Subject: IMPOSSIBLE THINGS by Connie Willis

From: [email-masked]
Date: 15 Dec 93 00:23:06 GMT

IMPOSSIBLE THINGS by Connie Willis
              Bantam Spectra, ISBN 0-553-56436-6, 1994, $5.99.
                     A book review by Evelyn C. Leeper
		      Copyright 1993 Evelyn C. Leeper

     This is the new collection of Connie Willis stories.

     Oh, that isn't enough to explain why you should run out and buy it?

     How about the fact that the eleven stories here have collected seven
Hugo nominations (with two wins) and five Nebula nominations (with three
wins)?

     Still waiting?  Jeez, what a demanding audience.

     Okay, for those of you who want hard science fiction, there's
"Schwarzschild Radius."  For horror fans, we have "Jack," a somewhat
different look at the London Blitz.  For the conspiracy theorists, there's
"Winter's Tale," about who really wrote Shakespeare's plays.  For those who
are fed up with political correctness, try "Even the Queen" and "Ado."  The
former takes a somewhat non-standard approach to "women's liberation"; the
latter says that at the rate we're going, "Winter's Tale" will become
irrelevant.  And for those who have ever attended a science fiction
convention, "At the Rialto" will have a real ring of familiarity.

     "Chance" and "Time Out" both deal with how we look at the past and lost
opportunities, and both also reflect the perspective of the "housewife," a
term that Willis has often applied to herself.  "In the Late Cretaceous"
displays her knowledge of the world of academia (as do many of the other
stories as well--the faults and foibles of our education system seem to be a
recurring theme in Willis's work).  And "The Last of the Winnebagos" and
"Spice Pogrom" round out the line-up.

     If it seems that eleven stories isn't very much for 496 pages, it's
because Willis writes as many novellas and novelettes as she does short
stories.  Indeed, last year she was nominated for the Hugo in all three
categories, a unique achievement.  (In 1971, Harlan Ellison was nominated in
both of the TWO short fiction categories that existed then, but no one other
than Willis has hit three in a year.)  And Willis seems to know which length
to use for which stories: her short stories never seem abrupt, nor her
novellas padded.

     I HIGHLY recommend IMPOSSIBLE THINGS.  (Her previous collection,
FIREWATCH, is supposed to be re-issued as well, and I recommend that also.)

%T      Impossible Things
%A      Connie Willis
%C      New York
%D      January 1994
%I      Bantam Spectra
%O      paperback, US$5.99
%G      ISBN 0-553-56436-6
%P      496pp

-- 
Evelyn C. Leeper | +1 908 957 2070 | [email-masked] / [email-masked]