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Stable Strategies and Others
This collection of tightly crafted, highly imaginative short stories employs surrealist, satirical, and fantastical devices to explore politics, class, and gender. From a hilarious tale about bioengineering and the stresses of climbing the corporate ladder to an evocative story of a woman who loses a sock at the the laundromat and finds she's missing a bit of her soul, these science fiction stories showcase an award-winning writer's compelling vision of the universe. Computer pioneers, cross-country skiers, and aliens figure into these literary stories that challenge the boundaries of imagination with quirky, anti-establishment characters and visionary technological extrapolation.
Contents
Foreword by William Gibson
"Stable Strategies for Middle Management"
"Fellow Americans"
"Computer Friendly"
"The Sock Story"
"Coming to Terms"
"Lichen and Rock"
"Contact"
"What Are Friends For?"
"Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp"
"Spring Conditions"
"Nirvana High" (with Leslie What)
"Green Fire (with Andy Duncan, Pat Murphy, and Michael Swanwick)
Afterword by Howard Waldrop
Contents
Foreword by William Gibson
"Stable Strategies for Middle Management"
"Fellow Americans"
"Computer Friendly"
"The Sock Story"
"Coming to Terms"
"Lichen and Rock"
"Contact"
"What Are Friends For?"
"Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp"
"Spring Conditions"
"Nirvana High" (with Leslie What)
"Green Fire (with Andy Duncan, Pat Murphy, and Michael Swanwick)
Afterword by Howard Waldrop
208 pages, Paperback
First published August 16, 2004
12 people are currently reading
383 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
April 19, 2024
Eileen Gunn is surely one of SF's least-prolific good writers, having published all of eleven stories since her debut in 1978 [at the time of this collection]. Fortunately, all of the stories in the collection are worthwhile, and some are brilliant -- such as the title story, "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" (a 1988 Hugo nominee), a novel view of the role of bioengineering in future corporate life, guaranteed to bring a smile. Then there's "Green Fire," co-written with Michael Swanwick, Andy Duncan, and Pat Murphy, which is just terrific: a WWII pulp burlesque, starring Isaac Asimov and Bob Heinlein, and featuring Tesla super-science, topless pirates, giant plesiosaurs, a kraken -- and a special guest appearance by Lord Quetzalcoatl! Great stuff. SF's best-ever 4-author story!
Her third "A" story, "Nirvana High" (with Leslie What), makes its first appearance here. The special-ed students at Cobain High have, well, special talents, and Gunn's sfnal look at high-school life ranks right up there with Suzy McKee Charnas' "Boobs" and Sharon Farber's "The Nostalginauts" (as by S.N. Dyer). A top-notch story.
"Computer Friendly", a 1990 Hugo nominee, features 9-yr old Elizabeth "Lizardbreath", and how she saved her friends online and learned to spit. Cool, nerdy stuff, if a bit dated now.
And her first sale, "What Are Friends For?" (1978) is still a crackerjack -- I'd never seen it, and I'll bet you'll like it, too. Gunn notes that her check for $51.63, from Ted White's Amazing, "came in someone else's SASE, with their name crossed out and mine scrawled in... I had hit the big time."
And there's more! Bottom line: 11 stories, 5 "A"s, 6 "B"s -- plus an "ideologically labile" recipe, and cool little Gunnophile goodies from William Gibson, Michael Swanwick, and Howard Waldrop. "Open [the book] and be dazzled! -- James Patrick Kelly's blurb, with a coverful of other nice blurbs, from Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, Connie Willis, and many more.
So, you owe it to yourself to check out Eileen Gunn's neat stories. As Michael Swanwick sings,
"Hooray for Eileen and her bully machine...
She's graced with a runcible style...
Lets all celebrate
Before it's too late...
Eileen! -- and her bully machine."
[review written c. 2004 for SF Site]
Her third "A" story, "Nirvana High" (with Leslie What), makes its first appearance here. The special-ed students at Cobain High have, well, special talents, and Gunn's sfnal look at high-school life ranks right up there with Suzy McKee Charnas' "Boobs" and Sharon Farber's "The Nostalginauts" (as by S.N. Dyer). A top-notch story.
"Computer Friendly", a 1990 Hugo nominee, features 9-yr old Elizabeth "Lizardbreath", and how she saved her friends online and learned to spit. Cool, nerdy stuff, if a bit dated now.
