Abyss: The Plastic Abyss / Stranger in the House

by Kate Wilhelm

Collects two novellas: "The Plastic Abyss" (1971) which was nominated for the 1971 Nebula Award for Best Novella, & "Stranger in the House" (1968). Two thought-provoking and unsettling novellas explore the fantastic concepts of another universe duplicating our own in "The Plastic Abyss" and aliens on Earth in "Stranger in the House." While these themes are not new to science fiction, these stories are so imaginative that their impact will not be easily forgotten.

In "The Plastic Abyss" Dorothy Hazlett finds herself living through two experiences simultaneously. At first it seems a crude joke or an incredible hoax. Her husband refuses to believe it. She is merely overwrought. But the excuse of an excitable imagination proves to be fallacious when witnesses verify Dorothy's being in two places at once. An incredible drama ensues as frightening unknowns shatter ancient truths and realities.

Mandy and Robert Phillips in "The Stranger in the House" discover they have inherited a strange hell when they move into their large country house. Former tenants had untimely and inexplicable deaths. And when Mandy has a terrifying and near tragic accident, they begin to discover the truth of the house. Robert refutes the idea that an alien probe of Earth could cause such tragedy while Mandy tenaciously clings to the opposite belief. Suddenly they find themselves and their daughter strangers not only to an alien creature but to each other, and the terms for reconciliation are too great to be undertaken by humans.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Short Stories, Weird Fiction

158 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1971

About the author

Kate Wilhelm’s first short story, “The Pint-Sized Genie” was published in Fantastic Stories in 1956. Her first novel, MORE BITTER THAN DEATH, a mystery, was published in 1963. Over the span of her career, her writing has crossed over the genres of science fiction, speculative fiction, fantasy and magical realism, psychological suspense, mimetic, comic, and family sagas, a multimedia stage production, and radio plays. She returned to writing mysteries in 1990 with the acclaimed Charlie Meiklejohn and Constance Leidl Mysteries and the Barbara Holloway series of legal thrillers.

Wilhelm’s works have been adapted for television and movies in numerous countries; her novels and stories have been translated to more than a dozen languages. She has contributed to Quark, Orbit,  Magazine of Fantasy and ScienceFiction, Locus, Amazing Stories, Asimov’s Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine,  Fantastic, Omni, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Redbook, and Cosmopolitan.

Kate Wilhelm is the widow of acclaimed science fiction author and editor, Damon Knight (1922-2002), with whom she founded the Clarion Writers’ Workshop and the Milford Writers’ Conference, described in her 2005 non-fiction work, STORYTELLER. They lectured together at universities across three continents; Kate has continued to offer interviews, talks, and monthly workshops.

Kate Wilhelm has received two Hugo awards, three Nebulas, as well as Jupiter, Locus, Spotted Owl, Prix Apollo, Kristen Lohman awards, among others. She was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. In 2009, Kate was the recipient of one of the first Solstice Awards presented by the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) in recognition of her contributions to the field of science fiction. 

Kate’s highly popular Barbara Holloway mysteries, set in Eugene, Oregon, opened with Death Qualified in 1990. Mirror, Mirror, released in 2017, is the series’ 14th novel.

Reviews

[Lizz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

This was quite an interesting little book. Wilhelm packed big ideas into these novellas. “Plastic Abyss” questioned the nature of reality and humanity’s ability to view that reality. Should humanity tamper with others’ way of seeing and experiencing the world? “Stranger in the House” was not what you’d expect at all. Wilhelm was certainly creative.

[Nate D · Rating 3 out of 5]

First novella, The Plastic Abyss, is surprisingly compelling and layered. Why surprising, when I've been meaning to read Wilhelm for ages? Lots of mediocre reviews seem to have distracted me a bit, but this is, in fact, quite great. A PKD-like peeling and bifurcating of reality, across solid conceptual conservations about images playing over the surface of nothingness, or the unknowable. Second novella is a bit less grippingly mysterious, but also decent. Must read more Wilhelm, obviously. I think I have the Downstairs Room somewhere.

[Graham P · Rating 2 out of 5]

** 1/2 The Plastic Abyss
** The Stranger in the House

A disappointing duo of novellas from one of the more underrated American authors during the US SF New Wave, especially in short form.

