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KESSEL_BUFFALOED

                                  July 29, 1992

Buffalo by John Kessel.

A story built on the skeleton of Bruce Sterling's "Dori
Bangs".  But instead of working over the lives of some
weirdos no fan-boy has ever heard of, this story is based on
a more local deity: H.G.Wells.

Fair enough, Wells is one of my deities, too.  So this is a
story I wanted to like a lot.  And I did appreciate the
autobigoraphical sketch of the elder Wells.

Kessel had me with him, right up to the point
where he decided to state his thesis baldly.
Then I felt like arguing with him.

The point is that art don't need no message,
and you shouldn't feel guilty for liking
crap?  That Kessel isn't going to feel guilty
for doing whatever pandering needs to be done
to sell the stories?

Kessel seems a man without ideas, thumbing his nose at his
betters, secure in his right to be a boob.

Still, I got to give this an O+ on the Brenner scale.

                                      BRENNER_SCALE


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I just finished rating the Hugo nominated stories.  After
mulling it over a bit, I decided to give Geoffrey Landis'
"A Walk in the Sun" the number one rating.  It's not
perfect, but I thought it was a really good job of doing a
traditional hard SF story, somewhere between Hal Clement and
the early Heinlein.  I don't see any where near enough work
like this, and I'd say it deserves to be encouraged.

Some of the things that aren't quite right with it: the main
character's histrionics/hallucinations get a little tiresome
about midway through the story.  Why does everyone always
*overdo* things?  For instance, take the ending: wouldn't it
be better if the guy said "I'm sure you will" *just once*
and then CURTAIN?  Saying it twice is corny, and the last
paragraph is even worse.


Second best I gave to John Kessel's "Buffalo".
It's true that it's not strictly SF, but it
addresses things of interest to people with a
science fictional mind-set, and what the hell,
why be rigid with these things.

What bothered me about it most probably was that
it was so strongly influenced by Bruce
Sterling's "Dori Bangs".  (When you come right
down to it, most of the stories on the ballot
were a bit lacking in originality.)

But I did get into the biographical sketch
of the later Wells.  I've been reading his
_Outline of History_ lately, and I think
I'm turning into a fan of his, so this is a
story I wanted to like a lot.

Kessel had me with him, right up to the
point where he decided to state his
thesis baldly, then I felt like arguing
with him.

His moral is that stories don't need
morals?  That Kessel isn't going to feel
guilty for doing whatever pandering
needs to be done to sell the stories?

Kessel is taking pot shots at a man who was
far greater than he'll ever be.  I wonder
how accurate his autobiographical sketch is?
If you read the _Outline_, I think you'll be
surprised at Wells' depth.  Don't
immediately write him off with some
stereotype of a naive socialist one-worlder.

At a fairly distant third, I placed Mike Resnick's "One
Perfect Morning, With Jackals".  I'm not impressed much with
what it is, but it was fairly well done.

Fourth place I gave to "No Award".

Most SF "humor" strikes me as (a) not funny
and (b) pointless fluff, and that's what I
thought of "Press Ann", "Dog's Life", and
"In the Late Cretaceous" (if you're going to
complain about "Buffalo" not being SF, what
are you going to do with this one?).  And
"Winter Solstice" struck me as an odd
attempt at capturing the feel of going
senile, translated into fantasy for no
apparent reason.  The whole business about
Merlin and King Arthur and so on struck me
as little more than name dropping.

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