And her first sale, "What Are Friends For?" (1978) is still a crackerjack -- I'd never seen it, and I'll bet you'll like it, too. Gunn notes that her check for $51.63, from Ted White's Amazing, "came in someone else's SASE, with their name crossed out and mine scrawled in... I had hit the big time."
And there's more! Bottom line: 11 stories, 5 "A"s, 6 "B"s -- plus an "ideologically labile" recipe, and cool little Gunnophile goodies from William Gibson, Michael Swanwick, and Howard Waldrop. "Open [the book] and be dazzled! -- James Patrick Kelly's blurb, with a coverful of other nice blurbs, from Ursula K. Le Guin, Cory Doctorow, Connie Willis, and many more.
So, you owe it to yourself to check out Eileen Gunn's neat stories. As Michael Swanwick sings,
"Hooray for Eileen and her bully machine...
She's graced with a runcible style...
Lets all celebrate
Before it's too late...
Eileen! -- and her bully machine."
[review written c. 2004 for SF Site]
June 26, 2021
I had never heard of Eileen Gunn before I got hold of this anthology through a Humble Bundle offer. Every single story in this collection is remarkable, not only for the imaginative plots, but the quality of the prose itself. Not every story will be for everyone's tastes, but all of them are daring in their scope and have their hearts and brains in the right places. Gunn's effortlessly and successfully bridges the gap between popular literature, "hard" science fiction, and high-brow fantasy literature. Gunn seems to be a true "writer's writer" and a voice that deserves to become acquainted with.
August 14, 2015
is most definitely an authors' author. is a very slim book, by most standards—just a couple hundred pages—but it contains an introduction by , an afterword by , a cheerful bit of doggerel from , and adulatory quotes from an impressive number of authors I admire: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; and . Many of them get quite creative with their praise; it's a wonder there's any room left for Gunn's stories!
showcases a constellation of variation whose only consistent characteristic is its high quality. Oh, and don't skip the notes that Gunn adds to the end of each tale; they're short but illuminating.
The lead story is the one you've most likely to have seen before; "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" is a Hugo award-nominated satire, informed by Gunn's time served at Microsoft in the 1980s, that cheerfully skewers corporate fads and groupthink with a literal proboscis.
"Fellow Americans" gives us Tricky Dick Nixon as a... TV celebrity? And a Barry Goldwater presidency? It turns out more plausibly than you might think...
"Computer Friendly" (also a Hugo nominee) follows a little girl as she's evaluated for how well she'll fit into her highly-standardized, heavily computerized, extremely high-stakes educational system. Thank goodness nothing like this could ever come to pass in the real world...
"The Sock Story" is about "a woman who lost her sock at the laundromat and discovered it contained part of her soul," which is probably enough to get you going.
The protagonist of the Nebula award-winning "Coming to Terms" is stuck with the task of sorting through the books and papers of a lifelong reader who annotated them obsessively, engaging in dialogue with everything he read. Things get a little weird. It's based in part on Gunn's friendship with , and as she notes, "{...}the number of Post-It notes you get from dead friends and relatives is limited."
"Lichen and Rock" is a fable; Lichen is a little girl, and Rock is a whale, or at least is shaped like one.
Just as it says on the tin, "Contact" is a story about first contact, an avian alien who meets a human intruder on its own planet, and on its own terms. Intense and plausible. I can't think of a better first-contact story, and I've read quite a few...
In "What Are Friends For?" it's the aliens who have found Earth, but their plans don't seem to include keeping us around. Fortunately, we have a secret weapon that can divert their attention (psst... it's porn). Notable in part for Gunn's incredibly deft creation of slang terms that sound good and take just the right amount of effort to figure out in context.
"Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp" is a recipe. Its title is accurate.
"Spring Conditions" is a horror story ( liked it too) about cross-country skiing. Kind of.
The dark and sardonic "Nirvana High" (co-written with ) is pre-Columbine but post-Kurt Cobain. Both students and staff at Cobain High demand "Entertain us!" but by that they mean very different things.
Gunn's part of the book concludes with "Green Fire," which throws and onto the U.S.S. Eldridge just in time for what we know as the Philadelphia Experiment to commence. Giant turtles and the Meso-American god Quetzalcoatl are just two of the entities they run into. The sf in-jokes fly furiously in this amazing four-way collaboration among Gunn, , and .
