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REDSHIFT

EXTREME VISIONS OF SPECULATIVE FICTION

edited by

al sarrantonio

A ROC BOOK

Published by New American Library, a division of

Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R ORL, England

Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia

Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2

Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand

Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England

First published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.

First Printing, December 2001 10 98765432

acknowledgments to Maurice Richardson and the Exploits of Engelbrecht, with permission of the publisher, Savoy Books, Manchester,

|§fjn REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:

Redshift: extreme visions of speculative fiction / edited by Al Sarrantonio.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-451-45859-1 (acid-free paper)

1. Science fiction, American. I. Sarrantonio, Al.

PS648.S3 R4 2001

813'.0876208—dc21

Printed in the United States of America Set in Janson Text Designed by Eve L.

Kirch

PUBLISHER'S NOTE

These stories are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors' imaginations or are

used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely

coincidental. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or

introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or

otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

To Harlan, of course

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I've said this before: No book is an island; and this particular one owes much to a few

special people. My thanks to:

2001041639

Beth, always there, who put up with another one;

Julie Kristian, who hunted (and found!) gold;

Laura Anne Gilman, editor supreme;

Kathleen Bellamy, who gently persevered;

Dan Simmons, for reasons within;

Joe Lansdale, who wrote one toodamnlong—and for duty above and beyond;

Larry Niven, for making me think;

Ralph Vicinanza, who, again, piloted the agent's ship;

And editors, the quiet heroes of the field who, almost always unheralded, got or get it done:

Terry Carr, David G. Hartwell, Ellen Datlow, Damon Knight, Bob Silverberg, Gardner

Dozois, Gordon Van Gelder, Pat LoBrutto, Susan Allison, Ginger Buchanan, Sharon Jarvis,

Melissa Singer, Amy Stout, Harriet McDougal, Jennifer Brehl, John Douglas, Scott Edelman,

Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Stan Schmidt, Jeanne Cavelos ...

Too many to name.

CONTENTS

Introduction

On K2 with Kanakaredes Dan Simmons

The Building Ursula K. Le Guin

Froggies Laura Whitton

What We Did That Summer Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg

A Slow Saturday Night at the Surrealist Sporting Club

Michael Moorcock

In Xanadu Thomas M. Disch

Commencement Joyce Carol Oates

Unique Visitors James Patrick Kelly

BIack TuIip Harry Turtledove

Belief P. D. Cacek

In the Un-Black Stephen Baxter

Weeping Walls Paul Di Filippo

Anomalies Gregory Benford

Captive Kong Kit Reed

Feedback Robert E. Vardeman

Between Disappearances Nina Kiriki Hoffman

Resurrection

David Morrell

Cleopatra Brimstone

Elizabeth Hand

Burros Gone Bad

Peter Schneider

Pockets

Rudy Rucker and John Shirley

Ave de Paso

Catherine Asaro

Road Kill

Joe Haldeman

Ting-a-Ling

Jack Dann

'Bassador

Catherine Wells

Ssoroghod's People

Larry Niven

Two Shot

Michael Marshall Smith

Billy the Fetus

Al Sarrantonio

Viewpoint

Gene Wolfe

Fungi

Ardath Mayhar

Rhido Wars

Neal Barrett, Jr.

INTRODUCTION

Redshift: Doppler effect evidenced by a move toward the red end of the

spectrum, indicating motion away from Earth—as in an expanding universe.

An expanding universe: that's what this book is about. To put it as simply as possible, what

you now hold in your hands (we hope and pray) is the finest original sf anthology of the last

twenty-five years—and the future of speculative fiction.

PART ONE: WHAT

In 1998, while assembling my last anthology, 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense, I

set myself a new goal: to put together, at the turn of the millennium (the real new millennium

which began in 2001) a huge original anthology of speculative fiction stories. My initial

inspiration was Harlan Ellison's Dangerous Visions, the publication of which in 1967 changed

the science fiction field forever. Much of what Ellison codified in that book—the pushing of

envelopes, the annihilation of taboos, the use of experimental prose—had been in the air for

some time (after all, this was the sixties), but he was the first to nail it between two

hardcovers* with a force and will that made it irrefutable. Science fiction (Ellison used the

term "speculative fiction" to describe this blossoming mutation that, by its very nature of

openness, contained elements of fantasy, horror, and brush strokes of just about every other

genre, as well as the techniques of conventional and experimental so-called "literary"

