These summaries were written sometime between 1992 and 1998.
Nancy Kress. Beggars in Spain.
Originally in : Axolotl Press, 1991.
In-utero genetic modification allows for removal of the need for sleep. The Sleepless grow up academically gifted and gradually become cut off from a resentful society. 1992 Hugo, Best Novella.
Alexander Jablokov. Living Will.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, June 1991.
Roman Maitland transcribes his memory onto a beta-tested computer, and as his own mind disintegrates due to Alzheimer’s, the computer becomes more Roman than Roman.
Lois Tilton. A Just and Lasting Peace.
Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct/Nov 1991.
Alternate history – American Civil War.
William Gibson. Skinner’s Room.
Originally in : Omni, November 1991.
A future Oakland, with the Oakland Bridge home to a seething mass of humanity, including Skinner, one of the first to scale the towers.
Walter Jon Williams. Prayers on the Wind.
Originally in : When The Music’s Over, Bantam 1991.
On the planet Vajra, the Gyalpo Rinpoche, the Forty-First Incarnation of the Bodhisattva, Bob Miller, the Great Librarian, makes way for #42. Aum mane padme hum.
Greg Egan. Blood Sisters.
Originally in : Interzone 44, February 1991.
Two sisters are infected by the same virus. They each are prescribed the same drug. One dies. The survivor finds out that her sister was prescribed a placebo as part of a double-blind trial.
Karen Joy Fowler. The Dark.
Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1991.
A young feral boy is found in Yosemite National Park. The tunnels of Cu Chi in ‘Nam a couple of years later have a mysterious GI.
Ian R. MacLeod. Marnie.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, May 1991.
Art lecturer returns and returns and returns, trying to get his relationship with Marnie to work.
Robert Silverberg. A Tip on a Turtle.
Originally in : Amazing Stories, May 1991.
The ‘gift’ of foresight.
Kim Newman. Ubermensch!
Originally in : New Worlds 1, Unwin, 1991.
Alternate History – the baby Superman landing in Nazi Germany in the 1930s rather than the States.
Pat Cadigan. Dispatches from the Revolution.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, July 1991.
Alternate History – with the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s failing and a very repressive neo-fascist regime resulting.
Robert Reed. Pipes.
Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1991.
A big project is on to use genetic engineering and ecological planning to get a fucked-up States back to the way it was. But one of the programmers upsets a native American Indian come to fix his plumbing by not putting the Lakota into the picture.
Gregory Benford. Matter’s End.
Originally in : Full Spectrum 3, Doubleday, 1991.
Prof. Clay is called to India as a representative of the National Science Foundation, to confirm findings in the work being carried out on proton decay. The work has an earth-shattering effect.
Kim Stanley Robinson. A History of the Twentieth Century, with Illustrations.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, April 1991.
A writer, called upon to produce a coffee table book looking back on the millennium and forward to the next, has to travel a long distance, both physically and spiritually, to do so.
Paul J. McAuley. Gene Wars.
Originally in : Interzone 48, June 1991.
Gene modifications, initially cosmetic, have a major impact on the human race.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The Gallery of His Dreams.
Originally in : Axolotl Press, 1991.
Pioneer photographer of the American Civil War, Mathew Brady, is taken to war zones in the future (all of his, and some of ours).
Geoffrey A. Landis. A Walk in the Sun.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, October 1991.
A pilot stranded by wrecked spaceship on the Moon has to figure out how he can survive in his solar powered suit in the face of the imminent lunar night. 1992 Hugo, Best Short Story.
Ian McDonald. Fragments of an Analysis of a Case of Hysteria.
Originally in : Tales of the Wandering Jew, Dedalus, 1991.
A young girl in Germany in the 1930s foresees the holocaust and her own part in it.
Kathe Koja. Angels in Love.
Originally in : The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1991.
Lurleen is jealous of the nightly love-making she hears from next door.
Rick Shelley. Eyewall.
Originally in : Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, January 1991.
Scientists working on a hurricane-prone planet to tame the weather.
James Patrick Kelly. Pogrom.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, January 1991.
Oldies in a siege-like generation struggle with have not youngsters.
Greg Egan. The Moat.
Originally in : Aurealis 3, 1991.
Fortress Australia – with some Pacific islands losing out to the rising sea-levels, there is a rise of neo-fascist resistance to the resulting immigrants, and something strange has been happening to the DNA of the elite…
Jack Dann. Voices.
Originally in : Omni, August 1991.
Kids visit a morgue to talk to the stiffs.
Brian W. Aldiss. FOAM.
Originally in : New Worlds 1, Unwin, 1991.
Free Of All Memory. An academic has his expertise in church architecture pirated for sale to other academics.
Connie Willis. Jack.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, October 1991.
London during the blitz, and a vampire is making the most of the carnage.
Chris Beckett. La Macchina.
Originally in : Interzone 46, April 1991.
On holiday in Italy, a humanoid robot in an art gallery develops a soul.
Mike Resnick. One Perfect Morning, with Jackals.
Originally in : Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, March 1991.
A prequel to the Kirinyaga series, with Koriba leaving the ruined Kenya for the orbiting version.
Mark L. Van Name, Pat Murphy. Desert Rain.
Originally in : Full Spectrum 3, Doubleday, 1991.
An artist struggling with a sculpture, is helped by a Home Information and Appliance Network with a personality, both with the sculpture and with her marriage.