PLASTIC ABYSS kicks it off with a familiar tale of Wilhelm's: the dissociative and unexplainable schism that ruins the main character's sense of reality. In this case, the doppelganger dilemma arises when Dorothy finds herself in two places at once on holiday along the Florida coast. One version of herself does its best to ignore the hard reality of an existing spatial twin, but with repression and enough filial drama to satisfy the soap operatic 'he said she said' quotient, Dorothy digs deep to find out which one of her is original, and which one is fabricated. Toss in her husband's convenient invention: a substance that turns a static image into the 3-dimensional reality, and you get an idea of how this story enfolds. Too many characters within too many wood-paneled rooms discussing what's best and what isn't. Any of the stories in her collection masterful 'The Infinity Box' do a much finer job at showing her skills and her detailed documenting of someone passing down over the threshold into the depths of insanity and/or void-of-self. Otherwise, this story has the germs of brilliance but is a lesson in flat hysterics.

THE STRANGER IN THE HOUSE. This is a unique one despite it reading like a melodramatic rush job. In the late 1950s Kate Wilhelm's husband, Damon Knight, wrote a classic alien tale, 'Stranger Station.' Here it feels like Wilhelm takes the core of that brilliant 'outsider' tale and moves it into the gothic mold, complete with neglected upstate mansion and something hiding deep in the basement. But while it touches upon the themes of abandonment and fear of 'the other', this tale turns into a WASPy melodrama where wealthy white people run in and out rooms with little to show for. I lost patience with Eric, Mandy, Robert, and other upper-class characters theorizing potentials yet really doing nothing at all. And the alien Groth? I find that an inebriated schmoo or trash bag with googly eyes more menacing, but then again that's not the point. Disappointing.

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here are two short novellas from Kate Wilhelm. She remains amazing. She writes fluidly with great depth and psychological exploration. I feel her characters and the mood. Her work is psychedelic and mind blowing. It's as though her books inhabit your mind in a fog...you don't read her works, you experience them. And then they're finished and you sit back and wonder what just happened but you feel changed from having partaken. I've felt that with each of her works I've read so far.

The first piece is called “The Plastic Abyss, and it was phenomenological. I felt disjointed, like the characters, and wondered whether I was here or there, and was it earlier or later? This is one of those pieces that just sweeps over you and you're left with a feeling after as opposed to a series of answers or finality.

I also really enjoyed “Stranger in the House”. It started off slowly and I initially thought that I wasn't going to like it. But Wilhelm's writing skill just wraps you up and takes you for a ride. This piece was part psychological, part horror, and part sci-fi. Again, just wonderful prose.

If you haven't read Kate Wilhelm, these two stories are a great start. If you have, read more of her. I am!

[Joachim Boaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...

"Kate Wilhem’s SF forms one of the foundational pillars propping up my fascination with the genre. Her writing, sometimes oblique and interior, cuts to the very heart of things, exposing the hidden societal and psychological sinews that suppress and restrict. Her 60s/70s women characters, from linguists and mathematicians to discontented housewives, subtly subvert our expectations of how genre characters should behave. And [...]"

[Phil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two very different stories, one puzzling and one pretty scary alien monster.

[Egghead · Rating 4 out of 5]

internal sci fi
psychedelic encounters
always emptiness

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this book has two novellas. First is "The Plastic Abyss" which is a great story about a woman who can be in two places at once and experience both places. The confusing narrative style worked well for it. Now on to the second novella, "Stranger in the House" which tells us about an alien inside an old house that an old couple moves into. First, aliens just aren't my thing for sci-fi and this story was just horrible. If it was by itself, the story would get 1/2 a star. So if you read this book do yourself a favor and only read the first novella.

[Shira and Ari Evergreen]

This was surprisingly awesome. I liked the campy cover and picked it up cheap or free (can't remember which), and then shelved it. I picked it up the other day and could barely put it down - it's got smart, interesting characters and clever time-and-space-twisting plotlines, told in a dreamy, poetic style. The second novella is interesting from an animal rights / anti-speciesist point of view, too - it features empathy and communication across species lines.

[Niccy · Rating 1 out of 5]

The first story in the book was quite confusing, with a wishy-washy female who seemed to give herself up into her marriage and lose all identity of herself, and also seemed unable to figure out what was happening to her in the story.
The second story in the book I was unable to read past 5 pages.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two forgettable science fiction novels by Kate Wilhelm read during the summer vacation.

[L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the second story.

[lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

so good for a random thrift find - like the 60s feel, the gothic leanings, etc. wish someone would tell me if she has anything else worth reading bc it sounds like a lot to wade through otherwise.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Abyss (4-stars) is much better than the other novella, Stranger in the House (1-star).