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In the review in Publisher's Weekly (Sep. 28, 1998, pp.77-78), John Kessel's story "The Pure Product" is called "a sick, sweet and sadistic look at time travelers, as well as an accurate prediction of where America is drifting."

Nancy Kress's "Out of All Them Bright Stars" is also singled out for praise, as are George R. R. Martin's "Portraits of His Children," Walter Jon Williams's "Dinosaurs," and Octavia Butler's "Speech Sounts," which is called "a haunting journey through civilization when nearly all language is lost."

Of Card's own contribution, the reviewer said, "Card acquits himself as well as the other authors with one of his own stories, plus a sobering and intelligent opening essay on the religious roots and impact of the genre," but then couldn't resist a bit of sniping: "His prefaces to the stories tend toward talk-show schmoozing." Card's reply: "They don't invite sci-fi writers onto the talk shows. We have to schmooze somewhere."

This long-awaited book completes Card's definitive collection of short science fiction of the 1980s, the decade in which Card read almost every short story published and reviewed much of it, either in Richard Geis's SF Review or in his own Short Form magazine.

Or is it complete? Says Card, "I also prepared a table of contents for a collection of humorous or satirical sf called Future on Hold, and without those stories, some of the best writers aren't represented in the series -- Howard Waldrop, for instance, and many others whose contributions to the field tended to be brief and biting." But that book, says Card, is "unlikely to be published." So the new book Future on Ice probably represents the end of the series.

Copyright © 1998 Orson Scott Card

A Tor Book - Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.

http://www.hatrack.com/osc/books/other/future-on-ice.shtml