ast Summer at Mars Hill is an eclectic collection from Elizabeth Hand that includes 11 short stories and one poem. The works here range from science fiction and fantasy to the supernatural, and they begin, appropriately enough, with the novella "The Last Summer at Mars Hill." In this Nebula and World Fantasy Award-winning story, two teenagers accompanying their ex-hippie parents on an annual pilgrimage to the tiny Maine retreat known as Mars Hill observe activities at the spiritualist community with a skeptical eye. Jason and Moony know about the ephemeral, unearthly golden lights that regularly appear to Mars Hill residents, but the shimmering apparitions seem unimportant compared to their parents' terminal illness.
In other stories, Hand offers new angles on various popular myths, ranging from ancient Greek tales to modern American lore. In "Justice," a portion of Homer's epic poem "The Odyssey" is transplanted to Oklahoma with a twist that would confound even Odysseus. "On the Town Route" begins with the joy an ice cream man delivers to a town's children via his ice cream truck. But summer can't last forever, so what happens when the weather becomes as cold as a popsicle?
And what about Elvis? In "The Have-Nots," the King changes the life of waitress Loretta forever, and things will never be the same at the Blue Moon Cafe. Hand also takes on time-honored topics such as mobile puppets, humans morphing into animals and deals with the devil. In "Engels Unaware" there's even a parable of sorts about the greed and covetousness so prevalent in a materialistic society.
What you see may not be what you get
Some books are engaging because of the story they tell, and others are enjoyable because of the way the story is told. When an author successfully combines both of these aspects of the writer's art, it makes for great reading. Elizabeth Hand is such an author, and those who prefer fantasy and perhaps a bit of horror mixed in with their science fiction will definitely find this collection to their liking. On the other hand, hard SF fans may as well move on to other things.
The stories found here were first published from 1988-94 and represent a variety of topics and moods. Hand works with descriptive narrative the way an artist creates dimension and scale with paint or clay. Scenes explode with vibrant energy, allowing readers to see through the characters' eyes. Many of the stories harbor uncomfortable feelings of malevolence or melancholy, but these are balanced by other, more positive explorations into the human condition.
After each story Hand adds a paragraph or two describing her motivation for the piece, as well as other interesting tidbits for curious readers. The book includes a bibliography, but it offers no information as to how material was selected for inclusion in this volume. As is the case with most short story collections, not every piece here is a winner. However, the winners far outnumber the losers, and the broad range of topics almost guarantees at least one favorite story for everyone.
he "moonseed" has been sitting in a NASA lab since 1972. For geologist Henry Meacher, the rock is a booby prize: He had planned to study new samples brought to Earth by a pair of automated lunar probes. Budget cuts forced NASA to scrap that mission, so Meacher has to settle for 30-year-old moon rocks and an ill-equipped lab in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Then Meacher's assistant pilfers a fragment of moonseed and accidentally spills a few grains on the ground. Edinburgh is home to a large, dormant volcano, and moonseed, it turns out, eats volcanic rock. The moonseed revives the old volcano, then gnaws through the Earth's crust and into the fluid mantle, where it spreads around the world like a geological cancer. The newly active volcano levels Edinburgh. Elsewhere, tidal waves and earthquakes topple cities. Famine imperils millions. Then things get really nasty.
Just how bad will it get? The answer is visible in the sky: the glowing remnants of Venus, sundered by an explosion a trillion times stronger than the world's entire nuclear arsenal. Apparently, a 1980s Soviet probe was contaminated with space-borne moonseed en route to Venus. Twenty years later, Venus is nothing but a blob of gas and molten rock.
Yet there's a glimmer of hope. Moonseed has been on the Moon for billions of years. Something must be preventing it from devouring the Moon. Meacher persuades the American government to convert one of his scrapped lunar probes to carry a human crew so the U.S. and Russia can throw together a lunar expedition. Joining Meacher are his astronaut ex-wife and her lover, a Russian cosmonaut who misses the good old days of the Soviet Union.
On the Moon, Meacher is in geologist heaven, the ultimate field expedition. But he soon learns that to save humanity he must destroy the Moon--or at least change it irrevocably--and probably die in the process.
Apocalypse wow
In Moonseed, Stephen Baxter has crafted a first-class disaster epic, a smart, snappy thrill ride that will keep readers turning pages deep into the night. Though moonseed is one of the more exotic science fictional menaces--a type of nanotechnology that works on the subatomic level--its destructive effects are familiar to anyone who watches the evening news. Moonseed's world-wide rampage is a nightmarish fast-forward through a century of natural and human-made disasters. Against this backdrop Baxter sets up an array of sympathetic supporting characters and bit players, then knocks them down like bowling pins.
Yet Moonseed is far less downbeat than Baxter's last book, Titan, a novel so bleak that Earth's destruction was a mere plot complication. The moonseed frightens Meacher and his colleagues, but it also fascinates them. And Baxter's low-tech, ramshackle lunar voyage is far more exciting than any interstellar, warp-speed journey.
However, Moonseed is not without its flaws. A trained engineer, Baxter has done his homework--and his lecture-prone characters won't let readers forget it. As in his recent novels, he also seems unwholesomely obsessed with astronaut bowel movements. The plot hinges--unbelievably--on incredible coincidences and implausible behavior, while Meacher's ploy to save humanity depends on too many things going exactly right, with no margin for error.
But Moonseed amply rewards readers willing to suspend disbelief. The final chapters, spanning decades, are both terrifying and exhilarating. Continents crumble as the moonseed continues its grim work, while the dwindling survivors undertake humanity's greatest and most audacious adventure.
