James Patrick Kelly's previous short-story collection Think Like a Dinosaur and Other Stories came out only five years ago, but even so, Strange But Not A Stranger is long overdue. That's because, after publishing his 1994 novel Wildlife, Kelly has devoted himself exclusively to short fiction. He writes a lot of stories, and they're all remarkable.

Strange collects the stories published since Think Like a Dinosaur and also dips back to the '80s and early '90s for a few pieces. Notably, there's the cyberpunk-styled "The Prisoner of Chillon," from 1986, which became a portion of Wildlife.

The book opens with "10¹⁶ to 1," a Hugo-award winner that Kelly says in his Afterword he was reluctant to write because it draws heavily on his childhood. In the story, Ray Beaumont is a lonely kid who loses himself in The Twilight Zone and Galaxy magazine. He gets along fine until he meets an actual time traveler who calls upon him, a kid from the suburbs, to save the world.

"Candy Art" is original to the collection and is one of two Christmas stories, the other being "Fruitcake Theory." Like many Christmas stories, it's a tale of family strife. Unlike many (if any) Christmas stories, it involves dead parents who've downloaded themselves into a robotic puppet and are on hand to pester their daughter 24 hours a day, forever.

Kelly moves among genres with ease, giving us the hard SF "Undone," which begins as space opera and then brings new life to one of science fiction's most mocked tropes, the Adam-and-Eve story. "Feel the Zaz" is another story which throws a cyberpunk vibe, but with Internet-influenced digital sensibilities and a strong humanist theme. "The Cruelest Month" is a straight-up ghost story that's eerie but also tender and sad. Kelly explores modern fantasy in "The Pyramid of Amirah." There's magic realism in "The Propagation of Light in a Vacuum" and even elements of metafiction in "Hubris."

Stories of soul and substance

Few authors have received as many award nominations as has Kelly. As of this writing, he's garnered 69 major nominations. But for all that, he's won only two Hugos, one Locus Poll and zero Nebula awards in a career that spans more than 25 years. What gives? My theory is that, despite its quality, his clear, readable prose doesn't attract attention to itself. Prizes more often go to flashy pieces. It's a shame.

Still, awards don't make the author, fiction does, and Strange But Not A Stranger contains almost 300 pages of great fiction. Kelly's science-fictional concepts are inventive, but never subsume the characters, the real and genuine people of the stories. "Lovestory," for example, features an alien race with three sexes. The idea is not explored on any grand, Nivenesque scale, but in the domestic drama of a family dealing with breakup and reunion. Or take "10¹⁶ to 1," which involves time travel, androids and Armageddon—but the brave hero who faces these challenges is in the sixth grade.

This is not to say there's no sense of wonder in Kelly's fiction. "Lovestory" will leave you pondering the implications of a three-sex society for weeks. "Fruitcake Theory," ostensibly a fluffy holiday yarn, involves some bizarre and thoroughly realized aliens. And then there's "The Pyramid of Amirah," which again thrusts middle American sensibilities headlong into the fantastic. Perhaps because it starts so close to home, where the story goes is that much more startling.

The only low spot in the collection is "The Prisoner of Chillon," whose Mirrorshades lingo is too dated for 2002. But don't be deterred. Anyone looking for a good read, looking for some modern science fiction told sincerely and without irony, should pick up Strange But Not A Stranger.