*<<Mike Moorcock, of course, put the phenomenon between two soft magazine covers in

the mid-sixties with New Worlds magazine in the U.K., which gave sustenance to the New

Wave movement that fomented this whole revolution. fiction) had been evolving; after the

publication of Dangerous Visions, the new monster stood on its hind legs roaring, fully

born.>>

The monster continued to roar; in 1973 there came a second volume from Ellison, Again,

Dangerous Visions, and throughout the next decade and beyond, numerous other

anthologies—as well as whole series of anthologies, such as Orbit edited by Damon Knight

(the first numbers of which actually predated Dangerous Visions), New Dimensions edited by

Robert Silverberg, and Universe edited by Terry Carr—continued to nurture this melding of

the hard and soft sciences in fiction, as well as its literary maturity of style. There were many

others. Even into the eighties and nineties, venturesome editors, such as Ellen Datlow, with her

fantasy-inspired, sexually liberating anthologies, and Patrick Nielsen Hayden, with his

Starlight series (three volumes, as I write this) continued to elevate the field.

The magazines, too, absorbed the new gestalt, and, over the years, have continued to

evolve.*

*<<For much better, deeper, and finer discussions of these developments, there are far

better sources than me. Start with Clute and Nicholls's Science Fiction Encyclopedia, either in

print or on CD-ROM as Grolier Science Fiction: The Multimedia Encyclopedia of Science

Fiction, which includes video and audio clips.>>

Given this history, was there really a need for another "cutting edge" original sf anthology,

here in 2001? What would be the reasons for putting together such a book?

I had one damned good reason for jumping into such a project. Two, actually.

But one's a secret—for now.

PART TWO: WHY

The "Ellison Revolution," it seems to me, had four goals: the breaking of taboos, the

presentation of new ways of telling stories, the expansion of the sf field, and—well, I'll keep

the fourth one in my back pocket for now, since it happens to dovetail with one of my own

reasons for doing this book.

As for taboos, someone asked me: What taboos are left to break in an era when the media

discuss the president performing sex acts in the oval office? There do seem to be, even in

science fiction, precious few taboos to break these days.+

+<<I do think there are a few pieces in this book that would have had a hard time finding a

home, specifically due to content, even in this day and age. Even though there have been

numerous original anthologies devoted to all kinds of former "taboo" subjects, the magazines,

in particular, which still publish the lion's share of sf short fiction, are still averse to certain

types of stories. Then again, as I've been told, taboos do change with the times, don't they?

What's political incorrectness if not a new taboo? >>

And as for new ways of telling stories, there's also really little left to discuss. By now, just

about every style from Ulysses to Ulysses S. Grant has been tried in sf—with mixed results. To

my mind, there are plenty of ways to tell a story. If what you have in the end are pretty words

that make no discernible pattern or narrative, well, that ain't a story, even if you call it

"experimental." The truth is, whatever works works—as long as it works.

Those two goals were pretty much reached—and, as you already realize, a long time ago.

What about the third goal of the ER (Ellison Revolution): the expansion of the sf field?

Ah, finally, something to work with in the year of 2001.

The question must be asked: Now that it's pretty much absorbed the soft sciences, the

literary avant-garde, and the humanities, is the sf field so staid, so settled, that there's nowhere

left for it to be pushed to?

Of course not.

Never.

The sf field is by its very nature the luckiest of literary forms—its basic subject matter, the

sciences, whether soft or hard, are always themselves evolving. Even though the ER brought in

all kinds of new subject matter, there is a built-in factor in sf that ensures that it will never get

old. The sciences—soft or hard—are continually providing the field with new ideas.*

*<<And vice versa-as someone once said: "First come the dreamers." Need I mention any

name beyond that of Jules Verne?>>

Science fiction has built-in forward momentum.

My first reason for putting this book together—the continued revolutionary expansion of

sf—is not only valid, but also vital. Hopefully this project will present a blueprint for the

future.

What about my second reason—the secret one?

Well... I think I'll keep it a secret for just a bit longer.

First we need to find out the most important thing: how the writers reacted when I

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