Under African Skies

Mike Resnick assembled this collection of SF stories about Africa, or a possible Africa, or... you get the idea. Anyway, being a huge Resnick fan and interested in Africa to boot, I picked this up without knowing anything about it, a real rarity for me. I was not disappointed. I won't give the plots of all the stories, but here are a few tantalizing themes set forth by the authors. Political: world hunger is solved - but the solution carries its own problem, in a creepy story called "Termites." Personal: two very different worlds collide briefly on a train, in "A Transect," by Kim Stanley Robinson. Epic: aliens come and steal Egypt, in "Of Space-time and the River"! Magical: a foolish tourist gets a taste of African shamanism in "Still Life With Scorpion." Poignant: In "The Quiet," George Guthridge tells of an African tribe placed in a preservation for conservation on the moon; sad and well-written. The unclassifiable: Judith Dubois' "Etoundi's Monkey" is just bizarre and very impressive. And many others... The rating is an 8 because of some submissions that aren't great; none is an actual klunker, but a few are just okay. My main problems with these lesser stories is just that they could have been about any civilization, and the focus is supposed to be Africa. My only other complaint is that one of Resnick's two stories (both are unique and splendid as always) is a real rouser - Jesus meets the African gods! - but is a scant three pages! This is a fine collection of science fiction with an interesting angle. Few of the authors are really big names, but don't let that sway you. Sometimes the best stories are just waiting to be discovered