Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Best of Michael Swanwick

The Best of Michael Swanwick
maura853 avatar reviewed on + 542 more book reviews


An excellent taster of one author's versatility, and the scope of his imagination. As the blurb says, the stories range from Hard SF to the archetypes of mythology, from bleak and deadly serious, to light and humorous. Personally, I prefer the SF, but that's just one person's opinion; Swanwick has a knack for approaching his stories -- SF, Fantasy or near-future social commentary -- from "outside the box".

My personal favorites are
⢠"The Feast of Saint Janis" (1980), a diplomat from New Africa embarks on a journey through a nightmarish future America;
⢠"Slow Life" (2002), a member of the first research team on Titan faces deathly peril, and gets help from an unexpected source;
⢠"Legions in Time" (2003), a spunky widow discovers her calling when she stumbles into the business end of a time war;
⢠and "Triceratops Summer" (2005), a lovely little story about living in the "now." With triceratops ...