A standout story from Gerrold. It’s introduced as being by way of a ‘thematic sequel’ to his multi award winning story ‘The Martian Child’ from 20 years ago.
A quick check on wikipedia, and pulling of my copy of Nebula Award Stories 30 from the shelf, and a skim read of that story gave me the backdrop. That was an intensely personal story, based on his experience as a single adoptive father. And this goes even further, using an sfnal device to consider paths taken and not taken. Gerrold puts forward (unless he has made a lot of it up, like as in fiction) a lot of detail about himself, with some neat references for the SF fan, the IT buff, and so forth, as he explores a multitude of what-might-have-beens, and how his stubborness has brought him to the path he has chosen, and where happiness lies.
This -should- be an award winner as well (obviously there are stories to be written detailing the path to where we are with SFF awards nowadays), and it will appear in a year’s best anthology or two, otherwise TANJ. Well, if nothing else it is on the shortlist for The Best SF Short Story Award 2015. BTW I have a soft spot for Gerrold, due to the Star Trek episode ‘The Trouble with Tribbles’, or, more specifically, the non fiction book he wrote about the episode, which I bought in the mid 1970s, and is part of my collection of about 175 SF books I bought pre-university, which sit as a discrete mini collection in the house. They sit on a shelf above the TV in the living room in fact, a strong physical link to those carfree days of teenagehood (books, unlike parents, don’t die on you).
More from this issue here.
