Wyoming Sun

by Edward Bryant

East of your nightmares, west of your dreams... Here are the A thirteen-year-old boy on the Great Plains in 1850 must contend with hunger, smallpox, and intruders from a world and time he can barely imagine. A young woman reporter and an elderly biologist become party to the strangest conspiracy of the century. An ex-Senator, resigned and in disgrace, returns home to the mountains only to find that the past is not dead - just deadly. A young Indian man discovers that the ultimate winner may not be so easy to predict in a clash between cultures. A quartet of old friends find their lives inextricably tangled with what may be a ghost from the prehistoric past. These are portraits in fiction of the West... fantasy as colorful as an old-time rodeo... science fiction as contemporary as the energy industry.

Contents

Beyond the Sand River Range (1972) short story
giANTS (1979) short story
Introduction (Wyoming Sun) (1980) essay by Robert Roripaugh
Prairie Sun (1980) short story
Strata (1980) novelette
Teeth Marks (1979) short story
 Wyomin Sun (photographs) (1980) interior artwork by Michael McClure

Genres: Science Fiction

132 pages, Paperback

First published December 28, 1980

About the author

Edward Winslow Bryant, Jr. was born August 27, 1945 in White Plains NY and was raised on a cattle ranch in Wyoming. He attended the University of Wyoming, where he earned a Master’s in English in 1968 and ’69. He went to the Clarion Writers’ Workshop in 1968. In 1972 he moved to Denver CO, where he founded the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop. He helped found and run many other workshops and classes as well, including the Colorado Springs Writers Workshop.

Bryant was an accomplished science-fiction writer, mostly of short stories. He began publishing SF work with “They Come Only in Dreams” and “Sending the Very Best”, both in January 1970. For the next two decades he was a frequent contributor to magazines and anthologies, and though his fictional output slowed in the ’90s, he was still active as a critic. He was a familiar figure at conventions, especially in Colorado fandom. He was a frequent guest at the World Horror Convention, and chaired the 2000 convention in Denver.

With Harlan Ellison he wrote Phoenix without Ashes (1978), and solo short novel Fetish appeared in 1991. He also edited 2076: The American Tricentennial (1977), and was an editor for Wormhole Books. He wrote screenplays and occasionally appeared in films.

--excerpted from Locus Publications

Reviews

[Toby Dunne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this one out of the trash because I liked the cover art. The stories are all based in Wyoming and are of a sci-fi bent, some better than others. What I did find great about the tales was the author's recognition of the local Indian population and how he framed the white man's past and ongoing invasion and degradation of the land. The last story featured the ghost of a prehistoric marine animal swimming trough the air over the area of exposed fossil deposits, which reminded me of a short cartoon featured on Love Death and Robots. It was almost too similar to be a coincidence. I wonder if credit was given to the author, or if it was assumed/hoped that no one would have read this obscure 45 year old paperback indy book and recognized the imagery.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of sci-fi tales all set in Wyoming, how specialist is that?
I read PRAIRIE SUN in OMNI Magazine years ago and it has always stuck with me. It was enjoyable to find it again in this collection.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bryant's work here reminds me a bit of Ray Bradbury.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Five science fiction stories that take place in Wyoming. Solid storytelling help show why he was so respected in the writing community.

[Sable · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for the 12 Awards in 12 Months Challenge and the Big Fun in a Little Package Novella Challenge

Winner of the Nebula Award 1979.

I read this in a collection of Nebula winning stories edited by Frank Herbert. I see why it won the award, though this probably seems tropish in the modern era. The 1970s were full of giant monster movies. Various explanations were made for the giant monsters; nuclear fallout, toxic waste, alien invasion.

This story uses an entirely different approach, but it leads you to assume giant monsters. And it keeps you reading until the very end, just to get to the bottom of the mystery.

I don't think I'm going to give you any more than that, because it will create spoilers, but it's certainly worth a read while you're waiting in the doctor's office! An entertaining tale!