The other story in the issue that struck me the most was Steven Utley’s The Sleepless Years. It reminded me in a strange way of H.P. Lovecraft at his best. Utley is a better writer than Lovecraft—he doesn’t overuse terms like “cyclopean” or “blasphemous”—but Lovecraft’s stories have a certain power because there is a fundamental loneliness behind them—which I presume reflects Lovecraft’s own life—and this can lend his tales of madness and a cruel universe a disturbing verisimilitude, like The Whisperer in Darkness.
Mr. Utley reminds me of that aspect of Lovecraft with his sad tale of a man trapped in an experiment. Just as Lovecraft’s loneliness powered his tales, to judge from the story’s dedication, Mr. Utley’s story was semi-autobiographical as well. Sounds like a man who could use a few prayers, if you have a mind to do that.
Not all the stories are sad: Mike Resnick has what can be best described as science-fiction variation of a fairy tale, where a robot scarecrow befriends a lost boy. Albert Cowdrey has a funny story of alien abduction in post-Katrina New Orleans (which is something of an alien environment itself). And I haven’t named quite half of all the issue’s offerings.
The double-issues are fun since there’s just about something for everyone—let me know what you think if you get your hands on a copy.
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Jerry