The stories in are all gems, highly polished and sparkling, each in its own way. The only problem is that doesn't write enough—apart from this collection, there appears to be only one other book of Gunn's fiction (2014's ) to sustain us. It's not that she's goofing off... far from it; Gunn's just been too busy doing too many other things, among them editing and publishing online (up through 2008, anyway) , and serving on the board of directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. doesn't seem to have been updated in several years, but her is more current (and, I hope, reliable, since I relied on it a lot for this review).
inscribed the copy I have of "For Jim Young" in 2004. I have no idea who Jim is or what happened to him in the meantime (and I do hope he's all right, whoever he is), but his loss was definitely my gain. And as for you... you'll just have to find your own copy; I'm keeping this one.
showcases a constellation of variation whose only consistent characteristic is its high quality. Oh, and don't skip the notes that Gunn adds to the end of each tale; they're short but illuminating.
The lead story is the one you've most likely to have seen before; "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" is a Hugo award-nominated satire, informed by Gunn's time served at Microsoft in the 1980s, that cheerfully skewers corporate fads and groupthink with a literal proboscis.
"Fellow Americans" gives us Tricky Dick Nixon as a... TV celebrity? And a Barry Goldwater presidency? It turns out more plausibly than you might think...
"Computer Friendly" (also a Hugo nominee) follows a little girl as she's evaluated for how well she'll fit into her highly-standardized, heavily computerized, extremely high-stakes educational system. Thank goodness nothing like this could ever come to pass in the real world...
"The Sock Story" is about "a woman who lost her sock at the laundromat and discovered it contained part of her soul," which is probably enough to get you going.
The protagonist of the Nebula award-winning "Coming to Terms" is stuck with the task of sorting through the books and papers of a lifelong reader who annotated them obsessively, engaging in dialogue with everything he read. Things get a little weird. It's based in part on Gunn's friendship with , and as she notes, "{...}the number of Post-It notes you get from dead friends and relatives is limited."
"Lichen and Rock" is a fable; Lichen is a little girl, and Rock is a whale, or at least is shaped like one.
Just as it says on the tin, "Contact" is a story about first contact, an avian alien who meets a human intruder on its own planet, and on its own terms. Intense and plausible. I can't think of a better first-contact story, and I've read quite a few...
In "What Are Friends For?" it's the aliens who have found Earth, but their plans don't seem to include keeping us around. Fortunately, we have a secret weapon that can divert their attention (psst... it's porn). Notable in part for Gunn's incredibly deft creation of slang terms that sound good and take just the right amount of effort to figure out in context.
"Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp" is a recipe. Its title is accurate.
"Spring Conditions" is a horror story ( liked it too) about cross-country skiing. Kind of.
The dark and sardonic "Nirvana High" (co-written with ) is pre-Columbine but post-Kurt Cobain. Both students and staff at Cobain High demand "Entertain us!" but by that they mean very different things.
Gunn's part of the book concludes with "Green Fire," which throws and onto the U.S.S. Eldridge just in time for what we know as the Philadelphia Experiment to commence. Giant turtles and the Meso-American god Quetzalcoatl are just two of the entities they run into. The sf in-jokes fly furiously in this amazing four-way collaboration among Gunn, , and .
The stories in are all gems, highly polished and sparkling, each in its own way. The only problem is that doesn't write enough—apart from this collection, there appears to be only one other book of Gunn's fiction (2014's ) to sustain us. It's not that she's goofing off... far from it; Gunn's just been too busy doing too many other things, among them editing and publishing online (up through 2008, anyway) , and serving on the board of directors of the Clarion West Writers Workshop. doesn't seem to have been updated in several years, but her is more current (and, I hope, reliable, since I relied on it a lot for this review).
inscribed the copy I have of "For Jim Young" in 2004. I have no idea who Jim is or what happened to him in the meantime (and I do hope he's all right, whoever he is), but his loss was definitely my gain. And as for you... you'll just have to find your own copy; I'm keeping this one.
November 28, 2021
Not bad at all, I have to say, especially the last story, "Green Fire" (with Andy Duncan, Pat Murphy, and Michael Swanwick), featuring characters such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Lyon Sprague de Camp and Grace Hopper. This alone deserves a 5-star rating.
December 5, 2020
This is my second time reading Eileen Gunn, who probably should be far more famous than she is in SF/F circles where some of the genre’s biggest writers are fans. Then again, she’s doesn’t write much � this collection of 11 stories (plus a recipe), published in 2004, represents pretty much every short story she wrote or collaborated on since the 1970s. But when she writes one, it's generally a humdinger in terms of weird ideas.
