Space Ballet

The Anderson Project #2

by Judith Moffett

Free online fiction from tor.com.

Part 2 of The Anderson Project.

Please enjoy “Space Ballet,” by Judith Moffett, a novelette inspired by an illustration from Richard Anderson.

“Space Ballet” is part of a three-story series curated by senior Tor Books editor David G. Hartwell. All three are based on a singular piece of art by Richard Anderson and will be released for free on Tor.com.

This novelette was acquired and edited for Tor.com by Tor Books editor David Hartwell.

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

25 pages, ebook

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Judith Moffett was born in Louisville in 1942 and grew up in Cincinnati. She is an English professor, a poet, a Swedish translator, and the author of twelve books in six genres. These include two volumes of poetry, two of Swedish poetry in formal translation, four science-fiction novels plus a collection of stories, a volume of creative nonfiction, and a critical study of James Merrill's poetry; she has also written an unpublished memoir of her long friendship with Merrill. Her work in poetry, translation, and science fiction has earned numerous awards and award nominations, including an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship in Poetry, an NEH Translation Grant, the Swedish Academy's Tolkningspris (Translation Prize), and in science fiction the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer and the Theodore Sturgeon Award for the year's best short story. Two of her novels were New York Times Notable Books.

Moffett earned a doctorate in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, with a thesis on Stephen Vincent Benét's narrative poetry, directed by Daniel Hoffman. She taught American literature and creative writing at several colleges and universities, including the Iowa Writers' Workshop, the University of Kentucky, and for fifteen years the University of Pennsylvania. She has lived for extended periods in England (Cambridge) and Sweden (Lund and Stockholm), as well as around the US, living/​teaching/​writing in Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Colorado, Wisconsin, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Utah. In 1983 she married Medievalist Edward B. Irving, Jr., her colleague at Penn. Widowed in 1998, Judy now divides her year between Swarthmore PA and her hundred-acre recovering farm in Lawrenceburg KY, sharing both homes with her standard poodles, Fleece and Corbie.

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second story in The Anderson Project and just as good as the first one - a very interesting approach, based on the same illustration, of precognitive dreams.

Most people always mocked the importance of those dreams, until they were proven to be true. An Academy was therefore established and most gifted students started to learn how to uncover the true meaning of their dreams. And one day, a frightening one emerged to surface…

It can be found here: http://www.tor.com/2014/02/04/space-b...

[chvang]

Despite being only 25 pages, I couldn't finish reading this story. It's not for me, though I may give it another chance in the future. I could not give it my attention and I cannot find it within me to care enough to make an effort. I hope to give it the attention it deserves some day. Unlikely, to be honest, but I'd like the entertain the notion.

Having given up on the story, it would be unfair of me to gauge its worth so the rating remains blank.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very enjoyable. Lots of interesting concepts turned into an excellent story.

[Richa Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second story of The Anderson Project is about precognitive dreams!

This story focuses on a group of kids who prevent an asteroid attack on Earth by interpreting their dreams as a group project.

The underlying concept is that humans can dream about major events—such as natural calamities or any event that might alter the course of history—before they happen, but each person’s dreams come from a different vantage point.

To understand the event, everyone must work together to interpret each other’s dreams and find connections that link them together to form a complete picture. It’s like solving a jigsaw puzzle.

It reminded me of Minority Report, but in that movie, the precogs were kept in a unit, floating in a fluid, and were unhappy about their role. Here, however, the kids love their power, work together, and live normal lives.

The story doesn’t raise many questions, except perhaps whether dreams might contain hidden messages that we should try to interpret.

But I am definitely going to dig more on studies done on Precognitive dreams!

[Joe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my favourite of the 3 stories based on Richard Anderson's illustration. To be frank, it opened with a discussion of dream symbols and meanings that I found completely tedious, but then turned that into a scientific investigation that was, in contrast, exciting and stimulating. The influence of the author's work in Swedish translation is clear - Swedish literature shares these themes of the everyday, bucolic life, intermingled with shocking violence (according to Henning Mankell, an effect of the unexpected and appalling murder of Anna Lindh in 2003, but that's a different story). Author Judith Moffett specifically mentions Robert A. Heinlein at one point in the text, and is presumably drawing inspiration from his work, as any writer of science fiction short stories would, but unfortunately her story lacks the moral punch of his material. So, in summary, good build-up, but it just kind of washes away at the end.

[Kristen · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best of the Anderson project novelettes. It started slow with the description of a dream (Anderson's painting). But then picked up as it treated precognitive dreaming as a science and figured out what the dream meant. In scene where everyone's dreams gradually revealed the coming tragedy, it was fun to spot the clues about what the dream was trying to. The other science in the story was glossed over, but I enjoy scientist doing science even when its made up science (as long as it stays within the rules of the author's universe).

3.5 stars.

[Alina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderfully interesting approach on the Anderson painting, involving precognitive dreaming. Liked it a lot, even though I kind of expected something more of the ending.


As a general conclusion, excellent short stories in this project, BRAVO!
Made me curious to also check the ones in Palencar :)

[Iain · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poor. A bare-bones plot without any interest and no substantial characters to speak of, only mouthpieces for the author's views. Avoid.

[Shawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, but started noddin' off near the end.

[Jon]

3 stars