
Review by D. Donovan
Editor & Senior Reviewer
California Bookwatch
Lieu: Science Fiction Short Stories
Lafcadio Adams, Editor
Idle Winter Press
9780692385029
$16.99
www.idlewinter.com
Lieu gathers nine science fiction short stories and novelettes and narrows the topics to exchange, replacement, upgrade and masquerade - and if this sounds puzzling, initially, that's because the ideas are meant to be both broad enough to include a diverse selection of stories under one cover and unusual enough to rule out the ordinary.
There are big names here, from Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and Robert Silverberg to Fritz Leiber and Frank Herbert. All were originally published in science fiction magazines in the 1950s, and all approach their topics in very different ways, from adding doses of humor and mystery to creating something that skirts the edge between science fiction and a literary work of another genre entirely.
'The Judas Valley', for example, places the Judas figure in quite a different role when aliens face annihilation and monsters and myths are questioned. 'The Tunnel Under the World' presents a nightmare like none other - and the reality of living in a town built on a tabletop - if, indeed, it is a nightmare and if the town is truly real and not a dream. And 'Old Rambling House' takes a tax accountant out of this world.
The result is a powerful collection of stories which are longer than most, packed with some of the biggest talents in science fiction, and include novelettes which typically don't make it into the more common short story category.