For example, here you’ll find a bioengineering firm where employees use their own technology to climb the corporate ladder; Richard Nixon as a late-night talk show host; primary school cyberpunk; fast times at Kurt Cobain High; alien contact gone wrong from the alien’s POV; and a dimension-hopping rewrite of The Philadelphia Experiment featuring Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Grace Hopper and Nikola Tesla (the latter written as a round-robin story with Michael Swanwick, Andy Duncan, and Pat Murphy).
So Gunn may not write much, but she makes it count � she writes great, accessible prose and just about everything here works on some level. I enjoyed this even more than her other anthology I’ve read (, which is also good, just not as consistently, at least for me). I’d recommend either book, but this is a great starting place, not least if you want to see Grace Hopper as a pulp sci-fi hero.
For example, here you’ll find a bioengineering firm where employees use their own technology to climb the corporate ladder; Richard Nixon as a late-night talk show host; primary school cyberpunk; fast times at Kurt Cobain High; alien contact gone wrong from the alien’s POV; and a dimension-hopping rewrite of The Philadelphia Experiment featuring Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Grace Hopper and Nikola Tesla (the latter written as a round-robin story with Michael Swanwick, Andy Duncan, and Pat Murphy).
So Gunn may not write much, but she makes it count � she writes great, accessible prose and just about everything here works on some level. I enjoyed this even more than her other anthology I’ve read (, which is also good, just not as consistently, at least for me). I’d recommend either book, but this is a great starting place, not least if you want to see Grace Hopper as a pulp sci-fi hero.
August 25, 2014
Evocative damn stories slightly askew of our universe.
December 29, 2017
What fun!!
I have never heard of Eileen Gunn, but now I'd like to know more. What an intelligent writer! So capable of switching voices and creating distinct characters. This is an anthology of science fiction short stories - some playful, some more commentary, some adventurous and some bizarre - all of them intelligent. Engages the imagination and requires some good thinking just to stay on board.
The story most favoured by the writers of the prologue and epilogue is the one least favoured by me: American politics. Ick. But of the 12 in the selection there were five I particularly enjoyed:
> The Sock Story - a bizarre tale of a missing sock and a rebellious foot and an unsuspecting mechanic.
> Coming to Terms - a writer dies and his daughter has to clean out his apartment, finding all kinds of notes stuck to everything, telling the real story of his life.
> Lichen and Rock - a fable which I interpret in the light of First Nations' history on this continent, and how one culture subsumes another, and how the absorbed culture makes a come back, in this case, on the back of a whale.
> Contact - brilliant story told from two perspectives: a bird on its much anticipated death flight takes a moment to help a dead alien, who isn't dead but is exploring the universe and wants to save these alien birds who aren't alien and who don't need saving - much irony ensues.
> Green Fire - Bob Heinlein, Isaac Azimov and Grace Hopper are pulled into an experiment in which a ship rotates through dimensions and worlds based on Tesla's coils and they have to find their way back.
Oh my goodness. The stories I didn't care for, well, I didn't care for them. The ones I liked are still making me smile.
Ask me: I'll lend you the book.
I have never heard of Eileen Gunn, but now I'd like to know more. What an intelligent writer! So capable of switching voices and creating distinct characters. This is an anthology of science fiction short stories - some playful, some more commentary, some adventurous and some bizarre - all of them intelligent. Engages the imagination and requires some good thinking just to stay on board.
The story most favoured by the writers of the prologue and epilogue is the one least favoured by me: American politics. Ick. But of the 12 in the selection there were five I particularly enjoyed:
> The Sock Story - a bizarre tale of a missing sock and a rebellious foot and an unsuspecting mechanic.
> Coming to Terms - a writer dies and his daughter has to clean out his apartment, finding all kinds of notes stuck to everything, telling the real story of his life.
> Lichen and Rock - a fable which I interpret in the light of First Nations' history on this continent, and how one culture subsumes another, and how the absorbed culture makes a come back, in this case, on the back of a whale.
> Contact - brilliant story told from two perspectives: a bird on its much anticipated death flight takes a moment to help a dead alien, who isn't dead but is exploring the universe and wants to save these alien birds who aren't alien and who don't need saving - much irony ensues.
