My 1000th post!
Every morning for the last few years, I post on Twitter the birthdays (pre-1955) of artists, authors, and editors involved in some way with science fiction. In the last year, a singular compulsion has hit and I’ve started to include even more obscure figures like Gabriel Jan (1946-) and Daniel Drode (1932-1984). On May 31st, while perusing the indispensable list on The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, I came across an author unknown to me–Melisa Michaels (1946-2019) (bibliography). She’s best known for the five-volume Skyrider sequence (1985-1988) of space operas “depicting the growth into maturity of its eponymous female Starship-pilot protagonist” (SF Encyclopedia).
As I’m always willing to explore the work of authors new to me, I decided to review the first three of her six published SF short stories. Two of the three stories deal with my favorite SF topics–trauma and memory.
Karl Kofoed’s interior art illustrating Melisa Michaels’ “In the Country of Blind, No One Can See” in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (January 1979)
“In the Country of the Blind, No One Can See” (1979), 3.5/5 (Good): First appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Marvels of Science Fiction (1979). It was reprinted in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (January 1979). You can read it online here.
On a terraformed Mars, Allyson Hunter and her two clone sisters, Rebecca and Kim, are societal outcasts. They spent their lives trying to be “real people” yet were “reminded, every day in a dozen little ways, that they weren’t real people” (87). Clones retain their first usage as replacement body parts. Permitted to live only due to indications of telepathic potential (needed to guide spaceships), the sisters attempt to live meaningful lives and develop useful skills. The sisters charter two identical twins, Frank and Todd, to convey them across the Martian landscape. A horrific crash kills Kim and forces the survivors to work together and move past the deep resentment and hatred the brothers hold.
Michaels’ take on the social effects of cloning would have been a great addition to Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois’ anthology Clones! (1998). The trajectory of the story is a common yet refreshing one–two groups separated by the gulf of prejudice and hatred–are forced to work together. Despite my own perpetual confusion over the imagined moral quandaries of cloning in science fiction, I found “In the Country of the Blind, No One Can See” (1979) and effective and well-told story.
Karl B. Fofoed’s interior art illustrating Melisa Michaels’ “I Have a Winter Reason” (1981) in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (March 1981)
“I Have a Winter Reason” (1981), 3.5/5 (Good). First appeared in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine (March 1981). You can read it online here.
In the same mold as Joan D. Vinge’s The Outcasts of Heaven’s Belt (1978), the pioneer frontier societies of The Belt are far more egalitarian than Earth, beset by traditionalist gender roles where “women stay home and raise families” and “wear make-up and long dresses and giggle behind fans” (24). Melacha, much to the chagrin of her Earth relatives, lives and works as a shuttle pilot between the scattered asteroid communities. An accident compels Melacha to return to Earth and rendezvous with Michael, a cousin from Mars with whom she shares “the intimate details of [her] life and time” across the vastness of space (26). But one secret she keeps clutched close to her heart. Reluctant at first to share the details of accident due to her perception that Michael experienced far worse as a foot solider in the “Colonial Incident” (23), her seemingly mystical ability to delve into the traumatic pasts of the dead leads to a moment of reckoning as both confront the realities of life and loss.
I’m a sucker for science fiction stories that chart across a fantastic future backdrop, in this instance a contested past between Earth and its scattered colonies, small interior moments of reflection and growth. Michaels incorporates careful details that suggest transformation both politically and socially in the future–God is referred to as “She”, Mars practices polygamy, and the “Incident” and its violent memories impacts every family. Michaels weaves a story where grief and survivor guilt manifests in unusual and powerful ways.
Michael R. Whelan’s cover for The Best of Omni Science Fiction No. 4 (1982), ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus
“I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes” (1982), 2/5 (Bad). First appeared in The Best of Omni Science Fiction No. 4, ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus (1982). You can read it online here.
The orders from Professor Bernstein were clear: “Take them to the stars” (79). And into the ship’s computer the directive went. And it cannot be rewritten. A colonizing vessel’s artificial intelligence recounts achieving that directive and the disturbing problems that arouse among the “four thousand three hundred forty-two” colonists waiting within the metal bulkheads. The ship cannot understand Bernstein’s frantic attempt to modify the traveling orders after they were inputted. And of course the oxyacetylene torch-wielding colonists attempting to cut their way into the ship’s control room know something went drastically amiss.
Like a psychotic criminal mastermind, the ship can only relay what occurred without understanding the moral implications of their actions: “I diminished their life-support systems for a while. That made them stop” (79). The original programing means everything. Even if it was programmed in error.
A found “I Am Large, I Contain Multitudes,” as with so many twist ending stories, far from satisfying. The ship’s computer as narrator does add a disturbing element of unease–you know, Hal’s red “eye” in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). But it’s hard to escape the feeling that the entire premise is truly ridiculous!
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Science Fiction and Other Suspect Ruminations 
congrats on the milestone! i love sfruminations
Thank you for the kind words! Tempted by these stories or anything I’ve reviewed lately?
Congrats on the big milestone. That’s a lot of writing!
May you have 1000 more 🙂
Thank you for the kind words. I did not know you perused these pages — I see you in other environs in the SF blogverse.
I’ve been on a kick to find new (to me) people to follow as I’ve had a bunch of people I used to follow either outright stop or not post once a month (which is where I draw the line).
I’m hoping this time around I can follow you without putting my foot in my mouth too deeply 🙂
Well, WordPress removed the search comment feature so whatever you said in the past has slipped from memory. You’ve been spared. Haha.
Congratulations to this milestone! You beat me by a nose 🤣
I always planned to review something special at these milestones.
Now I continue reading the rest of your post 😎
Thank you for the kind words.
Congrats on reaching 1000!
Thank you!
