The Pardoner’s Tale. Robert Silverberg.
Originally in : Playboy, June 1987.
‘Entities’, aliens with attitude, take over Earth, leaving many of its inhabitants doomed to forced-labour of one kind or another. ‘The Pardoner’ has the electronic wherewithal to assist a lucky few to avoid the worst fates.
Rachel in Love. Pat Murphy.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1987
A scientist implanted his dead daughter’s brain pattern onto one of the chimps he has been raising and studying. The chimp, to all intents and purposes the daughter, battles for her survival.
America. Orson Scott Card.
Originally in :
A young man and very old Amazonian virgin come together to create a saviour for the Americas.
Crying in the Rain. Tanith Lee.
Originally in : Other Edens
Post-holocaust : acid rain (and how!), short life spans, with the lucky ones living in bubble-domes.
The Sun Spider. Lucius Shepard.
Originally in : Asimovs
Multi-perspective on a scientist who finds life on the face of the sun, and who becomes part of that life.
Angel. Pat Cadigan.
Originally in : Asimovs, May 1987
Angel is an outcast from another planet, who befriends a human hemaphrodite. Angel is finally hunted down by a fellow ET, leaving the hero/ine to find other such outcasts.
Forever Yours, Anna. Kate Wilhelm.
Originally in :
A graphologist gets involved, intimately, with a love affair across time.
Second Going. James Tiptree, Jr.
Originally in : Universe 17
In the face of difficulties, humanity encounters a deity-like race whom they follow away from the Earth.
Dinosaurs. Walter Jon Williams.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, August 1987
Interplanetary peace negotiations.
All Fall Down. Don Sakers.
Originally in : Analog
The Hlutr, a race of tree-hilfs, come to the aid of humanoids.