> Green Fire - Bob Heinlein, Isaac Azimov and Grace Hopper are pulled into an experiment in which a ship rotates through dimensions and worlds based on Tesla's coils and they have to find their way back.
Oh my goodness. The stories I didn't care for, well, I didn't care for them. The ones I liked are still making me smile.
Ask me: I'll lend you the book.
August 5, 2024
This was an interesting read, especially in the light of Gunn being one of my work colleagues' favourite authors! I didn't really connect with most of the stories - some of them were very intertwined with American history for example, which I as a non-American had to do quite a bit of research to understand - but a few of them I liked a lot. Highlights for me were:
"Computer friendly": This one reminded me of the dystopian wave of stories that came out during the 2010s in the very best way. Considering this story was written at least twenty years before makes it all the more fascinating.
"Contact": Something with this one struck a chord with me and I can't quite pinpoint what. It feels vulnerable, sad but also understanding. It's definitely one of my favourite "first contact" stories I've read.
"Green fire": Gunn and her co-authors seem to have had a lot of fun with this one and it shone through in the story - I may not have read anything by Asimov or Heinlein but it was really enjoyable seeing them in this science fiction reality-adjacent tale. The science lingo was especially fascinating, as well as the unexpected twists.
All in all, I don't think Gunn is an author for me per se, but I'm glad I read this collection!
"Computer friendly": This one reminded me of the dystopian wave of stories that came out during the 2010s in the very best way. Considering this story was written at least twenty years before makes it all the more fascinating.
"Contact": Something with this one struck a chord with me and I can't quite pinpoint what. It feels vulnerable, sad but also understanding. It's definitely one of my favourite "first contact" stories I've read.
"Green fire": Gunn and her co-authors seem to have had a lot of fun with this one and it shone through in the story - I may not have read anything by Asimov or Heinlein but it was really enjoyable seeing them in this science fiction reality-adjacent tale. The science lingo was especially fascinating, as well as the unexpected twists.
All in all, I don't think Gunn is an author for me per se, but I'm glad I read this collection!
November 25, 2024
Really excellent collection of short stories that cross and blend genres with great imagination & vision. I hadn’t read anything by Eileen Gunn before but wow, she was talented. These stories are so unique and creative and completely enthralling. Just fantastic collection. One of my favorites of the year and one I strongly recommend reading! A few of my favorites stories were: “Stable Strategies for Middle Management�, “Computer Friendly�, “What Are Friends For�, “Nirvana�, and “Green Fire� (but the rest are great too!).
(From the book blurb): “This collection of tightly crafted, highly imaginative short stories employs surrealist, satirical, and fantastical devices to explore politics, class, and gender. From a hilarious tale about bioengineering and the stresses of climbing the corporate ladder to an evocative story of a woman who loses a sock at the the laundromat and finds she's missing a bit of her soul, these science fiction stories showcase an award-winning writer's compelling vision of the universe. Computer pioneers, cross-country skiers, and aliens figure into these literary stories that challenge the boundaries of imagination with quirky, anti-establishment characters and visionary technological extrapolation.�
(From the book blurb): “This collection of tightly crafted, highly imaginative short stories employs surrealist, satirical, and fantastical devices to explore politics, class, and gender. From a hilarious tale about bioengineering and the stresses of climbing the corporate ladder to an evocative story of a woman who loses a sock at the the laundromat and finds she's missing a bit of her soul, these science fiction stories showcase an award-winning writer's compelling vision of the universe. Computer pioneers, cross-country skiers, and aliens figure into these literary stories that challenge the boundaries of imagination with quirky, anti-establishment characters and visionary technological extrapolation.�
September 24, 2020
A variety of short fiction, with some excellent gems, like the company woman who undergoes elective bioengineering to become the ideal employee. An interesting snapshot of the preoccupations and anxieties of 1980s and 90s America, from a feminist (though unfortunately not intersectional) perspective.
September 1, 2022
It's a good collection, with a bit of a range of weirdness to it. I particularly liked the lead story, "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," but that's me. YMMV, etc.
April 18, 2025
Rating: A
The individual stories were all quite creative and I liked the author note at the end of each.
The individual stories were all quite creative and I liked the author note at the end of each.
November 27, 2023
There are a couple duds, as with pretty much every collection/anthology, but for the most part, the stories in the collection are very good. I especially recommend for anybody who likes a dose of weird with their fiction.
Favorites include Computer Friendly, Contact, Green Fire, and the titular Stable Strategies for Middle Management.
