Greetings: & Other Stories

by Terry Bisson

You’re about to face off with an Ashcroft van, break out from an assisted-dying facility, witness a volunteer crucifixion, endure a Neanderthal eviction, and journey to the end of time on a porch glider.

Fearless, irreverent, and surprisingly optimistic short stories fill this collection from a science fiction veteran known for taking readers on a wild ride. Each of these ten blazingly satiric short stories will leave you exhausted, outraged, and eager for more. The surreal adventures this time around include an escape from an assisted-death facility in "Greetings," a mystical journey to the end of time and back in "Dear Abbey," and "Almost Home," the story of a fantastical ride in an old-fashioned aeroplane.


Contents

"Almost Home"
"Come Dance with Me"
"Dear Abbey"
"Death’s Door"
"Greetings"
"I Saw the Light"
"Openclose"
"Scout’s Honor"
"Super 8"
"The Old Rugged Cross"

Genres: Science Fiction

384 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Terry Ballantine Bisson was an American science fiction and fantasy author best known for his short stories, including "Bears Discover Fire" (1990), which which won both the Hugo and Nebula awards, as well as They're Made Out of Meat (1991), which has been adapted for video often.

Adapted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Jesse · Rating 3 out of 5]

In which hippie ideals meet the future. First few are fine, with an idea or two sticking out (humans as dogs in interplanetary terms, though that story feels a tad underdeveloped to me), and death-takes-a-holiday, which has been done to, um, death. (Even his story notes admit this.) One is inspired by a Janis Ian lyric, a trick that always to me works best when it's nestled in an anthology of same. On its own, that tends to feel like a gimmick. Another with a bunch of 60s leftovers reuniting to make a discovery about someone they've left behind, with an ending that confuses me and again feels underexplained. There are a couple of GHW Bush dystopias that work ok, though, wow, what I'd give for Bush to be the worst Republican presidency imaginable.

But the last two long ones (almost a book on their own) feature old hippies confronting mortality and time have an honesty, a seriousness, and even a majesty of their own. Especially the one where older people are equipped with life-ending tools required by the state, and we follow two couples through. You barely even need the dystopian-SF trappings here; the specter of how to face your end is enough, and Bisson handles it with clarity and a sense of the sheer stubborn force of the desire to hang around a bit longer. The time-travel one, though limited by some weird racial pidgin spouted by one character, keeps widening its scope so broadly that it resuscitates that old hippie platitude about knowing you're just a passenger on the trip. It works as a defense/undermining of radical environmentalism and another dog story that circles back to the first one. So you can kinda skim, or skip, the first half and then enjoy the second.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

More well written science fiction! I love Bisson's short stories (all set, approximately, tomorrow) -- he does great characters in very limited space -- but this book is less fun than some of his other collections. His melancholy has turned into outright mournfulness in a good number of these stories, and if you dislike commentary on present-day issues and politics, you might have trouble with some of these. Or you might join the ELF. I enjoy reading these, but they are realistic enough to be frightening -- I am afraid of a future with forced voluntary euthanasia and vampire seals.

[Jes. Cavanaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

To me, the mark of an excellent author is one who is able to write both novels and short stories well. I find that most authors are unable to do this, at least consistently. Even my favorite writers find me skipping a story here and there in their short story compilations. Not so, Terry Bisson.

I am consistently captivated by Bisson's work and this compilation was no exception. From the beginning to the end, I was pleased to find engaging stories that fully engaged me, but allowed me to stop reading with each story. Thankfully, my library has most, if not all, of his books.

[Allan Dyen-Shapiro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great short stories from one of the best writers alive. Come Dance with Me may be my favorite short story ever. Incredibly creepy tale that merges alt youth culture, computer science and occult horror. Death's Doorstep is a poignant sad tale of our abandonment of the elderly, set in a world in which all seventy year olds are put to death. The other eight tales also have some gems. He's best known for his humorous science fiction, but these stories say he can do just about every other type of science fiction as a master.