Uploaded May 7, 1997 -- Updated May 7, 1997
Here is the list of stories in this issue. If you have any comments or reviews, send them to jbailey@sff.net. Please indicate which issue and/or story you're referring to in the subject line, and try to keep comments for different stories separate in you letters so I can place them properly.
"Reasons to be Cheerful" by Greg Egan
[5/5/97]
"Everywhen" by Dominic
Green
"Reality" by Meg
Turville-Heitz
"When Molly Met Elvis" by Francis
Amery
"Winged Chariot" by Ben Jeapes
Miscellaneous Comments (on the magazine as a whole, editorials, columns, etc.)
Rich Horton: 5/5/97
Due to the vagaries of publishing schedules, I suppose, Greg Egan, to my knowledge, published no short stories last year, after several years of real dazzlers, including "Wang's Carpets" (from _New Legends_, 1995), in my opinion one of the best two or three SF stories of the decade. He returns with another good one, in one of his favorite modes: biological speculation, in this case speculation on the biophysical bases of moods and personality.
The narrator is a man who, at the age of 12, finds he has cancer, which literally makes him happy, constantly, by (as a side effect) elevating endorphin levels in his brain. Then, apparently successful treatment of his cancer results in lower endorphin levels: and he spends the next 18 years all but unable to feel any positive emotion. Egan rings a couple of changes on these themes, and rather moving depicts the affectless life of the narrator, then adds another twist: an experimental procedure is developed which, in essence, will allow the narrator to learn to feel emotions: to develop a new personality, in a sense, from scratch. The narrator's reaction to this treatment, and his literal building of a truly new "life", are nicely limned: and Egan makes us think (as he always does): this time about the true nature of our "taste", our "emotions", and our personality.
Rich
Horton
http://www.sff.net/people/Richard.Horton/
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