| SF Reviews by Aaron M. Renn | By Author - By Title - By Date Reviewed |
Conclusion: Recommended
I really don't follow short fiction all that much, but I do pick up the occasional anthology and this was one of them. And an impressive one at that. Nancy Kress is clearly someone with writing talent and short fiction seems especially suited to her abilities. Virtually all of the stories in this volume, from the Hugo winner "Beggars in Spain" to "Dancing on Air" are first rate.
The title is taken from the fact that most of the stories deal with biotechnology in some way. Usually the way is that there is some terrible side effect. Kress seems to have an exceptionally negative view of technology and its effect on our future. Perhaps she merely intends these as cautionary tales, but there do seem to be quite a few anti-technology, neo-luddite types around these days and I suspect that Kress has some sympathy with their way of thinking. Looking back from 1999, technology has been almost uniformly beneficial to humanity. With technology's record to date, I can't see why there is so much doom and gloom about the future on the part of so many people. There are dangers from technology, but they are more subtle than Kress' simple unforseen side effects. I don't want to go off on a tangent about this here, but for those interested in exploring some of these issues, I highly recommend Steve Talbott's NETFUTURE newsletter. I don't agree with Talbott on a lot of things, but his worries are a lot more complex and reasoned than Kress'. Of course it's not really fair to compare a theme from an SF short story to a non-fiction newsletter, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Despite my disagreement with Kress' dystopian view of the future of biotech, I still loved these stories. This is one of the best short fiction collections I've ever read. It's a shame this one isn't out in mass market paperback, though. Especially since Tor already had it out in hardcover for a year.
%A Kress, Nancy %T Beaker's Dozen %I Tor %D 1999-08 (original publication 1998-08) %G ISBN 0-312-86843-X %P 352 pp. %0 trade paperback, US$13.95
Reviewed on 1999-09-03
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