The Last Science Fiction Writer

Presents a collection of short stories, including "Moreau," "The War of Dogs and Boids," and "An Incident of the Luncheon of the Boating Party."

In Steele's fifth collection of short science fiction stories, the adventurers who look outward are rewarded with learning where they truly belong, be they canines transplanted off Earth (The War of Dogs and Boids), prospectless teens who stumble across a time-travel repair mission (Escape from Earth) or a virtual author breaking free of marketing straitjackets (The Last Science Fiction Writer). Staying too close to home, in contrast, leads nowhere, as the savage survivors of the next Ice Age find out in Take Me Back to Old Tennessee. If Steele (Galaxy Blues) could resist the tendency to pick on the easy targets in obvious ways, he would make his points more convincingly, but even his more unsubtle stories are written in a direct, entertaining style, with morals many readers will share and appreciate. (Nov.)
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Arguably one of sf’s more durable practitioners, Steele continues to be as adept at short stories as at novels. Here we have a space-struck teenager meeting space travelers from an alternate earth (“Escape from Earth”), a time traveler winding up in an impressionist painting (“An Incident at the Luncheon of the Boating Party”), and a rather barbed variation on the hoary old theme of a boy’s first hunt (“The Teb Hunter”). There are also the employment of biotech for an homage to H. G. Wells (“Moreau²”) and a piece that reads so much like a folktale as to suggest that Steele counts folklorist among his many attainments (“Carry Me Back to Old Tennessee”). And five more in this admirable showcase of the technical skills and wide range of interests of one of sf’s brighter lights. --Roland Green