The Last Science Fiction Writer

by Allen M. Steele

While The Last Science Fiction Writer consists of stories I wrote during a relatively short period of time, in some ways it also represents a cross-section of my career thus far. Moreau2 and High Roller are later entries in the Near-Space series not included in Sex and Violence in Zero-G; The War of Dogs and Boids is a stand-alone episode of the Coyote cycle. Take Me Back To Old Tennessee and Hail to the Chief are related to one another; An Incident of the Luncheon of the Boating Party shares the same background as an earlier story, ...Where Angels Fear to Tread (along with its novel-length expansion, Chronospace). World Without End, Amen is the latest in a loosely-linked series that includes Agape Among The Robots and Jake and the Enemy (both in my previous collection, American Beauty) while continuing the same thematic concerns of my novel The Jericho Iteration.

Other stories stand on their own. Escape From Earth was originally intended to be a young-adult novel until Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois invited me to contribute a novella to an anthology of YA science fiction. The Teb Hunter is straight-out satire, a comment on hunters and hunting; The Last Science Fiction Writer is much the same, although this time the target is science fiction itself, in particular some of its beloved and well-worn tropes.

Contents:

9 • Introduction: A Space Cadet Turns Fifty • essay by Allen Steele
13 • Escape from Earth • (2006) • novella by Allen Steele
103 • The War of Dogs and Boids • shortstory by Allen Steele
125 • An Incident at the Luncheon of the Boating Party • (2005) • shortstory by Allen Steele
135 • The Teb Hunter • (2003) • shortstory by Allen Steele
145 • Moreau 2 • [Near Space] • novella by Allen Steele (variant of Moreau² 2004)
203 • High Roller • [Near Space] • (2004) • novelette by Allen Steele
227 • World Without End, Amen • (2006) • novelette by Allen Steele
257 • Take Me Back to Old Tennessee • (2006) • shortstory by Allen Steele
279 • Hail to the Chief • (2005) • shortstory by Allen Steele
293 • The Last Science Fiction Writer • (2006) • shortstory by Allen Steele

Genres: Science Fiction, Collections, Short Stories

310 pages, Hardcover

First published November 3, 2008

About the author

Before becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place.

Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.

Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.

Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.

Reviews

[Dana Andrews · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not a short story guy but I truly enjoyed these. The stories were witty and charming. Someone needs to take a red pen to this thing, though. There were proofreading errors on nearly every page. C'mon, if you get a book to the point of publishing hardcover with a fancy, colorful jacket, you can find SOME of the repeated, omitted and misspelled words.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good colection of stories ranging across many sci fi themes. Some were good, others are forgettable. It seems like the beginning of the second half of the book was the strongest. Should have been a 4 star performance if not for all the editorial mistakes that began to just be flat annoying. Summary of each story is below:

Escape From Earth
Unfortunately for this story and what i fear for the rest of the stories is a severe lack of editing. Double punctuation, missing/added words, misspellings...kind of took away from the flow, altho it was not hard to figure out the intended meaning. A story about a teenager that rediscovers his dream after falling on some hard times. He even ends up on the dark side of the moon. Pretty good read, but it definitiely felt a tad rushed.

The War of Dogs and Boids
Was a good story but it was not really up to my liking as told from the POV of a dog named Star. I did like some of the elements and technology in the world and the idea of Boids seems familiar enough to be real.

An Incident at the Luncheon of the Boating Party
Liked this a lot for being so short. Reminds me of the Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis but with an impressionist painter.

The Teb Hunter
A satire of hunters and hunting to the point of straight comedy. Hunting teddy bears and unicorns in a serious fashion is outstanding.

Moreau^2
A reimagining of HG Wells' Dr Moreau except more so, hence the raised to the 2nd power. Cloning on mars as told from the pov of a reporter and his photographer friend. And this cloning is being done in secret by the enemy.

High Roller
Set in the same verse as Moreau^2, I think this may be the best story. A Bonnie & Clyde showdown at a lunar casino for a twist of an ending at who is behind the job.

World Without End, Amen
Cyberphobia leads the designer of an all powerful AI to jump...

Take Me Back To Old Tennessee
"He played kick-ball and humped girls,..." Backwater Earth, advanced civilization on moon, testing of a native all mixed with an unfortunte outcome for the scientists.

Hail to the Chief
Political satire to the extreme where democrats and republicans are reduced to true savage barbarians living in DC. Normal humanity is high above watching and waiting.

The Last Science Fiction Writer
Science fiction writer is cryogenically frozen and then reactiated in a simulation to provide stories in the future. Story is told from inside and outside the simulation.

[Joe Slavinsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this book, at the library, as I hadn't seen anything new from Allen Steele in a while. I'm not big on short stories, in general. It's not that I dislike them, I just prefer novels. I enjoyed this book, all the stories were interesting, and entertaining. I like, and have read all of Steele's novels, so I figured it would be worthwhile. I was somewhat disappointed, however, as the editing in this book was awful. Tons of misspellings, wrong tenses, and words that made no sense in context. And, this was a "signed special edition, limited to 1000 copies", though it wasn't numbered! I'm sure glad I didn't buy this particular book. I also hope that it was re-edited before mass publication. Fair degree of "fail" on the part of the publisher.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

Despite some serious typographical problems throughout, this is another good collection from Steele. The lead story is the excellent "Escape From Earth," a novella originally published in a young-adult book club anthology. There are also a couple of stories set in his Near-Space series, and a Coyote story, along with several other equally good ones. This edition features a colorful Bob Eggleton cover with a skeleton riding a flaming motorcycle, a giant robot, and a young lady riding a dragon with a most curious expression on her face; I keep looking at it trying to figure out what her deal is! In any event, Steele's short work is always of high quality and deserves wider distribution.

[Wil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable stories, but the experience was considerably marred by horrible editing. The publisher should give part of their proceeds to the author in return for a truly horrible editing job -- probably the worst I've seen in a book ever. It was full of typos, grammatical errors and sentences that just plain made no sense. As an author, I would find this distressing since the publisher is being paid to provide editorial services. These errors might have been fixed in subsequent editions. I loaned a first edition from the library, which was in fact signed by the author. So I suppose it's even higher praise that despite all the editing horror, I *still* very much enjoyed the stories!