Future Crime: An Anthology of the Shape of Crime to Come - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556113129 ISBN 13: 9781556113123

Publisher: Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1992

Synopsis

An anthology of science fiction stories tackles the problem of crime in the future, with contributions by Isaac Asimov, Robert Bloch, Orson Scott Card, John Varley, Kathe Koja, W.T. Quick, and Harry Harrison

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

Excellent sheaf of sf reprints (plus three originals) all turning on crime and detection in the future, a truly intriguing premise. With no surprises, editors Manson and Ardai have rounded up the usual suspects as contributors: Robert Bloch, C.J. Cherryh, Alan Dean Foster, George Alec Effinger, and so on. Standout stories include: John Varley's ``The Barbie Murders,'' in which both male and female members of a future religious cult, the Barbies, have nipples and genitals removed and themselves changed into Barbie dolls so that all members have interchangeable features, are nameless, and speak of an egoless ``we,'' never ``I.'' When a murder happens, the whole cult assumes responsibility and offers itself as the murderer. The investigating detective, a woman, must become a Barbie (up to a point) to find the murderer--or murderers, since more crimes happen. In Effinger's ``The World As We Know It,'' a Muslim private eye is hired as security for the CRCorp building, a structure in which each floor has a Consensual Reality- -i.e., one floor is the surface of Mars, and those who rent space there see themselves as Mars colonists. But there is larceny on Mars! In Alan Dean Foster's ``Lay Your Head on My Pilose,'' a jungle Don Juan in South America helps his explosively orgasmic beloved murder her husband by way of piranhas--but the murderers fall victim to rare jungle vengeance. And Kathe Koja's ``The Energies of Love'' finds a hack writer entering the replicated mind of a great novelist, a suicide, in order to write the missing last chapter of the dead writer's last novel. First-rate despite the weak entries. No one will be disappointed. -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Imagine trying to solve a murder in an androgynous, religious community in which all the members have been surgically altered to eliminate their differences or, in another story, parents raising a child to be an assassin through subliminal messages from his beloved teddy bear. John Varley's ``The Barbie Murders'' and Harry Harrison's ``I Always Do What Teddy Says'' are just 2 of the 15 short stories in this superior sci/fi collection that centers on genetics, robotics, cybernetics, and computers. Included are new stories by C. J. Cherryh, Alan Dean Foster, and George Alec Effinger, as well as older selections by such luminaries as Isaac Asimov, Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, and Robert Bloch. The writing is topnotch, and the concepts are intriguing.
- John Lawson, Fairfax County Pub . Lib . , Fairfax, VA
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Donald I. Fine, Inc.
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 1556113129
• ISBN 13: 9781556113123
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 275
• Editor: Cynthia Manson, Charles Ardai