Blue Kansas Sky

by Michael Bishop

In “Blue Kansas Sky,” Sonny Peacock comes of age in this poignant tale set in the Kansas heartland of the early 1960s. “Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana” is set in 1980s Pretoria, South Africa, where a black man’s quest for the “Theory of Everything” is juxtaposed against the inhumanity of apartheid. In “Cri de Coeur,” aboard a 21st century generation wheelship, agrogeologist and poet Dr. Abel Gwiazda and his Down’s-syndrome son Dean travel on course for a new home in Epsilon Eridani. In the final novella, “Death and Designation Among the Asadi,” reprinted here for the first time in 20 years, ethnologist Egan Chaney’s private journals of his studies of the alien Asadi are the centerpiece of the story.

263 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Michael Lawson Bishop was an award-winning American writer. Over four decades & thirty books, he created a body of work that stands among the most admired in modern sf & fantasy literature.

Bishop received a bachelor's from the Univ. of Georgia in 1967, going on to complete a master's in English. He taught English at the US Air Force Academy Preparatory School in Colorado Springs from 1968-72 & then at the Univ. of Georgia. He also taught a course in science fiction at the US Air Force Academy in 1971. He left teaching in 1974 to become a full-time writer.

Bishop won the Nebula in 1981 for The Quickening (Best Novelette) & in 1982 for No Enemy But Time (Best Novel). He's also received four Locus Awards & his work has been nominated for numerous Hugos. He & British author Ian Watson collaborated on a novel set in the universe of one of Bishop’s earlier works. He's also written two mystery novels with Paul Di Filippo, under the joint pseudonym Philip Lawson. His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Bishop has published more than 125 pieces of short fiction which have been gathered in seven collections. His stories have appeared in Playboy, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Missouri Review, the Indiana Review, the Chattahoochee Review, the Georgia Review, Omni & Interzone.

In addition to fiction, Bishop has published poetry gathered in two collections & won the 1979 Rhysling Award for his poem For the Lady of a Physicist. He's also had essays & reviews published in the NY Times, the Washington Post, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, Omni Magazine & the NY Review of Science Fiction. A collection of his nonfiction, A Reverie for Mister Ray, was issued in 2005 by PS Publishing. He's written introductions to books by Philip K. Dick, Theodore Sturgeon, James Tiptree, Jr., Pamela Sargent, Gardner Dozois, Lucius Shepard, Mary Shelley, Andy Duncan, Paul Di Filippo, Bruce Holland Rogers & Rhys Hughes. He's edited six anthologies, including the Locus Award-winning Light Years & Dark & A Cross of Centuries: 25 Imaginative Tales about the Christ, published by Thunder’s Mouth Press shortly before the company closed.

In recent years, Bishop has returned to teaching & is writer-in-residence at LaGrange College located near his home in Pine Mountain, GA. He & his wife, Jeri, have a daughter & two grandchildren. His son, Christopher James Bishop, was one of the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre on 4/16/07.

Reviews

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four novellas stretching across a vast range of themes. Each one beautiful, dark, startling and evocative. Sometimes the stories shattered me too much and I had to stop, but often I couldn't wait to pick it up again.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four different novellas exemplify those aspects of Bishop's work that I love. He captures the human condition in ways that you would expect from non-genre writers (or Ray Bradbury). Bishop can seemingly write great stories about anything, any place, or any time, with equally wonderful results. I wish more people knew about him!

[Sara]

Out of prison
sing old mindless song
sky panit in blue
and my eyes hard to stop
and my mouth cant shut up
mindless stand and talk
burn the distans moment
all fear stupidly
but sky went blue
the road come to end
and bus went silent breath
echo tell from far
out of prison
thee thanx
thee indoor
but im out
thee fear the tale accedindt
fire burn the tall
ma i out of prisson
i see another sky
a blue one
like her eyes
i return
to last pape
to hard edg
to far road
out of prisson

[Alan Clark · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting this to be a book of SF, but only two of the stories fit that description - the second is a fantasy based on a ridiculous premise, and the first is not even fantasy. it is about personal relationships, and can never be as interesting as real relationships.

The third story is about a star ship which arrives at its destination to find that it is uninhabitable, so they shrug their shoulders and set-off for another star. Not a very interesting idea!

The fourth will appeal to readers who like whodunits where you never find out who dun it. An anthropologist goes mad trying to understand the strange behaviour of aliens, and never finds out. Unfortunately, neither do we!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid Bishop novella collection by science fiction publisher, Golden Gryphon Press. One story dramatizes inductive reason limits, while scientist is on alien planet, observing and cataloguing. He has difficulty, constructing viable hypotheses of alien culture - he often speculates.
Bishop novellas show our epistemological and cultural biases. They do not have Slam! Bang! action. They are more reflective of how we define trope "the other". Sometimes, we are more alien, than human.

[Peter Tillman · Rating 2 out of 5]

4 novellas, recommended by Paul De Filippo. DNF, well-written but not for me (sigh).

[Deedee]

CLAY-HQ,RIV; HCLS-HA