Individual reviews - may contain spoilers:
Stable Strategies for Middle Management: (4.5 stars) Fantastic. Corporate horror-show with a bit of an indulgent ending. And I really wanted her to start drinking Harry's blood because that would have been indulgent too.
Fellow Americans: (3 stars) Goldwater is president and Nixon becomes a talk show host. Parts were entertaining, but mostly I was confused. I think I would have appreciated this one more had I read it at time of first publishing (and impossibly, old enough to be politically aware) since at least then I would theoretically know what was going on in the world at the time.
Computer Friendly: 5 stars. A world where everyone is hooked up to the network. Creepy undertones but a satisfying end. And Lizardbreath definitely showed she can be a timebomb with her actions.
The Sock Story: 3.5 stars. A really short story about a foot that misses it's sock. It was cute.
Coming to Terms: 4 stars. I really liked the setup to this one. It was sad and poignant, but the end was confusing to me. I think it was saying that the books are her dad and herself in the same way that a reader and an author are having a conversation during a book. The conversation doesn't exist without either. But why did the child attack her?
Lichen and Rock: (3 stars) I liked the beginning quite a bit, but then it got way too surreal.
Contact (5 stars) - I love humans encountering foreign alien cultures, replete with misunderstandings and eventual understanding. It's short, but did not disappoint.
What Are Friends For? (3 stars): I thought the slang was well done and the alien is so high-spoken as to be confusing. I think this was supposed to be funny. I just wanted to know why the aliens were wanting to establish a new planet for sexually-inactive humans in the first place.
Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp (4 stars): An actual recipe. The explication de texte was surprisingly funny.
Spring Conditions (2 stars) - A horror story that didn't really do much for me.
Nirvana High (2.5 stars) - I thought the little bits of world-building were interesting, but didn't really get into the story too much. I think there must have been some Kurt Cobain references I'm very much missing that would have contributed to my enjoyment.
Green Fire (4.5 stars) - Asimov, Heinlein, and Grace Hopper on a dimension-traveling Navy ship inspired by the "Philadelphia Experiment. This is also a four author round-robin story, which makes the fact it's a good story even more impressive. I would have liked to know the circumstances behind the structure before going in, but even looking back I can see some of the set-ups the authors left for each other to play with.
Favorites include Computer Friendly, Contact, Green Fire, and the titular Stable Strategies for Middle Management.
Individual reviews - may contain spoilers:
Stable Strategies for Middle Management: (4.5 stars) Fantastic. Corporate horror-show with a bit of an indulgent ending. And I really wanted her to start drinking Harry's blood because that would have been indulgent too.
Fellow Americans: (3 stars) Goldwater is president and Nixon becomes a talk show host. Parts were entertaining, but mostly I was confused. I think I would have appreciated this one more had I read it at time of first publishing (and impossibly, old enough to be politically aware) since at least then I would theoretically know what was going on in the world at the time.
Computer Friendly: 5 stars. A world where everyone is hooked up to the network. Creepy undertones but a satisfying end. And Lizardbreath definitely showed she can be a timebomb with her actions.
The Sock Story: 3.5 stars. A really short story about a foot that misses it's sock. It was cute.
Coming to Terms: 4 stars. I really liked the setup to this one. It was sad and poignant, but the end was confusing to me. I think it was saying that the books are her dad and herself in the same way that a reader and an author are having a conversation during a book. The conversation doesn't exist without either. But why did the child attack her?
Lichen and Rock: (3 stars) I liked the beginning quite a bit, but then it got way too surreal.
Contact (5 stars) - I love humans encountering foreign alien cultures, replete with misunderstandings and eventual understanding. It's short, but did not disappoint.
What Are Friends For? (3 stars): I thought the slang was well done and the alien is so high-spoken as to be confusing. I think this was supposed to be funny. I just wanted to know why the aliens were wanting to establish a new planet for sexually-inactive humans in the first place.
Ideologically Labile Fruit Crisp (4 stars): An actual recipe. The explication de texte was surprisingly funny.
Spring Conditions (2 stars) - A horror story that didn't really do much for me.
Nirvana High (2.5 stars) - I thought the little bits of world-building were interesting, but didn't really get into the story too much. I think there must have been some Kurt Cobain references I'm very much missing that would have contributed to my enjoyment.
