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Black Mist: And Other Japanese Futures
Japan has long been one of the key players in business, technology, and culture...and now some of today
Contains:
Introductory essay by Keith Ferrell
Black Mist, Richard A. Lupoff
Tea from an Empty Cup, Pat Cadigan
A Medal for Harry, Paul Levinson
Niagara Falling, Jack Dann & Janeen Webb
Thirteen Views of Higher Edo, Patric Helmaan
Contains:
Introductory essay by Keith Ferrell
Black Mist, Richard A. Lupoff
Tea from an Empty Cup, Pat Cadigan
A Medal for Harry, Paul Levinson
Niagara Falling, Jack Dann & Janeen Webb
Thirteen Views of Higher Edo, Patric Helmaan
304 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
98 people want to read
About the author
Orson Scott Card
886 books20.7k followersOrson Scott Card is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is (as of 2023) the only person to have won a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for his novel Ender's Game (1985) and its sequel Speaker for the Dead (1986). A feature film adaptation of Ender's Game, which Card co-produced, was released in 2013. Card also wrote the Locus Fantasy Award-winning series The Tales of Alvin Maker (1987–2003).
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
Card's fiction often features characters with exceptional gifts who make difficult choices with high stakes. Card has also written political, religious, and social commentary in his columns and other writing; his opposition to homosexuality has provoked public criticism.
Card, who is a great-great-grandson of Brigham Young, was born in Richland, Washington, and grew up in Utah and California. While he was a student at Brigham Young University (BYU), his plays were performed on stage. He served in Brazil as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and headed a community theater for two summers. Card had 27 short stories published between 1978 and 1979, and he won the John W. Campbell Award for best new writer in 1978. He earned a master's degree in English from the University of Utah in 1981 and wrote novels in science fiction, fantasy, non-fiction, and historical fiction genres starting in 1979. Card continued to write prolifically, and he has published over 50 novels and 45 short stories.
Card teaches English at Southern Virginia University; he has written two books on creative writing and serves as a judge in the Writers of the Future contest. He has taught many successful writers at his "literary boot camps". He remains a practicing member of the LDS Church and Mormon fiction writers Stephenie Meyer, Brandon Sanderson, and Dave Wolverton have cited his works as a major influence.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 30, 2013
The main reason I'm reviewing this is "Thirteen Views of Higher Edo" by Patric Helmaan which is about a very troubled artist on a Japanese space station. It's not just about art. There were insights into family, relationships and how people re-write their own histories. This was really an excellent character study. If it had been a novel, it would have gotten five stars.
March 15, 2011
Unusual stories. I was most taken with Thirteen Views of Higher Edo, which is a story that anyone who is an artist or who appreciates artists or their art would enjoy. I loved that story. Worth reading again.
December 20, 2017
I gave this paperback science-fiction anthology as a Christmas
present to an ex-girlfriend, a major Japanophile. She wasn't exactly enthused (a familiar reaction). So I just Remembered Pearl Harbor and ended up reading the book myself. It is possible heartache colored my opinion.
The notion behind this quintet (co-edited by Orson Scott Card) is to present futuristic stories with Japanese settings, culture and themes, but all penned by non-Japanese authors. This is serious
stuff, way behind Godzilla and Pokemon fan-fiction, for sure. But the danger here is that a fair amount of stereotyping will set in, along the lines of Michael Crichton's kitschy, didactic
"Rising Son," and it happens in the opening novella "Black Mist," by Richard Lupoff, about a polite detective trying to solve a murder on Japanese-staffed lunar base. Know that the title is a
Japanese term for corporate malfeasance and you've got the basic vibe of salarymen in outer space, the hidden hand of the yakuza, bad guys who commit hari-kiri very conveniently when exposed, and lots of bowing. The other stories didn't stick with me very well, although Pat Cadigan's "Tea From an Empty Cup" was later judged as worthy enough to expand to a novel. Providing the book
with its cover image, it's something about a Tokyo girl entering hallucinatory virtual reality in search of her vanished lover. No doubt there's much zen and poetry going on here, here, but I
found it all terribly confusing. The last tale, Patric Helmaan's "Thirteen Views of Higher Edo," is the best in the volume, envisioning a future asteroid-borne society made up of
exiled Japanese non-conformists (the "bullied ones") who can no longer tolerate their culture's ritualistic rigidity and work ethic. When Higher Edo's most prominent artist is sent back to
Earth on a PR tour, he learns that even in space he hasn't escaped the heavy hand of domineering central authority and peer-group pressure, Japan-style. If the earlier stories just soften
you up for this last one, then it's worth slogging through the entire volume. And, if western, you may just wind up feeling a better about your own cultural heritage by comparison, or just recover with marathon watching of the better anime.
present to an ex-girlfriend, a major Japanophile. She wasn't exactly enthused (a familiar reaction). So I just Remembered Pearl Harbor and ended up reading the book myself. It is possible heartache colored my opinion.
The notion behind this quintet (co-edited by Orson Scott Card) is to present futuristic stories with Japanese settings, culture and themes, but all penned by non-Japanese authors. This is serious
stuff, way behind Godzilla and Pokemon fan-fiction, for sure. But the danger here is that a fair amount of stereotyping will set in, along the lines of Michael Crichton's kitschy, didactic
"Rising Son," and it happens in the opening novella "Black Mist," by Richard Lupoff, about a polite detective trying to solve a murder on Japanese-staffed lunar base. Know that the title is a
Japanese term for corporate malfeasance and you've got the basic vibe of salarymen in outer space, the hidden hand of the yakuza, bad guys who commit hari-kiri very conveniently when exposed, and lots of bowing. The other stories didn't stick with me very well, although Pat Cadigan's "Tea From an Empty Cup" was later judged as worthy enough to expand to a novel. Providing the book
with its cover image, it's something about a Tokyo girl entering hallucinatory virtual reality in search of her vanished lover. No doubt there's much zen and poetry going on here, here, but I
found it all terribly confusing. The last tale, Patric Helmaan's "Thirteen Views of Higher Edo," is the best in the volume, envisioning a future asteroid-borne society made up of
exiled Japanese non-conformists (the "bullied ones") who can no longer tolerate their culture's ritualistic rigidity and work ethic. When Higher Edo's most prominent artist is sent back to
Earth on a PR tour, he learns that even in space he hasn't escaped the heavy hand of domineering central authority and peer-group pressure, Japan-style. If the earlier stories just soften
you up for this last one, then it's worth slogging through the entire volume. And, if western, you may just wind up feeling a better about your own cultural heritage by comparison, or just recover with marathon watching of the better anime.
February 23, 2022
This is an anthology of three short stories and two novellas, themed around futuristic Japan / Japanese explorers in space. Only the first novella is worth your time; the other tales here rate about 2 stars.
Richard A. Lupoff's novella, from which the anthology takes its name, is the only worthwhile event in this book. I'd rate that around 3.5 stars. Neither of the editors of this book add in a contribution of their own.
Richard A. Lupoff's novella, from which the anthology takes its name, is the only worthwhile event in this book. I'd rate that around 3.5 stars. Neither of the editors of this book add in a contribution of their own.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews