Sun 3 Mar 2019
SF Stories I’m Reading: STEVEN GOULD “Peaches for Mad Molly.”
Posted by Steve under Science Fiction & Fantasy , Stories I'm Reading[5] Comments
DONALD WOLLHEIM, Editor, with Arthur W. Saha – The 1989 Annual World’s Best SF. Daw #783, paperback original; 1st printing, June 1989. Cover art by Jim Burns.
#2. STEVEN GOULD “Peaches for Mad Molly.” Novelette. First published in Analog SF, February 1988. Nominated for both the Hugo (2nd) and Nebula Awards.
Another author whose work this is the first time I’ve read. Looking ahead at the rest of the Wollheim anthology, that is going to be a very common thread connecting these stories. Gould is best known for his popular series of “Jumper” novels, books for Young Adults about a teenager who is able to teleport from one place to another.
As for this story, some time in the Earth’s future, it is presumed, many (if not most) of the planet’s inhabitants live in apartment buildings two kilometers tall. Some who do not, and there are a few, live on the outside of the buildings, much like the homeless people of today live on sidewalks under bridges.
Some do so by choice, however, either for a sense of independence or the thrill of adventure. Such a one is the unnamed narrator of this story, a man who climbs up and down the outside of the building using ropes and grapples and with a whole lot of flair. On the occasion of Mad Molly’s birthday, he decides to surprise her by going down and fetching her some fresh peaches. It means, however, crossing the floor 520 to 530, claimed by the Howlers as their territory.
This is a very picturesque tale, and it has a huge amount of visual appeal, but when it comes down to it, our hero is the same person at the end as he was the beginning. One new friend, perhaps, and a lot of dead enemies, both of which I concede are all to the good.
But what, if I dare ask, is the difference between this story and a western in which the hero must cross a territory claimed by the Comanches to find a store on the other side that carries and sells peaches. Peaches wanted by a dear old lady who would like to be surprised by some?
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Previously from the Wollheim anthology: DAVID BRIN “The Giving Plague.”
March 4th, 2019 at 12:16 am
There is no difference, as GALAXY pointed out in the early 1950’s. The back covers had the example of the spaceman riding his rocketship firing his blaster. Then on the other half of the cover was the cowboy riding his horse firing his sixgun.
March 4th, 2019 at 2:36 pm
1989 — by then I think I had given up reading science fiction. Too much of it no longer seemed like science fiction.
March 4th, 2019 at 7:15 pm
I pick up these YEAR’S BEST SF anthologies whenever I run across them. Tastes change over time. SF in the 1990s seemed focused on social and political agendas instead of entertainment.
March 4th, 2019 at 8:38 pm
Ouch. I think you hit the sore point on that one. And even in that Western in order to get published today something would have to change about the hero to get published, no matter how much fun the trip was.
I do admire the Jumper books, but because the young hero grows and changes throughout the course of each book.
March 6th, 2019 at 12:16 am
I think the pendulum is swinging back to SF written for entertainment, at least to some extent. I’m thinking of anthologies such as THE NEW SPACE OPERA. On the other hand, I read so little of the current output that if anyone asked, What do you know?, I’d have to agree.
I don’t think I’ve even heard of most of the books and authors on the recently released list of Nebula nominees.