The Mammoth Book Of Science Fiction Read online

  THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  SCIENCE

  FICTION

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  THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  SCIENCE

  FICTION

  Edited by Mike Ashley

  ROBINSON

  London

  Constable & Robinson Ltd.

  55–56 Russell Square

  London WC1B 4HP

  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd 2002

  Collection and editorial material copyright © Mike Ashley 2002

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in

  Publication Data is available from the British Library.

  ISBN 1-84119-375-5

  eISBN 978-1-4721-1486-0

  Printed and bound in the EU

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Cover design and illustration by Pete Rozycki

  Contents

  INTRODUCTION:

  THE NEXT STEP Mike Ashley

  ULLA, ULLA Eric Brown

  DEATHDAY Peter F. Hamilton

  THE INFINITE ASSASSIN Greg Egan

  ANACHRON Damon Knight

  FIREWATCH Connie Willis

  AT THE “ME” SHOP Robert Reed

  VINLAND THE DREAM Kim Stanley Robinson

  A TICKET TO TRANAI Robert Sheckley

  THE EXIT DOOR LEADS IN Philip K. Dick

  WHAT HAVE I DONE? Mark Clifton

  Two Apocalyptic Classics:

  FINIS Frank Lillie Pollock

  THE LAST DAYS OF EARTH George C. Wallis

  APPROACHING PERIMELASMA Geoffrey A. Landis

  THE PEN AND THE DARK Colin Kapp

  INANIMATE OBJECTION H. Chandler Elliott

  THE VERY PULSE OF THE MACHINE Michael Swanwick

  HIGH EIGHT Keith Roberts

  SHARDS Brian W. Aldiss

  EXCEPT MY LIFE3 John Morressy

  INTO YOUR TENT I’LL CREEP Eric Frank Russell

  A DEATH IN THE HOUSE Clifford D. Simak

  REFUGIUM Stephen Baxter

  Copyright and Acknowledgments

  All of the stories are copyright in the name of the individual authors or their estates as follows. Every effort has been made to trace the holders of copyright. In the event of any inadvertent transgression of copyright the editor would like to hear from the author or their representative via the publisher.

  “Shards” © 1962 by Brian W. Aldiss. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, April 1962. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, Curtis Brown Group Limited, London.

  “Refugium” © 2002 by Stephen Baxter. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

  “Ulla, Ulla” © 2002 by Eric Brown. First publication, original to this anthology. Printed by permission of the author.

  “What Have I Done?” © 1952 by Mark Clifton. First published in Astounding SF, May 1952. Reprinted by permission of Barry N. Malzberg on behalf of the author’s estate.

  “The Exit Door Leads In” © 1979 by Philip K. Dick. First published in The Rolling Stone College Papers, Fall 1979. Reprinted by permission of The Wylie Agency, Inc. New York. All rights reserved.

  “The Infinite Assassin” © 1991 by Greg Egan. First published in Interzone, June 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Inanimate Objection” © 1954 by H. Chandler Elliott. First published in Galaxy, February 1954. Unable to trace the author’s estate.

  “Deathday” © 1991 by Peter F. Hamilton. First published in Fear! February 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Pen and the Dark” © 1966 by Colin Kapp. First published in New Writings in SF #8 edited by John Carnell (London: Dobson, 1966). Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “Anachron” © 1953 by Damon Knight. First published in If, January 1954. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “Approaching Perimelasma” © 1997 by Geoffrey A. Landis. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, January 1998. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Except My Life3” © 1991 by John Morressy. First published in Amazing Stories, July 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Finis” by Frank Lillie Pollock, first published in The Argosy, June 1906. Copyright expired in 1962.

&nbs
p; “At the ‘Me’ Shop” © 1995 by Robert Reed. First published in Tomorrow SF, April 1995. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “High Eight” © 1965 by Keith Roberts. First published in New Writings in SF #4 edited by John Carnell (London: Dobson, 1965). Reprinted by permission of the Owlswick Literary Agency on behalf of the author’s estate.

