The Pure Product

by John Kessel

An outstanding collection of nineteen works includes two poems, an award-winning play, and sixteen short stories--including the never-before published "Gulliver at Home"--by one of science fiction's most acclaimed authors and the winner of the Nebula, Locus, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Reprint.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

John (Joseph Vincent) Kessel co-directs the creative writing program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. A winner of the Nebula, Locus, Sturgeon, and Tiptree Awards, his books include Good News From Outer Space, Corrupting Dr. Nice, The Pure Product, and The Baum Plan for Financial Independence and Other Stories. His story collection Meeting in Infinity was a New York Times Notable Book. Most recently, with James Patrick Kelly he has edited the anthologies Feeling Very Strange, Rewired, The Secret History of Science Fiction and Kafkaesque. Born in Buffalo, NY, Kessel has a PhD in American Literature, has been an NEA Fellow, and for twenty years has been one of the organizers of the Sycamore Hill Writers Workshop.

Reviews

[Ninagrace 411 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of this collection is thought-provoking and engaging. The stories "Faustfeathers," "Man," "Mr Hyde Visits the Home of Dr Jekyll,"Not Responsible!Park and Lock It!," and "Gulliver at Home" I enjoyed very much. The rest of them didn't make much of an impression at all, and at times seemed very dated. Science fiction doesn't hold up well when the years cited for the alien invasion (see "Invaders") or the atomic holocaust (see "A Clean Escape") have already come and gone. Not bad if you really like science fiction and have some extra time to spare. Otherwise it can wait.

[Mack · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only read the title story. Writes just like a professor, lecturing too long about fear and loathing. Doesn't want happy readers. Great.