Landscapes

I first read Kevin J. Anderson’s work as the co-writer of the DUNE prequels with Brian Herbert, books that follow specifically and successfully the tone set by Frank Herbert. And though LANDSCAPES, a collection of short stories and a couple of essays, includes some of Anderson's other collaborations, I got a feel for his voice and enjoyed it. It was a treat to read such a wide assortment of smoothly told, mostly brief stories that vary from grim and suspenseful to light and amusing. Most importantly, each story is a fitting container for its concept. He groups the stories into sci-fi (the largest category), fantasy, and the great outdoors which contains essays about the writing life and his high altitude adventuring among Colorado’s peaks.

Several of the stories involve the different facets of a company capitalizing upon parallel timelines and the myriad, little ways they may vary from our own. Using its patented technology, Alternitech sends its employees into nearby parallel existences hunting for what doesn’t exist here. Sometimes it’s a medical cure discovered by serendipity, sometimes it’s an extra album by a musician who died too young, sometimes it’s justice, even another life without self-doubt or writer’s block. Other stories deal with living beyond one's own time and versions of identity that are also intriguing. And although Anderson provides the beginning of a novel about genetically-engineered mammoths that he’d like to be invited to write at novel-length, my personal desire is for the book-length adventures of Paradox and Greenblatt, attorneys specializing in the newest niche of law, second and third order temporal complications that create legal precedent with every case. It’s fascinating and funny as the shysters and shmucks and time travel collide, and happens much as I imagine we’d handle such world-shaking technology, with a combination of sophistication and selfish backwardness.

Beside sci-fi fan and friend Neil Peart's foreword, Anderson includes introductions to all the stories explaining how and when they were written and about his collaborators. This gives more background into his career and creative process which writers and fans alike may find interesting. While the earlier stories are a little less polished perhaps, I think they’re intentionally included to show Anderson’s progression, and none isn’t worth a look. The writing’s clean and the short lengths encouraged me to dig into one tale after another. If you'd like a variety pack from an author who clearly enjoys playing with ideas as a job, LANDSCAPES is a good time.