  “Vinland the Dream” © 1991 by Kim Stanley Robinson. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, November 1991. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “Into Your Tent I’ll Creep” © 1957 by Eric Frank Russell. First published in Astounding SF, September 1957. Reprinted by permission of the Laurence Pollinger Literary Agency on behalf of the author’s estate.

  “A Ticket to Tranai” © 1955 by Robert Sheckley. First published in Galaxy, October 1955. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate.

  “A Death in the House” © 1959 by Clifford D. Simak. First published in Galaxy, October 1959. Reprinted by permission of David W. Wixon on behalf of the author’s estate.

  “The Very Pulse of The Machine” © 1998 by Michael Swanwick. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 1998. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  “The Last Days of Earth” © 1901 by George C. Wallis. First published in The Harmsworth Magazine, July 1901. No surviving estate.

  “Firewatch” © 1982 by Connie Willis. First published in Asimov’s Science Fiction, February 1982. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, the Lotts Agency, New York.

  Introduction: The Next Step

  Mike Ashley

  Science fiction has been called the literature of ideas, and it is certainly that. But it’s also something else. It’s about change – the changes arising from those ideas.

  What fascinates me about science fiction (or “sf” as I tend to abbreviate it), and what draws me back to it time and again, is to see the wonder of human imagination about ourselves and the universe and to discover how each individual writer has used their skill, knowledge and, above all, imagination to develop an idea and see what it does. It’s the old question that provoked the study of science in the first place: “What if?” And the answer to that always results in change. It may be for good – one step onward; it may be for bad. A lot of sf serves as a warning to humanity about the perils of change.

  You’ll find both kinds of stories here: those that take us one step forward – sometimes a whole load of steps forward – and those where we step backward. And there’s even a few where we step sideways.

  There are stories set on other worlds, stories where beings from other worlds come to us; stories of robots and time travel and genetic engineering, and utopias, dystopias, impossible problems, catastrophes and ultimate apocalypses. All the stuff of science fiction. But above all they’re about people and how they have reacted to these discoveries, ideas and changes.

  When I started to compile this anthology I wanted to select a wide range of the most intriguing and challenging science fiction published over the last forty or fifty years. Because science fiction deals with change and technology it is easy for some sf to date rapidly. Even the best written story, which was highly regarded fifty years ago, may not hold up well today because of the considerable changes that have affected science and society in the last twenty years. Science fiction may try and make predictions, but it’s seldom very good at it. Very few stories hit the mark as regards the Internet, for instance, or the rapid growth in mobile phones, in computers, in the fall of the communist Eastern bloc in Europe, the rise in the drug problem. So even when I revisited many of my favourite stories from years ago, they did not all stand up well today.

  But I still achieved my aim. This anthology contains twenty-two stories. Two of them – by Stephen Baxter and Eric Brown – are brand new, written specially for this book. Another two – by Frank Lillie Pollock and George C. Wallis – are real “golden oldies” from a hundred years ago. The other eighteen stories are pretty much evenly selected from the 1950s and the 1990s with a smattering in between. The result is the best of the old and the best of the new, each one posing challenging and different ideas.

  Suppose, for instance, we find a drug that allows you to access your other selves in other realities. How would you police that? That’s what Greg Egan tackles in “The Infinite Assassin”. What is reality and what is dream? Both Robert Reed and Kim Stanley Robinson approach that in very different ways. Are aliens already here and we just don’t realize it? See how H. Chandler Elliott and Mark Clifton deal with that. Can you really have an impenetrable object? That’s what Colin Kapp poses in “The Pen and the Dark”. Brian W. Aldiss and John Morressy, on the other hand, look at the effects and outcomes of genetic engineering, while Connie Willis considers just what else might have been helping us during the Second World War. And what would really happen if you entered a black hole? Geoffrey Landis takes us to the ultimate in “Approaching Perimelasma”.

  There’s plenty more. If you want aliens, try the stories by Eric Brown, Peter Hamilton, Michael Swanwick and Clifford Simak. If you want a sardonic view of other societies, try Robert Sheckley and Philip K. Dick. And if you want the end of the world, try the two apocalyptic classics.

  There should be something for everyone. Everything you could ever imagine is all just a step away. Have fun.

