Sunday, October 25, 2009

Hunting the avid reader

kw: book reviews, story reviews, anthologies, science fiction, continued review

The fifth story in Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks by Mike Resnick has a safari theme, following the first four. The four stories that follow it are on different aspects of the hunter theme.
  • The Lord of the Jungle is a Tarzan parody, with a lordly ape-man bringing socialism to the apes, though he finally succumbs to a very capitalist proposal.
  • Bwana, one of the author's "Kirinyaga" series, found also in his book by that name, explores the law of unintended consequences. In this case, it is in this form: "If you bring in a predator to deal with your problem, you now have to deal with a predator that is stronger than your original problem."
  • Stalking the Vampire is a parody of articles with titles such as "The Tiger on His Own Ground", found in "True Tales" sorts of rags.
  • The Soul Eater has been called a very different love story. Though this 125-page novella tells an all-too-familiar tale of using hate to hide a love one fears, it puts it in the context of a man and his relationship to an energy being the size of a planetoid. Like the Snark of the first story in the book (see prior day's post), the Starduster/Dreamwish Beast/Soul Eater is misunderstood at nearly every step. This story has a slightly happier ending, however.
  • Nicobar Lane – The Soul Eater's Story tells a brief version of the tale from the energy being's point of view. Now that's a stretch!
Mike Resnick's unique imagination quails at no challenge, and challenges our assumptions with such stories. A treat.

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