Green Fire (4.5 stars) - Asimov, Heinlein, and Grace Hopper on a dimension-traveling Navy ship inspired by the "Philadelphia Experiment. This is also a four author round-robin story, which makes the fact it's a good story even more impressive. I would have liked to know the circumstances behind the structure before going in, but even looking back I can see some of the set-ups the authors left for each other to play with.
March 12, 2015
With rare exceptions I haven't read single-author collections of short stories in one shot for decades now, because there's usually too much of a same-ness to the tales that eventually makes what could be a great story read in another context into a same-old, same-old hack; but Eileen Gunn's 2004 collection, Stable Strategies and Others, turned into one of those rare exceptions as I found I couldn't - didn't want to - put the book down before reading the next story. She's that rare writer who can tell convincing stories about alternate-history never-quite Presidents turned smarmy "Lie Detector" television hosts called Tricky Dick ("Fellow Americans"); an ultra-corporate world where changing into insects to get ahead is seen as a sign of ambition ("Stable Strategies for Middle Management"); the loss of a sock in a laundromat dryer results in the leg associated with the sock going haywire much to the discomfort of the person attached ("The Sock Story"); and Kurt Cobain lives as the namesake of "Nirvana High" (co-written with Leslie What), where suicidal norms and psychic "special ed" teenagers try to survive those excruciating years. And that's only a third of this volume of 12 stories, written between 1978 and 2004, each one thoroughly realized, engaging and enchanting. Usually in any anthology a reader will like one story more than others, or will dislike a few here and there, but honestly speaking, I loved every single one of these 12 stories, and found myself diving into each from the very first sentence. My only quibble has nothing to do with the writing or the stories per se; it's only that I'm reading them in 2011, and some of what was science-fictional in 1978 is ordinary or even passe now; this is a risk for all sf writers and because Eileen Gunn publishes so infrequently, in some stories the real world has caught up (almost) to her visions. But that's not a reason to not find this book and read it for yourselves; these stories are marvelous! Highly recommended.
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November 30, 2010
I don't exactly want to call this book uneven, because it is uniformly excellent with the exception of the round robin story (a style of which I am not a fan). It is, though, thematically erratic and doesn't leave you with a sense of cohesion. Some stories are written decades before others, as apparently Gunn's popularity far outweighs her productivity. (There are references to this throughout the book, including in William Gibson's Foreword.)
Highlights include "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," a fantastic story of bio-engineering in a corporate marketing agency, and "Lichen and Rock," an extremely deft example of writing at its slipstream finest. "Contact" is an original take on a classic theme, and "What Are Friends For?" offers tentacled monsters along with a humorous analysis of human sexuality, both wasteful and revealing of our "social context."
Perhaps the most important gem to be taken from this is the truth that resounds throughout. The secret of writing, Gibson tells Gunn, is that "You must learn to overcome your very natural revulsion for your own work." At the same time, Gunn refuses to write just for the sake of writing, as everything she leaves here is perfect in its own way.
Highlights include "Stable Strategies for Middle Management," a fantastic story of bio-engineering in a corporate marketing agency, and "Lichen and Rock," an extremely deft example of writing at its slipstream finest. "Contact" is an original take on a classic theme, and "What Are Friends For?" offers tentacled monsters along with a humorous analysis of human sexuality, both wasteful and revealing of our "social context."
Perhaps the most important gem to be taken from this is the truth that resounds throughout. The secret of writing, Gibson tells Gunn, is that "You must learn to overcome your very natural revulsion for your own work." At the same time, Gunn refuses to write just for the sake of writing, as everything she leaves here is perfect in its own way.
September 11, 2016
A collection of short stories in the science fiction genre. To mention about half the stories:
"Computer Friendly" - this is my favorite story in the volume. A disturbing view of childhood and parenting in a future where everyone links up to computers once they are able. It's close enough to where we are heading, and that makes it only more unsettling.
"Stable Strategies for Middle Management" - a tale of climb the corporate ladder while metamorphising into insects. The protagonist cannot quite make up her mind whether she is becoming a queen bee or a mantis. This story and especially "Computer Friendly" are the main reasons to read this book.
More good stories include:
"Contact" - very nice story of human-alien first contact from the point of view of the feathered alien.
"Lichen and Rock" - A fable about a girl named Lichen (and a rock that used to be a whale, set in some alternative reality. Mysterious and haunting.
"Nirvana High" - even truly special high school kids can be mean.
