade hardcover)
324 pages
---Good to see Golden Gryphon is keeping going even without my recent support. I really need to rectify that!

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