  Mike Ashley

  Ulla, Ulla

  Eric Brown

  When Eric sent me this story I was delighted, because it was the ideal way to start this anthology – combining the old with the new. Eric Brown (b. 1960) emerged on the sf scene in 1987 with a series of inventive stories in Interzone that led to his first published collection The Time-Lapsed Man (1990). Other stories will be found in Blue Shifting (1995) whilst his novels include Meridian Days (1992), Engineman (1994), and the excellent Penumbra (1999). New York Nights (2000) marked the start of his Virex trilogy, SF thrillers set in 2040 featuring private eyes and virtual reality. The other titles are New York Blues and New York Dreams. You can find out more on his website < www.ericbrown.co.uk >.

  After the debriefing, which lasted three days, Enright left the Kennedy Space Center and headed for home.

  He drove south to the Keys in his ’08 Chevrolet convertible, taking his time now that he was alone for the first time in three years. For that long he had been cooped up in the Fortitude on its voyage to Mars and back. Even on the surface of the planet, beneath the immensity of the pink sky, he had never felt truly alone. Always there were the voices of McCarthy, Jeffries and Spirek on his com, and the prospect of the cramped living quarters on his return to the lander.

  Ten kilometers south of Kennedy, on the coast road, he pulled into a parking lot overlooking the sea, climbed out and stared into the evening sky.

  There was Mars, riding high overhead.

  He considered the mission, but he had no original take on what they had discovered beneath the surface of the red planet. He was as baffled as everyone else. One thing he knew for certain, though: everything was different now. At some point, inevitably, the news would break, and things would change for ever.

  He had been allowed a couple of hours with Delia after quarantine, before being whisked off to the intensive debriefing. Of course, he had not been cleared to discuss their findings with her, the one person in his life with whom he had shared everything. She had sensed something, though, detected in his manner that all was not right. She had been at mission control when the first broadcast came through from Mars, but Director Roberts had cut the transmission before anything major had leaked.

  He shivered. The wind was turning cold.

  He climbed back into his Chevrolet, reversed from the lot, and drove home.

  He left the car in the drive and walked around the house.

  The child’s swing, in situ when they had bought the place four years ago, had still not been removed. Delia had promised him that she would see to it while he was away.

  She was sitting in the lighted conservatory, reading. She looked u
p as he pushed through the door, but made no move to rise and greet him.

  “You weren’t due back until tomorrow,” she said, making it sound like an accusation.

  “Let us off a day early. Thought I’d surprise you.” He was aware of the distance between them, after so long apart.

  Over dinner, they chatted. Small talk, the inconsequential tone of which indicated that they both knew they were avoiding deeper issues. She was back teaching, three days a week at the local elementary school. Ted, her nephew, had been accepted at Florida State.

  He wanted to tell her. He wanted to tell her everything that had happened on Mars. He had always shared everything with her in the past. So why not now?

  Mission confidentiality? The papers he had signed seven years back on being accepted by NASA?

  Or was it because what they had discovered might have been some kind of collective hallucination? And Delia might think that he was losing it, if he came out and told her?

  A combination of all the above, he realised.

  That night they made love, hesitantly, and later lay in a parallelogram of moonlight that cut across the bed.

  “What happened, Ed?” she asked.

  “Mmm?” He tried to feign semi-wakefulness.

  “We were there, in mission control. You were out with Spirek. Something happened. There was a loud . . . I don’t know, it sounded like a landslide. You said, ‘Oh my God . . .’. Roberts cut the link and ushered us out. It was an hour before they got back to us. An hour. Can you imagine that? I was worried sick.”

  He reached out and stroked away her tears.

  “Roberts gave us some story about subsidence,” she said. “Then I heard you again, reassuring us that everything was okay.”

  They had staged that, concocted a few lines between them, directed by Roberts, to reassure their families back home.

  He shrugged. “That’s it. That’s what happened. I was caught in a landslide, lost my footing.” Even to his own ears, he sounded unconvincing.

  Delia went on, “And then three days ago, I could tell something wasn’t right. And now . . . You’re hiding something.”