"Coming to Terms" - dealing with the aftermath of a father's passing.
However, the final story "Green Fire" is the longest and was the most disappointing to me: Its excuse is it was speed-written by four authors in a round-robin event. But then, why include it?
"Computer Friendly" - this is my favorite story in the volume. A disturbing view of childhood and parenting in a future where everyone links up to computers once they are able. It's close enough to where we are heading, and that makes it only more unsettling.
"Stable Strategies for Middle Management" - a tale of climb the corporate ladder while metamorphising into insects. The protagonist cannot quite make up her mind whether she is becoming a queen bee or a mantis. This story and especially "Computer Friendly" are the main reasons to read this book.
More good stories include:
"Contact" - very nice story of human-alien first contact from the point of view of the feathered alien.
"Lichen and Rock" - A fable about a girl named Lichen (and a rock that used to be a whale, set in some alternative reality. Mysterious and haunting.
"Nirvana High" - even truly special high school kids can be mean.
"Coming to Terms" - dealing with the aftermath of a father's passing.
However, the final story "Green Fire" is the longest and was the most disappointing to me: Its excuse is it was speed-written by four authors in a round-robin event. But then, why include it?
February 14, 2016
This is a book of short stories that I came upon by chance. I had never heard of Eileen Gunn, but I enjoy science fiction, and an enthusiastic forward by William Gibson clinched the deal. This is a compilation of stories written between 1978 and 2004. While I can appreciate Gunn’s intelligence, wit and writing style, I did not find her stories uniformly appealing. And as it happened, my personal favorites were not the same as Gibson’s (except for “Nirvana High�). My favorites included “Coming to Terms,� about a young woman dealing with the belongings of her deceased father, “Contact,� about a space traveler connecting with an indigenous life form on a distant planet just as it is about to die, “What Are Friends for?� about a group of young petty thieves in LA who manage to hoodwink an alien invader, and “Nirvana High� about some very special “special needs� kids. Each story in the book is followed by notes from the author that provide context for how the story came to be written, which definitely added to my enjoyment.
November 4, 2016
I liked these. It's my sort of stuff, and though there were some I just didn't get (particularly the Nixon one), I love that she's engaged with the pop culture of the moment in which the stories were written. I like her depiction of child/teen POV. Good mix of ideas & humor. I'm not sure it lives up to the staggering effusiveness of the many forewords, afterwards, pages of pull quotes, from everyone up to and including William Gibson (!)...but then again I'm not sure anything would have. Eileen must be cool. She is clearly beloved by her colleagues.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 3, 2013
Gunn is undeniably an amazing writer. I just didn't connect with the stories. But it's obvious that, if the style is your thing, you're going to love them. So, I feel weird about rating it at all, since I felt "eh" about it, but I finished the book and thought immediately of three people I thought would love it.
But I also wanted to say that the snippets of her own thoughts on each story were incredibly interesting and I would love to read a whole book of her thoughts on writing.
But I also wanted to say that the snippets of her own thoughts on each story were incredibly interesting and I would love to read a whole book of her thoughts on writing.
December 17, 2007
This is an acerbic read; unpredictable, sharply witty. I read Gunn's short story "Stable Strategies for Middle Management" in a Gardner Dozois "Best of the Best" of the past 20 years' "Best of the Year's Science Fiction" anthology, and hungered to read more. I can't put it down. I can't put it down. I can't put it down. (Sorry, I have to go back and continue reading it now.)
August 11, 2016
I recommend it. The tone is sometimes absurdist (the title story for example), but a clear narrative voice persists (usually in first person). There's a couple of collaborative stories, both enjoyable. The alt-history 'Fellow Americans' is justly praised. 'The Sock Story' spins into the fantastic from the mundane (like the old Avram Davidson story) while 'Lichen and Rock' resembles a fable.
Read
January 17, 2010From this book, I learned that it's okay to write slowly, because then you'll make Howard Waldrop feel good. Also, plan your round robins in advance. Also, also, Eileen Gunn writes some awesome, wacky stuff.
Want to read
May 19, 2009I love "Stable Strategies for Middle Management;" can't wait to read the others.
April 15, 2011
Well, they are all my own stories, she said modestly, looking at her feet, so I guess I like them pretty well....
January 24, 2014
good book
June 25, 2015
3.5 overall with some peaks inside to 5 star stories and "6" star moments.
Read
April 26, 2016Entertaining
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