I’m 10 posts behind you…hoping for 1,000 more from each of us.
Thanks for the kind words. I had no idea it was a race. You are far more productive than me!
Tempted by the stories or to read anything else by the author?
No to the stories; vaguely tempted by a 1980s space opera series featuring a girl captain, but fearful she’ll be a girl captain and I’ll be annoyed. xo
A few days ago I was talking to Rich Horton, who might stop by the comments eventually, about the author and her work. He mentioned that the series was solid but she tended to explore more ambitious topics at shorter lengths.
Interesting! I expect many writers do something similar, since at book length, publishers want some sense of realistic return on their investment. Out-there-ness isn’t something PRH really specializes in, for obvious reasons.
Her CV is interesting. How many of 2021’s most unusual SF creators am I missing out on, I wonder. I don’t recall noticing this woman’s work in 1979, 1981, or ever, and that sounds like something I would’ve enjoyed consuming at the time.
I think John Brunner is the best example. His early work included completely shoddy pulp SF and then at the same time some genius/radical short stories.
Good analogue…some crud, some average stuff, and a few great things. Pretty good average. I did find one of her books I really must read: WORLD-WALKERS. Like the old TV show “Sliders”.
Straight to the newest one! haha.
This 1989 novel has a cute cat animal apparently….
I got curious so I did the math. I’ve been posting to my Blogspot blog for 103 months, posted 990 times, and that averages to 9.6 posts per month. (This doesn’t take into account 15 months I was either locked up or readjusting to life among the savages.) That really is productive!
About twice what I post — and you mostly post reviews. I also include acquisition posts, etc.
I also have had no employment in that time, having taken disability in 2008. So with no educational expenditures of energy or gainful employment, this is more or less my “job”…even though the only compensation I get is free books and social satisfaction.
I don’t even accept free books… well, one ARC for that Dangerous Visions volume I featured recently but I purchased a paper copy (I suspect I could have asked the press for one but I never planned on giving it a real “review”).
Well, given your area of interest the opportunities for freebies are pretty limited. With your audience you could’ve monetized and gone into reviewing, but you’re not interested in the current stuff they’ll send you. (With that one exception.)
I wouldn’t monetize my blog because 1) why? and b) ick.
Oh, I get plenty of requests — mostly those multi-volume SF Gateway editions and New York Review of Books (although not lately as I’ve said no so many times).
The very NOTION of saying “no” to free NYRB or Gollancz books makes my nose hairs combust.
You’re very strange, my dear. But irreplaceable. Never change!
Haha, as I think I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really on board with the overwhelming feel that I have to do something. I could be years before I get to a novel that I might receive. So it’s just better to say no and eventually acquire what I actually want to read. New editions might not be cheap but older copies generally are so it’s not a financial requirement for me to acquire what I want if my copies generally cost $3 without shipping. hah.
Congratulations, and thanks for putting in all the effort!
Thank you for the kind words.
Congratulations! And thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions over the years.
Thank you for the kind words! I enjoyed your recent post.
Thanks. I’m trying to get back in the saddle and bring the blog back to its original intention. Hopefully a little more regularly too! Drawing inspiration from your excellent work sure helps.
Thank you again!
Hi, JB —
In the graf starting, ‘The orders from Professor Bernstein were clear…’ you have the sentence, “The ship cannot understand Bernstein’s frantic attempt to modify the traveling orders after they were imputed.”
You cannot mean ‘impute,’ which means to attribute or ascribe. As in they imputed guilt/responsibility/poor body hygiene/ the nuclear launch/whatever to whomever. See —
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/impute
Did you instead mean ‘inputted.’ If so, it’s spelled with two ts — two t letters — not one.
Happy thanksgiving.
Yes, I’ll make the change. I am aware of the differences between impute and input…. It was a simple error.
Congrats on the 1000th post! What a great achievement! 😀
Thank you!
My blog has a mere 831 posts! Congratulation!
I “met” Melisa Michaels online in the late 1990s, and she became a friend (though we never met in real life.) She was one of the first people to welcome me to the SF field — as such, truly one of the reasons I eventually got to write for Locus and publish my books. She was also a pioneer in establishing the online SF community, mostly for her early work as SFWA’s web designer. Her death two years ago (due to cancer) was a shock.
I liked “In the Country of the Blind” a lot — it’s one of the really strong “clone stories”. She didn’t publish a lot of short fiction. Her novels are good fun, but not nearly as ambitious — the first six are fairly light space opera, the later two Urban Fantasy/Rock and Roll/Mystery. Enjoyable but not earthshaking. I never have read her last novel, World-Walker, from 2004.
Thanks for your kind words.
From the personal stories I’ve heard from you and others, she seems like a wonderful person. Thanks for leaving those memories on the post.
Are you tempted to read any more of her short fiction? Have you tried “I Have a Winter Reason” (1981)?
I did read “I Have a Winter Reason”, and also “Intermezzo” and “Painted Houses”. (I don’t think I’ve read the Terry Carr collaboration “Renascence”.) My memories of them are rather dim at this remove. I recall liking “Painted Houses”, which was in one of a series of 5 anthologies published by SFF.Net, which was an early online gathering place for SF folks. I knew the editor (Kurt Roth) fairly well also.
Congrats from a very cold Linköping, Sweden! A very high class SF-site; always of great interest! Thanks.
Thank you for the kind words! Have you been reading anything amazing recently?
Yes I have; the last week, letters from Anne-Marie Berglund (1952-2020), poet from the Swedish speaking finnish community, but mostly living in Stockholm (+ much in France). The Book has not, so far been written about by “our cultural elite”; her opinions är not always “correct”(!).
So thats not SF. But I have lent from our local library Cugels saga, Swedish translation (Delta 85), picture by Hans Arnold om the cover. I look forward to it!