Review: Mashup
Gardner Dozios collects and edits a lot of SF and SF collections. There is a story that Larry Marder is the Nexus of all Comics Realities in the sense that everyone working in comics knows him and that he gleefully links people up. That’s how I think of Dozios.
In any case he gathered a set of interesting voices for Mash Up and set them loose with the simple mission to write him a short story that starts with the first line of a literary classic. Everyone’s game, of course and most of the results are fun and interesting. In fact, overall the range of voices is broad. No two stories seem cut from the same cloth, which makes it an interesting way to hear writers you’d like to hear more from. All of this is leading to the correct conclusion that this is a diverting collection of stories from good writers.
Then there’s Mary Robinette Kowal’s Tour de Force “The Lady Astronaut of Mars.” It’s one of those short stories that the only real advice a reader can give is “read it.” I’ll risk a few more words. It’s about adventure, and the price of getting what you want, and love, and growing old together, and how small events change societies, and how gender bends peoples impressions. And Hollerith cards. (And she even nailed the premise, weaving one of those themes through the chosen opening line, which few authors managed.) Go read it.
Recommended. The Lady Astronaut is a must.